The Executing Center of God’s Administration in the Universe is the Incense Altar

We need to not only know the significance of the golden altar in the tabernacle and but we need to see a vision of this altar and apply it to our daily living in the church life. The incense altar signifies not only prayer but Christ as the Intercessor, the One who prays and intercedes for us to maintain the relationship between God and His people.

This incense altar is not seen only in the tabernacle but also in Revelation 8, where we see that Christ as Another Angel adds incense to the prayers of the saints, and the smell rises to God, who pours out His judgements and carries out His administration on earth. The incense altar is the executing center of God’s economy, the “heavenly White House”.

The incense altar is the place from which the activities at all the other places in the tabernacle and the outer court are motivated, and the prayer offered at the golden incense altar motivates our Christian experience and governs the entire universe. Wow!

Today we want to see more concerning how the executing center of God’s administration in the universe is the incense altar in Revelation 8, and how Christ’s prayer life, His interceding life, is the center of the divine administration and of the execution of His government on earth.

The Executing Center of God’s Administration in the Universe is the Incense Altar in Rev. 8

In Rev. 8:3-5 we see Christ as Another Angel, who is there adding incense to the prayers of the saints; He takes fire from the altar (signifying the cross), and with that fire He burns the incense that He adds to the prayers of the saints.

This incense, which is the resurrected and ascended Christ for God’s satisfaction, makes the prayers of the saints effective, and the Lord as Another Angel offers these prayers to God on the throne. When this happens, immediately the throne reacts, and the seven trumpets begin to sound.

If there were no prayers to which Christ could add Himself as the incense, the throne would wait. The throne of God does not act unilaterally, by itself; rather, when the Lord wills to do something, He will not do it alone but makes His will known to His faithful, open, and receiving saints, and they receive the Lord’s burden, and make it their prayer.

Thus, God’s desire becomes their desire, and the Lord fulfills His desire by fulfilling their prayer which is the expression of His desire. Christ adds the incense to the saints’ prayer, the incense ascends to God, God is satisfied, and His government is executed on the earth.

It is the throne of God who makes the decision, but the decisions of the throne are executed at the golden incense altar!

The main responsibility of the church is to pray to the Lord, call on the Lord, cry out to the Lord, and execute what the throne is determined to accomplish. Look at what is happening in the world today: don’t you believe that the throne of God has a will and an intention concerning this evil entity called, ISIS? Aren’t the seven eyes of the Lamb all over the Middle East? Yes, the Lord is mindful of this, He has an intention, but His decision will be executed by the prayers offered at the golden incense altar!

There’s no limit to what our Lord can accomplish if He has the prayer at the golden incense altar on earth today! He wants to do something remarkable with all the refugees in Europe coming from the Arab countries, and He wants to raise many lampstands in Europe before the coming of Antichrist, and for this He is praying, and He wants that His prayer would become our prayer, so that He would add incense to our prayer and a powerful reaction would take place!

The book of Revelation is a book of God’s administration, a book of divine execution. This book reveals the throne of God and the administration of God throughout the universe (Rev. 4:1-2, 5; 5:6). In the book of Revelation, a book of God’s executing, we see that the divine administration, the divine executing, is always carried out by the incense altar (8:3-4). In Revelation 8:3 the incense altar is directly in front of the throne of God’s authority: Christ as another Angel comes and adds His incense to the prayers of the saints (v. 3). This incense then ascends to God at the throne of administration, and God answers the saints’ prayers (v. 4). When the prayers of the saints ascend to God with the incense of Christ, God executes the policies of His administration. As a result, fire comes down to earth to execute the divine judgments (v. 5). (Witness Lee, Life-Study of Exodus)

We can and should have a taste of this today in the church life, whether in our prayer with companions, in the prayer meeting, in the district meeting, or in other meetings.

When we genuinely exercise our spirit, open to the Lord, receive the Lord’s intention and desire, and echo it back in prayer to Him, the Head and the Body speak and pray in oneness for the carrying out of God’s administration, and intercessory prayers are offered at the golden incense altar!

