Continuing on with prayers based on Jesus' words to the seven churches in Revelation. May we have ears to hear what His Spirit has to say to us...

Revelation 3:7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.

8 “‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

9 Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie—behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I have loved you. 10 Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.
11 I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. 12 The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.

13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Father, Son and Spirit,

The Church today is all but dead. We can do nothing about it except by Your mighty power at work in and through us.

You continue to choose the weak things of this world to confound the strong and mighty, all so You alone will receive all the praise, honor and glory for the work You accomplish in and through us.

We freely acknowledge we have but little power, little strength. No, let us say it: we have no power, we have no strength. We have seen what has happened when we have relied on our own power and not Yours. The Church is a shadow of what You have intended. We are a mere shell. We are that pile of dry and dead bones Ezekiel saw.

But You, O Lord, You are God almighty. The maker of heaven and earth, the creator and sustainer of all things. You uphold all things with the word of Your power. Who can compare? Who is a god like unto You, O God! You have all power and You wish to give us power. You have promised to do so. You have already given us Your Spirit and You long to continue to baptize us afresh once more.

We confess how often we live as misers. We already have the same resurrection power dwelling in us which raised Christ from the dead. But how seldom do we avail ourselves of Your power. How little do we know of our rich inheritance in Christ. We keep trying to work in our own power. We also confess that we often forget to ask for that power. Forgive us, O Lord, You so want to equip us and strengthen us, yet we continue to try to work in our own power which will avail nothing in battle against powers and principalities.

For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.

Almighty God, show us the resurrection power we have already been given and help us to continue to ask for Your Holy Spirit. Let us not doubt. Let us not quench or grieve Your Holy Spirit. Let us not limit the work You want to do by our unbelief. Baptize us afresh. Shake us, fill us, revive us so we might speak Your word with boldness. You have promised to give us Your Spirit not so we might have a warm, fun and fuzzy experience but so we might take Your message of salvation through Jesus Christ with boldness and confidence to the ends of the earth. O Father, there is a battle going on for souls in this world. We cannot fulfill the commission You have given us apart from Your power. We come to You and ask for the gift You have promised to give us: Your Holy Spirit. How can the Church be revived apart from Him and His power at work in us? We ask these things not so we might become great (O, keep us humble, Lord), but rather so Your Name might become great and Your Gospel might be published to the ends of the earth. There are so many who have not heard. So many even in our own churches who have not really heard. Wherever there are souls who have not heard, send us out, fill us with Your Spirit, so we might speak forth Your Gospel message to a dead world, to a dead church. We know Your Gospel is the only power to save. The only power that can bring dead souls to life.

O, we so long for the day that Your Church might truly be the city on a hill, bright and shining there, bringing glory to You. May Your message might be sprinkled out as salt to the world, so the world might thirst for the fountain of life. May peoples of all nations, every tongue, every tribe, every people come streaming to You to worship Jesus Christ as Lord so You might receive all the praise, honor and glory You alone deserve. O, that the lost might come to Jesus Christ and find rest for their souls, eat of the bread from heaven which will satisfy and drink of the living water and never thirst again. How can we keep the wonder of Your love to ourselves? How can we eat and drink and not want to share this heavenly feast with the lost? May You bring many into Your Kingdom to come alongside us and sing the song of the Redeemed and praise to our God. Do You not long to rejoice with them in heaven? We are looking to the harvest and we know we are powerless apart from Your Spirit. Send the fire, Lord! Burn in our hearts once again.

O, fill lost souls with Your love, by Your mercy and grace grant them repentance and remission of sins through Jesus Christ and eternal life, that they might know You and they would be filled with all Your fullness and joy unspeakable and full of glory! O how wonderful it is when we all gather around Your throne and sing praises to the Lamb who was slain: by His wounds and His blood we are saved. How our joy is multiplied when more and more of the flock join us in praise to You, O God, our Redeemer! How Your joy is multiplied!

