Revelation 8:4
4 And[kai] the smoke[kapnos] of the incense,[thumiama] which came with the
prayers[proseuche]
of the saints,[hagios] ascended up[anabaino] before[enopion] God[theos]
out of[ek] the
angel's[aggelos]
hand.[cheir] KJV-Interlinear
4 And
the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God
out of the angel's hand. NASB
When the first five seals
were removed, the scroll revealed the horrors that result when humanity,
sponsored by Satan, lead to nothing but unfair, biased policies, and those always
end in persecution, suffering and disaster without limits.
Now we have the seven
trumpets being distributed to seven angels, and before they are sounded, the
prayers of all of the believers are recalled, assembled, and allowed to be
presented in total, to God the Father, the one to whom all prayer is directed.
The prayers are just,
because they are presented before the throne of the lamb, for it is by His work
on the Cross, that prayers are acceptable.
All prayer is presented through Christ (not to Christ). Neither man nor angel, can approach the
Father on their own merit, but must approach by way
of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, however, is
the one who executes and controls history, in accordance with the divine plan.
The angel did not
originate these prayers, believers did.The
angel did not authorize these prayers, Christ did. The angel is merely demonstrating the
mechanism by which prayer is presented in the proper fashion, and then accepted
by God the Father.
And just in passing, you should
note that as the persecutions increase, so too, the prayers increase, and so
too, the answers to those prayers increase.
For many folks, faith in
Christ comes easy.For some folks faith
requires a little nudging.And for
others, that nudging needs to become a push, and for still others that push
needs added force, and so forth.You get
the idea.
When the Rapture
occurred, the world will full of people who had rejected Christ up to that
point.They needed a little nudge in their
life, in order to bring them to faith in Christ. Perhaps the occurrence of the Rapture, which
they missed, was enough convincing, for many of them to make that commitment.
But still others will
need more pressure in their lives, in order to get them off their arrogant resistance
and into faith in Christ.
The first five seals
revealed a total breakdown in human leadership and the horrors of persecution
and death as a result.Huge numbers will
believe in Christ, because of those persecutions and sufferings, and then pay
the ultimate price as God removes them from the world.
But still others will need
more persuasion, in order to bring them to Christ.
The trumpets, the woes,
the thunders, and the bowls will represent the increasing judgments being delivered
against an unbelieving world.With each
increment in pressure, people will believe in Christ. Then they will be removed from the world in
some systematic manner, and whisked off to heaven to be with Christ.
Gods ultimate objective
is to defeat evil, but in so doing, He is also wanting to bring all who will
believe, to their moment of faith, so that they will be saved and have a
destiny in heaven, rather than in the Lake of Fire.
Right up and until the
moment of the Second Advent, people will believe in Christ, and be saved, and
perhaps even when Christ returns, in that final moment of history, some may be
saved by believing in Him.
But the prayers of believers, mark the reason as to why God is pursuing history
at all.There are those who will accept
Him, His plan, and His purpose of truth, and want to live with Him in heaven
forever.
And so as the seals have
revealed the failure of human rule, now the prayers of believers mark the start
of Gods judgments to bring people to salvation and to rid the world of evil.
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