Revelation 4:1-2 NASB [1] … After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said,“ Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.” [2] Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne. …
These are my favorite verses in all of the Bible that speak to us about prayer. Prayer always happens in the throne room and is always a third heaven experience. Actually, the truth is, because you’re in Christ seated in the heavens, you live every minute of your life in the throne room of the third heavens. What happens during our prayer time is that we set aside all of our distractions and explore the reality of the spiritual environment that we live in, being in Christ. Prayer is a time of great exploration and discovery, and the more we discover the more we are able to experience and manifest the life of Christ and the reality of heaven that we have been placed in already. You and I actually live in the secret place, even if we are standing in the marketplace, but our “Quiet Times” simply afford us the opportunity to gaze, to listen, and to worship without all the noise going on around us. In this sense, during our times of prayer, the secret place of His presence becomes a uniquely private place of encounter. During those times, we should always expect to be changed because, in those moments, God speaks to us of heaven’s mindset about us and all of our situations in life.
Just like it says in verse one, the door is always standing open for us to encounter Him privately, and whenever we do, the same spirit of John’s encounter should be ours. John was already getting revelation about the human condition and humanities increasing rebellion against God and all the consequences that come from that. In the midst of all the chaos John was seeing, God invited him to “Come up here,” so that God could speak to him heaven’s perspective, in the midst of it all. God told him to come up here and “I will show you what must take place in the midst of these things.” That phrase “after these things” can be translated “in the midst of these things,” and I believe that translation fits the context better. We should always leave the place of prayer manifesting more fully the mind of Christ. John encountered a throne and got God’s word and perspective about what must take place, which is always liberating, and enabling him to carry out of the place of prayer, into the place of encountering people, with awakened faith, and pulsating hope. As a result of the encounter, John was “in the Spirit” in a fresh and powerful way.
This is the invitation to prayer. An invitation to be renewed in the spirit of our mind with the reality of heaven and what heaven says about what is and what must be, which sets us free always from Earth’s report. The consequence will always be the same; having once again encountered the One who reigns, we will come out renewed in the Spirit.