Mike Bickle emphasizes the significance of the seventh seal in the context of prayer, illustrating how the prayers of the saints on earth are intertwined with the heavenly incense, which enhances their power. He encourages believers to envision themselves participating in the unfolding drama of God's plan, where the release of heavenly incense strengthens the prayer movement and leads to divine intervention against the Antichrist. Bickle highlights that this moment is not merely academic but a personal journey of engaging with Jesus and understanding the profound implications of these prophetic events. The sermon underscores the importance of prayer in the end times, as it connects the earthly and heavenly realms, culminating in a powerful response from God.

We're looking at our sixth session in a 12-part series on the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls of judgment. Now these are judgments that are going to be released by the praying church upon the Antichrist of the kingdom of darkness. So as I study these, they're not just kind of interesting passages that is a challenge to see if you can work it out like a puzzle, and if you work it out you feel kind of good that, hey, I got it, the puzzle worked. This is really our life and our destiny written in advance. When I read these passages, I don't mean every time, but often, I try to picture, not just picture what's happening in these scenes, but I picture myself one day praying the release of them, actually saying, Lord, release this according to your brilliant and perfect plan. And as I picture it, I learn it a lot better. It's not just, I'm just, again, it's more than a puzzle I'm putting together. It's, I'm thinking of my future, and I'm thanking the Lord for it, for what he says in these different passages. Because what is written in these three judgment series, this, the seals, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven bowls, they are a manifestation of Jesus's brilliant mind. So I thank him for his brilliance, and for his dedicated, passionate heart. So I thank him for his love. Like, Lord, thank you for, for the seventh seal. And when you talk to him and thank him for it, and you picture praying the release of it, it becomes far more personal, becomes real, it becomes more than just a challenge to academically learn the facts. It's our story written in advance. So I'd like you, I just want to encourage you to encounter Jesus, talk to him, and see yourself in the drama. And if you're not here at that time on the earth, well, the saints in heaven are involved in this drama in a very dramatic way as well. Well, the saints in heaven will be involved in the whole drama. One way or the other, you will be participating in this. The seventh seal, the prayer movement on the earth being strengthened by the release of the heavenly incense. There's a time, a perfect timing, when the Lord says, now's the time, and the incense, heavenly supernatural incense is added to the prayers of the saints, and it's explosive and combustive in a redemptive way. It releases the power of God on the earth. I don't understand all the way it works. I just know that it does work. I don't know why the angel adds the heavenly incense and what's all involved in it. I just know that he does. And there's a tremendous release of power on the earth that's redemptive. Let's read the seventh seal, Revelation chapter 8 verse 1. And when he, that's Jesus, opened the seventh seal, he's the one releasing this. He's the one releasing the timing, and he's the one who designed the events described here. And we're the ones that are going to be involved with it. We're meaning the saints. That's what I mean. Across the whole earth and the saints in heaven. When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. When I saw the seven angels who stand before God, to them were given seven trumpets. So there's a moment in time where the seven angels that are those who stand before the Lord, they're a very specific group of angels. There's a time yet in the future they are given the seven trumpets. Now how would you like to be the angel that gets the seventh trumpet? I mean when they hand that those trumpets out, all of these seven angels are very powerful and honored angels. But how would you like to be the one where they hand the seventh trumpet and that blast is what the Lord returns to and the saints are raptured? Seventh trumpet, the final trumpet. Then another angel, verse 3, an eighth one, in addition to the seven, there's another angel. He has a golden censer. He has a big golden container. And he came to the altar and he stood there. I mean imagine he's coming with this empty censer and he's standing at the altar. I don't know if he's there for a minute or for hours or days. I don't know. He's standing there waiting. How dramatic. Then he was given much incense. We don't know from who and we don't know exactly what the makeup of the incense is. But we know it's under Jesus's leadership and it has to do with Jesus's redemptive activity. But anyway, verse 3, this angel is given much incense. A lot of it. Again, we don't know from who. We don't know how much. We know it's a lot. And now he takes the incense. It's in this big golden censer, this big container. He offers it with all of the prayers, with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar. Now there's a golden altar right before the throne. So this angel takes this big golden censer that has a lot of incense in it. He goes to the altar and as the prayers are ascending or as the prayers are being offered there before the throne, he takes his big container. He empties the golden, I mean he empties this heavenly incense upon the altar with the with the prayers of the saints and