The Lord Jesus in His heavenly ministry is interceding for us, and He wants to gain many believers who cooperate with Him by being one with Him in His intercession. For this, we need to be in God (just as the priests were in the tabernacle when offering the incense on the altar), God needs to be in us (just as the priests were supplied by the holy food), and we need to offer Christ to God (just as the priests offered the incense to God).
The Lord wants to take us on – He is for us, He intercedes for us, and He knows our situation and how urgent His need is. He wants us to experience Him as the redeeming One at the altar for burnt offerings, the shining One in His word at the golden lampstand, the life supply for our service at the table of the bread of the presence, and go on to experience Him in His interceding life at the golden incense altar.
The location of this golden incense altar is rather mysterious: it is in the holy place together with the bread of the presence and the lampstand, but it’s function is related to the ark of the testimony in the Holy of Holies.
As per Exo. 30:6, the incense altar is very close to the veil, in 40:26 it is before the veil, and in v. 5 it is before the ark of the testimony; furthermore in Heb. 9:3-4 Paul says that the Holy of Holies has a golden altar. This indicates that, even though the location of the incense altar was the Holy Place, its function was very much related to the Ark of the testimony in the Holy of Holies.
We need to journey from experiencing and applying Christ as all the offerings to experiencing the washing of the life-giving Spirit (the bronze laver), eating Christ as the bread of God’s presence, be enlightened by the Lord as the shining One, and enter into the holy of Holies to contact the Lord directly and behold His glory.
Here, on the expiation cover, God communes with us, He gives us direction, and we are led to pray at the golden incense altar not for our needs but for God’s economy, His interest, and His divine administration.
Praying at the Incense Altar with No Strange Fire in our Prayer
When we pray at the incense altar one with Christ we should have no strange fire in our prayer. What is this “strange fire”? As seen in Lev. 10 in the story of Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, who took their censers and put fire in them, the strange fire is a fire that is different from the fire on the altar of burnt offerings.
The strange fire is not the fire from the altar (Lev. 16:12), the fire which came from God, from heaven (9:24), but fire from man, from the earth, with no base of expiation. In our experience, to offer strange fire signifies our natural enthusiasm, our natural affection, our natural strength, and our natural ability offered to God.
In ourselves we may want to do something for God, we may want to pray at the incense altar with Him, but we may do it in a natural way by natural means. This is strange fire, and it is judged by God. In touching the divine things we need to be warned: we need to apply the cross to our natural life.
We cannot serve God or do things for Him, even pray at the incense altar, in our natural strength, with our natural affection or ability, and according to our natural affection or enthusiasm. Otherwise, our careless touching of the holy things of God’s service will bring in spiritual deadness, which sometimes may even result in physical death (see Acts 5:1-11; 1 Cor. 11:27-32; 1 John 5:16) as a judgement from God.
Often the strange fire is related to our emotion or enthusiasm; sometimes we may get zealous and excited about something, and we may pray in our natural emotion, and we bring death to the prayer meeting. We need to turn to our spirit and allow the cross of Christ to operate in us to kill anything of the natural man, and the fire we offer should be from God.
We need to allow the Lord to deal with our natural enthusiasm, our natural ability, our natural motives and desires, and anything that is natural in us, because anything that has not been dealt with by the cross and yet motivates us to pray is strange fire.
This doesn’t mean we should no longer pray until we’re fully dealt with, but we should exercise our spirit, be open to the Lord, and allow the cross to operate in our being to deal with anything of our natural man and ability so that we may pray to God in Christ, with Christ, by Christ, and even as Christ, with nothing of the self, the flesh, or the natural man, so that God may accomplish what is in His heart as we echo it in our prayers.
Lord Jesus, save us from praying at the incense altar with strange fire in our prayer. Oh Lord, we open to You and we confess that much of our prayer in our past has been motivated by our natural motives and enthusiasm. Operate in us, Lord, through Your cross to deal with any natural affection, ability, enthusiasm, strength, and motive, so that we may offer You the prayer You need with the holy fire. Lord, save us from carelessly touching the holy things of God! May the holy fire keep burning in our prayer at the incense altar!
Praying at the Incense Altar with No Strange Incense but with Christ as our Incense
After Aaron sets up the lamps of the lampstand at twilight, he had to burn the incense perpetually before Jehovah, and he was not allowed to offer any strange incense on the golden incense altar (see Exo. 30:8-9).
What is this “strange incense”? The incense is a type of Christ, the only One acceptable and satisfying to God, and the strange incense is praying something that is not Christ or related to Christ.
Burning the incense typifies praying (see Psa. 141:2; Luke 1:10-11; Rev. 8:3-4), and the incense typifies the resurrected and ascended Christ as a sweet satisfying fragrance to God. Burning the incense, therefore, means to pray in Christ and with Christ as the incense, offering Christ to God for the fulfillment of His purpose.
The prayer at the incense altar is prayer not for ourselves but prayer for the carrying out of the divine administration, for the dispensing of God’s supplying grace, and for the churches and the saints; such prayer is a fragrant incense to God, for it fulfills His purpose, it satisfies His desire, and it delights His heart.
To pray something that has nothing to do with Christ is strange incense, and to pray with motives that have not been dealt with by the cross is to have strange fire. In our prayers we may offer strange incense by strange fire. If we see the significance and the seriousness of strange incense and strange fire, we shall confess that much of our prayer in the past has been motivated by our natural motives. We shall also see that much of our prayer has had nothing to do with Christ. (Witness Lee, Life-Study of Exodus)
To offer strange incense is to pray something that is not Christ or related to Christ. We need to ask ourselves how much do we pray merely for our personal affairs, our family, our job, our finances, and our relatives, and how much do we pray Christ Himself.
Oh Lord Jesus! We need to come before the Lord and confess our shortage of prayer at the incense altar. We need to realize that so much of our prayer is natural and self-focused, and we pray so little for God’s eternal plan and His move in all the churches.
This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t mention our needs and our situation before the Lord in prayer; rather, we should open to the Lord concerning everything in our life, but at the same time we need to go on both personally and corporately to enter into the experience of the interceding life of Christ at the incense altar.
When we come together to pray, we should focus not mainly on our needs and problems but on God’s eternal plan, His recovery, His move on earth, and all the churches.
We need to allow the cross to operate in our being and learn to offer Christ to God, seeking first the kingdom of God in our prayer – and He will take care of all other things for us (Matt. 6:33).
Lord Jesus, we want to learn how to pray with Christ and in Christ to offer Christ as incense to God for His satisfaction. Save us from merely praying for our need and our situation without Christ. Save us from offering strange incense to God in our prayer meetings. Oh Lord, uplift and revolutionise our prayers so that we may pray for God’s eternal plan, His recovery, His move, and for all the churches! Lord, we want to offer Christ as incense to God with the holy fire so that God would be satisfied and delighted!
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. 152 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (3), week 5 (week 29), The Golden Incense Altar.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# To the spirit turn, and the incense burn, / Touch the living fountain of life; / To the spirit turn, and the incense burn, / Touch the living fountain of life. (Hymns #770)
# Come, Jesus, Lord, with holy fire, / Come, and my quickened heart inspire, / My conscience purged by blood; / Now to my soul Thyself reveal, / Thy mighty working let me feel, / Since I am born of God. (Hymns #357)
# I’ll offer prayers as incense burns, / Christ’s resurrection bring therein, / God’s wish thus meet, His heart give joy, / And I’ll rejoice with Him. (Hymns #791)
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