Isaiah

  • with one accord in prayer & supplication: "No other course has been prescribed" ~ George Smeaton

    Yesterday was Pentecost Sunday, and I'd like to re-post here a blog I'd written yesterday for my other site, http://naphtali_deer.xanga.com ... but I'm adding this introduction first...

    Earlier this morning, I opened to the book of Isaiah to look something up, and then came across these words beginning in Isaiah 30 (all references in this introduction are from the NKJV; in the post below they are taken from the KJV, unless otherwise indicated):

     

    Isaiah 30
    1 “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord,
    “Who take counsel, but not of Me,
    And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit,
    That they may add sin to sin;
    2 Who walk to go down to Egypt,
    And have not asked My advice,
    To strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh,
    And to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
    3 Therefore the strength of Pharaoh
    Shall be your shame,
    And trust in the shadow of Egypt
    Shall be your humiliation.
    4 For his princes were at Zoan,
    And his ambassadors came to Hanes.
    5 They were all ashamed of a people who could not benefit them,
    Or be help or benefit,
    But a shame and also a reproach.”

    The Lord calls Israel "rebellious children," and accuses them of adding "sin to sin." . . . What were they doing to justify God's calling down woe upon them?

    "Who take counsel, but NOT OF ME..."
    "And who devise plans, but NOT OF MY SPIRIT..."

    We find myriad similar examples throughout the Bible (as well as Church history). At the current time, how are we in the Church in the United States really any different than Israel were in time of Isaiah? What real help and what true benefit can we derive by taking counsel NOT of the LORD and devising plans NOT of God's Spirit? What will we reap by seeking help elsewhere –– except shame and reproach upon ourselves, and shame and reproach upon the name of God and the cause of Christ?

    One of my favorite and most encouraging verses of Scripture is found in Isaiah 45:19b:

    I did not say to the seed of Jacob,
    ‘Seek Me in vain’

    What a reminder from the Lord of hosts, that our seeking Him is not in vain! However, as we seek help anywhere else, it will always be in vain.  May we zealously, earnestly and fervently seek God's face in prayer and not let Him go, to prevail in prayer like Jacob and the 120 in the upper room, and plead with Him to bless us and baptize us afresh with His Holy Spirit, just as He did on that Pentecost Sunday ten days after Jesus' ascension. As George Smeaton (whom I've quoted more extensively in the post below) wrote:

    As to the peculiar mode of praying, we may say that in every season of general awakening the Christian community waits just as they waited for the effusion of the Spirit, with one accord in prayer and supplication, in the interval between the Ascension and Pentecost. No other course has been prescribed; and the Church of the present has all the warrant she ever had to wait, expect, and, pray.

    My brothers and sisters, we can be assured that our seeking the face of God is never in vain! May we show ourselves to be the seed of Jacob, and purify ourselves as He is pure, and seek Him with a holy boldness through our Great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ –– for that is the only course God Himself has prescribed for His people.

    Psalm 24
    3 Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
    Or who may stand in His holy place?
    4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
    Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
    Nor sworn deceitfully.
    5 He shall receive blessing from the Lord,
    And righteousness from the God of his salvation.
    6 This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him,
    Who seek Your face. Selah

    Yours in Christ, seeking your joy, for the reviving of Christ's Church, for the joy of the nations, for the joy and glory and renown of God Himself,

    Karen

     with one accord in prayer & supplication: "No other course has been prescribed" ~ George Smeaton

    (http://naphtali-deer.xanga.com/773336117/with-one-accord-in-prayer--supplication-no-other-course-has-been-prescribed--george-smeaton/)

    Luke 24:49  And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high...

    Acts 1:4  And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. 5  For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.

    Today is the celebration of Pentecost Sunday, the day on which the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled His word to send the promise of the Father –– the day when He baptized His people with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Though the Church's understanding was lacking and deficient in some ways at that time, e.g. - her query to Jesus as to whether He was going to restore the Kingdom to Israel at that time (Acts 1:6) –– (and it's all too tempting for us to point fingers at them, isn't it?) –– yet these first century saints had a knowledge that many of us lack today... they were fully persuaded that without power from above, they could do nothing!

