Please note: For the most part, today's post is not a prayer, but my hope and prayer is that God would use these words to spur you on in the work of prayer for revival in the Church. I thank God for those of you whom He raised up and given a desire to pray for revival and I am particularly thankful for those of you He has used in many ways to encourage and sustain me.

If you wish to discuss what I've written here, please send me a message and/or visit my other sites (naphtali_deer or deerlife). As I've said in my first post here, I want the comments here to be devoted to prayer and not discussion. Thank you for respecting that.

Yesterday on my other site I wrote of our ongoing need to pray for the Holy Spirit. (If you've not done so, I would encourage you to go and read that post based on Ezekiel 37:11-14.)

We must continue to take the position King Jehoshaphat did after he'd heard the Ammonites and Moabites and other nations were coming to battle against Israel:

In much the same way, if we are Christ's, we are going to be opposed on every side. May we never minimize or forget that. Jehoshaphat and Israel were facing a physical battle, but there was also a spiritual battle going on, and all of that is a picture the spiritual battle in which we are engaged. We are living in a realm of unseen powers and principalities. The devil is Christ's adversary and therefore he is also the adversary of all who are Christ's. The devil and his angels are on a relentless pursuit to tear down the work of Jesus Christ. Let us never forget that we are Christ's workmanship and the Church is His new creation, so we are targets of the evil one. The devil is the prowling, roaring lion who is looking to devour. He and his angels are working to do all they can to wreak havoc in the lives of the people of God. Of course, with that, we know that they are still under the sovereign hand of God, which limits their activities.

From a human perspective, did it really make much sense for Jehoshaphat to take that time to fast and pray (or later in the chapter we read how the nation of Israel spent time worshiping the Lord before and during the battle)? Consider that there were not a few, not even a multitude, but a great multitude of armies coming to battle!

Well, no, this doesn't make sense ... not if we look at it through human, secular eyes, that is. Sometimes many of us think prayer is only for the little things, but when it comes to those great multitudes, well, we really need to help out God a bit (or more than a bit!). How pathetic we are! Would that our longsuffering God might grant us patience to trust Him and wait upon Him, rather than resorting to our own schemes and relying on our pitiful resources. God's ways and God's thoughts are higher than ours. Whenever the children of God humble themselves and seek God's face in prayer and fasting for His heavenly wisdom and when we give Him the due reverence He deserves and demands, no matter how foolish and weak that may seem in the eyes of men, we can trust that our God will never fail to bless us and strengthen us and equip us with all we need for doing His will.

We see how Jehoshaphat confidently approached the throne of grace in Israel's time of need. We see how he continued to look to God's character – His sovereignty power and might – as well as God's past provision and His continuing covenant promises to His people. Because Jehoshaphat set these truths about the Lord before Him, he was able to set the Lord before him and was unmoved in this time when many might panic and react out of the flesh. Jehoshaphat knew he could trust God to hear and save Israel for the sake of His Name and boldly asked Him to do so. Of course, we can do the same for Jesus' sake. Yet, how seldom do we avail ourselves of the privilege of prayer and resort to acting before praying (if we pray at all)? Or how often do we go to prayer lacking boldness and confidence that our God is for us all because we do not immerse ourselves in the truths about God we find in Scripture, and then continue to find witness of throughout Church history and our own lives. How often do we panic and seek out human means of help all because we do forget His benefits and remember that He is the God who does wonders.

We also see that Jehoshaphat wasn't merely saying to God, "Bless us," or "Bless our plans," as if going to prayer would work like some kind of lucky charm or talisman, as a sort of add on. Jehoshaphat had no other plan but to go directly to the Lord in fasting and prayer. Jehoshaphat knew Israel had no other power or recourse but to turn to the Lord.  Right there we have the king of Israel publicly admitting in the midst of the congregation in the house of the Lord: "We are powerless...We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you."

O, that the Lord would send us more ministers who will stand up in their congregations and confess their weakness and lack of wisdom, their inability to do anything apart from Him! What blessed humility it takes for any of us to admit our total insufficiency and our total reliance on the Lord. Is not that what our Lord Jesus did? Was He not wholly dependent on His Father?

(Lord God, be gracious to us, come and fill Your ministers with Your Spirit, the Spirit of Your Son, so they might wholly rely on You and Your power and strength and not on themselves or the wisdom and strength of other men or of the world. Come and fill us likewise. Continue to impress on each of one of us that without You we can do nothing. We confess we too easily begin to trust in ourselves and our own resources and in the world's ways rather than trusting in You. You are the Vine, we are the branches. Help us to continue to abide in You so we might bear much fruit, fruit that will last, fruit to Your glory.)

