When Heaven Is Silent by Pastor Jerry Eze: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Revelation 8:1

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

Silence in heaven does not mean nothing is happening. There may have been no noise, but there was action. Verse 2 records seven angels standing before God, each given a trumpet during that same silence, and each trumpet, once sounded, marked a change of season. What looked like heaven going quiet was actually heaven lining up a sevenfold sequence of seasons, moving a person from one stage to the next without pause. What is mistaken for God's silence is very often God preparing what a person could never arrange for themselves.

The Angel With the Incense

Revelation 8:3-4

And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, and there was given to him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

While one set of angels is assigned to the change of seasons, a separate angel carries the specific assignment of gathering the prayers of the saints and presenting them at the altar before the throne. The change of season is certain, but the shape and timing of that change is tied to what has actually been prayed. Seasons will change either way; the outcome of that change depends on the prayers that were laid on the altar to shape it.

A season does not change outside of prayer. This is part of why praying in the Spirit matters, it moves beyond the limits of ordinary language, so that language itself does not become the ceiling on what destiny can reach.