The midnight hour

“And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.
Then Moses said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘About midnight I will go out into the midst of Egypt;  and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the female servant who is behind the handmill, and all the firstborn of the animals.” Exodus 11:3-5

Why midnight?
As I said in my earlier post, we are created to praise Him, that the best time to either pray or praise, or even both, is at midnight. That is the time where gates and doors open and close. What happens is that there will be spiritual forces that act normally between the hours of 0:00-3:00. Why? First of all it is because most Christians are asleep at that time! Here is an example of what happens when you’re not alert, both to pray and praise:

Now two women who were harlots came to the king, and stood before him.  And one woman said, “O my lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house; and I gave birth while she was in the house.  Then it happened, the third day after I had given birth, that this woman also gave birth. And we were together; no one was with us in the house, except the two of us in the house.  And this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him. So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from my side, while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.  And when I rose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead. But when I had examined him in the morning, indeed, he was not my son whom I had borne.” 1 Kings 3:16-24.

This is a clear picture of what the enemy does whilst we are asleep! Now there are opposing spirits that stop our prayers. For example if you pray for peace, there will be a spirit of chaos trying make sure your peace does not come to you. That is why we remain persistent in prayer. The other thing is that when we don’t pray at midnight we end up praying defensively. How exactly? Like I said before the Enemy operates between twelve and three in the morning and as long as we don’t pray at those times, we give him room to do his dirty work. This is why God told Job to do something important:

Command your morning
That phrase should sound familiar to some people. Listen to what He tells Job:

When I said,

      ‘This far you may come, but no farther, 
      And here your proud waves must stop!’

   “Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
      And caused the dawn to know its place,

  That it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
      And the wicked be shaken out of it? (Job 38:11-13).

See what happens? When you command your morning, things should be a bit smoother for you than usual since you would have made sure that things go in your favor according to the will of the King. Now, of course that does not mean you slack away and expect everything to be really easy after you’ve done so! Though we should get to a point where we are so close to God we can literally do that! I don’t know about you but that is my goal!

Since you would have commanded your morning, the Enemy may still try to hunt you down, so you will need to keep your guard up by making sure you:

pray without ceasing,  in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (Thess 5:17-18),

not only that but…

So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God“ (Mark 11:22)

Praying without ceasing or putting yourself in a position where you never stop praying, is simply staying faithful to your prayer times. One of them, naturally, being midnight.

And it came to pass at midnight that the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock.. Exodus 12:29.

If you notice in chapter 11:3-5, the Lord said He was going to wipe out the firstborn Egyptians. He then followed through with His word in chapter 12:29! That ministers to me. If the Lord can do what He said He would do, if I’m made in His image, I too can do what I say I will do, and not a minute later! The Lord was specific, He said He was going to do it at midnight. I therefore have no excuse to procrastinate.

At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You, Because of Your righteous judgments Psalm 119:62.

This is simple and straightforward. If there is anything in the Word of God easy to understand and very practical, it is this! We will all do well to follow David’s example.

But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Acts 16:25.

These passages make it clear. Both passages took place in completely different time spans and yet the activity took place at the same time! That should really say something, which is highlighting the importance of the midnight hour. We should take it very seriously because all the forces of the kingdom of darkness take it very seriously!

Final word
Things in the spirit realm answer to the midnight hour just like things in the natural realm. If the door of the new day, new week, new month and new year opens at midnight, we ought to seize those moments by commanding our morning and making sure the enemy can do nothing against us! That is really the main reason to praise and pray at midnight. There is nothing wrong with doing them at any other time of day, besides the problem with having given the Enemy a head-start! In the end it is great to praise and pray at any time in the day as long as it would have started at midnight.