As I've mentioned previously, besides the reading of the Bible itself, a refreshing tonic to counteract our fleshly tendency toward spiritual malaise, slothfulness and lukewarmness is to read Christian biography along with the history of revivals. As I've been reading through Joseph Tracy's "The Great Awakening," I've found many encouragements to be persevering in prayer for revival, and I encourage you to seek out such resources for yourself. (A copy of Tracy's book can be found via google books here.)

There was a portion in the book I found particularly fitting as we come to the end of another year. That account, which I've included below, is from the ministry of the Rev. Nathanael Leonard (1699-1761), who ministered at First Church in Plymouth, Massachusetts from 1724-1757. It not only shows Leonard's zeal for faithful preaching but also his heart of prayer, two characteristics which ought to mark a true minister of Christ (Acts 6:4).

In today's post I'd like to focus on Rev. Leonard's discernment of the times and the corresponding burden of prayer he had for the Church to be reformed and revived. Leonard wrote that:

We were sensible of an awful degeneracy, and kept days of fasting and prayer, year after year, that God would pour out his Spirit upon us; especially on the rising generation.

I'm not sure exactly when Leonard began keeping those days of fasting and prayer, but it appears it was most likely for a period of several years. And, if those times of fasting and prayer had been started near the beginning of his ministry, then it would have been a period of about seventeen years before God began to pour out of His Spirit in reformation and revival on First Church in Plymouth.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, unless we are sensible of the "awful degeneracy," will we be able to persevere in keeping days of fasting and prayer, year after year, that God would pour out his Spirit upon us? Rev. Leonard reminded me of Nehemiah, for Nehemiah was also sensible of the great trouble and shame of God's people and God's city – and, as a result of that sensibility, he was led to weep and mourn and fast and pray (see Nehemiah 1).

There's a beautiful portion of Scripture in Isaiah 66:

10  “Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her,
all you who love her;
rejoice with her in joy,
all you who mourn over her;
11  that you may nurse and be satisfied
from her consoling breast;
that you may drink deeply with delight
from her glorious abundance.”

Those who truly love the cause of Christ and His Church in the world should mourn over her at times like this here in the West –– when not only our culture but also much of the visible church is mired in an awful degeneracy, religion under a great decay and in a state of disrepair. Yes, it's true that the Church is always living under the grace and favor of God, but O! for the day we might witness the Lord descend in awakening power –– a day of great grace such as Rev. Leonard witnessed almost 300 years ago. Thanks be to God that we have the promise that our labor in Him is not in vain. Our heavenly Father does not despise the prayers of the destitute, and one day we will rejoice and be glad with her! We can be sure that one day our weeping will be turned to shouts of joy! ~ Psalm 126.

Let us pray that God's Holy Spirit might make us sensible and keep us sensible year after year like Nathanael Leonard; to strengthen us year after year to approach the throne of grace (remember that our Great High Priest ever lives to make intercession for us; should we not also be making prayer for Him and His Kingdom continually? ~ Psalm 72:15), so we might persevere in raising up prayer for the cause of Christ, no matter how long it takes (seventeen years – or even longer); that we might not be slothful in zeal, but rather fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, and constant in prayer (~ Romans 12:11-12). May the God of all grace equip us and keep us faithful throughout the coming year to offer up prayer that God would pour out His Spirit upon us in the 21st century as He did in the 18th century, for the glory of His name to the ends of the earth! ~ Ephesians 3:20-21.

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The following excerpt is from Chapter XII. The Revival in New England in Joseph Tracy's "The Great Awakening:  A History of the Revival of Religion in the time of Edwards and Whitefield" (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 1976), 159-161. Originally published in 1842. Boldface mine. (HT:  google book found at: http://books.google.com/books?id=RxZkYTXHc5gC&output=text&source=gbs_navlinks_s)

"The landing of the Pilgrims!" Every son and daughter of a Puritan, every enlightened friend of Christianity and of the blessings that follow in its train, will ask with interest for the history of the revival here. It shall be given in the words of the Rev. Nathanael Leonard, pastor of the First Church, who wrote November 23, 1744.*

"It pleased God to cast my lot (who am the least of all saints) in the First Church and town in the country, above twenty years ago. Religion was then under a great decay; most people seemed to be taken up principally about the world and the lusts of this life; though there appeared some serious Christians among us that had the things of God at heart, who greatly bewailed the growth of impiety, profaneness, Sabbath breaking, gaming, tavern-haunting, intemperance, and other evils, which threatened to bear down all that is good and sacred before them. We were sensible of an awful degeneracy, and kept days of fasting and prayer, year after year, that God would pour out his Spirit upon us; especially on the rising generation. At these times we invited the ministers of the county to join with us, who readily gave their assistance. The authority of this town endeavoured to put a stop to the growing intemperance, by clearing the taverns at nine o'clock in the evening, and punishing loose and disorderly persons that frequented them. But all the methods used one way and the other, proved of little effect. Iniquity prevailed, and we were in danger of losing the very form of godliness.