    The early Church had been clearly impressed with the vital necessity to tarry in Jerusalem just as Jesus commanded. They had been humbled; they had been brought to see and to own their total insufficiency, and accordingly their need to receive the gift of the promised Holy Spirit. For those ten days between Jesus' Ascension and Pentecost, the 120 were in one accord in prayer and supplication:  the Bride of Christ was "leaning upon her Beloved!"

    Even though some of these disciples had had intimate fellowship with Jesus, even though many of them had walked with Jesus and learned from Him and of Him for a period of three years, yet each and every one of them had come to understand they were ill-equipped for the commission Christ had given them – to go and make disciples of all nations. Therefore, they fully obeyed Jesus' command to wait:  they did tarry in Jerusalem, and they did continue in prayer (imagine a ten-day round-the-clock prayer meeting at your church?!) –– until the blessing was poured out –– until they were baptized with the blessed Holy Spirit.

    O! that we in the Church today might have a Spirit-imparted sense of our total insufficiency and our poverty and our need to receive the outpouring of the Spirit as did they, so we might persevere with one accord in prayer and supplication as did they!  Luke 11:13 "If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

    Martyn Lloyd-Jones reminds us:

    There is only one sense in which what happened on the day of Pentecost cannot be repeated and that is simply that it did happen to be the first of a series. And, of course, you cannot repeat the first. But the fact that you cannot repeat the first does not mean for a moment that what happened on the first occasion cannot happen again. And every revival of religion, I say, is really a repetition of what happened on the day of Pentecost. It is really almost incredible that people should go on saying that what happened at Pentecost was once and for all. ~ from Chapter 16 (What Happens in Revival) in "Revival" (Wheaton: Crossway, 1987), 199-200.

    The following is an excerpt from George Smeaton's "The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit" (orig. published 1882, second edition 1889; Fourth Banner of Truth Trust reprint 1997), pages 287-290...

    As to the peculiar mode of praying, we may say that in every season of general awakening the Christian community waits just as they waited for the effusion of the Spirit, with one accord in prayer and supplication, in the interval between the Ascension and Pentecost. No other course has been prescribed; and the Church of the present has all the warrant she ever had to wait, expect, and, pray. The first disciples waited in the youthfulness of simple hope, not for a spirit which they had not, but for more of the Spirit which they had; and Christianity has not outlived itself.  Ten days they waited with one accord in prayer, when of a sudden the Spirit came to give them spiritual eyes to apprehend divine things as they never knew them before, and to impart a joy which no man could take from them. It was prayer IN THE SPIRIT (Eph. vi. 18), and prayer FOR THE SPIRIT, the great promise of the Father. But the prayer which brought down the Holy Ghost was not that style of petition which ceases if it is not heard at once or if the heart is out of tune. The prayer which prevails with Him who gives the Spirit is that which will not let go without the blessing. When the spirit of extraordinary supplication is poured out from on high,––when an ardent desire is cherished for the Holy Ghost,––when the Church asks according to God’s riches in glory, and expects such great things as God’s promises warrant and Christ’s merits can procure, the time to favour Zion, the set time, is come (Ps. cii. 16-18).  When we look at the prayers in Scripture, we find that God’s glory, the Church’s growth and welfare, her holiness and progress, were ever higher in the thoughts and breathings of the saints than personal considerations (Ps. lxvii. 1-7). And if we are animated with any other frame of mind, it is not prayer taught by the Spirit, nor offered up in the name of Christ (Isa. lxii. 1-7).

    The praying attitude of the Church in the first days after the Ascension, when the disciples waited for the Spirit, should be the Church's attitude still. I need not refer to the copious references of the apostles to the urgent duty of praying in the Spirit and praying for the Spirit, nor shall I refer at large to the habits of all true labourers, such as Luther, Welsh, Whitefield, and others, in proof of the great truth that prayer is the main work of a ministry.  And no more mischievous and misleading theory could be propounded, nor any one more dishonouring to the Holy Spirit, than the principle adopted by the Plymouth Brethren, that because the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, the Church has no need, and no warrant, to pray any more for the effusion of the Spirit of God. On the contrary, the more the Church asks the Spirit ¹; and waits for His communication, the more she receives. ²  The prayer of faith in one incessant cry comes up from the earth in support of the efforts put forth for the conversion of a people ready to perish. This prayer goes before and follows after all the calls to repentance. The company of labourers associated together in such work, come to feel as they proceed that they are encircled with a mighty power, and have an authority not their own. The interest taken in the work of advancing the Redeemer’s Kingdom thus has much of a personal concern, and is far elevated above the vague and pointless efforts of mere official routine.