together they ascend before the Father and the Father's pleased with it and it releases the fire of God. It says in verse 3 that another angel having a golden censer, he came, he stood at the altar, he was given much incense that he should offer this container of incense with the prayer of all the saints and he offers it on the golden altar. There's a golden altar. It's called the golden altar of incense. It's right before the throne. It's the place where the prayer ministry converges. The golden altar of incense right before the Father's throne. Now that golden altar of incense was also seen in Moses's tabernacle and Solomon's temple. There was the same golden altar, an earthly picture of the heavenly reality. Well this is the heavenly reality. Verse 4, and the smoke of the incense and the reason there's smoke from the incense because they pour the incense on the altar but what you you don't know right here by reading but you know from other passages there's there's coals of fire that are on the altar and when you pour the incense on the coals of fire the fragrant smoke the glory cloud ascends so the incense when it hits those gold those coals of fire it turns into a cloud of perfumed smoke and it ascends and again you'll see it in the notes and some of you know the verses anyway where the coals there are burning coals on that prayer altar around the throne and those coals are on the altar and they never go out the fire on that altar never goes out it's a very fascinating reality it's not just a symbol it's actually there's really a golden altar where the prayer ministry of the church and of all the saints in heaven on the earth they all converge together and there's a time where the Lord's gonna add heavenly incense to it and then when that heavenly incense hits the fire on the altar together with the prayers of the Saints it's it's combustive it's gloriously combustive it's redemptively combustive breaks out and ascends and the smoke of glory goes before the Father verse 5 the angel took that now empty censer that golden censer because he emptied it now it's empty he takes it and puts it to good use he takes fire from the altar where those prayers have been he takes fire coals of fire puts it into the censer he goes over somewhere to the balcony of heaven I don't know how it works and he pours it on the earth and this is all in direct relationship to the prayers of the Saints that are on the earth at the end times well it's the prayers of all the Saints I have no doubt that the prayers of it throughout history are involved in this and the prayers of all the Saints in heaven are involved in this but what we're focused on is the prayer of the Saints on the earth it's connected to this so he takes this verse 5 the censer again it was full well he goes the angel goes there it's empty to start with somebody fills it with heavenly incense I don't know who I know it's under Jesus's leadership maybe the Jesus himself as we don't know he takes that golden censer full of incense puts it on the fire the puff of smoke goes up the glory of the fragrant cloud the censers now empty he fills it that empty censer with with the coals from the fire that's on that heavenly altar he goes somewhere I don't know how he throws it to the earth but he dumps it on the earth and the earth is troubled by this at least the unrighteous are verse 5 continuing that's not it doesn't end with fire being thrown to the earth there's noises and that I've always wondered noises that shows up several times in the book of Revelation there some of those noises are beautiful melodies and sounds some of those noises undoubtedly are very terrifying and troubling I believe the noises have both extremes what an interesting thing to put into the end time drama noises from the throne whoa and there's thundering and lightning it's breaking out from the throne and it's also appearing in the sky over the earth thunder and lightning is breaking out across the whole earth fires falling thunder lightning and then there's a big earthquake now I've read some that said all these are signs and things happening in heaven you can't have an earthquake in heaven it has to be on the earth to be an earthquake and now I've read that before and I thought that's interesting they said these are all the things happening around the throne I go by definition it has to be on the earth but the noises will be heard by the folks on the earth and the lightning of the thunder will be seen by believers and unbelievers alike on the earth what a dramatic time verse 6 then those seven angels that just received the trumpets a few moments ago they get ready to sound them they haven't sounded them the seventh seal is not the sounding of the seven trumpets now some commentators will say the seventh seal it's to release the seven trumpets and I can accept that but the seventh seal is more than these angels preparing to sound there's more to the seventh seal it's the angel receiving the heavenly incense the fire falling the noises the thunder the lightning and the earthquake the whole deal Roman numeral I mean paragraph a now get we're gonna kind of I'm gonna be repetitious through this because I want you to get the picture there's a lot of details of all the 21 judgments the seven trumpets I mean the seven seals the seven trumpets seven bowls this one is has been for me the most challenging to get all the details clear trying to picture it and again the way I picture it isn't just answer the puzzle is by seeing myself in the drama whether here or there it's then it becomes personal and then thanking Jesus for it in a specific way not just thank you for the seventh seal but thank you that in your wisdom and in your passion you devised and designed such an excellent intervention