Preparing for the 24 hour prayer vigil - We pray this evening at 6:30pm

Tonight we gather at 6:30 pm to experience a time of prayer as we prepare our hearts for the 24 hour Prayer Vigil this coming weekend.

I invite you to join us for prayer at NRN.  We are preparing for our annual 24 hour Prayer Vigil.  Whether you currently attend or have once attended - you are invited to our worship center to prayer.  We begin on Friday at 6:00pm and continue non-stop in 24 hours of prayer.  I plan to pray with people for the physical, emotional and spiritual healing during the last hour of prayer which begins Saturday at 5:00pm. 

You are also invited to bring your prayer request and place them upon the altars at the church.

I am trusting God for a moving of His Spirit through our church and ministry.

There are so many examples of how corporate prayer was the springboard for the sweeping movements of God. Let me mention a few. In 1857, America was riding the wave of a strong economy, and, as tends to be true in times of prosperity, showed a radical decrease of interest in the things of God. There was a layman named Jeremiah Lamphier whose concern led to a call for prayer. He tacked up notices in NYC calling for a weekly prayer meeting on Wednesdays from noon till one at a rented space on Fulton Street.

The first prayer meeting was on September 23, 1857. Only six people came, and they didn't arrive until just before 12:30. The next week, the attendance jumped to 20. The numbers continued to climb week-by-week.

Then, on October 10th, the Stock Market crashed and financial panic ensued. Trouble had its humbling affect and the hearts of many turned to spiritual matters. It wasn't long until somewhere between 10 and 50,000 businessmen were meeting every day in NYC to pray at noon. By week 15, the meetings moved from weekly to daily.

In 1858, this prayer movement leaped to every major city in America. The Second Great Awakening swept our land. Estimates are that a million Americans out of a population of 30 million at that time were converted in less than two years. And it all started with prayer.

Rees Howells, a Welsh coal miner, journeyed to South Africa as a missionary in 1910 in response to an increasing burden from the Lord. Six weeks after arriving, he joined in a prayer meeting. Out of that came the sweeping work of the Holy Spirit in which they had two revival meetings a day for fifteen months and all day on Friday. Thousands were converted as a result.