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.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ whom God has given a heart and hunger to prayer for revival in the Church,

I've not posted here in a while and would like to update you today. The following is something I originally posted on my other website here in response to my concern that we who are seeking God's face for revival are too thinly spread on the wall, something I had touched on here. I know some of you may have already seen this post, but some of you may not.

I've been reading and reflecting on Nehemiah both here and on my other blog (see here).

The devil loves to undermine the work of the people of God anyway he can, and he particularly loves to nip in the bud any stirrings of prayer in the heart for he knows the effectual fervent prayers of righteous men, women, boys and girls avail much. Therefore I am praying God would keep all of us steadfast, immovable and abounding in the work of prayer for we know prayer with an eye to the glory of God is never in vain! May the resurrection Spirit of Jesus Christ who dwells in us keep us steadfastly setting our faces toward His throne of grace our Lord set His face like a flint and set Himself steadfastly to Jerusalem to finish all the work the Father had given Him. So long as we are here on the earth, we are called to intercessory prayer for the Church.

If you are already here you know God's desire is for His Church to give glory and praise to His Name. We also know that we as individuals as well as the Church as a whole continue to fall far short of that. However, we also know that God has promised to hear us for Jesus' sake as we ask anything according to His will. So may God give us grace and strength to persevere in prayer like the importunate widow and acknowledge, "Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross i cling." We all clung to the cross for saving grace in the first place, and we must continue to cling for sustaining grace to persevere in prayer. We are nothing apart from Him. He is the Vine, we are the branches, without Him we can do nothing. Yet He has placed us in His Body, the Church, and given us to one another so we might strengthen, support and encourage each other through the life we share in Him in one Body through one Spirit.

My prayer is that my writing on my blogs, our prayers together, and our conversations with and messages to one another might serve to build up the Body and help us to put our eyes once more on Him because for too long we have sought help in all else but Him. We cannot orchestrate a revival because true Biblical revival comes through the sovereign grace and will of God alone as He chooses when and where He might pour down blessings upon His Church, but we can continue to seek the face of the sovereign God who may be gracious to us and have mercy on us and rend the heavens and come down and revive us again for the sake and the honor of His Name.

Therefore let us continue to work as God has directed us, yet while we work let us also continue watching in prayer in much the same way Jesus commanded the Church to tarry at Jerusalem. May we trust that in His sovereign time He will shake us once again and fill us once more with His Spirit to empower us to speak His Word with boldness and witness to Him to the ends of the earth. (e.g.- Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-8; 4:23-31; Eph. 5:18)

If you know of anyone at all who has a heart for revival, I would encourage you to let them know there are others here whom God is also raising up with a similar passion. I am continuing to pray God would raise up laborers broken-hearted over the ruins in the Church and stirred in their hearts by His Spirit to pray for revival in the Church.

If you have any questions or comments, please message me or comment below.

Nehemiah 4:19  And I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another. 20  In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.”

Though we're each to be part of a local congregation, we are each also part of the church universal. Over the past few years of blogging, I've made a couple close friends here, friends that have encouraged me and prayed for me and I've done the same for them.

For quite some time now I've felt a bit like Nehemiah did, i.e.- The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another.

God has placed each one of us in the church for a reason (both the local church as well as the church universal). We are not only dependent on Him, but we are interdependent on one another. That's part of God's design. It's a reflection of the diversity and unity we find in the Godhead: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

I've always felt an affinity, a calling, to minister cross-Church/cross-denomination, what have you. I love being able to fellowship with believers from all across the Body of Christ and for now, that's primarily the harvest field to which God keeps sending me (e.g.- please see my posts here and here). Yes, with that, there's always a bit of tension...

Now I'm expecting, Lord willing, to enter into a commitment to my local congregation, so I do have a calling and responsibility to minister there. However I also have a calling to minister to and in the church beyond that particular body of believers.

Specifically, I have seen that God has brought some of us together here who have a passion for Him and a heart to pray for revival. There are some of us who have seen the ruins in the Church and have been grieved over them. Please see my posts here, here, here, here, here and here. Please, please read these things if you've already been grieved as an encouragement to stay the course, and if you've not been grieved, I ask you to read them; my prayer is that the Holy Spirit might prick some of your hearts and show you things you've not seen before and be grieved like Nehemiah for we are in great trouble and shame...we are broken down.

In addition my blog here, which is devoted primarily to the teaching of the Word, a year ago I opened up tent of meeting, a blog devoted to prayer for revival. If God has been putting into your heart a burden to pray for the Church, I invite you to visit tent of meeting; you can read more about it here.)