to the earth and when I begin to thank him in a detailed way it becomes more clear what it is I'm thanking him for so I'm being a little repetitious because this is the one out of the 21 that I've had the hardest time getting my mind around because there's so many details to it paragraph a the seventh seal judgment is on the Antichrist Empire it's the strengthening of the prayer movement now it's the prayer movement in heaven is going to a whole nother level and we rejoice in that for sure but the reason this is being revealed to the Saints on the earth is a prophecy is so we're strengthened by it I have no doubt that whenever the prayer movement is strengthened whenever it goes to the next level in heaven there's a earthly correspondence of increase of the grace of God on the prayer movement on the earth so this has happened in the fifth seal if you remember but it's the prayer of the martyrs created a strengthening of the prayer movement now this is the prayer of the heavenly incense which is different from the martyrs there's undoubtedly an overlap but it's not the same thing these are two different judgments against the Antichrist Kingdom and it results in fire being cast on the earth like when Elijah called fire down from heaven Elijah called fire from heaven on the prophets of Baal and the end time church will call fire from heaven on the altar of worship of the Antichrist system it will be the Elijah showdown happening again but I I like the fire I mean I focus on that but the thing that excites me more is to see the prayer movement increasing so I see the the prayer movement increasing as predominant in my thinking even more than the fire falling I see the fire falling as a consequence of it paragraph B I give the five specific aspects of the seventh seal number one the seven angels are given the trumpets they don't have them right now so that's a big event when they're handed when they're when they're given these trumpets it means the calendar of heaven is that you know a minute till 12 so to speak it's it's it's that time then number two an angel is given heavenly incense to add to the prayers of the Saints to all the Saints I believe it's the Saints in heaven and the Saints on the earth and some would say the Saints the prayers of the Saints present and the prayers of the Saints through history all coming to a glorious crescendo together number three fire cast to the earth number four the cosmic disturbances of the of the thunder in the lightning now the cosmic disturbances we have just seen them in the in the sixth seal this is the seventh seal so it's a continuation of some of the disturbances in the air cosmic disturbances mean in the sky that's what I mean by that where in the sixth seal it was the Sun the moon the stars heaven splitting open here it's thunder lightning fire falling from the sky and noises you know terrifying noises to the to the wicked for sure but I'm assuming that there's a corresponding dimension of the beautiful sounds coming from the throne to the righteous not sure how that works but it's all part of the judgment and then an earthquake is the fifth aspect paragraph C here's my premise that our prayers are ultimately strengthened the reason our prayers have power it's not it's not the magical incense we're not like you know some people might go to some bizarre extreme and try to you know pray for a vision of an angel who has incense and then they you know people have strange imaginations anything might happen there we don't want to get into a it's not the incense I'm concerned with it's the makeup of the incense and it ultimately is Jesus it's the activity of the Holy Spirit the activity of Jesus the reason our prayers have power ultimately is because of the generosity of God's heart number one if God did not have a desire to listen to our prayers there's no equation that could make our prayers effective his heart is so generous he wants our involvement so therefore he ordained prayers the way to release his power thank you father for the generosity of your heart that we you've involved us in a dynamic way in an ongoing way forever in this way that touches the very deep parts of our spirit because when we pray not all of our prayers but eventually it really connects our heart to his heart in a very deep in a dynamic way so it comes from the generosity of God's heart even what prayer then our prayers are effective and powerful because of the work of Jesus on the cross if God had the desire but Jesus did not remove the offense our prayers would not be effective and thirdly the ministry of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit's moving on the Saints in heaven the Holy Spirit's moving on the Saints on the earth and the reason I'm saying this whatever the heavenly incense is it's the composite of these realities paragraph D the heavenly incense because this is the the essence of what we're asking Lord release that heavenly incense upon the prayers of the Saints of the altar now we don't pray that now because we don't pray it until the first seal is released then we begin to pray these things we don't pray them until after the first seals released to the Antichrist is on the world stage is the first seal then we begin our prayers begin to shift to praying the specific canonized prayer manual that's right here in the book of Revelation so we don't want to have people going on the microphone and praying for the release of the sixth seal of the seventh seal in the fourth trumpet we don't don't do that right now right now we pray right now we don't pray for judgment in a direct way unless the Holy Spirit spoke it in a very directed powerful way like some of the prophets in the days of old were told judgment was coming and they were supposed