Displaying items by tag: prayer walking

As September approaches, students will begin an academic year like no other as the coronavirus pandemic impacts universities. But God is still moving and working, students are searching for hope and purpose, and we can meet this moment in prayer walking. A core part of being a child of God is to nourish the place we have been given so it is fruitful and God is glorified. The places we inhabit are characterised by the community, culture, opportunities and experiences they enable. As we pray for our universities, we can grow in our personal devotion and intimacy. By prayer walking we can also grow in community and accountability as we pursue a common purpose together. Pray for churches to mobilise in order to reach students, inviting them to try church and offering pastoral care. Pray for students’ hearts to soften and accept Jesus.

On 16 June the Neighbourhood Prayer Network and others encouraged churches in London to join a prayer walk initiative because ‘whatever happens in London affects everyone of us. When we see London in revival, the whole of the UK will follow.’ London Prayer Loop is a step of faith in obedience to God, calling for an end to violence and all that is not in God’s purposes for our capital and our nation. Each of the 24 sections of the London Loop were prayer-walked by the churches. From 21 to 23 June, further prayer will go out on the loop, focussing on whatever God places on people’s hearts, and praying for the well of salvation to be opened and for God’s glory in London. Londoners and people from other parts of the UK will be prayer-walking the loop, and there will be opportunities to meet in the centre of London to pray together.

The burden to pray in Europe was born around the year 2011 during one of my prayer journeys in USA. I have been praying in USA since 2009 following a burden placed upon my heart during a visit to the grave of David Brainerd and Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, Massachusetts, USA. But my visit to Europe came about only this year, 2017. Lord miraculously provided a family in Hamburg, Germany – Pavan and Hanna - to host me during my visit. This enabled me to attend the International Prayer and Mission Leaders Consultation in Herrnhut, Germany from 8 – 12 May.

Immediately after the Herrnhut meetings, I left on a six-nation prayer walking tour. I was able to visit 10 cities – Leipzig, Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Geneva, Zurich and Copenhagen. I also had the opportunity to visit Wittenberg and of course I spent four days in Herrnhut earlier, the birth place of the Moravian Movement. It was a very solemn experience to be in Herrnhut and to reflect upon the vision, the commitment and the life of Count Ludwig Nicholas von Zinzendorf. 

This was my first visit to continental Europe and I could only visit six countries in Western Europe. I have no idea of how Eastern Europe is and its needs. Therefore it must be stated that this is by no means comprehensive of the situation in Europe. And I wish to add that it is more through the eyes of one from India, called to preach and teach the word of God and of one who has been following the Lord for nearly 44 years and has been involved in preaching and teaching the Word of God for almost the same number of years. 

At the outset I must state that, as in USA so also in Europe the main focus of my prayer was not so much those who do not know God, but my focus was the people of God, the Church – for God’s people to live lives worthy of their calling. If the Church is as she should be, then the world would be reached too. In my opinion the church at large has lost her witness and her authority as well through compromise with the world. 

1. Before leaving for Europe, I asked the Lord what I should be praying for in Europe. Lord answered that I weep for these cities and the people. This is what I did in each city I visited. 
2. My first stop after Herrnhut was Leipzig. I attended a Bible study with a small group of young people, all of them were in their 20s. After the study, I asked the group if there was one thing that I could pray for Germany, what that would be? One of the young men answered, “Pray for the burden of guilt that we carry. The guilt of what our ancestors did in the past.” This threw a totally different perspective for me on what some of the Germans might be going through. Another young man at the same group said that there were many who do not see any need for God in their lives and that there was a total lack of knowledge and belief in God or in Christ, These two statements expressed by two men in their 20s gave me an idea of what to pray and this became my focus in Germany.
3. One scripture passage that was brought to mind constantly as I walked through these cities, was Romans 1: 18 – 31. These classic words of Paul in Romans tell us the spiritual history of man. I began to understand how this probably came about in Europe, especially regarding the ‘suppressing of truth’ and the consequent ‘revealing of God’s wrath’ – God giving them over to: idolatry, irrationality, immorality and impurity of every kind. I then understood, why Lord wanted me to to weep for these cities and their people. 
4. In Amsterdam, as I was looking for the hotel where I was booked to stay for the night close to the Central Station, I strayed into the red light area. (I am not sure if this is the famous red light district of Amsterdam). As I walked through and prayed and observed the people, I began to have a sense of foreboding and a palpable sense of the presence of evil all around. It felt as if some one was driving me away to leave the place. I wept. I had the same feeling of foreboding in Freetown Christiania in Copenhagen, Denmark. I felt totally uncomfortable and out of place walking through. I strayed into the place and did not know what it was until I read about it later.

