I'm NOT Talking to the Ceiling

Since September, I've been attending First Presbyterian Church in Opelika. Reverend Scott Bowen has been preaching on Revelation since August, and it has been phenomenal. I've heard the Letters to the Churches preached through, and gone through Revelation twice in Bible studies. However, Rev. Scott somehow makes everything so much clearer, using simple words to get across theologically deep and mind-boggling realities. Anyways, today he preached on Revelation 8:2-9:21, six of the seven trumpets. In trying to get across the amazing picture that was presented to me today, I'm going to try to put it in three points that build upon each other.

1) God responds to the prayers of the saints.

The opening verses of Chapter 8 describe the prayers of the saints rising before God, and the immediate response is "then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake." The picture presented is of God responding to the prayers of the saints with obvious images of power and authority. Why? Because God know how much we doubt that He hears our prayers.

2) God responds with power and presence.

Following the opening verses come the first six trumpets. There is a lot to learn from this about the majesty of God. The trumpets should be thought of like the plagues, a response from God to the prayers of his people in the form of natural disasters, basically. God controls all natural disasters and uses them for a specific purpose. Why trumpets? Think back to the Old Testament and to the first chapter of Revelation. Trumpets announce the presence of God. Even if it is a natural disaster. It is God. The blast of a trumpet, a tornado, a hurricane, a flood, announces the presence of a holy God, bigger than our idols, bigger than our president, bigger than everything we put before God. We as the saints are marked by the seal, and so will not be touched by the forces of evil and darkness that God has let into the world. The locusts in Revelation 9 remind us of Joel, and we know that the locusts come to consume everything we hold onto, they come to consume the gladness of men. 

Finally, 3) I am NOT talking to the ceiling.

Think about all this! The power and majesty of God! We are NOT talking to the ceiling, we are talking to the sovereign God, the one who controls the horses! The one who announces His presence as we lose sight of Him and turn to earthly idols. When we pray, this is who we are speaking to. When we ask anything, this is the power that lies in the one who listens to His people. My prayer life is not always the best. Right now, it's pretty bad. This, however, is helping me to think about it in the way I should have already been thinking about it; approaching the throne of the Most High God, who responds with awesome power to the prayers of the saints.

Praise be to God! And thank you Reverend Bowen for helping me to better understand the Word of God as revealed to His saints!