Prayer Walking

In this epidsode, Keith and Megan Peeler discuss a simple model of prayer walking. They describe how they got permission from their local high school principal to walk around the school and pray. Here are some simple steps you can follow to begin prayer walking.

Transcript

Hey, welcome to the next episode of the Everfree podcast.

We're glad you're here and thanks for listening.

Well, everybody, we are glad that you are here, that you're listening with us this morning.

It is a rainy morning here in Wimberley, isn't it? Praise God for the rain.

Yeah, we need it.

We'll take it.

We need it bad.

Happy to have it.

So this morning, we, because we just did it and we've been talking about this a lot lately in amongst different conversations and friend circles is we're going to talk about prayer walking today, right? 

Yep.

And so we started prayer walking the schools how long ago was it babe? It's been about a month that we started prayer walking the high school.

Right.

But we've done this in and out of seasons.

Yeah.

Well, it's definitely something we have practiced regularly.

And as we practice doing it, um, because we've done it, I forget that it's a new concept.

So we're going to talk about it and what it is, what we're doing, what we're not doing and whatnot.

So when, when, when people ask you what is prayer walking, what do you share with them?

Like what's your first, like your two minute elevator speech on what you say? 

Like how would you just respond to that? 

If somebody said, Hey, what you're doing prayer walking, what is that? 

Yeah, I pray that the Lord would show us things that are going on in the school.

And so I said, when we're prayer walking, we're just asking the Lord, we're praying for the students and the teachers and the staff, but we're also praying and asking the Lord to reveal anything that is affecting the school.

Um, any darkness that needs to be exposed or blessing the land and blessing the school with heavenly hosts to come and surround the territory so that it's protected and safe, especially the stay in age with schools being so on high alert with gun shootings and stuff like that.

I think it's really important to take, um, take ground.

And I feel like that's what we do when we prayer walk.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's interesting because of course Everfree, uh, all of our prayer stuff is, it's prayer that sets the captive free has always been our tagline.

Um, so we want to share components of prayer, things that are working in our lives, things that we're growing in, things that we're learning.

We want to share those things with you guys as you listen.

And this is a really practical and easy thing that you can do anytime, anywhere.

And I feel like with most prayer stuff, um, people feel intimidated and overwhelmed.

Yeah.

Right.

Like I, I very, I very rarely meet people like, man, you know what? 

I am a rockin prayer warrior, right? 

Most of the people that we talk to a lot of insecurity.

I just don't know if I'm praying the right way, which is all, I mean, that's totally normal.

Right.

So if you're feeling that as you're listening, this podcast is for you, right? 

Because, um, we love to pray and it's become one, it's the focus of our ministry.

So clearly we get to do it quite a bit, but beyond that, it's just, it's a, it's a, a thing that has just naturally taken place in our life as well.

Yeah.

So beginning in the beginning is where it was always a good place to start.

Yeah.

Um, first time we prayer rocked really was in Dallas, Dallas.

That's right.

That was where it was a new practice for us.

We were learning about spiritual warfare for the first time and our ministry was neighborhood oriented.

So we were praying for the neighborhood and particularly an elementary school that I would, I was the PTA president.

I volunteered there and I served there and it was a way to physically help the school and the volunteering part, but then the prayer walking happened.

So that was our kind of where we cut our teeth.

And we would bless the homes that we would walk past and bless the school that we would be surrounding in prayer.

And we started to experience blessings ourselves in relationship with the neighbors that we were prayer walking in the neighborhood.

So people were coming out and engaging with us as well.

Yeah, absolutely.

And that's the part of it that I love is it's a, it's a tactile, um, out there way.

Now our introvert friends, you can do this without talking to people.

Yeah.

You don't have to talk to the people.

Okay.

I have a dear friend who loves to pray over the land and doesn't like to pray with people.

That's just the way she's wired and God bless you.

My friend, you know who you are.

Um, and, and so really when we think about prayer walking now, the first question that we, that we came to was, okay, Lord, it wasn't our, where are we going to prayer walk essentially first? 

It was Lord, how do you want us to pray for our kids? 

How do you want us to pray for our family? 

And we've had difficulty in our school environment with our kids.

So we're like, okay, let's start praying for the kids at school.

And then it was a pretty natural decision.

I'm not even sure it was a heavy duty, Holy Spirit deal.

