I never thought I would look at the Book of Revelation with the idea of investigating the prayers that are found there.

Today, as I started to read the first chapter, I am engaged with a vital, vibrant prayer from John who experiences, in the Spirit, on the Lord’s day, a time where he and Jesus were in a conversation.

This symphony of prayer being exchanged, the message and the reactions, tend now to become my own as I engage in prayer.

Happy is the one who reads this book, and happy are those who listen to the words of this prophetic message and obey what is written in this book! For the time is near when all these things will happen. – Revelation 1:3 GNT

Prayer and praise become part and of the dialogue.

He loves us, and by his sacrificial death he has freed us from our sins and made us a kingdom of priests to serve his God and Father. To Jesus Christ be the glory and power forever and ever! Amen. – Revelation 1:5b-6 GNT

My prayers must have a component where I am listening to God, a God who speaks to me. While I am intent at getting to making my asks, I must prioritize my praise for His love and for His gift of Jesus from whom I receive my strength, hope and salvation.

My prayer then sees the love of God on the Cross and I am then asked to live consistently as a disciple of Jesus. When I am consistently in prayer, I am reawakened with the sense of His presence in my life – both past and present. His presence moves me into the future for I am sustained, guided, given hope and I am never alone for it is my life blood.

In this time I see clearly my relationship with Jesus. I can see Him, hear him, understand His call to action, the needs of the community, and I am close to Him.

I am John, your brother, and as a follower of Jesus I am your partner in patiently enduring the suffering that comes to those who belong to his Kingdom. I was put on the island of Patmos because I had proclaimed God’s word and the truth that Jesus revealed. On the Lord’s day the Spirit took control of me, and I heard a loud voice, that sounded like a trumpet, speaking behind me. It said, “Write down what you see, and send the book to the churches in these seven cities: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

I turned around to see who was talking to me, and I saw seven gold lampstands, and among them there was what looked like a human being, wearing a robe that reached to his feet, and a gold band around his chest. – Revelation 1:9-13 GNT

I love John’s reaction when he hears the voice of the risen Jesus – fulfilling the priestly role of mediator with the Father.

We hear much in our day of the rest of faith, but there is such a thing as the fight of faith in prayer as well as in effort. Those who would have us think that they have attained to some sublime height of faith and trust because they never know any agony of conflict or of prayer, have surely gotten beyond their Lord, and beyond the mightiest victors for God, both in effort and prayer, that the ages of Christian history have known. When we learn to come to God with an intensity of desire that wrings the soul, then shall we know a power in prayer that most of us do not know now. – R. A. Torrey