Prayer Evangelism

You Can Reach Across the Street
or Around the World with Prayer

"Pray without ceasing."
--- 1 Thessalonians 5:17

"The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much."
--- James 5:16 NASB

Prayer evangelism is an outreach approach that highlights the essential role of prayer as the foundation, guide, and source of power for all evangelistic efforts. It is based on the belief that human efforts alone cannot bring people to faith and that only the Holy Spirit can prepare hearts, dismantle spiritual strongholds, and enable individuals to accept the Gospel. Essentially, prayer evangelism entails a systematic and intentional process of interceding for the unsaved, asking God to act in their lives and create opportunities for gospel proclamation, while also equipping the believer to be a compassionate and obedient witness.

The Theological Foundation of Prayer Evangelism
The theology of prayer evangelism rests on several core assumptions:

• Sovereignty of God: This concept acknowledges that God is the "Lord of the harvest" and the initiator of salvation. Although humans are called to serve as witnesses, it is ultimately God who draws people to Himself (John 6:44).
• Necessity of the Holy Spirit: Prayer evangelism acknowledges that evangelism without the Holy Spirit's power is fruitless. The Spirit convicts of sin and opens spiritually blinded eyes (2 Corinthians 4:4), a process activated and sustained through prayer.
• Spiritual Warfare: The practice operates on the understanding that there is a spiritual battle for souls, involving principalities and powers of evil. Prayer is the primary spiritual weapon given to believers to overcome these obstacles and release people from Satan's grip.
• Christ as Intercessor: Jesus Christ serves as the ultimate example and high priest who continually intercedes for His people and the world. Believers are invited to join Him in this work of intercession.
• Prayer as an Act of Dependence: Engaging in heartfelt prayer for the lost is an expression of our total dependence on God's power, not our own skill or strategy.
• God's Desire for All to be Saved: Scripture indicates that God wants all people to be saved (1 Timothy 2:1-4), and He acts in response to the specific, fervent prayers of His people (James 5:16).

Key Principles and Practices
Prayer evangelism is not a rigid formula but a lifestyle and an attitude that permeates all forms of outreach. Its primary methods involve both individual and corporate practices:

1. Person-for-Person Praying
This is a foundational and ancient practice where one Christian consistently and systematically prays for a specific non-believer by name.
Method: Individuals create a prayer list of friends, family members, or colleagues who do not know Christ and commit to daily prayer for their salvation and needs.
Goal:
To attune the intercessor's heart to God's heart for that individual and to ask God to prepare the person's heart to receive the Gospel.

2. Praying for "Felt Needs"
This involves asking for God's intervention in the tangible, everyday challenges a non-believer is facing, such as health issues, financial struggles, or family problems.
Method: When a non-believer shares a struggle, the believer offers to pray for them on the spot, demonstrating love and confidence in a living God who cares for their needs.
Goal: Answered prayers can open their eyes to the reality and power of God, making them more receptive to the spiritual message of salvation.

3. Relational Evangelism and Hospitality
Prayer is integrated into building authentic, loving relationships with non-believers.
Method: Christians intentionally build relationships, listen to people's stories, ask thoughtful questions, practice hospitality, and look for natural opportunities to share their personal testimony (story of God's work in their life).
Goal: Trust is built, which provides a credible context for the Gospel message. The relationship is a "bridge" over which the message can travel.

4. Strategic and Corporate Prayer
The local church plays a vital role in organizing and mobilizing a dedicated "prayer core". Methods: Prayer Walking/Driving/Flying: Physically going to a neighborhood, city, or nation and praying on location for the people and for spiritual strongholds to be broken.
"Operation Andrew": A strategy used in large campaigns (like Billy Graham crusades) where thousands of people commit to praying for specific attendees by name for weeks leading up to the event.
Identifying and Praying for Strategic Leaders: Interceding for local church leaders, evangelists, and missionaries to be empowered with boldness, clarity, and conviction (Ephesians 6:19-20).
Mobilizing Networks: Connecting various prayer groups and networks across a region to ensure comprehensive and sustained prayer coverage.

5. Holy Spirit-Led Discernment
Rather than relying on a rigid script, prayer evangelism emphasizes listening to the Holy Spirit's guidance in each unique situation. Method: Praying for wisdom and discernment about who to talk to, when to speak, and what words to say.
Goal: To partner with God's timing and work, ensuring that evangelistic efforts align with His specific plan for that individual or community.
Outcomes and Impact: When prayer is foundational to evangelism, several powerful outcomes are often observed:
Hearts are softened: Spiritual blindness is removed, and individuals become receptive to the Gospel.
Discernment increases: Believers gain insight into the specific spiritual barriers and needs of those they are reaching.
Boldness is empowered: Fear is replaced with courage to share the faith (2 Timothy 1:7).
Lasting fruit is produced: Efforts yield genuine conversions and transformed lives, not just temporary emotional responses.