"The Rev. Mr. Whitefield coming into the land, and the news we presently had of his preaching and conversation at Boston and elsewhere, roused us a little, and we sent to him to come and preach to us. We expected him in October, 1740, but were disappointed.

"In March following, the Rev. Mr. Tennent came hither and preached eight sermons to general acceptance, which, by the blessing of God, greatly awakened this people, and many have dated such religious impressions from that time, as we have reason to believe issued in a real conversion to God. After him, several ministers of the county and others visited us, and preached with us; and we often spent whole days in prayer, singing and preaching, and had frequently three exercises in them. I often preached three times on the Lord's day myself, and sometimes three or four times in the week besides; although before this, through bodily indisposition and heaviness of spirit, I was not able to carry on the usual stated exercises, and my people had for some years provided me an assistant.

"The subjects chiefly insisted on were these following, viz: The sin and apostasy of mankind in Adam; the blindness of the natural man in the things of God; the enmity of the carnal mind; the evil of sin; the desert of it, and the utter inability of the fallen creature to relieve itself; the sovereignty of God; his righteousness, holiness, truth, power, eternity; also his grace and mercy in Christ Jesus; the way of redemption by Christ; justification, through his imputed righteousness, received by faith; this faith the gift of God, and a living principle, that worketh by love; legal and evangelical repentance; the nature and necessity of regeneration; and that without holiness no man can see God. All persons were put upon examining themselves, warned against trusting in their own righteousness, and resting in the form of godliness, without the power, &c. These things, together with pathetical invitations to sinners, to come and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as offered in the Gospel, made a wonderful impression on the minds of all sorts of people at the first. And men, women and children were much awakened, and the out ward face of things began exceedingly to alter.

"In February, 1742, the Rev. Mr. Croswell came hither, and continued in the town about a fortnight, preaching sometimes in this, and sometimes in the other parish. At this time, I think I may say, as the apostle does to the Thessalonians: 'The Gospel came unto us, not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. And we received the word, not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which wrought effectually in them that believed.' Hundreds of souls were at one time in the meetinghouse, Saturday, February 13th, crying out in the utmost concern, what they should do to be saved! and many others rejoicing in the Lord, in the sweet sense of his redeeming love and grace in Christ Jesus, as they declared. This day, and at some other times, conversions were so open and public, that we seemed to see souls, dead in trespasses and sins, revive and stand up monuments of divine grace. I do not mean that we had an intuition of their hearts, and knew infallibly the state of their souls, which is God's prerogative; but the appearance of conversion from one state to the other, and the alteration in the frame and temper of their minds, which they discovered in words and behaviour, was admirable. This day appeared to me in the time of it, and hath done so ever since, a day of great grace, for which my soul giveth thanks to God.

"After this, for some months together, you should scarcely see any body at the taverns, unless they were strangers, travellers, or some come there upon necessary business. The children forsook their plays in the streets, and persons of all denominations, except a few, gave themselves to reading the word of God, and other books of devotion, to meditation, prayer, conference, and other religious exercises, and refrained from their customary vices. And many that lived at a distance, being acquainted with this town in its former slate, coming hither, beheld us now with admiration, saying, Surely the fear of God is in this place."

* Christian History, Vol. II. page 313.

Please read Zechariah 8 and Haggai 1 ...

The following is an excerpt from Lecture IX. on Zechariah 8, from Rev. Ralph Wardlaw's "Lectures on the Prophecies of Zechariah" (second edition, originally published 1869, (Stoke on Trent: Tentmaker Publications, reprinted 2007), 161-162 (underlining & boldface, mine):

Haggai 1:3-4  Then the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? ... "

Our Holy and Heavenly Father,

Though the Church today here in the western world lies not in physical ruination like the temple and the city of Jerusalem (as was the case in the days of Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, and Nehemiah), she does lie in great spiritual ruination, and there is much rebuilding to be done. As in those days of return from exile, You are once again stirring up Your people and calling them to the work of rebuilding in Your strength, but not with swords, stones, trowels, and mortar, but with the spiritual weapons of prayer and the ministry of the Word.

