Bowls of prayer
Revelation 5:8, 8:3-5 (NIV)
And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. [...]
Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.
Our prayers are incense before God. If we realized this, we would find it much less a labor to pray. Picture God taking a good strong whiff and saying “Ahh, my saints’ prayers! They smell wonderful!”
We can also find the lesson here that not every prayer is answered right away. We can see the “throwing the bowl to the earth” as symbolic of sending the answer. Sometimes it takes more than one prayer, or the prayers of more than one person, to “fill the bowl”. It is our job to ask in faith, believing that we receive when we pray (Mark 11:24, Matthew 21:22).
In Luke 11:9, where we’re told to ask, seek, and knock, the Greek verbs are in the “present imperative” tense, which implies continuing action. One reading might be “Ask, and keep on asking … seek, and keep on seeking … knock, and keep on knocking”. We don’t want to get into vain repetition (Matthew 6:7) or prayers inspired by fear and worry rather than faith. But keep filling your bowl, approaching God in faith, believe that you receive each time you go back with your request. If you quit praying, your bowl may never fill.
Doug
Why did Jesus come?
Why did Jesus come? To redeem us? Yes (Galatians 3:13). To forgive us? Yes (Luke 23:34). To give us eternal life? Yes (John 3:16) To reconcile us to God? Yes (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). To re-create us? Yes (2 Corinthians 5:17). But if I had to sum up what He did in God’s plan of redemption, this would be my answer:
1 John 3:8b (NIV) The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
Destroy the devil’s work. What are the devil’s works? Taking us out of fellowship with God. That made us vulnerable to sin and all of its side-effects – death, sickness, lack, depression, and fear, for starters (look at Deuteronomy 28 for an extended list). That’s what Christ redeemed us from – the curse of the Law. Instead we are once again related to God, with the benefits of that relationship to a good Father.
Look at what Jesus sent His disciples to do:
Matthew 10:7-8 (NIV) As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
Jesus told us we’d receive power to witness to what He’s done when the Holy Spirit comes (Acts 1:8) and gave us a list of things that should accompany preaching (Mark 16:15-20). Are we as Christians working towards that goal of “doing what Jesus did”? Telling people about God’s love and goodness, and demonstrating it? Or are we busy making ourselves comfortable in our homes and churches, while we hope and pray that He will come back quickly?
Doug
Identification
2 Corinthians 5:16-21 (NIV)
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
“Identification” with Christ is the idea that we are not just “sinners saved by grace”, but new creations, recreated to be like Jesus. We’re transformed, not unlike when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. This is a one-way transformation, the butterfly does not go back and forth between the two stages.
Jesus became as we were – men born of a woman and subject to temptation – so that He could make us to be like Him. 1 Corinthians 15:22 (NKJV) says “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.” But we don’t always think that way. Too often believers are like a butterfly that keeps thinking and acting like a caterpillar. We hang onto our identification with Adam, rather than our identification with Christ. It’s instructive here to read Romans 5:12-21 which further contrasts Adam-life and Christ-life.
There are about 135 verses in the New Testament that identify us with Christ – “in Him”, “in whom”, “Through Christ”. These verses describe our position in Christ. A list of these verses is here. Here are a few of those verses:
- We have been crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20)
- We have died and been buried with Christ (Romans 6:2-5)
- We have been made alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:5)
- We are raised with Christ (Ephesians 2:6, Colossians 3:1)
- We are positionally seated with Christ (Ephesians 2:6) – we can boldly go to God’s throne of grace (Hebrews 4:14-16)
- We are joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17)
- We reign with Christ (Romans 5:17, Revelation 1:6, 5:10)
We live FAR below what Christ has done for us – in the way we approach God in prayer, in the way we respond to life and circumstances, in our hopes and expectations. We need to recognize what Christ has done for us and who he has recreated us to be. We didn’t get there by our own efforts, but we can’t lose sight of what He has done in and for us.
Doug
A vision 7/7/2010
Just now (about 7am this morning), I was listening to Todd Bentley’s CD “Soaking in the Secret Place” and had a vision. I was in a small (1-2 person) boat by myself, moving across a small calm lake. I don’t know whether it was in heaven or earth. The day was sunny and mild, probably 75 degrees, and just the slightest hint of a breeze. There was no motor or sail, I don’t know how the boat was propelled, but it seemed to go what direction I wished it to.
I saw a small river coming into the lake and decided to go up this river, and the boat went that direction. I went a little ways up the river and came to a large field of emerald-green grass. Jesus was sitting there on a throne and I knew I was supposed to get out of the boat. When I did, He got out a picnic basket and blanket and invited me to have lunch with Him (fish sandwiches!) Although I describe it as a blanket by its heavier nature, it actually looked a lot like a red and white checkered tablecloth.
I wanted to listen to Him teach, but He said I needed to eat and “hang out” more, so I happily did. We didn’t talk much, I just enjoyed His presence. Then we both laid down on our backs and looked up at the shapes in the clouds. He asked me what I saw in one, and I said I saw a chariot. It was a very calm but fulfilling experience.
As I got up to go, He said to me “You can come back here any time you wish.” I am still processing the significance of this vision.
Doug
Glory restored
God covered man with His glory at creation – “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26 NKJV). It was as if God looked in a mirror and used that as His pattern for how to design and fashion man.
Psalm 8:3-6 (NASB)
When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him?
Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty!
You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet…
The word “God” in verse 5 is the correct translation. The Hebrew word is Elohim, which is consistently translated as “God” – except in this verse! Saying “man was made to be a little lower than God” makes some people nervous. Translating it as “angels” (NKJV) or “heavenly beings” (NIV) started in Jewish traditions, was carried over into the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures) and even respected modern translations. For example, the NLT says “a god”.
In creation, God created man to be like Him, and covered man with glory. This is why they didn’t realize they were naked until after the fall – the glory acted as a robe for them (Genesis 3:7). Once they lost their glory, they felt they needed some other covering – their heavenly covering was gone.
That glory’s been restored to us! While Jesus was praying in John 17:22, he said: “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one…” (NKJV)
As we take time to learn more about Christ, to spend time in fellowship with him, we are transformed by that glory and image:
2 Corinthians 3:18 (NKJV) But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
We have no idea what all God has given us, the extent of what Jesus has done for us, and how it affects us. We live so far below who He has made us to be, because we look at our own lives, failures, and circumstances, instead of looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2)
Doug
