Prayer Walk Handout Praying On-Site with Insight In hundreds of cities around the world, God is helping Christians to pray as they pass through the streets of their communities. We have come to use the word prayer walking to describe this kind of on-site intercession. Prayer walking is simply praying in the very places we expect God to bring forth the answers to our prayers. Our prayers are extending beyond our own concerns, focusing directly on the needs of others. Prayer walking is not so much about walking or being outside. It s drawing nearer to those for whom we pray, so that we can be clearer about what we are to pray. God is stirring us to take our prayers beyond the walls of our church buildings. As we put feet to our prayers, we re beginning to pray with kingdom-sized hope for specific people and places. Prayer walking is usually a low-profile affair: Friends or family stroll two-by-two through-out a specific place, praying as they go. Once in a while the prayers can be demonstrative, but usually it is fairly quiet. It is being on the scene without making one. Though they usually walk unnoticed, prayer walkers quickly become aware of the realities and needs of the area they are praying in. Pray with a Partner You can prayer walk alone, but many find that their prayers are more focused when expressed with a friend. Pray audibly for clarity and better agreement if you can. As you finish, discuss or even write down the prayers, people, and places of most importance. You ll be ready for the next round of on-site-prayer. Pray over a Territory Establish a short route. Perhaps you will only walk past a dozen homes or places. You may not walk at all, but pray from an overlook point, looking on many places at once. Pray with God s Spirit Invite the Spirit of God to accompany you, guiding your steps and your words. Be attentive during moments of silence, allowing the Holy Spirit to help you see with His eyes and pray in accordance with His heart. Address God directly about contending with evil or its aftermath. Ask God to redeem people as He restrains the enemy.
2 Pray with God s Word Read Scripture aloud. God breathed it and loves to bless it. Express God s thoughts in your own words. Carry Scripture with you. Use a small Bible, or notecards. Choose a particular verse or theme as a base for your prayers throughout one day s prayer walk. Use another to launch your prayers the next day, and so on. Pray with Purpose Pray for the present-hour needs of people and places that you see. Sketch a map to focus on select streets and homes. Pray quietly. You can be on the scene without making one. In confidence of God s unfolding purpose which includes your preparation prayer, do not look to initiate gospel conversations during your prayer walk. Pray for God to open doors of communication soon. Explain what you are doing to inquires: We re praying God s blessing on the area. Are there specific ways we can pray for you or others? This question should not be asked if you are in a restricted access country. Finish with a Talk Discuss your prayer walk with your partners. What prayers should be prayed again? Which prayers should be recorded to help watch for God answers? What did you learn about the area we prayed in? What service is God giving you to do? What further prayer effort is God stirring you to pursue? Praying with Scripture 1. The Lord s Way (Matthew 6:9-13) What we sometimes call, The Lord s Prayer is really our prayer to pray for others and ourselves. Our Father in heaven We come near You in heaven by the way made by Jesus. As we come near those that we see as we walk, we pray that a way would be open for You in their lives. Hallowed be Your name We want You honored in this place, recognized by every single person. You are so worthy of praise for what You are already doing in their lives. Here is our request: Reveal who You are by name. Get Your ancient story told. Answer right now prayers in Jesus name so that You will be explicitly exalted. Work in their lives so that You alone will be honored, feared, thanked and praised.
Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven We believe You will be followed right here, as surely as You are obeyed in heaven. Come loving King! Confront us with healing power. Subdue our rebellion against You. Transform these hearts to follow You soon. Turn us together toward You, that we might do Your will as families, even as whole communities of loyal obedience. Give us this day our daily bread We ask You to provide every daily need for the people in this place. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors Our city is trapped in a tangle of transgressions. Only Your forgiveness can free us. However deep or longstanding the sins of our city may be, we beg You Lord, bring forth a wave of reconciliation on the very street we walk. May forgiveness spread from person to person, throughout the families and between the races and heal our land. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one Deliver the people we see in this place from the predicaments we know from our own sin history. Help these ones escape the traps they have built and Satan has baited. Break the vicious circles of addictions and pride. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen We recognize Your sole sovereignty here. We see Your power already at work. And we can almost glimpse the radiant beauty of Your fullest glory dawning upon this place. We give You our praise now. Unite the eyes of this community to see You soon, and give You explicit honor. 2. Search and Rescue (Luke 15:4,8,24) Read Luke 15. Take note of how Jesus describes God relentlessly seeking the people He has lost. As you walk the place you are at with God, open your heart to sense His deep yearning for those so dear to Him. Your prayers can be empowered by His amazing joy when lost ones turn to Him again. What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? Ask God to show you one person that God is especially pursuing. Or what woman, if she has ten silver coins and loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? Look with God for the lost treasure of where you are walking. It may surprise you to sense God searching ceaselessly for one woman, man or child. As if where you were walking was a house, ask God to light a 3
lamp, to sweep away the clutter, and to search till He finds what He desires. 4 For this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and has been found. And they began to be merry. Ask God to draw prodigals home. Pray that God would find the church ready to celebrate and serve them. 3. Send Your Word! Focus prayer for the gospel to be communicated clearly and powerfully. Pray for us that the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified, just as it did also with you. I Thessalonians 3:1 Release Your Word here and let it run like a river! Accelerate the spread of the gospel in this place. Move one person to tell another. As new believers display life-change in Jesus, splash the city with Christ s own beauty. And now, Lord grant to Your servants to speak Your word with all boldness, while You stretch out Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of Your Holy Servant Jesus. Acts 4:29-30 Grant us a bold beauty to declare Your word to the people in this place. Open ways for us to pray in Your name so that You can display Your goodness openly. Break away the intimidation that has muffled us from telling Your story. Send forth Your light and Your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to God, my joy and my delight Psalm 43:3-4 Proclaim the word again, even to these who have already heard Your word. Be pleased to put more candlepower on the gospel, guiding them to authentic encounter with You. Illumine their minds. Ignite their hearts with the joy of knowing the living God. 4. From Darkness Pray that God would bring the light of the world right into the place you are praying at. Jesus spoke to them, saying I am the light of the world John 8:12 Worship Jesus as Light of the world. Thank Him for the light that already illumines where you are praying. Many are asking, Who can show us any good? Let the light of Your face shine upon us, O Lord! Psalm 4:6 In the very place you see hopeless despair, pray that Christ s face would shine like the sun.
Through the tender mercy of our God, with which the Dayspring from on high has visited us; to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. Luke 1:78-79 Pray for God s mercy to aim a daybreak of His light right on the people you see who sit paralyzed and blinded by fear of death. For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son. Colossians 1:13 Ask God for more than a glimmer of light. Ask Him to firmly transfer many into the domain of Christ s light. To Light to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me. Acts 26:18 Pray for open eyes. Then pray for a turning from darkness. Add more by asking for a turning from Satan s power to God s safety. Then pray that they receive all of God s best by faith. For God, who said, Light shall shine out of darkness, is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6 If God can call light out of sheer darkness, He certainly can reflect light from the hearts of Christians. Ask God to shine in the hearts of Christians to again give out gospel light. proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9 Ask God to exert His amazing excellency of calling people. Ask Him to call those you are praying for out of darkness. 5. From Death Only resurrection power will truly transform out communities. Make a case for the area you are praying over as if life and death were at stake. I am the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Revelation 1:18 Worship Christ alive. He lives with a greater life than any. He is the only one holding keys of authority over death itself. The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly. John 10:10 Where Satan has stolen, murdered, or destroyed, invite Jesus to bring life. Describe the abounding life that Christ desire for the area you are praying over. 5
6 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My Word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. John 5:24 Pray that those you are praying over would hear Christ s word and entrust themselves to Him. Ask God to grant them awesome passage from living death into a life as full as it is lasting. To Life Those who sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, bound in affliction and irons because they rebelled against the words of God, and despised the counsel of the Most High. Therefore He brought down their heart with labor; they fell down, and there was none to help Consider those whom you encounter while prayer walking. Ask God to show you someone that has none to help and is ready to give up. Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their chains in pieces. Psalm 107:10-14 You might be able to cry out to the Lord for their trouble as if they were your own. Make the request specific by asking God to lift them out of distress and depression, which may hold them like prisoners in lightless dungeons. our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 2 Timothy 1:10 We exalt You Lord Jesus! You have defeated death. Now make the gospel brilliantly clear to the people in this place that they may take hold of that which is life indeed. 6. Resisting Evil Come before God s throne of mercy to seek His powerful intervention. Ask that evil powers would be frustrated and that many in the city would taste the freedom and joy of life right with God. But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. 2 Thessalonians 3:3 We praise You faithful God. Protect these people from what they cannot fight. Impart strength to stand against evil they do not see. But I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil Lord God, what blessing do You intend here? We ask you to vanquish evil powers in ways we may never fully know.
