Borders, Boundaries and Hedges
The essence of intercessory prayer


There is a song that we often sing in church. You won’t catch me singing it though. I know that the song “Let the walls fall down” is really saying let the pretenses be removed and let us be real with God and our brothers and sisters. It’s not what the song says however. I guess “let the pretensions be removed” doesn’t lend itself to the cadence of the song, but God’s word has plenty to say about walls and it isn’t all about falling down!

Walls go two ways. They are meant to keep things out and sometimes they are meant to keep things in.

Almost every intercessory prayer involves borders, boundaries and hedges.

When we meet together with God in intercessory prayer for another we need to understand the dynamics of what is happening. For every action there is a reaction. For every boundary there is a border. When we pray for protection for another person we are binding the ability of harm being done to that person, but we are also praying that that person is surrounded, hedged, fortified, with safety.

When we pray for healing we are asking God to bind the sickness and push back it’s borders as well as increasing the strength and wellness of the person. A good example of praying this way is when we first begun praying for Susan. She had an enlarged heart. She was almost on the list for a heart transplant. However, we began to pray that God would shrink the heart and heal Susan. Specifically I prayed that God would surround the heart and bind it from growing larger. Then I asked God to shrink the hearts boundary back to it’s normal size. At the same time, I was (and still am) praying that God strengthens Susan’s heart muscles so that they can be strong enough to pump the blood that is needed to give her body the right amount of oxygen. I’ve lost touch with Susan, but I do know that the doctor’s were amazed at her improvement during the time that she was on our prayer chain.

So we pray that God will bind sickness, evil doers, gossip, and people from falling back to sin. Each of these things are walls. Walls to enclose something and shrink it’s border. Walls to prevent people from falling into sin, walls to keep gossip from being effective. Jabez prayed that his border was increased. He wanted a blessing and an extension, a growth of who he was. God moved his border and allowed him to do and be someone ‘bigger’ than he was before.

A hedge is a soft wall. It adds protection and security, but still a freedom for growth. So we pray for a hedge of protection around our pastor, and around our children. We do not want to ‘block them from being who they are’, but we want that buffered wall to be their just the same.

Some verses to pray specifically about wall around us;


Ezekiel 22:30
And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
Exodus 34:24
For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year.
Psalms 147:14
He makes peace [in] thy borders, [and] fills you with the finest of the wheat.

Proverbs 15:25
The LORD will destroy the house of the proud: but he will establish the border of the widow.

1 Chronicles 4:10
And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou would bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou would keep [me] from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.

Deuteronomy 19:8
And if Jehovah thy God enlarge thy border, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, and give thee all the land which he promised to give unto thy fathers;

Psalms 74:17
Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: Thou hast made summer and winter.
Proverbs 15:25
Jehovah will root up the house of the proud; But he will establish the border of the widow.
Isaiah 26:15
Thou hast increased the nation, O Jehovah, thou hast increased the nation; thou art glorified; thou hast enlarged all the borders of the land.
Isaiah 60:18
Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, desolation nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.