    The apostles, in their various Epistles, when referring to their own unceasing exercise of prayer, hold up the mirror to others; a  nd never do men more realize than in a time of revival that in all their previous career they have been scarcely half-awake. In such a time the conviction is borne home upon them that no fitful exercise of prayer will avail to obtain the blessing. And their purpose, as they seek to take the kingdom by force, is to do violence to the lethargy and disinclination of nature, and to act as the Lord's remembrancers, who keep not silence and give Him no rest, till He establish Jerusalem and make her a praise in the earth.

    ____________

    ¹ As I do not deem it proper to exceed the limits of the required six lectures; I would take occasion to direct attention to the great work of [John] OWEN, The Work of the Holy Ghost in Prayer, and also to [William] GURNALL'S discussion of the same theme in The Christian in Complete Armour.

    ² A remarkable passage on prayer, and on working by the power of prayer, occurs in [John] Foster's essay on the application of the epithet “Romantic:" [in Essays in a Series of Letters, published in 1826] “I am convinced,” says he, “that every man who, amidst his serious projects, is apprised of his dependence on God, as completely as that dependence is a fact, will be impelled to pray, and anxious to induce his serious friends to pray, almost every hour. He will as little without it promise himself any noble success, as a mariner would expect to reach a distant coast by having his sails spread in a stagnation of air. I have intimated my fear that it is visionary to expect any unusual success in the human administration of religion unless there are unusual omens; now a most emphatical spirit of prayer would be such an omen; and the individual who should solemnly determine to try its last possible efficacy, might probably find himself becoming a much more prevailing agent in his little sphere. And  if the whole, or the greater number of the disciples of Christianity were, with an earnest, unalterable determination of each to combine that heaven should not withhold one single influence, which the very utmost of conspiring and persevering supplication would obtain, it would be the sign that a revolution of the world was at hand."

    * * *

    Instead of following the latest worldly trends, instead of implementing 21st century solutions, and instead of leaning upon our own power, let us give due glory and honor to the Godhead by returning to the Scripture, by returning to the apostolic doctrine, and by returning to the apostolic practice of full reliance upon the Holy Spirit of God by prevailing in prayer and not letting go until we receive the blessing of the Holy Spirit pouring down from on high in reviving fire!

    Let us repent and return to the Lord with weeping, and seek the Lord of hosts and entreat the Lord, and wrestle with Him in unceasing prayer and wait for our God, that He might pour down His favor upon us –– to pour out His Holy Spirit upon us –– just as He did for the saints of old... because, as George Smeaton reminds us, "no other course has been prescribed."

    The mirror is being held up to us today, my brothers and sisters... May God have mercy upon us, and may the Spirit give us an ear to hear what these examples in the Bible and throughout Church history have to say to us today, so we might be found faithful in prayer along with the great cloud of remembrancers... for we have the warrant "to wait, expect, and, pray" for more of the Holy Spirit.

    Luke 18:1  And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; 2  Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: 3  And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. 4  And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 5  Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 6  And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. 7  And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 8  I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

    I Corinthians 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 12  Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.


    Image credit: Work found here / {{PD-Art|PD-old-75}}

    Hosea 12
    3  In the womb he [Jacob] took his brother by the heel,
    and in his manhood he strove with God.
    4  He strove with the angel and prevailed;
    he wept and sought his favor.
    He met God at Bethel,
    and there God spoke with us—
    5  the LORD, the God of hosts,
    the LORD is his memorial name:
    6  “So you, by the help of your God, return,
    hold fast to love and justice,
    and wait continually for your God.”
    (ESV)

    Acts 1:14  These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren...


    Image credit:  Work found here / CC BY-SA 3.0

    Acts 2
    1  And when the day of Pentecost was fully come,
    they were all with one accord in one place.
    2  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven
    as of a rushing mighty wind,
    and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
    3  And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire,
    and it sat upon each of them.
    4  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
    and began to speak with other tongues,
    as the Spirit gave them utterance.

    * * *

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

     

  • update: tent of meeting 3+ years later ~ "praying for a revival of religion"

     
    The following is from my blog post     update 8/4/2012: "praying for a revival of religion" from my sister site deerlife. At the conclusion (after the multiple underlines), I've added some additional thoughts.

