7th Seal 2 - The Prayers of The Saints

(Rev 8:1-6 KJV) And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. {2} And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. {3} And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. {4} And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. {5} And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. {6} And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.

In our last message, we dealt with the silence in heaven. We reviewed how the devil works to keep the Christian quiet about the Lord. When Jesus is in your heart, you are a heavenly place. Jesus expects you to tell of the great things that He has done and is doing for you. Today we will turn our attention to The Prayers of the Saints.

In verse 2, John says that he saw the seven angels which stood before God. If you will review the seven letters to the seven churches in chapters 2 and 3, you will notice that each letter was addressed to the angel of the church. We learned when we studied those letters that the angel of the church is the pastor. Now John is telling us that he sees them standing before God and each of them receives a trumpet. We will explain more about them, the trumpets and their messages in future lessons.

John says another angel came and stood at the altar. This angel had a golden censer with much incense in it and he was to offer it upon the golden altar with the prayers of all saints. To understand the significance of the golden altar, let us go back to when Moses built the tabernacle according to the instructions from God. The golden altar was part of that tabernacle.

(Exo 39:38 KJV) And the golden altar, and the anointing oil, and the sweet incense, and the hanging for the tabernacle door,

The golden altar was used to burn sweet incense. This incense would rise as a sweet smell to God reminding God that the priest was being faithful to the commands of God.

(Exo 40:26-27 KJV) And he put the golden altar in the tent of the congregation before the veil: {27} And he burnt sweet incense thereon; as the LORD commanded Moses.

The golden altar in the tabernacle served the children of Israel all the years of wandering. It was a relocatable building that could be taken down, moved and set up again and again. Then when Solomon built the permanent temple, he placed in it a golden altar. The golden altar has been a part of the worship of God down through the ages of time.

(2 Chr 4:19 KJV) And Solomon made all the vessels that were for the house of God, the golden altar also, and the tables whereon the showbread was set;

Back to our text; the angel with the golden censer that John saw is Jesus, our high priest. As it was the duty of the priests to burn the incense in the tabernacle and in the temple, it is the duty of our Lord to intercede for us. Jesus is our high priest. He understands our temptations for He was a human being and was tempted in all points just like we are. He stands ready to intercede for you to the Father. When you open your heart and begin to pray, Jesus is at the right hand of the Father to explain your temptations to Him. He can tell the father what it is like to be tempted as a human for He had the experience.

(Heb 4:14-16 KJV) Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. {15} For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. {16} Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

(Heb 2:14-18 KJV) Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; {15} And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. {16} For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham. {17} Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. {18} For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

He is able to succour (help, aide or relieve) them that are tempted; in other words, He is able to aid or assist you in your prayer to the Father. He is able to do this because he lived a human life and suffered the temptations of the human. Now He is at the right hand of the Father to intercede for you. All that He needs from you is your prayer. When you lift your heart and voice to Jesus, He will hear and aid you so that the Father’s mercy will be extended to you. He offers forgiveness of sins and power to live a holy life in this present world. He offers you a kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

In our last message we reviewed the silence that John says he observed in heaven. Here is a great area of silence on the part of those professing to be Christians and that is prayer. Your high priest, Jesus Christ, at the right hand of the Father is waiting for your prayer. He is looking for it to rise as a sweet smell to the Father. All too often He only hears silence. It ought not so to be! If you have no need, then there should be a stream of praise and thanks rising to the Father. If you have need, then there should be a stream of requests rising to the Father. He is the creator and He has the whole world in His hand. Yet His care for you is so minute that He has the hair on your head numbered. He cares about every little detail of your life.

There are times when you get a lot of help from Jesus as you pray.

(Rom 8:26-27 KJV) Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. {27} And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to even help us to pray. Sometimes you just can’t put into words what you mean or how you feel no matter how hard you may try. That is where the Holy spirit comes to your rescue making intercession for you. Yes even your groans are understood at the throne of the Father. You don’t need fancy words or well constructed sentences for your prayer to get through to the Father. What you need is your prayer. Thank God for our intercessor who is able to make our needs known to our heavenly Father.

(Isa 59:15-16 KJV) Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment. {16} And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.

According to the prophet, Isaiah, the Father was displeased that there was no intercessor for man. So He sent Jesus to be an intercessor for us. What a great and wonderful blessing it is to have an intercessor. This is the greatest blessing to sinful man in the plan of salvation. There is an intercessor at the right hand of the Father waiting to plead mercy for you and me. Let your prayer turn your heart to Him today. He understands your troubles, your trials, your temptations and your struggles. He is waiting to hear from you. Isaiah explains the purpose of our Lord.

(Isa 53 KJV) Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? {2} For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. {3} He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. {4} Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. {5} But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. {6} All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. {7} He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. {8} He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. {9} And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. {10} Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. {11} He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. {12} Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

He bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. He suffered the cross for you. He took your punishment for you and now He is waiting for your prayer so that He can make intercession for you.

