Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

In the work of prayer, it's so easy of us to feel like Paul did in II Timothy 4: "But all forsook me..." To believe that we are the only ones burdened for and praying for reformation and revival. Of course, we know that we are not the only ones, as God always has a remnant; nonetheless, it's too easy to lapse into great depression and despair like Elijah did when we begin to think that we are alone.

In this 21st century, is there is no one who calls on Your name, and stirs and rouses himself up to take hold of You, for You have hidden Your face from us, and have made us melt and consumed us because of our iniquities? (See Isaiah 64:7.)

And though we know there is always a praying remnant, as we look out at the current state of the Christian church in the west, and as find so few people who are calling upon God's name, and so few who are stirring and rousing themselves up to take hold of Christ... it greatly grieves us. And then, in great contrast, we do find so many who are stirring and rousing themselves to do all sorts of other things, all other things except taking hold of Christ! There are Christians who are plenty busy with plenty of activities, and not that all of those are bad or sinful by any means, but how many are busy in this work of prayer?

I recently found myself recently lapsing into uncertainty, fear, doubt, bitterness, and fatigue, and I knew my reactions were sinful and were not coming from a pure heart, and it was a sure sign my eyes and my heart were not rightly fixed on Jesus and on His calling to me.

After the Lord's Supper, we read how Jesus went with all the disciples to the Mount of Olives and then Gethsemane. At that point, He took only three of those, Peter, James, and John, with Him as He prayed. Most of you know the story, how all three ended up falling asleep, while Jesus remained praying.

That rebuke / challenge / command reminded me of one of Martyn Lloyd-Jones' (a.k.a. - ML-J or The Doctor) sermons from his Revival series, which he preached in 1959 at Westminster Chapel (London), in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 1859 revival. Lloyd-Jones was seeking and praying for revival; he'd known personal revival in his own life, and some revival showers had also fallen in his pastorate years before at Aberavon (Wales) in the late 1920's and 1930's. In those sermons, he sought to show the crucial need of revival and to stir up the flock of God to be praying for revival. The sermon I was reminded of is titled, "Preparatory Stages in Revival" (Exodus 33:7-11) (which you can listen to online and/or download here: http://www.mljtrust.org/sermons/preparatory-stages-in-revival/). In that particular sermon, The Doctor reminds us that throughout Church history, during the first stages of revival, God almost always calls out individuals to pray with Jesus, and that those who are called can't be concerned about what everyone else is doing. Each one of us who has received the burden and the calling to pray, must follow Jesus and be obedient and pray, regardless of what others are doing. As The Doctor said, "Oh, if we wait until the whole Church moves, it will never happen. It will never move. Do not worry about that. God's way is to take hold of individuals and to use them and then eventually the majority will be affected."

Today I'd like to bring you a few excerpts from Chapter 13, "Prayer and Revival" from the book "Revival" (Crossway: Wheaton, 1987). The book contains the edited transcripts of the twenty-four sermons Lloyd-Jones preached in the revival series, and Chapter 13 is the published transcript of the sermon I alluded to above. In order to get the fuller sense of the context and the complete teaching, I'd urge you listen to the entire sermon, or to get the book and read the entire sermon (as well as listen to and/or read all the other sermons in the whole series). (In addition to the sermon I cited above, you can access for free the full set of audio recordings of all the sermons in the revival series through the MLJ Trust website (http://www.mljtrust.org/) via this link: http://www.mljtrust.org/collections/revival/. And, if you love the printed page as much as I do, in addition to listening to the sermons, I'd recommend your getting hold of that book, if at all possible.)

And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the LORD went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp. And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle. And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses. And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man in his tent door. And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle. (Exod. 33.7-11). . .

It is important that we should understand that Moses was clearly led to take this particular action. He took this tabernacle out of the centre of the camp and put it outside, far from the camp. Now at this point there are many things which must detain us. The first of course, that this was an action taken by Moses, Moses himself. And I must pause with that, because you will always find as you read the history of these movements of the Spirit in the long story of the Christian Church, that generally the very first thing that happens, and which eventually leads to a great revival, is that one man, or a group of men, suddenly begin to feel this burden, and they feel the burden so much that they are led to do something about it. Look at the great history. Look at the Protestant Reformation, that mighty movement, where did it come from? How did it originate? I know that there were precursors even of that – Wycliffe, John Huss and others – but you see the real thing happened when just one man, Martin Luther, a very ordinary kind of monk, suddenly became aware of this burden. And it so burdened him that he was led to do something about it. Just one man, and through that one many, God sent that mighty movement into the Church.

