Month: August 2013

  • Extraordinary prayer flows from a spiritual sight and heart sense of God's extraordinary judgments

    In my last post, I began to write about extraordinary prayer – specifically about our need for God to pour out His Spirit upon us so we might lament like a virgin (Joel 1:8), to lament "not in an ordinary way" (using the words of John Calvin). In this post, I'm reflecting once again on extraordinary prayer... in particular that extraordinary prayer ought to arise from God's people today because we are living in a day and age in which the judgments of God are extraordinary.

    Joel 1 (ESV)

    12  The vine dries up;
    the fig tree languishes.
    Pomegranate, palm, and apple,
    all the trees of the field are dried up,
    and gladness dries up
    from the children of man.

    13  Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests;
    wail, O ministers of the altar.
    Go in, pass the night in sackcloth,
    O ministers of my God!
    Because grain offering and drink offering
    are withheld from the house of your God.

    14  Consecrate a fast;
    call a solemn assembly.
    Gather the elders
    and all the inhabitants of the land
    to the house of the LORD your God,
    and cry out to the LORD.

    15  Alas for the day!
    For the day of the LORD is near,
    and as destruction from the Almighty it comes.

    16  Is not the food cut off
    before our eyes,
    joy and gladness
    from the house of our God?

    17  The seed shrivels under the clods;
    the storehouses are desolate;
    the granaries are torn down
    because the grain has dried up.

    18  How the beasts groan!
    The herds of cattle are perplexed
    because there is no pasture for them;
    even the flocks of sheep suffer.

    19  To you, O LORD, I call.
    For fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness,
    and flame has burned
    all the trees of the field.

    20  Even the beasts of the field pant for you
    because the water brooks are dried up,
    and fire has devoured
    the pastures of the wilderness.

    Joel 1 (KJV)

    12  The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men. 13  Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests: howl, ye ministers of the altar: come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat offering and the drink offering is withholden from the house of your God.

    14  Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD, 15  Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. 16  Is not the meat cut off before our eyes, yea, joy and gladness from the house of our God? 17  The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. 18  How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. 19  O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field. 20  The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

    From John Calvin's commentary on Joel (found here):

    He [Joel] here again gives an awful record of God's judgments. Though the heat may burn up whole regions, yet we know that pasture-lands do not soon wither, especially on mountains; and of such cold pastures he speaks here. We know that however great may be the fertility of mountains, yet coolness prevails there, and that, in the greatest drought, the mountainous regions are ever green. But the Prophet tells us here of an unusual thing, that the dwellings of the wilderness were burnt up. Some render "ne'ot" pastures; others, dwellings: but as to the meaning, we may read either; for the Prophet refers here to cold and humid regions, which never want moisture in the greatest heats. Some render the word, the beautiful or fair spots of the wilderness, but improperly. He doubtless means pastures, or dwellings, or folds. "The fire then has consumed the dwellings, or pastures of the wilderness". This was not usual; it did not happen according to the ordinary course of nature: it then follows that it was a miracle. This is the reason why the Prophet says, that it was now time to cry to God; for it did not appear to be fortuitous, that the heat had burnt up regions which were moist and well watered. "The flame, he says hath burnt up all the trees of the field".

    He afterwards adds "The beasts of the field will also cry" (for the verb is in the plural number;) the beasts then will cry. The Prophet expresses here more clearly what he had said before that though the brute animals were void of reasons they yet felt God's judgment, so that they constrained men by their example to feel ashamed, for they cried to God: the beasts then of the field cry. He ascribes crying to them, as it is elsewhere ascribed to the young ravens. The young ravens, properly speaking, do not indeed call on God; and yet the Psalmist says so, and that, because they confess, by raising up their bills, that there is no supply for their want except God supports them. So also the Prophet mentions here the beasts as crying to God. It is indeed a figure of speech, called personification; for this could not be properly said of beasts. But when the beasts made a noise under the pressure of famine, was it not such a calling on God as their nature admitted? As much then as the nature of brute animals allows, they may be said to seek their food from the Lord, when they send forth lamentable cries and noises, and show that they are oppressed with famine and want. When, therefore, the Prophet attributes crying to beasts, he at the same time reproaches the Jews with their stupidity, that they did not call on God. "What do you mean," he says. "See the brute animals; they show to you what ought to be done; it is at least a teaching that ought to have effect on you. If I and the other prophets have lost all our labour, if God has in vain performed the office of a teacher among you, let the very oxen at least be your teachers; to whom indeed it is a shame to be disciples, but it is a greater shame not to attend to what they teach you; for the oxen by their example lead you to God."

