Yesterday I elluded to a third thing that's making me happy at the moment. That third thing is the feedback I'm getting from 24-7 Prayer Rooms around the world. A part of my job is to resource, support and build friendships with people (like Sini, left) praying 24-7 and I often get to be the first to hear what God's been doing. Here are two reports I've written up for the 24-7 website, I hope they encourage you as much as they encouraged me...
Powerful Presence in Portugal Prayer Room
“The first hour of the Prayer Room was reserved by the prayer and worship team of our Church and the presence of God was absolutely magnificent.” Writes Carla Gomes from Alverca do Ribatejo, Portugal. “So powerful, yet so sweet. It wasn't only the presence of our God; it was the presence of our Father.
God was moving, and touching people, from what we saw of the drawings on the wall, and the writing in the ‘Share Book’ the words most frequently used were ‘Love’ and ‘Father’. Some wrote about how they had forgotten how good it is to just stay still in His presence, alone with Him, no distractions, no nothing... Even if our Prayer Room were for just that one person to come closer to God again, it was more than worthwhile.
Prayers were answered! Small things to our human minds, but incredibly powerful things when we think of the transformation, the change it causes on those peoples lives.
One of those "small things" concerns a young girl (33), who in the midst of her sadness and tiredness, silently said to God:
"Please God, I want to be touched by you.
I want to feel your arm round my shoulder,
And I want to feel Your hand touching my head."
A few moments later, a woman approached her, put her arm around her shoulder, and touched her head, caressing it like a father caresses the head of his child. She told this young girl how much God loved her, and how precious she is to Him, and that God had sent her, so that through her, God could put His arm around her shoulder, and caress her head, just like a father does to his child.
There they stayed for some time, like a father that is comforting His little child. That's how the presence of God was in our Prayer Room: "Our Father", "Aba Pai", or "Aba Father".
When we prepared the Prayer Room, we are saying, God we consecrate this place to You, we want to meet with You here. Once the Prayer Room started God was the first person there. He was the first to arrive and to welcome us into this room... His room.
We just want to thank you guys for sharing 24-7 with the rest of the world (instead of keeping it to yourselves)... millions and millions of people have been touched through this great work of God, I imagine in more ways then we'll ever know.
Keep up the good work and God Bless you.”
If you have a story about how God spoke to you in your 24-7 Prayer Room please email Carla Harding from our Prayer support team. All your experiences greatly encourage us and we just love to brag about all that God has done to encourage others to take the leap and pray 24-7.
Elderly Man Healed in Finnish Prayer Room
“Our congregation consists mostly of elderly people who can't stay up that late and we knew that the youngsters had other engagements so I was very happily surprised when four people turned up for the first hour of our 24-7 Prayer Room.” Writes Sini Hämäläinen from Suolahti, Finland.
“I had most of the night shifts and it was really exciting to see how when I left the prayer room in the morning, the coming day was almost empty but when I returned in the afternoon everything had filled up.
One of the elderly gentlemen in our Church was even healed! His name is Eino Björk, and he’s 56. He’s had problems with his back and been on strong painkillers for some time. It was so aggravated by even walking he had an appointment scheduled for surgery. In a faith prayer meeting in the 24-7 Prayer Room he was prayed for and God healed him! He wants everyone to know about it.
Many people told me that they had had doubts about praying 24-7 and thought that they would never book an hour for themselves. But once they visited the room their opinion changed and they wanted more.
The atmosphere in the room was full of the Holy Spirit’s peace and people felt so good just being there. Everyone’s asking when we are going to arrange another one.
I think it’s had an effect on people's praying life and we'll see the impact of all the prayers said in that room during the years to come. In the mean time we'll continue praying.”
Sini’s report shows that you don’t have to be a large or even a young Church to enjoy the healing and peaceful presence of Jesus in a 24-7 Prayer Room. If you would like some advice and encouragement about how to pray 24-7 in your Church please email Carla Harding from our prayer support team and she would love to talk to you.