Revelation Chapter 8

8 verses 1 through 5.

And when he broke the 7 seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

I saw the 7 angels who stand before God, the seven trumpets were given to them.

And another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censor.

Much incense was given to him that he might add it to the prayers of all the Saints

upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the Saints went up before God out of the

angel's hand and the angel took the censor and he filled it with fire of the

altar and threw it to the earth and there follow peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.

The utterly astonishing thing about this text is that it portrays the prayers of the saint as the

instrument by which God at the end of the age ushers in the clothes of the world with his great judgments.

It pictures prayers of the Saints as accumulating on the altar before the throne of God until the time pointed

by God when they are taken like fire from the altar and thrown upon the earth causing great

upheaval at the end of the age. In other words, what this text is about is what has become over the last 2,000 years,

what has become of the prayers of the Saints when millions of times, year after year, month after month, week after week,

Saints with a God-exaling faith have said,

hallow it be thy name, thy kingdom come,

thy will be done all over the earth

the way it's done in heaven.

What has become of those prayers? What do you think God does with

millions upon millions of ascending prayers from the Church of God around the world year after year as they cry out,

...