There are sacred spaces in this world, some are marked with signs and heralds, others with great art and paths well trod by pilgrims, but there are many that can be passed by unnoticed; unnassuming places that have nothing visible to point to the encounters that have happened there. The conference room in the Revelation Church Warehouse is one such sacred space.
Teenagers gather in it, businesses and groups meet there, performers have used it as a green room and club nights as an entrance. I wonder if anyone of them knew that the carpet tiles they were standing on are holy ground?
It was in this rather boring looking room that I learned how to pray. There were words, thoughts, movements, paintings, tears, music and many other expressions involved in my search for a language... but this was the space in which my 18 year old heart learned to connect to God's. In a smelly, beautiful, messy and glorious place later named a 24-7 Prayer Room. My life's direction has been set by my solitary lessons in God's love and conversation over a few short months in 1999. Now I pour myself into helping others do the same.
Today as I stood in that conference room, surrounded by my Revs family, tears slid down my cheeks and my heart was moved. We gathered to welcome 2012, a new day a New Year with the launch of our first 24-7 Prayer Room in a few years. As I worshipped I realised that if I'd had some stones to hand, I'd have been piling them there. This room is my Gilgal. The place God brought me, a watershed between one part of my life and the next. Today I remembered the time I had spent there, the prayers God had responded to and the way we were changed. As I remembered I longed. Revelation is striding into a new adventure; we're looking forward. We don't want the glory days gone by, we want the presence of God and His mission for us now. This sacred space is a key.
I have numerous hours alone and with Cymbrogi set aside in this room in the week ahead. Lord I'm coming to meet with you. Could this be a new watershed for me, for all of us? Speak Lord, your servants are listening...
Don't know what 24-7 Prayer is? Check out the website and this nifty little vid below...