Have you ever been engaged with in a conversation on the phone and wonder what is happening on the other end, or ever thought do I really have this person’s complete attention? Have you ever had the similar thoughts about your prayer life, have you ever wondered if you have God’s complete undivided attention? The bible is full of accounts of praying from the human prospective, but it also contains a very beautiful description of how prayers are received in Heaven.
When He [the Lamb] broke open the seventh seal, there was silence for about half an hour in heaven. Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood over the alter. He [the angel] had a golden censer, and he was given much incense, that he might mingle it with the prayers of all the people of God (the saints) [emphasis added] upon the golden alter before the throne. And the smoke of the incense arose in the presence of God, with the prayers of the people of God from the hand of then angel. So the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the alter and cast it upon the earth. Then there followed peals of thunder and loud rumblings and blasts and noise, and flashes of lightning and an earthquake. (Revelations 8:1-5) AMP
Notice what was going on before the “censer” angel came on the scene, the Lamb (Christ) has just broke the seventh seal, and the seven angels had been given seven trumpets. The stages was being set for the Seven Trumpet judgments to be proclaimed upon the earth, but all of a sudden a single angel comes in the room carrying the prayers of the saints, and everything stops so that these prayer might be offered up with to God. One commentary theorizes that the saints were praying for God to act in judgment and given what happens next I’d have to concur. Once that was complete the angels takes the censor fills it with fire and hurls it back to earth bring with it part of God’s judgment, then immediately following that seven trumpet judgments are declared on the earth.
Remember this next time you pray, that when we pray as John Ortberg terms it “interrupt heaven”, and then things happen. There is no such thing as an unanswered prayer; just prayers where God gives us the answer according to His will not ours.
