"Clear lots of ground for your tents!
Make your tents large. Spread out! Think big!
Use plenty of rope,
drive the tent pegs deep.
You're going to need lots of elbow room
for your growing family.
You're going to take over whole nations;
you're going to resettle abandoned cities." Isaiah 54:2-3 (MSG)
These are the verses that Pete Greig read at the open of our prayer morning yesterday in Guildford. The ensuing three hours with 24-7 friends were the most encouraging of 2009 so far (I suspect it would take something particularly spectacular to knock from the top spot in the next six months). Any of you who've spent any time around the 24-7 Prayer family will know that though God has spread the movement far, we are a very small and disparate bunch of people helping to coordinate the Holy chaos. It's rare that lots of us can gather in one place but this is set to change somewhat here in the UK this year. The people who are vocationally committed to 24-7 are being invited to gather monthly to share our encouragements, challenges and to pray together. Yesterday was our first gathering and it was absolutely awesome. "Enlarge your tents..." said God... those words from Isaiah still mulling around in my head 24 hours later. Enlarge... wow, it's all pretty large already! Interestingly though I've been mulling over ways in which we could open our hands even further and give away even more in prayer... Brian Heasley's word before Christmas about upending bottles to let things flow faster, my own practical thoughts and the words of Isaiah are colliding in my busy mind firing off ideas. I think 2009 will see interesting change and yes even more enlargement... Hehe, sounds like fun xc