Taking Christ as our Burnt Offering to Have an Upper Room Consecration and Become Ashes

Rom. 12:1-2 I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be fashioned according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well pleasing and perfect.

The church life began when a group of people had an “upper room consecration” to become a corporate burnt offering to God for His satisfaction; this triggered and drew God’s blessing, and many were “burnt” and attracted to Christ by their corporate testimony.

In our Christian life we need to never “let the fire on the burnt offering go out”, that is, we need to take the opportunity day by day to offer ourselves in Christ to God as a continual burnt offering. We need to offer our body as a living sacrifice for the church life, exercise our spirit to be burning in spirit, and not be fashioned according to this age but be renewed in the spirit of our mind (Rom. 12:1-2).

We have many patterns of saints who went ahead and were married to the heavenly vision, living a life of being beside themselves with the heavenly vision of God’s eternal economy.

In Acts we see first Peter and the 120 disciples giving up the religion of their forefathers, their country, their relationship with their neighbors and friends, giving up their relatives, and risking their life to be in the upper room as a corporate burnt offering for God’s satisfaction.

Later, we see the apostle Paul and those with him who “upset the world” and preached the gospel wherever they went, going onward no matter the rejection, persecution, stoning, imprisonment, etc. Paul really followed the heavenly vision he saw, and he never went astray; he was beside himself with the heavenly vision of God’s economy.

The result of his life was not much outwardly, but it was precious in God’s eyes. He was martyred, and the same happened with many of the other believers.

Our destiny as a corporate burnt offering is to be reduced to ashes – after God enjoys the burning of the fat and everything of the burnt offering, only ashes are left. Yet these ashes are very precious to God, and He ordained a dignified way for the ashes to be taken care of.

It is actually the ashes as the result of the burnt offering that are being transformed to become the precious materials for the New Jerusalem. Only when we are reduced to ashes and Christ is everything to us can we become precious materials for the New Jerusalem.

May we see a clear vision of what it means to be a corporate burnt offering for God’s satisfaction, and may we consecrate ourselves to the Lord for His purpose in this age.

The Fire on the Altar “Must not Go Out”

Out of all the offerings ordained by God for His people to bring Him only the burnt offering is supposed to burn non-stop, all the time; the priests had to make sure they put the wood and the meat on the altar in the morning and in the evening (see Num. 28:3-4, 9-11, 19, 26-27; 29:1-2, 7-8, 12-13, 39-40).

In our Christian life we don’t just offer ourselves to the Lord “from time to time”, when the Lord touches us and reminds us, or when we feel like it. Rather, we need to be a living sacrifice to Him, offering our body to be in the meetings of the church, our soul to be renewed by the Spirit, and exercising our spirit to be burning in spirit (see Rom. 12:1-2).

The fire comes from God, but it is our duty to maintain it. As we consecrate our whole being to the Lord in Christ as our burnt offering, we have a sweet and intimate fellowship with God. Throughout the dark night of the church age we need to remain and be a burnt offering until the Lord Jesus comes back.

We need to take the opportunity day by day and on many occasions to offer ourselves in Christ to God as a continual burnt offering so that we would be burned by Him and that we may burn others with the Triune God as fire. The fire on the altar “must not go out” (see Lev. 6:8-13).

Having an “Upper Room Consecration” in which we are Married to the Heavenly Vision

Our consecration to the Lord as a corporate burnt offering is an “upper room consecration”, a consecration in which we are married to the heavenly vision and we are beside ourselves with the heavenly vision of God’s eternal economy.

When the Lord saved us we had an initial consecration to Him, just as the disciples had the “seashore consecration” when the Lord Jesus called them. But when we see the heavenly vision and are captured by it, we will be beside ourselves for this vision and we will be married to it.

We see this with Peter and the 120 disciples who gathered together in Acts 1-2; they forsook everything to be in the upper room, paying the price of giving up the religion of their forefathers, their country, their natural relationships, and their relatives, even risking their life to be there. They became a corporate burnt offering, and this is how the church was started.

The reason we don’t see is that we are not willing to pay the price; we need to come to the Lord and pay the price so that we may see the heavenly vision (Rev. 3:18).

We don’t follow “a man”, an apostle or something, but a vision. People change; people are not absolute; but Christ and the church in God’s economy is the constant, balanced, heavenly and divine vision that never changes.

May we not be disobedient to the heavenly vision but have an upper room consecration, forsaking everything for the sake of seeing and being in the reality of the heavenly vision of God’s eternal economy!

Lord Jesus, we consecrate ourselves to You in You as our burnt offering. Make us willing to pay the price to see the heavenly vision and be captured by it, be married to it, and be besides ourselves for the heavenly vision of God’s economy. Lord, we want to follow the heavenly vision You have shown us. We don’t want to be disobedient to the heavenly vision. May we count the cost, pay the price, and have an upper room consecration in Christ and with Christ as our burnt offering!

