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.

Continuing on with another prayer from Nehemiah. (You may also wish to read through/pray my previous prayers here and here.) This incident in Nehemiah 2 takes place about four months after Nehemiah first heard of the state of Jerusalem and the exiles who'd returned from there: “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire”  (Nehemiah 1:4).

Nehemiah 2:1  In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. 2  And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid. 3  I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” 4  Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5  And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' graves, that I may rebuild it.”

James 1:22  But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24  For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. 25  But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

I John 3:16  By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17  But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 18  Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

Lord God, You have already taught us to pray...
Yet we are so slow to learn...
Father, have mercy on us.
Forgive us, for Jesus' sake.
Though we are slow to learn we come to You and ask us to teach us again...

Our Father,

How often do we hear of a need, but then soon forget? How often are we like those people in the James passage who hear but then go away and forget?

Like Nehemiah,
we have heard of the trouble and shame in the Church,
we have seen the broken down wall and gates which have been destroyed by fire,
we have been burdened to pray and fast...
but then we have gone away and forgotten what we had seen.

For a time we have prayed, but then we forget to pray.
We have looked into the mirror, but then gone away.
Forgive us Father, for being only hearers of Your word and not doers.
Forgive us for quenching and grieving Your Spirit.
Forgive us our sin, O Lord God, for Jesus' sake.
Cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Your Spirit has shown us the ruins in the Church.
We could only see them as You opened our eyes to see.
Your Spirit has burdened us and called us to pray.
We could only pray because You opened our ears to hear You.
But then we have gone away and forgotten what we have seen and heard

For a time we have prayed, but then we forget to pray.
We have looked into the mirror, but then gone away.
Forgive us Father, for being only hearers of Your word and not doers.
Forgive us for quenching and grieving Your Spirit.
Forgive us our sin, O Lord God, for Jesus' sake.
Cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Burden us again.
Open our eyes.
Open our ears.
Open our hearts.
Give us a new vision of Your holiness.
Show us once again the ruins in each of our lives and in Your Church today.
We are in great trouble and shame yet today.
Should we not still be burdened?
Should we not still be sad?
Make us intercessors after Your heart.
God forbid that we do not pray for ourselves and for Your people.

For a time we have prayed, but then we forget to pray.
We have looked into the mirror, but then gone away.
Forgive us Father, for being only hearers of Your word and not doers.
Forgive us for quenching and grieving Your Spirit.
Forgive us our sin, O Lord God, for Jesus' sake.
Cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

O, Redeemer,
We are Your people but we continue to be in great trouble and shame.
You have seen our great trouble and shame.
Surely You are burdened and sad today.
Surely You are grieved.
Surely Your Spirit has been quenched.
Increase our love for You.
Increase our love for Your people.
May we not love in word but in deed and truth.
May we return to our closets and continue to intercede for Your Church.

For a time we have prayed, but then we forget to pray.
We have looked into the mirror, but then gone away.
Forgive us Father, for being only hearers of Your word and not doers.
Forgive us for quenching and grieving Your Spirit.
Forgive us our sin, O Lord God, for Jesus' sake.
Cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Loving Father,
You loved not only in word but in deed.
You loved us and sent Your Son Jesus Christ to die for us while we were sinners.
The Lamb of God laid down His life for us to take away our sins.
He rendered Himself up for us as an offering for our sin.
He gave His all for us.
You have purchased us with His precious blood to live to You.
We are not our own, we have been bought with a price.
May we honor and love You with our all.
Put into us a willing heart.
May the desires of Christ be our delight.
May we love You and love the Your people like You.
May we love not only in word but in deed.
Make us willing to give all for You, to love like You have loved us.
May we not forget what we have seen.
May we be doers of the word and not hearers only.
Send us as You will.
May we walk in the way of our Savior.
May we lay down our lives, rather than try to save them.
May we render ourselves up to You.
May we give our all for You.
Use us as You will to rebuild the city, the city of Jerusalem, Your Church.
Send us and use us how and where You will so Your Church might be rebuilt.
Send us and use us how and where You will so Your Name might be a praise and glory in Your Church.

For a time we have prayed, but then we forget to pray.
We have looked into the mirror, but then gone away.
Forgive us Father, for being only hearers of Your word and not doers.
Forgive us for quenching and grieving Your Spirit.
Forgive us our sin, O Lord God, for Jesus' sake.
Cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ and co-laborers in Him,

I started up tent of meeting just over eight months ago on March 28, 2009, though I didn't make my first public post until April 14, 2009, when I explained more of my vision/mission for this website.

I've never wanted to post anything here (or on my other blog) that I didn't believe God was leading me to post. I didn't just want to post a prayer here to say I've posted something. Even though I have continued to pray for revival on my own, I've not felt led to post prayers here as regularly as of late. I know that part of the reason is because of the shaking, refining and purifying God has been doing in my own life.

I have decided that for a time I need to consciously put this website aside to pray and seek His face privately. This is something I've been contemplating for a while now. I'm not quite sure when I might begin posting again here, but I do know as God strengthens me it is my earnest desire to continue to pray for revival. I hope and pray you will continue to pray for revival as well.

I still wholeheartedly agree with what I wrote in my very first post here, I am burdened to pray to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for restoration, reformation and revival of Christ's church.

I am thankful for each of you, as well as for others throughout the world whom God is raising up to pray for revival. I thank all of you for your prayers and encouragements. I also thank those of you whose prayers I have posted here.

I am convinced there is no hope for the Church apart from God's Spirit falling afresh on us.

Here are some other concerns I have been and will be continuing to pray about.

I am praying God would bring together in a more cohesive way those of us who have a heart for revival and have received a calling to pray for revival. I believe we are spread too thinly on the wall. I'm not quite sure how that might look in reality, but I have been feeling for some time that we need to be strategic as we rebuild the wall (think Nehemiah). By strategic I don't mean resorting to worldly means but seeking God's ways and His wisdom. The three fold cord is not quickly broken. I confess I have often been tempted to feel like Elijah, that there are no others out there, even though I know there are others. God always has a remnant He is calling. I pray God might raise up a fellowship of believers who can support, uphold and encourage one another as we pray and so we can then be mobilized and sent out into our home churches and communities on mission for Him. I am praying that those of us who have had a taste of revival in our own lives would be able to take that into our churches. I know there are some of us who are specifically called to this blogging community, but all of us are called to battle on the home front as well.

I am praying God would begin to raise up people in the local church to disciple and equip the saints both now and as revival does come, for there will be an influx of hungry souls needing meat. We should all be praying about our responsibility and role in that.

As I said, I hope you will continue to pray. I'm not shutting down the site, so I invite you to come back and read and pray through the prayers that have already been posted. I recently went back and tagged my posts so you may find it a bit easier to search through the blog.

I would also encourage you to read George Whitefield's sermon "Intercession, every Christian's Duty."

Let us continue in prayer knowing that

It has been a privilege and blessing to march alongside you here. May we continue in prayer so we do not faint. By faith and patience we will inherit the promises.

If you wish to contact me, you can do so through private message.

Yours in Christ, seeking His face, with much affection,
Karen