Some things are hard to quantify; love, beauty, atmosphere… and yet they are all very real and very obvious. If you are anything like me, you can walk into a house and sense all of the above (or an absence of them.) It is nothing to do with the way the rooms are furnished, or the pictures on the walls. Houses have a habit, in my opinion, of picking up the vibe of their present, and sometimes past, owners.

I have been very privileged over the years to be asked to pray over a small number of people’s homes. Sometimes these are houses with sadness or some spiritual shadow attached. Previous divorce, bitterness and anger can lead to a sense of oppression over a home. At other times, there has been a bereavement or a loss to cope with and this has upset the equilibrium of the inhabitants. Even with those who are not Christians, I have seen prayer make a huge difference to the atmosphere of a home and the relationships in families and between nieghbours. One of my close friends, who is not at all Christian, but is very ‘spiritually open’ found this when her home and her business premises were prayed for.

In all the houses I have lived in for the last 20 years or so, I have performed a simple ritual on entering. Filling a glass with water, I go into every room and pray prayers of blessing, cleansing and healing as I sprinkle water on every surface I can reach. I ask God to show me anything specific to pray into and wait for Him to speak.

I can’t tell you how much I am looking forward to praying my sprinkling prayers over our new home in Manchester! We finally heard the news the other evening that we can go next week. I confess that I sobbed with joy, relief and exhaustion.

A week today will find me glass in hand, wetting my new walls and floors and consecrating the home to God. In it, I pray for people’s lives to be changed, for eyes to be opened, for hearts to be warmed and for laughter to triumph. I hope to have a great deal of fun and friendship in my new home. I want people to sense something special as they come and go from my home, that they can only put down to the active and living Presence of the Eternal and Almighty God. Nothing matters more to me.

‘Not everything which matters can be measured… and not everything which can be measured, matters. (Albert Einstein)