O, we long for Jesus Christ to have His place restored in the Church. O, God, grant us boldness, send Your Spirit down upon us and into us, so we can work the works You have ordained for us and bring You glory. We are in this world so we might be sent out to proclaim Your Gospel and shine the light in dark places. May You use us to open blind eyes and turn them from darkness to light. O Lord, we know we can do nothing apart from Your indwelling Spirit giving us boldness and wisdom and power as we go. We have little power, we have no power, apart from You. Restore us. Revive us. Send Your fire upon us and into us. We can do nothing apart from You. We love You, Lord God. We so want to see Your glory restored to the Church. We confess we have become a laughingstock and a reproach. Forgive us for making a vital love relationship with You, the living God, into a cold, dry orthodoxy, a mere intellectual assent to doctrine.

O, build us up and send us out, so we might rebuild the ruins. Too long, too long this has gone on. How abominable. How despicably we have acted. Forgive us, O Lord. Thank You for opening our eyes now. We could not see but now we see we had but a form of life but were really dead. A form of godliness but denied the power. O, now You have begun to revive us, let us never be content until Your glory goes through the whole earth. Let us continue to come back again and again to You like the importunate widow did to the judge. Will You not hear us? Do You not love us? Do You not long for Your Church to be revived and the Gospel to go out clearly and with power and bold assurance throughout the earth? Is it not to Your glory to rend the heavens and come down? O, Lord God, we have tasted of Your pleasures forevermore and we want nothing more than others to taste of You and to see that You are good. That they may know You are Abba, Father, that You are filled with love for us. You are a God who gave all so we might have everlasting life forever with You. You gave Your Son Jesus Christ to be sin for us, so we might be reconciled to You. You did it all so we might know You and love You and have fellowship with You! That is how much You loved us. O, that the world might know Your love!

For Your Glory, O Lord, please return again to us. We long to see Your glory again. We cannot travel on apart from Your presence. We are being bold here like Moses was. We know that apart from You we have no hope. Come to us. Dwell in us and with us. Awaken us. Revive us. Breathe life into these dead bones. May Your Kingdom come into us afresh and anew and may we take Your Gospel to the rest of the Church and to the world. All the praise, honor, glory goes to You alone. You have done great things. O, may we see You do greater things, O Lord God. For Your Name's sake we ask these things. Amen.

 
As way of background, we've been looking at the account of Israel going to war against Benjamin because some Benjamites had sexually abused a Levite's concubine who later died as a result of their abuse. You can read the complete story in Judges 19:22-20:48 and see the previous prayers related to this passage of Scripture here.

We have been considering and reflecting upon the perseverance of the Israelites in battle and what we can learn from their example, and then turn those things into prayers for perseverance for ourselves, so we might keep God's command to us to persevere (Revelation 3:10).

Prayers for continuing obedience. We can see that despite defeat, the children of Israel continued to seek and prepare themselves to do God's will and followed through in obedience. So too we ought to be praying God would keep us seeking His face, that we might be diligent and vigilant and follow through in obedience to His revealed will for us.

Please read Judges 19:22-20:48.

This is a more personal prayer, so I'm posting it under my other screen name, naphtali_deer. I've been writing a lot about joy on my other site and have found it difficult once again today to run the race set before me with joy, yet I know that is God's will for us, to be able to rejoice in Him always and even to rejoice in our sufferings and to joy in tribulation. I've looked at this story in Judges 20 and see myself here, how I continue to experience defeat, and I often allow it to steal my joy. Our joy cannot be based on our circumstances but on our relationship to Christ alone. We must continue to go back to God and ask Him to fill us with His joy. His desire is for us to rejoice in Him always...no matter how many defeats we might face...

This prayer is a little rough around the edges but it's the prayer of my heart today. I continue to trust my God will continue to rejoice my soul always, even in the battle, even in sufferings, even in disappointment for the Lord continues to battle with me, He suffered for me and He will never disappoint.

O, Lord our God,

We see how You had the Israelites go into battle three different times until they obtained victory.

After two defeats, Israel goes once again to ask You what to do. You tell them to go into battle once more and not to cease.

