The Aroma of the Throne Room
By Cyril Prabhu
Recently, as I was writing one morning, a man called me from Columbia, South Carolina. He said, “In my personal time with the Lord the last couple of days, the Lord has been reminding me about praying for you and Proverbs226 ministries. I just wanted to call and say I was praying.” His phone call blessed me, and as I hung up the phone to resume my writing, I thought about how that man is the kind of person the Lord is looking for—an intercessor, someone who would cry sincerely to our Abba Father for the needs of someone else.
Revelation 5:8 has been ministering to me about prayer, and it shows us how beautiful our prayers are to our Father, whether they are intercessory or not. The verse reads, “And when he had taken [the scroll], 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 God’s people.”
Picture this reality with me. There are angels and elders in heaven who are worshiping the Lord day and night. The living creatures are crying, “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and the elders are prostrating themselves and worshipping. These creatures are holding two things in the Presence of the Living God. First, they have a harp to praise the Lord and worship Him with, and second, they have golden bowls in their hands filled with incense, which are the prayers offered by you and me.
The second object especially amazes me. Every moment that God is on the throne, the fragrance that the Lord wants to breathe in is nothing but the sweet smell of our prayers. This pleases Him. It glorifies Him. He wants to breathe in more and more of this sweet aroma, one that fills the entire throne room. Through this incense, he wants the living creatures, the twenty-four elders, and the other angels in heaven to experience the pulse of his children.
Like Peter, who said in the entrance of the temple gates to the man who was begging, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you,” we may not have silver and gold, but what we have at our disposal is much, much more powerful. We have an incense that can be lifted up into the presence of the Living God, an incense that is constantly being breathed by our savior, an incense that is held in the golden bowls. Whenever you feel alone or helpless, remember that a simple prayer offered for yourself or someone else is cherished and treated with utmost care in the presence of the Living God.