    Please note:  If you've not read my previous posts Update/prayer requests - October 7, 2010 and Simeon's Waiting, Payson's Waiting, Our Waiting, and update 6/13/2012: "Grant me also a spirit of prayer!" | "Oh the happiness of communion with God," I'd suggest you do so prior to reading today's post. All of those give you some background as to the work of God in calling me to prayer for revival... Philippians 2:12-14.

    The following is the text of a letter (slightly edited) which I recently sent to a few other members of our church...

    Dear . . .

    I recently talked with each of you about the possibility of us getting together as a group to pray. I know that along with myself, God has given each of you a heart to pray for the revival of the Church. It's one thing for us to be praying individually, and we should be doing that, but I feel that we're separated (~ Nehemiah 4:19), and this is a time for us to come together as a group, so we might be seek the Lord and be that house of prayer for all nations which God desires ~ Zechariah 12:10-14; Isaiah 66:6-9.

    Earlier this year the name of the Rev. Edward Dorr Griffin resurfaced for me. Griffin was a pastor in the eastern/northeastern U.S. during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Griffin experienced several revivals of religion during his lifetime. I've continued to reflect on these words for several months now:

    In his early ministry, Dr. Griffin was subject to seasons of deep mental depression. He would sometimes come from his study in much distress, complaining to his family that he could  not study, and that his sermons were "so flat," that nobody could hear him. But, when emerging from this gloomy state, his mind would act with unwonted vigor and success. In these seasons, he did not enjoy his usually comforting evidence of personal piety. In a letter dated December 18, 1813, to a young minister of his acquaintance, he says: — "I am interested to know what God has done among the people of your charge. From the trials with which he was exercising your mind in August, I concluded that he was preparing you to do something more than common for his holy name. In former years, I used statedly to have those trials before revivals of religion; and, before that in which you were born. I wholly gave up my hope for a time." It was about that period that he invited a few choice members of his church to meet in his study every Thursday evening, for the single purpose of praying for a revival of religion. As their interest increased, he called in others, till the meeting consisted of six or eight. It was strictly private, and, as he afterward assured me, became a scene of earnest wrestling. "If any one," said he, "had come in with a cold heart, it would have been like throwing water upon the fire. This small-company continued thus wrestling week after week, unknown to the church at large. Nothing, externally, indicated any unusual tokens of the special presence of the Holy Spirit for two or three months. But the time had come when those prayers were to be answered, and when God was to be seen as a prayer hearing God.''
     
    ~ from "Recollections of Rev. E.D. Griffin, or, Incidents illustrating his character" by Parsons Cooke (1855), 117-119.

    My primary purpose is that of Griffin's:  to facilitate and to encourage one another in our "praying for a revival of religion." And by "choice members," I think all of us would humbly agree there is nothing at all choice about us, except the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has deemed to pour out His love, mercy, and grace upon us in Christ Jesus, and He has been drawing us to the ministry of prayer, and He has brought us together at . . . Church at this particular time. God Himself has made each of us willing in His power, He has given the burden for His Church and the desire to pray for her. In addition, from my reading Church history, it appears to me that prior to every revival of religion, God has raised up pockets of people to pray, a few choice members, as Griffin put it. Now, as to whether God will move in our case, we know He is sovereign and He pours out His Spirit according to His good pleasure – and yet He ordains means, which include importunate prayer. So let us take hold of and pay heed to Jesus' words:

    Luke 11:5  And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6  for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7  and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? 8  I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. 9  And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11  What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12  or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

    Luke 18:1  And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2  He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3  And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4  For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5  yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’”  6  And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7  And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? , Will he delay long over them? 8  I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

    May God find us faithful in the ministry to which He has called us ~ Hebrews 13:20-21.

    Lord willing, I would ask that you consider we all meet together for a meal and then prayer afterwards on one of the following dates . . .

    I don't know how often we might meet in the future, but I am trusting God will lead us. I am also trusting, as happened with Griffin, that God will raise up others with a similar passion and will lead us to call them in as well. I am praying that God might be gracious to us and rend the heavens and revive us again for the blessing of . . . Church and His Church at large to the glory of His name.

    I Samuel 14:6  Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few.”