After even one defeat, we become discouraged. We need you to continue to help us to find our joy in You and rejoice in You always.

In Romans 5 Paul comforts us with these words when we are tempted to feel hopeless:

We can rejoice knowing we are Yours forever. When we feel all is against us, we can rejoice in You, in hope of the glory of God. But Paul tells us something else that we do not understand: We can rejoice in our sufferings, even those continuing losses and disappointments in the battle for we know that You are in those sufferings. We don't understand that. We cry and weep for Your Kingdom to come, we experience loss, hurt, pain and hardship. We know Your Kingdom has come (for Your Kingdom is within us and has come to us), yet part of Your Kingdom in our lives on this earth is suffering. It is the fire that refines and purifies our faith, so our faith might be found to Your praise, honor and glory at the time of Jesus' appearing.

Was not suffering the way Christ has brought us to glory? Did He not have to be made perfect through suffering? So too we will be made like Him through our suffering. Yet let us trust You for we know that You have ordained our sufferings, all of them. You ordained these defeats on the battlefield in Gibeah. Your ordain the defeats we face each day. Every loss of life in the battle was ordained by You. Peter tells us that our trials are only allowed by you as are necessary, if need be, and we should not be surprised at such trials. O, yet, we confess we are surprised at times and disappointed, yet Paul tells us we should not be disappointed since we have a hope in You which will never disappoint. Help us to be ready and prepared to experience suffering and loss. It is part of our life here. It is part of Your plan and Your will for us. Yet help us to have the full assurance of hope: that You will be with us through it all. You see each tear that falls. You collect them all in a bottle. You know how our hearts break. You are near to the broken-hearted. You will never leave us or forsake us.

We can rejoice in You because we know You are faithful. Rejoice our souls. Gladden our souls, O Lord. We cannot work up this joy. It is truly a gift from You to be able to rejoice in time of suffering. Would You graciously speak to our souls through Your Holy Spirit? We want to be able to continue to rejoice in You always, not just in the good times. You have told us to rejoice in You always. You are good all the time, are You not? What kind of faith do we have if we only rejoice in the good times. Your mercies and steadfast love to us are unfailing. Do we not have reason to rejoice in You always? We want to shine as lights even in the dark times, we want to flourish and not wither in the time of drought. How can we do so if You do not fill us up with Your joy?

We know that You are using sufferings and trials and defeats to conform us to the image of Your Son. He did not shrink back from suffering but took it all for us. He obeyed to the point of death, death on the cross. He drank the cup to the dregs. He did not refuse Your will for Him, even when it meant suffering. May we never shrink back from Your will for us, no matter what it might entail for us. We can trust You in this. We can also trust You will not allow more than we can bear. We have a great High Priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses. Your grace will be sufficient for us. Help us to rest in Your unfailing love for us. To remember we have nothing to fear. You have set Your love on us and given us the spirit of adoption, not to fear. We need not fear even in the worst trial, we know You are with us. Let us be calm and sit and be quieted by Your everlasting love for us in Jesus Christ. Nothing can separate us from Your love, the darkest night, the hottest fires, the deepest anguish, the lowest valley, nothing! You are there with us forever! O, let us rejoice, even in that battle as we are hurting and wounded, as we suffer another defeat.

O, Lord, give us eyes of faith to see that the suffering You have ordained for us produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. O, we confess we do need endurance so we might not be disqualified but that You would find us working when You return. We want to be found faithful. O, we need character, character that will endure all for the Kingdom, until the Day Your return. Character that will not cut and run but stay in the battle until the end. Christ did not come down from the cross. We are in need of perseverance and patient endurance. You did not call us into battle only so we might desert You and go AWOL. Christ finished all the work You had given to Him. And we not only want to finish the race and fight the good fight but we want to do so with joy and great rejoicing! You are our King who reigns and battles alongside us! We pray with Paul that you might strengthen us with all Your might, according to Your glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy! With joy! We need joy today. Rejoice our souls. Delight us with Your presence.

