Akram Hadeed is the CEO and founder of Streets of Prayer, a ministry dedicated to the audacious mission of mobilizing every believer to pray over every street in the world by 2030. Akram’s life began to change when he started to pray for the daily filling of the Holy Spirit. He then began to dream about mobilizing every follower of Jesus to persistently pray for their unsaved friends and cover the streets of our nation and world in prayer. With a background as a software developer, Akram created an interactive app that has now mobilized thousands of people to prayer walk over specific routes in their city. Streets of Prayer received a $25,000 grant at our recent Shark Tank event. This is his story.
Filled with the Spirit
Does it ever feel like prayer is a waste of time? I know none of you would say that out loud, but in the back of your mind, have you ever wondered, “Is this really making a difference?” I often struggled with that thought. I had a good life – I was 38, in a great marriage, had a solid job, read my Bible regularly, and volunteered in my local church. But whenever I tried to pray, it felt like nothing was happening. I was bored, and my mind would wander. I felt bad about not enjoying prayer, but after seeking a lot of help and advice, I was right back where I started. Maybe this was normal. Maybe prayer was nothing more than a chore to be accomplished.
One day, as I was reading Jesus’ teaching on prayer in Luke 11, something really stood out to me. He said, “So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” I had never really asked God to give me the Holy Spirit. What if instead of praying for a long list of requests, I simply asked God to give me the Holy Spirit? I’ll admit, when I started my morning walks asking God to fill me with his Spirit, it wasn’t an immediate change. But after a week or so, my five-second prayer stretched into a 60-second prayer and then a five-minute prayer, and within a few months, God radically changed my heart! I started truly enjoying spending time with God in prayer!
Sharing the Good News
I’ve never been one to keep a good thing to myself, so I started praying for my family and friends, especially those who didn’t have a close relationship with Jesus. I also began dreaming about the larger Kingdom of God and what might happen if all of God’s people prayed persistently for the salvation of others.
I was growing in my excitement for prayer and wanted to mobilize other believers to pray. So I sat down at my computer and typed into the search window, “How many Christian believers are in the world?” I discovered there are approximately 2.3 billion Christians in the world. If one billion Christians would each pray for seven unbelievers, every person in the world would be covered in prayer! It was a big goal, but how would it ever be accomplished? In the meantime, I continued to walk the streets of my neighborhood in prayer, asking for his direction.
The Power of Prayer Walking
One afternoon, I was walking through my neighborhood, and God told me to pray for a specific neighbor. I didn’t know his name, but I knew he needed prayer. The conviction to pray never left, and for two years, I prayed that he would experience the love of God. One day, the man approached me on the sidewalk near his home. Unprompted, he told me he had been thinking about ending his life. I shared that God had told me to pray for him and that he had something better for his life. I invited him to join me in my daily prayer walks.
After several months of praying together, he revealed that not only had he been thinking about ending his own life, but that he was going to kill others as well. He shared that he was being terrorized by demons who told him to get a gun and take out those who had betrayed him. He was then going to turn his truck into a bomb and drive it into a building, ending his life and those unfortunate enough to be in his way. God interrupted his plans with a simple whisper to talk to that neighbor who walks past his house every day. That neighbor was me!
Streets of Prayer
That experience had a profound impact on my life, and in the fall of that same year, I had a dream where I saw the whole world covered in red. In the dream, someone vividly asked me, “What if those were Streets of Prayer?” Startled, I woke up and went straight to my computer to try and find an organization called Streets of Prayer. Instead, I found nothing and discerned that God was telling me to launch this new ministry. I searched for streetsofprayer.com, purchased the domain name, and launched the ministry.
If God were calling me to mobilize 1 billion people to pray, it would be through prayer walking and covering the earth in prayer. I was working as a software developer at the time and had been in the field for more than 17 years. I began building an app that would help people pray and prayer walk. The new vision for Streets of Prayer was to cover every person and every street in the world in prayer. In January 2020, I took a significant step by resigning from my software developer job to devote 100% of my time to developing the app and sharing the vision.
Next Steps
The app was completed a few years ago and is being updated to help users interact with others in prayer to see who is praying in their area. We have also established a model for individuals, families, communities, and churches to take ownership of their geographical areas and spread the word. This grassroots model is beginning to bear fruit. We have now mobilized thousands and thousands of believers to pray and are now praying for God to exponentially multiply this ministry. The best days are in front of us!
Throughout this process, I’ve learned the importance of faithfully modeling what we encourage others to do. I’ve also realized the enemy hates prayer and will attack it every chance he gets to distract or discourage us from praying. However, the most important thing I’ve learned is the power of a believer filled with the Holy Spirit and persistently praying in the community for the things that align with the will of God. We know that God desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Will you pray for your neighborhood or community? Join us at www.streetsofprayer.com.
In 2025, NEXT Ventures will offer opportunities at Exponential Global, West, and Central for ministry leaders to pitch their innovative ministry ideas for a chance to receive financial grants and further investment. We are looking for practical, actionable approaches that historians will one day conclude were critical to the success of the future church in the U.S. If you are leading an innovative ministry and would like to learn more about NEXT Ventures, visit https://exponential.org/ventures/.