    Yours in Christ,
    Karen

    I deliberated whether to share this with you publicly, but I have seen the ruins in the Church and her continuing decline. We must cast off and stop resorting to fleshly and worldly means, and take hold of the means God has provided:  to come with boldness and assurance in prayer to His throne of grace, for this certainly is a great time of need (Heb. 4:14-16), and then diligently plead with God to have mercy upon us and rend the heavens and send His reviving fire to us so we might be the burning lamp and brightness to the nations which God intends us to be (~ Isaiah 64 & 62).

    I also want to encourage those of you whom God has been burdening to pray for revival in the Church to continue to follow His will for you and not to shrink back due to fear, doubt, or uncertainty. Our flesh, the world, and the devil will continue to give us every possible reason not to pray. And I will tell you this:  not very long after sending this letter, temptations, doubts, questions, and second-guessing of every possible sort began to fill and plague my mind about the whole endeavor. Yes, it seems preposterous and impossible to us, yet His ways and His thoughts are higher than ours. Our God continues to command His people to seek His heart and His face in prayer, and our seeking Him is never in vain.



         Isaiah 45
         11  Thus says the LORD,
         the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him:
         “Ask me of things to come;
         will you command me concerning
         my children and the work of my hands?...

         19  I did not speak in secret,
         in a land of darkness;
         I did not say to the offspring of Jacob,
         ‘Seek me in vain.’ ...

    A day after writing that letter, I reflected: "It seems so far fetched to think a handful of people praying could battle the powers of darkness, yet that is always God's way, so He alone gets the glory due His name."

    Yesterday, as I was reading Ralph Wardlaw's Commentary on Zechariah 14, he referenced a portion of Isaiah 51, and I opened my Bible and read it:

    Isaiah 51:3 (NKJV)
    For the LORD will comfort Zion,
    He will comfort all her waste places;
    He will make her wilderness like Eden,
    And her desert like the garden of the LORD;
    Joy and gladness will be found in it,
    Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
    The LORD's desire is to comfort ALL our waste places. Therefore, so long as there ARE waste places in any part of the Church, we ought to be praying day and night...

    For God's glory in the Church and the joy of the elect,
    Karen

     

    Dear friends,

    Since I began tent of meeting, there's been a gradual transition over the past couple years, as I've slowly become more focused on and involved in my local congregation and less so with my blogs. Though I'm not posting here so regularly, I still want this blog to serve an encouragement to those who have received a burden from the Lord to pray for revival so you might persevere in prayer. My desire and my prayer is that God might be pleased to use my words here to stir you up to love and specifically to the good work of prayer (~ Heb. 10:24-25). I am more convinced today than ever that we are in desperate need of a genuine revival of religion, and one of God's appointed means toward that happening is through the concerted, fervent, and importunate prayers of God's people. I would also invite those of you who come across this blog who are not members of the Xanga community to e-mail me at naphtali DOT deer AT gmail DOT com (putting it that way so I don't get spammed). And, of course, any of you who are part of Xanga are welcome to message me. I would love to hear how God has been at work in you and at work in your congregations in calling you to such a ministry of prayer.

    Since having written that letter I cited above, I have found myself at a similar point where I was just over three years ago when I first started publicly posting here at tent of meeting. At that time, on April 14, 2009, in my first post here, I described some of the vision I had for this blog in a sort of FAQ format, and I had written:

    * * *

    I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS...

     

    Yes, and so do I! I am trusting God will make the way clear for all of us. God has been taking me and leading me by His hand step by step and putting me in a place I would not have imagined just a couple months ago. So things are not all clear to me yet, but I am stepping out in faith, I am putting my foot in the Jordan, and am anticipating and waiting on Him to make the way clear.

    * * *

    And today, August 6, 2012, I have even more questions! It can be disconcerting not to know what lies ahead, but, as Ira Forest Stanphill penned:

    Many things about tomorrow,
    I don't seem to understand;
    But I know Who holds tomorrow,
    And I know Who holds my hand.

    As we're put into such uncertain and unpredictable situations, we are led to seek the God who is a Rock and everlasting Strength! As we're put into impossible situations, we are led to seek the God who can do the impossible! As we painfully come to see our own poverty, we plead to know experientially God's riches in Christ Jesus! As we see our own insufficiency, we are quickened to fly to God to seek to know Christ's full sufficiency! Once again, as I did three years ago, I am trusting God to lead me and to make the way clear in His way and His time. It is a blessed thing to be brought to the end of yourself time and time again so you might come to know Christ as your all in all!

