Jesus is Lord - Romans 10: 9
An extract from 24-7 Prayer WEB site.
Carla Harding, May 31st, 2010
The world is praying and the Holy Spirit is moving. On Pentecost Sunday millions of Christians from every nation on earth gathered for one great ‘Amen’. They met in homes, in churches, across cities and nations; thousands even packed stadiums. Many tribes and tongues lifted the countries of the earth to God in repentance and prayer…
In Cape Town, South Africa at the turn of the Millennium, God challenged people through 2 Chronicles 7:14 to intercede for their nation.
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
After a powerful time of prayer in a packed stadium they invited the nations of Africa to join them in dedicating their continent to God. By 2004 every African country was mobilised in prayer on Pentecost Sunday. From this incredible achievement the call to prayer exploded from Africa to the ends of the earth. Continent after continent responded to the invitation until the wave of prayer covered the whole earth.
Last year, for the first time ever, the largest prayer meeting our world has ever seen was held in every single nation. An estimated 200,000,000 Christians took part. In 2010 it happened again and for two years in a row millions of believers have prayed the same words, agreed the same prayer, humbling themselves before the Father and to ask Him to heal their nations. What effect do so many ‘Amen’s have? Last week Ian Nicholson and I flew to South Africa to celebrate with around a thousand others and to find out just some of what God has been doing around the Global Day of Prayer…
The call to prayer is escalating; a hunger is stirring throughout the whole Body of Christ. As I listened to stories from around the globe it became abundantly clear that we’ve only been aware of a tiny slice of how the Holy Spirit has been on the move. Ideas like 24-7 Prayer are one of hundreds God is using to raise up the Church in faithful, persistent, compassionate prayer to see the Kingdom of Jesus break out on the earth.
In Nigeria we heard about a church that has just had to build a mile long extension to cope with the numbers that gather there to pray. Their pre-prayer meetings gather 250,000 people, with their actual prayer meeting welcoming 3,000,000 to meet with God, often until 3am. The building that hosts these awesome gatherings now needs to run busses to take people from the back to the front to respond to a call.
In Indonesia a 13-story skyscraper is being built with continuous prayer on ever floor. In India there are multiple prayer centres in Punjab with just one seeing 36,000 come to faith in a year. Chinese believers are praying in hour shifts to form a great prayer wall of China spanning their nation and the generations in prayer. One Indian pastor has dedicated his life to rescuing babies, abandoned in rubbish dumps and training them up to be some of the most powerful and authoritative intercessors I’ve seen in some time. As one young girl from his ministry opened the GDOP gathering in prayer I was amazed at the power of the Holy Spirit in the room.
Person after person told stories of God mobilizing all generations and all nations in prayer. The models and methods varied from place to place but the heart and passion were the same…
We must pray.
Jesus us the only hope for this world and the people we love in it.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I flew to South Africa to hear these stories, but I have arrived home with in awe of how our Father is moving throughout the earth. I still have much to learn but I have hope that with the Holy Spirit and the example of some incredible Christians from other parts of the world we can keep pushing on in prayer.
I made it home early Sunday morning just in time to join my own church community on Pentecost Sunday. A little tired but, happy to be home I stood with my husband and friends as my community began to pray the prayer echoed by so many across the globe that day…
“Almighty God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Together with believers all over the world,
We gather today to glorify Your Name.
You are the Creator of heaven and earth.
There is no one like You, holy and righteous in all Your ways.
We submit to Your authority as the King of the universe.
We pray with one voice to enthrone You in our hearts
And to honour You in the world.
Lord God, You alone are worthy of our praise and adoration…”
I was moved to tears by words of love, humility and supplication. Rarely can I grasp what it means to be part of world-wide family but after spending a week with so many of it’s members, and then praying that prayer with my home community, I felt very much like I was catching a glimpse of just how diverse and beautiful the family of God is.