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The following is from my blog post update 8/4/2012: “praying for a revival of religion” from my sister site deerlife. At the conclusion (after the multiple underlines), I’ve added some additional thoughts.

Please note:  If you’ve not read my previous posts Update/prayer requests – October 7, 2010 and Simeon’s Waiting, Payson’s Waiting, Our Waiting, and update 6/13/2012: “Grant me also a spirit of prayer!” | “Oh the happiness of communion with God,” I’d suggest you do so prior to reading today’s post. All of those give you some background as to the work of God in calling me to prayer for revival… Philippians 2:12-14.

The following is the text of a letter (slightly edited) which I recently sent to a few other members of our church…

Dear . . .

I recently talked with each of you about the possibility of us getting together as a group to pray. I know that along with myself, God has given each of you a heart to pray for the revival of the Church. It’s one thing for us to be praying individually, and we should be doing that, but I feel that we’re separated (~ Nehemiah 4:19), and this is a time for us to come together as a group, so we might be seek the Lord and be that house of prayer for all nations which God desires ~ Zechariah 12:10-14; Isaiah 66:6-9.

Earlier this year the name of the Rev. Edward Dorr Griffin resurfaced for me. Griffin was a pastor in the eastern/northeastern U.S. during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Griffin experienced several revivals of religion during his lifetime. I’ve continued to reflect on these words for several months now:

In his early ministry, Dr. Griffin was subject to seasons of deep mental depression. He would sometimes come from his study in much distress, complaining to his family that he could  not study, and that his sermons were “so flat,” that nobody could hear him. But, when emerging from this gloomy state, his mind would act with unwonted vigor and success. In these seasons, he did not enjoy his usually comforting evidence of personal piety. In a letter dated December 18, 1813, to a young minister of his acquaintance, he says: — “I am interested to know what God has done among the people of your charge. From the trials with which he was exercising your mind in August, I concluded that he was preparing you to do something more than common for his holy name. In former years, I used statedly to have those trials before revivals of religion; and, before that in which you were born. I wholly gave up my hope for a time.” It was about that period that he invited a few choice members of his church to meet in his study every Thursday evening, for the single purpose of praying for a revival of religion. As their interest increased, he called in others, till the meeting consisted of six or eight. It was strictly private, and, as he afterward assured me, became a scene of earnest wrestling. “If any one,” said he, “had come in with a cold heart, it would have been like throwing water upon the fire. This small-company continued thus wrestling week after week, unknown to the church at large. Nothing, externally, indicated any unusual tokens of the special presence of the Holy Spirit for two or three months. But the time had come when those prayers were to be answered, and when God was to be seen as a prayer hearing God.”

~ from “Recollections of Rev. E.D. Griffin, or, Incidents illustrating his character” by Parsons Cooke (1855), 117-119.

My primary purpose is that of Griffin’s:  to facilitate and to encourage one another in our “praying for a revival of religion.” And by “choice members,” I think all of us would humbly agree there is nothing at all choice about us, except the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has deemed to pour out His love, mercy, and grace upon us in Christ Jesus, and He has been drawing us to the ministry of prayer, and He has brought us together at . . . Church at this particular time. God Himself has made each of us willing in His power, He has given the burden for His Church and the desire to pray for her. In addition, from my reading Church history, it appears to me that prior to every revival of religion, God has raised up pockets of people to pray, a few choice members, as Griffin put it. Now, as to whether God will move in our case, we know He is sovereign and He pours out His Spirit according to His good pleasure – and yet He ordains means, which include importunate prayer. So let us take hold of and pay heed to Jesus’ words:

Luke 11:5  And he said to them, “Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves, 6  for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7  and he will answer from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything’? 8  I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs. 9  And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11  What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12  or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13  If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Luke 18:1  And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. 2  He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3  And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4  For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, 5  yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’”  6  And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7  And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? , Will he delay long over them? 8  I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

May God find us faithful in the ministry to which He has called us ~ Hebrews 13:20-21.

Lord willing, I would ask that you consider we all meet together for a meal and then prayer afterwards on one of the following dates . . .

I don’t know how often we might meet in the future, but I am trusting God will lead us. I am also trusting, as happened with Griffin, that God will raise up others with a similar passion and will lead us to call them in as well. I am praying that God might be gracious to us and rend the heavens and revive us again for the blessing of . . . Church and His Church at large to the glory of His name.