to pray the release of it and they were actually forbidden to pray the stopping of you know I told Jeremiah don't pray to stop it stop praying Jeremiah against this judgment you know but I don't know too many people that have that level of prophetic track record and credibility where we need to make it a big point in one of our teachings if you and the Lord are operating that close prophetically and you got that kind of track record well you'll know what to do the Lord speaks to you so apart from that exception right now in this hour of history we pray for the breaking in of light of the power of God the goodness the redemptive part and whenever the light breaks in it will displace the darkness we don't have to know the details right now we pray against the destruction and we pray for the impartation of light and against the destruction but we know that when the light comes there will be destruction but we leave that to the Lord's mysterious workings we don't know the details afterwards we're surprised at how little or how much the destruction happened the prayers stop it but sometimes the prayer for the breaking in of light increases the trouble because when light increases it displaces the darkness but we don't know the mechanics of all that we pray for light to break in and judgment to stop that's our default button minus a prophet who gets a direct word from the Lord in a way that is very very rare but it is biblical but after the first seal then our prayer approach is now different then we have a very clear canonized prayer manual we have a prayer guide globally that unifies us and we pray the first seal that after that the second seal that after that we know the third seal that after that is the fourth seal we have the order and we have the sequence and we have the clarity because from that time on there are a growing number of people who have taken the mark of the beast and they're reprobate meaning they cannot repent right now there are people like that but we don't know who they are but when they have a mark on their hand they have declared themselves publicly as standing with darkness and from that point on we pray for the judgments according to the wisdom of Jesus written in the book ahead of time these are called the written judgments Psalm 149 it says all the Saints will pray it's their glory to release the written judgments because there's a large category of people on the earth who have taken the mark they're reprobate they cannot repent and they are troubling the earth and the conflict mounts up as the prayers of the Saints increase the conflict against darkness increases I mean that the power of God dismantles darkness even as they rage in an intensified way paragraph D the heavenly incense now I don't nobody knows exactly what the heavenly incense is but just from the testimony of Scripture we just see the the broad prominent themes of Scripture the main and plain things of Scripture the heavenly incense would consist of the intercession of Jesus he's praying right now before the Father the intercession of the Holy Spirit mixed with the much incense offered by the angel and we don't know all the mechanics of that we not sure what role angels have in prayer we don't have to know that's not our focus our focus isn't to pull the curtain back and understand all the dynamics our focus is to be encouraged that there is a time where the prayer movement goes to a whole nother a whole nother level there are catalytic moments where there's a great global increase of the grace of God in prayer it says in Romans 8 verse 26 the Spirit helps us in our weakness we don't know what we should pray the Spirit says well I do and he intercedes for us with groanings he intercedes for us he says tell you what I will be the intercessor on the inside of you with groanings too deep for words now this isn't tongues though I greatly value praying in tongues praying the Spirit because tongues can be uttered these are groanings these are unutterable groanings my real point is that the Holy Spirit is committed to helping us in intercession and that's what's happening on the seventh seal at a global eschatological level the Spirit is helping the church at a level unprecedented in history Jesus is intercession for us it's being released at another level paragraph F the church on the earth we get a picture of what's happening on the earth the Spirit is praying through the church come Jesus come the Spirit says I'm gonna help you pray he's not just helping the Saints in heaven that heavenly incense dimension is touching us as well the Spirit is through us praying to Jesus come Lord Jesus come Lord Jesus now we're saying come as well but the Spirit's energizing us because we need help because of our weakness it talks about the remnant of Israel right here at the very final moments at the Lord's return right before the Lord's return the anointing of the Spirit of grace and the spirit of supplication supplication means prayer the spirit of prayer comes on the house of David the remnant of Israel and they're saying come Lord Jesus come Lord Jesus so the Spirit there is a time in history where there's a catalytic increase an unprecedented increase of the spirit of prayer now there's two responses you could have to that one guy may say this is encouraging because it means because we look at our prayers they seem so weak help is coming there's a master plan that Jesus has set in order there's a time where the prayer movement in heaven is given the heavenly incense which I think is the angels role Jesus role the Holy Spirit's role we don't know all the breakdown of it but we know it's a dynamic catalytic increase and so we say let's keep pressing in there's tremendous wave of glory of prayer coming to the planet so