O, strengthen us, rejoice our souls today,  fill us with Your hope so we can look ahead to the joy set before us and finish our course with joy. The hope You give us never disappoints. You are not a liar. You will never leave us or forsake us. You will continue to be with us. The hope we have in You is a sure hope because Christ is our sure hope, our Anchor in the veil, the resurrected Son of God who is seated at the right hand of His Father in glory. We know one Day You will return in glory and set up Your Kingdom. We know that our labor in You will not have been in vain, regardless of how many losses we may endure, no matter how many battles we may have lost, we will reign with You one Day. May we continue to work while we can and make the most of our days. We are tempted to be weary. Keep us strong in battle. Give us oil of joy for the spirit of heaviness. Fill us with Your hope so we might rejoice in the battle day in, day out until the Day You return or the Day you call us home to be with You.

O Lord, Rejoice the souls of your servants today in the midst of battle so we might be a praise in the earth – to a people who so need to see glad and shining faces in the midst of pain and sorrow and suffering.

Amen.

As way of background, we've been looking at the account of Israel going to war against Benjamin because some Benjamites had sexually abused a Levite's concubine who later died as a result of their abuse. You can read the complete story in Judges 19:22-20:48 and see the previous prayers related to this passage of Scripture here.

We have been considering and reflecting upon the perseverance of the Israelites in battle and what we can learn from their example, and then turn those things into prayers for perseverance for ourselves, so we might keep God's command to us to persevere (Revelation 3:10).

So far we have prayed:

Prayers for holiness. (Please note that the children of Israel were clear about what sin was. So too ought to be praying for a clear vision of God's holiness and an increasing desire to be holy and to live holy lives. Please see my prayers here and here.)

and

Prayers for unity. (Second, the children of Israel were united in their efforts. So too we ought to be praying for God to protect the unity we have in Him and that we would endeavor to uphold the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Please see the related prayers here, here, here and here.)

Now I would like to continue on with

Prayers for continuing obedience. We can see that despite defeat, the children of Israel continued to seek and prepare themselves to do God's will and followed through in obedience. So too we ought to be praying God would keep us seeking His face, that we might be diligent and vigilant and follow through in obedience to His revealed will for us.

Please read Judges 19:22-20:48. I am focusing today on how the Israelites arose and inquired of God.

O Lord God,

Before Israel went to battle we find that the people of Israel arose and went up to Bethel and inquired of God.

After their first defeat, they went back again...they inquired of the LORD.

Again, after the second defeat...the people of Israel inquired of the LORD.

They sought You. They waited to hear from You. They feared moving ahead apart from Your clear direction.

Holy God, we confess too often we go into battle without inquiring of You. We don't seek You. We don't wait to hear from You. We move ahead without Your clear direction. Forgive us for going into battle without inquiring of You.

We see throughout the Scripture how devastating that is.

We confess we have thoughts come into hearts but we often don't check with you to see if they are from Your heart or not. Jeroboam followed his own heart, led the people into idol worship and provoked You to anger rather than trusting Your promises to preserve his kingdom.

Forgive us when we follow our flesh, rather than seeking You and walking by Your Spirit.
Forgive us when we follow our own hearts, rather than following You and Your perfect heart.
Like the Israelites, may we arise and inquire of You, O Lord.

We confess we have a zeal for Your name but we often do not temper it with knowledge. Peter wanted to stop the Prince of glory from fulfilling His mission and went so far as to cut off an ear.

Forgive us when we follow our flesh, rather than seeking You and walking by Your Spirit.
Forgive us when we follow our own wisdom, rather than following You and Your perfect wisdom.
Like the Israelites, may we arise and inquire of You, O Lord.


We confess we have a desire to make something happen and we often resort to doing things our way rather than walking by faith in You and Your promises. Abram and Sarah elicited Hagar's help rather than trusting in Your sure promises to provide an heir.

Forgive us when we follow our flesh, rather than seeking You and walking by Your Spirit.
Forgive us when we rely on our own ingenuity, rather than waiting on You and Your perfect promises.
Like the Israelites, may we arise and inquire of You, O Lord.

