The Expiation Silver: we Fight one with Christ and in the Ascended Christ in Victory

It is very enlightening to see the spiritual relationship between the incense altar (where we pray one with the interceding Christ for God’s move and His interest on earth) and the expiation silver (which is offered by those who are matured in life and strong in spirit to be formed as an army). At the incense altar we pray for the formation of an army to fight for God’s move on earth.

The more we experience Christ in a deeper way as the reality of all the furnishings of the tabernacle, the more we are becoming nothing and Christ becomes everything to us, to the point that we are fully one with Him at the incense altar to pray intercessory prayers, the prayers that Christ as the High Priest and the Administrator of the universe prays in the heavens.

The intercessory prayers offered at the incense altar issue in the numbering of God’s people to be formed into an army to fight against God’s enemies; the more we are joined to the interceding Christ in His interceding life, the more we will pray for the formation of an army.

The only way God can move today is by fighting; He is not welcomed at school, at work, on the street, and even at home, and He will not force His way in – He wants to gain a group of people who are fully one with Him to pray for the growth in life of His people so that they may reach a certain measure of maturity and be formed into an army to fight for God’s move and His interest on earth.

The more we pray at the incense altar by being one with Christ in His interceding life, the more we have the clear sense of the desperate need for maturity; there’s a great urgency to pray for the growth in life unto maturity!

When a solid number of God’s people are mature in life and strong in spirit, they are formed into the army God needs to fight for His interest and advance His move on earth.

Today we want to see further how the ones qualified to be in the army need to offer a heave offering, a half a shekel of silver, in order for them to be part of the army, and how this relates to our Christian experience.

The Expiation Silver: we Fight one with Christ and in the Ascended Christ in Victory

All those who were males twenty years and over in Israel were drafted into the army, and they were to give half a shekel of silver as a heave offering to join the army (see Exo. 30:12-13).

Silver usually typifies a ransom, the crucified Christ who died on the cross as the sin offering and the trespass offering; here, however, this silver is an expiation silver, signifying the resurrected and ascended Christ, the Christ who is now in the heavens. This means that the Christ by whom we fight is not the crucified Christ but the resurrected and ascended Christ, the Christ in the heavens.

The spiritual warfare we are engaged in is not fought on earth; the battles are waged in the air, and for us to be engaged in the spiritual warfare we need to be in the heavenlies with the ascended Christ.

Christ has already won the victory: He fought for victory, He defeated Satan and all his armies, He resurrected from the dead, and is now in the highest place in the universe, in ascension! Christ is now higher than the heavens, having a name that is above every name that is named – not only in this age but also in that which is to come, and God highly exalted Him above every thing and every one (see Eph. 1:21; 4:10; Heb. 4:14; 7:26; 8:1).

The only way we can fight the spiritual warfare is by being in ascension one with Christ. In order for us to fight the spiritual warfare, our experience of Christ must reach the highest point – the point where we are sitting with Him in the heavenlies and are fighting not in ourselves but in the ascended Christ (Eph. 1:20-21; 2:6; 6:10-12)!

Our experience of Christ needs to go higher and higher until we have the highest experience of Christ, being one with Him as the ascended Christ. When we come to the meetings, we need to be in the heavens, seated with Christ on the throne, so that we may fight the spiritual warfare and bring in God’s kingdom – at least in miniature – on the earth.

We see this in type in Song of Songs 4:8, after Christ told His beloved that He sees no blemish in her (because she has been washed with the water in the word for the removal of all spots, wrinkles, scars, or defects), He says, “Come with me from Lebanon, my bride; With me from Lebanon come. Look from the top of Amana, From the top of Senir and Hermon, From the lions’ dens, From the leopards’ mountains.”

Christ calls us as His beloved to come up to Him in the heavenlies in ascension, sit with Him in this transcendent realm, and put on the soft armor because the victory has been won: Christ won the victory, and now we sit with Him in victory and look down to the enemy.

Our position in battle matters very much: we don’t fight from the earth but from ascension, far above all things; we see the enemy in the air, we unmask his strategies, and we pray for the furtherance of God’s move on earth.

Hallelujah, our experience of Christ must go higher and higher until we are one with Him in ascension and we pray, the army fights, and we bring in God’s kingdom on earth in and among men!