another guy may have the opposite a wrong approach to that he may say well tell you what else I'll get into the prayer thing when that happens since it's coming anyway I'll just kind of do what I do and when that wave breaks in I'll ride the wave and I'll be a house of prayer guy now when I mean a house of prayer I don't mean a IHOP staff force that's what I'm talking about I'm talking about the house of prayer the whole Church of the earth will be functioning as a house of prayer at that time well the Holy Spirit is wanting to use us now and the way that we are praying now actually has a connectedness our history and God in prayer today is connected to the measure we operate even in that day some of us will be up there praying and some of of the Saints that I believe right here in this room will be still on the earth we don't know who but I know this there is a continuity between our prayer history today the oil that we get in prayer today and the oil that we have in prayer in that day they are connected so we don't want to just wait and catch the wave when it comes we want to be faithful in these early days but we know this the number one agenda of the Holy Spirit is to pour out a spirit of grace and to have the whole church connected with his heart and supernatural power and connected with the prayer ministry in heaven in a unity this global eschatological unity of heaven and earth praying together and the full purposes of God break out and this is trouble for the kingdom of darkness this is this is a nightmare for the wicked when the prayers of the Saints increase to the next level now again it happened at the fifth seal related to the martyrs in heaven now this is the seventh seal related to the heavenly incense I don't know all the distinctions of how they're different but I know they're different enough for Jesus to make them two separate seals and for him to release them personally each one of them let's go to top of page two again this is your history in advance whether you're here or there you're gonna be involved in this begin to thank the Lord not in a general way not just Lord thank you for Revelation 8 but break it down talk to him in detail like a true friend say Lord it really fascinates me when you came up with that one idea in verse 2 in verse 3 and where did you come up with that idea I love that idea you're you're awesome in your wisdom he smiles because you don't even have the hint of the hint of how big that idea is but it will excite you as you learn it more and more learn more and more about it okay we're gonna break down some of the verses and as usual we probably won't get through all the notes which is never a problem to me Revelation chapter 8 verse 1 Jesus opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about a half an hour now it's interesting some people say when you know the song that when I go away to heaven where there is time is no more time does not cease in the age to come the fact that you live forever does not mean time is obsolete there is time in heaven and there will be time in the age to come it will never run out but it will exist we won't kind of live kind of in a floating in the air kind of stuck in a vacuum no it'll be real physical events happening on the earth with real time with real impact and real relationships and this idea that time will be no more throw that idea away time will exist forever it will just never run out but there will be sequential order to the universe forever under Jesus's leadership verse 2 and I saw the seven angels who stand before God they were given seven trumpets in verse 6 they were prepared now to sound silence in heaven now this is a very dramatic time in heaven the Kairos moment the Kairos moment meaning that prophetic moment on God's time clock of God's calendar there's you know a lot's going on around the throne but there is a moment there is a moment when the seven angels and they everybody around the throne they know who these guys are who these seven angels are not guys but these seven angels and they stand in order before the throne in a certain way and everybody gets what happens with those seven angels stand to in a position to receive the trumpets how dramatic and they know the seventh trumpet the Lord himself is coming back to the earth never ever to leave the earth again ever he's on the earth forever and ever he'll bring the city of Jerusalem the new Jerusalem down to the earth now when these seven angels are given the trumpets there's this dreadful but glorious awful wonderful terrible silence of glory and awe struck they understand the implications of the seven trumpets it's not just how terrifying the judgments will be on the wicked it means human history is about to shift in the age to come as a moment away so it's not just how terrifying the judgments are it's how significant the shifted history is going to be now human history never comes to an end natural history comes to an end but now human history history will go on and on and on will live forever but natural history is about to have its most radical shift from Genesis 1 that was really radical Genesis 1 well this is radical right at that level a complete shift that is so cataclysmic in its implications and all of heaven is completely silent billions of angels and all the saints everyone is silent try to picture that try to picture the feeling the sobriety the weightiness because whatever there's whatever is the weights on their heart beloved it's gonna happen on the earth I've asked the Lord here and there not enough but Lord let me touch now a little bit of it so I can carry my heart in a way appropriate to the generation that we live let me touch this even ahead of time paragraph B the silence that's in heaven will come to the