Kelli Trujillo Supporter Loving Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Teacher, Musician

Circle prayer probably refers to some books that were written by Mark Batterson on prayer, such as, The Circle Maker, and, Draw the Circle. It’s a prayer strategy based on the biblical account in Joshua 6:1-27. The Israelites were about to possess their Promised Land after wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, but first they had to conquer the walled city of Jericho to get to their destination. God gave them an unusual plan: Circle the city wall once every day for six days, then seven times on the seventh day. After the seventh circle on the seventh day, blow the shofars and shout, and the walls will fall flat. And that’s exactly what happened!

Batterson shares many practical ways of putting circle prayer into practice. For example, he’s a pastor in Washington, D.C., and he tells about how he walked a huge prayer circle around a piece of land he was looking to acquire to establish his church, and he ended up acquiring it by miraculous means. But it’s not all about walking circles around things; there are many ways to put this principle to work. The books are worth reading!

I have a great story to share about this! A few years back, my daughter started working at a coffee shop in Seattle, and shortly after this, she began to make some very sinful choices for her life. I knew that the people she was working with and working for were influencing her in very negative ways, and I began to pray that she would quit working there.

One day as I was praying, I felt prompted by God to do a “Jericho march” according to the biblical model around the coffee shop. This was not convenient; the coffee shop was about 30 minutes from my home in GOOD traffic, and I was working full time as a teacher. I would need to either go and march the daily circles really early in the morning to hopefully avoid traffic and get to work on time, or I would have to deal with rush hour traffic at the end of the day. I opted for VERY early in the morning, braving the dark, cold and rain of February in Seattle.

Long story short, I started on a Sunday so I would have a good chunk of time on Saturday to march the full seven circles around the coffee shop. There was genuine spiritual warfare; I could literally sense demonic forces trying to get me to quit on many occasions. I also got sick during the week, but I pressed on and did it. When I completed my final circle on the final day, I followed the COMPLETE biblical model and lifted up a shout on the corner of the street, in full view and hearing distance of the people milling around that day: “Thank you, Jesus! You are victorious!” And I had a shofar sound playing from my phone, too.

About six weeks later, my uncle was visiting and said to me, “I heard there’s a popular coffee shop closing on Queen Anne Hill. I hope it’s not the one [my daughter’s name] works at.” Well, guess what? IT WAS! It was all over the news that the owner had received notice that her lease would NOT be renewed, and she was quoted stating that this came completely out of the blue, with no explanation given. (Jesus and I knew the explanation!) The coffee shop had been a beloved hub on Queen Anne Hill for 18 years, and people were upset about it. Someone even started a GoFundMe page on Facebook to try to help them keep their employees while they tried to set up shop somewhere else, but they had to let go of most of their employees, including my daughter. The coffee shop eventually reopened down the street, but it is now permanently closed. 

As a disclaimer, I have to say that it wasn't my intention to hurt anyone by this. My only goal was to get my daughter out of that ungodly environment. God prompted me to do the prayer circling; how God chose to move was HIS business. 

I hope that gives you an idea of what circle prayer is about. I highly recommend reading the books!

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