(Heb 7:25 KJV) Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

Not only is Jesus by the throne of the Father to make intercession for you; John says that He also took fire of the altar and cast it into the earth. This caused voices and thundering and lightening and an earthquake. Jesus, our intercessor takes fire of the altar and casts it into the earth; in other words, Jesus puts the fire of the Holy Spirit burning in the hearts of men and women in this earth.

(Isa 6:1-7 KJV) In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. {2} Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. {3} And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. {4} And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. {5} Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. {6} Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: {7} And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

In this passage we see Isaiah explaining his experience of salvation. He took some time to think about God, one day and God gave him this vision. As he realized how holy God is and how unholy he was, he began to lament his condition. At this point in his prayer, one of the seraphims that was by the throne came to his rescue. He took a live coal from off the altar and placed it on Isaiah’s mouth. When that coal touched Isaiah’s mouth, the angel proclaimed: this has touched your lips and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged.

Now this is an experience everyone needs. If you have never repented of your sins, today is the day you should. Jesus waits to take fire from the altar and purify your life. John the Baptist told us in:

(Mat 3:11-12 KJV) I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: {12} Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

Yes the baptism that Jesus would bring is a baptism of fire. That fire will thoroughly purge every heart that it is poured out on. As the angel touched Isaiah’s lips with the hot coal from the altar, Jesus stands ready today to place the fire of the Holy Ghost in your heart to purify you for the kingdom of God. With the fire of the Lord burning within you, you are purified from all sin and become a vessel that the Lord can use to be a witness and a light to every soul that you come in contact with. The prophet Jeremiah told of his experience:

(Jer 20:9 KJV) Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

Jeremiah had been preaching the Word of God for some time and he became weary in preaching. He was discouraged because it seemed like the people did not pay any attention to his preaching. They kept right on their sinful ways and the Word of God rolled off them like water off a duck’s back. I know the feeling as a lot of preachers have experienced the same frustration. You preach the word of God again and again and it does not seem to have any effect. You wonder if the people are hearing you at all and since it appears that they, at least, are not paying any attention to the messages. So why keep on preaching? I might as well just keep silent! That was what Jeremiah decided to do as that is what a lot of preachers do and there comes a space of silence in heaven.

But Jeremiah could not keep silent for the Word of God was in his heart as a burning fire shut up in his bones. So back to preaching he went and thanks to his faithfulness we have his testimony and preaching in our Bibles to this day. Now the devil loves to get God’s preachers to go silent and he works very hard at it. If he can’t get us shut up completely, he will try to get us to at least quit preaching on some things. Anything to water down and dilute the Word of God so that it will not burn with the fire of the Holy Spirit. But, thank God, no God called, anointed, Holy Spirit filled preacher sent from God can keep quiet about the Word of God. Filled with the fire from the golden altar, the Word of God comes forth burning and purifying the hearts of the hearers. Jesus has his fan in His hand and John lets us know that that fan is the ministry. That is the fan that He uses to purge sin out of people’s lives.

The fire cast into the earth caused quite a storm. There were thunders and lightening and an earthquake. When God cast that fire into Isaiah, he turned his life over to the Lord and gave himself to carry the Word of God – to be a messenger of God. He began to thunder out the warnings of God and as he thundered God dropped lightening into the hearts of those that heard. Not only did they hear the warnings of God, they felt the lightening burn it into their hearts. They understood the message.

(Isa 6:8-9 KJV) Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. {9} And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

If you will plead your case to the Lord, he will answer by fire. The fire of the Holy Spirit that will purge you of your sin and make you a vessel fit for the master’s use. Then you can hear his voice pleading for someone to carry the Word of God to your family, to your neighbors, to your country, to the nations far across the sea and into all the earth. As Isaiah said, here am I send me, you will have opportunity to give your service to your Lord.

The warnings of God causes an earthquake.

(Dan 5:1-7 KJV) Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. {2} Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein. {3} Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them. {4} They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone. {5} In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. {6} Then the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. {7} The king cried aloud …

When the warning came from God, the king suffered an earthquake. He shook so bad that his knees were knocking. This is what happens to sinners when the Word of God is preached with the flaming fire of God falling. As the warnings are thundered out and the lightening crashes, the hearts of sinful men are shaken. This is the mercy of God as He tries to get sinners to repent of their sin, have their lives purified and live holy.

You have an intercessor waiting to plead your case as your prayers rise up to the Father. You have His aid and even though you are not able to express your feeling with words, the Holy spirit will make intercession for you. Your high priest, Jesus, is able to succour you for He has experienced the temptations of the flesh. He is ready to cast fire into the earth to bring sinners face to face with their condition so they will have opportunity to repent. The devil is trying to get you to go silent so that no prayers rise from your lips, but Jesus is trying to fan His fire in your bones so that you cannot keep silent about the great things that God has done for you. He is waiting for your prayer.