Last time we looked at the practice of prayer walking and considered how it is a natural place for us to serve the Lord and our communities as priests. We are, after all, a part of the priesthood of all believers so we all are called to live in priestly ways.
As we prayer walk then, our prayers can be a beautiful place for us to bless the physical places God has called us to live, along, of course, with all the inhabitants, the families, singles, elderly, businesses, and schools God has sovereignly placed us among. The simple and powerful blessing that we can use to shape our prayers is the Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6:22-26. For more, read the full article.
However, while the Aaronic blessing gives us a liturgy to guide and shape our prayers, it’s the Holy Spirit who brings inspiration and specific revelation. We need both, the Spirit and the word. The Spirit, as Paul writes to the Romans, is aware that we often don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. We see the surface issues and can make good guesses at how to pray, but none of us sees the heart. We also don’t always know the mind of God for a person or a situation, so we never stop being dependent on the Holy Spirit to help us and guide us in effective intercession.
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. Rom 8:26
WORD & SPIRIT
I’ve been around all kinds of different approaches to prayer over the years and I’ve noticed that the most effective and sustainable is when you have this scaffolding of liturgy (the word) and the freedom for the Spirit to interrupt and shift direction or bring a deeper moment of intercession. Interestingly, this is the essence of what IHOP in Kansas City does in their prayer sessions, they use a passage of scripture to guide their prayers and then riff off of the passage, as the Spirit illuminates and inspires them. After 24 years of 24/7 prayer, we could say it’s proven to be a great model!
Praying the scripture gets prayer activated (rather than waiting until you feel inspired) and rounds up all our wildly scattered thoughts, aligning them with God’s will and ways. As we walk down these “paths” of the word, we find the Spirit loves this environment so more and more light shines into our prayers. Here is a place where wonderful prophetic revelation can burst forth and infuse our prayers even more.
It’s not just prophets who receive inspiration in prayer, look again at the Romans’ passage we quoted— “the Spirit helps US in our weakness”— it’s all of us who are empowered and assisted by the Spirit to pray. This empowering enables us to be more consistent in prayer, to be in touch with God’s heart of compassion, to engage with faith, and of course, to be guided in what we pray for. It’s our job to be responsive, to notice the stirrings of faith and compassion that could indicate the Spirit’s direction as well as His voice— be that in words, images, or biblical references. The Spirit knows how to communicate with any one of us and loves to do so— it’s our job to be attentive and to have ears to hear.
So let’s prayer walk with an expectation that the Spirit is with us and wants to pray through us. He wants to empower us with faith but also to guide our prayers so that we are fully partnering with Him to advance the kingdom in supernatural ways. We can expect that we will find ourselves just at the right place at the right time, praying something we hadn’t expected because we are on this adventure with God.
ANOTHER REASON
Then there is another really compelling reason to prayer walk…
It makes us available to be used by God to minister.
We can run into someone, a woman at a well, a beggar in front of the temple, or an Ethiopian eunuch driving a chariot … okay, that one might be a stretch, but you get what I mean… We can run into someone who God wanted us to encounter because they are on a journey towards Him. Maybe we can pray for them and simply bless them or maybe it can open up a door for a conversation which could lead to something much bigger.
Here’s a simple testimony from my friend Wanda Kopp. She shares a great moment of ministry that wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t been prayer-walking:
“A while ago on my daily walking route, I felt led to really pay attention to when the Spirit might be leading me to stop and pray a blessing for someone that He would highlight. I usually encountered young moms walking with their strollers, or men and women taking a walk by the river on their lunch break. Part of my route took me past a construction site where a new home was being built. The first time I felt the Spirit’s prompting I chose to ignore it. ‘Really, Jesus? You want me to walk over to those guys, get their attention, shout over their music, and pray for them?’
The next day, as I approached that same spot, the Spirit nudged me again. ‘Ok, ok, I’ll do it!’ Even though I was super nervous, I was also quite excited and curious. I had been seeing the Spirit work as I prayed for young moms and other walkers along the way, and they were all so thrilled to receive a blessing. I guess Jesus and I were building a history together. So I wandered over to the construction site, wondering how I was going to get the attention of the three guys who were on top of the roof with their music blaring. As soon as I approached, however, they hopped down off the roof, turned down their music, and walked towards me.
Ok, then.
I introduced myself and told them that I had been walking past them for a few days now and that God wanted me to stop and bless them because He loves blessing His kids. ‘Would it be okay if I prayed a blessing for you guys today?’ Immediately they removed their hats and bowed their heads. It was amazing!
I prayed a simple prayer, blessing their work and blessing whatever else they might be trying to build in their own personal lives. They thanked me and we said goodbye. The next day as I walked past I heard them shout, ‘Hi, Wanda!’ My heart just soared. It was such a simple thing I had done and yet I knew that I had participated in bringing the kingdom and the Father’s blessing.”
NOW’S THE TIME
I know at times, the ministry testimonies that we share can be ones that are so supernatural and glorious they can feel a bit unattainable. That’s why I wanted to include this simple, but still powerful, testimony. I think any of us could imagine doing what Wanda did. She listened to the Spirit, obeyed, and boldly stepped out with what she had to offer— a blessing. The construction workers received the blessing with gratitude and we may never know how profoundly that moment will feature in the story of their lives and their journey towards Jesus.
Now imagine if thousands of Christians made this kind of Spirit-led, missional prayer-walking a habit. Praying for God’s blessing to flood our neighbourhoods, and at the same time, listening to the voice of God and staying alert to all the people we pass— recognizing that anyone could be a person that God has prepared for an encounter.
It’s August, so across much of Canada, it’s warm and still light, late into the evening. People are outside and perhaps more relaxed and available than in other seasons. Let’s see what God might do! Let’s lean into a renewed season of prayer-walking.