    Matthew 5:3  Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven...

    I know that God is sovereign. I know that He is good and all-wise and all-powerful and all-knowing. I know that God is always working all things for His glory, for His praise, for the preeminence of Jesus Christ, for the furtherance of the Gospel, for the good of His Church, and for the joy of His elect throughout all the nations – even though thoughts and circumstances will arise that may tempt me to doubt that. But as I (we) follow God's leading in the way He would have me (us) go, as we go day by day, step by step, prayer by prayer – I (we) can and must trust the Lord.

    Psalm 9:10  And those who know your name put their trust in you,
    for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.

    Let us not shrink back in unbelief. Let me not shrink back in unbelief! Through Isaiah, the LORD warned king Ahaz in Isaiah 7:9b:

    If you are not firm in faith,
    you will not be firm at all.

    We walk by faith and not by sight. We stand in faith, we act in faith, and we pray in faith (and don't ever let someone ever try to convince you that prayer is not action – I'm not saying it's the only action, but it is action!), and we trust God in faith like Joab:

    II Samuel 10:9  When Joab saw that the battle was set against him both in front and in the rear, he chose some of the best men of Israel and arrayed them against the Syrians. 10  The rest of his men he put in the charge of Abishai his brother, and he arrayed them against the Ammonites. 11  And he said, “If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me, but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come and help you. 12  Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the LORD do what seems good to him.”

    As we obey the LORD, it's true we don't know what the specific outcome will be, but we do know Him, and we can trust Him!

    Let us remember whose we are – children of the living God, having been rescued from the domain of darkness and translated into His marvelous light,  once enemies who have now been brought near, we are now free to approach the mercy seat with a holy boldness through the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ; therefore, let us go to Him! May we draw near to the throne of grace, to lay before our loving, merciful, and gracious heavenly Father all our concerns, to let our requests be known, to cast on Him all our cares, so we might receive the mercy and grace He delights to pour out upon all who hunger and thirst for Him, so we might travel through our pilgrimage fully satisfied and sustained in Christ, to rejoice in the LORD and to know God as our strength (as Habakkuk sang of at the end of Hab. 3) – no matter what happens. Even though things may not turn out as we might have hoped or expected, let us remember this:  our God is never a disappointment!

    As the redeemed of God through Jesus Christ, we have received the high and holy privilege to draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith (Heb. 10:22), and we are exhorted to come boldly to the throne of grace in our time of need (Heb. 4:14-16). Rather than looking at the storms about us, rather than entertaining the uncertainties, rather than fueling our doubts with our faith-sapping questions, rather than sinking into despair and hopelessness, may we continue to avail ourselves of the blessed privilege we have to fix our eyes on Jesus – much as Hezekiah did after he received the threatening letter from Sennacherib, the king of Assyria.

    II Kings 19:14  Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD and spread it before the LORD. 15  And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said: “O LORD the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. 16  Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. 17  Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands 18  and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. 19  So now, O LORD our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone.”

    Though that situation was different than mine, like Hezekiah, I've continued to take my burden for the Church along with that letter which I've written and have gone up to the house of the LORD and spread them before the LORD...

    O LORD the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; You have made heaven and earth.  Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see ... and do what seems good to You for the glory and honor of Your name and the blessing of Your Church, for we are Your flock, the sheep of Your pasture, purchased with the precious blood of the Lamb of God, Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we are Your people called by Your name. LORD of hosts, You who are zealous and jealous for us, how long will it be until You have mercy upon us? Hear our prayers for Jesus' sake. Look down from heaven and return with mercy and visit this vine! Restore us and revive us, O LORD God of hosts. Shine Your face upon us again, so we might shine in this dark world to the praise, honor, and glory of Your name to the ends of the earth. Amen. (In addition to Hezekiah's prayer, please see also Psalm 80, Psalm 102 & Zechariah 1.)

    I appreciate and thank God for each of you who have visited this site and have read and prayed and added your own prayers here. I pray that those of you who are Christ's might grow in His grace and the knowledge of Him, and each of you might come to know (really know) His strength sufficient for each and every one of your days ~ Deuteronomy 33:25.