We confess we have a compulsion to react to situations rather than being compelled by Your love. Saul offered an unlawful sacrifice rather than being a man after Your own heart, a man who waited on You and trusted in Your care.

Forgive us when we follow our flesh, rather than seeking You and walking by Your Spirit.
Forgive us when we are compelled to do something out of fear, rather resting in You and Your perfect love.
Like the Israelites, may we arise and inquire of You, O Lord.

We confess we become anxious when we don't see Your provision and we don't trust You and Your sure promises. The Israelites provoked and tempted you in the wilderness rather than trusting in Your perfect provision.

Forgive us when we follow our flesh, rather than seeking You and walking by Your Spirit.
Forgive us when we become anxious rather than trusting in You and Your perfect provision.
Like the Israelites, may we arise and inquire of You, O Lord.

We confess we become distraught when we don't see You answering as we think You ought. Jeremiah lamented the day He was born rather than trusting Your promise to be with Him.

Forgive us when we follow our flesh, rather than seeking You and walking by Your Spirit.
Forgive us when we become distraught rather than trusting You and Your perfect faithfulness.
Like the Israelites, may we arise and inquire of You, O Lord.

O, holy Father in heaven, You are good and loving to us. How can You not be? You have made us Your own. You have set Your love on us. We are one with Your blessed Son by grace through faith and bound together with You and Your Son by Your Holy Spirit.

We know that even though we are Your chosen people, You allow us to undergo defeat. We see that here when the Israelites here were in obedience to Your will, they still suffered great loss and defeat. We see this throughout Your Holy Word and throughout Church history. We do not always understand this. But we know we can trust Your loving hand has not left us. You have promised to never leave us or forsake us. You have sent Your Spirit to abide with us forever. You have not, nor will You leave us as orphans.

Therefore, may we continue to abide in You. Lead us to continue to arise and inquire of You, Lord God, in the same way the Israelites did here. May we not doubt Your plan for us, no matter how things may look to us on any given day. Keep us walking by faith and not sight. O, draw us back constantly to arise and inquire of You, Lord God. No matter how many defeats we may face. One, two, ten, twenty, one hundred battles,  if they all end in defeat we know You are the Victor. You have already defeated sin, Satan and death on the cross from rising from the dead that glorious day over 2000 years ago. The battle has already been won on the cross of Calvary. Lord Jesus, You are reigning in glory and are seated at the right hand of God. And we are with You there in heavenly places. All things are under You Lordship, even though they may not appear to be at times. Give us eyes of faith to see You there, like Stephen had. The Prince of glory. May we look unto Jesus when the battle looms large. O, to consider Him! This is our means of perseverance in the darkest and bloodiest battles. We will endure seeing Him who is invisible. He is there with us always, even in the worst of defeats! He is leading us through! He is the Victor! The firstfruits! The captain of our salvation! The pioneer of our faith! He will never fail us!

We are trusting You are working all things for Your glory, for our good and for the furtherance of Your Gospel, even through those many defeats we face. You are working all things according to the counsel of Your will. We know nothing catches You by surprise. We know that You will be exalted and Your Son will be preeminent. Amen. These things we can trust. We can trust You and Your Word to us. You are not a liar. You are faithful and true.

We await the day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God our Father. Holy Spirit, write Your word upon on our minds and in our hearts, these truths about Your sure and steadfast love for us and Your faithfulness to us, so we might be able to continue to persevere in the battle. We can only be steadfast, immovable and abounding in the battle because of the resurrection life You have already placed into us. O, may we continue to battle in the grace and strength You provide for us. Strengthen us with Your Word, O Lord. Grow our faith, O Lord. Help us, for we often we have so little faith and so little strength. Be merciful and gracious to us. How can You not be merciful and gracious to us when we are fighting the battle You have ordained for us? Work in us to will and to do of all Your good pleasure, so we might persevere in the battle. As our days are, we know so shall our strength be. You will provide us with the manna we need for each day's battle. Let us arise and inquire of You, O God, all our days! Amen.