The Prayer Walk

{ December 30, 2011 @ 3:50 pm } · { Footsteps }
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The Prayer Walk

Did you ever read that passage about the seeds that fell upon the soil? Some of the soil was good and some was bad? Some was thin? Some was filled with weeds that swallow up new growth? Well, to my reading, the soil in which Kingdom seeds are planted matters.  Good soil needs preparation. Something has to happen in the soil in order for new life to take root and grow. Look, I know a lot of people think I’m kooky.  I believe in impossible things. I believe in things that the eye cannot see and the hand cannot fully touch.  I believe that prayer is serious, serious business.  And I believe that prayer has real power.  It changes real things in real ways.  I don’t claim to understand it.  I don’t understand it at all.  You would be stunned by what I don’t know. But I believe in prayer and I believe that God is acting in wild ways now just as God did in Scripture. So, if you think prayer is the utterance of lunatics, you are probably starting to think that I am the biggest lunatic in the asylum.  You can probably quit reading now because the rest of this is just going to tick you off.

Prayer is at the heart of every mission.  Prayer isn’t magic.  It is begging for a blessing. The Spirit must precede what we do or nothing transformational is going to happen. If you are asking what you can do “missionally” (whatever that means these days), you can put together a team of people who truly believe in prayer and go for a walk in a spiritually-contested neighborhood. When I say “spiritually-contested neighborhood”, I don’t necessarily mean just the alleys in the ‘hood.   I mean your own neighborhood. Inside every home in even the most affluent neighborhoods, God’s reign is very much contested.  Hell visits high-end homes as often as it does tumble-downs. The booze just has a finer label.  The abuse is just better-hidden. The hopelessness and despair of Gehenna are just veiled behind designer curtains. Desperation lurks in the crevices of every life. Pour out your prayers in front of every house you pass.  Ask for a blessing of peace on every family, on every sidewalk and driveway.  Pray over the cars that God might get into the mind of the drivers who are thinking about driving those cars drunk. As you walk past the neighborhood school, ask God for a blessing of protection and presence…not just for your kid.  For every kid.

And be low-key.  Leave the monk garb at home. Having the right God-gear or t-shirt isn’t going to add mojo to your prayers.  This isn’t mojo. This isn’t about you or me.  It’s about God.  It’s about the Missio Dei, the Mission of God.  Get on God’s side in the spiritual battles that are raging on every athletic field and in every convenience store. Get on God’s side in front of every home where you know violence is a part of everyday life.  Pray for a blessing on every liquor store and “Checks Cashed” place that exploits the vulnerable daily. Pray over the alleys that house the homeless that the darkness and its predators would understand these places as holy ground. Even the stones can be lifted.  Beg for an anointing on the street corners where the destitute beg for scraps from passing motorists. Get into God’s presence in deep humility and some of the residue of that encounter may fall upon the ground on which you stand…that “residue” of God is what anointing is.  It has real power.  Pray for God’s “Kingdom come, on earth as it is in Heaven” on your local government center, and on the prostitution corners and crack houses.  Pray a cleansing on the gang graffiti. Walk by the jail and work-release center and pray a blessing on the officers and inmates.

Prayer IS the mission.  If you don’t have anything to give away, remember that giving away THINGS is not the point.  Getting on God’s side in God’s mission – the one that God is involved in with or without our participation – is what this is all about.  So, go for a walk today…with God…in prayer.  Pour your spirit out over your town, village, or city.  Weep over your city. You will be amazed at what you will see happen around you… and in you.