House Blessing

Where should you begin your prayer walking? Start in your own home. How’s that for an easy first assignment? Have you ever blessed your house, your property, all the possessions that God has given you and everyone who lives with you and walks through your doors? If you live within a family, this is a great thing to do all together – if that is possible. Husband and wife are very powerful when blessing their house together. If you live alone you can do it all by yourself. You have the greatest authority over your own dwelling and possessions so this is the place to start.

Enter through your front door pronouncing blessings as you go. Walk from room to room praying over each one, inviting God’s Holy Spirit to abide there and to dispel any darkness. A touch of oil on your finger for each door and window can remind you that your house is set apart for holiness and for God’s purposes. Ask the Lord to assign angels over your house and property to protect you and all that God has put in your hands. Pray for a greater measure of God’s grace and light to come. Pray for each family member. Claim God’s best for your entire household.

If you have blessed your house (and you might want to do this once or twice a year) you are now ready to go to your front door once again. But this time you may walk out your door and into your neighborhood. You are making sure your own house is a lighthouse before you try to provide light to any other. Observing is a very important part of targeted prayer so walk around your block or up and down your street first without praying anything other than, “Lord, what do you want me to see – how do you want me to pray?”

As you have insights, begin to pray. It may surprise you how much you can know just by looking around and by using common sense. For instance, you see that three doors down there is a house for sale. So you say; “Lord, help these people sell their house and get a fair price for it. Please bring us the right new neighbor; let the new people feel excited and blessed by their new house. Help the neighborhood welcome them as they move in. Let it be a good fit. If the new people don’t know you Lord, cause them to begin to hunger for a relationship with you the minute they walk in their front door, etc.”

Form your prayers in such a way that you are only pronouncing blessings on your neighborhood, especially if you have never done this before. Use praise and worship and invite God’s light to permeate any darkness. Where you sense darkness, call on God’s grace and love to overcome it. There is a time and place and a way to more directly confront the kingdom of darkness which I will cover in other material. For now, you are on the safest ground by blessing, blessing, blessing everywhere you go on your prayer walk.

Pray without ceasing

I also suggest that you stay within the confines of your own neighborhood at first. Get your feet wet by what you know best and by where you have the most authority. Your own neighborhood is also the best testing ground since it is there that you will most easily see the positive results of your efforts. Answers to your prayers will come and you will be encouraged to keep going. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be pronouncing blessings on your bank or grocery store or school or anything else as you go about your daily business. I Thessalonians 5:17 says;
“Pray without ceasing.”

Prayer power partners, prayer teams

The scripture says; “Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12). So in other words, there is strength in numbers and this couldn’t be truer in prayer. Prayer power increases with each person added. Do you have a household member that has a heart to pray for your neighborhood? A Christian spouse who will walk and pray with you? A neighborhood friend who agrees with you to bring God’s light onto your street? Go for it! Best of all, is your church interested in prayer walking? Sign up to be part of it. (I will offer more information on forming prayer walking teams in churches in another article.)

How to prayer walk

Exactly how you do your prayer walking is going to depend on a number of things that only you know. What time is available to you? I told you I used to do my daily prayer routine while walking (not really prayer walking by my own definition) in the interest of time efficiency. How safe is your neighborhood? Can you safely walk in the dark before sunrise or after sunset? If you can that is a good way to do it because then you can pray quietly out loud if you so desire. And you don’t have to be concerned about being observed if you pause over a particular house if you feel God’s leading.

Try to establish a routine in your prayer walking or it will quickly fade away. This is not something that you just do once. Make it a habit. Prayer walk once a week or at least once a month such as the first Saturday of every month. Arrange with your prayer partner, if you have one, a time that will work for both of you and that won’t easily be cancelled by intruding activities.

Pray for protection

Pray for protection before every prayer walk. This is the most important thing I can tell you so I will say it again. Pray for protection before every prayer walk. There are many beautiful portions of scripture to pray that lend themselves wonderfully for that purpose but Psalm 91 is my favorite. It may even be one that you will want to memorize because as you know it very well you will find all sorts of occasions to pray it back to the Lord. If you are walking alone, ask a friend to pray for you at the time you will be walking. Here are some additional
prayers of protection for you to consider.

Why is protection so important? The Bible says; “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (I Peter 5:8). As you disrupt the devil’s territory through your targeted prayer, he may target YOU to devour. Be wise spiritually and leave no opening in your fence that he can get through. (More on spiritual safeguards in another article) Remember that the blood of Jesus defeated Satan so you should not be afraid; just smart about the way you do things in the spiritual realm. If you have never invited Jesus into your heart and have never applied his blood to your sins and your life, do not prayer walk. (See “How to Meet Him”)

Prayer walking is growing in popularity all over the world. People are leaving their own little worlds and walking out into dark places in order to bring the light of Jesus. Prayer teams have been taking walking tours in countries for the last several years and a big push is still continuing. They are there simply to walk and pray in places where there is no witness of the gospel or where it would be illegal to evangelize or where the light has faded. Appearing as simple tourists, these men and women are literally covering the whole earth in prayer. Do you want to be part of it? It’s exciting isn’t it? Put on your walking shoes and head out your front door. Remember that Jesus said you are the light of the world!

As you start your Prayer Walking, I would love to hear about your experiences so please comment and let me know.
Return to Part 1 of
Prayer Walking