Lord Jesus, we praise You for winning the victory: Christ is Victor, He has won the victory, and Satan with all his hosts are defeated! Amen! Lord, uplift our experience of You until we are fully one with You in ascension, seated with You in the heavenlies and looking down on the enemy! Oh Lord, may our experience of Christ reach the highest point where we are enthroned with Christ in the heavenlies and are fighting not in ourselves but in the ascended Christ! Hallelujah, praise You Lord for what You will do!

Experiencing Christ as the Expiation Silver for God’s Building and God’s Move

The tabernacle as a type of the church, the building of God, is for God’s expression and God’s move; today God moves through the church, and He is fully expressed in the church, the corporate expression of Christ.

However, whenever God wants to move, there is the need of fighting the spiritual warfare. Whenever the tabernacle moved in the wilderness and in the good land, there was a battle: Satan with his armies always try to hinder the move of God on earth.

The way God moves is by fighting, and the ones qualified to fight are those strong in spirit and with a certain level of maturity in life; these ones offer the expiation silver and fight by the ascended Christ, not in their own strength.

Without this expiation silver, there’s no way for God’s dwelling place to be built up or for it to move. Therefore, there’s much need for prayer at the incense altar that the church would not be only the house of God, the Body of Christ, the one new man, the wife of Christ, and the dwelling place of God but also the army, the corporate warrior fighting the spiritual warfare in victory and unto victory.

God’s move requires an army that would fight for His interests, and for the formation of the army much prayer needs to be offered at the incense altar so that a census would take place and many qualified saints would be formed as the army and offer the expiation silver. We need to experience Christ as the expiation silver for God’s building and for God’s move.

We have seen that the prayer, the intercession, at the incense altar is for God’s move, that God’s move requires an army that can fight for His interests, and that for the formation of His army a census is necessary. By this we can understand the relationship between the incense altar and the expiation silver. We can understand why the expiation silver is mentioned immediately after the description of the incense altar. The prayer at the incense altar issues in the numbering of the children of Israel for the formation of an army to fight for God’s move on earth. (Witness lee, Life-Study of Exodus)

May we really bring this to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to shine on us, expose anything that is not of Him and that blocks our vision, and just be one with Him to experience Him as the interceding Christ praying at the incense altar.

We need to enter into the prayer life of Christ and intercede for the formation of the army, asking the Lord to release the growth in life of His people so that they would be qualified to be formed as an army to fight for God’s interest on earth.

We need to pray for our experience of Christ to reach the highest point, the point where we are sitting with Him in the heavenlies and are fighting in ascension, offering the ascended Christ to God as our expiation silver, and fighting not in ourselves but in the ascended Christ.

We need to realize that, for the church to be the fulness of God, the expression of God, the church must be a warrior engaging in spiritual warfare (Gen. 1:26; Eph. 1:22-23; 6:10-11)!

Lord Jesus, we want to experience You as the expiation silver for God’s building and God’s move. Gain us and gain many saints to be those who pray at the incense altar for the formation of the army to fight for God’s interests on earth. Lord, may the church be the fullness of God as a warrior engaging in spiritual warfare, and may we be those who are one with Christ in His ascension to fight the spiritual warfare in the ascended Christ!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, brother Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of Exodus, msg. 155 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (3), week 8 (week 32), The Expiation Silver for the Formation of an Army to Fight for God’s Interests and Move on Earth.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # Charge, soldiers, charge in battle! / And gaze upon thy Lord; / If thou wilt fight His battle, / The throne is thy reward. / This war is of the spirit, / Not fought on earthly ground; / The Lord well knows the foe is near, / Encircling us around. (Hymns #873)
  # Who then will forward go / Strong in His mighty power? / Who then will firmly trust the Lord / Until the vict’ry hour; / Till with the conqu’rors blest, / The triumph song’s begun? / That man will then rejoice to hear, / Behold, I quickly come! (Hymns #893)
  # Fight the battle in the Body, / Never fight it on your own; / With the Body to the Head joined, / Fight the battle on the throne. / Fight the battle in the Body! / By the virtue of the Head; / Standing firmly with the Body, / Into vict’ry you’ll be led. (Hymns #885)