THE DIVINE SETTING – ISAIAH 62:5-6
The establishing of the night watch is a very key aspect of the cry for the release of justice, and is key in the changing of the
spiritual atmosphere over a city. It is not just part of completing the 24-hour daily cycle, but it is strategic and wise in the
heart of God.
I. THE GOD WHO ENJOYS US IN OUR WEAKNESS - ISAIAH 62:5
“For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you. As a Bridegroom rejoices over a bride,
so shall your God rejoice over you.” Isaiah 62:5
A. The blessed God
1. Before we go on the journey of night and day ministry to the Lord we must begin to embrace the revelation of a God who
tenderizes our hearts. We must fill our hearts and minds with the revelation of the emotions of God. God has transcendent
ability to feel passionate emotions of love and tenderness. He is not a stoic.
2. We must expose our spirits to the reality that God enjoys us in our weakness. I Timothy 1:11, Paul calls Him the “blessed
God”, which literally means the happy God.
II. GLOBAL TRANSITION ACCOMPANIED BY HOLY SPIRIT PRAYER MOVEMENT
“I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention
of the LORD, do not keep silent, and give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem praise in the earth.”
Isaiah 62:6-7
A. Divine activity and Divine initiative
1. The concept of night and day ministry to the Lord is birthed out of Divine initiative in the heart of God. It is not because we
decided on a new way of ministry. It is divine activity, the very activity of the Holy Spirit. He has set watchmen on the wall.
a. This divine setting is taking place globally. There is a desire for worship, intercession and intimate communion like never
before.
B. The Church and Jerusalem will be established as a praise in the earth
…and give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem praise in the earth.” Isaiah 62:7
1. This verse, at the end of the day, is about the in breaking of God’s power and revival in Jerusalem.
2. Jerusalem, in this context, can speak of Jerusalem as well as the church. God is going to place watchmen on the wall
day and night until He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
3. The church is not a praise in the earth from the world’s perspective. From God’s perspective she is beautiful and glorious,
with flaws and everything.
4. Society considers the church to be an institution that is irrelevant, powerless, and without a voice.
5. In Acts 5, when Ananias and Sapphira lied to Peter, they fell dead right in front of the Apostles. The fear of God filled
the community and they respected the church.
6. The Lord is raising up a pure, spotless and victorious bride. The church will be a praise in the earth.
7. The church will be filled with people who have a prophetic voice. Preachers will preach the same messages they have
been preaching for 40 years, but now their messages will have Divine energy on them. God will anoint preachers, and
when they speak, people’s hearts will be literally changed. There will be signs, wonders and healings.
8. There will be a company of people who will walk with God like Moses, Elijah, Peter, Paul, etc. Elisha was known for the
fact that he heard the words of the king that were spoken privately in his bedroom. Elisha had the word of the LORD.
9. God is going to raise up a company of people like Esther who are going to have direct involvement with political leaders.
They will have the word of the Lord burning in their hearts, and begin to shape and change history. This will be a glorious
time.
C. The global prayer movement is a prophetic indicator of a global transition.
1. When there is a shift in the spirit it is accompanied by a prayer movement. The hour of history that we are living in is an hour
of global transition, accompanied by a Holy Spirit prayer movement.
2. Three parallels related to the prayer movement:
a. I Samuel 1
b. Luke 1
c. Acts 1
D. The transition from the time of the judges to the time of the kings (I Samuel 1:8-18)
E. The transition out of the four hundred years of silence Luke 1:11
1. There were 400 years between the Old and New Testaments when God seemingly did not speak at all. God suddenly broke
His silence when Zacharias went before the Lord and offered incense. The angel Gabriel appeared to him and proclaimed
the coming of the forerunner, John the Baptist.
2. Luke 1:11 speaks of the hour of incense.
3. The gospel of Luke begins with a priestly ministry and ends with a priestly ministry. Luke 1:11 talks about the multitudes
outside of the temple praying at the hour of incense. The gospel of Luke ends with Jesus ascending and His disciples
worshipping Him (priestly function).
F. The transition into the birth of the Son of God (Luke 2:25-38)
1. In Luke 2:25-38 we see another transition. Elizabeth is with child, John the Baptist, a forerunner, who was born about 6
months before Jesus.
