Exercising to Live a Life of the Continual Burnt Offering for God’s Satisfaction

Today in our Christian life and in our church life there’s a need for the continual burnt offering, that is, there’s the need for a continual consecration, a continual offering ourselves to the Lord.

The burnt offering is so significant and wonderful: the entire Divine Trinity is involved in the aspects of this offering, and Christ Himself is the burnt offering; all the details of the burnt offering are so rich in meaning, but what is the application of this offering to our experience in the church and the Christian life?

According to the law of the burnt offering, this offering had to be offered continually on the altar, day and night, and the priests had to add wood on the fire day and night. The burnt offering was not to be offered just once in a while but continually, and the fire should not go out.

In the application of the burnt offering to our experience, although we cannot say that the burnt offering is our consecration, we can say that it is intimately related to our consecration. Our consecration is intimately related to the experience of the burnt offering.

In Exo. 28 and Lev. 8 we see the process through which Moses sanctified Aaron and his sons for the service of the priesthood; there were two rams to be offered, one for burnt offering and the other for consecration, and the one for consecration had its fat and inward parts first waved before God and then burnt as a burnt offering. This is the consecration of the priests to God.

In the application of the burnt offering we cannot stay away from consecration. The burnt offering had to remain on the hearth of the altar all night, and fire was to burn continually on the altar.

The fire on the burnt offering altar was not allowed to cease – God sent this fire from the heaven, and it was to be maintained burning all the time. All this means that we need to live a life of a continual burnt offering, that our consecration should be continual, and the fire should not go out.

Never say that you consecrated when you first got saved – that’s too long ago. Don’t say you consecrated last month or last year. Every day there has to be a fresh application of our consecration.

We need to live a life of a continual burnt offering, and our consecration should not be only so often but continual. Whether we are up or down, victorious or defeated, we need to consecrate ourselves to the Lord. Whether we feel like it or not, our burnt offering has to be continual.

Our consecration is not an activity that we do from time to time, when we are up in our Christian life, but a living, a life. We need to live a life of continual consecration, a life of continual burnt offering for God’s satisfaction, in our Christian life and church life.

The Need for a Continual Burnt Offering in our Christian life and Church life today

Today in our Christian life and church life, there is a need for the continual burnt offering – see Lev. 3-4, 8-9; 6:9, 12a, 13.

God’s people were required to offer the burnt offering every day – not only in the morning but also in the evening; also, on every Sabbath, at the beginning of every month, and during every festival, special burnt offerings were required (see Num. 28:3 – 29:40).

The key to our enjoying Christ, feasting on the Lord, and experiencing Christ is our consecration. Our consecration to the Lord is not a once-for-all experience but a lifelong living.

In the type of the people of Israel, they had to offer the burnt offering every day, day by day, morning and evening; the altar was called the burnt offering because the fire for the burnt offering was never to go out, and burnt offerings were offered on it continually.

Our entire Christian life and church life should be a continual burnt offering, and the fire on the altar should not go out. It is entirely right and pleasing to God that we as Christians would consecrate ourselves to the Lord every morning, and then again every evening would also consecrate ourselves to Him.

We may think that this is too much, that we have already consecrated to Him in the morning, but this is the law of the burnt offering – every morning and every evening!

Also, even though it’s not a matter of legality, we should offer ourselves specifically for the Lord’s day (the reality of the Sabbath in our church life) and for the service and worship on that day.

The burnt offerings were required daily, at every festival, and at every event; the children of Israel had to offer burnt offerings so many times and at so many occasions that the bronze altar was specifically called “the altar of burnt offering” (Lev. 4:7).

In our Christian life and church life today we need to live a life of a continual burnt offering, making a new consecration to the Lord every morning and every evening, and all throughout the day.

If we repeatedly consecrate to the Lord in this way, living a life of continual consecration, the experience of consecration will be increased and formed in us.

In the morning we may think of many things that we need to take care of that day, but we should still consecrate to the Lord; in the evening, at the end of the day, we many times may forget about this, but we should always offer our burnt offering.

Whether we feel good or not, whether we are up or down, we have to live a life of a continual burnt offering, because God needs food at every time – every day, every week, every month, on a special occasions, and continually.

If we offer ourselves to the Lord in a fresh way on the Lord’s day, the Lord’s table meeting will be so new and living to us; we will not be late for the meeting, but we will have a portion of Christ to share, and we will praise the Lord.

The Lord needs to rekindle and revive the spirit of consecration, so that we may have a continual experience of consecration, day and night, offering the burnt offering to God.