earth when these judgments are released when the seven trumpets and the seven bowls those two series of judgments come to the earth the whole earth will be still with dreadful silence and even the silence of the awe of the Saints there will be no there will be no adequate answer the earth will be speechless both the righteous and the wicked the earth will be speechless because the events will be so big and so dynamic one guy told me I some years ago he goes when I hear you talk you got this idea like it's gonna be really dramatic he says I don't get it I go no no you're getting it that's what I think it's gonna be really dramatic oh come on it will be so dramatic all of heaven and all of earth will be awestruck with the weightiness of the significance of the events the terrible nature and the glorious nature of them will silence heaven and earth together beloved that is dramatic we need a touch of that on our spirit now now we could never have the fullness of it but we need to have a touch of that sobriety even in these early days to focus our spirit on the the task that's before us and what's gonna happen to history it's exciting and very weighty it says in Habakkuk 20 this is about the final hours of natural history the Lord is in his holy temple but the earth is silent the whole earth is silent says in Zechariah 2 be silent all flesh because the Lord is aroused in his holy habitation the Lord is aroused from his holy habitation you know the verse down Psalm 46 be still and know that I am God this is talking about the silence of the seventh seal it doesn't mean our prayer life although that's a good verse to use you know it's on posters and stuff be still know I've got this is talking about the Great Tribulation the earth being silent but I still appreciate it on those posters it's talking about a awesome silence that fills the entire earth when Jesus is exalted in the nations in judgment okay let's go to a Roman number three now again we're trying to picture this the fullness of the intercession its power manifest Jesus fully releasing the anointing of intercession the Holy Spirit releasing the fullness of his grace upon the intercessory ministry in heaven on the earth in our weakness were helped to the uttermost were helped to the full measure verse 3 another angel having a golden incense that's that big container he came and he stood at the altar and again the incense is emptied he's waiting he's waiting he's waiting I wonder where he came from and how long he's waiting I'm trying to picture it I don't know where he's coming from and I don't know that I don't have to know or it'd be in the Bible but I go okay Lord I want to see this then suddenly he's given much incense we don't know from where or who but suddenly the containers full he offers it with the prayers of the Saints at the golden altar of incense which is right before the throne which is the prayer altar in heaven it's got fire coals on it verse 4 than the puff of smoke it's more than a puff just picturing you know how it is in the natural this glory cloud of fragrant smoke ascends before the father's throat right before the throne this cloud of glory undoubtedly it's massive it's not a puff that this that was really bad it ascends with the prayers of the Saints and the and the angel is offering them with his hand meaning that there's a moment in time where the heavenly incense is added where the Saint of where the angel officially is presenting the collection of the prayers of all the Saints before the father in an official dramatic presentation and I don't know why an angel would need to do that but it just says he does and we don't break down the why of that we just say it's going to happen and we leave it there because it's the cross of Jesus the anointing of the Spirit that gives us the authority before the throne but there are in the scripture there is an angelic agency that's involved in the ministry of the Spirit angels execute some of the mandates of the Holy Spirit they involve helping the Saints as well as releasing judgments like when Jesus was in the garden angels came to strengthen him I don't get how that happens but angels their agencies of the grace of God to strengthen and to execute God's will so they're involved somehow in the prayer ministry in ways again we don't have to grasp all the details paragraph C now the the heavenly incense is connected the heavenly incense is connected to the prayers of the Saints now this is a verse that we talked about because we use the phrase harp and bow but the Revelation 5 8 the four living creatures those are seraphim the 24 elders I believe they're humans they're Saints so it's 24 plus 4 28 of them they fall down and each of these 28 each of them have one of these golden censers these golden bowls so we know the one angel here in Revelation 8 has one and he's in he's in a very significant strategic position but we know there's 28 other bowls that are full of incense so my my conclusion the implication is that there is not just one angel in one bowl but this is he's representative of a whole a whole category of activity happening at this time where the incense the heavenly incense and the Saints prayers come together in what I call a holy synergism there's there's a holy synergism of the heavenly incense of the prayers coming to where they merge and become one in the sin before the Father okay top of page three let's go to paragraph E now I realize because I you know I've made the handout and I've thought on this for years the this is okay okay okay I'm already lost now how many angels got censors how's that work and don't be intimidated if you can't grasp it right away but determine in your heart say I'm gonna go after this I'm good this is man this is a this is a