2. Throughout this time the Lord is putting watchmen on the wall. Anna is a widow of about 84 years who cried out to the
Lord night and day in the temple. Simeon was a man in Jerusalem who had been interceding and waiting for the Consolation
and salvation of Israel, until the manifestation of God’s promise to Israel.
G. The transition into the birthing of the Church (Acts 1:12; Acts 2:1-4)
1. Acts 1:12; Acts 2:1-4 The birthing of the Church is another transition that is accompanied by a prayer movement.
H. The transition into the end of the age (Luke 18:1-8; Matt. 24:42; Mark 13:35-37; Luke 21:36)
1. Luke 18:1-8 Jesus links the call to night and day prayer to the end of the age. At the end of the parable He says this,
“Nevertheless, when the Son of Man returns will He really find faith on the earth?” He connects the call to night and day
prayer with His second coming.
2. Night and day prayer ministries are being raised up all over the earth. There have been 24-hour prayer ministries all
throughout history. Most of them have been within Europe. Desire is being awakened in the hearts of God’s people globally.
3. Jesus is awakening His church to a night and day ministry of worship and intercession because the coming of the Lord is at
hand. This is not an accident.
4. Matthew 24; Mark 13; and Luke 21 tell us that the one of the wisest things to do at the end of the age is to give ourselves
to the prayer movement of the Holy Spirit (the divine setting).
III. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS ROAMING THROUGHOUT THE EARTH PLACING WATCHMEN ON THE WALL
A. The restoration of the temple (Ezra 1:1,5)
1. The book of Ezra is about the restoration of the temple and Nehemiah is about the restoration of the wall to protect the
temple.
2. Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah line up in a wonderful way. Jeremiah prophesied that the nation of Israel would be in exile for 70
years. Ezra 1 is at the end of the 70 years. Daniel 9 is about 3 years before the end of the 70 years. In Daniel 9, Daniel studies
the prophecies of Jeremiah. He realizes that, after 70 years, there is a global transition on the horizon. There is a major
power shift coming from the Babylonians to the Persians. He gives himself to fasting and prayer.
a. Three years later, the Holy Spirit stirs a king by the name of Cyrus. King Cyrus was prophesied by Isaiah in Isaiah 45.
B. Leaving exile to build the prayer movement
“Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be
fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout
all his kingdom, and also put it in writing…The heads of the fathers houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the
priest and the Levites, with all whose spirits God had moved, arose to go up and build the house of the LORD
which is in Jerusalem” Ezra 1:1, 5
1. Basically, what Cyrus put into writing was “let my people go.” He gave them money and materials so they could go back
to Jerusalem and build the temple. It’s a picture of Isaiah 62:5. It’s a divine setting. The Holy Spirit began to stir King Cyrus to
release His people to go and restore the temple.
2. Not all the Jews left exile. The majority of them stayed behind in Babylon because they already had their businesses and
were already established. They wanted to continue with their lives. Some of the ones who stayed behind financially
supported the restoration efforts of the temple in Jerusalem.
3. A very small group left exile to go back to Jerusalem. They were responding to the divine setting to go and build the
temple. I believe most of them were young adults.
4. In Ezra 3 they began to restore the temple. Those in leadership were from the ages of 20 and up. They were in charge of
the quality of Levitical worship, etc.
IV. THE VISION FOR DIVINE JUSTICE - ISAIAH 42:1-4
Matthew 12 records Jesus healing multitudes, including a man with a withered hand. These events remind Matthew of the
prophecy found in Isaiah 42; the prophecy of the Servant of the LORD Who will establish justice in the earth. Justice is the
manifestation of God’s rule and government in the midst of His people. Justice is about making wrong things right. When Jesus
went about healing the multitude, He was establishing justice. Healing is part of the expression of justice. Healing is God’s
judgment against sickness. Salvation is God’s judgment against unbelief. Jesus came to bring judgment against the ruler
of this world (John 16:11). He did this through preaching the good news of the gospel, healing the brokenhearted, proclaiming
liberty
to the captives and the oppressed, and giving sight to the blind. The final provision for establishing justice was made on the
cross (Colossians 2:15). Isaiah 42:1-13 is divided into three sections- Isaiah 42:1-4; Isaiah 42:5-9; Isaiah 42:10-13.
