Local Prayer

Local Prayer

I have a suggestion for you today – but first a true story. A church in America once decided on a local prayer initiative. They sat down and randomly selected a page in their local phone book. They ignored the left hand page but for a week they prayed for every person on the right hand page by name. Then they systematically called every number on both pages and asked whoever answered if they would like prayer for anything – having first explained who they were and why they were calling. The result was extraordinary. Of all the people they called who they had NOT prayed for, they received mainly an abrupt “No” or worse – sometimes quite a bit worse. However, of the people for whom they had prayed, only two refused. The others were all grateful and received prayer willingly.

Prayer for your locality works. It not only works, it works better than we could ever realise. So when a local prayer initiative was presented to us we readily agreed to give it a try. This was not our own idea but the idea of a ministry and retreat centre in Wales.  If you like the idea, I can put you in touch with the ministry – costs are minimal – just message me on FB with an email address please.

The idea I am suggesting is very simple indeed. Recruit a small group, perhaps four or five people or couples in different areas of your town. Each person or couple needs to select FIVE people or families in their own area, road, or block. They do not need to know these people except that they are local to their area.

The prayer group then, individually and together, prays for all those on their own list for FIVE minutes a day, FIVE days each week, for FIVE weeks. That is five minutes IN TOTAL – one minute each. OK, so sometimes you take a bit longer. You do not pray for their “problems” but you pray BLESSING into every aspect of their lives that is wholesome. The prayer group meets weekly for an hour to discuss progress. At the end of five weeks everyone selects five more people or families to pray for – or they can keep their first lot, or mix and match new and old. Each couple or person can also set up a group in their own area if they wish – the object is to eventually cover the whole town, street by street, in prayer and blessings.

The results we have seen have been absolutely amazing. Salvations, healings, bad feelings resolved, neighbours becoming almost friendly again, children stopping running riot all over the place. The testimony goes on and on. You are praying BLESSING on to every person for whom you pray. You bless their home, their legal and wholesome work, their health, their friends, and their family – as well as their relationship with God. You are pouring blessing into their lives.

This is a different way of praying using the authority Jesus gave to us. It is a different focus seeking to promote the positives rather than praying about or against the negatives. We are seeking only to bless the people around us. It doesn’t matter if they are Christians or not, nor whether or not they go to our church. We are blessing the Kingdom as well as the individuals. Bless people from your local prayer initiative and watch how your prayer affects their lives for the better.

Try it. We have some example prayers of our own for you if you would like them too. Some CD's and a booklet are also available from the ministry.