high point in history about the prayer movement and we're so connected in our own personal life so many of us were saying we want to be evolved in this to the full degree possible and our weakness we but Lord we want to be apart and so as you're reading this don't don't be discouraged if you don't get it right away but stay with it and work on it and speak it to the Lord speak and thank the Lord for it asking for insight on it let's go to paragraph E now this is what mode the Lord told Moses back in Leviticus 16 this is a fun this is a fantastic insight into what's happening on the seventh seal the Lord pulls Moses aside and says let me tell you some things here about how this works he goes I want you to do it on earth as a picture of what's happening around the throne in the altar of incense in heaven again the altar of incense is the prayer altar right before the throne so he goes you do an earthly rendition of it and when we study Leviticus 16 we can gain insight to the seventh seal he says here's what I want you to do have the high priest take a big container full of burning coals now tell him to go to the altar the coals on the altar of incense coming on the earth that that fire can never go out those coals got to be there all the time the fire must never go off the altar tell him to take this container put the coals of fire into it and then take hands full of sweet incense and put it inside as well so inside this container you got live coals and you put the incense than that puff of smoke now that would be a puff okay that'd be a smaller version of it the the earthly side this is what the high priest in Israel was to do in in the Old Testament days then this priest is to bring this fragrant burst of smoke this this cloud of glory that's coming from the coals and the incense inside the container that have joined together there again I call this holy synergies in this combustion that takes place he says take this container with this smoke this cloud of glory this fragrant smoke go into the Holy of Holies behind the veil and offer it to the Lord and offer it on the mercy seat so actually what we find out that Leviticus 6 gives us significant insight into the seventh seal one thing we do understand that the the heaven I mean the sweet incense and the coals come together with the prayers of the Saints and it is in order to release the mercy of God on the earth now when you read the seventh seal fire coming down you said does it sound like mercy the destruction of the Antichrist Kingdom of people that have chosen in an irreversible way to side with Satan and the Antichrist it is the mercy of God that they are diminished and their God's judgment is coming on them to liberate those they are oppressing it is a mercy judgment that's what we find out from Leviticus 16 this terrifying judgment that's released by prayer is established on the basis of mercy let's go to paragraph F Isaiah 6 now this gives us another insight each one of these give us a little bit of insight into what's going on here Isaiah 6 one of the seraphim there's cherubim and seraphim those are the two highest categories of angels around the throne seraphim and cherubim they're a bit different it doesn't I don't want to go into that I don't know very much about it but there's a little bit of the scripture about it but they're just different the seraphim took a live coal from the heavenly altar the same one that's there at the seventh seal and the interesting they the seraphim touched Isaiah's lips with it now here's the point I'm making number one there are hot coals on that altar in heaven right now that the angels have access to or the high-ranking angels at least but the point I'm making here is that somewhere the angels use these heavenly coals the heavenly incense to affect the grace of God to release the grace of God in the human experience in some ways ways that are mysterious again we don't want to break it down we don't even want to peer into those things some people get fascinated by those kind of details but I just want you us aware there is a involvement of the angelic in this fiery coals in terms of God releasing the grace of God to his prophet Isaiah and so when the heavenly incense at the seventh seal with the angel it's involved it is affecting us on the earth in a way that only God fully understands but this seventh seal with the heavenly incense of the coals of the altar it does affect humans on the earth it will enhance the prayer movement on the earth in a very dynamic way when that cloud of glory is released before the throne and that cloud of glory undoubtedly will be released upon the church let's go to Roman numeral four now what happens is there's the casting of fire to the earth verse 5 of Revelation 8 verse 5 the angel took the censer this big container filled it with fire threw it to the earth now the end time conflict is going to be the Elijah Mount Carmel collision in conflict again but it's going to be the false worship not the prophets of Baal it's going to be the Antichrist system and Elijah said the God that answers by fire I have in the notes in first Kings 18 the God that answers by fire he's God and the false worship is going to be exposed and the false worship is going to be judged by fire but it's not going to be as immediately obvious to everybody as it was in the days of Elijah because Revelation 13 verse 13 the false prophet on this in the kingdom of darkness he will call fire from heaven to like Elijah and I don't have this verse written down but you can add it to the notes Revelation 11 5 and the two witnesses they call fire down from heaven too so we got the two witnesses calling fire down from heaven undoubtedly their prayers are linked to the seventh seal they're on the earth in