October 21st, 2010 by Kristi Stephens

Missed any of the Revelation posts? You can find them all indexed here.

On Tuesday we looked at Revelation 8:1, when silence fell in heaven in anticipation of the judgments to come. After this half hour of stunned quiet, the next portion of God’s plan begins to unfold.

And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

Revelation 8:2-5

As the stage is set for the trumpet judgments to come, we find this interesting scene of an angel hurling incense from a censer to the earth below, triggering thunder, lightning, and an earthquake. What is going on here?

The Bible equates incense going up before the Lord with the prayers of the saints.

May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.

Psalm 141:2

And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

Revelation 5:8

Prayers of the saints – prayers for God’s judgment to come and finally triumph over all the evil and injustice prevalent on the earth below – are strengthened with “much incense” provided by God Himself. Millions of prayers that echo Jesus’ words of “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” are joined in common purpose with the will of God – He has heard, His will will be done, and He will act.

Let me tell you something in all honesty – I don’t understand prayer. I really don’t. I can give you no eloquent explanations about how our requests intersect with the will and sovereignty of God Almighty. I don’t understand why, how, and when He listens to us. But I know this: He tells us to pray, He tells us He will hear us, and in some amazing way that I cannot comprehend, our prayers make a difference.

The prayers of “all the saints” are gathered up in these verses and join with God’s own plan.

What a potent force is prayer! The saints go into their bedrooms, close the doors, kneel down, and pray. They spread out before God their petitions, and God hears. The prayers are placed in the scales of judgment. In some mysterious way not explained to us, prayer changes things. This is true in every age… For prayer never reaches God in the clumsy, inept, feeble way it leaves our lips. So then, there was silence in heaven for half of hour (of heaven’s time) while God graciously takes into consideration the prayers of His own. (Phillips 128)

Do we take prayer as seriously as we should? The Bible describes prayer in terms of warfare, and these verses in Revelation remind us that our prayers are heard and do carry a great weight – and yet, we yawningly pray before bedtime and recite trite prayers before our meals.

What a potent force is prayer! I find myself together with the disciples asking, “Lord, teach me to pray.” To really pray… to pray like it matters, like it impacts eternity.