[31] 24-7 gathering and Prayer at Home

This week nine members of the discernment community + 3 others from Southampton were in Vienna for the Regional 24-7 Prayer Gathering. There were hundreds of people there from Europe as well as further afield like Nigeria and Egypt. All of us were greatly impacted in many ways be being with the 24-7 family.

Those of us who weren't able to go gathered as usual and prayed together.

Next week we will report back to each other the main highlights of our respective times and what we have learned. 

Vienna Feedback

We've come back from Vienna with different kinds of things. 

• personal encouragements; growing in our own relationship with God.

• learning about the 24-7 prayer family: it really is like a family; history, vision, resources.

• guidance and vision for Southampton house of prayer. 

• being part of historic events!!

Where do we go from here?

• A lot of vision but need to continue to build foundations and not get ahead of ourselves. (but still dream big!!)

• Primary purpose: at the heart of 24-7 is introducing people to Jesus. Jesus is the answer to everybody’s questions and our primary purpose is to call people to follow him.

• The conference was all about overflow - so God fills us up to overflowing and our overflow is to get out into Southampton.

  • John 7: All you thirsty ones, come to me! Come to me and drink! 38 Believe in me so that rivers of living water will burst out from within you, flowing from your innermost being, just like the Scripture says!

  • river never will run dry!!

• Hope theme - can’t seem to get away from it! We are coming back in the overflow of hope. We are hope carriers because we have Jesus within us.

• Building momentum in prayer

  • It is time to find another time(s) in the week for discernment group to meet and pray. Sacred Space? In our homes? Choose a book from Bible to read through each time. Read short passage each time then pray. Meet for about an hour.

  • Pete Greig described ‘hope’ as drawing from the future into the present. Picture for Southampton of each time we pray drawing bricks from the future and and the building going up.

• Unity - the 24-7 gathering was organised in conjunction with Loretto and ran alongside their own conference. Loretto is a decades-old Catholic movement, dedicated to discipling young people. Their primary vehicle for this is prayer groups, scattered across Austria and beyond. One evening at the gathering there was a moving time of repentance and reconciliation between Catholics and protestants. The next evening we worshipped together in St Stephen's cathedral - the primary worship space in Vienna - and many tourists were touched by God’s presence.

  • a high priority for us in Southampton is to include Catholics in the house of prayer, reaching out to friends and church leaders we know. 

• Our working title has been Southampton House of Prayer, and in Vienna we realised it is time to adopt that seriously. We really are here to serve the whole city. It really will be a house of prayer for all nations.

  • Conversation with Sue from the oversight of Hamilton House of Prayer, Ontario. Talking about Southampton House of Prayer and website could be “sohop.org” she was most emphatic - “Get it!” 

Resources:

• Inner Room App - wonderful aid to organising your prayer life using smart phone.

• The prayer course - 6 short videos going through the Lord’s prayer. 

• Wildfires - camp after Big Church Day out, seeking God for a new awakening

• Belfast 2019 - global gathering for 24-7 prayer, in October 2019

Other headlines

• An open table: projects and activities carried out by christians can be seen as creating tables for people to sit at together. Also, whenever the kingdom of God is preached, community emerges to express the kingdom. Jesus’ table was not like that of the pharisees. You didn't have to go through lots of hoops to be welcome. We must not forget our primary purpose, to make disciples, and so we must not neglect to invite those coming to the table to come into the family.

• Danielle Strickland, from John 9: We must quickly carry out the task assigned to us

• Pete Greig: How much are we in control of our lives? There is probably 90% that we can’t control, so invest in and steward the other 10% well so we are in a fit state to respond to everything else in the 90% of life that just happens. Includes relationship with God, solitude, close friends, physical fitness and others.

• Pete Greig: teaching about hope.

• Multiplication: we may be thinking about growth, but the vision is to ‘be fruitful and multiply’. Multiplication usually involves giving away a significant part of something - it then grows and the remainder grows. Growing in order to be big enough to multiply.

• Personal revival - the river of God as in Ezekiel. Life will flourish wherever this river flows. We often think of the Holy Spirit coming down, but this is welling up from within. Step in and draw up!

• Adam Heather: II Sam 5: King David. Accepting that we are going from anointing to appointing, and becoming established. Recognise where God has established us, and for whom.