The watchman discusses the third watch from Midnight until 3 a.m. . It is a time of intense spiritual warfare spilling over into the natural realm, of death, and supernatural release and deliverance. Hear the watchman speak and take heed.
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The watchman discusses the third watch from Midnight until 3 a.m. . It is a time of intense spiritual warfare spilling over into the natural realm, of death, and supernatural release and deliverance. Hear the watchman speak and take heed.
The Old Watchman Website
The Old Watchman - Facebook
The Watchman Speaks - Facebook
The Old Watchman - Twitter
045 Watchman! How Far Gone Is the Night? The Third Watch
Welcome to the Watchman Speaks! I’m your host, Lonnie Richardson.
Watchman! How far gone is the night? Well, we are going into the third watch, six hours into the night. Also known as the Midnight Watch. This watch is from Midnight to 3am.
But before I delve into the third watch, I’d like to clarify my position. That way we’re all on the same page. First, I present these watches as a means of Bible study to bring attention to something that is overlooked in the Bible and rarely, if ever spoken of. I am not saying that if you don’t adhere to these watches that your salvation is at risk. I never said that. But the watches, these blocks of time, are something that God and the Son obviously adhered to, and I’ll show you that in Scripture. If they adhered to these watches they must hold some measure of importance.
Secondly, I associate these watches to prayer and I have manned every watch at one time or another. I have stood watch and prayed during this third watch for years while I worked on the third shift. Sometimes, I have manned the second and third watch simply because I was awakened in the night and felt the desire to pray. Thirdly, I pray during these watches because I want to.
There is a BIG difference between having a prayer life and seeking God. Having a prayer life is not a bad thing, but praying to merely rack up hours is moot if the force driving you to your knees is personal motivation to be “a good Christian”. Seeking God in prayer, on the other hand is to chase after God in prayer to know God, develop a relationship with God, to trust God. David knew this. Let me give a brief example.
Psalm 54 is a short little Psalm, but it is rich with power and impact that each of us can relate to if we read carefully and pray to understand David and his motives in prayer.
1. Save me, O God, by Your name, And vindicate me by Your power.
2. Hear my prayer, O God; Give ear to the words of my mouth.
3. For strangers have risen against me And violent men have sought my life; They have not set God before them. SELAH.
In these 3 verses we have the signal flare, the distress call, the SOS!! David is crying out to God! Help me!
4. Behold, God is my helper; he LORD is the sustainer of my soul.
5. He will recompence the evil to my foes; Destroy them in Your faithfulness.
Ahhh…..in these two verses, David has remembered who God is. He is talking to himself about God. He has turned away from bringing the fight first to God and has begun to bring God into the fight.
6. Willingly I will sacrifice to You; I will give thanks to Your name, O Lord, for it is good.
7. For He has delivered me from all trouble, And my eye has looked with satisfaction upon my enemies.
Notice how David has switched the motive of his prayer here. He has gone from telling God about his trouble, knowing full well that God knows his troubles. He left that behind and began talking to himself about God and God’s abilities to save him when he cannot save himself. And lastly, he is giving praise, glory, honor, and thanksgiving to God for already having delivered him from his enemies. There is only one thing that I need to mention. David’s situation and circumstances have not changed one bit! He went from crying in distress, to talking to himself about God, to bringing God into the situation at hand as if God had already moved.
I conclude that not only did David have an active prayer life, but David had an active prayer life in close communion, fellowship, and intimate relationship with God. I can tell you that studying David and the prayers he prayed while God was molding him into a king has taught me more about prayer than any seven part series a pastor has preached or any book written my modern authors.
Everything I’m sharing with you is true. I have dug into the Holy Bible and found it. It’s there. These watches, these blocks of time, were actual watches that watchmen would serve the city/state/kingdom to which they belonged. I refer to them as watches of the watchman for that reason. But you’ll also hear me beginning to refer to them as prayer watches. I am that convinced that the time and the prayer are tightly interwoven.
So, let’s progress with the third watch entering into the sixth hour beginning at midnight .
This is the block of time when spiritual warfare is fiercest. I believe that. Why? Because we are normally sleeping when the demonic forces of evil and wickedness are at their highest level. It is not that these evil forces are more prevalent among the wicked and the non-believers, but in the church as well! How do we know that?
Let’s look at a parable that Jesus shared in Matthew 13:24-30
24. Jesus presented another parable to them saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.”
25. “But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away.”
26. But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.”
27. The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’”
28 “And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’”
29. But he said, “No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them.’”
30. “Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.’”
The enemy comes in the dead of night during the darkest hours. Remember the evil ones that Isaiah spoke of that come in the evening, howling and growling like dogs searching for food? By midnight the darkness is deep concealing that which moves in the darkness. What moves in the darkness? The rulers, powers, world forces of darkness, and spiritual forces of wickedness as told in Ephesians 6:12. The Psalmist knew this and strikes at the core of the time.
