This weekend we are doing a "24-1" (24 hours of continuous prayer in the spirit of the Moravians) at my church.

To pray continuously "in the spirit of the Moravians" means to have a place dedicated to continual prayer, and have shifts of individuals come and pray hour by hour around the clock.

For many people, the immediate question this raises is - "Why do we need a prayer room?"  God hears our prayers wherever we are - in fact, He even hears the prayers we pray silently.  So why do we need to come to the church to pray?

Of course it is true that God hears our prayers wherever we are.  But experience has shown that there is something different and powerful about dedicating a physical space to prayer for an extended period of time.  Here are some answers to this question which 24-7 Prayer international has published on their website:

Why Do You Need a Prayer Room?

"A Prayer Room is to the church what the heart is to the body." (The Praying Church Source Book)
Locating the prayer season in a specific location seems to be one of the keys to the effectiveness of 24-7. Why?

• The Holy Spirit can fill a place as well as a person (Acts 2:2, 4:31, 16:16). There's often a strong sense of God's presence in such a place of prayer, even experienced by non-Christians.

• Time often goes quicker! Many have reported that 'in the prayer room 1 hour feels like 10 minutes'

• Evangelistically the prayer room is excellent. Non-Christians have often sat in such places to pray, some have said that they can feel God's presence. People who don't want to be preached at still like to be prayed for.

• The prayer-room enables people to pray non-verbally, by posting artwork, poetry and graffiti on the wall. The environment can be artistically designed to stimulate and direct prayer.

• The room provides accountability - a place where people have to turn up, and this ensures a constant flow as one prayer-shift hands the baton onto the next. Visiting the room is like a mini-pilgrimage.

• A shared location provides a strong sense of being part of a community carrying each others' burdens, celebrating the breakthroughs together and ministering to one another. You are more than a link in a prayer chain.

A prayer room filled with the prayers of the saints after 3 months of 24-7 prayer