It was just, yes, we should go pray for the schools.

Yeah.

And dealing with all things spiritual warfare and, and everything that you guys hear us talk about is there's a measure of authority that we have as believers, but then there's also honoring the authority of the places that we go.

So the first thing that we did was what? 

We went straight to the principal and the superintendent.

I asked them for permission.

We explained what we wanted to do.

And the first thing that they wanted is, well, does that mean you want to get inside the classroom and talk to kids? 

I was like, no, that's, that's not what we're asking for right now.

We just want to walk the perimeter of the school, whatever safe for the environment, whatever blesses you, whatever, whatever's not in the way.

We just want to pray for the students, the visitors, the administrators on the campus.

That's, that's what we're here to do.

We're not going to proselytize.

We're not going to try to convert anybody.

We're just here.

We want to be a blessing to our community.

And that's where we started.

So we had that was honoring the authority.

So if you're you know, if you're going to prayer walk someplace that you go, maybe you have an office.

Well, you know, if you got your own little office inside your building, you have the authority to pray in your own office anytime you want.

But you know, if you want to walk the building, you can do that as a citizen of your city.

But to get greater spiritual authority and people on your team to get, you know, a greater impact, having people on your side is helpful.

And so it's not like a rule of authority always necessarily.

It's more like blessing the people that you're going to be around.

Yeah.

It's how do you honor people, right? 

You know, I don't want you coming in my house and telling me how to rearrange my furniture.

Right.

Unless you're, you know, a gift and I'll be like, hey, my friend, what you go over here and help me out? 

That's a different story.

Right.

Yeah.

But but imposing your thoughts on my house is not comforting.

Right.

You come to me and say, hey, Keith, I'm a designer.

Here's some of my work.

Would you allow me to give you some thoughts and ideas about your interior? 

Well come on in.

Yeah.

I'm going to be honoring and all that.

So that was our first step.

We want to make sure we knew where we were going.

What has got leading us to do? 

And we got that.

And then what do we do? 

We got to the campus and what was the first thing that you remember doing when we went to the campus that first time? 

I remember us sitting right outside the car and just asking the Lord for direction.

Which way do we go?

 Right or left? 

You mean physically? 

Yeah, physically.

Like, do we go to the right or do we go to the left? 

And we went right.

There were areas where we would walk and I said, hey, hon, we need to go that way.

And you would say the same thing.

So we were doing a lot of active listening as we were walking the property of the high school.

Yeah.

So the way I've kind of written this down in other places and I've done specific trainings and oh, here's a plug, by the way.

Super excited.

Forgot to tell everybody already.

We are going to start doing some online courses.

So exciting.

So this is going to be one of them that's coming up and you can sign up for that.

We'll have various levels of training and stuff like that that we're building and working toward.

But this is one of the ones that I'm currently writing as an actual course that you can take.

And so one of the first things we talk about in the first part of this deal is, yes, you get the authority, but then you're going to walk that space and you're going to observe.

That's the word that we're using, observe.

And so when we talk about prayer, sometimes we talk about the phrase listening prayer.

But we always say that that often people are insecure about this idea of listening prayer because if they're not hearing the voice of God, then are they hearing God? 

And we talk about using your senses that what are you perceiving? 

What are you sensing? 

So this idea of on a prayer walk, you're going to observe.

So we asked the Lord, OK, Lord, here's some direction.

Which way do you want us to go? 

We didn't hear God's voice say turn right.

You know, it was.

Hey, there's this.

OK, we're just going to trust that that's the Holy Spirit.

Follow that nudge.

And then we observe.

So then we take the right.

I'm remembering this.

We took the right.

We're going to kind of walking across the front property.

What happened in that first part of observation that you noticed? 

We passed by some sewage pumps that smelled like sewage.

It smelled terrible.

And all around the sewage pumps, there was trash everywhere.

I noticed that too.

We didn't even know that was there.

And it just it felt dirty and smelly and gross.

Yeah.

And so that affects me when I feel something.

It also affects me spiritually.

And so I was like just holding my nose and trying to get around it.

Y'all if you know her, you know, she's what I would call a strong reactor.

Feel her.

I'm a feeler.

Some people say high maintenance.

Other people say other things.

But we love her.

She's amazing.

So yes, it's true, though.

The way you know you are a feeler.

So you are impacted by your environment at other levels that other people aren't.

