20240211 - Revelation 6 part 2

And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in

Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

And when he had said these things as they were looking on,

he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.

So Jesus has told them numerous times that he was gonna send the Holy Spirit.

So my question is why in the world,

do the prayers of the saints have anything to do with

this fire being sent with the Holy Spirit being sent?

Because that is what happens, Jesus and the saints prayers,

the incense go before God.

And then in response,

Jesus puts the fire from the golden altar into

the sensor and he flings it down to earth.

Jesus already said what he was going to do.

But it's the prayers of the saints that initiated.

Think about that for a second because it's really pretty deep.

God is all powerful. He knows what we need. It says that He knows that in Matthew six

do not be like them for your father knows what you need before you ask Him.

So God is all powerful. He can do anything he wants he already knows what we need.

But he doesn't act

here in revelation without the prayers of his saints.

Jesus told them that he was sending his holy spirit, the saints under the throne.

Earlier in revelation already cried out and said,

how long o Lord until you avenge our blood?

But they were told to wait a little bit longer.

But now because the ascension offering Jesus, the lamb has ascended,

the prayers can now piggy back on the sacrifice

and they are now lifted straight to God.

He hears them and he acts

because his people righteously asked him to.

He sends his spirit to the earth. He hears the prayers and it prompts him to act.

I don't know if this is the best analogy, but as I was going through this,

it popped in my head.

So here it goes.

If you go to a racetrack and you watch a bunch of extremely powerful race cars,

the drivers can kick down,

the drivers can kick down the gas pedal at any time that they feel like right.

They have the power all within themselves just to stomp on the

pedal and they could fly around as fast as they can.

But they choose to follow the rules that have been set up.

They choose to wait until that little green flag is waved.

Broke my t

Yeah.

God doesn't need our approval to go.

He doesn't need any backup power from us, but he desires for us to be a part of it.

He has set up rules that for his purposes and his ultimate glory

many, many times doesn't proceed

without our initiating

the prayers rising up to him in revelation is this green light, this green flag.

So I believe this is where a lot of Christians can lose their way.

This specific scenario in revelation helps us to understand more how to pray.

Jesus told his disciples that the Holy Spirit would be sent.

The saints prayed for God to come and avenge their blood.

I don't think that they probably understood what they

were specifically asking for to even take place,

but they were in,

in essence praying for something that Jesus had already said was going to happen.

So that, that, that means they were praying for God's will to be done.

They believe God coming would mean he came to avenge their blood,

like I said,

does that mean that they knew that they were asking specifically

for Jesus to send down fire from the heavenly golden altar?

And that the Holy Spirit inspiring and directing the

church would ride jesus' Gospel throughout the world and spread

the word and that God was going to use the

Romans to sack Jerusalem and tear down the temple.

I don't think that they knew that

but their prayers in effect. Did this?

These saints prayers bring about a total destruction of the old creation?

We think so often we need to save the world

by going out and preaching on every street corner,

having a big huge food drive or going to Bangladesh to

save the lost or going on righteous crusades 1000 years ago.

But in reality,

the biggest changes

have come from prayer.

Don't miss the point here.

All of those things I just mentioned are great and

right and they please God and they make a difference.

But prayer is a thing throughout the Bible

where the biggest changes are really made.

We just fail to see with spiritual eyes. Sometimes

the interesting thing is that so many times we

miss the physical because we first miss the spiritual,

we're looking for the physical,

but we miss even the physical because we didn't see it first.

In the spiritual

God oftentimes through our prayers changes things spiritually.

But many times in the Bible and even in our lives,

the physical is changed because there was a change spiritually first.

This here in revelation is an example of that.

Obviously, the Holy Spirit being sent to the earth is a spiritual thing

and acts immediately though they begin hearing

each other in the same language.

And this leads to 3000 actual people being saved that day.

After this, the gospel,

like the four horsemen are sent to spread the good

news and proclaim Christ as king over all nations.

Now, this took a while and it in a way it's still taking a while.

But look at the changes that Christianity has brought all over the world,

not just spiritually physically.

Look at what it's done. Beauty has been inspired by Christianity.

