Silence in Heaven by Aije Barnes, July 2 issue 1 Vol 5

'And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. 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. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. 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. (‭Revelation‬ ‭8‬:‭1-5‬ KJV)'.

This a long opening verse on which I will share with you in small parts. The whole of it gives you a picture of what will be covered.

In the first part, we see that after the seventh seal was opened there was silence in Heaven for 30 minutes. We also see the seven angels who stand before God. Rewind back to Revelations chapter 1 verses 12, 16 & 20 and you will see that the seven stars who were in Jesus' right hand were the Angels who were assigned to the seven churches. Each of these Angels were given specific messages from Jesus to the church they were assigned to. I will share more on this another time. For now, I want to focus on the correlation between these Angels mentioned in chapter 1 of the book of Revelations and those in chapter 8 in relation to the church. 

Somehow I believe they are the same Angels. If you read on in chapter 8, before these Angels in the presence of God, in what appears to be in the moment of silence, the prayers of all the saints which were on the altar before the throne of God, were  offered to God by another angel, together with incense out of his hand. Now look closely, as soon as this happened the same angel took the censer he was also holding, filled it with fire from the altar and cast it into the earth. The results were tremendous! - voices and thunderings and lightings, and an earthquake! The Angels had not even blown their trumpets yet!

What a response from God to our prayers! There is power in prayer! Do not underestimate what happens in the spiritual realm when you pray particularly, when we pray in unity. God answers with fire on behalf of His children and this is expressed in various forms on earth.

You will find that the devil knows the power that exists in our prayers as children of God, and he will use all kinds of distractions to prevent us from praying.  But we must not allow him to succeed because if we do, we will not be able to stop his advances to kill destroy and scatter. Look around you, watch and or listen to the news, see how wickedness and evil is growing. 

We must raise our voices to God in prayer and pray for our world. Time and time again the Lord has admonished us through His word, to pray without ceasing and to pray with all kinds of prayers supplications with thanksgiving. And don't forget to praise God after thanksgiving . There is power in praise! God inhabits the praise of His people. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise  for our God is good and His mercies endures forever. 

Take heed to obey His call to prayer and watch Him answer with fire on our behalf.  God has provided us with everything we need to overcome. The weapons of or warfare are not carnal but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. For the Kingdom the Power and the Glory belongs to God - our Father.

Shalom