When You Need-to-Know - part II

Last week, we discovered in Revelation 4 that when we need to know we can: “Come up here!” Further, in Revelation 5, the 24 elders did not come before the throne to see what must take place without their harps and singing (without worship). Understanding the will and way of God begins in worship.


But, the elders also had something else in their hands: the prayers of the saints. With these prayers, they sang a new song for the Lamb to open the scroll to reveal and fulfill the will of God in history:


6Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. 8And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9And they sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." (Revelation 5.6-10)


The prayers of the saints are somehow inherently related to the opening of the seals and the working out of God’s will and kingdom in history. So, if you want to discover God’s will, pray! If you want God’s will to be done in and through your life, pray!


Worship and prayer. Two essential ingredients to know and do the will of God. Yet they are not simply means to an end. They are ends in themselves. Worship and Pray. Do it because He is God. Along the way you will not only get to know God, you will get to know his will.