The same thing could be abundantly illustrated from the stories of other revivals. Read again the story of the revival in Northern Ireland, a hundred years ago, that great movement, which led not only to so many conversions, but which quickened the whole life of the Presbyterian Church and the other churches in Northern Ireland, and transformed the whole situations. It did the same in Wales also, and in the United States of America at the same time. Now, you will find that in all these instances, the movement began with just one man. take the man who began the prayer meetings in Fulton Street in New York City in 1857, a most ordinary man, but he felt this burden, and did something about it. The revival in Northern Ireland, started with just that one man, James McQuilken. And the same was true in Wales, with one man only, called Humphrey Jones, who, feeling the power of revival in America, felt a burden for his own country and crossed the Atlantic back to Wales, and began to tell people about it. Now, I emphasise this for one reason only, that this is what I like to call the 'romantic' element in the Christian life and in the history of the Church. That is to me what is so glorious about it. I dare not pass lightly over a point like this because somebody reading this book, whom I do not know, may be the person that God is going to use. And that sort of thing can only happen in the Christian Church, it does not happen in the world. The world looks to the leaders and the great people, but God, as the Apostle Paul says in I Corinthians is constantly confounding the wise by taking hold of the foolish. He 'brings to nought the things that are ', by using the things that are not. It may be anybody. There are no rules about this matter. . .

So then, one man or a group of men may begin to feel the burden. And, therefore, I am entitled to ask whether you have felt the burden? And if you have not, what is the reason? Are you concerned about the situation? Have you got a zeal for the glory of God/ Does it grieve you to see his church as she is? If not, why not? If this is a burden that can come to anybody, has it not come to you? Let us leave it at that, but remember that it may be the action of one man. . .

So, inevitably there is a kind of separation. 'Ah,' says someone, 'are you going to divide up the Christian Church?' I am not dividing it. What I am saying is that when the Holy Spirit of God begins to deal with any one of us, there will be this separation. It will not be paraded, it will not be the Pharisees' 'I am holier than thou' attitude. No, once a man begins to be burdened for the glory of God and the state of the Church, he immediately feels this call to consecration, he 'goes out' as it were. We must not overemphasise the physical aspect. It had to be physical there, but it is the principle that matters. Oh, what I am trying to say is this. In a day of grievous immorality, ungodliness and irreligion, such as this, in a day when vice is not only shouting at us, but is arrogant and is boasting, when it is being thrown at the people everywhere - all I am asking is whether we know anything about the call to a separation from that kind of thing? We are living in days when, as Christians, we are called to go the second mile. Ordinary Christianity is not enough, more is demanded. Are we not beginning to feel that nothing can deal with this situation but a manifestation of true life and living, holy living, as it is under God? That is what these men felt.

So Moses put his tabernacle outside the camp and a long way from it. 'It must be separate,' he said. 'It has got to be holy.' And another emphasis I would draw from his action is that he is showing clearly the need of some unusual action, and of some extra effort. Now there are two things that always happen in this early stage of revival. The people who are concerned about revival, in a true sense, are not just out for a little bit of excitement, or interest, or some happiness, or phenomena, or coming with an attitude of 'something marvellous is going to happen and we are going to have a great good time' That is not how they think about it at all. And if you, my dear friends, are simply thinking about meetings, and excitement, and something wonderful, you have not begun to understand this matter.

The first indication of a true and a genuine concern is that we are aware of our unworthiness and uncleanesss. We have got to separate ourselves. We have got to set up this tabernacle somehow somewhere outside the ordinary. It has got to be exceptional; it has got to be unusual. We have got to go out of our way. Now, this is the question that I want to impress upon your minds and to leave with you. In these days of exceptional evil, are you doing something exceptional? Or are you just content with coming to the services in the house of God, and doing some routine things? Of course, in the time when the Church was being blessed and all was well, people came to the house of God, they worked in the mission societies, they taught in the Sunday schools, and did all that as part of the ordinary work of the Church. I am not talking about that. What I am asking is this: have you felt that, because of the times through which we are passing, you are called to do something exceptional, to go out, as it were, to take some great deliberate action, that in a way separates you. That is the great lesson here.

And then, that I may complete this review here, I am rather interested in what we are told about the remainder of the people. They saw that Moses and one or two individuals used to go out of the camp to the tabernacle to pray. In verse 8 we read,

And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle.

