24-7 Prayer: THe Model
24-7 Prayer is not a new idea. It was modeled in the Bible in both tabernacle and temple. The Church was born in a 24-7 prayer room in Jerusalem . And Church history is punctuated for 2,000 years with times when God’s people were called to pray night and day. From the Desert Fathers in Egypt , via Celtic monastic communities in the UK, right through to the multi-racial prayer room on Azusa St. in Los Angeles that gave birth to Pentecostalism, 24-7 prayer has been a marker of many of the Church’s most exciting moments.
The idea is simple: Find a room somewhere. Mobilize your friends to prayer in one-hour shifts all the way through the night and day, make it as creative, Christ-centered and mission-minded as you possibly can, and see what happens…
In ten years of mobilizing prayer rooms like this in over 100 nations on earth (and most denominations), including many hundreds of university campuses, we can safely say that when God’s people pray night and day He responds and shows up.
24-7 Prayer: The Movement
How Did 24-7 Prayer Start?
24-7 Prayer is an accidental prayer movement that started in September 1999, with a bunch of young people in England who got the crazy idea of trying to pray non-stop for a month. God turned up and they couldn't stop until Christmas! From there, the prayer meeting has spread into over 100 nations, dozens of denominations and a variety of age groups. Hundreds of non-stop prayer meetings now link up on the web to form a unique chain of prayer.What's The Big Idea?
24-7 has become a worldwide, non-stop prayer movement. There are 3 dimensions to the movement:- A Network of Prayer Rooms. First of all, we're a network of Prayer Rooms determined to pray like it all depends on us and live like it all depends on God, until the tide turns in our generation.
- A Missions Movement. A Missions movement quickly arose out of the Prayer Rooms as we received requests to take teams to the 'high places' in youth culture in countries around the world.
- A Community of Friends. Boiler Rooms are modern expressions of church communities based in friendship that promote regular rhythms of night and day prayer
How Do The Prayer Rooms Work?
Participating groups pledge to pray 24 hours a day for a week or more in a dedicated prayer room. They then 'carry the baton of prayer' for that period. The prayer passes from location to location in a never-ending flow linked up by the Worldwide Web. We are a virtual community praying in real locations. Right now, someone somewhere is praying 24-7.WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF 24-7 PRAYER?
To Turn the Tide of Student Culture. The original dream behind the 24-7 Prayer movement is to turn the tide of youth culture back to Jesus. It's a big dream - maybe an impossible dream. We recognize that the Body of Christ in the West is bleeding young people. Something has to change. But clever strategy alone is not the answer. Never has been. History shows that the tide turns when God's people pray. That is why God is mobilizing prayer movements like 24-7 (and others). We're seeing thousands of young people from Alaska to Australia praying together for their friends and their heroes in a focused and persistent way. 24-7 targets student culture at a local, national and international level addressing various subcultures as well as geographies like schools, communities and nations.24-7Prayer is not for Experts. It's for those who find prayer a struggle and feel weak and sometimes foolish when they pray. 24-7 is a model that works! It has proven to be unusually successful at mobilizing people - especially the emerging generation - to pray like they've never prayed before. People learn to pray... by praying!
24-7Prayer Captures the Imagination. Students today are more likely to turn up at a prayer meeting at 3 a.m. than at 7.30 p.m! Why? Because it's extreme. The dare is to be alone with God for a whole hour - maybe even in the middle of the night. 24-7 makes prayer easier. The arts play an important part. Many say that 'an hour feels like 10 minutes in the prayer room'.
24-7Prayer Teaches Life’s Most Important Lesson. Prayer is the most important lesson a person can learn because it puts a person in touch with the Creator. It helps us take a step toward God. And as we draw near to God, then God draws near to us. And the more intimate our relationship with God is, the more our lives take on greater meaning and fulfillment.
To learn more about 24-7 Prayer, take a few minutes and explore the 24-7 Prayer International website.