Rev 5:8-10, And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. "And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth." 
	We return this morning to our consideration of the effective prayers of the church as delineated in this Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. In this description, we see the prayers of the saints as valuable to God. They are portrayed as incense kept in golden bowls. This is a depiction of something that has unparalleled value in the eyes of God. They are the prayers of those whom Jesus, the Lamb has purchased from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Their value is defined by in the immeasurable magnitude of their cost, the very blood of the Only Begotten Son of God. Our prayers are not just to be viewed in terms of words that are spoken in haste, but rather measured out in thoughtful and deliberate meditation and consideration of what their cost is to the very heart of God. When we pray, we need to do so in a manner befitting their precious consideration by God. 
	In this course of thought, we need to reevaluate the relationship that we have with God in Christ Jesus. We saw, hopefully, that God is very serious about our relationship to His Son. He is so serious that the earthly type of that relationship, the marriage of a man and a woman, is guarded intensely in His heart. A Christian marriage is to represent the very mind of God in His so great love to us in Jesus Christ, in His offering of His Son to be our bridegroom. It is a blessed union of oneness that we must constantly guard with every fiber of our beings. 
One great aspect of this relationship is that of intimate communion within the marriage bond. The two hearts begin to function and to think as one. Speaking just from my marriage, I am very, very grateful to the Lord for the tremendous influence that my wife has in our decision making process. He has blessed me with a wife who can see things from a different perspective and to provide a greater insight into what is developing and taking place. Then, together we can go to Him and seek out what He desires for us to do. 
The husband is not to lord his position in the marriage over the wife, not if he is a wise and understanding husband. He will appreciate the fact that God has graced him with a helpmate to enlarge the total range of understanding, compassion, support, strength, capability, insight, knowledge, and judgment. A key in this relationship is the ability to communicate one with each other. And the primary aspect of this communication that needs to be established is that each spouse needs to learn what it means to listen. Without the ability to listen, there is no communication, only monologue and diatribe.
It is not a matter of us telling one another what to do, but of learning to hear what is being shared between us. As a husband and wife, some of the most vital communication is not a spoken one, but a communication of the spirit within us. We learn to get an increasing sense of what the other is thinking and feeling and striving to accomplish, and we support them in that every effort. We are not perfect in this, and we often misunderstand intentions. We must, however, continue and learn and become more and more melded with one another in this vital aspect of communication. For this to take place we must listen to our spouses and desire more and more to please them in every way. Our intimate relationship can only be based on our being more and more attuned to them and their heart’s desires.       
This is also the case within our effectiveness as prayer warriors. We need to work on our relationship with the Lord to the extent that we can patiently and carefully hear Him as He shares His heart with us. Our earthly prayers often begin with us telling the Lord what we want or seeking after those things that benefit us. But, as we grow in Him and as we develop our heart’s contentment in Him, we begin to learn to listen to Him. We begin to desire, more and more fully, those things that He desires. We learn to wait on Him to speak to us before we jump off on those things that we think He wants us to do. It is imperative that we listen to Him, through His Word and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our day to day walk with Him.
Listen to the words of our Lord as He explained the parable of the sower and the seed with regard to the good soil, those who are prepared to listen to the Word. Matt 13:23, "And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit, and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty." 
This is the commencement of effective prayer. It begins with seeking after the Holy Spirit to prepare our hearts to listen. We do not jump into our concepts of what we hear, but ask the Lord to open into us the seed of His Word. We pray earnestly for Him to implant and to bring forth the harvest in our lives to His glory. We do not seek to please ourselves in our growth and understanding. It is the heart that wants only Him to be edified in the work that He does in our lives as He plants, waters, and reaps the fruit of His labor. 
It is important for us to yearn and learn to listen, as evidenced in the account of Martha and Mary. Luke 10:38-42, Now as they were traveling along, He entered a certain village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. And she had a sister called Mary, who moreover was listening to the Lord's word, seated at His feet. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him, and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me." But the Lord answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." 
	Notice what often happens as we begin to pray according to our interests and ideas. Martha thought that she was doing a good work. She was very busy with all the preparation and the serving and the day to day chores and tasks of entertaining her guests. She was being very active in her duties, even to the point of being completely overwhelmed and becoming resentful toward her sister. There was aggravation and anger stirring up in her because she was so busy with the stuff of the day that she could not just settle down and listen to the living Word of God as He spoke in her home. 
	How often we find ourselves so busy with the things that we think will please the Lord that we miss exactly that which is honoring to Him. What is more honoring than to feast on His Word, than to spend time listening as He speaks to us, giving Him the place of reverence and tribute and respect within our hearts that He fully deserves. Rather than that, we think that in busily running around doing this task or that chore, He will be more pleased with us. 
We miss the complete point of enjoying Him for Who He is in our lives. Yes, we do have those tasks that He gives us to do. We do have responsibility and needs that must be accomplished. But, when it is time to just sit and listen to Him, we often find ourselves too involved and much too busy. It is a matter of learning the appropriate time to do what we are told and the appropriate time to listen in order to know what to do. We need to receive the instructions before we can accomplish the task. Sadly, many of us jump the gun and do what we think should be done, rather than hearing and learning what He wants to be done in our lives. When He speaks, we need to learn to be instantly settled down to listen to Him.
