As I was reading Philip Yancey’s Prayer: Does it Really Make a Difference this morning, a section really stuck out to me that I wanted to share.
“In a scene recorded in the book of Revelation, the apostle John foresees the direct linkage between the visible and the invisible worlds. At a climatic moment in history, heaven is quiet. Seven angels stand with seven trumpets, waiting, for about the space of half an hour. Silence reigns, as if all heaven is listening on tiptoe. And then, an angel collects the prayers of God’s people on earth – all the accumulated prayers of outrage, praise, lament, abandonment, despair, petition – mixes them with the incense, and presents them before the throne of God. The silence finally breaks when the fragrant prayers are hurled down to earth: “and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earth. (Rev. 8: 1 – 5). “The message is clear, ” comments Walter Wink about that scene, “history belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being.” The pray-ers are essential agents in the final victory over evil, suffering, and death.” – Philip Yancey, Prayer Chapter 10.
This section really struck me so I went back and reread Revelation 8: 1 – 5 this morning. When you envision the scene depicted by John, you should be awe struck. In the verses just before, John tells us that “God will wipe away every tear” and we will live with the Lamb of God and He will lead us to the living fountains (Revelation 7:17). Then, John depicts the silence in Heaven. With bated breath and sheer anticipation, you can just envision all the Heavenly hosts waiting for God’s reactions to all the prayers of all the Saints. The prayers are then presented to God by an Angel in the incense before the Throne of God and smoke from the incense surrounds the Throne of God. It is then that God breaks His silence. First, He has His Angel throw down censer filled with fire from the alter back to earth and then we heard God himself through “noises, thunderings, lightnings, and earthquakes” as the fire descends to Earth.
God is so moved by the prayers of the righteousness He preludes His pending judgment with His own voice. The voice of God is described this way in Exodus 19 when God first presented Himself to Children of Israel at Mount Sinai. (Isaiah uses similar language in Isaiah 29.) God’s voice alone was so awesome and terrifying that the children of Israel told Moses to intercede for them with God because His voice frightened them. God does not sit on his Throne unfeeling when He hears our prayers. He himself is depicted as crying out with “thunderings, lightnings, and earthquakes,”
So, sometimes when we prayer we wonder if God really does care or does God really hear us? Like the cries of the Israelites in bondage in Egypt before their deliverance came – we wonder if God is really listening? This scene depicted in Revelation not only shows us that God hears are prayers but also that our prayers play a role to God’s judgment. God uses smoke from altar of our prayers to begin to enact His judgment. Our prayers serve as one of the mechanisms God uses in the final battle to achieve complete victory over injustice, evil, pain, sadness, and yes even death.
So like those Israelites who never lived to see the day their prayers were answered, God did hear them and He acted on them. They moved Him so much that He eventually sent them Moses – the deliverer of the Children of Israel. God hears our prayers. He hears us cry out against injustices in this world, against the evils we see and the evils committed against the people of God, He hears our pleas for deliverance, and our praise and thankfulness of all of His blessings. And, even if you don’t see the answer immediately or its not the answer you were hoping for or maybe you die still praying for the same prayer hoping that one day God will answer it even after we’re are gone – you can know that God hears and God is moved to action by our prayers. (When and what that action is – well, that will be according to God’s will.) The scene in Revelation also shows us that our prayers play a vital role in the final victory over Satan and his minions.
So, don’t get discouraged and stop praying. Our prayers DO and WILL make a difference.
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