5. While travelling by bus from Brussels to Paris, I felt the Lord telling me, “Speak judgement upon these cities”. All along the journey from Brussels to Paris, the route was dotted with small farming villages. And practically every village had a structure with a steeple. Obviously those were small cathedrals and that means there are or were Christians there. This gave me no joy. Unless there are dynamic groups of the body of Christ, cathedrals and physical structures of any kind were of no use. I wept.

Practically everywhere one can see tall physical structures, probably chapels and cathedrals. All these structures as well as the institutions they represent have actually obscured the knowledge of God. They neither represent Him nor His Son, Christ Jesus.  The urgent need of the hour is for dynamic groups of followers of Christ, who would truly represent Him in their lifestyles and not in their programmes and projects. I, then understood why I was to speak judgement upon these systems, structures, cities and people – they were not true representations of God. It was as if man erased God’s glory in His creation and built structures which represent his own image – the image of his fallenness. I wept! 

In general that was the burden of my prayer all over Europe – that God would raise not bannered groups but living and dynamic groups who would live as the Body of Christ, the way Christ lived. I believe unless such groups arise the world over, there is no hope for the world and the church as well! 

6. As I walked in Geneva, Zurich, Frankfurt and Copen Hagen and as I looked upon the huge buildings – the financial houses, banks, malls, store-fronts, museums, the art and the architecture, Lord began to say to me, “These are the temples in these nations.”. These have become the source of sustenance, security and identity for hordes of people and thus have supplanted God in their lives. I wept! 

Idolatry in the West is not the same as in the East. In the East, they rejected God’s general revelation in His creation and began to worship the creature rather than the Creator. In the West, people seem to have rejected God’s revelation both in creation, His word and His Son and have begun to worship the creature. The only difference is that the gods were different. These gods were gods of money and matter. Ostensibly they appear neutral and innocuous. Yet these demand no less devotion and allegiance and one is as enslaved to these gods as the gods in the East. All these gods blind the eyes of the people from seeing the glory of God in the face of Christ. 

I began to sense the presence and the power of Mammon all around. And I began to wonder if Mammon has overtaken us all, both in the West and the East by surprise including many Christians and many churches. We seem to revel in our riches and our material affluence. We do not see money or Mammon as the single greatest rival to the worship of God, as Christ taught in the sermon on the Mount.Instead we think that money is needed to serve God and in the bargain we give more time to making money than to worshipping or serving God. Ofcourse we justify it by super-imposing our work upon worship lapsing into the eastern mindset of ‘work is worship’. I wept! 

7. Finally, in the midst of it all I prayed for the remanent faithful people of God, who already there sincerely living and following Christ all over Europe – that they would be a potent witness for His Kingdom. I believe they are already there. AMEN, LORD! 

Launched on the 25th March 2017, we are aiming to see at least one church per day encourage their congregation walk 'A Mile with Jesus' over the next two years. We are trying to see one church in every postcode area of the UK take part. To date we have had 30 churches from across the UK take part.

The vision came to our Neighbourhood Prayer Network, prayer co-ordinator at the end of a 2 week period of fasting in October 2015. As she was praying she said to God, ' I will go a mile with you.'

She felt the Holy Spirit respond saying, as many as will go a mile with Him, He will go with them.

People have had profound encounters with God as they have walked a mile, or for those unable to do a physical mile, sat at home with a map.

When I personally did several miles with Jesus, I felt God asking me to pray for people I would not normally pray for (silently) and He also told me to look around at all the people that I saw and He told me that He didn't want just some of these people 'saved' but for every last person I could see, to come into relationship with Him. He reminded me of the scripture, 'the Harvest is plentiful, the workers are few, pray for Lord to send more workers into the field.'

