Prayerwalking

Like the March for Jesus, prayerwalking is a public demonstration of Christ's love. Its unique contribution is the emphasis placed on prayers offered for the needs of community in which the walk takes place and for the needs of the whole world. It is a valuable complement to the March for Jesus and can be a strategy for daily prayer.

In hundreds of cities world over, ordinary believers are prayerwalking through the streets of their communities. They pray while walking, with eyes open for the spiritual awakening God is bringing. We define prayerwalking as "?praying on-site with insight.?" There is no set pattern or proven formula. Prayerwalkers have set out with every imaginable style. There's nothing magic at all in the footsteps. God's Spirit is simply helping us to pray with persistent spontaneity in the midst of the very settings in which we except him to answer our prayers. We instinctively draw near to those for whom we pray. Getting close-up to the community focuses our prayer. We sharpen our prayers by concentrating on specific homes and families. But we enlarge our praying as well, crying out for entire communities to know God's healing presence. Prayerwalking bears significant similarities to the March for Jesus: Worship and warfare blend with intercession that Christ would be welcomed as Lord by many throughout the entire city. Quiet prayerwalks have preceded some of the most exuberant praise marches. Prayerwalks give us a simple way to continue the March for Jesus, filling our streets with prayer the other 364 days of the year. Many are praying city-size prayers in low-profile style, ranging through their towns in small bands of two or three with disciplined regularity. Prayerwalking helps keep us in close range of our neighbors in order to touch our cities with the gospel in transforming service. Quiet triumphs often follow as God changes the city day-by-day and house-by-house. A March for Jesus often brings a sudden shower of God's blessing on a city. May such down-pourings be met with a rising tide of on-site intercession, that the earth may be "?filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea?" (Hab. 2:14). Beginning a Prayerwalking Ministry Join with other believers. Join your faith with others to help prayer flow in an engaging conversational style. Large groups sometimes fail to give everyone a chance to participate. Pairs and triplets work best. Set aside time. Allowing one or two full hours gives prayerwalkers a good chance to manage preliminaries and follow up discussions, although much can be done in less time. Choose an area. Ask God to guide you. It's best by far to learn the joys of prayerwalking in unfamiliar neighborhoods. You'll return quickly to your neighborhood with fresh vision for those close by. Centers of commerce and religion are fascinating, but there's nothing like touching families, schools, and churches in residential areas. Use elevated points to pray over a panorama. Linger at specific sites which seem to be key. Pray with insight. Pray for the people you see. As you do, you might find the Spirit of God recalibrating your heart with his sensitivities. Enhance your responsive insights with research done beforehand. Use knowledge of past events and current trends to enrich intercession. Above all, pray scripture. If you have no clear place to begin praying, select just about any of the biblical prayers and you will find that they almost pray themselves. Focus on God. Make God's promises rather than Satan's schemes the highlight of your prayer. Your discernment of evil powers may at times exceed God's specific guidance to engage them in direct combat. Consider the simplicity of first making direct appeal to the throne of God before attempting to pick street fights with demonic powers. Seek a restraining order from heaven upon evil so that God's empowered people may bring forth God's intended blessings on the city. Regather and report. Share what you have experienced and prayed. Expressing something of your insights and faith will encourage others—as well as yourself. Set plans for further prayerwalking. Suggestions for Prayer Attempt to keep every prayer pertinent to the specific community you pass through. As you do, you will find prayers naturally progress to the nation and to the world. Use a theme passage of scripture. Unless God guides you to use another, try 1 Timothy 2:1–6. Many have found it to be a useful launch-point for prayerwalking. Copy it down so that you can read it through aloud several times during your walk. Each of the following prayer points emerges from this passage. Concerning Christ: Proclaim him afresh to be the one mediator and the ransom for all. Name him Lord of the neighborhood and the lives you see. Concerning leaders: Pray for people responsible in any position of authority: for teachers, police, administrators, and parents. Concerning peace: Cry out for the godliness and holiness of God's people to increase into substantial peace. Pray for new churches to be established. Concerning truth: Declare openly the bedrock reality that there is one God. Celebrate the faithful revelation of his truth to all peoples through ordinary people (1 Tim. 2:7). Pray that the eyes of minds would cease to be blinded by Satan so that they could come to a knowledge of the truth. Concerning the Gospel: Praise God for his heart's desire that all people be saved. Ask that heaven would designate this year as a "?proper time?" for the testimony of Christ to be given afresh with simple power. Name specific people. Concerning the blessing of God: Thanksgivings are to be made on behalf of all people. Give God the explicit thanks he deserves for the goodness he constantly bestows on the homes you pass by. Ask to see the city with his eyes, that you might sense what is good and pleasing in his sight as well as what things grieve him deeply. Ask God to bring forth an enduring spiritual awakening.