We were excited by the way that God blessed this time of 72 hours of worship. Before this the longest that we had run a worship gathering was 24 hours. Yet when we had been planning this many months ago we prayed and asked God what he wanted us to do. The clear answer was “3 days”
It started at 8pm on Friday night and finished at 8pm on the Monday night. The worship started with an hour of very anointed, intimate devotional worship led by Diane Hill from Athlone. Diane has organised Prayer Watch Ireland – a period of 40 days of night and day prayer – over the last few years. The worship ended on the Monday night in a similar vein with very prophetic, yet devotional worship from Joy Ryan.
A time of extremely anointed breakthrough high praises came on the Sunday evening (after 50 hours of worship). This was led by Shelton Brown, who is from Alabama, USA, yet has been living in the Christian Renewal Centre with his wife, Samantha, and their 3 children for the past 9 months. He was accompanied by Samantha and 2 friends from Colorado, Nori and Barbie Kelly, who had flown over specifically to be here for the worship weekend. There was a very deep level of intercession that came forth during this time, to the point where Shelton’s 2 hour session lasted 3 and a half hours!!! The presence of the Holy Spirit was very tangibly there.
There was an ebb and flow during the worship throughout the whole 72 hours, ranging from intimate, devotional worship to dancing, exaltation and intense warfare. There were also times of weeping and deep intercession, which seemed to take us by surprise and led us to intercede for Ireland. There was prophetic worship and new songs released. We had planned to do some structured times of intercession but this didn’t happen as there was such an anointing for intercession throughout the worship that structured prayer wasn’t necessary. Prayer flowed from themes that emerged during worship, often just from a line in a song.
Worship was led in either 1 or 2 hour sessions. There was a wide variety and range of styles, from single acoustic guitar or keyboards to full bands with drums, bass, electric guitars and trumpets. There was a good mix of young and older worship leaders involved. It was also a time of stretching for many. Some worship leaders commented afterwards that they had enjoyed the opportunity to lead worship for extended periods. Leading worship for 2 hours was a new experience for some.
There was never masses of people there at any one time but those who did come were struck by the presence of God. Some said that the weekend was a life changing experience. People came from many parts of Ireland, both North and South, from Waterford, Athlone, Omagh, Dublin, Dungannon, Belfast, Bangor, Portadown, Limavady to name but a few.
We need to say a very big ˜Thank You” to all at the Christian Renewal Centre as we couldn’t have done this without them. Also, a very special thank you to all the worship leaders who took part, to everyone who came to worship and all who have supported us in prayer. We are currently seeking God for direction for the way forward. We don’t believe God intends this to be a one-off event!
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