MONDAY, OCTOBER 24
Scripture: Revelation 5:5-10, Revelation 6:7-8

In Revelation 5:5-10 we discover that the Jesus who is the Lamb in the Gospels, has now become the Lion in the book of Revelation. The church has never transitioned from the Lamb to the Lion. We act like the lamb, turning the other cheek and praying for our enemies. Jesus in Revelation is the Lion, and the Lion of the tribe of Judah prevails by opening the book and loosing the seven seals. Now within the context of the Christ rising as a lion, we have in verses 8 and 9 the specific prominence of the prayers of the saints. Verses 8 and 9 say, “Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying: ‘ You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood, Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,…’” It appears that the opening of the seals are in answer to the prayers of the saints. Before the book of Revelation was ever written, Jesus was answering the prayers of the early church to terminate Herod. The book of Revelation continues what we see in Acts and gives us a theology for the end of the age. That theology proclaims that God answers prayer and that He terminates whenever our harvest field is threatened. In Revelation 5 not only did He redeem us in verse 9, but verse 10 says, “And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.” The Greek word for kings is the noun bas-il-yooce. The word for ‘reign’ in ‘we shall reign on the earth’ is the verb bas-il-yoo-o. The church must demonstrate kingly authority by praying the justice of Christ in the earth. We are to execute it with our prayers. This is the inescapable picture of verse 10. Not only did Jesus make us ‘kings and priests’ but we have the job of exercising that Kingly judicial authority by calling Christ to intervene in our behalf and to terminate those who resist His plans. Are we hearing? The book of Revelation completely authenticates the interventions we see in the book of Acts, which says God will do them through the end of the age. The same Jesus who dispensed an angel to remove Herod has promised to dispense angels to remove what threatens His harvest field today. How could we have missed this? The clarity of it from Genesis to Revelation is astonishingly consistent. The Covenant-keeping God answers prayer and will terminate the resistance when our destiny is threatened if we ask. Are we asking?