    ~ (Calvin's Lecture Fortieth. HT: http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/m.sion/cvjoe-03.htm, emphasis mine)

    Some of you here in the West may wonder why I refer to "extraordinary" judgments of God coming upon us at this time, or as Calvin put it "not usual" and "did not happen according to the ordinary course"... I do so because we are now witnessing that even the lushest pasture-lands, especially on mountains, and those mountainous regions that we have known to be ever green are currently in the process of being burnt up... More specifically, denomination after denomination, as well as congregation after congregation, as well as individual Christian after individual Christian which were once lush and green are now being burnt up... In Joel 2:3, we read these alarming words:

    Fire devours before them,
    and behind them a flame burns.
    The land is like the garden of Eden before them,
    but behind them a desolate wilderness,
    and nothing escapes them.

    Not one of us is immune from this. Let none of us be like the prideful Southern Kingdom who thought they were safe and they would escape the judgment of God, even though they were warned by the words of the prophets time and time again, even though they were warned by the example of the Northern Kingdom taken into captivity years beforehand. Know this: there has been a continuing slide and decline taking place in Christianity. Those who were once renowned for being holy and solid in both doctrine and practice have now become a people of loose doctrine and loose practice, so we can rightly say with the apostle Paul:

    Romans 1:24  For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

    * * *

    Holy Father, the cries of the lowly and brute beasts serve as a right rebuke to us whenever we are at ease in Zion, whenever our hearts are not overflowing with extraordinary prayer to You in these days of Your extraordinary judgments. Our merciful and gracious God, open our understanding as to our own current condition, for apart from Your enlightening us, we will remain blind and hardened and unrepentant and stupid. We long to be like children of Issachar and have a right understanding of the times. For Jesus' name sake, give eye salve to Your people (and particularly to Your undershepherds), so we might anoint our eyes to be discerning and to see these judgments for what they are: as extraordinary and unusual – so our hearts might be broken and contrite as we see the shriveling seed, the desolate storehouses, the torn-down granaries, and the dried up grain, that we might lament with an extraordinary lamentation, for it is the time for us to cry out, to cry out to You, O LORD!

    Regardless of what anyone else is doing, as Your Holy Spirit imparts to us a spiritual sight and a heart sense of Your extraordinary judgments, may our mouths be filled to overflowing with extraordinary prayer to You, O LORD. May we keep our hearts with diligence, for out of our broken, trembling, and contrite hearts our mouths will pray! ~ Proverbs 4:23, Luke 6:45. May our mouths be filled with pants and groans to You, O LORD, as were the mouths of the beasts! May our mouths be filled with cries and calls to You, O LORD, as was the mouth of Joel!

    May we be careful and take heed to the examples of the beasts and of Joel. These things have been written for our example. May we humble ourselves before You as we ought, and rend our hearts, repent of our wicked ways, and turn to You with all our heart. We are Your people bought with the precious blood of Jesus, and we are called by Your name. We appeal to You not because of anything in ourselves, for no good thing dwells in us – but we appeal to Your mercies for Jesus' sake, for You, O LORD, are gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Will You not relent and leave a blessing behind You so that Your name, O God, might no longer be blasphemed, but would be praised among all the nations because of us?

    “... Spare your people, O LORD,
    and make not your heritage a reproach,
    a byword among the nations.
    Why should they say among the peoples,
    ‘Where is their God?’” ~ Joel 2:17

    "If God's ministers cannot prevail to affect others with the discoveries of divine wrath, yet they ought to be themselves affected with them; if they cannot bring others to cry to God, yet they themselves be much in prayer. In time of trouble we must not only pray, but cry, must be fervent and importunate in prayer; and to God, from whom both the destruction is and the salvation must be, ought our cry to be always directed."

    ~ from Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Joel 1

     

    * Please add your *PRAYERS* below as God's Holy Spirit leads you. *

     

  • Extraordinary prayer: Lament like a virgin... not in an ordinary way (Calvin on Joel 1:8)

    Over the past several days, I've been considering how prayer for revival differs from ordinary prayer. Please excuse me for using the term ordinary, for I realize that prayer is a sacred privilege granted to all the children of God through the cross of Jesus Christ, and no prayer prayed in the Holy Spirit to our Father through the Lord Jesus Christ is in any way ordinary! ...

