Prayer Walking

Simply walk & pray. When you pray – walk. When you walk – pray.

“Breathe upon me with your Spirit wind. Stir up the sweet spice of your life within me…Hold nothing back until I release your fragrance.
Come walk with me as you walked with Adam in your paradise garden.
Come walk with me until I am fully yours.” Song of Songs 4:16 TPT

 

Why would you prayer walk?

 

  • You are your Father’s son/daughter. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” Romans 8:14 Enjoy the exercise, walking with a friend and walking with God. “Breathe upon me with your Spirit Stir up the sweet spice of your life within me…Hold nothing back until I release your fragrance. Come walk with me as you walked with Adam in your paradise garden. Come walk with me until I am fully yours.” Song of Songs 4:16 TPT
  • You love God with our whole self – and have His love for your neighbours. (Mark 12: 29-31)“…it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” Matthew 18:14
  • Jesus has sent you to pray & go. “After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.  Go your way; behold, I am sending you…Heal the sick …and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.” Luke 10:1-3,9 “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.” Mark 16:15-20
  • When local churches align together with our Father’s will, strongholds over the region are broken. (Luke 10:17-24) Jesus’ authority shifts the spiritual atmosphere, preparing the way for people to receive eternal life and His kingdom. “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. ” 2 Corinthians 4:4“I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.” Acts 26:17-18 “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” Romans 16:20 

How can you prepare before prayer walking ?

“Put on the full armour of God – your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” Ephesians 6:10-20.

  • First seek the heart of the Father – his perspective of the place he calls you to go.
  • Spend time with God in prayer before you go – as Jesus did.
  • You may know your assigned territory before you go or discern this as you go.
  • Register your prayer walking partnership on our ongoing relay of prayer at  https://40daysofprayer.org.au/meeting Search the map to find other local prayer groups.
  • Go with clean hands and a pure heart – and a prayer partner.
  • Go with Scripture, praise and worship in your heart.Psalm 24 has great preparatory elements and declarations.
  • Be in right authority – with leaders in local churches and life groups.
  • Find locals you can meet with at least once a month to pray for your neighbourhood.
  • Pray for and seek relationship with local elders: long term, faithful pastors and intercessors who pray together (e.g. monthly) so you can report significant things that God shows you and be guided by their discernment and coordinated strategy, prayer & worship gatherings etc.
  • Obtain local maps, online and from your Council Office.
  • You may feel prompted to do your own research or connect with those who are noting spiritual implications from local history, newspaper articles and trends in local statistics.
  • You are a watchman so be silent and on alert in the spiritual and physical realm.
  • Trust the Lord to lead you– and move in trust, faith and obedience. “…do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” Matthew 10:19-20 “God sends angels with special orders to protect you wherever you go, defending you from all harm.”  Psalm 91:11
  • Don’t put this off. Find a buddy and just do it – ideally 2 x 2 at least every week.

How do you pray during the walk? On site with insight.

  1. As you walk, listen to what the Father is saying & watch what the Father is doing – what the Spirit is showing you. (John 5:19, John 12:49-50) Don’t chat with your buddy or get distracted.
  1. Simply agree together with what you see the Father is doing (Matthew 18:18-20). You may be led to silently pray with thanksgiving; to proclaim Scripture; to bless the work of God – releasing His plans for shalom wholeness; righteousness and justice, and fruits of the Spirit.
  1. When you see the enemy’s scheme to kill, steal and destroy, seek the Father’s heart and pray silently in the Spirit until you know how to pray according to His will. You may be led to repent on behalf of others, to declare the love of Abba Father, and the authority of Jesus’ blood – His victory and Sovereign Kingdom reign, to bless the people, land etc with a revelation of the goodness of God and abundant life. Declare Jesus’ sovereign reign in every place that the sole of your feet treads. (Joshua 1:3) “Your kingdom come, your will be done,on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6:1
  1. When you meet the neighbours be natural, warm, greeting them. (Micah 6:8) As the Spirit leads, be open to converse. If appropriate introduce yourself. You could say we are doing a ‘neighbourhood watch’ kind of walk because we care about this area and pray the people feel safe and connected and are doing well. Then you could ask, ‘How are you doing?’ You may even get the opportunity to ask, ‘Is there is anything we can pray for you’? Be alert to when and how the Spirit lead you to share the gospel. “And how can the message be proclaimed if messengers have yet to be sent? That’s why the Scriptures say: How welcome is the arrival of those proclaiming the joyful news of peace and of good things to come!” Romans 10:5

How do you process things after your prayer walks?

