BIBLE TIMES TABLE TALK: HEAVEN’S VIEW OF PRAYER

REVELATION 8: 1 – 5

8:4 THE SMOKE OF THE INCENSE, TOGETHER WITH THE PRAYERS OF THE SAINTS, WENT UP BEFORE GOD.

Try asking a group, perhaps a congregation on Sunday morning, to be silent for half an hour. Or try it yourself at home. It’s not only difficult to do, but it creates a tremendous sense of expectancy. Ears and eyes begin to strain, to lean into whatever will be next. That is the scene in heaven. There has been silence for about half an hour, and all heaven is eager to hear what will come next. Then seven angels are given seven trumpets. Watch out! Hands move to cover ears, people move to the edges of their seats; the first sound will be a trumpet blast! Anticipation becomes electric as another angel with a golden censer moves to the altar before the throne of God. In the censer, mixed with the incense, are the prayers of God’s people. The smoke of their prayers goes up before God. Then the angel scoops, with the censer, fire from the altar, and hurls it down to earth. The first sound heaven hears is louder and more startling than trumpets. "There came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake" (8:5).

Sometimes prayer can feel so impotent. Have your words ever seemed to dribble off your tongue and pool on the floor? That is an earthly view of prayer. Heaven’s view is that prayer is powerful! There is thunder, lightning, earthquakes, the prayers of God’s people move the whole earth. The future belongs to the intercessors says New Testament scholar Walter Wink. It pleases God to give prayer this power for the same reason it pleased him to save the world through the "foolishness" of the cross and to perfect his strength through human weakness - "so that no one may boast before him"

(1 Corinthians 1:18-29; see 2 Corinthians 12:9-10). When we pray, God bets all the glory and we get the joy of seeing him work wonders. Prayer truly changes things: Kings and those of authority are affected, unknowingly, and churches stand firm and mature in hope (see 1 Timothy 2:1-2; Colossians 4:12).

~~~Walter Wink

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