God needs our Cooperation in Persistent Prayer to Execute His Economy and Judgement

The persistent prayer that we have today will consummate toward the end of this age with much crying with a loud voice, asking God to come and avenge the blood of those who have been martyred and to vindicate His name on the earth.

In Luke 18 the Lord gave a parable showing that we need to pray persistently and not lose heart, and in Rev. 6:9-10 we see that the martyred saints are praying under the throne and crying out for God to avenge them and vindicate His name.

Today we may pray to the Lord and we may even pray persistently, and it may seem that He doesn’t do much to answer our prayer but rather, nothing seems to change.

Many times the people who act recklessly and lawlessly thrive, do well, and are more and more evil, while those who are on the Lord’s side and stand for the truth are being persecuted, they suffer, and they are even put to death.

Throughout the centuries it seems that God didn’t do much when there was so much persecution carried out against the Christians by the Roman Empire, or when the Lord Jesus was put on the cross; it seemed that God was silent and not doing anything about it.

The reason is simple yet mind blowing: our God is a God who hides Himself.

He created the whole universe and He hid Himself in it; He wants us to seek for Him, know Him, be one with Him, and pray persistently, but He may not answer our prayer in the time and the way we may ask for.

We may want answers right away, and we may want solutions to our problems as soon as possible; yet God works in a hidden way, behind the scenes, and He is actively arranging all things for the good of those who love Him.

He often hides Himself in space and in time, and though we may not see the results that we ask for in fervent prayer, He works behind the scenes.

He works all things for the good of those who love Him, of those who are called according to His purpose; His definition of “good”, however, may not be the same as our definition of good.

It takes time and endurance for us to experience the living God; He hides Himself, He does things in secret, and He is behind the scenes operating to arrange all things for the fulfillment of His purpose.

May we be those who cooperate with Him by praying unceasingly, offering the prayers that He needs for Him to move His hand and do what He intends to do on earth today.

May we entrust our soul to the faithful Creator, knowing that He cares for us, He wants our good, He sympathises with us, and He works in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.

May we trust the living and true God, and may we live a proper Christian life one spirit with Him, praying persistently for His avenging, His judgement, and His carrying out of His economy.

Seeing the Persistent Prayer Carried out by the Souls of the Martyred Saints in Rev. 6:9-10

In Rev. 6:9-10 we see the kind of persistent prayer carried out by the souls of the martyred saints; they are under the altar and cry out to God to avenge them and carry out His judgement.

In figure, the altar is in the outer court of the tabernacle and the temple; the outer court signifies the earth.

The fact that the souls of the martyred saints are underneath the altar means that they are underneath the earth; this is in the Paradise where the Lord went after His death (see Luke 23:42).

Hades, which is underneath the earth, is the place where the dead go, and it has two sections: the pleasant section called Paradise, and the unpleasant section where there is torment and burning fire.

The Lord Jesus went in the Paradise after His death (Luke 23:42); Paradise is the comfortable section of Hades (Acts 2:27) where Abraham is (Luke 16:22-26) together with the souls of the saints who have died.

It is here that the souls of the martyred saints cry out, How long, o Master, holy and true? They cry out to God to no longer be silent or apparently unjust, but look at the persecution happening on earth and avenge them by carrying out His judgement.

This is the persistent prayer carried out in the unseen realm, the prayer of the martyred saints in Paradise.

These ones have been praying persistently on earth, they have been martyred, and now even after their death they still offer a persistent prayer to God so that He may carry out His judgement.

In Rev. 8:5 we see that the Angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar and cast it to the earth, and there were thunders and voices and lightnings and an earthquake.

This implies the answer to the prayers of the saints, especially the prayer mentioned in Rev. 6:9-11 and the prayer mentioned in Luke 18:7-8.

The Lord Jesus taught us to pray persistently and not lose heart, and He also said, “Will not God by all means carry out the avenging of His chosen ones, who cry to Him day and night, though He is long-suffering over them? I tell you that He will carry out their avenging quickly.”

This the Lord said more than two thousand years ago; He wants to carry out His judgement, His avenging, but He needs our persistent prayer; He needs our crying out to Him day and night.

When the cup is filled with the prayers, when the prayers ascend to God and Christ adds Himself as the incense to these prayers, He will cast fire to the earth – He will execute God’s judgement, and there will be thunders, voices, lightnings, and an earthquake as signs of God’s judgement.

Christ as the High Priests offers up the prayers of the saints to the throne, then out of the throne comes the answer, which are the thunders, voices, lightnings, and even an earthquake.

The prayer of the saints in Rev. 8:3-4 must be for the judgement of the earth, which opposes God’s economy; then God will judge the earth in answer to the prayers of the saints with Christ as the incense.

Lord Jesus, may we be those who persistently pray and never lose heart today on earth. May we stand one with You for what You want to do on earth today. Save us from being discouraged or losing heart. Save us from being worn out by the enemy with his wearing out tactics. Keep us in a spirit of prayer, Lord, that we may offer a persistent prayer that will eventually become a crying out for Your avenging and Your judging for the fulfillment of Your economy and Your purpose! Amen, Lord Jesus, we believe that You will one day add Yourself as the incense to our persistent prayer, and You will pour out judgement upon the earth!

