ALL NIGHT LONG

Luke 6:12 – Now it came to pass in those days that He went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.

Jesus was a praying man. The scriptures let us know that He prayed so much, that He even went without sleep to commune with the Father.

Now I don’t know about you, but I have never found this to be an appealing way to pray. I love spending time with the Lord at night, hence my blog posts are done before I retire; but staying up all night to pray has never truly been an interest of mine. I think the latest I have ever stayed up in prayer is until 2 in the morning. 

This past Friday was our third annual all night of prayer for the women of our congregation. There were some friends amongst us, but mostly the women were of our congregation. We gathered at 8 pm and actually ended around 330 am on Saturday morning because of some obligations on Saturday. There were over 80 women in attendance with a few teenagers in the mix. 

We always have an agenda that consists of times of sharing from God’s word, worship, and of course, prayer. But this year we really wanted the Holy Spirit to lead the prayer meeting. So we spent time in prayer and fasting during the week. And He did. 

As our assistant pastor set the stage and the theme of the night, you could actually feel the excitement building in our midst. Our primary focus was to pray for our children, but she let it be known that we would flow with the Holy Spirit!

Our worship leader began with an exhortation of lifting our voices in praise to our God. One scripture that she used that really blessed me was Psalm 115:17-18 in the Living Bible:

“The dead cannot sing praises to Jehovah here on earth, but we can! We praise him forever! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!”

And did we praise Him! With much singing, playing of musical instruments and dancing before the King we gave praise. One sister danced so beautifully before the Lord that she ushered in a spirit of liberty. The atmosphere was set for faith filled praying!

Immediately ministry began as people came to the altar to be free from the bondage’s that have been holding them back. And every time an exhortation was given, more prayer and ministry were released. We came to offer ourselves up as intercessors, but God met some of our personal needs in exchange.

As we learned the things plaguing our children today, we cried out against those things keeping our children in bondage. We were united in our time and the night sped away as we sought the Father on behalf of our children. Not just our personal kids, but the children in our city also. There were so many wonderful exhortations that I cannot mention them all, but a great time was had by all! We even broke off into small groups and prayed for our personal needs and concerns.

The night of prayer ended with communion and the lighting of candles. Now the communion was to serve as a reminder of the covenant we have in Jesus and a memorial unto Him. The candles were for unity sake, and it’s absolutely beautiful to see so many candles raised to the Lord on one accord. 

As I mentioned, earlier, it was our third all night prayer and many felt it was the best one yet!

Today in service we had several testimonies of healings that took place and of the impact of being in the prayer with so many women. I know that so much more happened that night in prayer and I eagerly await more fruit coming forth from it.

All in all, as we took time out of our lives to meet with God all night long I can assure you that we were all glad that did. Wonderful Jesus!!