	Look at the devotion that developed in the early church, as we see in Acts 2:40-42, as the Apostle Peter preached the Gospel of Christ. And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation!" So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and there were added that day about three thousand souls. And they were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. There is a devotion that is necessary within the hearts and minds of the church. It is necessary to put the Lord at the forefront of every consideration. 
As described in the account of these believers, they listened to the teaching of the Apostles. They spent their time listening to the Word being preached and in fellowship. It was not a weekly hour or so spent in each other’s company, but day after day, working and learning and worshiping and eating and praying together. They were united in their devotion to God and to each other. This is something that we are desperately lacking in this day. So often, we do not find ourselves devoted to anything other than our individual interests and ideas. There is a complete lack of purpose set in Jesus Christ, Alone. 
There is, seemingly, a declining interest in the things of the Lord, and far too much interest in the things of this world. Unless this devotion is instilled in our hearts, we will lose the very core of ability to have a relationship with God that will lead to effective prayer. There will be those few overcomers to His glory, but the church, as a whole, will become nothing more than a social gathering of spiritual conscience soothers, gathered for the sole purpose of satisfying a duty or obligation to attend church regularly.
	We need to be more inclined as the believers in Berea. Acts 17:11+12, Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily, to see whether these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men. They received the word with earnestness and great eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily. How many of us can truthfully state that we examine and study the Word on a daily basis in the presence of the Holy Spirit? How many of us daily seek His guidance and listen to Him regarding those things that we are taught. Or, do we just listen to the messages and then go home and forget about them until the next week. 
To truly hear, to really listen means that we are seeking the Lord to instill His truth into our hearts and minds. We are not just hearing the words and the ideas and then getting on with the work week. 
No, His Word should make a complete difference in the manner in which we do our work, in the way in which we live our lives, in the way in which we deal with our family members and loved ones, in the way in which we deal with those who slander and defame and persecute us. His Word needs to be our every source for dealing with the reality of this age. So often, we are inundated with the statement that the Bible is no longer relevant to our society. That is far, far from the truth. Rather, this society has willfully and viciously separated itself from the conscious instruction and dealing of God and made itself an idol to humanity.
What is needed are those Christian prayer warriors who study and examine His Word and live in accordance with the truth and the reality of God. This life is set in utter opposition to the façade and lies of this age. We need to be those witnesses, living and vital witnesses, to the Righteousness and the Purity and the Holiness and the Love of God, which this world power hates and despises and ridicules with every treacherous intent. How can we be those exact witnesses of God in this world if we do not know, through examination and prayerful listening and studying what He tells us in His Word?   
	This is so urgent, that the Lord, Himself, instructs us with the following admonition several times in Scripture. Matt 11:15, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And Rev 2:11, 'He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches… And in Matt 13:9-17, He expands it as follows, "He who has ears, let him hear." And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" And He answered and said to them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. "For whoever has, to him shall more be given, and he shall have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. "Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. "And in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, 'You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; And you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; For the heart of this people has become dull, And with their ears they scarcely hear, And they have closed their eyes Lest they should see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart and return, And I should heal them.' "But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. "For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. 
	There is a reason that some cannot hear the Word of God. It is not for them at this time. They are not blessed with the ears that can hear and the eyes that can see. They have become dull and their eyes cannot see and their ears cannot hear. These were the chosen people of God, the Israelites, who became lazy and senseless in their ability to understand what God was showing them. His glory was all around them. His hand of operation had been so mighty in their every deliverance, but they could not see or understand what He was doing. 
This is the same course that many within Christendom are taking today. There is a dullness developing, and a lack of interest in the deep things of God. There is a lethargic sense of merely bearing the name of Christian, with no true desire after the person of Jesus Christ. Pray with all earnestness that this is not the course that we are on. It is very easy to become entrenched in doctrine and in habit and in ritual and lose the ability to hear the Word and to live in the reality of the life of Jesus Christ. 
	Again, as the Lord relates in the parable of the sower and the seed, Luke 8:15-18, "And the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance. "Now no one after lighting a lamp covers it over with a container, or puts it under a bed; but he puts it on a lampstand, in order that those who come in may see the light. "For nothing is hidden that shall not become evident, nor anything secret that shall not be known and come to light. "Therefore take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him shall more be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him." 
	I pray with all earnestness that we, as His Church do not lose what the Lord has so freely provided, that He does not take His light from us. Let us turn to Him in all sincerity and intensity and solemnity in obedience to the instructions as set before us in James 1:18-21. In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we might be, as it were, the first fruits among His creatures. This you know, my beloved brethren. But let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. We need to learn to receive the Word implanted and to cherish it in order that the Lord will cherish our prayers. Learn to listen to Him in order to learn how to effectively commune with Him as our bridegroom. When communication ceases, our side of the relationship dies. That is an awful thing to even consider, because it devalues, in our hearts, the very blood of Christ shed for you and for me. Pray in all earnestness that that will never be so!
And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. "And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth."  Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Rev 5:12+13. "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." Amen.