And you observe that.

And so that's the question, Lord, why is it so dirty over here? 

Is this a part of the of the providence that's not forgot? 

Is it forgotten about or what's going on here? 

And maybe it's just dirty.

It doesn't necessarily mean that there's a spiritual significance, but you're paying attention.

And so when we had that observation, natural or supernatural makes no difference.

Then the prayers are like, OK, Lord, there's garbage.

It's like, Father, would you cleanse this campus? 

Would you send angels to come here and cleanse whatever garbage, emotional, spiritual, physical or just cleanse the campus? 

So that was an observation that led to a specific kind of a prayer.

Right.

Yeah.

OK.

So then we're walking.

We keep going past the garbage.

Then we made our way around the corner.

What was do you remember the next observation or just another? 

It doesn't have to be the next one.

What would be the next observation that you would remember? 

I we were walking around the ag buildings where the animals are and life is.

And so I found myself wanting to pray for life to come into the the ag made like the kids go through ag and raise farm animals.

And I was just praying life over the land and over the space of these animals that will be cared for in there.

Yeah.

Again, here we go.

It's a natural observation.

What is the ag born there for? 

It's for raising animals.

Yeah, you're caring for the creation so that FFA doesn't say we're here to care for the creation, right? 

They're there to teach kids about ag development and responsibility and those things, but but as kingdom people, we know that raising animals is a representation of caring for life.

And this is the abundant life that God's given us.

So so then we have this activation.

We have observation leads to an activation of this prayer.

Lord, bless the barn with life, bless the students with life, bless the ag teachers with life and come and minister to them.

And then we stumble upon the ag teacher and we get to chit chat.

Yeah.

And just say, hey, we're out here prayer walking.

Is there anything we can pray for you for? 

Right.

And she had a she had a what I would call a standard response.

Like, well, no, I'm good.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sometimes when people are, you know, you're meeting somebody for the first time and you say, can I pray for you? 

They just don't know how to respond.

Right.

Or they just don't trust you enough to tell you what they need prayer for.

You got to build that trust.

Absolutely.

But it was a great encounter.

And now that teacher knows that there are people walking the campus once a week.

Yeah.

Praying for the students and praying for them, whether they believe what we believe or not.

So then, OK, so then we have that encounter.

And then again, we're on this observation thing.

What was the next observation that you remember? 

I there were massive rocks like stone walls that surround the school.

The school is actually built with stone walls as well.

And I heard I sensed a scripture in my spirit that said, even the rocks will cry out and speak my name.

And I was proclaiming that that the God's creation would speak his name.

If the rocks can do it, then so can the Holy Spirit.

And so I was praying that as I looked around the surrounding area of how the building is made.

Yeah.

So the Holy Spirit can lead you creatively to think of different things.

And the creation speaks of his glory.

And so as we're calling out of the creation, we're blessing the creation.

You're observing.

That's another part of it is it's you're declaring truths.

That's one part of prayer walking is declarations.

You can declare scriptural truths.

Bible verses may come to mind as you're observing.

Yeah, Megan, the songs.

I get a lot of songs today when we were prayer walking.

I got the song.

I just kept hearing the word awaken.

And then I heard this song by Hillsong called Awaken My Soul.

Or I think that's what it's called.

But it was going off in my head.

So then I start praying about awakening.

That these students would experience an awakening that encounters the love of Jesus.

Yeah, absolutely.

So this again, this is a this is an easy thing to do.

We're trying to make this palatable, easy.

You're doing significant spiritual things, but it doesn't have to be a significant effort to do significant things, because when the Holy Spirit empowers your words and empowers your feet and your actions, that's he's the one doing the work.

Right.

Right.

We're just being obedient.

So then, OK, so the observation that we saw the rocks, then we kind of kept going from there.

And what was the next observation you remember? Well, in those rocks, they were they were together in a way that there were a lot of nooks and crannies and holes.

And I sense that things are being hidden in the holes of these rocks.

You even thought that maybe people were kind of dropping drug drug stuff.

Yeah, because our school is known for having access to a lot of drugs, specifically marijuana.

And so, yeah, I had full like thought in my head that said things are being hidden in this space.

So what do we do? 

We prayed in the opposite and we asked that nothing could stay hidden and everything would be brought into the light.

Right.

And so hiddenness was one of the words that hit me quite a bit on the campus.

