I’m sitting on a deck over looking the city from Harvest Fields.  It’s almost 8pm.  Lynn has joined the Midtown Team out prayer-walking.  Field lights at Penn State light up the night. The rest of the city lights are starting to waken.  Clouds fill the darkening sky…except for one place.  An oval, ringed with red, a hole in the clouds, one spot of light, from here it appears to be directly above the Penn State campus.  Open heavens.

Ancient mystics held to the belief that the Divine inhabited certain geographic regions in a more significant manner than others. This phenomenon has been called holy ground, thin places, or sacred spaces.  I think another biblical name for it is “open heavens” and it isn’t limited by geographical boundaries, it has more to do the hearts of people in the region.

In Malachi 3:10-12, God is speaking to his people and says,

Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the LORD Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.

To live in an area/season of open heavens is to live under a flood of uncontainable blessings.  Imagine what it could be like to live under open heavens.  What would it be like your life was flooded with God’s blessings?

Have you ever felt lonely?  Have you ever messed up and wished you could go back for a do-over, get a fresh start?  Draw those words back into your mouth… go back to that one step that led to a journey of lies, pain, alcohol, drugs, brokeness…  Maybe somebody did something to you and you just can’t seem to recover, or maybe you did something and you can’t get your hands clean.  Do you struggle with anger, internet porn, an eating disorder?  What would it be like…if all of a sudden your life was flooded with God’s blessings?

How would it change your family?  A few less loud nights followed by a lot less silent days?  No child left behind.  No kids wondering why their mom or dad left and why they don’t love them anymore — no more abuse.  Good memories of times spent together.  Teen daughters who aren’t embarresd to walk with their dad in the mall — ok that might take more than open heavens!)

How would it change our church?  When I think of times at Calvary when we have hit the mark…as a church, I can’t help but think of…

• * Families who are adopting children in need of a home…
• * A small group finding creative ways to help single parents…
• * Dozens of people giving their spring break to go to the Dominican Republic or Estonia….
• * A family that takes in a pregnant mom…
• * Our 1% offering that makes a difference in kid’s lives around the world…
• * Somebody walking a drunk student home and the next week sharing Jesus with them…

This is a partial picture of a church overflowing with with such a flood of God’s that they cannot be contained by the walls of a building, or an institution.  Can you imagine what our community would look like if those open heavens began to grow so large that the hole in heaven encompassed the Centre Region?  What would it do to our drug problem?  What would it do the 2am Saturday night crowds?  Think of the women who would never again need to worry who the father is… the teens who would never have to go through the ordeal of deciding for or against abortion…the homes that would never be broken.

What if the Centre Region were to experience such a flood of blessings that sociologists at Penn State would write textbooks, about a sociological phenomenom called the “Open-Heaven Effect”?

We are in the midst of 21 Days of Prayer for Penn State University and we are asking God to open the heavens.