Revelation Ministries

"When the Lamb broke the seventh seal on the scroll, there was silence throughout heaven for about half an hour. (2) I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and they were given seven trumpets. (3) Then another angel with a gold incense burner came and stood at the altar. And a great amount of incense was given to him to mix with the prayers of God's people as an offering on the gold altar before the throne." Revelation 8:1-3

Put down your Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye , and Scofield Bibles. Instead, get a copy of Eugene Peterson’s Reversed Thunder – easily the most useful (and accurate) book you will ever read on the last book of the Bible – it’s titled “Reversed Thunder: The Revelation of St. John and the Praying Imagination.

It will transform your understanding of Revelation from Future Fantasy and Speculation to Present and Useful Reality.

Just a little sample - Peterson’s thesis is that Revelation is literally the “last word” on pretty much everything – the last word on Scripture, Christ, the Church, Worship, Evil, Prayer, Witness, Politics, Judgment, Salvation, and Heaven. The "last words" are a series visions which represent reality - things as they really are - not as they seem to be - and are meant to inspire the imagination for the purpose of prayer.

Here’s a small sample from Chapter 7 – “The Last Word on Prayer” – which essentially rescued my understanding of prayer from the realm of frustration and monoteny.

Did you ever wonder why when the seventh seal was opened by the Lamb there was “silence in heaven for about a half hour?” I did. And never properly understood this until I read this book - yeah - there are definitely echoes of the Day of Atonement - Yom Kippur - and the drama of that day - but what was happening in those thirty minutes - some reputable scholars see this as the time when the High Priest was in the Most Holy Place making intercession for the People and the Land - he was burning incense and offering sacrifices of atonement - but he would only remain there for a very short period of time.

Since the Temple in Heaven is now open for every believer in Christ - we can enter in - freely - "by a new and living way - the blood of Jesus" - and connect directly with Jesus - the "High Priest who is over the House of God." (Hebrews 10:19) We enter as "priests to His God and Father." Rev. 1:6

“The Apocalypse is a fusion of vision and prayer. When the seventh seal is opened, there is silence in heaven for about half an hour. A climax has been reached. The silence prepares the imagination to receive an incredible truth. While conflicts raged between good and evil, prayer went up from devout bands of first century Christians all over the Roman Empire. Massive engines of persecution and scorn were ranged against them, They had neither weapons nor votes. They had little money and no prestige. Why didn’t they have mental breakdowns? Why didn’t they cut and run? They prayed.

It was in order to hear those prayers that there was a silence in heaven. Out of the silence, action developed: an angel came down before the altar of God with a censer. He mixed the prayers of the Christians with incense (which cleansed them from impurities) and combined them with fire (God’s Spirit) from the altar. Then he put it all in a golden censer and threw it over heaven’s ramparts. The censer, plummeting through the air, landed on earth. On impact there were “peals of thunder, voices, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake” (Rev 8:5). The prayers which had ascended, unremarked by the journalists of the day, returned with immense force – in George Herbert’s phrase, as “reversed thunder.” Prayer reenters history with incalculable effects. Our earth is shaken daily by it.”

I don't know why, but this iconoclastic, contrarian spirit rises up within me whenever I come upon the latest scourings and hit pieces coming from the young, restless and reformed-anti-charismatic-cessationist-doctrinal purist-evangelical-papist-wanabees out there in social media....if they say they don't like something and that it's detrimental to doctrinal purity- to me, it's possibly something I want to do more of...like for instance, their general dislike of Bethel Worship Music - which I generally love a lot, and like their reflex dislike of Sarah Young's "Jesus Calling" which I enjoy tremendously. I say thank you to these self-appointed anti-experientialist discernment gurus - you actually MAKE me want to sing "Goodness of God," "No Longer Slaves", "Reckless Love" all the more.
It's baffling, but I pretty much will tend to love whatever they strongly dislike. And thank you for demonizing Sarah Young's amazing books - I find myself increasingly attracted to them.