Here, at the golden incense altar, the executing center of God’s administration in the universe, we can be joined to the Lord to pray what He prays, and He will add Himself as the incense to our prayer, so that God would release His judgements to carry out His administration on earth.

Lord, cause us to see the burden which is in Your heart concerning what You want to do on earth today. We simply want to be open to You and receive Your burden, be infused with Your desire, and be impressed with Your intentions, so that we may echo Your burden back to You in prayer. Lord, we really want to enter into the experience of the golden incense altar, the executing center of God’s administration in the universe! Cause Your prayer to become our prayer, and add Yourself as the incense to our prayer so that You may execute Your divine administration in the universe!

Christ’s Prayer Life is the Center of the Execution of God’s Government on earth

The center of the divine administration and of the execution of His government on earth is the incense altar, which signifies Christ’s interceding life, His prayer life; this means that Christ’s prayer life, His interceding life, is the center of God’s administration and of the execution of God’s government on earth (see Rom. 8:34; Rev. 8:3-4).

We need to seek the Lord, be before Him concerning the world situation, and desire to know His intention concerning all these things, so that we may be one with Him and enter into His prayer life to intercede at the golden incense altar.

The executing of God’s administration is motivated by the prayers offered to Him from the incense altar, and these prayers govern the universe! In so many matters today, in the age of grace, God would NOT act alone: He wants His Body on earth to agree with Him and bind what He has bound, lose what He has loosed, and release the prayers that God needs to accomplish His intention.

The Lord desires that we join ourselves to God’s revealed intention, make His prayer ours, agree with what the Lord has already decided, and then the Lord will carry out His administration by answering our prayers – which are an expression of the prayers of the ascended Christ.

God needs OUR prayer for His administration; the almighty God works in the principle of incarnation, and the throne in the heavens is limited in its activities and execution to the cooperation offered by the members of the Body of Christ.

It is crucial for us all to see that the execution of God’s administration is motivated by the prayers offered to Him from the incense altar; these prayers are OUR prayers but they are an echo, a repeat, a reproduction, and a response to the Lord’s prayers in the heavens.

The Lord may sometimes seem like “an unrighteous judge” (see Luke 18:1-8), not answering our prayers even though we know that it is His will and we pray it back to Him at the incense altar. The saints under the throne – those who died and are in Paradise – are praying that the Lord would vindicate Himself as God, act righteously, judge the earth, and bring in the kingdom; also, the Lord infuses many of His open and receiving believers living on earth with His desire, and when these two prayers match and ascend to God, Christ at one point will add Himself as the incense and God will execute His administration.

This really shows us that the incense altar is the greatest matter in the universe, and we are “heavenly statesmen” studying “God’s politics” and cooperating with God to execute His universal administration, government, move, economy, and dispensation.

Everything is motivated, executed, and carried out from the incense altar, the heavenly “White House”, even the “Oval Office” (or the no 10 Downing Street if you live in the UK). Christ’s interceding life, His prayer life, is really the center of God’s administration.

Lord Jesus, show us how important, great, and central the matter of the incense altar is in the universe. We want to enter into and experience You in Your prayer life, Your interceding life, to be one with You in uttering the prayers that You need for the accomplishing of God’s economy. Oh Lord, You need our prayers for Your administration: gain us as the open and receiving saints who are tuned to You to receive Your intention, be impressed with Your desire, and echo back in prayer what we hear from You! Amen, Lord, Your will be done and Your kingdom come!

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, msgs. 149-150 (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:
  # E’en as the priests the incense burned, / In prayer to Thee I persevere; / As incense Thou the Spirit art / Mixed with the prayer I offer here. (Hymns #812)
  # And let them make a sanctuary for Me, / That I may dwell in their midst, / Our prayer is “Lord, we give ourselves to Thee, / We’ll be the builders for Your economy.” (Song on joining ourselves to God’s desire)
  # May our prayers expression give / To Thy Spirit’s mind alone; / Praying not by our desire, / But according to Thine own. (Hymns #772)