This week in our crystallization-study of Exodus we enjoyed in a deeper way a particular kind of prayer – not the general prayer, the petition, the questioning, the breathing, or the praising and thanking, but the interceding prayer, the interceding Christ as typified by the golden incense altar in the Holy Place in the tabernacle.
We need to have all kinds of prayer – we need to breathe the Lord in day by day in our daily contact with Him, opening to Him moment by moment concerning all things related to our daily living, mentioning the names of those around us before Him, praising the Lord, thanking Him, breathing Him in, crying out before Him, being silent in His presence, and many other ways to pray.
But in particular the prayer we need to offer and what the Lord desires to gain today is the prayer of intercession, and this prayer requires a particular kind of person. The only one who can pray at the incense altar is Christ Himself; He is the One who has an interceding life, He lives forever to intercede for us, and He intercedes for us before God according to God.
We are not qualified to be at the incense altar, but if we are open to the Lord and experience Him as the Redeeming One at the altar for burnt offering, the life-giving Spirit washing us at the laver, the serving life supply at the table for the bread of the presence, and the shining expression of God as the golden lampstand, we will be in God, God will be in us, and we will pray Christ to God for the fulfillment of His economy.
The prayers offered at the incense altar are not common prayers for our health, our family, our situation, or even for others; the prayers offered here, as seen in Rev. 5 and 8, are the echoing of Christ’s prayers in the heavens, and they are for God’s interest, His administration, His economy, His church, and His people.
The prayers offered at the golden incense altar are for what is in God’s heart; Christ adds Himself as incense to these prayers, and God releases His will, carries out His economy, builds up the Body of Christ, consummates the age, and brings in God’s kingdom. May we be those who learn to be such persons who are one with Christ at the golden incense altar, praying one with Him for what is in His heart!
To Pray at the Incense Altar we need to be Burned to Ashes, Reduced to Nothing
There is only one kind of person who is qualified to pray in the tabernacle at the incense altar: a person who is burned to ashes, one who is reduced to nothing, who is crucified with Christ and no longer lives but Christ lives in him in resurrection (Lev. 6:13; Psa. 20:3; Gal. 2:20; 1 Cor. 1:28b). This is not some kind of “spiritual talk” or “deep thinking” but an actual, experiential, reality into which we need to enter so that we may have Christ as everything to us, and we would be nothing to us.
We need to have the clear impression that Christ and only Christ in resurrection and ascension is the One who can pray in God at the golden incense altar, and we need to become the SAME as He is in life, nature, and function, so that there would be a corporate Christ praying in God at the golden incense altar.
In our experience, if we want to pray at the incense altar, we need to experience the fire from the burnt offerings altar, the fire of God which reduces us to ashes, to nothing; we need to be in God and become nothing. When we are apart from Christ, we can do nothing; when we are outside of abiding in Him, we are nothing and can do nothing (John 15:4-5).
What does it mean to be “burnt to ashes”? It means that we are no longer natural (1 Cor. 2:14-15). Too many prayers are being offered to God – even in the prayer meeting – in a natural way, according to our natural concept. The Lord does not accept natural prayers at the golden incense altar, and not everything we say in prayer to God is acceptable to Him!
In our experience, there are three items that compose our natural being: our conduct, our sight, and our virtue. Our conduct is versus Christ as life (the bread of the presence table), our sight is versus Christ as light (the lampstand), and our virtue is versus Christ as incense to God (the incense altar). The way we behave is natural, and it is versus Christ living in us as our life; the way we see things is natural, and is versus Christ as our real light; our virtues and attainments, even our good manners and morality, are natural, and are versus Christ as our real virtue.
Our natural conduct, our natural sight, and our natural virtue equal our natural being; our natural being cannot pray at the incense altar. If we see this, we can open to the Lord and genuinely tell Him,
Lord, You know what is in me, how natural I am, and how natural is my conduct, my sight, and my virtue. Lord, I want to learn to intercede with You at the golden incense altar. Give me the experiences that I need in order for me to be one with You in Your intercession at the incense altar.
If we pray in such a way, we may be surprised to discover that the Lord will give us the experiences He thinks we need, and we will be touched in our natural being in an unprecedented and unexpected way!
He is actually answering our prayer to bring us through death into resurrection and ascension to be in Christ, one with Christ!