Yeah.

And I don't know what's being hidden.

I mean, that's the whole point of things being hidden.

You don't know what they are.

And so that was as I observed it, I didn't see it in the natural.

There wasn't some sign or a piece of garbage or a rock that said something is hidden here.

It was a sense.

You know, I'm constantly as I'm walking.

All right.

Sometimes I'm praying in tongues as I'm going.

Sometimes I'm just walking and observing.

Some of the times we're just chit chatting about the kids in school and how we're feeling about the day.

It's not that it's this intense thing the whole time, necessarily.

It's really there for about a good hour.

So we're just walking or getting some exercise within these physical things.

But that that hiddenness kept coming to me.

And so I said, all right, then that must be the Holy Spirit leading me.

It's this thought that keeps coming.

It's hitting me in my chest and my thinker, my knower, if you will.

And so, all right, Lord, we just pray then that in the name of Jesus, whatever is being done in secret will come into the light.

Holy Spirit, would you allow your light to shine on the school and to reveal the things that need to be revealed? 

Right.

And then, you know, within a couple of days of that, we know what I'm going to talk into some personal business here.

But but we came into understanding through some of our kids, some stuff going on.

At school, that was coming up.

Yeah.

Right.

And so it it wasn't a major thing, but it was a major thing because we're praying for things in the dark to come to the light.

And now these things, these rumors, these different kinds of stuff is like, oh, the truth is coming out.

We're only in the second week of school.

Barely.

It's just the fourth, fifth, fourth day.

Oh, my goodness.

Yeah.

And so we're just watching as the Lord nudges our hearts as these little, little whispers you can tell.

And and over the years of prayer, Megan and I have both as we've been obedient to praying, certain senses have evolved and we've gotten gifts in the spirit to do things.

So so I can sense with a gift of discernment and some discerning of spirits.

Sometimes I can physically sense when the enemy is present in certain places.

And and there were certain places in the campus we thought this feels dark and heavy.

But then today, as we felt we walked the campus, it was much lighter.

Yeah.

And there were actually more people on the campus, too.

Right.

It was the first day that students were actually we did this last Tuesday and school started Wednesday.

Yeah.

So the first time we actually physically saw the kids on the campus.

Yeah.

And, you know, I'm also reminded of a moment where I was something came to mind about a stone that was set aside and set apart.

And and it was by the masons and it was the mason brick or mason plaque that was on the school.

And I I sensed it before I saw it.

And then you and I went to the front of the school and saw this.

I don't know what what the masons do.

It's a cornerstone is usually what they call that.

Yeah.

But there's also a lot of oppression that can come with partnership with the mason masonry stuff.

And so we were just praying anointing and blessing over that.

Yeah.

Anytime the anytime there are curses over a building or any kind of dedications to things other than the fathers and the Holy Spirit.

And this is, of course, for some people, a hot button issue because they think that the Masonic temples are just a service organizations.

But we have we have prayed with many now and recognize that Dr. Kraft points out quite clearly in many of his teachings in writings, some of the demonic roots of their rituals.

And so, you know, we have friends that are masons.

We love them.

We bless them.

But we just, you know, we've seen many, many masons as the Holy Spirit reveals to them the truth of the rituals that they've been through, that those rituals have actually united them with things that are not of kingdom and light.

And so that's always a part of it.

So, yeah, it was an observation, a nudging of the heart leading to a prayer.

And so it was just freedom from anything, Lord, Lord, you just you would have your way.

And so that's part of it, too, is as these observations lead to just things of the heart, sometimes theological things, sometimes something we have to go in and discern and research to learn more about it.

And one of the things that we're doing is, you know, we talk about declarations.

So what kind of declarations can we make? 

Well, whatever the Bible teaches us as truth about land or about his creation, we just declare it.

Right.

I don't always know that I can come into a place and cast out specific demons without the authority to do so.

But I can always proclaim the truth.

So, Father, in the name of Jesus, we proclaim that the earth is yours.

So this school is yours.

This land is yours.

Have your way with this property.

That's one declaration I can declare that where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

So, Lord, we declare that there's freedom.

And would you bring freedom to the campus by the spirit of the Lord? 

So those are kinds of declarations that we can have.

And they feel very empowering because their truth being sent out on the land.

And if you have any concerns or worries about your children in these school settings, for any reason, things that they're going through, going into the space of prayer walking is very empowering and freeing as parents.