Being Reduced to Ashes to Become the New Jerusalem for God’s Expression

When we are reduced to ashes, we are brought into the transformation of the Triune God to become the precious materials for the building of the New Jerusalem.

The result of the burnt offering is ashes; the result of our consecration to the Lord is that we are reduced to ashes for God’s satisfaction. A big bull or a ram were completely reduced to ashes, unusable for anything humanly and even despised by men.

The way of the Lord’s recovery is the way of enjoyment with sufferings, and the result is that we are reduced to ashes to become the New Jerusalem for God’s expression (see Psa. 20:3; Lev. 1:16; 6:10-11; 1 Cor. 3:12a; Rev. 3:12; 21:2, 10-11, 18-21).

Christ Himself was not a great person outwardly but did quite a few good and miraculous things, and He was even once welcomed into Jerusalem with, “Hosanna, the Son of David!” However, the result of Christ’s life is that He was reduced to ashes before men: He was criticised, ridiculed, persecuted, hated without reason, arrested, judged, condemned to death, crucified, died, and put into a tomb.

Outwardly, He became nothing; before God, however, Christ was reduced to ashes as a sweet-smelling savour for His satisfaction. How much we need to be those taking Christ as our burnt offering today to experience Him as such a One!

In the same way, we are becoming one with the Christ who has been reduced to ashes, and we are also reduced to ashes, that is, reduced to nothing, to zero (1 Cor. 1:28; 2 Cor. 12:11). When we take Christ as our burnt offering continually, we are reduced to nothing; we are zero and Christ is everything.

The more we are identified with Christ in His death, the more we will realize that we have become a heap of ashes. When we become ashes, we are NO LONGER natural persons but terminated, crucified, and burned persons (Gal. 2:20).

To men, we are nothing and we’re even being despised and ridiculed; but to God, we are ashes, a sign of His acceptance of the burnt offering as fat (see Psa. 20:3; 36:8-9). These ashes as the issue of the burnt offering were put on the east side of the altar, the side of the sunrise – an allusion to resurrection (see Lev. 1:16; John 11:25; Phil. 3:10-11; 2 Cor. 1:9).

Being identified with Christ in His death issues in being brought into resurrection and transformation of the Triune God to become the New Jerusalem. With Christ as the burnt offering, the ashes are not the end – they are the beginning (see Mark. 9:31).

The more we are reduced to ashes in Christ, the more we will be put to the east, having the assurance that the sun will rise and that we will experience the sunrise of resurrection (Phil. 3:10-11). Eventually, these ashes, the issue of the believers in Christ who experienced Him as their burnt offering and were reduced to ashes, will become the New Jerusalem (see Rev. 3:12; 21:2, 10-11).

Wow, human beings made of clay have the honour of experiencing Christ as the burnt offering; they are reduced to ashes, which is nothing in the eyes of men yet precious in God’s eyes; these ashes are becoming the New Jerusalem! By being identified with Christ in His death, we are brought to an end and reduced to ashes; in resurrection, these “ashes” become precious materials for God’s building (see 1 Cor. 3:9, 12).

This means that when we are reduced to ashes, we are brought into the transformation of the Triune God to become the precious materials for the building of the New Jerusalem (Rom. 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rev. 21:18-21)! Hallelujah, what a glorious destiny: ashes becoming precious materials for the New Jerusalem!

Lord Jesus, we take You as our burnt offering. We would like to give ourselves to You in You as our burnt offering. Make us willing to be a living sacrifice to You from morning to evening, keeping the fire burning on the altar. Lord, may we be reduced to ashes so that we may enter into resurrection and the transformation of the Triune God to become precious materials for the building of the New Jerusalem! We are nothing: You are everything! We lay our hands on You to be one with You as our burnt offering and experience You to become ashes, precious to God unto the New Jerusalem!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus (msgs. 6, 23), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Heavenly Vision, week 6 / msg 6, The Vision of Consecration.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # See the vision of Christ and the church; / Count the cost; reckon all things as loss; / Pay the price. The prize to gain Christ, / Burn the bridges; leave the world behind; / On God’s economy your heart be set / To live a life of no regrets. (Song on Consecration)
  # We the altar must obtain, / Have our all upon it lain. / The burnt-offering must be slain, / O glory be to God! / This we never should dispute, / For the church be absolute, / All that’s otherwise uproot / In the local churches now. (Hymns #1251)
  # Oh, may Thy Cross within me / Deepen its work and burn / In me enlarge Thy measure, / And me to ashes turn. / Oh, may Thy Spirit fill me / Each day more than before, / And may Thy living water / On me and thru me pour. (Hymns #280)