We take a moment to praise God for bringing us through the 24-hour prayer meeting which was a cooperative effort between the students of Bob Jones University and those around the world on United Prayer. I believe the Lord sustained many of us that persevered the entire 24 hours in a manner that can only be described as "extraordinary." Truly, He did wonders among us.

FIRST HOUR

The picture you are seeing above was taken around 11:20pm ET, or HOUR #5 of the 24-hour prayer meeting. When we first started with HOUR #1, there were only a few students with us. In fact, one of them was confused and asked if this was the right place because she said, "I thought there would be more people." My heart sank, but we plowed on and I gave the first devotional. Admittedly, I was fighting discouragement and unbelief with all my might. But when we started to pray along with the faithful saints on United Prayer, my heart began to be encouraged and revived. It was truly an Aaron and Hur moment.

NIGHT WATCH

As we continued hour by hour, we finally came to the "late hours" of the night beginning at 11pm and moving into midnight, 1am, 2am, 3am, and there was wave after wave of students pouring in and sitting around the floor. This was, in my books, an answer to prayer as we have been praying for students to fill this room -- even once -- all through the night. God gave us the desires of our heart. It had always been my desire to "drop" students into an environment of extraordinary, united prayer in hopes that something would be caught rather than merely taught. Some of my strongest memories of revival in prayer was when I was in late-night prayer meetings with stronger saints than myself. I would be a mere observer, but I was drinking everything in. I still believe this is the best way to pass along a spiritual heritage to the next generation. Learn by doing.

BREAKING OF DAY

As we approached the early morning (5am, 6am), the students continued to pour in by waves but by this time the women students were able to join us in the room. That provided a new breath of encouragement as well. So we continued in prayer.

Moving into the early morning of 7am and 8am, I truly began to become "weary in welldoing" and was beginning to fade mentally. I was very concerned that, physically, I would not be able to finish what we had started 12 hours ago. 24 hours seemed like such an eternity away. But we continued in prayer all together with the support of the students and saints on United Prayer and only the Lord would have known that HOUR #16 was just around the corner.

PRAYING THROUGH

And then, it was at 10am that the Lord finally broke through. Yes. The Lord came down and broke into the meeting. It was a smaller group of students. Mostly girls, four of them in a corner to my left. Armen Thomassian brought the devotional that HOUR #16 in-person and the Lord was in it. The message was something of a gentle rebuke to keep the focus of this prayer meeting on the originally stated purpose -- that is, REVIVAL. To veer from this in any way would be a mistake. This message touched my heart as it was greatly needed. The word of God is "quick and powerful" and it brought LIFE back into my soul. Not mine only, but the girls that were there also began to pray with great power and unction for revival on the campus of BJU. This hour changed everything in my estimation and God gave so much sustaining grace in that moment, that I remember thinking, "I could do this all day."

FINISHING STRONG

We continued on in prayer with fresh wind in our sails and although there were various moments of distraction and potential "de-railment," God enabled us to keep in a straight line with the help of the messages hour by hour, particularly HOUR #20 with Jon Daulton, HOUR #21 with Scott Pauley, and HOUR #23 with Andrew Simpson. We finally arrived at the very last hour where we closed the 24-hours in a brief meditation and recap of the entire effort.

CONCLUSION

I have heard a good number of positive feedback from those in-person as well as those on the call that it was an unusually powerful blessing from God to help them along in their prayer lives. God has done wonders for us, friends.

Of course, there will be criticisms of this effort. I want to re-iterate the two helpful quotes by Jonathan Edwards when answering the critics of his day. As God knows our hearts, we are seeking to "follow on to know the Lord." (Hosea 6:3).

NOVELTY?

It's a good question. Is it all simply a novelty? Is any of this really necessary? Jonathan Edwards answered similar questions in his day in the book, An Humble Attempt. In a nutshell, he said that extraordinary prayer efforts are more for OUR benefit than God's:

PHARISAISM?

Once again, Jonathan Edwards has an answer for this criticism. In a nutshell, he argues that these prayer efforts are not meant to create a class of "spiritual elites" like the Pharisees, but rather to invite any and all to join the effort.

MOTIVATION

The challenge of a 24-hour prayer meeting may prove helpful to a generation that is typically characterized by short attention spans, bite-sized content, and instant gratification. We're asking God to disturb the status quo, unsettle the comfortable, and put a spotlight on something that needs to be emphasized once again. Extraordinary times of declension call for extraordinary efforts in prayer.

ALL DEVOTIONALS

Each hour of prayer began with a brief devotional brought by a different individual. This is an important part of any prayer meeting because true effectual prayer should be Scripturally-based and Scripturally-motivated. The devotionals have all been uploaded hour by hour.

This special website was created for this 24-hour event. Feel free to review the messages, or keep up with any future plans: www.24prayer.com

Learn more about the 24-Hour United Prayer:
https://www.24prayer.com

Learn more about Daily United Prayer:
https://www.unitedprayer.net