“Praying onsite with insight”

The Purpose of Prayer Walking

Prayer walking launches us beyond the privacy of our rooms and church walls into our neighborhoods and into the city streets. It helps us see what we are praying for and can inspire us better than if we were praying in a room far away from the object of our prayers. It does not necessarily make our prayers more powerful but it helps us to do the following:

1. Take authority over the land for Christ. In Gen. 13:14-17, God commanded Abraham to walk over the land that the Lord had given him. This happened at a time when there were others who lived in that land. Prayer walking helps us to eventually blanket the city, home by home, business by business, building by building in prayer. It enables us to take spiritual ownership of our city as we claim every place that we tread upon for the Lord (Joshua 1:3).
2. Assess the spiritual condition of the block, community or city where the prayer walk happens. We need to do an honest evaluation of the place where prayer walking occurs and this could reveal obstacles and intimidating problems. Today’s cities are normally hard ground that needs to be broken up so that the seeds of the gospel could be planted and could grow well. However, this should not discourage us in the same way that the spies in Numbers 13 were discouraged and intimidated about what they saw. Rather, we try to see the land with spiritual eyes of faith.
3. Realize what God might already be doing in the community or city. At first most of us have preconceived ideas about how we should pray for a city. But in prayer walking, we “watch and pray,” become more immersed in the environment, and become aware of what is going on, whether good or evil. As we tune in to God and listen we begin to be guided by the Spirit and receive insights on how we ought to pray. We are better able to understand His purposes and plans for the city and work accordingly. It is a kind of prayer where God can guide our eyes and touch our hearts with what moves His heart. We can expect His Spirit to reveal things to our hearts as we walk around, observe and feel what is going on.

Practical Guidelines

1. Prayer walking is usually done in pairs or groups of three around a city block or area. Have a start location and a time and place when and where everyone should be back. Encourage people to note down or record their thoughts and impressions.
2. Do not hurry to cover a lot of distance or to pray for a lot of things. Ask the Lord to show you His heart for your workplace, building and city block. Ask Him to guide your eyes to what He wants you to pray for, that you might see with His eyes. This might take time.
3. Walk inconspicuously as you pray. You do not want to draw unnecessary attention as you pray. This kind of prayer is not accompanied by large demonstrations and a lot of noise. It is quiet and unobtrusive.
4. Pray with your eyes open so that the Holy Spirit can draw your attention to certain things. As you focus on a group of people, a business and/or a building, begin with a general blessing. Observe and ask, “What is happening here?” Then “what would the Lord desire here?” and pray into that.
5. As you move from a general blessing to more specific prayer, be sensitive to how the Holy Spirit might take your prayer in a specific direction. The Holy Spirit leads us in many different ways some call nudges, burdens or promptings. He may just lay something in your heart as you are praying. Do not worry too much about whether your prayer leading is correct or not. We are all growing in our ability to hear and discern God’s voice and we all miss it at times. However, God will often independently confirm what He is saying through others.
6. Try to reserve a few minutes towards the end of your time to gather everyone back for a short debrief. Briefly ask people for their thoughts and impressions. Record these down. The Holy Spirit will often be giving insights to others that can be very helpful for future prayer.
7. Keep praying daily about what God has been revealing to you and to other participants in the prayer walk. No one person will have all the pieces of the puzzle together and God wants all member of His Body to take part. You can keep the participants in the prayer walk in the loop.
8. It is important to have a heart of humility as we intercede for the city rather than a critical, judgmental spirit about the “sinners” we are praying for. Let Abraham be our example who prayed that the Lord would spare Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 18:16-33). Let us also have the heart of Christ who wept over Jerusalem as he approached it from the Mount of Olives (Luke 13:34-35).
9. Many times the enemy will discourage us from continuing. So there will be times that we might feel that we are not accomplishing anything and that our prayers are getting weak. In this case we should all the more continue because “at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Gal. 6:9b).

Adopted from “Basic Prayer Walking” by Dave Gehris, Christ for the City International and Hannah’s Cupboard (a ministry of Barbara Lardinais) at http://hannahscupboard.com/prayer-walking.html