A Reflection: Creativity Amidst Structure and Discipline.
I recently graduated from an 11-month NightWatch program at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City (IHOPKC), a 24/7 prayer room with around-the-clock worship, prayer, and intercession since May 7,1999.
The NightWatch runs from midnight to 6AM every day of the week. People called to stand in the House of Prayer during this time shift their sleeping schedules around to accommodate these hours. 100 from all over America and the nations—a ragtag group of young adults, working professionals, moms and dads, grandfathers and grandmothers—left families and occupations for a season to pursue one thing: seek the Lord and behold His beauty (Psalm 27:4).
The first three months were the hardest. I was stripped of sunlight, independence, and was terribly homesick. Then the Lord began rebuilding me: through discipline of spending 6 hours a day, 6 days a week in the prayer room; rooming with fun and spunky 19-year-olds; a full-time college load, and 20+ combined hours of musical training and practice per week.
With emotional crutches stripped away, I fell face flat into a vis-a-vis encounter with God as the only One that satisfies. Wrestlings with homesickness and loneliness made me confront the reality that my heart needed revelation of Jesus as my true Home and Companion. With little sunlight, my world shifted to center around the only lasting Light—the Son. Through watches of the night, the quietness kept my eyes fixed on Jesus and His magnificent beauty. Truly, my soul grew to unlearn the noises of this world and leaned into the rhythms of my Beloved’s heart.
Creativity seemed to flow effortlessly in this place of soul rest and solitude. Visions came into my mind during times of worship and intercession, and I captured them in simple sketches and stories in my journal. I realized that creativity becomes intrinsic in a space of intimacy with God and that the act of creation is not a product of striving but a natural overflow in His presence.
God unveiled my eyes to see creativity not as a skill predestined to a talented few, but in truth, an embedded DNA for all His children. Every image-bearer of the Creator is also him and herself a creator. Yes, skills need to be honed over time, but everyone can create.
This truth releases freedom from lies that have held many back and gives us confidence that stem not from ability, but rather our identity.
During the school semester, IHOPKC taught us the Harp and Bowl model that fuels the 24/7 prayer and worship in their prayer room, derived from Revelation 5:8, “The twenty-four elders…each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” The ‘harp’ speaks of musical worship with singing and instruments. The ‘bowl’ speaks of intercessory prayers of the Church.
With this model are specific mechanics meant to provide structure and order in corporate prayer, shaped by heart values deeply rooted in Scripture. It exists not to snuff creative expression but rather to enhance it. A framework that even newbies on worship and prayer teams can run with on their first day, where one can be empowered to create while growing in confidence and overcoming fear.
On a final project, I was to choose between writing a song based off of Psalm 46 or a 6-page essay. Weeks leading up to it I was going with the paper. Though a song sounded fun, I did not like the given parameters. Lord did a miracle in my heart on the last day and I stayed up all night (or day, in my time) writing a song. Psalm 46 helped rather than hindered the creative process by giving me a bedrock upon which to build a song. It became a launchpad from which Spirit gave musical wings to the heart journey of my year—finding home in Jesus.
This experience plunged me deep into the heart of Creativity. I discovered that Creation is conceived first and foremost through every Word He utters, and birthed out not of reckless spontaneity but rather, wisdom and order. As the Nightwatch season draws to a close, I continue to hold on to these “treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places” (Isaiah 45:3), coals of revelation God had given through the night, and allow them to fuel my spaces of intimacy and creativity.
A Prayer of Praise
Father, I pray that every creative is touched first and foremost by the beauty of Your plan for the redemption of the world through Your Son Jesus. The unfathomable reality that He chose His Infinite Eternity to be bound in a finite, perishable frame—that He considered the majestic glories of Heaven as loss compared to the promise of making You and us One through crucifixion. Captivate our heartstrings and immerse us deeper, let creativity overflow as we are filled with more of You. Release freedom into places where lies have bound us, plumb line us to Your Word as we create with You, in Jesus’ name.
HOME [Psalm 46]
Key: Bb
Verse
vi
There is a River flowing gladly
vi
There is a City standing surely
ii2 visus4
O heart, find your home in Jesus
iii7 vi7
He is fighting for you, His beauty
Chorus
vi
I sing : holy holy holy
vi/3
City of my King
vi
He sings: holy holy holy
vi/3
City of My heart
Bridge
iii/7
Eyes, come and see
I7 vi
Heart, be still, and sing
I7/5
Tide is breaking over the dawn
vi7/1 vi/3
Love, there is home in the making