    That said, there is prayer to which God calls His people which is extraordinary. For example, in 1748, Jonathan Edwards published "An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God's People, in Extraordinary Prayer, for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom on Earth." (If you've never read Edwards' "An Humble Attempt," you can read it online beginning here.)

    Lord willing, in my next few posts, I'm hoping to bring some Biblically-informed reflections as to what extraordinary prayer looks like, so God's bride might be stirred up to ask our God to pour out upon us a Spirit of extraordinary prayer and supplications for reformation and revival to the glory of God.

    I've been rereading the book of Joel along with John Calvin's commentary (which you can find here; & HT for the text I'm using). John Owen's translation from Calvin's original Latin makes use of the words "ordinary" and "extraordinary" in several places. Those references brought to mind Edwards' desire in "An Humble Attempt" to promote extraordinary prayer. In particular, I was initially struck by Calvin's words on Joel 1:8 (KJV):

    Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth.

    Calvin writes (emphasis mine):

    The Prophet now addresses the whole land. "Lament", he says; not in an ordinary way, but like a widow, whose husband is dead, whom she had married when young. The love, we know, of a young man towards a young woman, and so of a young woman towards a young man, is more tender than when a person in years marries an elderly woman. This is the reason that the Prophet here mentions the husband of her youth; he wished to set forth the heaviest lamentation, and hence he says "The Jews ought not surely to be otherwise affected by so many calamities, than a widow who has lost her husband while young, and not arrived at maturity, but in the flower of his age." As then such widows feel bitterly their loss, so the Prophet has adduced their case.

    The Hebrews often call a husband "ba'al", because he is the lord of his wife and has her under his protection. Literally it is, "For the lord of her youth;" and hence it is, that they also called their idols "ba'alim", as though they were as we have often said in our comment on the Prophet Hosea, their patrons. 

    The sum of the whole is, That the Jews could not have continued in an unconcerned state, without being void of all reason and discernment; for they were forced, willing or unwilling, to feel a most grievous calamity. It is a monstrous thing, when a widow, losing her husband when yet young, refrains from mourning. Now then, since God had afflicted his land with so many evils, he wished to bring on them, as it were, the grief of widowhood.

    * * *

    O LORD our God, be merciful and gracious to us for the sake of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for we are Your people called by Your name. We confess we have brought shame and reproach to Your name. We confess we have presumed upon Your mercy and grace. We confess we have not lamented and mourned over our sinfulness and our sin as we ought. We confess we have not lamented and mourned for You as we ought. We confess so much of our prayer is not extraordinary. Forgive us our great sin of presumption. Forgive us our monstrous sins of apathy and disinterest. Restore to us right reason and discernment, that we might spiritually feel this most grievous calamity and lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth. Grant to us the same Spirit that filled Jeremiah and the watchmen on the wall, so we would not hold our peace, but weep day and night, and give You no rest until You make Your bride a praise in the earth. Make us sensibly aware that You are hiding Your face from us, that we might lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of our youth. May our heads be like waters and our eyes like fountains of tears until Your face shines again upon us. May we seek You with importunity and impudence, for You have told us that we do not seek You in vain. And then show Yourself to be a prayer-hearing God, show Yourself to be strong, and look down from heaven with pity upon us, and return in Your power, glory, majesty, and might for the sake of Your name and renown throughout all the earth.

    * * *

    * Please add your PRAYERS below as the Holy Spirit leads you. *

     

  • "I will also let the house of Israel inquire of Me to do this for them" ~ Ezekiel 36:37-38

    Today's prayer is based on Ezekiel 36. I would encourage you to read the entire chapter. My focus is on the final section of the chapter, where we find the Lord God, the LORD - Jehovah Himself - setting before us the blessed privilege and calling we have as His people to be engaged in prayer for the reformation, revival, and increase of His Church. What a wondrous mystery to have the self-existent God, the I AM, the omnipotent, almighty God of all the universe, the God who sits enthroned in the heavens, the God by Whom and for Whom all things were created and hold together ... and yet our God lets the Bride of Christ inquire of Him so that the ruins and desolate places would be renewed, so fruitfulness would abound in His Church for the sake of His great name, so all the nations would know that He is the LORD!

