If only you will stay in your spirit where you are one with Christ, there will be some killing, some flaying, some cutting into pieces, and some washing. There will even be some burning. If we are one with Christ in the spirit, we will experience the killing, the flaying, the cutting, the washing, and eventually the burning until we become ashes. When we become ashes, it is a strong proof that God has accepted our present.
Psalm 20:3 says, “Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt offering.” The notes of some versions indicate that the word “accept” in this verse in the original language means “turn to ashes.” When God turns our burnt offering to ashes, that means that He has accepted our burnt offering. The note in the ASV says that the word “accept” in Hebrew means “accept as fat.” In Hebrew the word for “ashes” is the same word for “fat.” In our eyes it is ashes, but to God it is fat. It is ashes, but God accepts it as fat. It pleases and satisfies God as fat. The more we become ashes, the more we are nothing, the more we become fat to God. This is something sweet to God, and this is the way that God accepts our burnt offering. How do we know that God accepts our present as a sweet burnt offering? It is when we realize that we have become nothing but ashes.
We ourselves should not attempt to be burnt. No matter how much you try to be burnt, you will escape. The more you try to be nothing but ashes, the more you will be something. Do not try to be burnt; do not try to become ashes. Just stay in the spirit, taking Christ as your burnt offering. Then there will be the killing, the flaying, the cutting, the washing, the burning, and eventually the ashes. Whenever we come to the meeting, we must come with such a Christ as the burnt offering for us to present to God. This is food to God. This is Christ as reality in our worship to God.
I do look to the Lord that He will bring us all into the reality of experiencing Christ as the burnt offering in such a way. We need to enjoy Christ in such a way that when the killing, the flaying, the cutting, the washing, and the burning comes, we will be one with Christ, so willing to take all these things. It is not by trying to take them by ourselves, but by being one with Christ. We need these kinds of deeper experiences. Then the meetings, full of such a Christ, will be a real enjoyment to God.
There is one more point concerning the burnt offering: the priests and those who present the burnt offering are not allowed to eat any part of it; it is absolutely for God. But the skin is for the priest who presents the burnt offering. If we present the burnt offering, it will be burnt to ashes for God, yet the skin will be ours. This means that the more we present Christ as our burnt offering, the more we will be covered by Him. God enjoys Christ as the burnt offering, and this Christ becomes our covering. In other words, the more we offer Christ as the burnt offering to God, the more we will be in Christ. We will simply be covered by Christ. A person may say that he is in Christ, but many times it is rather difficult to see Christ upon him. But the more he experiences Christ as the burnt offering, and presents Him to God in the tent of meeting, the more he is covered with Christ. He is under the covering of Christ, and he shares this covering. God shares the enjoyment, and he shares the covering because the skin is his.
We need to bring these points to the Lord and pray. We need to pray-read these verses in Leviticus 1 concerning the burnt offering a few more times. Then the Lord will point out something to us. We are not here for the teaching of typology or for any doctrine. We are here for something deeper of Christ as the reality. This is the way not only to experience Christ as the reality, but also to enjoy Him as our reality. Then in the meetings there will be so many who can present Christ as the burnt offering to God and share the covering of Christ.
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