Art used to only be about Christianity

lands were discovered in God's name.

Nations bowed down to Jesus as sovereign over their governments.

They were set up in Christian ways.

Goodwill was dished out to the poor and desolate all over the world

wars have been fought to protect people from pagans that wish death on all of us.

Civility was brought to many places of the world in

the name of Christ where it previously didn't exist.

The fact that you still in some small town in Minnesota can

still leave your car running when you go into a store,

you can leave your door, unlocked the front door of your house, unlocked,

or you can just walk next door.

And of course, they're gonna borrow you a cup of sugar from your neighbor

in many ways. Those are because of a Christian worldview

that unfortunately is slowly being left behind.

But the physical, the point here is the physical followed,

the spiritual people believed in God.

And then all of these things go forth from that physically.

Let's look at an example from the Bible where this happens

Solomon back in the Old Testament,

built the house of God and he built the house of the king.

He

had built one of the most rich and magnificent structures that

the world has really ever seen at least to that point,

this was a physical house

but made from a spiritual heart position towards God.

David,

his father and Solomon wanted to please God and make this

physical place because of what they felt spiritually in their hearts.

The temple like it does in revelation plays an important part

in Solomon's prayer to God dedicating this physical structure to God.

I wanna read from first chronicles where it talks about him dedicating this place

says now the Lord has fulfilled his promise that he made

for.

I have risen in the place of David,

my father and sit on the throne of Israel as the Lord promised.

And I have built the house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel.

And there I have set the ark in which is the covenant of the Lord that he

made with the people of Israel.

Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence

of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands.

Solomon had made a bronze platform, five cubits, long,

five cubits wide and three cubits high.

And he had said it in the court and he stood on it.

Then he knelt on his knees in the presence of all the

assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven and said,

o Lord God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth,

keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants

who walk before you with all their heart,

who have kept you, who have kept with your servant, David, my father,

what you declared to him,

you spoke with your mouth and with your hand have fulfilled it this day.

Now, therefore, o Lord God of Israel, keep for your servant David, my father,

what you have promised him saying,

you shall not lack a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel.

If only your sons pay close attention to their way to

walk in my law as you have walked before me.

Now, therefore, o Lord God of Israel, let your word be confirmed,

which you have spoken to your servant David.

But will God indeed dwell with man on earth,

behold heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you.

How much less this house that I have built yet have

regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea,

o Lord my God listening to the crying,

to the prayer that your servant prays before you,

that your eyes may be open day and night to this house,

the place where you have promised to set your name that you

may listen to the prayer that your sermon offers toward this place

and listen to the pleas of your servant and of your people, Israel,

when they pray to this place and listen from heaven, your dwelling place.

And when you hear forgive,

if you notice

Solomon made a bronze platform where he kneels as he prays this prayer.

The dimensions given here five cubits by five cubits by three

cubits high are exactly the same dimensions as the bronze altar.

So Solomon is acting like the sacrificial animal on the bronze altar.

He is sacrificing himself in a way to ascend up now with the prayer up to God.

After this prayer, just like in revelation, fire is sent down to earth. If

we keep reading starts the next chapter,

it says as soon as Solomon finished his prayer,

fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and

the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

So again, it's this spiritual

thing that Solomon has in his heart to please God.

And through that, he builds this physical thing. And he says to God,

please look favorably on those who pray in this temple towards this temple.

This matters the physical for what our spiritual hearts are showing

prayer, then sets Israel on a new course.

This physical place is dedicated to God.

And Solomon asked God to bless him and all the people

and God does.

He comes and he dwells with them

spiritually. A new course is determined.

God, the fire comes down and he lives with them. He dwells with them in the temple,

but that's not all

God in turn blesses them physically too.

Solomon becomes the richest man who's ever lived.

Israel rises to become a great nation at that time

the physical followed the spiritual,

this isn't the Prosperity Gospel though, if you notice in there,

in Solomon's prayer, he admits that if him and his sons turn away from God,

all this goes away, none of this is going to,

there's not going to be a spiritual blessing or a physical blessing.

So.

20240211 - Revelation 6 part 2

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