The NightWatch: A Response to God’s Greatness

Growing up in church, I loved the worship portion of the service. I lived for the moments when the worship would go longer on Sunday morning or at a special service or conference. In my wildest dreams I could never have conceived of a place where continual worship would happen or that it could be a vocation.

During my high school years I heard someone at a conference mention that one day there would be a place where worship and prayer would go night and day. In my heart I said, “That is what I was created for.” Within two short years I found myself on staff at the International House of Prayer of Kansas City, participating daily in a prayer meeting that was going 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Sweetness in the Night
In those early days of the IHOPKC prayer room, a group of mostly young people, including myself, chose the hours of midnight-6am as our primary time to minister to the Lord, thus completing the 24-hour prayer cycle. There was something so sweet about being awake through the night with only a few people in the room, knowing that we were standing before the Holy One and affecting change in our city and the cities of the earth.

Using Psalm 134 as a template, we saw the NightWatch as a time to “Behold and bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord,” in other words, to search out His beauty as revealed in His Word and to give Him our love and affection through our songs and our prayers. It was also a time to contend for revival in our city and the nations of the earth, to believe with confidence that prayers lifted up during the night were bringing change to situations and hearts while many slept (Luke 18:7-8). Our cry was, “The night belongs to the Lord!”

Meditating on Jesus
Revelation 4 became one of our favorite passages as we saw that we were in good company while praying and singing through the night. Revelation 4 describes the four living creatures and twenty-four elders in their eternal occupation and preoccupation: never ceasing to cry out how holy God is (Revelation 4:8). No matter how large or small the group of people in the prayer room, we knew we were standing before the throne along with these beings who were always praising Him.

In Psalm 145:3 David states, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable.” We could draw from this an additional phrase: “Therefore His praise needs to be unending.”  The “greatness” or extravagance of our devotion, love, and adoration corresponds to His greatness, which is unsearchable. Touching His unending greatness results in unending praise. 24/7 worship and prayer, specifically praying through the night, makes sense when we have touched a little of who God is, when we see how worthy He is of unceasing adoration.

Doing it Together
Unending worship and praise of God seems beyond the reach of our weak, finite frames, but in His wisdom God has not asked us to do this alone but with a company of people, our fellow believers, with whom we can lift up perpetual adoration before His throne. For the past eighteen years there has continued to be a 24/7 prayer room here in Kansas City, and there is still a group of mostly young people who “stand by night in the house of the Lord.” God has marked many with a desire to give a season of their lives to watching in the night, whether during a three-month internship or as an intercessor on staff at IHOPKC. They are here to be a part of a people who give themselves to prayer and worship as their full-time occupation, contending for revival, growing in love for the Lord and others, and watching for the return of Jesus. The faces have changed over the years, but the desire has been the same—to make midnight–6am a time when He can be continually praised.

If you desire to be part of encountering God’s greatness in the night with a company of believers, we invite you to Fire In The Night, a three- or six-month internship at International House of Prayer of Kansas City. Open to all ages, as well as married couples, families, and internationals, internship tracks start this January. Learn more: ihopkc.org/internships/fire-in-the-night/

Alisha Powell

position

• Worship Leader, IHOPKC

Alisha Powell has been part of IHOPKC since 1999. She serves primarily in the NightWatch from midnight-6am as a worship leader and singer. She also teaches for the Fire In The Night Internship and helps with various projects for the Global Prayer Room.