The Lord needs some saints who have a vision of Christ as the Intercessor carrying out God’s administration, some who see a view of the golden incense altar and who willingly, thoughtfully, and lovingly present themselves to the Lord saying,
Lord, I want to serve You by being one with You at the incense altar! I don’t want to be shallow, natural, or religious in my prayer! For Your sake and for the sake of Your economy, gain me and many other saints as those who are reconstituted and reconstructed with God so that we may be in God, God may be in us, and we may pray Christ to God! Lord, gain the prayers that You need at the incense altar so that You may carry out Your economy, move Your hand, release the supply of grace, cause the saints to grow in life, end this age, and bring in the age of the kingdom!
Praying at the Incense Altar for God’s Move, His Dispensing, and His Recovery
If we mean business with the Lord and we truly open to Him concerning our genuine experience of Christ at the golden incense altar, He will give us the experiences we need so that we may no longer have our natural conduct, our natural sight, and our natural virtues. Our natural view concerning the current situation and the problems around us will be dealt with and we will see things in the light of Christ, with Christ as our light to have a proper sight.
Our natural conduct will be put to death and we will take Christ as our life supply for a proper conduct, having Christ living in us. Our natural virtue will be exposed and dealt with, and we will take Christ as our virtue, offering Him to God as a sweet fragrance for His satisfaction.
In whatever matter we are burdened to pray, we need to be terminated first in that matter; if it is a member of our family, our natural view and feeling need to be terminated, and our conduct and our virtues need to be terminated; then, when our natural being is reduced to ashes, the interceding Christ will rise up in us, and He will utter prayers in us for that situation according to God.
When we are terminated in our natural being, we will pray as a member of the corporate interceding Christ, linking any matter we are praying for to God’s operation in the universe, and the Lord will add Himself to our prayer as incense, and the heavens will react!
When we pray at the incense altar one with Christ, it is very difficult for us to be occupied with ourselves, because we are reduced to ashes, and our interest is now God’s interest, our desire is God’s desire, and our prayer is Christ’s prayer (see Rom. 8:34, 26-27).
It is such a privilege to set aside at least one hour a week for the prayer meeting in which we forget about ourselves, our problems, our situations, and our self, and we take Christ as our life supply, our light, and our virtue to be one with Him as a living member of His Body so that God can fulfill His will in this age!
It is an utmost privilege and honor to be at the incense altar praying for God’s economy, for God’s dispensing, for God’s move, and for God’s recovery!
Oh, may we be willing to learn: first by seeing the significance of the golden incense altar, then by experiencing Christ in His interceding life, and finally by becoming Christ in His life, nature, and function to pray one with Him so that God may have a free way to fulfill what is in His heart!
Lord Jesus, we repent for praying so many times in our natural man! Lord, we want to be willing to learn to pray with You at the golden incense altar the prayers that You need to carry out Your economy and accomplish Your administration in the universe. Lord, we take You as our life supply for our proper conduct; we take You as our light for proper sight, and we take You as our virtue for us to have a sweet fragrance ascending to God. Lord, reconstitute us and replace us until we become You in life, nature, and function, and pray one with You at the golden incense altar as members of the Body of 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. 151 (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:
# “Keep the incense burning” / On the altar fire; / Feed the flame, Lord Jesus, / Till Thy whole desire / Shall in us, Thy children, / Find free course, and be / Breathed through lips anointed / For this ministry. (Hymns #790)
# Oh, may Thy Cross within me / Deepen its work and burn / In me enlarge Thy measure, / And me to ashes turn. (Hymns #280)
# Intercede! Intercede! For Your people, meet Your need! / Hallelujah! Get Your Bride this way. / Have Your way! Have Your way! Do a building work we pray— / Hallelujah—in our life each day! / Through the cross of Jesus, / By the Spirit filled, / We are blending, building up! (Song on Interceding)
About aGodMan
Nothing that we pray at the first altar, the altar of burnt offering in the outer court, can be an intercession. But whatever we pray at the second altar, the golden altar of incense in the tabernacle, will be an intercession. At the second altar we do not pray much for ourselves. Instead, we pray for God’s economy, we pray for God’s dispensing, we pray for God’s move, we pray for God’s recovery, and we pray for the churches and the saints. We intercede in this way spontaneously. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Exodus, p. 1632)