A. Divine justice (Isaiah 42)
1. There is a vision in the heart of the Father to establish justice in the earth.
2. Justice burns within the heart of the Father. That’s why the Lord is raising up ministries all across the earth for night and day
intercession. This has been burning in the Father’s heart since the foundation of His throne. He desires to see our families
made whole. Bringing restoration to families is a form of justice. Seeing children and young adults delivered from drugs and all
kinds of perversion is a form justice.
3. Luke 18 The Lord wants to see social justice. He uses the plight of a widow to speak to us of the call to night and day
prayer. A widow was anyone in total need. A widow was considered by society to be at the bottom of the totem pole. A widow
was a person in need of an advocate. I believe that night and day intercession will free the socially oppressed, the poor,
and the politically oppressed. Ethnic tension and strife, as well as social pressures are other things the Lord will deal with
through night and day intercession. God is going to deal with issues of abortion and issues of racism in America as night
and day intercession goes up before Him.
4. Jesus desires the fullness of God dwelling in the church. His vision for justice is also about His fullness coming to the
earth. It is just and right for Him to come and dwell in the midst of His bride and see a people delivered from afflictions and
diseases. The heart of the Father is to have a pure and spotless bride for His Son and to give Him the heart of the nations.
It’s the very thing that He promised His Son in Psalm 2:8. He said, “Son, ask of Me the nations, and I will give them to You
as Your inheritance.” It’s the justice of God and it burns in the His heart.
B. The Father has intense passion, desire and delight in His Servant Jesus and Jesus’ desire for justice in the earth
“Behold My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights.” Isaiah 42:1
“Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; And I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him,
Rejoicing in His inhabited world, And my delight was with the sons of men.” Proverbs 8:30-31
1. Can we imagine? Divine romance at its highest! The Son forever rejoicing and lost in the embrace of the Father as the
Father delights in Him. The Father is forever happy and filled with pleasure towards His only begotten Son who is eternally
hidden within His bosom. Jesus will come and release the justice of His Father and cause the Great Commission to go forth.
2. The Father calls us to gaze upon His beautiful Son. He says, “I want to talk about justice, but before I talk about justice, can
we talk a little bit about the One I love the most? It’s My Son. I’m inviting you to come and to behold My Son. I enjoy and love the
uncreated second person of the Trinity.”
3. He was so excited about His Son that before His Son even started His ministry, He wanted all of Israel to know how He felt. At
His Son’s baptism He said, “This is the One. I love Him. I’m pleased with this One. I’ve waited throughout all eternity to break
into time to tell you what I love and it’s My Son. Before we talk about freeing your families from drugs and breaking in with
justice and releasing revival let me tell you about what is first and foremost on my heart. It’s My Son. I delight in Him”.
C. The Father invites us to behold His Son.
1. He invites us to gaze upon His Soul’s delight. He is inviting us to come and do the one thing needed.
a. Psalm 27:4
b. John 17:23
c. Psalm 134:1 (Invitation to come and gaze in the night)
D. Jesus is consumed with zeal to establish justice on the earth. He will see that wrong things are made right and that every
barrier of love is removed.
“He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands shall wait
for His laws.” Isaiah 42:4
V. THE INVITATION TO PARTNERSHIP AND GOD’S ZEAL FOR JUSTICE ISAIAH 42:5-9
A. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts
1. The Father burns with passion to see wrong things made right and to see the obstacles of love removed. The Self-Existent
God, the LORD, has anointed His servant Jesus to go forth and establish justice in the earth. The God Who has need of
nothing and Who is self-sufficient refuses to move outside the context of partnership. Therefore, He anoints Jesus, who is
fully God, and fully man. God wants to partner with humanity in establishing justice in the earth, and it is through Jesus that we
are invited into partnership. We are chosen in Him (Ephesians 1:4).
2. In Isaiah 42:5, the Lord makes reference to Genesis 1. The God of Genesis 1 is extending the invitation to partner with
Him to establish justice on the earth.