Core principles

Spiritually preparing the "soil":
Prayer is viewed as a way to till the soil of a person's heart and spiritual environment before sharing the gospel. This can make them more receptive to God's message when it is eventually shared. Relying on the Holy Spirit: Prayer evangelism recognizes that only God can transform a heart and bring a person to salvation. It asks the Holy Spirit to move in the life of the non-believer, remove their spiritual blindness, and convict them of sin.

Intercession for the lost:
It involves fervently praying for individuals, communities, and nations to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.

Opening opportunities:
Christians pray for God to open doors for conversation and for boldness to speak when the opportunity arises, rather than waiting for a sign.

Connecting prayer and action:
This approach asserts that prayer for the lost should not be separated from physically engaging with them. It is a dual strategy of "talking to God about people, and then talking to people about God".

Practical applications

Prayer walking:
This involves walking through a community, neighborhood, or city while silently praying for the people who live and work there.

Prayer canvassing:
This method involves going door-to-door to meet people, get to know their prayer requests, and pray for their stated needs. Following up on these requests helps build relationships.

Strategic intercession:
Churches or individuals can pray for specific groups, such as community leaders, unreached people groups, or people attending an evangelistic event.

Praying for "felt needs":
This approach involves praying for a non-believer's perceived needs—like healing, finances, or family relationships. When God answers these prayers, it can open their eyes to the reality of God's power and make them more receptive to the gospel.

Relational prayer:
For friends and family, prayer evangelism includes intentionally building loving relationships and praying for them specifically. A specific prayer might be for the person to have a heart that desires God, to gain faith, or to become humble before God.

Prayer for oneself:
Christians also pray for themselves to be filled with Christ-like compassion, boldness, and courage to speak the truth when God provides an opening.

The Church grows in unity and power:
Shared purpose in prayer builds up the Body of Christ and fosters greater dependence on God. In conclusion, prayer evangelism is a holistic, intentional, and supernatural approach to fulfilling the Great Commission. It integrates talking to God about people with talking to people about God, recognizing that prayer is the "axle" around which all effective evangelism turns. It calls every believer, regardless of personality, to be a partner with God in His mission to redeem the world.

Bible Verses on Prayer with Comments

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
--Philippians 4:6-7 NASB
These verses encourage us to bring our requests to God through prayer and thanksgiving, assuring us of the peace of God in response.

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
--1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
These verses urge us as believers to rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances.

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving.
-- Colossians 4:2
This verse encourages us to be intentional and fervent in our communication with God, approaching Him with an alert mind and a grateful heart in every situation. This verse encourages believers to dedicate themselves to prayer, establishing it as a consistent and persevering practice instead of a sporadic activity. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of being vigilant and spiritually focused during prayer. An attitude of gratitude should permeate all our prayers.

"Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much."
-- James 5:16 NASB
This verse encourages us as believers to foster a community of open, supportive, and prayerful accountability, which God uses as a means to bring about profound spiritual and physical healing and to unleash the powerful working of His will on earth.
The effectiveness of prayer is linked to a life of faith and obedience to God's will. "Powerful and Effective" underscores the potential dynamic influence of prayer when offered in faith by those devoted to God. The power is not inherent in the words themselves but in God, who hears and responds to the heartfelt, persistent prayers of His people.

"For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."
-- 1 Peter 3:12
God watches over and listens to the prayers of those who live righteously, while opposing those who do evil. This verse encourages believers to endure suffering with patience and to trust in God's justice instead of seeking revenge, reminding them that God sees their suffering and hears their prayers.

"Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart."
--- Jeremiah 29:12-13 NASB
This verse encourages believers that when they call, pray, and seek God with all their heart, He will listen and be found. It emphasizes that God responds to those who are sincere in their devotion and that He promises to be near to those who seek Him.

"Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."
--- Hebrews 4:16 NASB
This verse is an invitation for believers to confidently approach God in prayer to receive His compassionate mercy (forgiveness for past sins) and His empowering grace (strength and help for present and future needs), made possible by the high priestly work of Jesus Christ.

"Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. 11 ‘Give us this day our daily bread. 12 ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’]"
--- Matthew 6:9-13 NASB
These well known verses are a model prayer given by Jesus to his disciples, often called the "Lord's Prayer," which focuses on four main areas: honoring God's name, kingdom, and will; asking for daily needs like bread and forgiveness; and seeking protection from temptation and evil. It begins with praise and worship for God before moving to human needs, teaching that prayer is primarily about God, not about individual requests.