    Proverbs 4:18  But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.

    Yours in Christ,
    Karen

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

    Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

    Scripture quotations marked NKJV taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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    Lyrics are subject to US Copyright Laws and are the property of their respective authors, artists and labels. Commercial use prohibited.

  • for lack of knowledge – O! for Your truth, goodness, light & sweetness! Isaiah 5:13, 20-21

    II Timothy 4:1  I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2  preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3  For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4  and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5  As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

    Isaiah 5
    13  Therefore my people go into exile
    for lack of knowledge;
    their honored men go hungry,
    and their multitude is parched with thirst...

    20  Woe to those who call evil good
    and good evil,
    who put darkness for light
    and light for darkness,
    who put bitter for sweet
    and sweet for bitter!
    21  Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
    and shrewd in their own sight!

    LORD God, have mercy upon Your people. There is a great dearth of knowledge in Your Church today. There are many sheep who are hungry and thirsty, and the tragic thing is many of these souls do not even know they are hungry and thirsty because they've had little access to sound teaching. Forgive us, Lord, for all of us are too easily and too quickly led away by our own passions, and we too quickly discard the hard sayings of Scripture without examining them because they are spiritually discerned. We allow our sinful flesh and earthly minds to guide us rather than submitting ourselves to the supernatural leading of Your blessed Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, lead us into all truth. Lord Jesus Christ, our Bridegroom, sanctify and cleanse Your bride with the washing of the water of Your Word. Holy Father, sanctify Your children in the truth; Your Word is truth. Both the shepherds and the flock end up calling evil good, and good evil; put darkness for light, and light for darkness; and put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Forgive us, Lord God, for Jesus' sake. We are sheep who are prone to wander, and we each would go our own way – far, far away from Your way – apart from Your persevering grace. Holy Spirit, You are the Spirit of truth. Humble us, O God, bring us to our senses, and lead us into all truth, that we might once again treat the Word of God with the reverence we ought – that we would not sit as judges over Your Word, but put ourselves under Your Word and let Your Word judge us. Merciful God, send Your Spirit to soften and circumcise our hearts, to open our ears and eyes, and to lead us into all truth. Sanctify our hearts and our ears so we would desire and pant for Your truth, goodness, light and sweetness to be preached once again in our congregations, and that we would test all things in light of Your Word and settle for nothing less than sound teaching.

    LORD God, send us pastors and teachers who will not shrink back from their calling, but would be ready and faithful to preach Your Word without compromise in season and out of season. O, God, we are hungry and thirsty! We are in desperate need of Your truth, goodness, light and sweetness to flow forth from our pulpits! May Your grace equip our pastors and teachers so they might labor hard, and may Your love compel them to uphold and proclaim with authority the truths of Scripture to feed the flock of God faithfully, fearlessly and boldly, so Your sheep will not continue to go hungry and thirsty, but would be nourished with and grow by Your true Word as You intend, so we might glorify and enjoy and sup with You as we eat and drink of Your truth, goodness, light and sweetness! O! How can any single one of us thrive and flourish on falsehood, evil, darkness and bitterness! How can Your Church thrive and flourish on falsehood, evil, darkness and bitterness! How can the cause of Christ in the world thrive and flourish on falsehood, evil, darkness and bitterness! Unless we are eating and drinking of Your truth, goodness, light and sweetness, what truth, goodness, light and sweetness do we have to give out to a world which is lost and mired and enslaved in falsehood, evil, darkness and bitterness? Good Shepherd, send us pastors and teachers who are not seeking to please men, but who are seeking to please You. Send us pastors who desire to seek Your face and Your Kingdom and Your glory – and not to seek their own kingdoms or their own glory. Send us pastors and teachers who will not preach and teach to itching ears, but will keep their eyes on Jesus and persevere in sound teaching, no matter the cost to them. Almighty God, strengthen these men by Your Holy Spirit so they might be sober-minded, endure afflictions, fulfill their ministry, and be faithful proclaimers of Your evangel. Send us pastors and teachers who do not fear men, but fear You and tremble at Your Word and treasure and guard Your Gospel, knowing one day they will stand before You to give account for how they stewarded Your word and tended the flock which You purchased with Your precious blood.

    * Please add your PRAYERS as God's 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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