Absolutely.

Well, and then as we've done declarations, then we can also bind the enemy.

Yeah.

So we bind things in the name of Jesus.

So, Father, if the enemy is here, we bind the enemy in Jesus name.

Whatever dark forces are here, whatever evil, whatever sin, whatever brokenness, you know, that's just a generic.

There's not something specific that we may know about because we don't know.

We're not in the school.

We're just praying around it.

So we bind the enemy from doing whatever the enemy is trying to do there.

And then we speak blessing.

So what's a blessing that we might speak over the school that you would think of? 

So I bless the schools to be experiencing the love of Jesus.

I bless the hallways to be filled with light and that the Lord would go before the children and protect them.

And I bless the teachers to operate out of a posture of love and care for their students, that they would bless and anoint every student that they touch.

And I pray protection over the school in Jesus name.

Mm hmm.

And it's just really an easy opportunity for you to be present.

There's a couple of different books out there on prayer walking.

And one of the phrases that I've heard, I don't know if Ed Silvoso or somebody else that said it, but but the idea of prayer walking is praying on site with insight.

So the insight comes from being present.

The insight comes from observing and figuring out what's going on.

And then the on site part is you're physically there doing that work.

Right.

I've I've prayer walked the property here at the house.

Right.

You know, Lord, would you send your angels to surround the property and bring us protection and peace? 

And so that's that's an easy way to do it, too.

We like to prayer walk because it's tangible.

It gets us out there.

And then like even today, we're finishing the prayer walk and we have the permission.

But as we were getting in the car, it's about 15 to 20 minutes or so before school is going to start.

So we're still we're on campus when we're supposed to be.

And a police officer, the security resource officer that is on campus was standing at the back of the house trying to back out and I see a police officer stand behind the car.

I was like, oh, hey, how are you doing? 

You know, he's like, hey, I'm going to have to ask you not to be here on campus.

It's no actually a permission.

Mr.

Valentine, the principal said that we did.

He goes, oh, well, I just didn't know.

And so we we had it.

But now we felt like that interaction, I guess.

Yeah, we're here.

We're prayer walking.

You know, we got permission as long as we're here before the actual school hours are happening, you know, this and that.

He said, OK, well, that's fine.

No, no big deal.

But now he knows that we're there offering security and support.

Well, maybe he knows that we told him that's what they're for.

Sure.

I'm sure he'll figure it out.

Sure.

He'll figure it out.

He's an officer of the law.

I was actually glad that he was being so vigilant and noticed us there.

Yeah, I mean, that's what was curious to me was like the last couple of times we've been there.

I mean, nobody's out there.

And he said, yeah, I noticed you guys walk in the school before.

I said, yeah, we've been doing it for a couple of weeks now.

And so it was I'm glad that there is somebody paying attention to who's on the campus of our students.

And those, you know, it's a small school, small town so they can they can now he knows who the peelers are.

For sure.

He sure does.

What else, babe? 

This is a fun, quick, easy little podcast on a very tangible, easy to do, something you can incorporate today in your own life kind of thing.

What other encouragement or challenge or what would you want our friends and listeners to know about prayer walking that we haven't already mentioned? 

Did we miss anything? 

I think it's that if you are feeling fearful or feeling heavy about something your children are going through, then why don't you go prayer walk and just pray that protection and the opposite spirit of what you're experiencing so that it brings freedom for you and peace to you and comfort.

But it also will bless your children and bless the campus.

Yeah.

And there's no wrong way to do this.

Right.

Hey, just go prayer walk something.

I'd love to hear your stories, though, when you're doing it and what you're experiencing.

Share those testimonies of how that happens.

All right.

Well, friends, thank you for this fun, quick, easy podcast this time around on prayer walking.

We pray that you are blessed.

We pray that you are meeting with the Lord daily in your own intimate space, that you take authority over your homes and your offices and the places you go.

But more than anything, that you be filled by His grace and that you be transforming the world around you because the power of the Spirit is transforming you from the inside out.

So we pray that blessing over you and commission you.

We bless you.

We we activate you to prayer walk in Jesus name to go and do whatever it is and go wherever it is you're being called to go.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, friends.

Well, until next time, it's Keith and Megan Peeler with the Every Podcast.

Bye bye.

Hey, thanks for listening to the podcast today.

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