Today, if we would be genuine priests, we must burn the incense. A priest is a person who burns the incense inwardly to contact the Lord. Priests are a people of incense. The work of the priests is not mainly to make offerings but to burn the incense. Day by day they burn the incense, which is to pray. We need to learn how to burn the incense in a fine way to offer a sweet savor to God.
The proper way to pray is to apply Christ as all the offerings, to feed upon and take in Christ as our full nourishment, and then to utter something of Christ from deep within. These three items are the three stages of real prayer. In our prayer to the Lord, we must first apply Christ as all the offerings. This includes our confessions to God. When we begin to pray, we may have the deep conviction that we are sinful. Immediately, we need to apply Christ as our trespass offering or as our sin offering. We should pray, “O Father, I am so sinful, but how I thank You that Christ today is my sin offering and my trespass offering. I simply come to You with Christ as my sin and trespass offerings.” If we do not pray in this way, we cannot enter into our spirit, which is the practical Holy of Holies. Many Christians are praying outside the spirit because they do not apply Christ as all the different offerings.
Second, we need to enjoy Christ in the presence of God. Sometimes we may enjoy Christ before God by reading His Word, and we may take Christ in by pray-reading the Word. When we feed on Christ to enjoy Him and take Him in as nourishment, it is by this Christ with His redeeming blood that we can go into the presence of God.
Third, we need to utter and express something of Christ from deep within our spirit, not from our mind. This expression of Christ is the sweet incense ascending to God. It brings us into God and God into us. As a result, we will not only be mingled with Christ but also mingled with God. When we pray in this way, it is not only we who are praying but Christ who is praying within us. We and Christ, Christ and we, become one by praying. Then our prayer to God is the sweet incense ascending to Him. The more we pray by offering the ascending incense in this way, the more the glory of God will come down. The incense goes forth, and the glory comes down. This is the real communication, the real communion, and the real fellowship. Prayer as the incense ascends to God, and the glory, the light of God, shines down into us. Eventually, we will be full of Christ and saturated with the shekinah glory of God.
This kind of prayer needs time. We must spend time in the presence of the Lord to offer the offerings and to burn the incense. It takes much time to burn the incense. What we need is the priesthood with the priestly function, that is, to burn the incense through all the offerings. If we practice this priestly office daily, the entire situation of the church today will be changed. We need to convert our times of discussion into the burning of the incense. We must learn to apply Christ, to enjoy Christ, and to utter something of Christ. This is the proper prayer of the priesthood.
Today the church’s urgent need is for all believers to practice the priestly office of burning the incense in the presence of God. The only way to carry out the Lord’s recovery is to spend an adequate amount of time—at least half an hour daily—to apply Christ, to enjoy Christ, and to express Christ. In this expression of Christ, we will commune and converse with God in order to bring ourselves into God and God into us. Something very sweet ascending to God and something very glorious descending into us will saturate us and make us the genuine priesthood. The recovery of the church life depends on this priestly office.
We should attend this priestly office not only individually but more often corporately. For example, if we come together with some saints every day for half an hour to an hour to apply Christ, enjoy Christ, and express Christ corporately in our prayer to God, this will help the building up of the church very much. We should simply spend time in the presence of God to burn the incense. If we attend to this kind of priestly office individually and corporately, there will be a great change in life and expression among us. May the Lord be merciful to us so that we may carry out this commission.
Revelation 8:5 continues, “The Angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar and cast it to the earth; and there were thunders and voices and lightnings and an earthquake.” Here the altar in the expression the fire of the altar refers to the altar of burnt offering, from which the fire was taken. In Leviticus 16:12-13 Aaron was instructed to burn the incense with the fire that burned the offerings on the bronze altar in the outer court. The incense was burned with the fire from the altar in the outer court, signifying that Christ’s being burned as the incense for our acceptance before God depends on His death on the cross for our sins. Christ first became the offerings to take away our sin; then, in His resurrection, with His death on the cross as the basis, He became the incense for our acceptance. This indicates that our prayers should be based upon Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, with Himself added as incense in order that they will be effective and thus be heard by God.
Christ took the censer, filled it with the fire of the altar, and cast the fire to the earth. The Lord’s casting of the fire became the judgment upon the earth. As a result, there were thunders, voices, lightnings, and an earthquake. This indicates that God’s coming judgment on the earth will be the answer to the saints’ prayers. In Revelation 6:9-11, underneath the altar the souls of the martyred saints prayed for vengeance, crying with a loud voice, “How long, O Master, holy and true, will You not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” In chapter 8 the Lord added Himself as incense to the prayers of the martyred saints, and the prayers went up to the throne of God and were answered. The answer to the prayers was Christ’s casting of the fire of the altar to the earth, which fire became God’s judgment upon the earth.