There is something very wonderful about this. All they did was to look on with interest. They were aware that something was happening, but they did not know what it was and they did not understand it. They did not go out of the camp with Moses into the tent of meeting with God, and pray, and intercede. All they knew was that Moses had taken the tent outside the camp and that he and certain others periodically visited it. So they just stood at their their tent doors, watching Moses as he went and talking about him, wondering what he was doing and what exactly was happening. Now the appalling thing is that the right place for the tent was in the midst of the camp. But it was not there.

As you read the history of the Church, you will find this repeated. At first just a few people feel the call, and separate themselves, and then the others begin to say, ‘What is happening to so and so? Have you heard about this man or that woman?’ They stand at their tent doors and they look on. They have a feeling that something is happening. But they do nothing at all. Oh, if we wait until the whole Church moves, it will never happen. It will never move. Do not worry about that. God's way is to take hold of individuals and to use them and then eventually the majority will be affected. But at this stage, they simply have this vague general awareness that something is happening, and they begin to look on wistfully at the action of Moses and his few companions. . .

And so, as we finish our study of  stage one, we must ask ourselves, whether we have arrived at that stage. Do we know anything about that tabernacle and this call to separation and to urgent intercession? Those are the two things holiness and intercession on behalf of the mass of the people, and waiting in the presence of God, expecting more and more.

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.

(If you are new to this site, or would like more information, you can read more about tent of meeting in this post, and/or e-mail me at naphtali DOT deer AT gmail DOT com, or message me via Xanga using <a "="" href="http://www.xanga.com/message.aspx?user=tent_of_meeting">this link.)

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.

To commemorate the 440th anniversary of John Knox's death, November 24, 1572 ...

In "The Puritan Hope" (Banner of Truth Trust, 1971), Iain Murray writes:

    The commencement of the Reformation in England and Scotland was marked by a thirst for Scripture among the people. Tyndale's version of the New Testament circulated in both realms from 1526 onwards and soon a train of preachers appeared, at first small in number, whose ministry was attended by effects which had not been commonly seen for many long centuries. Of George Wishart, the Scottish reformer, martyred in 1546, we have this account of his open-air preaching: 'He came to a dyke in a moor edge, upon the south-west side of Mauchline, upon the which he ascended. The whole multitude stood and sat about him (God gave the day pleasing and hot). He continued in preaching more than three hours. In that sermon God wrought so wonderfully with him that one of the most wicked men that was in that country, named Laurence Rankin, laird of Shiel, was converted. The tears ran from his eyes in such abundance that all men wondered. His conversion was without hypocrisy, for his life and conversation witnessed it in all times to come.¹

    Scenes like this were soon to become common in the northern kingdom. In May, 1556, John Knox, running the gauntlet of the Catholic powers who still controlled the country, preached for ten consecutive days in Edinburgh. When he returned to Scotland again, in 1559, the spiritual revival became general. 'God did so multiply our number', Knox writes of the growth of the Protestant cause, 'that it appeared as if men had rained from the clouds.'² In a letter to an English friend written on June 23, 1559, he says: 'Now, forty days and more, hath my God used  my tongue in my native country, to the manifestation of His glory. Whatsoever now shall follow, as touching my own carcass, His holy name be praised. The thirst of the poor people, as well as of the nobility here, is wondrous great, which putteth me in comfort that Christ Jesus shall triumph for a space here, in the north and extreme parts of the earth."³

Reading about the history of the Church serves a reality check for us. It's far too easy each one of us to lapse into a lukewarm, lethargic complacency about the state of Christianity.

It's true that we're not to despise the day of small things (Zech. 4:10), and yet we should recognize that here in the west we currently are in the midst of such days, and we ought to be in earnest prayer that the Lord might be gracious to us and send to us such times of refreshing as were experienced during the Protestant Reformation. Until men rain once again from the clouds, may God's Holy Spirit strengthen us to be importunate in prayer, to plead day and night like the widow whom our Lord commended in Luke 18. That very commendation serves as Jesus' clear instruction and exhortation to each one of us that vigilance in prayer is a mark of genuine faith – that such prayer is not intended for a certain few, but for all the saints. May our Lord find us faithful in prayer for the reformation and reviving of His Church, for the praise and glory of His name among all the nations.

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?”

¹ John Knox, "History of the Reformation in Scotland," edited by William Croft Dickinson, 1949, Vol. 1, 62.

² Quoted by Jasper Ridley, "John Knox," 1968.

³ Ibid., 327.

Photo credit: Work found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Knox_statue,_Haddington.jpg  / CC BY-SA 3.0