Rev. 8:3-4 And another Angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, and much incense was given to Him to offer with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense went up with the prayers of the saints out of the hand of the Angel before God.
The Execution of God’s Administration Being Motivated
by the Prayers Offered to Him from the Incense Altar
The book of Revelation is a book of God’s administration, a book of divine execution. This book reveals the throne of God and the administration of God throughout the universe. However, the executing center actually is not the throne; the executing center is the incense altar in Revelation 8. On this altar the prayers of the saints are offered to God, and Christ’s incense is added to these prayers. When the prayers of the saints ascend to God with the incense of Christ, God executes the policies of His administration.
In the book of Revelation the incense altar is directly in front of the throne of God’s authority. According to Revelation 8, Christ as another Angel comes and adds His incense to the prayers of the saints. This incense then ascends to God at the throne of administration, and God answers the saints’ prayers. As a result, fire comes down to earth to execute the divine judgments recorded in the remainder of the book of Revelation. This is a picture of the incense altar being the administrating throne of God for Him to execute His judgments in His administration. It is important for us to see that the execution of God’s administration is motivated by the prayers offered to Him from the incense altar.
In Revelation 8:3-5 Christ is presented as another Angel to execute God’s administration over the earth in the way of ministering to God as the High Priest with the prayers of His saints. Here Christ is revealed as another Angel who presents the prayers of the church to God and carries out the answers to these prayers. The church’s function is mainly to pray, call on the Lord’s name, and cry out to the throne; Christ as another Angel offers all of the church’s prayers to God and brings down the answer to these prayers. His way to bring down the answer is to scatter the answer upon the earth. Christ offers the saints’ prayers to God, adds Himself as the incense to the prayers, receives the answer from God, and pours the answer out upon the earth. This is Christ’s bringing God’s answer back to earth. When He pours out God’s answer to the saints’ prayers, the earth comes under God’s judgment. Today the entire earth is under the answers of the saints’ prayers. In the administration of God’s judgment upon the earth, Christ is the Angel standing in the position of One who has been sent by God. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, msg. 419)
May the Lord have mercy on us that we may see that the proper and genuine prayer life is in God and requires that God be in us; that it is one with the resurrected and ascended Christ as our incense to God; and that it is linked to the crucified Christ by the blood, the fire, and the sweet savor. If we have this kind of prayer, we shall be able to live a life that motivates God’s move. This kind of prayer governs God’s dispensation of grace and His administration of His authority. This means that the prayer offered at the incense altar governs the universe. This is a matter of great significance. May our eyes be opened to see it. (Life-study of Exodus, msg. 150)
Prayer of Authority
The Bible contains a most lofty and spiritual prayer. But few people pray this prayer, and few pay attention to it. What is this prayer? It is the “prayer of authority.” We know that there are prayers of praise, prayers of thanksgiving, supplicating prayers, and begging prayers. But few of us know that there is a prayer of authority. A prayer of authority is a commanding prayer. This is the most crucial and most spiritual prayer in the Bible. This kind of prayer is a sign of authority and a declaration of authority.
Brothers and sisters, if you want to be a man of prayer, you have to learn to pray with authority. This kind of prayer is described by the Lord in Matthew 18:18. “Whatever you bind on the earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on the earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” In this verse, there is a prayer that is called a binding prayer and a prayer that is called a loosing prayer. The move in heaven is dependent on the move on earth. Heaven listens to the earth and obeys the command of the earth. Whatever the earth binds will be bound in heaven, and whatever the earth looses will be loosed in heaven. The earth does not pray; it binds and looses. This is to pray with authority.
The Church Being Able to Rule over Hades
When It Prays with Authority
The church can rule over Hades when it prays with authority. Since Christ has transcended over everything and He is the Head of the church, the church can rule over the demons and everything that belongs to Satan. If the church did not have the authority to rule over the demons and if the Lord had not given this authority to the church, the church could not even survive on earth. The church is able to survive on earth because it has the authority to rule over every satanic thing. Every spiritual man knows that he can deal with the evil spirits with his prayer. We can cast out demons in the name of the Lord, and we can restrain the secret activities of the evil spirits. Satan is very crafty. Not only will he possess man’s body with evil spirits, but he will engage in many secret activities. Sometimes he works in man’s mind and injects many undesirable thoughts, such as suspicion, fear, disbelief, discouragement, or unfounded and distorted ideas, into man’s mind. Through these he deceives and fools man. Sometimes he steals man’s word, turning it into a different kind of thought and injecting it into another person’s mind. In this way he achieves his goal of causing misunderstanding and stirring up storms. Hence, we have to subdue all the activities of the evil spirits by means of prayer. In our meeting, prayer, or conversation, we must first pray, “Lord, chase away all the evil spirits and do not allow them to do anything here.” It is a fact that all the evil spirits are under the feet of the church. If the church exercises authority to pray, it will indeed see the evil spirits being subjected under its feet. This kind of prayer with authority is unlike ordinary begging; it is a command that is based on authority. A prayer with authority is a commanding prayer. It proclaims, “Lord, I will,” “Lord, I will not,” “Lord, I want this,” “Lord, I do not want this,” “Lord, I am determined to have this, and I will not allow that to happen,” or “Lord, I only want Your will to be done. I do not want anything else.” When we exercise authority this way, we will feel that our prayer has hit our target. If more people rise up to pray this way, many problems in the church will easily be solved. We should exercise dominion through prayer and manage everything in the church through prayer.
We have to see that Christ has ascended. If Christ had not ascended, there would be no way for us to turn. Christ is the Head over all things, and all things are under Him. Christ is the Head of all things to the church. He is the Head of all things on behalf of the church. Since He is the Head of all things on behalf of the church, all things are necessarily under the church. This is something that we have to pay particular attention to. (The Prayer Ministry of the Church, msg. 4)