Throughout the rebuilding process in the post-exilic period, we know that Your people continually faced temptations from their flesh, distractions from within the camp, as well as opposition from enemies from without, so the work of rebuilding the temple and Jerusalem might be hindered and left incomplete. And we know that are in no different of a situation today, as we continue to battle against our flesh, the world, and the devil.

Though we should have a healthy solicitude regarding our own personal and domestic accommodation here on this earth, for we do have earthly bodies and families and possessions to care for in this life, and You do call us to be good and responsible stewards – yet ever so quickly we know that our just and proper concerns for ourselves and our families can morph and degrade into selfish, sinful concerns. We confess and repent how we can become consumed and controlled by the earthly, at which point we have little to no concern to be about Your business and about the kingdom of Your Son. Our Father, have mercy on us and forgive us our sins, for Jesus' sake. May the blood of Jesus Christ cleanse us from our sins of selfish solicitude. We acknowledge how even our best desires can become corrupted and tainted. Strengthen us, Holy Spirit, to gird up the loins of our minds, so God's kingdom work might not be interrupted and abandoned due to selfish solicitude on our part. Guard us and keep us single-eyed and whole-hearted for You, that we might fix our eyes on Jesus, set our affections on things above, seek first Your kingdom, and entrust our own keeping and care as well as our families' keeping and care to You –– to trust You to provide for ourselves and our families, just as You so wondrously feed the birds of the air and so marvelously clothe the lilies of the field.

Strengthen us to set You, O LORD our God, always before us, that we might guard our hearts and minds so we might not have a selfish, sinful solicitude regarding our own homes, our own business, our own kingdoms, and our own families to the sinful, lethargic neglect of Your Church, Your business, Your kingdom, and Your family, as had happened after the exile. Baptize us afresh with Your Holy Spirit that we might know in increasing measure Your love, mercy, and grace in Christ Jesus, that You might fill our vision and we might be consumed with a holy solicitude for You, for You are the LORD our God who chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, You bought us with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, You are a jealous God, and we are to have no other gods before You.

We come to You and we ask these things for the sake of Your renown in Your Church and among all the nations in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Montifringilla_nivalis_-Trentino.jpg  / http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Since February of this year I've been posting prayers based on the book of Nehemiah. As I've also been reading through the book of Daniel, I couldn't help but be grabbed by Daniel's prayer in Daniel 9. (If you read this prayer along with Nehemiah's (Neh. 1) and the prayer of Israel in Neh. 10, you can't help but see some similarities. I'd encourage you to read and reflect on those three prayers.)

At the time of Daniel's prayer, the seventy years' captivity was about to be completed. In about 539 BC we find Daniel being filled with faith and being led of the Spirit of God to confess and repent of the sins of Israel and intercede for her, all in anticipation of the fulfillment of God's promise to show His steadfast love, mercy and grace on Israel again, to deliver them from exile and return them to the promised land.

Please note that this prayer was prayed a year before the first wave of exiles return in 538BC (Ezra 1), eighty-one years before the Ezra returned with the second wave of exiles (Ezra 7), and ninety-three years before Nehemiah returned with the third wave of exiles (Nehemiah 2).

In other words: Daniel was praying before even one Israelite began the journey back to the promised land. Even one! Even before the commandment was given by Cyrus King of Persia for the first wave of exiles to return.

I know full well that many of us can be discouraged as we pray for revival. We've seen the ruins in the Church.

We've seen doctrine discounted. We've seen grace cheapened. We've seen the Christian life misrepresented as an arduous legalism. We've seen dead doctrine without life. Etc.

And so it is that we too are in exile, in a sense. It sometimes seems that we've not even seen one Israelite on that road back to Jerusalem.

Yet, can we not each proclaim that we have seen the work of God in our own hearts? Can we not also see those blessed times when God has privileged us to see some of the firstfruits being born of His Spirit in the lives of few souls?

However, it is true that we can too easily lose our vision of God and His mighty, wonder-working power to revive His people, to breathe life into the dead, dry bones. We forget the God who raised Jesus from the dead can sweep into our lives and into our churches at any moment and orchestrate a great work of revival to His glory alone. We focus on the impossibility, rather than our God. We forget that nothing is impossible with Him.

