focus for the year

We return to the blog after a couple of months.

In January we opened the house of prayer - once a week, 24 hours from 9pm on Fridays.

In January and February we experimented with meeting less often as the discernment community. 

After two meetings in January which were mostly about the practicalities of having started the house of prayer, we met once in February.

This is a summary of our thoughts and learning during January and also feedback from the 24-7 Euro Leaders Training at the end of January. There is much here, and it feels like a very good focus to arm ourselves with as we go into the next year.

Keep focused! Keep moving on!

1. We need to ensure we are a house of prayer not a house of administration, as in we need to ensure we are a prayer community, paying attention to our relationships with one another and with God along the way and devoting time to pray.

2. Roger Ellis, one of the leaders of 24/7, talked about moving from the known into the unknown. We as a house of prayer need to be aware of moving forward. What will that look like? We are not sure at the moment but we should not be afraid of moving onwards.

3. Brian Heasley, another leader of 24/7, spoke about going back to our roots, ie, concentrating on our roots not the fruits. The important root being the love of God.

4. Jill Weber, House of Prayer leader, shared several points: 

   1. She said that building a prayer community is costly and sacrificial. 

   2. We need to be prepared that there will be spiritual opposition from evil as we are taking this seriously.

   3. But Jesus is the chief cornerstone and we are living stones being built on top of him. 

   4. We need to stay vigilant and alert, then we will remain a threat to the enemy. 

   5. We need not be afraid but have determination to grow in prayer and always have an attitude of asking God the question 'teach me how to pray'. 

   6. We need to pay attention on 'soul keeping' - keeping ourselves encouraged and protected, which means spending time with others to get encouraged. 

   7. We need to position ourselves where we can receive God's favour, which enables us to grow in spiritual authority. 

   8. God is shaping our character and looking for maturity and is developing this in us. This will mean that he can then trust us with more.

   9. Keep having faith, keep saying yes to God - this will keep the Holy Spirit's power, like a current of electricity, flowing and getting through.