Night Watchmen

Giving up social lives and sunlight to pray through the night in Jerusalem
 
 
It is midnight and the busy city is finally winding down, traffic has dwindled and most residents have retired for the evening. But some are just beginning their day.
 
It’s the graveyard shift at Succat Hallel (Tabernacle of Praise), a 24/7 prayer ministry, and the diligent “night watchers” are taking over at the prayer room. They put in a six-hour shift of worship and intercession until one of the “day watchers” files in at 6 a.m.
 
While most people in Israel are sleeping, these Christian volunteers are keeping the nation covered in prayer. At least two houses of prayer in Jerusalem operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week: Succat Hallel directly across from Mount Zion in West Jerusalem, and the Jerusalem House of Prayer for All Nations on the Mount of Olives, on the eastern side of the city.
 
But why pray through the night in addition to the other 18 hours of prayer?
 
“The devil is working 24 hours a day, so we cannot sleep,” said Sam Dewald, administrator of the Jerusalem House of Prayer.
 
It’s a challenge and a reward. “You work all day and are tired, then cover a night watch,” Dewald, who is from India, told Israel Today. “The thing that keeps us going is the calling of God.”
 
Lindy Heidler, head of the Succat Hallel night watch, sees their mission as “shaking the wicked” out of the night based on Job 38:12-13—stewarding the time when evil and occult practitioners operate more intensely. Heidler, from Denton, Texas, and her team, ranging in age from 22 to 34 years old, have completely revamped their lives to a night schedule. Giving up the social scene and sunlight, they head to bed and usually sleep until around 3 p.m., when the sun is already low in the winter sky.
 
Steve Hansen, who began night watches at Succat Hallel with his wife Tonya three years ago, provided biblical backing for praying through the night: The Lord called Samuel and appeared to Solomon, both times at night. He said God releases strategy and revelation in the night season, without the distractions of the day. Plus, Hansen said, they are preempting the Moslem call to prayer, which occurs before 5 a.m.
 
The Bible speaks of four night watches, each divided into three hours beginning at sundown or approximately 6 p.m. and ending at around 6 a.m.
 
Both Succat Hallel and the Jerusalem House of Prayer operate 24 hours a day. The JHOP is divided into two-hour watches covered by two intercessors per shift while Succat Hallel’s night watch is an intense, six-hour shift staffed by a team of about four to six.
 
“The night watch lifestyle is a complete sacrifice—it’s a fast,” Hansen said.
 
The watches ebb and flow, sometimes exhaustion takes over, but many times they are propelled by worship or a prayer focus. The Succat Hallel team takes a “devotional” break at around 2 or 3 a.m. where they pray individually and eat what is, for them, lunch.
 
The team has experienced various seasons. Before Ramadan one year, they went on a silent fast, not speaking to each other or praying out loud for an entire week. Each morning after four hours of individual prayer, the team headed out to the Western Wall at 4 a.m. where they prayed silently and then marched around the Old City, encircling the Temple Mount.
 
Dewald said the hours from 2 to 4 a.m. are the most powerful times of prayer: “Darkness is where evil spirits prevail, so we pray against it. The power of God flows more, especially during the night watches.”
 
And the night watch bears fruit. Many times they read the results of their prayers in the newspapers the next day. And for one, there have been no terrorist attacks since 2004 in Jerusalem, the most spiritually contested city in the world.
 
“This is the city where God will set up His throne and this is where He wants to be worshipped,” Hansen said. “It’s an eternal thing, but we’re to replicate in the natural what God is doing in eternity.”
 
“The Bible says that the Word of the Lord will go out from Zion [Jerusalem],” Heidler said. “There’s an anointing and authority here.”