  1. Write brief notes as you walk or at the end of the walk. For example: Note the time and address of the places where the Holy Spirit has shown you things, the names and contact details of those you meet, your neighbours’ names and prayer needs, so you can follow up, significant things God has said, changes over time.
  2. Be alert to what God reveals over time. For example: patterns to pray into, His call to pray for people by name or for households by street numbers, follow up actions.
  3. Share your discernments with local elders so together you can recognise and report trends in what our Father is doing and His strategies going forward; be encouraged and discerning.
  4. Share your testimony with us. Write to us anytime sue@partnersinprayer.org.au

 

Further Reading:  5 Prayerful Steps to Harvest & Transformation: http://partnersinprayer.org.au/prayer-strategy-for-local-cities/

  • Debrief issues arising with your local leaders.
  • Report significant discernments to local city elders.

 

 Some articles on Prayer Walking: 

 A Short Course in Prayer Walking

 In hundreds of cities across the globe, ordinary believers are prayer-walking through the streets of their communities. They pray while walking, with eyes open for the spiritual awakening God is bringing.   We define prayer-walking as “praying on-site with insight.”

There is no set pattern or proven formula. Prayer-walkers 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 expect him to answer our prayers. We instinctively draw near to those for whom we pray.

Getting up close 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.

Quiet prayer-walks complement more high-profile praise marches and prayer rallies. Worship and warfare blend with intercession that Christ would be welcomed as Lord by many throughout the entire city.

Praye-rwalks give us a simple way to continually fill our streets with prayer. Many are praying city-size prayers while ranging throughout their towns with disciplined regularity in small bands of two or three. Thus prayer-walkers keep near their neighbors in order to touch our cities with the gospel and transforming service. Quiet triumphs often follow as God changes the city day by day and house by house.

How to Get Started Prayer-walking

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 prayer-walking in unfamiliar neighborhoods. You’ll return quickly to your own neighborhood with fresh vision. 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 own sensitivities. Enhance these responsive insights with research done beforehand. Use knowledge of past events and current trends to enrich intercession. Above all, pray Scripture.

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 prayer-walking.

 

Coordinate efforts
Enlist other praying people to join with friends to cover special areas. Give leadership by forming and mixing prayer bands. Seek to collect written notes recording which areas have been covered and  what kinds of prayers have been prayed. Pool your insights to ascertain

whether God is prompting a repeated focus on particular areas. Eventually aim to cover your entire town or city, unless God guides otherwise.

Scriptural Themes for Prayer-walking

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 such as 1 Timothy 2:1-10.
Many have found it to be a useful launching point for prayer-walking. Verse 8 speaks of the important territorial dimension to prayer connected with God’s desire that all people be saved, “I want the men in every place to pray” (italics added). Copy this and other passages in a format easy to read 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 of 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.2:8). 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 (1 Tim.2:6), 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.

Concerning the church:  Ask for hearing in relationships, that there be no wrath or dissension among God’s people. Ask that God would make his people, men and women alike, expressive in worship with the substance of radiant, relational holiness. Ask that our worship would be adorned with the confirming power of saints doing good in our communities.

Excerpted from Prayerwalking by Steve Hawthorne and Graham Kendrick (Creation House, 1993). This appendix may be photocopied and distributed as an introduction to prayer-walking.

 

ADELAIDE ARISE ON STREET PRAYER STRATEGY

STEP 1 – INDUCTION WORKSHOPS –  Each meeting will cover the strategic principles and mechanics for on-street prayer.

STEP 2 – ON-STREET PRAYER TRAINING – with an existing on-street prayer team (2 X 1hour sessions) STEP 3 – START ON YOUR OWN CHURCH &/OR HOME BLOCK – initial on-site assistance available
STEP 4 – JOIN WITH OTHERS IN YOUR SUBURB for worship, prayer, testimony, strategic conversations
STEP 5 – JOIN WITH OTHERS IN NEIGHBOURING SUBURBS – for worship, prayer, testimony, strategic conversations

AIMS FOR EACH SUBURB

  • EVERY CHRISTIAN RESIDENT TO START A TEAM FOR THEIR OWN NEIGHBOURHOOD BLOCK
  • EVERY LOCAL CHURCH PRAYER-WALKS THE PERIMETER OF THE BLOCK AROUND THE CHURCH
  • TEAM-UP TO PRAYER-WALK EVERY SCHOOL (ESPECIALLY THOSE WITH “SAFE-SCHOOLS” PROGRAMS)
  • ROSTERED INTER-SUBURB TEAMS FOR SHOPPING STRIPS, MALLS, COUNCIL CHAMBERS ETC
  • GROUP CONVERSATIONS WITH LOCAL COUNCILLORS, STATE MP’s & FEDERAL MP’s

Bill Wright – bwright@gmservices.com.au 0414 267 196 – for and on behalf of Adelaide Arise.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.