24/7 prayer

The 24-7 prayer movement is something that we are very involved with.  Why?  Because we know that prayer doesn't only work, but it is something that is what we were created for.  All across the globe venues of 24-7 prayer are popping up.  This is a big deal.  This is more than a fad, it is a movement working in the heart of the Body of Christ world-wide.

Curious?  You might have some questions, so I took some time to write a little regarding this topic:

• Why so much prayer?
• Does prayer work?
• Isn't this just another fad?
• Why 24 hours a day?
• 24-7 Prayer History

Why so much prayer?
In a humanistic, "pull yourselves up by your own bootstraps" society, it's not strange to ask this question.  I believe what it points to is what people view prayer to be.  Many view prayer to be a means-to-an-end when in actuality it is the end.  Some look at extended prayer as "lazy" when it is what Christian spirituality is all about.  When you ask someone what being a Christian is about, they throw all kinds of answers out: it's about "getting other people saved", the Great Commission, Kingdom Ministry, etc.  All these things are a part of healthy Christian life, but these things cannot be the end though.  So what is the end?  Intimacy with Jesus Christ.  When all is stripped away, Christianity (Messianic Judaism when it comes down to it) is all about a heart alive in a revelatory relationship with the Creator of the Universe.  From this wellspring of life alive in us, the Great Commission happens in power; because if you are going to disciple people, what are you going to disciple them in?  Getting people saved?  You'll reap people who will tell others about Jesus, but who don't know what a relationship with God looks like.  Ambition in living by a set of rules or values?  You'll reap people of ambition for moral living, but in danger of trying to live the Christian life without the relationship.  Giving them what you think that they need, or what they were created for: a vibrant existence of a close relationship with God. 

Very often the deeper question that lies at the bottom of this one is:  Does prayer work?  Well, I definitely know that prayer "works".  Again, however, what do you view prayer to be?  A vending machine for your needs, and for the needs of your friends and family?  Or is prayer a communication with our Creator and Lord?  Yes, we petition our requests to God, but God knows what we need already.  We ask, because prayer is about relationship, through prayer we partner with God's heart and what He's doing in our lives, our friends' lives, our family's lives, our nation and our world.  There are a few different types of prayer: personal petition, intercession (praying on the behalf of others) and contemplative prayer (focused and meditating on God).  Scripture promises that God listens to us and He answers.  He answers according to His will, which is good because often we don't even know what we're asking.  In this Heavenly exchange God delights in us as we ask for the things that are on His heart, and as we chase after wanting to know Him more.  To see what this has resulted in, on a global scale, visit the 24-7 prayer history page.   ---Top of Page

Isn't this just another fad?
24-7 prayer has gone on for thousands of years.  Check out our 24-7 Prayer history page.  ---Top of Page

Why 24 hours a day?
It's close to God's heart.  The concept of day-and-night prayer is rooted in several Scriptures and Biblical principles.

1. God watches over us 24 hours a day (Ps.121) and in His Word He calls us up to watch and pray with Him. Revelations 4-5 states that the angels and the 24 elders worship God literally day and night. The Bible teaches us to pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven and in heaven there is only praise, worship and intercession, 24 hours a day. This is why we believe that praise worship and intercession should also take place on earth for 24 hours a day. The only way in which this can be realized, is by establishing 24-hour prayer watches.
2. In the Old Testament, the fire on the altar was kept burning: "And the fire upon the altar shall be kept burning on it: it shall not be allowed to go out. The priest shall burn wood on it every morning and lay the burnt offering in order upon it and he shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. The fire shall be burning continually upon the altar; it shall not go out" (Lev.6: 12-13). The priest’s two most important tasks were: a) intercession (through prayers and offerings); and b) praise and worship. The fire on the altar was a symbol of the continued praise, worship, intercession and reconciliation by the priests.
3. A 24-7 prayer watch helps a church to fulfill God’s command to be a house of
   prayer for the nations (Isaiah.56: 7). By implementing 24-7 prayer watches churches are able to take responsibility and stand as watchmen on the walls for the church worldwide, for their own communities, their country and for other nations.
4. 24-hours of praise, worship and intercession bring about a new and deeper dimension with regard to an intercessor’s relationship with God.
5. A 24-hour prayer watch prepares the way for the Lord Jesus’ Second Coming and is one way of filling the whole world with His glory. (Hab.2:14)
6. A 24-hour prayer watch focuses on bringing in the harvest.
7. God Himself appoints us as watchmen on the walls to pray for the fulfilment of His promises: “I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, who will never hold their peace day or night; You who are His servants and by your prayers put the Lord in remembrance of His promises, keep not silence, and give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem and makes her a praise in the earth (Isaiah 62:6-7). Note a) that it is God Himself who appoints the watchmen; b) they must stand before Him 24 hours a day; and c) the watchmen must not keep silent or allow Him to rest until all His promises have been fulfilled. God’s Word holds thousands of promises for His children and Scripture
   instructs us to continually pray for the fulfillment of these promises.
8. In Luke 18:7 God promises that He will do right to us (set right what is wrong – crime, violence, poverty, drug abuse, corruption, immorality, injustice, broken marriages and the AIDS epidemic) if we call to Him day and night. "Shall God not do justice to His chosen people who call to Him day and night? How long shall He let them wait?"
9. Paul’s letters speak often of day-and-night intercession for the church and for the advancement of the gospel.
10. To serve God the Father day and night through praise and worship, to grow in intimacy with God and to live in His countenance. Rev.4: 8-11: “And the four living creatures, individually having six wings, were full of eyes all over and within [underneath their wings]; and day and night they never stop saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty (omnipotent), Who was and Who is and Who is to come. And whenever the living creatures offer glory and honor and thanksgiving to Him who sits on the throne, Who lives forever and ever. The twenty-four elders fall prostrate before Him Who is sitting on the throne, and they worship Him Who lives forever and ever; and they throw down their crowns before the throne crying out, Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive the glory and the honor and dominion, for You created all things; by Your will they were created.”
11. Confess our sins, humble ourselves and pray for healing of our land. 2 Chron. 7:14: “...If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.”
12. Pray for this generation (our youth) to return to God and to lift up god-fearing men and women who will carry out the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.  Lamentations 2:18-19: “The hearts called to the Lord. Then I, Jeremiah, cried, O wall of the Daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night; give yourself no rest; let not your eyes stop shedding tears. Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches; pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands toward Him for the lives of your young children, who faint from hunger at the head of every street.”
13. Pray for the redemption of our neighbors and the lost world wide, also for their personal needs. "But this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days, God declares, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all mankind, and your sons and your daughters shall prophecy and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Yes, and on My menservants also and on My maidservants in those days I will pour out My Spirit and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth, blood and fire and smoking vapor; The sun shallbe turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the obvious day of the Lord comes– that great and notable and conspicuous and renowned day. And it shall be that whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:16-21). “For the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).
14. Pray for our personal needs. Matt.6: 11: “Give us this day our daily bread... Phil.4: 6-7: "Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. And God’s peace which transcends all understanding shall garrison and guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
15. A 24-hour prayer watch promotes unity among believers because they focus on the same matters and pray together for these matters. It also binds churches and denominations together. A 24-hour prayer watch mobilizes church members to pray effectively.
16. Because they pray together, a prayer watch encourages believers to persevere in prayer. It helps every intercessor and prayer group to understand that they have a responsibility and it strengthens them to know that they are not praying alone.
17. History has shown that prayer has had a huge impact on communities and on the world.   ---Top of Page
    
    Taken from Global Day of Prayer document "Day-and-Night-Prayer"