The Joel 2:12-15 corporate prayer pattern has been used throughout the history of the Church and many great revivals have followed upon the Churches adherence to the pattern. As we enter the End Times, the greatest Church revivals are still before us. They too, will be based on the foundational pattern of Joel 2:12-15 which is found at the bottom of this page. You may need to amend some items and words in this prayer if they do not apply fully to your situation.

A Corporate Prayer

Heavenly Father,

We come to You in prayer, with heads bowed in humility, and hands and hearts open. We admit we are sinners and in a fallen state, unworthy of all the blessings which You have bestowed upon us. You love us, and gave Your only begotten Son for us. Father, search our hearts and help us to see ourselves as You see us, such that we can now come to You with the brokenness and humility which is necessary; that brokenness and humility of self which our pride and self-importance now hides from us.

You ask us to come to You with fasting and weeping and mourning, but Lord, we admit we seldom do. We confess we have made idols of our food and of our gluttony; such that while millions die of hunger, we are obese and overweight. We lie to ourselves, saying that fasting from television or our soulish ‘treats’ will be meaningful before you. We confess, we often believe our own lies.

We confess that we do not weep for the same things which You weep for. We do not mourn for the same things which You mourn for. We weep for our financial losses, for material things, for emotional things, but mainly for ourselves. Yes Lord, we weep when we mourn for the loss of others, but we do not mourn for the desperate state of our lives, or our family, or our community, or our Church, or our nation, or the unsaved, or the hungry, or the oppressed and persecuted. No Lord, seldom do we sit and weep for others and with others. Seldom do we share the burden of their pain with them, or before them, and even before You.

Similarly Lord, seldom do we weep with sheer joy for the works of Your hands. Yet Lord, seldom do we ever recognise them; for our minds are too busy on things of this world, to allow us to ever think of Your world – the world You created.

We confess Lord, that we seldom turn to you except when things get far out of control and we are desperate for Divine intervention. Then, after your help, we ignore You again. We find it hard to turn to You when things are good, for we think that we are self sufficient; we think we succeed by the works of our own hands. We think it is all about us; then we believe it is.

You ask us to tear our hearts, but not our robes; for you do not want an outer display of penitence for others to see, but true, inward repentance. You read our hearts, not our external appearances; for You want our hearts, You want all of us. You do not want a show: you want changed hearts and changed minds and changed characters. You want a changed Church through which Your Word and Your Holy Spirit may reach out to a hurting world, for Your lost souls. Oh Lord, we repent for making Your Church all about us and our wants and our needs.

Lord, we turn to You now as we confess our sins and our unworthiness and ask for Your hand of mercy to be upon us; for You are a gracious God and You are slow to anger. We recognise Your great kindness, and the kindnesses which You extend to us daily, all of which we acknowledge, we are undeserving. Thank You, Lord, that You recognise we are still in the domain of the enemy as we live in the flesh and thus, so many of us are still a prey unto him. As a result, many of us are not walking with You and You alone as You require of us, but instead we walk in duplicity with your enemy. As we confess our sins in a public and shared way, we pray for your mercy upon our families, upon our group, upon our Church, upon our community and upon our nation.

Father, we know that when we come before You, we will be able to plead the Blood of Jesus, for by His blood, we are saved. Have mercy on us, Lord, in the meantime, and lift all afflictions from our lives, and bless us instead. Teach us Lord, change us Lord, such that the reasons for our afflictions will be no more; but we shall instead be likened to a sweet offering, acceptable to You in every way.

Father, we confess we don’t blow trumpets for you, in Zion or elsewhere. We confess we scarcely ever call a fast for You; or call a solemn gathering, just for You. How shameful we are, Lord. We hardly ever have gatherings when all generations are present, and we wonder why our children have no heritage. You have given us the Bible as a guide unto our lives, but we confess we rarely study it. Our priests and our ministers of Jehovah seldom, if ever, weep in Church. To our shame, we confess we never hear them crying out in pain and anguish “Have pity on Your people, O Jehovah!” No Lord, we do not blame them, for we never even do this ourselves. Rather Lord, we, by our actions and inactions, acknowledge now that we shame Your inheritance, and are a laughing stock among the nations.

Yes, Lord, people ask us “Where is your God?” But seldom do we point to ourselves and call out and say “We are the temples of the living God and the Holy Spirit lives in us!” How shameful it is to admit Lord. How it burdens our hearts that we do not speak out publically, even as those around us remain silent. We know You did not give us a spirit of meekness for You.

Yet Lord, because You say so, we know You are yet, jealous for us and have pity on us, Your people. We know you will provide us abundantly with all we need for this life such that we will be more than satisfied. We know that You will bless us among the nations and remove the enemies from our borders and drive them away, for You are a jealous God and have pity on Your people.

Heavenly Father, we bow before you and ask forgiveness for our sins of commission and omission; for the sins we have committed intentionally and unintentionally; even for those sins we are unaware of. As we pray together corporately Lord, we pray your blessings of forgiveness, grace, faith, love, understanding and knowledge on all our leaders and all in authority over us.

We pray that You will supernaturally change us Lord, from the inside out, such that we shall be the people You desire us to be. We pray Lord, that when others see us now, they see You and not us. We pray that we will be a living epistle, a living letter of Yours, to them. As we serve You now with a new understanding, a new commitment, a new humility, please make us smaller and You larger, such that You are all that is seen. We offer ourselves as Your servants for all of our lives and ask You to now do Your sovereign will in us and through us from this day forth. Lord, please change us and lead us so as to make us more Christ-like, for you have laid this on our hearts with a fire which cannot be quenched.

Heavenly Father, we pray this prayer before you in the mighty name of our Saviour, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Your very Son who is now seated with You. In Jesus name we pray. Amen and Amen and Amen.

Joel 2:12-15 “Yet even now, says Jehovah, turn to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning. Yes, tear your heart and not your robes, and turn to Jehovah your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and He pities because of the evil. Who knows if He will turn and have pity and leave a blessing behind Him, a food offering and a drink offering to Jehovah your God? Blow a trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn gathering. Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, gather the elders, gather the children and those who suck the breasts. Let the bridegroom go forth out of his chamber, and the bride out of her room. Let the priests, the ministers of Jehovah, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Have pity on Your people, O Jehovah, and give not Your inheritance to shame, for a proverb among those of the nations. Why should they say among the people, Where is their God? Then Jehovah will be jealous for His land and pity His people. Yes, Jehovah will answer and say to His people, Behold, I will send you grain, and wine, and oil, and you shall be satisfied with it. And I will no more make you a curse among the nations. But I will remove the northern army far from you, and will drive him into a barren and deserted land, with his face toward the eastern sea and his rear toward the western sea. And his stench shall come up, and his ill odour shall come up, because he was doing great things.”