Tuesday, January 05, 2010

The Altar of Prayer

And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand (Re. 8.3-4).

On the Day of Atonement the Golden Altar of Incense was moved from the Holy Place to the Holy of Holies. This signifies the transition from our having to worship afar off to the veil being rent and our freedom to boldly approach the Throne of Grace.

The shedding of blood was a necessity for us to be redeemed and become able to enter the Holy of Holies. Our response is to come before Him with fear and trembling (cf.: Ph. 2.5-13). As I've written before, if we fear God, we will not fear man. I halt here, for the blood of Jesus has paid our price. Thank Yeshua and praise Him forever.

The time is perilous. Notice current events. The world is forever changed and increasingly dangerous. Don't think for a moment the efforts of unredeemed man exist for your good. The Bible declares, "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived (2. Ti. 3.13)." The remaining things for us is to be used of God for men's salvation. That is why Jesus told us to pray, "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done."

There is some talk about transitioning to the next dimension in God in order to impact the earth. I know what you're thinking. "MY church don't never say nuthin' about impacting no earth." Okay, Connecticut is the uttermost end of the earth and hasn't learned about the will of Christ (which is why we must be about the Father's work of putting burning prayer upon the altar). Other parts of the Church are asking the question of transition to the next dimension that His Kingdom come.

The incense is offered with our prayers which ascend as a sweet smelling savor before God. Any work to be done in the name of Christ without that burning prayer as the foundation will be work of the flesh and a stench before Almighty God. I minister to senior citizens who either can't get out at all or, if they can, have little physical impact in society. The thing they can do is pray. That is much more effective than the work of skilled architects, builders, machine operators or the strongest laborers. We too, must take the position as those confined to a chamber before the Lord of lords to just be with Him.

The Golden Altar of Incense has transitioned to the place before the Throne of the Almighty. Our part in this next dimension in God is first, to offer much prayer, which burns in the Father's heart, upon the Golden Altar, the Altar of Prayer.

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