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Purpose of the NightWatch
To Reclaim the Night For the Lord
The night is particularly filled with all sorts of unfruitful deeds of darkness; our cities are filled with murder, sorcery, theft and immorality (Revelation 9:21). We want the night to belong to the Lord. Fragrance is released as we give Him our love and our devotion in the night. This changes the spiritual atmosphere over our cities.
"Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil" (John 12:3). Mary is a picture of extravagant devotion. While extravagant devotion is costly, the very mention of the cost is utterly despised (Song 8:7). The call to the NightWatch is a call to extravagant devotion. That is what is meant by, "Behold, bless the Lord" (Psalm 134).
Devotion in the night can be costly because of the dynamics of the NightWatch lifestyle. It’s the Lord’s desire to raise up a people who will love Him in the night. He longs for a company of people who will adore Him and tarry with Him through the watches of the night. On the night of His betrayal, the hour of judgment and salvation, He found none; but in these final hours of history, in the final hours of the escalation of judgment and the release of salvation, who will tarry with Him through the night?
Prophetic Significance: A Prophetic Indicator
The NightWatch is a historic indicator of the coming of the Bridegroom to and for the Bride, the whole Body of Christ. The raising up of the NightWatch all over the globe is a prophetic signpost telling God’s people and those in Babylon to come out and to go out—to come out of Babylon and to go out to meet the Bridegroom at His coming. Babylon represents the influences of the world that hinder the journey of love with the Lord Jesus. The Lord helps His people by giving them historic indicators to help us discern what hour of history we are living in.
The NightWatch Lifestyle is a Form of Fasting
The Holy Spirit is raising up a generation of forerunners all across the earth to prepare the globe for an unprecedented and historic release of divine activity. Just as the Lord raised up John the Baptist in a context that cultivated dedication and abandonment to the Lord's purposes, we believe He is leading a large company of people into a similar context of focused lifestyle in the night.
The NightWatch is a unique context for prayer which facilitates a lifestyle of radical devotion and voluntary weakness. The natural boundaries that arise with the NightWatch schedule consequently limit distractions and extracurricular activity for the intercessor, creating the opportunity to engage with the Lord in a focused and abandoned way that is not as easily obtained during a "normal" daytime schedule. A "fasted lifestyle" can be chosen voluntarily by embracing the principles of voluntary weakness, like fasting, giving, prayer and simplicity.
The basic principle of the fasted lifestyle is the embracing of weakness in exchange for divine strength. Divine strength is that which sustains the yearnings and longings of the human heart. Divine strength also imparts the grace or anointing to accomplish more in the kingdom with greater effectiveness and impact (grace on our actions, words, emotions; authority in preaching, healing the sick, casting out demons; grace to lead God’s people). The Spirit of revelation on the life of a believer is also a form of divine strength.
The NightWatch calls for a lifestyle change that can make life uncomfortable; it is a social and physical fast. Many social dynamics and physical tiredness are hallmarks of the NightWatch. If we pay close attention to our bodies, we will notice that some of the same dynamics experienced during a food fast can be experienced during the NightWatch. We want to be people who embrace the NightWatch as a fast.
“Behold, bless the LORD…” is a call to a contemplative lifestyle in which we spend our lives before the Lord (Ps. 134:1; Lk. 10:42). By a contemplative lifestyle, we mean deep communion with God. Just like everything else in the kingdom, our first call in the NightWatch is to love the Lord. He is calling us to the “one thing.” The one thing needed means the primary thing; deep communion with God is to be our preoccupation in the night, whether in worship, intercession, or service. There are three "one thing" passages in Scripture:
• Psalm 27:4 — One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.
Desire defined: The one thing humanity desires is to see beauty, and the only beauty that will satisfy is the beauty of the Lord. We are created with a thirst for the eternal. One thing I desire.
• Luke 10:42 — One thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.
Desire satisfied: Desire is satisfied as we sit at His feet and let Him kiss us with the kisses of His Word and unfold the pleasure of His divine love to us (Song 1:2). One thing I need.
• Philippians 3:13 — One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
The journey of desire: It calls for the setting of a marathon pace. One thing I do.
How to Build the NightWatch
Having a monthly or weekly Friday night meeting is a great way to start. We suggest starting small and strong and allowing it to gain momentum. Try meeting from 10:00pm–2:00am with a view to eventually continuing until 6:00am.
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