Value of Day and Night Prayer
God has called His people to operate in the identity of the House of Prayer. This corporate expression of the House of Prayer is to continue unceasingly – night and day in a geographic area. This means that the Church collectively in a city or geographic area has prayer, worship and intercession continually being offered to the Lord. This is what the Lord is doing in our day, stirring believers from different groups and backgrounds to come together and commit to NIGHT and DAY prayer watches before the Lord. Let’s look at some of the Biblical reasons why God is bringing the Body of Christ into this expression and identity of prayer.
As we get glimpses into Heaven, there is 24/7 unceasing worship and ministry around the throne of God (Revelation 4). He is worthy of this kind of worship and adoration from all creation. God’s ultimate desire is to bring Heaven to the Earth and this is how Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven” (Matt 6:10). Part of what it means for Heaven to be established on Earth is for the Body of Christ to join and replicate the unceasing worship of Heaven.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven
from God… (Rev 21:2)
Luke 17:20 sets the context of Luke 18 as Jesus is answering the Pharisees question as to “when the kingdom of God was coming.” In Luke 18, Jesus illustrates the principle of persistence in prayer. Then He applies this principle to the Church and describes her as one praying “day and night” (Luke 18:7). Verse 8 tells us that this Church which prays day and night is the Church that is operating “when the Son of Man comes.” And as the Church cries out to God day and night, He will release justice into the Earth.
now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? (Luke 18:7)
Jesus taught His disciples that the harvest is ripe and plentiful but to bring in the harvest, prayer must be incorporated so that laborers can be sent out. God is raising up NIGHT and DAY prayer in the context of the Great Commission for the ingathering of the Harvest at the end of the age.
37…“The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
38“Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers
into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38)
God’s mission has been to bring forth the gospel of the kingdom “in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations” (Matt 24:14) and for the Church to make “disciples of all the nations” (Matt 28:19) before Jesus Christ returns. The Old Testament prophet Malachi connected this promise of evangelizing all the nations with prayer (incense) being offered continually throughout the entire Earth due to the greatness of the Name of God. As we draw closer to the Lord’s return, an unprecedented Prayer Movement and Missionary Movement are being brought together in a unique way to complete the Great Commission. God is raising up the Prayer Move to undergird and multiply the effectiveness of missionary efforts in the gospel. As these efforts bear fruit, new disciples are being caught up into this Prayer Move. In this way, God is causing Prayer to be offered from the rising of the sun even to its setting among the nations.
Isaiah foretells of God setting intercessors (watchmen) to pray day and night for the full purposes for Jerusalem to be accomplished. These intercessors will continue praying until Jerusalem is a praise in the earth. The key word is until which signifies that God is raising up the Church in the context of night and day prayer in the end times until Jesus returns and thus fulfills the complete promises to Jerusalem.
6 On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves; 7And give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. (Isaiah 62:6-7)
One result of the tabernacle of David is that Jesus may possess the remnant of Edom. Edom speaks of the Arab nations, specifically the Islamic nations. Therefore, a key to winning Islam is for the Church to function in the spirit of David’s Tabernacle, which is NIGHT and DAY worship and prayer. We are in that hour of history.
That they may possess the remnant of Edom [Arabs] and all the nations who are called by My name,” declares the LORD who does this. (Amos 9:12)