We forget our God is the God who declares His reviving work before it springs forth:

If you are already burdened over the current state of the Church and you have been praying (like Nehemiah and Daniel), God has already given you eyes to see and a heart to weep over the shame, reproach, rebellion, ruins we are in. Yet, there are times when each one of us is tempted to doubt. We begin to wonder what God is doing, but along with Habakkuk, God reminds us that the just shall live by faith. We are to walk by faith and not by sight. If we do not believe, surely we will not be established. May He grant us sufficient grace to trust Him and persevere in prayer before His throne.

We do know God will fulfill all His promises to His Church in His time. We know that His love for us in Jesus Christ will never end, and His good hand will continue to be upon His Church in the same way that our Savior ever lives to intercede for us at the Father's right hand. Let our importunity take us back again and again to His throne of grace, so we might approach Him with boldness and confidence, nothing doubting. Our God is the God who will perform what He has promised. And He has the power to perform what He has promised. We cannot ever expect the Lord God to move any sooner than He ordains, yet we do know that He does want us to continue to intercede on behalf of the Church, so we might be no longer be a shame and reproach in the earth but rather be a praise to His holy and blessed and glorious Name. We may not understand God's timing, but we can always trust His plans for us are good. We can trust the Lord God will continue to faithful to us for Jesus' sake, because of His covenant of grace, not because of anything we have done or we could do...and in spite of what we have done. May we continue to praise and worship God our Father for His continuing covenant mercies poured out on us through His Son Jesus Christ. We can trust that our God waits to move only so He might be more greatly exalted, since all things are about Him and His glory. May we patiently wait on Him to work in His way and in His time and continue fervent in prayer on behalf of His Church.

We also know that the Lord has promised to pour out a spirit of grace and supplications on His Church. We have seen this happen time and again throughout Church history, when the Church is at a low point, it is then that God begins to burden a handful of people to pray. They don't work up the desire to pray, but He sovereignly gives them the desire. I know God gave me such a desire a little over a year ago and He continues to fuel it. I wasn't looking for that, and I know apart from His Spirit continuing to constrain me to pray, I would have given up praying long ago. I confess I have been tempted to give up, and I confess there have been times when I have not be instant in prayer and continuing as I ought. Nevertheless, not because of my own will or my own power, but because of His Spirit, I am still praying today. And I know many of you are also. I thank God for each of you.

If you are reading this and you have not yet received a burden from the Lord to intercede for the Church, but you are only praying because you think you ought to, I ask you to ask Him to give you such a burden. You will know you have received it once you have received it. His love will constrain you in the calling to pray.

If you are reading this and you have already received such a burden from the Lord, I want to encourage you to persevere in prayer. If you have come short in praying as you ought (and we all have at one time or another), please confess that to the Lord, receive His forgiveness and cleansing through the blood of Jesus, and then ask Him to work in You to will and to do of His good pleasure. We can trust Almighty God will equip us with all we need for doing His will, and for some of us, a big part of His will for us is a call to intercessory prayer on behalf of the Church. As we obey Him in this calling, we can trust He will grant us grace and joy beyond what we can imagine.

Let us be encouraged and challenged as we look to the example of Daniel. Our brother had been carried away into exile and dwelt in exile for years and remained faithful to God there, and then, as God moved Him, He zealously approached the throne of grace in full confidence that God would be faithful to keep His covenant promises to Israel for His own sake and the sake of His Name.

I've included Daniel's prayer (KJV) below. I may post more on this Scripture another day, but today I wish to present it as is. It's simply wonderful. May the Holy Spirit encourage you through it as He has me, and, as He leads you, please add your own prayers below.

Co-laboring with you, seeking His face for revival for His sake,
Karen

Daniel 9:1  In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; 2  In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.

3  And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: 4  And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; 5  We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: 6  Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 7  O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee, but unto us confusion of faces, as at this day; to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and unto all Israel, that are near, and that are far off, through all the countries whither thou hast driven them, because of their trespass that they have trespassed against thee. 8  O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee. 9  To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against him; 10  Neither have we obeyed the voice of the LORD our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. 11  Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him. 12  And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem. 13  As it is written in the law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the LORD our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth. 14  Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God is righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice. 15  And now, O Lord our God, that hast brought thy people forth out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and hast gotten thee renown, as at this day; we have sinned, we have done wickedly.

16  O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. 17  Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord's sake. 18  O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. 19  O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.