For quite some time now I've been praying about a way we might support one another in a more tangible way, in a bit more organized way...

I shared some of my thoughts and desires about that in this post a few months ago...

I've had contact with some of you via your comments here, your own blogs and personal messages. I have been blessed to have found some like-minded believers who have a passion for God. I am eternally grateful for your prayers and support for me and your challenges to me to press on toward the mark of the prize of the high calling.

In case you didn't know it, a few days ago I started up another blog, deerlife. (Yes, some of you might be tempted to say I am beginning to collect blogs much like Imelda Marcos collected shoes... )

You can read more of my vision for deerlife here. If you have a heart for God and a passion to see the people of God revived through the local church, and if God is leading you to be involved in that work and to encourage others in that work, I invite you to check out deerlife. I'm hoping that deerlife might be one means God uses to bring us together as we work on the wall, similar to Nehemiah's intent:

Nehemiah 4:19  And I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another. 20  In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.”

The work is great. The work is widely spread. We are separated on the wall, far from one another.

If we back up in Nehemiah 4, we see another reason for us to come together: the world is united in opposition against Christ and against those who are working to do His will (Nehemiah 4:8):

(Please also see my posts on Nehemiah here and here about the opposition we face.)

Notice that the enemies of God were united: Plotting together. Conspiring all of them together. (How often does the church come together as God intends?)

Of course this opposition to God's people and God's work is nothing new:

As we look at Jesus' words in John 17, we love to read about the essential unity we as believers share in Jesus Christ and how our unity brings glory to God and is a witness to the world, but let's not forget this: the world is also unified: unified against us because we are of Christ, because we are no longer of this world, because we have been born again into a new life through the Holy Spirit and are no longer of the world. Yet we are sent into the world; as a result we will have tribulation and trouble.

The race set before us is a race we must run by faith despite the tribulations and troubles we will face in this world. But God has given us the means to do so. He given us His Word, His Spirit and one another to assist us in running the race. And of course, our great high priest Jesus Christ is continuing to intercede for us at the right hand of God in glory. He was in the world and was victorious over the world and conquered the grave, overcame sin, death and Satan. He can sympathize with our weaknesses; consider that He was tempted and yet without sin! All these things are necessary ingredients so we might press on to know Christ and make Him known.

So as we are sent into the world (in this case: many, many places all over the earth), my prayer is that deerlife might be one means we sound the trumpet and rally to one another: to fellowship with, encourage, exhort, build up one another and bear one another's burdens, to rally to one another to stand strong against the wiles and taunts of the devil and our own flesh. That includes rejoicing with one another and weeping with one another, and even our having fun on occasion as well for we know that a cheerful heart is good medicine. Much like Elijah, we sometimes lose perspective and forget there are many, many others God has called to His work (at least I know I do).

My intent here is not to undermine or supplant or minimize the local church but rather to encourage others to rise and go and minister primarily in their local churches and communities, wherever God leads. I will add that for some of you, your local church may actually be a church plant or a mission or God knows where. I want each of you to be where God wants you to be, to fulfill the holy ambition He has for your life and not to waste your lives! I am praying as we run the race, we might be a means of support for one another as we rise and go and minister wherever God sends us (including here on Xanga and Revelife as He leads us).

Last year I wrote how I believed that God could bring something good out of Xanga. Though my faith has wavered, I still believe that. Yes, it seems preposterous if we begin to look at the situation through human eyes, but may God anoint our eyes to see Who He really is! Is His arm shortened that He cannot save? Our God is the God who can do immeasurably above all we can ask or image. Why can't God bring something good out of Xanga and Revelife? I know many of us have gotten discouraged disenchanted and dismayed with much of the watered-down content here (as well as in many congregations and denominations, even those which were once strongly orthodox):

• the tearing down of the authority of God and the Bible
• the lack of solid Biblical teaching rooted in Christ and Him crucified
• Christianity being remade into just another religion rather than the only way of salvation
• the Jesus who would never sit as Judge over anyone
• the watering down of Biblical definitions of sin and holiness
• so-called gospels which allow for continuing sin without conviction of sin
• Jesus as our boyfriend
• Christianity rooted in emotions with no doctrinal foundation
• Christianity rooted in intellectual profession with no room for the working of His Holy Spirit
• Christianity that is more concerned about the outward appearance than the heart
• so-called gospels which are but legalistic bondage
• moral teaching, family values and social gospels which cleverly disguise themselves as Biblical Christianity
• entertainment being exchanged for discipleship
• the pick-and-choose, self-centered Christianity which makes Christianity a means to gaining happiness

