Powerful Presence in Portuguese Prayer Room, A Report by Carla HardingCarla Harding - 13 Mar 2007

“The first hour of the Prayer Room was reserved by the prayer and worship team of our Church and the presence of God was absolutely magnificent.” Writes Carla Gomes from Alverca do Ribatejo, Portugal. “So powerful, yet so sweet. It wasn't only the presence of our God; it was the presence of our Father.“

“God was moving, and touching people, from what we saw of the drawings on the wall, and the writing in the ‘Share Book’ the words most frequently used were ‘Love’ and ‘Father’. Some wrote about how they had forgotten how good it is to just stay still in His presence, alone with Him, no distractions, no nothing... Even if our Prayer Room were for just that one person to come closer to God again, it was more than worthwhile.”

“Prayers were answered!
Small things to our human minds, but incredibly powerful things when we think of the transformation, the change it causes on those peoples lives.”

One of those "small things" concerns a young woman (33), who in the midst of her sadness and tiredness, silently said to God:

"Please God, I want to be touched by you.
I want to feel your arm round my shoulder,
And I want to feel Your hand touching my head."

A few moments later, a woman approached her and put her arm around her shoulder. The woman touched her head, caressing it like a father caresses the head of his child. She told this young girl how much God loved her, and how precious she is to Him, and that God had sent her, so that through her God could put His arm around her shoulder, and comfort her just like a father does to his child. The presence in this prayer room in Portugal was, very literally, the presence of God our Father.
 
“When we prepared the Prayer Room,” said Carla, “we are saying, ‘God we consecrate this place to You, we want to meet with You here’. Once the Prayer Room started, God was the first person there.  He was the first to arrive and to welcome us into this room... His room.”
 
And then this final word from Portugal: “We just want to thank you guys for sharing 24-7 with the rest of the world (instead of keeping it to yourselves)... millions and millions of people have been touched through this great work of God, I imagine in more ways then we'll ever know.”
 
“Keep up the good work and God Bless you.”

If you have a story about how God spoke to you in your 24-7 Prayer Room please email Carla Harding from our Prayer support team.   All your experiences greatly encourage us and we just love to brag about all that God has done to encourage others to take the leap and pray 24-7.