Fearless Prayer Ireland
The blessing of lockdown
By Dr. Miriam O’Regan
(From the October - December 2020 issue of VOX)
On St. Patrick’s Day March 17 2020, we were in lockdown. Unable to go to parades or pubs, there were many calls for a day of prayer. And so at Fearless Women Ireland, we shared an image of 2 Chronicles 7:14 on our Facebook page - “If my people, who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land”. It garnered an astonishing number of engagements for us – over 1,000, more than we had ever seen!
Sensing people’s need and desire for prayer, a Facebook group called Fearless Prayer Ireland started that afternoon with ten members. That weekend we held our first online 24-hour day of prayer based on Psalm 91, calling people to join us on Facebook and sign up for an hour with SignUp.com (a strategy we copied from OneHOP, Omaha Nebraska House of Prayer). Astonishingly, people signed up and prayed passionately in the comment boxes on Facebook!
The following weekend we called for 46 hours of prayer based on Psalm 46 via Facebook with SignUp.com, and even more people joined us from Ireland and from all over the world. For Easter week we held 24/7 prayer vigils with various individuals leading live worship and prayer online morning and evening.
And then we had 40 days of Prayer to Pentecost from April through May, covering our island in prayer from 6am to 8pm using a different psalm for each day with live times of worship. From September 1-8 we started back, praying the eight beatitudes over eight days in eight watches night and day. And more and more people, men as well as women, keep joining the group.
“This is one blessing of Covid-19. There is such a hunger for prayer as can be seen in the many prayer initiatives started during lockdown.”
We have prayed for healing from Covid-19, and thankfully have seen some seriously sick people make it out of ICU. We have prayed for sick infants who didn’t make it, but whose families were saturated in the love of God. We have prayed for families and children, grandparents, mothers and fathers, the homeless and the jobless, students and teachers, doctors and nurses, the elderly and care workers, those in addiction or in domestic abuse. We have prayed for the government and the civil service of Ireland, the churches, priests, ministers and pastors. I have never prayed so much in my life!
This is one blessing of Covid-19. There is such a hunger for prayer as can be seen in the many prayer initiatives started during lockdown. We can only thank God for the work of Holy Spirit among us in this season when we have time to reflect and wait on God. I am grateful for the gifts of deep repentance, forgiveness, and healing of relationships as the Lord has used this time to heal the memory of past offense, hurt, pain, and disappointment. I believe this is a time of grace to root out bitterness, overcome jealousy and let go of anger by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We are asking God to awaken a deeper revelation of love in our hearts, to awaken greater hope in the Lord, greater expectations of His power made manifest in us and in our churches. The Lord is building His church, in His way, in His time. And this is my prayer:
Grant us patience Lord to wait on You as You create new wine within us by Your Spirit and by Your word. Help us to be gracious with each other as new wineskins are being formed in these days. Lord, let us see You. AMEN.