Psalm 119:62, “At midnight I shall rise to give thanks to You because of Your righteous ordinances.”
What is the Psalmist saying? He’s saying that he is going to get up at the beginning of the watch in the darkest hour of the night and give thanks to God for His righteous ordinances. He did not say anything about the law. The words “statute” and “ordinance” are ancient legal terms. A statute is law. Laws can be fulfilled, amended, or repealed by the law giver. An ordinance is a final judgment encompassing all nations forever.
It is a time when the greatest evil stalks the land. It is also a time when releases have been supernaturally executed.
Acts 16:25-26, “But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God and the prisoners were listening to them.; and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.”
Notice that it is midnight. Paul and Silas were being held prisoners. But instead of sleeping, Paul and Silas were praying and singing praises to God! Even the other prisoners were listening to them. But here is the cap iron on the cutting blade. SUDDENLY there was an earthquake. Suddenly the foundations of the prison were shaken. Suddenly the doors opened and chains were unfastened without a key! Paul and Silas were praying, at midnight, and singing praises while the other prisoners listened! That, my friends is a manifestation of spiritual warfare spilling over into the physical realm. Since when do earthquakes open locked doors and unfasten chains?
Now consider the account of Gideon in Judges chapter 7. The account goes that God told Gideon, that same night, to go down into the camp of Midian for God has given it into Gideon’s hand. It was God’s plan to attack the enemy at night, in the darkness. The account goes on to tell that 300 trumpets sounded, 300 torches blazed brightly, and 300 shouted, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” The account tells us that the battle hardened soldier of the Midian camp began to cry out and flee! It goes on to say that when 300 trumpets sounded the Midianite soldiers turned upon one another each with their own sword. The Book of Judges goes on to tell us that 135,000 of Midian fell to the sword that night. That, my friends, is a manifestation of spiritual warfare spilling over into the physical realm.
If you will recall, God went into Egypt at midnight on the night of the Passover and took all the first born of Egypt.
Oh yes, this, the darkest hours of the night are for killing. But I’m afraid that it works both ways. Most recently when Hamas attacked Israel from the Gaza strip, they attacked October 7 at 6:30 am. That means that they were preparing for the attack pretty much all night long. The same can be said of the 9-1-1 terrorists attack on New York City and Washington D.C. Those final preparations were made from the early evening hours until the first day watch.
This watch is definitely a time when evil forces are at work and working zealously to get the agenda of the enemy in place for execution of the enemy’s plan. There is no limit how low the enemy will sink to accomplish heinous deeds. If we look into 1st Kings 3:20 we see how desparate the forces of evil can be. Make no mistake about it, Satanic forces, spiritual forces are ramping up during these hours across the world.
1st Kings 3:19-20
19. This woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on it.
20. So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom.”
Thankfully, Solomon had the wisdom to rightly settle the dispute. But by no means confuse grief with greed. The woman who lay on her son, suffocating him was right to grieve. But to attempt to steal another’s son and keep him as her own is an evil undertaking. Here is where we get into trouble by attempting to “fix” things ourselves instead of depending on God to work in the spiritual realm to align things to fit His will in the physical realm.
Also, it is not something that I’ve actually looked up the statistics on, but I suspect that the incidents of rape and sexually immoral acts are prevalent during this watch. Such a case is the account that we see in Judges 19 where a Levite’s concubine was raped repeatedly and abused without mercy. A Levite was traveling with his concubine and a male servant. An old man took him and his party into his house for the night. Judges 19:22-25 tell the rest of the story.
22. While they were celebrating, behold, the men of the city, certain worthless fellows, surrounded his house, pounding on the door; and they spoke to the owner of the house, the old man saying, “Bring out the man who came into your house that we may have relations with him (seems like I heard something like that about Sodom and Gomorrah)
23. Then the old man, the owner of the house, went out to them and said to them, “No, my fellows, please do not act so wickedly; since this man has come into my house, do not commit this act of folly.
24. Here is my virgin daughter and his concubine. Please let me bring them out that you may ravish them and do to them whatever you wish. But do not commit such an act of folly against this man.”
25. But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and brought her out to them; and they raped her and abused her all night until morning, then let her go at the approach of dawn,
Stop and think about this for a moment. Let’s think for a moment as unpleasant as it may be, about the human trafficking and the child trafficking that is going on in this world as I speak. Those poor souls and children are being raped and abused in much the same manner as this concubine was. Never mind the fact that she was a concubine which doesn’t say much for the morality of the Levite, but she was nothing more than a piece of meat to be devoured by the mob.