3. Job 26:14 He created everything with a mere whisper. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain. The very heavens of
heavens cannot contain Him. It is He who gives us life. He is the Source of everything that exists, and He is inviting us to
partner with Him to establish His purposes in the earth.
4. The divine setting is a call to divine partnership with this infinitely great One Who burns with desire and longs for partnership
with humanity. He jealously desires His people to enter into partnership with Him.
5. Genesis 2:15
6. Intimacy with God was the pattern of ruling Genesis 1. Genesis 1-2, doesn’t describe Adam and Eve exercising dominion in
the way we envision dominion exercised today. We see Adam and Eve maintaining the garden. The garden was the place
of encounter. The garden was the place where they fellowshipped with God. The release of dominion on earth is deeply
rooted and grounded in the issue of intimacy.
7. We are living in an hour of history where God’s people will experience the privilege of partnering with Him concerning the
highest things that are on His heart. We will see the escalation of the eternal counsels of the Godhead as He invites us to
come and partner with Him. He has made us a kingdom of priests (Revelation 1:6).
8. A “kingdom of priests” speaks of governing from the place of intimacy. One of the primary ways the Lord will establish
His rule and dominion is by His people walking in their priestly identity (intimacy).
9. A kingdom speaks of rulership. His rulership is comprised of priests. What a priest does is stand primarily before God
and say, “I love you.” Essentially, that’s what a priest does. God says, “I’m going to release My kingdom through a people
who will stand in front of Me and say ‘I love you.’” He will say, “I love you too,” and this will result in glorious things on the earth.
10. Jesus rules His kingdom as the Priest-King in Psalm 110. “The Lord said to my Lord, come and sit at My right hand until I
make Your enemies my footstool.” Jesus is there in the order of Melchizedek as a Priest, sitting and communing with the
Father. Jesus is doing what He has always done. He’s sitting before the Father and communing with the Father as His
kingdom and dominion is being released in the earth.
B. High praises executing judgment (Psalm 149:9)
1. God will release vengeance on the nations through singing, worshiping, and praising God, with the Word of God, the
two-edged sword, in their hands.
2. Can we imagine what will take place when every major city of the earth has their stadiums filled with night and day
intercession?
3. Can we imagine what that will do, not only in a city, but in the nation and in the globe?
4. In Cali, Colombia they spent one night in unified prayer and there was no crime for two days. This city experienced 15
murders a day. A major drug lord collapsed and the church had revival.
5. Imagine a church filled with the Word of God, maturity, and strength. Imagine a church in love with God and in love with
one another. Imagine a church unified in the stadiums, crying out to God and “executing vengeance on nations and
punishments on he peoples, binding their kings (governmental leaders) with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron.”
Political leaders will change policies because of what the Church is doing. “To execute on them the written judgment- this
honor have all the saints.” It’s our destiny. Its part of our inheritance to partner with God and His judgments.
C. Worship and Intercession (Revelation 5:8; Revelation 8:3-6)
1. In Revelation 5:8, we see the harp (music) and the bowl filled with incense (prayers of the saints). In Revelation 8:3-6,
we see the angel take the bowl, mix the incense with the fire from the altar, and pour out divine activity on the earth:
lightning, thundering and noises.
2. It is absolutely amazing that when easily distracted, prone to discouragement, easily offended, overly sensitive, can’t do
anything right people stand before God and pray and the heavens move. Something as weak as that, God anoints and
the foundations of the earth are shaken. Why? Because this uncreated God in Genesis longs for us and invites us to
partner with
Him.
VI. GLOBAL NIGHT AND DAY WORSHIP STIRS HIS ZEAL AND DESTROYS HIS ENEMIES - ISAIAH 42:10-13
A. The building of a global prayer and worship movement; the implementation of the vision (Isaiah 42:10)
1. Sing! The Lord says, “I’m going to release justice and I want you to sing and while you’re singing, I want you to tell the
other nations to sing.”
2. We may say “But, God babies are being killed, the poor are being ripped off, families are being destroyed, kids are on drugs,
the earth is filled with violence, and You want us to sing?”
“Sing to the Lord a new song and His praise from the ends of the earth. You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it.
