“I felt a stirring to a week of continuous prayer.”

It seemed like such a leap of faith and yet at the same time an act of obedience to choose to pray continuously for an entire week. I had followed 24/7 Prayer for a number of years, both online and through the lectio app, and had found myself growing in prayer in unexpected ways, especially through a particularly difficult season in my own life. My understanding of the importance of prayer both personally and corporately grew exponentially and as a Church we decided to have a space set aside for prayer in our building. What I didn’t know as we chose that space was that it had been designated in the Church building plans 20 years prior as a ‘prayer room’. For 20 years it held photocopiers, filing cabinets and was the place where money was counted after the service, when I discovered its original intention, it felt very much like we were reclaiming something for the purposes and presence of God.

The room was beautifully and purposefully decorated by some amazing women in our Church and as this was happening, I felt a stirring to a week of continuous prayer. Trudi Sayers from 24/7 prayer Australia was not only inspirational in the heart that she carries for prayer but also super helpful is navigating the practicalities of creating a space where people can gather to pray non-stop. 

It is genuinely hard to describe the impact on us as a community of believers of praying continuously for a week. Every time I passed our building and saw a car in the parking lot, I felt so encouraged to know that someone was praying, every time I entered the room and someone passed me a baton and prayed for me and said  ‘I can’t believe you are already here, an hour is not long enough’, my heart exploded with what God was doing in us. Then as I began to hear the personal stories and testimonies of conviction, prompting, worship, encounter and as I read the words and scriptures our people left on walls I cried with the joy of it. In fact, I still do as I think on it. As for me, my time in that room was extraordinary, the room it was, and remains a thin place, a place where the felt presence of God is extraordinary. I felt rested in Him, encouraged by Him, convicted by Him and more hungry than ever to spend time with Him.