Let’s think for a moment about Sodom and Gomorrah. The same line was spoken by the mob of men outside the house that the angels of the Lord were staying. And, likewise, the women of the house were offered to appease the lusts of the men outside. Now the LGBTQIA+ will tell you that Sodom and Gomorrah were not destroyed because of this homosexual behavior within the two cities. They will say that the cities were destroyed because help was not given to the poor and needy as in Ezekiel 16:49: “Behold this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy.” That, according to the LGBTQIA+ is the reason that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. The destruction of the two cities had nothing to do with homosexuality. But notice that Ezekiel16:49 is directed at the daughters of Sodom. Said nothing about the men.
Now notice how the men of the city in Judges 19 were described as “Certain worthless fellows” demanding to have relations with the male guest of the house. These men were of Gibeah, a city belonging to the tribe of Benjamin. If you read on through Judges into chapter 20, you will see that judgment fell upon the tribe of Benjamin by the hands of Israel for the heinous act of repeatedly raping and abusing the concubine. Judgement fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah for the same reason. Homosexual lust. It just so happened that this incident in Judges occurred in the middle of the night, on the third watch.
Let’s move along to the extent that Jesus adhered to the watches of the watchman, the prayer watches if you will. When we left Jesus last week, he had gone out alone to pray on three occasions for a total of three hours. Each time he returned; he found the disciples asleep. Each time, he admonished them for not keeping watch and praying with Him. The last time he said, “the hour has come that the Son of man will be betrayed into the hands of sinners!”
At that moment, at midnight, as He was speaking, Judas, who was one of the twelve, appeared with a large crowd with swords and clubs and who represented the chief priests and elders of the people. Matthew 26:48-56 tells the story.
48. Now he who was betraying Him gave them a sign, saying, “Whomever I kiss, He is the one; seize Him.”
49. Immediately Judas went to Jesus and said, “Hail Rabbi!” and kissed Him.
50. And Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you have come for.” Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized Him.
51. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus reached and drew out his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear.
52. Jesus said to him, “Put you sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.
53. Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will not at once put as My disposal more than 12 legions of angels?
54. How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?
55. At that time Jesus said to the crowds, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as you would against a robber? Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching and you did not seize Me.
56. But all this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures of the prophets” Then all the disciples left Him and fled.
These were the opening moments of the third watch from midnight until 3 am. Spiritual Warfare was going on in fierce fashion. In the physical realm, Peter had drawn a sword and cut off Malchus’ ear. Jesus admonished Peter and restored Malchus’ ear. Peter’s actions in the physical realm were putting God’s will at risk. Even though the cutting off of a High Priest’s servant’s ear was discouraging to the men who came to seize Jesus, Jesus said, basically, “Put that sword away! If you live by the sword you will die by the sword.” Not only did Jesus save Peter’s life and the lives of the disciples, He was making certain that the prophesies of the prophets of God would be fulfilled. Jesus had prayed, the Father’s will was confirmed, and Jesus had accepted His mission to fulfill those prophesies as the Messiah. This was the first hour of the third watch.
What most people, even Christians, don’t realize is that from the time of Jesus’ arrest, things happened quickly. Things happened more quickly than was normal for that day and time and certainly more quickly than the legal system moves this day and time. The biblical record Notes that Jesus followed the mob of men who seized him as far as the courtyard of the High Priest where he sat down with the officers of the court.
The Bible conveys to us that the Chief Priests and the Council of Elders were attempting to obtain false witness against Jesus and were unable to do so. Eventually, two people came forth and said that Jesus said that He would tear down the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Naturally, the highpriest stood and demanded an answer from Jesus in regard to these charges. On the charges, Jesus remained silent.
The high priest then demanded that Jesus tell them if He was the Messiah and the Son of God. Jesus answered him with Scripture.
Consider Daniel 7:13: Daniel 7:13 (NASB95)
13 “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven
One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days
And was presented before Him.
The remainder of the third watch, Jesus spent in the courts of the High Priest and Elder Council being judged. Which I find ironic because the council and priests did not recognize that they were indeed facing The Judge.
Spiritual Warfare is an odd means of obtaining God’s will in the minds of most Christians. Even the cruelest practices are used in the physical realm to obtain God’s Will in the Physical and Spiritual realms. Jesus fulfilled Isaiah 53:7 during the third watch.
Isaiah 53:7: He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.
The third watch is when Satanic activity ramps up in the earth. Have no doubts about that. Yet it is a time of sudden release as with Paul, Silas, and the prisoners. You can throw Peter’s name in that hat too. It is a time when atrocities unmentionable are being planned and put into action. It is the time when the Lord Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ha-Mashiach, accepting God’s will, was arrested and tried by Caiaphas. It seems to be injustice. However, it was in fact establishing justice. For those who believe and obey, making the commitment to follow and pray justice will be served in the end. A prayer life is good. A prayer life birthed out of love and commitment is unstoppable. Pray to summons the hosts of the Lord for your deliverance that you may be suddenly released. Pray and give praise to an Almighty God who was pleased to crush HIM that we may live.
This concludes the Third Watch.
I am The Old Watchman, Ezekiel. You have been warned.
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