Creativity in the Prayer Room

10469208_968330713230036_3995578248377717720_nThe prayer room can be a life trans-forming experience for everyone involved, but it involves hard work. You are inviting the King into your midst. All of this may sound easy, but it’s not. The prayer room in Spain was quite a challenge. The owner of the hotel was an artist, and the room had been used for storage. It was full of all kinds of old things—wood, curtains, clay, papers, dirt, and everything you could imagine an elderly artist would collect in that room.

Could this possibly be transformed into a House of Prayer?

Our experience of God in the prayer room was both mystical and practical. On the walls there was always so much to see: messages that could move the hardest heart, children’s pictures, intimate prayer requests, poems of worship, Bible verses scrawled as graffiti, prophetic symbols, and, of course, that evolving book of answered prayer. The stories ranged from simple encouragement to a few truly remarkable reports of apparently miraculous intervention. For many people, visiting that room to see such things and meet with God became a mini-pilgrimage even at three in the morning on a cold winter night.

God quickly gave us a mind to work, and He gave us creative ideas to make that room a beautiful place of prayer. With candles, cushions, chairs, flags, maps, instruments, and other items, the room was transformed. The comment we heard so often during that month was, “We feel God’s presence in the prayer room!” God can transform anywhere into a beautiful place where His presence dwells. After all, He is the one who gives the creative plan for each one.

There is no limit to the creativity that can be expressed in a prayer room. Link your hands together with His and watch Him creatively work.

As far as decorating goes, you may want to recruit a decorating team or just one or two artistic people. Some prayer rooms have prayer stations that cover many types of prayer such as: personal prayer requests, meditation and contemplation, worship, thanksgiving, confession, and intercession. We’ve experienced this in a church service where areas were divided into many stations of prayer. The prayer stations can be decorated to help people get involved in prayer. It was definitely a wonderful experience in prayer and a personal encounter with God.

Creativity can be expressed in a multitude of ways. Ask the Lord what He wants you to focus on in your prayer room. Think about the size of your room, the age of your participants, the material available, and so forth.

In some of our Houses of Prayer, we’ve put the Operation World book
by Patrick Johnstone to help people pray globally. The Transformation videos on DVD are another possibility, or a slide projector with pictures from your area. Posters, globes, and world maps are also helpful for prayer. Local newspapers, prayer letters, and prayer guides are excellent for prayer.

Make good use of the four walls in your prayer room. You may want to direct people’s prayers in a new direction on each wall. For instance, you may want a wailing wall for personal prayer requests, a worship wall with verses and pictures, and a world or city wall that is outwardly focused with names of missionaries, a world or city map, community issues, etc. There may be a place of praise with instruments and DVDs or a wall of promise where individuals can pray the Scriptures on the wall. You might have a thank-you wall with testimonies of answered prayer and thanksgiving. You may want a graffiti wall with poems and letters or drawings.

There is so much creativity you can use on these walls. We had a country map on one wall and a place where people could paint, draw pictures, or write verses. You may want to leave lots of white paper and pens or paintbrushes for people to creatively express their prayers. One of the Christians—an artist from Gibraltar—drew a beautiful picture on one wall. You may want pictures of nature or other cultures on a wall or table. Some prayer rooms have an audio DVD or video with an introduction, welcoming people to the prayer room and helping them to focus on prayer.

We made use of the center of the room, and this is very important. As I said, we had a table in the center with a candle lit the entire month. Local Christians donated candles. We never ran out, but it certainly was difficult to blow the last candle out during our grand finale at the end of the month. We all had the urge to keep the prayer room going. It was a place where we had met with God personally and corporately. We knew that the day would come when the candle would be lit again—and maybe—it would be continuous when we had a more permanent location.

“One of the simplest and yet most profound things a prayer room offers is a place to be alone and still before God. It promotes humility and a visible dependence on God. Prayer rooms also generate and facilitate other prayer ideas given by the Holy Spirit to affect the whole ministry of the church in the community.” Terry Teykl

During your week or month of prayer, you may want to have outreaches at schools, shopping centers, or flea markets. You may want to ask people to bring clothing, food, or blankets to give to the needy. You can then pray for those who receive the items. Help with transportation so that the elderly, or mothers with young children, can come in groups during the day.

We had some special young people’s prayer meetings on some of the weekends. You may want to challenge them to spend forty hours in prayer on a weekend. We had the BURN group of young people on the weekend. Their mission statement is:

“The mission of BURN 24-7 is to plant a sustainable furnace of 24-7-365 worship, prayer and explosive supernatural outreach releasing a sound of indigenous creative vertical worship in every community, people group, city and nation in the world.”

They are high in energy and can provide a tremendous momentum to your House of Prayer. See BURN for more information.

You may want to take a prayer team to a dark place in your city to intercede. Praying at the nearest police station, or near a school or business, is another possibility. You may want to have a prayer retreat. We know of a House of Prayer that started by reading through the entire Bible. You may want to pray through the Psalms or pray the promises from the Bible several times during your 24/7 House of Prayer. The New Testament apostolic prayers of Paul  will help you. Soaking music is available at soaking.net.

The creative possibilities are contagious. Just go for it!

By Debbie Przybylski
Intercessors Arise International
IHOPKC

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