Recent years have seen a surge of intercessors walking through their neighborhoods, praying both silently and aloud for their neighbors.

Other intercessors have followed God's leading to travel to distant lands to intercede for the lost peoples of those places. Certainly prayer is biblical. But prayer walking? Is it really valid and effective or just a passing "fad"?

The Old...
A study of the early chapters of Genesis reveals that in the beginning man and woman were created to walk with God. Men such as Enoch and Noah are described as ones who "walked with God." It was God's intention that we experience this most intimate and confidential of relationships with Him. Rebellion brought an end to the "walk," but God through Christ redeemed us back that we might again walk with Him.

...and the New
Now in the last years of the 20th century, as world evangelism accelerates, God has done a new thing. Beginning in the mid-1970s, believers throughout the world began to sense His leading to move out of the church buildings and the prayer closets and intercede out in the world. This kind of moving, on-site intercessions has become known as prayer walking. It is walking and talking with God, hearing and heeding His voice, seeing and sensing as He does.

Types of Prayer Walking

Devotional. All prayer walking begins with our personal prayer walk with God. Ensure that the most important goal in your life is nurturing a pure and unhindered walk with God.

Incidental. As we walk with God through the responsibilities and activities of our day, we will find Christ prompting us to intercede for others around us. This is incidental prayer walking - incidental to our normal work in the world. God uses us as intercessors.

Intentional. Strategically important are our planned and organized times of on-site intercession as God directs. These could be as simple as an evening prayer walk through our neighborhood or as involved as leading a prayer team overseas. Planned, intentional prayer walks are powerful for preparing the way for witness and ministry in Jesus' Name.

The talking church sounds good. The walking church looks good. The prayer walking church brings good.

For a number of reasons, much of Christ's church has become distanced from God and from the world to which she's called. Prayer walking has shown itself to be a divine solution to both of these problems. As God leads us into a closer walk with Him, we simultaneously find ourselves in closer proximity to our lost world. Walking with Him, we see as He sees and respond with pointed, empowered intercession. Then as He answers these insightful, on-site prayers, we are right where we need to be to extend a touch of love and share a word of hope. Truly, the prayer walking church brings great good to its neighborhood and its world.

Prayer walkers cannot remain the same. Neither can their world.

Preparing to walk

• Recognize that God is calling you to join Him in prayer in the world. Say, "Yes!"
• Stay prepared to walk with Him by confessing any hidden sin and then by keeping your life pure.
• Read and meditate on the word of God daily. His Word will increasingly frame your prayers in perfect accordance with His will.
• Invite the Holy Spirit to fill you and guide you daily.
• Be ready to obey Him whether He leads you to another neighborhood or another country.