and the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Romans 16:19-20 We have known You as the God of peace. Rise now to war against Your enemies. Use our steps of obedience as crushing blows to the evil one. if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. 2 Timothy 2:25-26 God Almighty, set paralyzed prisoners free! Many are enslaved to evil and do not realize their predicament. Have mercy and grant them a turning point to break free and see clearly. To Establish Good Where you see injustice, God is not finished. Call on Him to break evil and set righteousness rolling like a river in the city. O let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; for the righteous God tries the hearts and minds. Psalm 7:9 We see only the exterior surface of lives. We know that You examine the inner worth and intent of the heart. Only you can sort out the right from wrong. Turn away evil people from this place. Establish people of your character. A father of the fatherless and judge for the widows, is God in His holy habitation. God makes a home for the lonely; He leads out the prisoners into prosperity Psalm 68:5-6 Pray for kids whose parents do not care; for women abandoned by faithless husbands; for lonely people who have no one to care for them; for those overpowered by the cruelty or greed of others. Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, the God who is our salvation. God is to us a God of deliverances; and to God the Lord belong escapes from death. Psalm 68:19-20 Any who have escaped death have not survived, they have been saved! You are the Savior! Save us more than ever. We have no other hope. There is burden here beyond our power to bear. Help us God! 7. Blessing Jesus Way Praying a blessing is simple: in faith speak words which match God s own desire for the destiny of particular people. It is a way of praying in future tense. Praying a blessing can be even easier if you add a pertinent request. Each of the Beatitudes points to the radical life changes that the Father wants for everyone. 7
8 Pray both parts of each Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-10): 1. Request the life change, which Jesus describes. 2. Pronounce the blessing, which Jesus bestows. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Our request: Shake, sift, and sort their lives. Expose what is worthless. Exalt what is of lasting value. Grant courage that they may soon declare spiritual bankruptcy in order to receive Your kingdom. Our blessing: We speak upon them heaven s best treasure: deliverance, joy, and peace under the kind Kingship of Father God. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Our request: Embrace them in Your arms for every sorrow, show Your even deeper grief that they may not turn bitter in their own self-piety. Grant them a taste of your goodness and greater joy. Our blessing: Upon them we speak peace upon anger; solace upon anguish; and Father God s own presence unlocking prisons of loneliness. Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth. Our request: Grant them new humility. Empty them of self-made grandeurs and phony pride. Our blessing: We want for them the boundless destiny of Father God s family: generous contentment, safety and significance in His increasing dominion. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Our request: Impel them onward whenever they yearn for right life. Enlarge their appetite to see the world made right in God s way. Our blessing: We speak upon them a share of Father God s own satisfied delight in inner heart goodness. May they see with their eyes the justice of God. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Our request: Unlock closed hears to forgive. Lift the binding patterns of iniquity. Set off a chain reaction of mercy in their home. Our blessing: We speak upon them Your mercy, that Father God s prevailing love would interrupt the course of events brought on them by circumstance or their own sin.
9 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Our request: By Your finished work in Jesus death, launder their life from inside out. Our blessing: Blessed are the eyes of their hearts that cleansed inside they see their entire world filled with Father God, illumined by the light of the greater days to come. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Our request: For those harassed because of doing and pursuing right things with Jesus, grant patient wisdom to follow Jesus throughout the days of trouble. Our blessing: We would give them open ears to hear heaven s pleasure: the applause of Father God s joy in those who live like His Son.