I Samuel 14:6  Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few.”

Yours in Christ,
Karen

I deliberated whether to share this with you publicly, but I have seen the ruins in the Church and her continuing decline. We must cast off and stop resorting to fleshly and worldly means, and take hold of the means God has provided:  to come with boldness and assurance in prayer to His throne of grace, for this certainly is a great time of need (Heb. 4:14-16), and then diligently plead with God to have mercy upon us and rend the heavens and send His reviving fire to us so we might be the burning lamp and brightness to the nations which God intends us to be (~ Isaiah 64 & 62).

I also want to encourage those of you whom God has been burdening to pray for revival in the Church to continue to follow His will for you and not to shrink back due to fear, doubt, or uncertainty. Our flesh, the world, and the devil will continue to give us every possible reason not to pray. And I will tell you this:  not very long after sending this letter, temptations, doubts, questions, and second-guessing of every possible sort began to fill and plague my mind about the whole endeavor. Yes, it seems preposterous and impossible to us, yet His ways and His thoughts are higher than ours. Our God continues to command His people to seek His heart and His face in prayer, and our seeking Him is never in vain.

Vittore Carpaccio - Praying Man
Isaiah 45
11  Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him:

“Ask me of things to come; will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands?…

19  I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ …

A day after writing that letter, I reflected: “It seems so far fetched to think a handful of people praying could battle the powers of darkness, yet that is always God’s way, so He alone gets the glory due His name.”

Yesterday, as I was reading Ralph Wardlaw’s Commentary on Zechariah 14, he referenced a portion of Isaiah 51, and I opened my Bible and read it:

Isaiah 51:3 (NKJV)
For the LORD will comfort Zion,
He will comfort all her waste places;
He will make her wilderness like Eden,
And her desert like the garden of the LORD;
Joy and gladness will be found in it,
Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.

The LORD’s desire is to comfort ALL our waste places. Therefore, so long as there ARE waste places in any part of the Church, we ought to be praying day and night…

For God’s glory in the Church and the joy of the elect,
Karen

Dear friends,

Since I began tent of meeting (zechariah821), there’s been a gradual transition over the past couple years, as I’ve slowly become more focused on and involved in my local congregation and less so with my blogs. Though I’m not posting here so regularly, I still want this blog to serve an encouragement to those who have received a burden from the Lord to pray for revival so you might persevere in prayer. My desire and my prayer is that God might be pleased to use my words here to stir you up to love and specifically to the good work of prayer (~ Heb. 10:24-25). I am more convinced today than ever that we are in desperate need of a genuine revival of religion, and one of God’s appointed means toward that happening is through the concerted, fervent, and importunate prayers of God’s people. I would also invite those of you who come across this blog to contact me using the contact link at the top of my blog. I would love to hear how God has been at work in you and at work in your congregations in calling you to such a ministry of prayer.

Since having written that letter I cited above, I have found myself at a similar point where I was just over three years ago when I first started publicly posting here at tent of meeting. At that time, on April 14, 2009, in my first post here, I described some of the vision I had for this blog in a sort of FAQ format, and I had written:

* * *

I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS…

Yes, and so do I! I am trusting God will make the way clear for all of us. God has been taking me and leading me by His hand step by step and putting me in a place I would not have imagined just a couple months ago. So things are not all clear to me yet, but I am stepping out in faith, I am putting my foot in the Jordan, and am anticipating and waiting on Him to make the way clear.

* * *

And today, August 6, 2012, I have even more questions! It can be disconcerting not to know what lies ahead, but, as Ira Forest Stanphill penned:

Many things about tomorrow,
I don’t seem to understand;
But I know Who holds tomorrow,
And I know Who holds my hand.

As we’re put into such uncertain and unpredictable situations, we are led to seek the God who is a Rock and everlasting Strength! As we’re put into impossible situations, we are led to seek the God who can do the impossible! As we painfully come to see our own poverty, we plead to know experientially God’s riches in Christ Jesus! As we see our own insufficiency, we are quickened to fly to God to seek to know Christ’s full sufficiency! Once again, as I did three years ago, I am trusting God to lead me and to make the way clear in His way and His time. It is a blessed thing to be brought to the end of yourself time and time again so you might come to know Christ as your all in all!