My heart attitude to people I might normally walk by without much thought was changed as God reminded me of the love he has for all people without exception. This experience has had a lasting impact on me as I now pray for my heart to be open to loving people more.

'A Mile with Jesus' is also intended to prepare the ground for the HOPE 2018 year of mission where denominational leaders have pledged to aim to see church growth of 10% next year.

Our partners for this are HOPE, World Prayer Centre, Pray for Scotland, National Weekend of Prayer, National Day of Prayer and Worship and 24-7 prayer. Our partnerships are expanding.

One of the things we hope to see is people who would not normally take part in prayer walks joining in. We have written a prayer guide with these people in mind.

Some church leaders have commented that this is something fairly easy to encourage people to do.

To take part

1. Choose a date for your church and sign up at www.neighbourhoodprayer.net/amilewithJesus
2. Decide if you are just going to encourage people to walk a mile on this date as they go to work etc, or if you want to do it as a church altogether...
3. If you want prayer pointers, order our resource 'A Mile with Jesus' from www.resourcesforchurch.com
4. Consider asking other churches to join and get any feedback from people's prayer times that might reveal something God is saying specifically to Your church.

We are keen for churches to sign up in July and August as this part of the calendar is hard to fill with holidays.

If your Church would like to get involved, Click Here to Sign Up.

We've produced a great 36 page, full colour, Prayer Guide to complement A Mile with Jesus,and it's available in single copies, Digital Download or as a Church Pack of 15 with Free P&P.

Originally designed for those with little or no experience of prayer walking, seasoned prayer-walkers have also said how much they have enjoyed using it!

"When we work, we work, but when we pray God works". "More things are wrought through prayer than this world dreams of" (Alfred Lord Tennyson – poet).

The success of any mission is in direct proportion to the amount of believing prayer that can be mobilised. Little prayer, little blessing. Much prayer, much blessing. Many have their stories of answered prayer, of God doing "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3.20). Let's share these to encourage people to pray more, to believe God for more and to engage with God on behalf of their unsaved friends and relatives.

Triplet prayer began in Scripture. Moses, Aaron and Hur prayed on the mountaintop during the battle against the Amalekites (Exodus 17). Jesus encouraged His disciples to pray in 2's and 3's (see Matthew 18.19-20), and showed by His own example how important this was by taking Peter, James & John with Him to pray on the mount of transfiguration and in Gethsemane. God seems to think in three's – the Son and the Holy Spirit intercede with the Father in prayer (see Romans 8.26 and 34)!

In more modern days Triplet praying was introduced as part of the preparation for Mission England in the 1980's. Over 30,000 groups came into being across England, with many thousands becoming followers of Jesus before Billy Graham began his preaching tour! Since then many nations across the world and many evangelists have incorporated triplet praying into their programme, with similar results.

Triplet prayer originally consisted of 3 people praying regularly together for three friends each, so that between them they were committed to praying for a total of nine people. They would pray for their known needs and especially for their conversion to Christ. These groups can be in your neighbourhood, or with school or college friends, or in your place of work. There have been triplet groups in old people's homes, and even in some prisons. People confined through age, illness or disability can participate – through telephone, skype or zoom calls.

If we genuinely wish to see our friends born again and God answer prayer in our spheres, then

• the commitment to regular informed prayer for a set time each week,
• the prayer of agreement with two others,
• and the raising of our personal faith level and expectation

are all significant in preparing the lives of others for the seed of God's word to take root and bear fruit. It is also important if we want to see a change of spiritual atmosphere in our work-place. 

Things change when we pray together. Across the world there are many stories of this kind of thing happening.

"My work environment has changed since we started praying together, and some of my colleagues have become believers in Jesus." Business leader.

"The prayers of the youngsters from your church has had a significant impact on the school since they started praying every day". School headmaster

"I used to prayer-walk my community weekly with two young men. Both have ended up in full-time ministry" Christian leader

" Our community has changed since I and other children started to walk and pray regularly around it. All the prostitution has gone and it is now a safe place for us to play". Fifteen year old girl.

Brian Mills, Senior Advisor to the IPC