The 4th Watch – God’s Time

5/30/2019, Thursday

Dear Journal,

God is amazing. His timing is amazing. His guidance through the leading of the Holy Spirit is amazing. My circumstances would be dramatically different if I had been paying attention sooner. That said, my life has become more amazing than I could have even imagined.

I have friends my age and older who are retired and/or disabled who spend their time doing whatever it is they need or want to do, but they are always available to help someone. Their availability allows God to use them at a moment’s notice to meet someone’s need.

They do things like taking people to doctor appointments, delivering meals-on-wheels, meeting someone at the hospital in a time of crisis, helping people through the paperwork to get on the waiting list for government housing for low income seniors and people with disabilities, and the list goes on and on. I have had a deep desire to live that way for a long time, but I cannot afford to retire.

God has blessed me with a job that I enjoy, and I can be paid for more hours than I actually work. My dilemma has been how to manage my time to ensure that I meet my financial goals and my employer’s requirements in a way that would allow me to be available for God to use me to help people. I’ve tried several time managements tools and techniques, including time blocking. However, nothing I have tried effectively accomplished all three aspects of my goal. God’s answer to my prayers about this was to wake me up at 3:00 A.M.

Initially, I didn’t understand why God thought we needed to talk at 3:00 A.M. But, I soon realized that during that time He guides me in planning my day, most of which is left open for His purposes. That means that I have peace with whatever happens because it is in His hands. My days have become more productive in general, and I am less stressed. Also, I’m not wasting time worrying about things. God has begun managing my time.

When God wakes me up at 3:00 A.M., from then until 6:00 A.M. He speaks to me. Not in an audible voice from out of nowhere. But through the Holy Spirit within me. He gives me an awareness of the things I need to know that day. He gives me guidance about decisions I need to make, who I need to witness to and the approach I need to take, etc. The clarity that comes to my mind during that time is remarkable.

Throughout the day I have no trouble discerning when I need to focus on my job, when I need to study to address a question from someone I’ve been witnessing to or that I’m discipling, and when I need to make myself available to meet someone’s need.

Also, when I need to study to answer someone’s question, He guides me to the scriptures that apply as well as in the wording of the explanation and how it applies to that person. I am learning so much!

In a recent Sunday School class discussion, it was mentioned that 3:00 to 6:00 A.M. was the “4^th   watch” in Bible times, and it was frequently the time that God acted in a miraculous way to help His people. It is symbolic of when a person has reached the end of their resources and only God’s intervention can solve their problem. It is sometimes referred to as “God’s time”.

I don’t have an alarm set for 3:00 o’clock. I let God wake me up. However, I do try to go to bed early enough so that when He wakes me I can get up and be alert to what He wants me to know. And, I usually take a 15 to 20-minute power nap at lunch time. ~ Alice

NOTE: God does not give me visions or revelations. He simply gives me guidance by way of clarity and understanding, through the Holy Spirit that is within me.

One common example would be my daily ‘to-do-list’. At the end of each day I take stock of what I did and did not accomplish, and what is on my calendar for the next day. From that I make my next day’s ‘to-do-list’. Then I prioritize the items on the list in a logical order. Sometimes, when I wake up at 3:00 o’clock I immediately know that the list is wrong. I usually don’t know why it needs to be changed. I may just know something in particular should be postponed, or I may have a strong sense of urgency about something I had planned to put off, or it may just be that the list needs to be prioritized differently. Usually, by the end of the day the significance of the change(s) becomes clear.

A significant amount of that three hours is spent reading, memorizing, and studying scriptures. See Spirit Led Bible Study, and How God Speaks to Me.

From 3:00 to 6:00 A.M. is my favorite time of the day.