    * * *

    Ezekiel 36 33 ‘Thus says the Lord God: “On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will also enable you to dwell in the cities, and the ruins shall be rebuilt. 34 The desolate land shall be tilled instead of lying desolate in the sight of all who pass by. 35 So they will say, ‘This land that was desolate has become like the garden of Eden; and the wasted, desolate, and ruined cities are now fortified and inhabited.’ 36 Then the nations which are left all around you shall know that I, the LORD, have rebuilt the ruined places and planted what was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken it, and I will do it.”

    37 ‘Thus says the Lord God: “I will also let the house of Israel inquire of Me to do this for them: I will increase their men like a flock. 38 Like a flock offered as holy sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem on its feast days, so shall the ruined cities be filled with flocks of men. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.”’” (NKJV)

     

    O, Lord God, we praise and we thank You that You are a jealous God – that You are jealous for Your name and jealous for Your people. Holy Father, have pity upon Your children and send Your Holy Spirit to show us how desolate we really are. We confess we are too easily blinded to our true condition. We confess we are prone to apathy. Show us how we have profaned Your holy name among the nations. Show us these things that we might be stirred up to seek Your face, to seek Your presence, and to inquire of You to make us once again like the garden of Eden. Forgive us for not inquiring of You as we ought. Forgive us for showing contempt for the privilege of prayer You have granted to us. Forgive us for resorting to all other means except inquiring of You. Forgive us for profaning Your holy name among the nations, and cleanse us from all our iniquities for Your dear Son Jesus' sake.

    O, LORD, we plead with You to renew, refresh, and restore that which is wasted, desolate, and ruined, so it might be fortified and inhabited. We confess we have no power in and of ourselves to rebuild ruins and to till desolate land. We confess we have no power in and of ourselves to reform and revive ourselves, much less Your Church. You have already told us You would do these things, and yet You also tell us to come to You and ask these things of You. That is a marvel and a mystery. And so, based upon Your holy Word, we do come to You, O LORD. We come with fear and trembling, for You are a holy God and a consuming fire. And yet, we also come to You with boldness and assurance, for we come in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest, for it is by Him, through His body and blood, we can approach the throne of grace to find mercy and grace in time of need.

    Lord of hosts, we desire that You increase our men like a flock for the sake of Your great name. We confess we have too often trusted in and resorted to earthly means, to our own abilities, and to worldly schemes. We now repent of that, and we turn away from and cast off and put no confidence in the flesh. We seek Your Holy Spirit to fall afresh upon us to equip us in the work of reformation in the Church. We seek Your Holy Spirit to fall afresh upon us to strengthen us to pray as we ought. We seek Your Holy Spirit to fall afresh upon us to empower us to be Jesus' witnesses. We come to Your mercy seat, and we avail ourselves today of the heavenly means You have provided to Your people – that of prayer.

    Lord God, may You and may Your holy name be hallowed in Your people before the eyes of the world. We long for the full flock of God to be gathered in, for there are many sheep from all the nations which Jesus, our Good Shepherd, still must bring. Our desire is that as the nations see Your people renewed, refreshed, and revived, as they see Your Church become like the garden of Eden, and as they see our congregations filled with flocks of men – that the nations all around us would know that You, the LORD, have done it, and they shall know that You are the LORD, to the praise of Your glorious grace! Lord God, do these things not for our sake, but for the sake of Your holy and great name! Amen.

     

    * Please add your PRAYERS below as the Holy Spirit leads you. *

     

     

tent_of_meeting

"he called it the tent of meeting..."

I am burdened to pray to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for the reformation and reviving of Christ's church.

The phrase tent of meeting comes from Exodus 33:7: Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp.

This site is devoted to God first and foremost. In all that is done here, my prayer is that God is glorified and His Name magnified and Christ and Him crucified is lifted up so He might be preeminent and God might receive all the praise, honor and glory due His Holy Name. All who have come to a saving knowledge of our Father by grace through faith in the all-sufficient sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ are welcome to enter this tent of meeting to seek the Lord.

This blog is a place for all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to come and seek God's face for revival. My intention is for this tent of meeting to be a holy place where we can enter into PRAYER together to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit leads you, please enter into prayer either here (think of "comments" as prayers) or on your own.

Habakkuk 3:2 O LORD, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O LORD, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.

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