In The Midnight Hour
I am standing here for your wonderful Pastor who has encountered a Midnight Hour. I know everyone by now is aware of the unexpected passing of his brother Tom and his wife. Please keep them in your deepest prayers, which I know that you are.
Saturday morning at 6:05am, I experienced a Midnight hour; I lost one of my strongest and anointed encouragers I have ever known. Little did I know, last Sunday evening when we spoke as church was ending, the next time we would meet would be in glory.
I was awakened this Saturday morning at the midnight hour! I could not sleep and I got up and begin to listen to some music and eventually found myself listening to some preaching on the Internet. Then, out of the blue, I found myself thinking about my Aunt that passed away back in the 1970’s. What was intriguing about this was that she was my favorite Aunt that I spent the night with and was like my second Mother. One day my Dad came to me and said my Aunt was in the hospital and she wanted me to come and see her. My Dad was insistent, being young I did not realize the peril that she was in. I told my Dad that I would go the next day.
Later that night, in the midnight hour, my Aunt passed away. I was devastated as a child. I felt so guilty for so many years after that for not going to visit. It was God that I was revisiting this again, because I had eventually let this get behind me. Hold on, here is the rest of the story.
Last Sunday night, my greatest encourager came to me after church and said he wanted me to come to his home. He said he had some things he wanted to give me. He was persistent to the point that I was going to go this coming Friday. Unfortunately, my schedule got away from me and I did not make it by…Saturday morning at 4:00am, God called him home. When I received the call at 6:00am, I was extremely upset. I began to weep and knew immediately why I was awakened in the Midnight hour…I thought.
All day, I was very distraught and felt the way I did when my Aunt passed away. At this point I was so discouraged! Hold on; the story isn’t over yet! God is about to come on the scene amen!
During my time of distress and second-guessing, I get a call from your wonderful Pastor who wanted me to come and speak to you this morning! Here I am going through a midnight hour, your Pastor is going through a midnight hour and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to stand in for him. I hesitated, but God spoke to my heart and said, "Go,I have been preparing you since last night,in the midnight hour!" God knew that the Devil was going to bring up my past about my Aunt and let me wallow in my failure from the past and make me miss a blessing God was going to impart to you this morning! Let me tell you, God isn’t about the past failures and mistakes we make. God is about what we do with failures and mistakes that we make, Amen!
God knew that my brother that was an encourager to me was passing a baton to me as an encourager to be an encourager. When God showed me that, I knew that I was to come as an encourager this morning. From that moment, I asked God to give me the words on such short notice that I might be an encourager to you this morning.
If you would turn your bibles to Acts chapter 16, we are going to read verse 16 through verses 28.
16 And it came to pass, as we were going to the place of prayer, that a certain maid having a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much gain by soothsaying. (A Fortune teller that made money for her masters)
17 The same following after Paul and us cried out, saying, These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim unto you the way of salvation.
18 And this she did for many days. But Paul, being sore troubled, turned and said to the spirit, I charge thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And it came out that very hour. (He finally got tired of the hassle and cast the demon from her)
19 But when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they laid hold on Paul and Silas, and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers, (The masters got mad at them and dragged them before the rulers)
20 and when they had brought them unto the magistrates, they said, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,
21 and set forth customs which it is not lawful for us to receive, or to observe, being Romans.
22 And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent their garments off them, and commanded to beat them with rods.
23 And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:
24 who, having received such a charge, cast them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
25 But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns unto God, and the prisoners were listening to them; (When you are in the midnight hour, there are those around you that are observing how you approach the darkness…are we singing and praying or are we staying prisoners of our darkness?)
26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison-house were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.
27 And the jailor, being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.
28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here. (Praise the Lord Paul didn’t escape, he praised the Lord for his delivery and commenced to do what he was called to do and that was share Jesus! When we come out of our midnight hour, praise Jesus! Let people know the deliverer! Let people know your source of light!
John 9:2-3
2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind?
3 Jesus answered, Neither did this man sin, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. (In other words Jesus is saying that no one sinned to cause this midnight hour, it is here because I have a work to do. I believe strongly that our midnight hour’s are for God’s glory and our deliverance from them is to let those know that he is the light that shines in the darkness, but verse 4 says, however there will come a time, when it is no longer required, and that is when he returns and we are called to glory for eternity.
Some of us are in the midnight hour right now, we have gotten the Dr’s report and it doesn’t look good. Let’s take a look at what Hezekiah does when he gets the poor Dr.s report from Dr. Isaiah. Turn your bible to 2 Kings Chapter 20, verse 1.
20:1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith Jehovah, Set thy house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live. (Hezekiah was told he was about to depart this earth)
Verse 2 and 3
2 Kings 20:2-3
2 Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto Jehovah, saying,
3 Remember now, O Jehovah, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. (He said God you know I have walked faithful and kept the faith, and wept bitterly, turning is head according to some scholars, facing away from those around him and turning his head toward the temple)
2 Kings 20:6
6 And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. (God adds 15 more years to his life, I am here to tell you that God is the final report, amen!)
Finally there is a price for conquering the midnight hour, if we turn to Job 1 verse 5 we see a powerful tool at our disposal…
Job 1:5
5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt-offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
The bible says there was a hedge built around him and the Devil could not penetrate. Job got up every day and thanked the Lord for what he had. When we are focused on God, his glory, salvation to others through Jesus Christ, I am here to tell you that our midnight hours can be illuminated by light and our walk made more visible!
Altar service:
1. Ask to pray for those a blessing upon them that they may be light shiners to those going through midnight hours.
2. Ask to pray for those that are currently going through a midnight hour.
3. Finally, pray for those that are not saved and are constantly in a midnight hour!
