Why Pray?: Discovering God's Purpose in 24-7-365, an article by Carla Harding

Published: October 31st, 2008

Numbers are meaningless.  That’s the lesson I’ve learnt in the last few months.  5366.  That was the number of Prayer Rooms I was sure had connected with 24-7 Prayer across the globe.  7100.  That’s the number of Prayer Rooms I found out about at the 24-7 Round Table that we’d never heard of before, more than doubling my previous count.  

Every time I feel like I’ve got a grasp, a perspective, a glimpse of what God’s mobilising He blows me away.  “No Carla, no”, He whispers in my ear, “That’s just a tiny fraction, a small piece of the pie.  Look over here and let me bow your mind.”

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that God is up to something.  A friend told me that in the last ten years in the UK alone we’ve gone from 10 prayer organisations to about 400!  That’s just in one little island on planet earth.  In nine years we’ve seen 24-7 Prayer Rooms spread from one little scruffy, smelly, creative, holy room in the back of a church to a virus of night and day prayer in every continent but Antarctica.   We have no money.  We have no great marketing strategy to make you thinner, healthier, wealthier and an all around happier person.  We just suggest that connection with your creator is the greatest thing you can pursue.  And we’re not the only ones…

In the same month 24-7 began, Mike Bickle gathered the first intercessory missionaries in Kansas City to form the International House of Prayer.  Another movement began in the same month in the Catholic Church and since then movements of prayer amongst all generations (like the Royal Kids prayer ministry gathering thousands of children to pray in India, the Global Day of Prayer co-ordinating all but six nations of the earth in unified prayer and youth movements like 30 Second Kneel Down that challenge students to kneel and pray no matter where they are) have inspired Jesus-followers to pray.  “Why?” you might ask, why would God so desperately want us to talk to Him? What has He got up His sleeve that requires us to be so intimately connected?

You may have noticed that the little counter on the top right hand side of this page has been proclaiming the number of connected 24-7 Prayer Rooms for the last eight years.  Until last year, that counter read anywhere from 15 – 30 prayer rooms a week in maybe 8 – 12 countries.  This year it has consistently proclaimed 50 – 70 Prayer Rooms in often more than 15 nations.  Again, these are just numbers, but they are an important indication of two things: prayer is spreading further and prayer is going deeper.

Each year at our international gatherings, we connect with how the 24-7 virus has spread into new nations and we celebrate praying alongside more of our brothers and sisters around the world.  In 2008, however, we’ve not just seen quantitative growth across the globe (and believe me we have – more nations and prayer rooms than any year previously), but we’ve seen growth in depth too.  Many groups aren’t just praying for one week a year, or even two weeks a year.  Many communities are sacrificially committing to a rhythm of night and day prayer that is affecting their cities.  The group in Oulu, Finland for example, pray for a week each month gathering Christians from different streams of the body of Christ to pray for the kingdom of God to break into their city.  More and more, I’m contacting familiar names and faces. People for whom one prayer experiment isn’t enough. God has upped the ante and He’s pushing them to persevere, to go deeper.  

Even more challenging than that: Have you recently counted the number of prayer rooms in the now praying list that aren’t just praying regularly but are praying non-stop?  People are giving up their free time to seek a deeper rest in God’s presence.  It’s possible if God’s called us to do it and it truly inspires me.  

Why this continued growth and new depth?  What’s our Father got up His sleeve? I don’t know the answer to this question.  I don’t confess to know the mind of God, but I have a few suspicions based on some of the fruit I’m seeing in our little slice of the pie…

Unity, a passion to share Jesus, lives yanked from comfortable materialism to committed discipleship, lifestyles of conversation with our Father rather than a duty to pray, hearts changed by touching Christ's heart, attention shifted to those who need help, identity shaped, dreams given, battles fought, people changed and places transformed.  As the world gets darker, the Church is getting brighter.  We may always have the poor with us, there may be nothing secure: not politics, property, finance or relationships in this world, but there is hope.  A light that dazzles, a light we are becoming infused with and His name is Jesus.  What might God be building?  I think a temple made of people where the presence of God permanently dwells bringing His kingdom and kindness with every step of their feet.

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