There are more, I know, but those are just a few off the top of my head. Looking at this list can either make us depressed...or press us into our Master's service to work on the wall once again! If we look at the situation through our own eyes and forget the power God provides us, we will have every reason to be depressed! I admit I've been depressed about these things, but God has been gracious and hasn't ever let me stay in my depression for very long...He's kept taking my eyes off the ruins and put them on Him time and again. He is Lord! He is Lord! He is King of the Church! He is Head of the Body! He will have the preeminence in His Church, which was created by Him, for Him and to His glory! When we see the ruins (which we will and should), we need to help one another to keep looking away to Jesus, our sure hope! He whose live birthed us into being will not fail to revive us again for His glory!

Do the things I've listed above bother you? (Have you ever noticed them?) Do you care? Do you see how far short we are falling of the glory God has intended for us? Will you do whatever it takes?

Wouldn't it be just like God to take the blogging communities of Xanga and Revelife and use them to sweep through the world with the wind and fire of His Holy Spirit, starting with a few of us here! Remember that the King of kings and Lord of lords delights to use the foolish, despised and weak things of the world for His glory! Look through the Bible and Church history and see the unlikely people He uses to accomplish His will!

I believe He can do that. Will He do it? Who's to say? I can't say He will. God is sovereign. But let's not be guilty of limiting God based on what we see or what we think is possible but trust by faith what He can do in the blink of an eye! With Him all things are possible! We know how His mighty Spirit has come in and worked in many of our lives and brought us from death to life and begun to transform us into the image of Christ. (If you've not known that work in your lives, then perhaps you've not really known Him...) Can almighty God not work in a similar way many times over to bring revival to thousands and thousands of people? After all, is He not the God who orchestrated the saving of 3000 souls on the day of Pentecost almost 2000 years ago? Is He not the God that preserved the nation of Israel time and again from extermination all so He could preserve the line of Jesus Christ? We see God preserving and providing for His people time and again. Let's walk with the same faith we read of in the great cloud of witnesses. We have the same God as they did!

Until God calls me elsewhere, I am willingly offering myself to remain here (Nehemiah 11:2). It is my heart's desire to encourage anyone who has but a mustard seed of faith that God wants to bring revival to His Church once more to come alongside you to help to plant, water, nurture and fertilize those seeds of faith and trust God to give the increase. The Church today in many places is much like Israel and Jerusalem were after the exile: we are in great trouble and shame...we are broken down. We are sorely in need of revival. We must look to the living God and His power to work in and through us what we cannot do apart from Him. May almighty God be gracious to us and rend the heavens and come down and restore, revive and renew us once more for His glory!

If you have further questions, please comment below or message me

Yours in Christ, seeking His face for revival in my own life and in the Church for His glory,
Karen

A few days ago I wrote how God put it on my heart last year to pray for revival and to call others to pray as well.

I've been rereading some of the prayers posted here at tent of meeting, both the guest prayers posted here as well as many of the other prayers (comments) offered up here for revival. And with all those I know there have been countless other prayers offered up that have not been posted here.

I have to stand amazed at what God has been doing here. I thank God for each of you and for the prayers you have offered up for revival in the Church. Let us consider that when we pray we are speaking with the living God, the God of all flesh, the God who sits enthroned above the earth!

Though we may not be many, let us not despise the day of small things. Our God is mighty and He continues to work immeasurably above all we can ask or imagine to the praise of His glory for all eternity.

I have been so blessed by those whom God has brought together to this "tent of meeting" and by the many prayers you have offered up for revival. I know some of you, but there are some of you I don't really know well, and there are others I don't really know at all.  But I do know that God knows you all. He sees us and welcomes us all as we seek His face in prayer and for Jesus' sake, He hears our prayers as we pray according to His will.

As I thought about this I couldn't help but wonder: If I have been blessed so much by what is happening here, how much more is our Lord blessed when we all come to Him in prayer? The Lord Jesus Christ died for us so we might seek our Father's face in prayer, to enter into His glorious presence with boldness and confidence, so we might not to be anxious about anything, but that we might instead cast our cares on Him, including our cares about His Church. Many of us have great cares about the Church because God has opened our eyes to see the ruins in the Church, including those in our own lives. As children of God when we avail ourselves of the high privilege of prayer purchased for us at Calvary, is not our God blessed and glorified beyond what we can imagine? Christ died in order that dead, lifeless sinners like us might be made alive and holy and sanctified and able to enter into loving fellowship with God the Father without fear. How He must rejoice that we are coming to commune with Him in the most holy place and intercede for His Church! (Please see my post about treasuring the blood-bought privilege of prayer.)