Jerusalem or wherever they're at they're in Jerusalem a lot we don't know that they're only in Jerusalem they're calling fire from heaven in Revelation 11 5 and on the seventh seal fire does come from heaven then the false prophet is calling fire from heaven Elijah called fire down from heaven this thing is going to go to a very dramatic showdown that but the true God answers with the fire and it's in a in a dominant way fire is going to come to the earth paragraph B now Ezekiel actually saw the events of the seventh seal in his own generation back in 586 BC Ezekiel he has a vision and he sees an angel taking the coals from the fire the altar of heaven throwing them to the earth now that actually happened and that fire was released through the Babylonian invasion that destroyed Jerusalem but this was Ezekiel 10 here verse 2 it is a just a snapshot of a small example of what's going to be a global reality at the seventh seal look at this says Ezekiel 10 verse 2 then he the Lord spoke to the man clothed in linen that was an angel in context when you read it and the Lord said fill your hands with coals of fire and then scatter them on the city of Jerusalem so the events of the seventh seal we have a little bit of insight through the ministry of Ezekiel to the prophetic ministry but interesting I have this written in the notes what happened in Ezekiel 10 when he threw the fire there what what is the event that happened just before Ezekiel 10 it's Ezekiel 9 of course what happens in Ezekiel 9 the Lord told the angel go mark or seal the righteous the intercessors so when the fire comes it does not hurt them so the event before this fire is released the intercessors the ones that groan and sigh against the abominations of the land Ezekiel 9 6 they are sealed before the fires released back in Ezekiel's day now there was a a partial prototype I mean I mean it was it just a it was very dramatic in Ezekiel's day but it's just a snapshot of what's going to happen in the seventh seal now what happens in the seventh seal in Revelation 8 right before this God has sealed his bond servants back in in the in Revelation 7 the chapter before Revelation 8 we're on Revelation 8 right now the chapter before just in the same sequence of Ezekiel God seals his own servants before the fires thrown to the earth but this is not symbolic fire will really come to the cities of the earth top of page 4 let's bring this to an end real quick here fire will be released by the of the Saints let's go to paragraph C now this is interesting because 60 years earlier plus or minus a few years we don't know the exact but about 30 AD now it's about 90 AD or so when John's having the vision of in Revelation so he's in his 90s back when he was just a young man his 20s he wanted to call fire down from heaven like Elijah it says in Luke 9 verse 52 they entered the village of the Samaritans but the Samaritans did not receive the Lord so verse 54 James and John this is John who's writing the book of Revelation they saw it and they said Lord can we command fire down from heaven and just consume them just burn them verse 55 Lord says no he rebuked him he goes you got a wrong spirit but here it is 60 70 years later and he sees the prayers of the Saints releasing fire on the earth but it's of a complete different spirit and that's why the prominence of the bridal paradigm or the revelation of Jesus as a bridegroom and us as a cherished bride the spirit and the bride will cry come the praying church will have a bridal paradigm a bridal perspective of what's happening meaning they won't call fire down from heaven because they got their pride wounded or because they're frustrated or because people aren't responding the way they want they will only call fire down from heaven in loyal love and submission to the Holy Spirit and for his purposes we will pray for revival and the Saints will pray for judgment in an entirely different spirit when their hearts are touched with loyal love here John was they wouldn't show up at his meeting so he wanted to nuke the city he wanted to burn the city he just came from this mount of transfiguration he was feeling pretty bold and pretty excited pretty important he just saw Elijah the event before this he goes hey I just saw Elijah let's do it let's get on with it and Jesus said we're not going to release fire on a city because they don't come to your meetings John that's not that was we're not doing it that way incidentally I love to mention this it was some years later in Acts chapter 8 it says that when the Samaritans received the Word of God they sent John up from Jerusalem and he called down the Holy Spirit on them so John did call fire down on those cities but it was of a whole different spirit in Acts chapter 8 John and Peter went up they called the fire down and John I could imagine John and Peter and Peter saying John aren't you glad we didn't burn this city up a few years back yeah I don't know I was just all fiery you know I was just really overcome by that mount of transfiguration seeing Elijah I got so touched by that I just wanted to see if it'd work Peter aren't you glad John the Lord said no because look they're all receiving the fire of the Holy Spirit in Acts 8 here but it there's a there's a day when the church will be transformed by love and they will pray motivated by love and for love to increase they they won't be praying in just the warrior mentality I like the warrior paradigm but the warrior paradigm of this bold aggression towards darkness that's not rooted in the bridal paradigm people will end up calling for revival or fire about just for their own purposes for the bravado of their own ministry and the Lord says no I don't want that spirit involved well we'll end with that let's stand