At the beginning of Revelation 4, a man tells the apostle John, “Come up here.”
As he goes, he sees hidden things.
In fact, if you think about Moses, though he was allowed to go up and see God, the children of Israel were commanded not to even touch the mountain, lest they be struck dead.
What was death to the children of Israel becomes an invitation extended to us today:
Come up here.
Now you can read this message for yourself in the new book As It Is in Heaven.
Any time spent in the scriptures has the potential for life transformation.
As It Is in Heaven shares the context of the first three chapters of Revelation, then offers a word-by-word look at Revelation 4 and 5.
What does this passage mean? Why are these chapters important?
When Jesus taught on prayer, he began, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
How can you effectively pray God’s kingdom on earth, if you don’t know what heaven looks like?
If you want to pray better, you need to understand what you’re praying for.
The people who meet Bob say things like, “I’ve never actually met anybody like you, who carries prayer with this much single-minded intent for this long.”
The single-minded cry of his heart for four decades has been, “Lord, teach me to pray.”
And he vowed that this would be his first book.
Of all that he has learned, of all that he has fought for in prayer, of all the things he could have brought into the world, this was his most critical message. If you could only learn one thing … this would be it.
You, too, have an invitation to, “Come up here.”
“Already touched! Just the first part about the Holy Spirit rivers, I saw the waters which were churning, frothing and thundering…”
—Andrew, eight minutes after receiving the manuscript
Not a Bible study workbook. Not a textbook. Not a lengthy explanation with words upon words.
As It Is in Heaven uses short free verse poetry.
As Bob taught on Revelation 4 and 5, co-author Amy Lykosh took his words and formed and shaped them.
But while some literary poetry seems designed to obscure the meaning, these poems put the meaning on display, clearly and concisely.
The entire book is only about 10,000 words, about one-fifth of a normal novel. You could read the whole thing in one sitting. In fact, the entire audiobook recording session—with stops for breaks and pauses for uploads, and coaching and correcting—took barely three hours.
Pressed for time? You could read a single chapter. Or even a single poem!
Each poem—most of them less than a page long—expresses a single, complete thought.
If you only have 15 seconds in between interruptions, this is the book for you.
*
“Preparation”
One day we will meet
The Savior
Face to face.
For now, we have the opportunity
To discover who he is.
The revelation in Revelation
Helps prepare us
For that day when we will be
Before the Lord himself;
The great and dreadful day
When we will be
Before the God of heaven,
The God of Earth.
Now is the day of preparation.
Eternity begins
Now.
*
Because the images in Revelation 4 and 5 are beautiful, Bob and Amy wanted a beautiful presentation.
With a clean and elegant design, and plenty of white space on the page, the book itself feels good in the hand, peaceful and calming.
For Amy, she wanted a comfortable and beautiful book. She remembers once sitting with a friend, sipping hot beverages to go with our brunch. Her friend said, “They’ve done studies that show that holding a cup of hot tea is very centering. It helps your brain be at peace.”
Like a cup of hot tea, sometimes you want to hold something that feels good and is beautiful, something that, like a cup of tea, you can pick up for a bit and then put down again.
Bob’s prayer was even more dramatic. Acts 19:11-12 says, “God did extraordinary miracles through the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.”
Bob’s prayer has been: “Lord, if you could make a handkerchief a vector of healing, let even my books themselves bring peace and healing to the reader.”
Bob Perry has founded and led multiple prayer initiatives that have trained and mobilized hundreds of thousands of people in prayer partnerships. Today he is the managing director of Workplace Prayer, a company that both offers intercession for, and teaches intercession to, the marketplace.
With his firm conviction that prayer brings results, his clients routinely see breakthrough. He longs to make prayer practical, and for all believers to find the same degree of freedom and healing that the Lord has given him.
Impressive as his bio may be, perhaps the highest praise comes from his friend Dr. Bill Bennot: “Honestly, no bio can ever capture or communicate how special you are.”
Amy Lykosh grew up in a home with parents who worked to spread awareness about international missions. Her mother, seeing a need for missionaries on the field, started Sonlight Curriculum, so families would have another option besides boarding school or coming home: homeschooling!
She was raised on a steady stream of missionary biographies and discipleship materials, and was blessed with godly mentors in college. In her role as one of the product developers at Sonlight, it was her privilege to review thousands of books over the years, including books on prayer.
Despite all these advantages, Amy had almost a decade in her adult life where she didn’t pray much at all. When she started again, though, she found that Jesus was still right there.
Now executive director of Workplace Prayer, her desire is to encourage others on their journey, and to enjoy the riches of prayer.
