Thin Places and 24/7 Prayer

My friend John Stevens, a biology teacher did a one week fast openly and all blogged up here:

http://thinplaces-ao.blogspot.com/

But at the bottom of his blog he expalins the double meaning behind thin places.

During the summer I read a number of books doing the rounds such as Blue Like Jazz (which I enjoyed immensely) and The Irresistable Revolution (which I admired). T.I.R. attempts to recapture the radical monastery life of centuries ago and re-package its call and relevance for us in the 21st Century. It tells us the Celts located their monasteries in places were the presence of God seemed unusually real. And that communities grew around these sites. What a refreshing modus operandi that could be for current town planners to consider!The Celtish Christians called these 'thin places' where the normal divide between earth and heaven seemed to grow thin.

So just about the time that us charismatics/pentecostals/Norman Grubb readers satisfy ourselves that God is to be experienced everywhere...and is the same everywhere...just then we read in Acts that people are healed by the shadows of apostles as they walk past...by handkerchiefs anointed with oil....then certain places as I describe below on John Stevens blog


Oh and.....regarding thin places...they really exist. A client who is not overly spiritual says that he knows when he is near a closed order monastry on the way to Henfield Sussex, because the whole area feels different.Dunno about that. it's not my patch. but even I experienced this a bit at last year's RiverCamp see 2009 http://www.river-camp.co.uk/ It is on some land that has been used continuously for prayer....including as a Christian healing centre for decades...and it's that much easier to hold Christian events here!!!!

Then as if that is not enough, Theresa in Havant Church goes into Sacre Coeur at Place du Montmartre, Paris and is overwhelmed by the sense of prayer in that place. Nuns have been offering up prayers continually here since well over a hundred years ago.

Grace people in general don't talk much about discipline. This word covers a lot of things. But here it refers to a repeated activity. Self-control is a Holy Spirit fruit...and you need a bit of that when undertaking anything in a continued and persistent fashion. The idea of crafted prayer...or a prayer like the prayer of Jabez...is a prayer that is formulated hopefully in the Presence of God, then prayed consistantly until a change occurs. Actually The Lord's Prayer is such a prayer. These type of prayers , because they originate in God, actually themselves, unfold like a snail shell, and are packed with meditation power....unfolding and unfolding.

All this to say that the Moravians who had a 100 year prayer meeting were the inspiration for a movement originating here in Chichester called Prayer 24/7.

Over this weekend Havant church are setting aside a room for 24/7 round the clock prayer from tonight until Tuesday. As I was struggling with a seized up lock on a piano...I was hit by another example. A lock that is repeatedly used locks easily and smoothly. If people regularly walk across a strip of grass, a pathline emerges. So I guess in the Spirit, that is the secret behind an Open heaven being over certain places...or being experienced in any of our houses....wherever Kingdom activities are being conducted...wherever heaven is being accessed.

Pray for us....that we do access heaven...and may it have effects for you.