Matthew 5:3  Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven…

I know that God is sovereign. I know that He is good and all-wise and all-powerful and all-knowing. I know that God is always working all things for His glory, for His praise, for the preeminence of Jesus Christ, for the furtherance of the Gospel, for the good of His Church, and for the joy of His elect throughout all the nations – even though thoughts and circumstances will arise that may tempt me to doubt that. But as I (we) follow God’s leading in the way He would have me (us) go, as we go day by day, step by step, prayer by prayer – I (we) can and must trust the Lord.

Psalm 9:10  And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.

Let us not shrink back in unbelief. Let me not shrink back in unbelief! Through Isaiah, the LORD warned king Ahaz in Isaiah 7:9b:

If you are not firm in faith,
you will not be firm at all.

We walk by faith and not by sight. We stand in faith, we act in faith, and we pray in faith (and don’t ever let someone ever try to convince you that prayer is not action – I’m not saying it’s the only action, but it is action!), and we trust God in faith like Joab:

II Samuel 10:9  When Joab saw that the battle was set against him both in front and in the rear, he chose some of the best men of Israel and arrayed them against the Syrians. 10  The rest of his men he put in the charge of Abishai his brother, and he arrayed them against the Ammonites. 11  And he said, “If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me, but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come and help you. 12  Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the LORD do what seems good to him.”

As we obey the LORD, it’s true we don’t know what the specific outcome will be, but we do know Him, and we can trust Him!

Let us remember whose we are – children of the living God, having been rescued from the domain of darkness and translated into His marvelous light,  once enemies who have now been brought near, we are now free to approach the mercy seat with a holy boldness through the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ; therefore, let us go to Him! May we draw near to the throne of grace, to lay before our loving, merciful, and gracious heavenly Father all our concerns, to let our requests be known, to cast on Him all our cares, so we might receive the mercy and grace He delights to pour out upon all who hunger and thirst for Him, so we might travel through our pilgrimage fully satisfied and sustained in Christ, to rejoice in the LORD and to know God as our strength (as Habakkuk sang of at the end of Hab. 3) – no matter what happens. Even though things may not turn out as we might have hoped or expected, let us remember this:  our God is never a disappointment!

As the redeemed of God through Jesus Christ, we have received the high and holy privilege to draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith (Heb. 10:22), and we are exhorted to come boldly to the throne of grace in our time of need (Heb. 4:14-16). Rather than looking at the storms about us, rather than entertaining the uncertainties, rather than fueling our doubts with our faith-sapping questions, rather than sinking into despair and hopelessness, may we continue to avail ourselves of the blessed privilege we have to fix our eyes on Jesus – much as Hezekiah did after he received the threatening letter from Sennacherib, the king of Assyria.

II Kings 19:14  Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD and spread it before the LORD. 15  And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said: “O LORD the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. 16  Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. 17  Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands 18  and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. 19  So now, O LORD our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone.”

Though that situation was different than mine, like Hezekiah, I’ve continued to take my burden for the Church along with that letter which I’ve written and have gone up to the house of the LORD and spread them before the LORD…

empty_hands_bwO LORD the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; You have made heaven and earth.  Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see … and do what seems good to You for the glory and honor of Your name and the blessing of Your Church, for we are Your flock, the sheep of Your pasture, purchased with the precious blood of the Lamb of God, Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we are Your people called by Your name. LORD of hosts, You who are zealous and jealous for us, how long will it be until You have mercy upon us? Hear our prayers for Jesus’ sake. Look down from heaven and return with mercy and visit this vine! Restore us and revive us, O LORD God of hosts. Shine Your face upon us again, so we might shine in this dark world to the praise, honor, and glory of Your name to the ends of the earth. Amen. (In addition to Hezekiah’s prayer, please see also Psalm 80, Psalm 102 & Zechariah 1.)

I appreciate and thank God for each of you who have visited this site and have read and prayed and added your own prayers here. I pray that those of you who are Christ’s might grow in His grace and the knowledge of Him, and each of you might come to know (really know) His strength sufficient for each and every one of your days ~ Deuteronomy 33:25.

Proverbs 4:18  But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.

 

Yours in Christ,
Karen

* Please add YOUR PRAYERS as God’s Holy Spirit leads you. *

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