God Intends to Execute His Judgement but He Needs our Cooperation in Persistent Prayer

In Revelation 6 and 8 we see an amazing scene; although the sixth seal has been opened and the seven trumpets are ready to be sounded, nothing happens until Christ comes to offer the saints prayers to God with Himself as the incense.

And once He does this, judgement comes.

But before He can judge and execute His judgement on earth, He needs His saints’ prayer to cooperate with Him.

While God has the intention of executing His judgement upon the earth, there is still the need of the saints to cooperate with Him with their prayers; we need to have persistent prayer for Him to carry out His judgement on the earth.

God needs us, His saints, to pray so that He may execute His judgement.

In Luke 18 the Lord said that at a certain time the saints on earth will cry to God to come in to deal with the situation and to vindicate Himself.

If we look around us today, there’s a situation of lawlessness and rebellion being built up today which will culminate with people being in open rebellion against God.

At the end of this age, people will be so rebellious against God that they will even declare to the whole universe that they are God, thus dethroning God and putting Him aside, even putting themselves instead of God.

God has been tolerating this for many generations, and at different times in history there were some men who thought they were god and demanded worship.

But at the end of this age – and we’re heading this way as we speak – men will be fully rebellious against God and they will persecute and even kill the followers of the true God, to the point that the faithful saints will cry out to God in persistent prayer saying,

O sovereign Lord, how long will You bear with such a situation? Will You tolerate this open and extreme rebellion forever? How long will it be before You come in to vindicate Yourself and avenge us? How long will it be until all the earth will know that You are the Lord, You are the true God?

Eventually many of the faithful saints will offer such a prayer, even a persistent prayer, crying out to God concerning the situation, asking Him to come in and vindicate Himself and avenge them.

Today we may not pray in this way but we may even consider that this may be too much, but one day the situation will be such that we will be pressed to pray in this way.

We may not pray in this way today, but as we continue in persistent prayer and stand for the Lord on earth, one day the pressure will be upon us and we will be burdened to pray in this way.

We need to exercise our spirit today to cooperate with what God wants to do today in persistent prayer; as we do this, our spirit will be so keen and exercised that we will no longer tolerate the situation but will ask God to come and vindicate Himself and avenge the saints.

And then Christ will come as an Angel sent by God to minister to God with our prayer, He will add Himself as the incense to our prayer, and God will certainly answer this prayer.

If we look at the situation from a human point of view, we believers seem to be “fighting a losing battle”; we will not prevail outwardly but rather, evil will prevail for a while, and rebellion will increase, the lawlessness will be spread and increase, and eventually the man of lawlessness will appear.

Until then, however, we saints of God learn to live in the divine history, standing in the victory of Christ, and praying persistently to cooperate with God for His purpose to be carried out on earth.

We need to no longer limit God but cooperate with Him through our prayer; we realize that God intends to execute His judgement on the earth, but He needs the saints to cooperate with Him in their prayers.

So we cooperate with the Lord in prayer on earth today, praying not only in a general way but in a persistent way to give Him the cooperation He needs for Him to carry out His economy.

Our prayer will culminate with our crying out to God for Him to avenge us and vindicate His name, and when these prayers rise up to God with Christ as the incense, He will pour out His judgement.

May we be those praying persistently today to cooperate with the Lord’s doing and His move on earth!

Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with You in persistent prayer for You to carry out Your economy and fulfill Your purpose on earth today. We believe that You intend to execute Your judgement on earth, so we just want to cooperate with You in our prayer! Amen, Lord, may our spirit be exercised to offer You the prayers You need for You to do what You want to do, until one day we will no longer tolerate the situation of rebellion against God on earth and we will cry out to You! Lord Jesus, we stand with You on earth today for You to advance in Your economy; strengthen us in our inner man that we may not lose heart as we pray persistently!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Revelation, msg. 23 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, A Timely Word Concerning the World Situation and the Lord’s Recovery (2020 Memorial Day Conference), week 4, Praying Persistently with God as Our Faith.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Pray to touch the throne of God, / Deeply sense thy need of grace; / In the spirit stay with God, / Fellowshipping face to face. / Pray to touch the throne of God, / Learning all the wealth of grace; / Ever take and ever taste, / Giving God the thanks and praise. (Hymns #783)
  – Pray with one accord in spirit, / Supplicate relatedly; / Seek the Lord, His mind, His leading, / In the Spirit’s harmony. / Pray with one accord in spirit, / Pray and watch persistently; / For God’s kingdom and His glory, / Pray and watch in harmony. (Hymns #779)
  – Keep the incense burning” / Though thy faith be weak; / Though in words thou canst not / All thy longing speak; / Silent heart-petitions, / Spirit-taught, will be / Gloriously answered; / Wrought by God for thee. (Hymns #790)