Walking Prayer
I’m writing this blog on March 25, 2020, right smack dab in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.
I’m in California, so have been socially isolated for a couple of weeks now. This is not a huge change in my lifestyle since I already work from home. But not being able to teach my Bible study, or go to church on Sunday, or see my friends, has been strange.
Many of us are dealing with the social isolation by walking. But walking isn’t just for exercise, or keeping yourself sane in the midst of a worldwide pandemic.
Walking also helps believers to focus on God, listen more clearly, and pray more intensively. And if you aren’t physically capable of walking – or the weather is horrible — then move somewhere else in the house with a new view. Take deep breaths, do stretching exercises. God knows where you are, and what you are capable of. Just do it.
There are three main types of walking prayer:
- Focus on God in praise, confession, petition, and intercession.
- Listen deeply to the Holy Spirit.
- Pray extra intensively for a big prayer request.
Walking Prayer Helps You Focus on God
I told my Bible Study group that most days I pray for them walking up Heath Creek Wash. Walking keeps you focused.
The classic elements of Christian prayer are praise, confession, petition, and intercession. There are a couple more really important parts like listening and meditating, but let’s start with the four that every believer agrees on.
The great thing about praying these prayers while you’re walking is that your body joins you in those prayers: your lungs are filling, oxygen is pumping up your blood, your heart is exercising, your muscles are working.
Mentally you are also more engaged as you watch your changing surroundings.
Put that together with prayer, and your whole self engages in prayer! This is the type of focused, believing prayer that God answers!
Try it with intercession, and watch situations and people change. I most often pray for others when I’m walking. (Specifically when I’m dog walking. Cocoa is a very holy dog by now because I pray out loud.)
Do the same for petition. By getting out and walking, you can focus better on your personal requests and where they fit into God’s will. If they don’t fit, then you’ll learn that too and recognize different and better opportunities in the will of God.
Will it happen the first time you go on a walk and pray? Probably not.
Keep it up. And on the 5th, 10th, 20th, or 50th time you’ll start to see miracles. And fruits of the Spirit. And direction. And spiritual gifts.
Walking Prayer Helps You Hear God More Clearly
This is also the time to ask Him searching questions and hear His answers.
Listening takes practice. A lot of believers don’t listen for God, because they don’t believe the Holy Spirit works that way.
As long as your communication is grounded in Biblical truth, then yes, you can hear the Holy Spirit if you seek God and listen. The Bible is chockful of prophecies, dreams and visions; all within their proper place in God’s revelation of Himself. (Note that if an angel named Moroni shows up and tells you that a set of golden tablets will replace the Bible, don’t listen.)
Because walking prayer engages more of our mind and body than other types of prayer, you can listen to God more deeply as your walk while you pray. It’s easier to clear your mind and hear God tell you about what that verse meant, or how to change your attitude around your difficult teen, or what business project you should do next.
And yes, God cares about that. Didn’t He guide the fishermen to catch a huge load of fish? That wasn’t only spiritual.
Take a Prayer Walk
Third, a subset of Christian walking prayer is cleverly termed… wait for it… a prayer walk. It’s a little different from praying while walking, because it’s specific to praying over a physical location while you walk the boundaries. Or if that’s not possible, as in a location that is several states away, walk while picturing the location in your mind and heart.
Good examples include property that you want to buy, or a church that you want to bless, or a neighborhood that you want to reach for Christ. Literally walk around the location while praying for it. Don’t do this so often that someone calls the police on you! But you can walk nonchalantly while you’re praying your heart out to God.
Here’s a true example from Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C. In his book The Circle Maker, Mark and church members would often walk around property they believed they should buy for the church.
The thing was that even if the property was horrible – crack houses come to mind – they were extremely expensive because they were in a very desirable part of town, close to government buildings.
When it became clear to Mark that a certain property should belong to the church, he started to walk it. He brought in his congregation with him in corporate prayer and prayer walks, and God worked financial miracles to raise the money they needed.
They had their eye closely on one available property, a former crack house. Real estate investors spent several millions to buy it, and put it on the market for millions more. Mark and his church prayed and walked and sacrificed, and after a while raised several millions to buy it.
Several times they were outbid, but amazingly enough each bid fell through. Still, no property.
The last time was terribly disappointing. In spite of long faithful prayer, the investors finally accepted someone else’s bid. The deal was done.
Mark was terribly disappointed. He left for a few weeks with his son on a planned trip to South America. They were out of cell phone range for several days as they hiked to Machu Picchu.
When they got back to the hotel, there was a message from Lora Batterson. That certain bid fell through, and the investors accepted the church’s lower bid. The property was theirs – and God’s.
The church believes that if they had not prayed and walked in faith for years, they would never have claimed the former crack house for the glory of God.
Sometimes the thing you are intensively praying for isn’t easily available, or is a person who won’t necessarily want people walking around them all the time! In this case, do a prayer walk in a physical place while you visit the location in your imagination.
For example, I live in the mountains of Southern California. I love it here, but I know that God has called me to found a physical Christian retreat center near Buena Vista, Colorado.
I don’t know the specific property, and I won’t start looking for another couple of years. But thanks to God’s speaking to me and my prophetic friends, I know what a lot of it will look like. So while I am walking my dog in California, my prayer walk vision is in Colorado.
Or your prayer walk might be for another person. I am assuming you are already interceding for that person, but in urgent or difficult situations go on a prayer walk. Hold that person firmly in your mind as you walk, and picture Christ meeting them where they are.
However you are using walking prayer, take advantage of it. Jesus and his disciples walked everywhere. There were no recorded sermons or live streams or cars. There was just them, walking with the message, walking in the power of God.
Be a disciple.