Matthew 6:5-8 NASB teaches that prayer should be a sincere, private communion with God, not a performance for others. It cautions against praying for public recognition (like hypocrites) or employing lengthy, meaningless phrases (like the Gentiles). Instead, it encourages a secret, intimate approach to a God who already knows our needs before we ask.

Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you."
--- Mark 11:24 NASB
This verse highlights the power of faith in prayer, encouraging us as believers to maintain a confident mindset, believing that God hears our requests and will provide. This verse links to the previous verse, which emphasizes the power of faith to overcome obstacles, signifying that with God, nothing is beyond reach. However, this power is understood within the context of faith and alignment with God's will, rather than as a form of magic. We are encouraged to approach God with bold, confident, and specific prayers. We should trust fully in His power and goodness to provide according to His divine wisdom and plan, which may sometimes differ from our expectations.

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."
--- Matthew 7:7-8 NASB
These verses are an encouraging invitation from Jesus for believers to approach God with persistent faith and a proactive pursuit of His will, with the assurance that He will generously respond to their genuine needs. It is a powerful call to a dynamic relationship with God, characterized by humble dependence, persistent prayer, and active obedience to His guidance. These verses promise that those who ask, seek, and knock will receive, find, and have the door opened to them.

"This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him."
--- 1 John 5:14-15 NASB
The verses indicate that we can approach God with confidence—assurance and boldness—knowing that if we ask for something in alignment with His will, He hears us. This confidence stems from God's character and His promises. To ask according to God's will involves aligning our desires with the purposes He has revealed in Scripture. When our prayers align with His will, we can be assured of His response, which will come in His own way and time.

"and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
--- 2 Chronicles 7:14 NASB
This is a conditional promise from God to us, stating that if they humble themselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways, then He will hear them, forgive their sins, and heal their land. The verse is a call to repentance, emphasizing humility, sincere prayer, and a commitment to righteousness as the path to restoration for a community or nation.

"In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;"
--- Romans 8:26 NASB
The Holy Spirit helps us as believers in our weakness by interceding for us in prayer, even when we don't know what or how to pray. The Spirit expresses these prayers to God with "groanings too deep for words," which are heartfelt and aligned with God's will. This passage provides reassurance that when we feel unsure or unable to pray properly, the Spirit is actively praying on our behalf.

INTERCESSORY PRAYER
R.A. Torrey's Index of the Bible

Christ set an example of
- Luke 22:32; 23:34; John 17:9-24
Commanded
- 1 Timothy 2:1; James 5:14,16

SHOULD BE OFFERED UP FOR
Kings - 1 Timothy 2:2
All in authority - 1 Timothy 2:2
Ministers - 2 Corinthians 1:11; Philippians 1:19
The Church - Psalms 122:6; Isaiah 62:6,7
All saints - Ephesians 6:18
All men - 1 Timothy 2:1
Masters - Genesis 24:12-14
Servants - Luke 7:2,3
Children - Genesis 17:18; Matthew 15:22
Friends - Job 42:8
Fellow-countrymen - Romans 10:1
The sick - James 5:14
Persecutors - Matthew 5:44
Enemies among whom we dwell - Jeremiah 29:7
Those who envy us - Numbers 12:13
Those who forsake us - 2 Timothy 4:16
Those who murmur against God - Numbers 11:1,2; 14:13,19
By ministers for their people - Ephesians 1:16; 3:14-19; Philippians 1:4
Encouragement to - James 5:16; 1 John 5:16
Beneficial to the offerer - Job 42:10
Sin of neglecting - 1 Samuel 12:23
seek an interest in - 1 Samuel 12:19; Hebrews 13:18
Unavailing for the obstinately-impenitent - Jeremiah 7:13-16; 14:10; 11

EXEMPLIFIED
Abraham - Genesis 18:23-32
Abraham's servant - Genesis 24:12-14
Moses - Exodus 8:12; 32:11-13
Samuel - 1 Samuel 7:5
Solomon - 1 Kings 8:30-36
Elisha - 2 Kings 4:33
Hezekiah - 2 Chronicles 30:18
Isaiah - 2 Chronicles 32:20
Nehemiah - Nehemiah 1:4-11
David - Psalms 25:22
Ezekiel - Ezekiel 9:8
Daniel - Daniel 9:3-19
Stephen - Acts 7:60
Peter and John - Acts 8:15
Church of Jerusalem - Acts 12:5
Paul - Colossians 1:9-12; 2 Thessalonians 1:11
Epaphras - Colossians 4:12
Philemon - Philemon 1:22

How to Go to Heaven:
Go to Heaven

Prayer Evangelism

You Can Reach Across the Streetor Around the World with Prayer

You Can Reach Across the Street
or Around the World with Prayer