You islands, and those who dwell on them. Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voices. The settlements where
Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Sela sing aloud, Let them shout for joy from the tops of the mountains. Let them give
glory to the Lord and declare His praise in the coastlands.” Isaiah 42:10-12
3. The Holy Spirit is going everywhere. He’s going down into the highways and the byways. He’s going into the tribes.
4. There is a prophetic cry in the earth crying, “Worship Me! I want to release justice on the earth.”
5. God is raising up a global prayer movement.
6. This global prayer movement is prophesied by the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 56:7.
7. Jesus also prophesied this in the gospels (Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46).
B. The ravished heart of God (Song of Songs 4:9)
1. Jesus tells His bride “You have ravished My heart My sister, My bride. You have ravished My heart with one look from your
eyes.” This verse is such a powerful encouragement. The uncreated God has an uncreated heart that has no beginning
and no end to its capacity to feel and experience things.
2. We can be distracted driving our car down the street and say, “ I love you Jesus” and cause a volcanic explosion to take
place in His heart. That is what “you’ve ravished My heart” means. A simple glance upon Jesus causes the heavens to
thunder because the very heart of God is moved at my gaze.
C. The steady gaze of the Bride (Song of Songs 6:5)
1. The Bride gives God a steady gaze. He tells her, “Stop looking at me, I can’t take it any more. You’ve conquered My heart.
Turn your eyes away from Me. You are as awesome as an army with banners.”
2. Psalm 2 says, “He who sits in the heavens laughs.” The armies of the earth are coming against God and He is unmoved.
Weak and broken people can give God a steady gaze and He allows us to conquer His heart.
D. Night and day ministry is a corporate steady gaze
1. Night and day ministry is about a community of people gazing together in unity, conquering the heart of God.
2. Isaiah 42:13 “The Lord shall go forth like a mighty man; He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war. He shall cry out, yes,
shout aloud; He shall prevail against His enemies.”
3. God’s heart is moved and stirred by the unified gaze of God’s people. As a result, He breaks in with power, brings justice, and
removes things that stand in the way of His love and His people by making wrong things right. The global prayer movement
and the divine setting are about the release of justice.
4. The divine setting is about raising up a people who will love Him with all their hearts. His response is a heart that is stirred
and moved with zeal.
a. This is what stirred up zeal looks like. “I’ve held My peace a long time, I have been still and restrained Myself. Now I will cry
like a woman in labor. I will pant and gasp at once. I will lay waste the mountains.” (Isaiah 42:14-15)
b. What is it like for the uncreated God to say, “I’m going to cry like a woman in labor?” Imagine that!
c. This is going to cause such disruption in the natural realm. It’s the shaking of Haggai 1:2 “ I will shake the heavens and
the earth”. Why? Because God has stirred Himself up like a mighty man of war. He will gasp and moan like a woman in labor.
d. This is more than poetic language! This will truly take place in the natural realm when God’s heart is moved by a people
who give Him a steady gaze.
VII. GOD’S NAME WILL BE MADE GREAT AMONG THE GENTILES.
A. The Father’s desire for worship
1. Malachi 1:11 “From the rising of the sun, even to its going down, My name shall be great among the Gentiles; In every
place incense shall be offered to My name, and a pure offering; For My name shall be great among the nations…”
2. The Father is expressing His desire for incense, for worship, for prayer to rise up from before His throne from every place.
His desire is for a global movement.
B. Jesus’ desire to see the Father worshiped
1. Jesus was with the Father all the time. Jesus was there when the Father was speaking to Malachi. Jesus, with the same
passion of Malachi 1:11, comes in the flesh, goes to a Samaritan woman and says,
“But the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth;
for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.” John 4:23-24
2. Jesus, in the spirit of Malachi 1, communicates the Father’s aching desire for human beings to worship Him.
C. Paul’s desire to see the Father worshiped
1. I Timothy 2:8 The Apostle Paul is touched by this same passion and says, “I desire therefore men pray everywhere, lifting
up holy hands…” Paul gave his very life as a martyr seeing to it that this very thing would take place.
2. Paul was doing more than trying to establish a ministry. He was going all throughout Europe and Asia preaching the
gospel because the Father desires a people who will love and worship Him.