Lord Jesus, we need to have a continual burnt offering in our Christian life and church life today. May our day start with a fresh consecration to You, and may our day end with offering ourselves to You. Save us from looking at our condition or feelings – keep us looking to Jesus Christ, the reality of the burnt offering, for we are identified with Him and in Him we are absolute for the Lord, for God to be satisfied! Amen, Lord, rekindle and revive the spirit of consecration among us, so that all the saints would live a life of a continual burnt offering in the church life!

Exercising to Live a Life of the Continual Burnt Offering for God’s Satisfaction

The fire of the burnt offering had to be continual, and the burnt offering had to be on the hearth of the altar all night until the morning, with the fire on the altar burning on it (Lev. 6:9, 12, 13).

This means that a burnt offering should remain in the place of burning through the dark night of this age until the morning, until the Lord Jesus comes again (2 Pet. 1:19; Mal. 4:2).

Our offering ourselves to the Lord should not be conditional or only for a period of time; we should allow ourselves to be placed on the altar through the dark night of this age until the Lord returns. We need to remain in the position of the burnt offering until the Lord returns.

The continual burning of the fire on the altar signifies that God as the holy fire in the universe is always ready to receive (that is, burn) what is offered to Him as food; God’s desire to accept what is offered to Him never ceases (see Lev. 6:9b, 12a, 13; Heb. 12:29).

The fire is always ready to consume what we offer to God; we may be weak, not in a good condition, not feeling too good about ourselves, and thinking we’re not qualified, but we still need to consecrate ourselves to the Lord.

Even when our consecration may not be that complete or genuine, as long as we consecrate ourselves to the Lord, He is ready to consume that. God remembers our consecration, whether we remember it or not.

The fire is always there, always ready to consume and burn; we shouldn’t consider ourselves unqualified or put ourselves down – none of us is qualified, but Christ is our real consecration and our burnt offering.

Actually, we don’t offer ourselves to the Lord, but we lay our hands on Christ, taking Him as our burnt offering, and through Him we can be accepted before God. We consecrate not by offering what we have and can do to God – we have nothing, but we can lay our hands on Christ, be identified with Him, so that in and through Him we can be accepted.

We need to live a life of the continual burnt offering, a life with fire burning on the altar all day long. The fire comes from the Lord; He is the One who casts fire on earth. On our side, the amount of fire we have depends on the amount of consecration we offer to the Lord.

We can’t hold anything in our consecration, for the more we consecrate to the Lord, the more the fire will burn on us. We consecrate to God according to the amount of light that we receive from the Lord; we can consecrate according to what our spiritual eyes see under the light in our fellowship with God.

When we are under the Lord’s shining, see His demand, we consecrate to Him voluntarily, and fire comes from God and consumes it. We don’t “light the fire” in ourselves; we simply consecrate to the Lord according to the light we have received, and the fire will be there.

Consecration is a continual act – we need to live a life of the continual burnt offering; we may not know what to consecrate, but as we gradually receive light and consecrate more, our consecration becomes more absolute.

Our consecration follows the Lord’s shining, and the amount of shining determines the amount of consecration. Our consecration should match the light that God has given to us.

We shouldn’t seek for fire, but simply lay wood on the altar. We simply need to exercise to live a life of the continual burnt offering, consecrating ourselves to the Lord, and the fire will burn – God will be happy to consume our offering.

We need to stir up our spirit, be burning in spirit (and not slothful in zeal) serving the Lord. Even though we may be in a low condition, we need to exercise our spirit, consecrate to the Lord, and the Lord will be satisfied.

Lord Jesus, we consecrate ourselves to You. Shine on us more today so that we may consecrate ourselves more to You. We want to live a life of the continual burnt offering for God’s satisfaction. We lay our hands on Christ, the only One who is qualified to be the burnt offering; Lord, we identify ourselves with You, and in You we are acceptable to God for His satisfaction. Amen! Oh Lord, we don’t look at our low condition. We don’t pay attention to our feeling of not being qualified. We simply want to exercise our spirit, place ourselves on the altar, and consecrate ourselves to You for Your satisfaction!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, The Experience of Life, pp. 36-39 (Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 3, The Continual Burnt Offering – a Living Sacrifice.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Lord, Thou art our consecration, / Thou the consecrated One; / Thou hast satisfied the Father— / Consecration thus was done. / When on earth Thou hadst no pleasure, / Save to do the Father’s will; / Now Thou livest here within us, / Consecration to fulfill. (Hymns #1138)
  # Sanctify me absolutely, / Take my life and have Your way. / Overcome in me, give me victory / Through Your life and end this age. / I need You, but You need me too, / To do what You want to do. / Rekindle all of my love for You, / To be a voluntarily consecrated one. (Song on, Consecrated One)
  # My heart longs for absolute surrender / That I’d wholly consecrated be, / Not in word alone but all my being / Would be fully given unto Thee. (Song on, My heart longs for absolute surrender)