Whenever we hear of trouble in the Church...

To whom shall we go when the Church is threatened from inside and out?

Whenever we hear of trouble in the Church...

In verse 3 we see how Jehoshaphat feared. Do we ever fear? Do we tremble? Do we ever see that our own earthly and fleshly supplies are pitifully insufficient and inadequate to fight the spiritual battle? Do we see that we can do nothing apart from the power of God at work on our behalf? How often do we become puffed up with pride, only to find ourselves pitifully defeated and upended? May we take heed, lest we fall. How pathetic we are that we so quickly forget the riches of Christ which await us at the throne of grace and glory!

O, that our Lord would look upon us with pity as we labor in vain and work from the flesh. But by His grace, we would certainly continue to build in our own efforts, to continue to toil in rowing and faint, to continue to labor in vain. May God be gracious to us and send His Spirit once more to work to soften our hearts so we might receive with humble gladness the lesson the apostle Paul had learned, the lesson of our blessed insufficiency and His total sufficiency!

My primary aim in writing today is to remind you (and myself) that as much as it makes little sense to us to continue to bow our knees and prostrate ourselves with the enemy approaching (and even as the enemy has come into the midst of many of our congregations and denominations like savage wolves in sheep's clothing), we must continue to go into the presence of the Lord in prayer, for along with the ministry of the Word, prayer is one of God's primary ordained means of reviving His Church.

As we pray for days or weeks or months on end, or even years, we may become discouraged for we may not see "results," but we must continue in faith and continue in prayer and seek His face. Prayer must always be our first course of action, never a mere afterthought, an add-on, a Plan B or a last ditch effort. Yes, I do know there are times we all must get up off our knees and act as the Lord directs us (well, yes, still praying without ceasing, bathing all we do in prayer and continuing to rely on His Holy Spirit), but may we never minimize, neglect or downgrade the vital necessity of entering into our closet and continuing in prayer for ourselves and one another, for our congregations and their leadership and the Church as a whole.

May our Lord guard us so we never skip ahead to action without first seeking Him in fervent prayer. Might it help us (me) to consider prayer as planting seeds? We read in Psalm 126 that as we sow faithfully in tears, we will surely reap a harvest in joy. Our labor in the Lord is never in vain, and that includes our labor in prayer, when we are praying according to Christ's will. We will reap in due season if we do not faint!

Almighty God, You know our spirits are willing but our flesh is weak. By Your Holy Spirit, strengthen us with Your power and might, so we might pray without ceasing alongside You, eternal Intercessor, Great High Priest.

A few days ago I posted an encouragement for us to continue on praying for revival based on Daniel 9. I'd like to have us look back there again today at the first verses of the chapter.

Daniel 9:
1  In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2  in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.

3  Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. 4  I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments...

Lord God, You are the God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with us for Jesus' sake,

Keep us.

Keep us looking back to You and Your Word to encourage us that You keep covenant and steadfast love with us for Jesus' sake.

Keep us looking back to You and Your Word to encourage us that even in the midst of this exile, You keep covenant and steadfast love with us for Jesus' sake.

Keep us looking back to You and Your Word to encourage us that You are our Keeper because You keep covenant and steadfast love with us for Jesus' sake.

Keep us proclaiming Your great covenant and steadfast love with us in Jesus Christ.

Keep us humbled and bowed before You, fully aware we deserve nothing from Your hand, yet we know You keep covenant and steadfast love with us for Jesus' sake.

Keep us looking to You and Your face in prayer for You keep covenant and steadfast love with us for Jesus' sake.

Keep looking upon us, uphold us and satisfy us for You keep covenant and steadfast love with us for Jesus' sake.

Keep looking upon us, hear our cries, draw near and save us for You keep covenant and steadfast love with us for Jesus' sake.

Keep us speaking Your praises for You keep covenant and steadfast love with us for Jesus' sake.

Keep keeping us, for we love You.

Keep us, for we know we have only come to love You because You chose us and loved us first, through Your covenant and steadfast love with us in Jesus Christ.

Keep us, for we are unable to keep ourselves except through Your covenant and steadfast love with us in Jesus Christ.

Keep us keeping Your commandments through Your resurrection life given to us through Your Holy Spirit, Your gift to us through Your covenant and steadfast love with us in Jesus Christ.

Keep us holy, keep us wholly – wholly to Your glory alone.

Keep us.

Lord God, You are the God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with us for Jesus' sake.

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.