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Every mighty movement of God started with a call for His people to pray. Prayer revives the hearts of God’s people as it prepares our communities for God’s love, grace, and Word to be spread.

Prayer-walking involves us personally taking our prayers to the very places where we desire to see God’s Presence manifested and our prayers answered.

“When ordinary believers step into the streets to pray effectively for their neighbors, with eyes wide open to real needs and with ears open to the prompting of God’s Spirit, intercession becomes an adventure!”

Graham Kendrick, Prayer-Walking

As you prayer-walk, you will find that God opens your eyes and your heart to see people and the community from His perspective.

Prayer-walking is an incarnational ministry! Since Jesus’ Spirit lives in you and works through you, you bring the Kingdom of God and the very presence of Jesus as you go, providing salt and light where there is darkness and bitterness. When believers intentionally pray, the Holy Spirit is unleashed and spiritual strongholds of sin and bondage are broken in people, families, and whole communities.

You may feel inadequate for this task, but take encouragement from Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9:18: “Give ear, our God, and hear; open Your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears Your Name. We do not make requests of You because we are righteous, but because of Your great mercy.”

PLACES TO PRAYER-WALK:

  • Your Neighborhood or Apartment Complex
  • Your Workplace
  • Your School
  • The Areas Adjacent to Your Church
  • Local Park or Sports Field
  • Local Shopping Area
  • Local College Campus

Step 1: Ask the Holy Spirit where He would like for you to prayer-walk today. If you are at work, you could do it over your break time or lunch time, walking and praying around your department, your building, or parking lot.

Step 2: Invite God to walk and talk with you! Yes, He’s already there, but there is something significant about inviting Him in to share in and lead the experience with you:

  • Ask Him to give you the eyes & mind & heart of Christ.
  • Ask Him to guide your thoughts & prayers.
  • Ask Him to show you how to pray for specific people.

Step 3: Start your prayer-walk by taking a deep breath. Let yourself be fully present to enjoy the moment of right now. Listen to the sounds of nature around you: birds chirping, water dripping, the breeze rustling the leaves…

Step 4: As you walk, be observant of all you see: people, cars, buildings… Pay attention to the thoughts that come into your mind… Then, simply pray for whatever comes into your mind or heart for the people you see, or for any people that the cars or buildings may remind you of…

WHAT TO PRAY FOR:

  • More workers to go into God’s harvest fields
  • Salvation for your neighbors, co-workers, classmates
  • Peace & unity in your city
  • God’s blessings on families around you
  • God’s healing Presence in households near yours
  • Physical healing for persons in need
  • Financial provision for those in need
  • Forgiveness for those hurt by others
  • Deliverance from strongholds to all kinds of addictions
  • That people would come to know their true identity in Christ, and to live with confidence and joy in Jesus

Scripture Prompts:

  • PEACE FOR THE CITY – Jeremiah 29:7
  • OPEN HEARTS – Acts 16:14
  • OPEN DOORS – Colossians 4:3-4
  • AUTHORITIES – 1 Timothy 2:1-4
  • GOD’S FAVOR – Isaiah 61:1-4
  • TURNED HEARTS – Luke 1:17
  • REMOVED OBSTACLES – Isaiah 57:14
  • SPIRIT’S MINISTRY – Ephesians 4:12
  • SALVATION – Acts 26:17-18
  • HEALING – 2 Chronicles 7:14
  • KINGDOM ADVANCED – Matthew 11:12

WHY PRAYER-WALK?

“Why can’t I just stay at home or gather at church to pray?” The answer is… you can! And God will hear and respond to your prayers there as He will to the prayers of those who go.

Praying “on location” however, while seeing, feeling, touching, smelling, and hearing helps us pray with more intensity. After the prayer journey is over, you will never pray the same way again for the location of your walk and the people you met there.

An additional value of location-­praying has to do with presence. Since Jesus lives within you and the Holy Spirit works through you, there is a sense that your prayer-walking provides light in dark places and salt in unsavory places (Matthew 5:13­16). If your body really is a “temple of God” (I Corinthians 3:16) then where you go, you represent His Presence there.

Jesus says of His Church that “the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” When believers pray on the offensive against the work of her enemy, the devil begins to tremble, the darkness is penetrated, and the Holy Spirit is unleashed in people, families, and communities (see Acts 4:23-33). Spiritual strongholds of sin and bondage in people’s lives come down as believers intercede for salvation, physical needs, and spiritual wholeness (see Ephesians 6:10-18).