What
Is Prayerwalking?
.....Prayerwalking
is moving your prayer closet or prayer meeting outside the
four walls of a building. Many times our prayers wobble
between trivial matters of our own selfishness and topics
of remote interest. However, prayerwalking focuses believers
on the real needs, the real hurts, and the real concerns
of their community. As believers prayerwalk, God gives them
a heart for people and their needs. It enables believers
to intercede with power for people in their cities and communities.
.....Prayerwalking
is defined as "praying on-site with insight."
It is an active strategy that calls Christians to identify
targeted places and then physically move about those premises
to cover them in prayer. It is praying in the places that
you long for God to work. It is moving outside the four
walls of the church and praying on city streets or roads
for the people and places around you. When you go on the
scene, different sights, smells, and sounds will prompt
you to pray in ways that you would probably never think
of if you were to pray from a remote location.
.....There
has been an explosion of prayerwalking in the last twenty
years. Prayerwalking does not have a father; no one person
can be identified as the founder of the movement. One cannot
find an original prayerwalker who devised the idea years
ago. There has been a mutual sharing of ideas, but God has
apparently authored the idea in the hearts of many of the
pioneers who have quietly gone on with the job and have
passed the idea on to countless others.
.....Prayerwalking
is just what it sounds like it would be: praying while walking.
Since there are different kinds of walks and different kinds
of prayer, we need to have a sharpened, narrow definition
of prayerwalking. As defined earlier, it is praying on-site
with insight. This definitions reveals that there are three
distinct parts to prayerwalking. These three elements are
necessary to carrying out a successful and powerful prayerwalk.
.....The
first part of prayerwalking is prayer. It is intercession
for people and their needs. While you walk, you call on
God to work in and bless the people of a street, a road,
a community, or a city. It is the deliberate activity of
interceding for others as one walks by their homes or businesses.
In prayerwalking, a believer focuses on people and their
cities or communities with a specific plan of intercession.
The believer calls on God to bless, to save, to change,
and to use the people who live in the houses or work in
the businesses. Prayerwalking is not occasionally beaming
bundles of religious sentimentality toward people. It is
directed and focused intercession. This is the strength
of prayerwalking. It is quality intercession for people.
The best praying is always done on purpose and not as casual
happenstance. Quality intercession is not incidental; it
is intentional!
.....Prayerwalking
is on-site prayer. It is simply praying in the very places
where you expect your prayers to be answered. It is praying
in the places where you long to see God work. One can pray
as he or she walks by a building or house. There can be
exceptions to this. One can routinely break from walking
to take a deliberate stance at special spots or station
oneself at elevated viewpoints. This is for the purpose
of intentionally praying for a place and the people who
are there. Whether walking or stationed at a place, you
are praying at the place where you desire and long for God
to work and to pour out His abundant blessings. It is going
to the place and praying where you hunger for God to send
His power and His blessings.
.....Finally,
prayerwalking is praying on-site with insight. You can receive
this insight in a variety of ways. One way is responsive
insight. This is the insight that you receive as you look
at and observe the people and the surroundings. When people
prayerwalk, they do it with their eyes wide open. By seeing
the people, their homes, and their businesses, it floods
their prayers with significance. The ordinary powers of
observation yield tremendous insights about the best focus
in prayer. These insights will refine their prayers and
will give a more powerful and sharper focus to their prayers.
By having this more powerful and sharper focus in prayer,
it will lead to more fervent intercession.
.....The
insight of the prayerwalkers may be researched insight.
Before going on a prayerwalk, believers can do research
about their community or city. They can therefore understand
the problems of the area and the hindrances to the gospel
in this area. By doing this, they can develop a prayer strategy
that will address these problems and these hindrances. This
will allow them the opportunity to pray for solutions and
for the removal of any obstacle to the spread of the gospel
of Jesus Christ Insight on how to pray can be given to the
prayerwalker as he or she prays through the Scripture.
.....Another
way that you receive insight during a prayerwalk is revealed
insight. The Holy Spirit will reveal specific needs and
concerns to pray over during your prayer walking. Because
of this, it is crucial that the prayerwalker pray the Scripture
as he or she walks. This is due to the person and the work
of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals the
truth of Scripture and who enables the believer to pray.
As a believer prays the Scripture, the Holy Spirit will
grant specific guidance in how to pray for individuals and
cities or communities. As a believer saturates his life
and prayers with the Word of God, the Holy Spirit can and
does grant specific promptings to pray for a city or community
and its individuals. Praying the Word of God opens your
ears to listen to the prayer guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The will enable the prayerwalker to pray more specifically
and more intensely.
.....The
insights gained through prayerwalking can lead to powerful
intercession for a city or a community and its people. These
insights will enable the believer to seek God to deal with
the problems and the barriers to the gospel so that God
can be glorified by the advancement of His kingdom and the
transformation of lives in cities and communities. These
insights blend together to fortify prayer with a starkly
relevant authenticity. It is no longer prayer as usual.
This up-close and personal prayer becomes an adventure.
Dr. Kevin Meador © 2005....................CLICK
HERE to view a MS WORD version of this guide.