In the past few days it's struck me how truly wonderful the work is God is doing among us. I've come to see in a greater way the privilege (and responsibility) we have in coming together in prayer. We have had brothers and sisters in Christ coming to this website from all around the world, from all across the Body of Christ, seeking God's face in prayer. The grace of God, the love of God and the Spirit of God have been compelling us, working in us do will and do to His good pleasure, so we might come together into the presence of God with one mind and one heart and seek Him. We come with one plea, the blood of Jesus. We all admit we are poor and needy, yet we come with with a holy boldness to ask Him to revive us again for we know His desire for His people is that we be alive and bright and shining forth His glory and praise throughout the earth. We are in desperate need of revival through His sovereign Spirit.

As I've been reading in Nehemiah, I think I may have felt like Nehemiah as he looked out and saw the wall being rebuilt and the gates being repaired, as he saw everyone working and doing repairs on his specific area on the wall. It is an amazing thing to stand back and see any group of people being like-minded about anything. And how much more glorious it is when the people of God come together, in this case to seek God's face in unified prayer, with one mind. By the grace of God at work in us, we are attempting to put aside our own interests to seek that the glory of God be restored to the Church once again as we pray for the restoration, renewal and revival of His Church, starting with ourselves. How wonderful it is that the one God and Father of us all has been calling some members of His Body to be watchmen, to seek His face in prayer on behalf of His Church for the sake of His holy Name.

Like Paul, I have great joy and rejoicing (yes, my eyes are tear-filled now) to think of all of you coming together in His Name to seek His face on behalf of His Bride. Certainly it gives our Father joy to see His children unified for the sake of His Name, for the sake of His Gospel, for the purpose of unified prayer for His Church. My continuing prayer for us is that our Lord would keep us of the same mind, having the same love and remaining in full accord and of one mind. May our good Shepherd protect, guard and guide us as we continue to seek His face in prayer for revival.

Prior to these verses about our having the same mind and the same love, Paul wrote:

Let's make no mistake about it: Prayer is striving. Though we are not striving physically side by side like the Israelites who repaired the wall in Jerusalem, we are striving spiritually side by side. Paul wrote that we ought to be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit. As we come together to the throne of grace as one Body we are maintaining that God-imparted unity. Truly we are showing that

Though we are not physically repairing, prayer is work. Isn't it sometimes harder to lift a prayer than to lift a brick or hammer a nail? We are laboring against powers and principalities in the heavenly realms. The other day I wrote here about some of the opposition Nehemiah and Israel met in rebuilding the wall and how we should not be surprised when we meet with similar opposition.

We must remember that anytime we seek the welfare and well-being of the children of God (see Neh. 1:10), we know there will eventually be opposition and we will be tempted to be frightened. I am praying God would keep the vision clear and the passion fiery in the hearts of those of us He has called to this ministry of intercession. I am also praying God's Holy Spirit would continue to implant that calling even more deeply in our hearts, so it might bear abounding fruit of persevering and zealous prayer for revival. From time to time we all have our vision dim and our passion flicker, yet our God is gracious and merciful to us and never fails to call us back to Him so we might walk in all the works He has ordained for us.

One of the devil's favorite tactics is to bring about dissension and division within the Church of God. May we never divide over nonessentials to our faith, yet may we never compromise on the essentials. And may our God give us love in all things. (For more on that, please see my post here.)

I am praying our heavenly Father would continue to call and raise up more watchmen to join us on the walls. His eyes run to and fro across the earth. There are people from all around the world who have come to visit this website. I am praying God might use our prayers to spur those He is calling on to concerted prayer, either here or elsewhere. May He put a desire to pray in their hearts as He has ours, and may all of us continue to seek His face together in prayer side by side striving on the walls...being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

May Almighty God strengthen us and sustain us so we might labor in our particular places on the wall and pray without ceasing. The Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest, intercedes for us without ceasing at the right hand of the Father. Our God neither sleeps nor slumbers. May Christ's eternal Spirit help us and work in us so we take no rest and give Him no rest. May He strengthen us mightily to persevere in prayer. Though we will work and labor hard, may we gain our needed strength from remaining in Christ's easy yoke and then work out what He is working in us. Our God will never fail to provide all we need. May we all be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Lord God, complete in each of us the work You have begun. We long to see ourselves and Your Church revived. Please establish Your Church once again and make us a praise in the earth to Your glory alone.