The Epistles emphasize that we need to pray more than we need to read. First Thessalonians 5:16 through 20 says, “Always rejoice, unceasingly pray, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophecies.” If we read all these verses together, we can see that praying has very much to do with our thanksgiving to God. Verse 17 tells us to pray unceasingly, verse 18 tells us to give thanks in everything, and verse 19 says to not quench the Spirit. This implies that if we do not pray, we quench the Spirit. We may think that we quench the Spirit by doing something wrong. In actuality, we quench the Spirit simply by not praying. Moreover, verse 20 speaks of prophecies. Prophecies indicate the word and the ministry of the word. To not pray about what we have heard is to despise the ministry of the word. If we respect what we have heard in the ministry of the word, we will pray about it and pray with it.
Ephesians 6:17 and 18 say, “And receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God, by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit and watching unto this in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints.” The context of this passage shows us that to pray is much more important than to read. This does not mean that we should not read and listen to messages. We should do this. However, what we need is to pray more than to read. We need prayer to match our reading. We need to pray with and about every portion of the word that we read and every message we have heard. Otherwise, it can be only knowledge in the mind; it can never be nourishment and life supply in the spirit. We will have knowledge but not the Spirit. Eventually, we will have death instead of life. We all have to learn this principle. In order to have our meetings in a new and living way, we have to help the brothers and sisters to practice day by day to pray more than to read. We have neglected this too much.
God needs and desires a people to be priests. We are all saved to be priests (Rev. 1:6; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9). A priest is one who burns the incense before God (Exo. 30:7-8). To burn the incense is to pray. Only those who go to the Lord to pray and contact Him are those who fulfill God’s purpose. In the four Gospels, when the Lord Jesus came to this earth among the Jews, there were not many priests. Rather, there were too many scribes. Scribes are religious scholars, theologians; they are not priests. Priests are not a people of knowledge. Priests are a people of incense. Day by day they burn the incense; that is, they pray. Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist, is a good example of a priest, going into the temple to burn the incense and to pray (Luke 1:8-9).
Throughout the whole Bible, even from the time of Adam, God’s intention has been to have a priestly people. This is the unique kind of people that God needs. Abel was a priest, and Noah also was a priest. They did not have an official priest to make their offerings for them. They made their offerings by themselves. However, the work of the priests is not mainly to make offerings. It is to burn the incense.
There are two altars in the tabernacle. One is outside the tabernacle, and another one is inside the tabernacle. The offering altar on the outside is made of bronze, while the incense altar on the inside is of gold (Exo. 27:1-2; 30:1, 3). The offering altar is for the incense altar. We can prove this in two ways. First, the fire used to burn the incense came from the altar of burnt offering. The only fire that could be used to burn the incense was the fire from the altar of burnt offering, the heavenly fire that came from God (Lev. 9:24). Any other kind of fire would have been “strange fire,” like that which the two sons of Aaron offered (10:1). This signifies that in order to pray, we have to pray based on the redemption of the cross. Redemption at the offering altar is for fellowship at the incense altar. At the offering altar there is the cleansing of the blood for fellowship. First John 1:7 tells us that in order to maintain the fellowship, we need the cleansing of the blood. Without the offering altar we do not have the ground to burn the incense, that is, to fellowship with God. Redemption is for fellowship; it brings us back into the fellowship with God. Second, the blood shed upon the offering altar is brought into the Holy Place to be sprinkled upon the four corners of the incense altar (Lev. 4:7a). This again proves that the altar outside the tabernacle is for the one inside the Holy Place.
The priests are not those who only offer the offerings. The priests are a people that burn the incense, and to burn the incense is to pray. Ephesians 6:5 through 7 tells us that even to serve a human master as a slave is a kind of service to God. However, that is not a service like the priests had in the Holy Place when they burned the incense. Many Levites labored around the altar in the outer court, without coming into the Holy Place. They only carried the cows and sheep, slew them, skinned them, and did many other duties. That was a work to serve God, but that kind of service was different from the service of those who burned the incense. We need to learn how to burn the incense in a fine way to offer a sweet odor to God. To serve God in the outer court as a Levite is one kind of service, but to serve as a priest burning incense to God directly is another thing.
To come into the Holy of Holies is even deeper. In the Holy of Holies there is not an altar but the ark with the shekinah glory of God. The service in the outer court, the service in the Holy Place, and the service in the Holy of Holies are all services to God, but what kind of service do we want to have? To serve in the Holy Place requires that we learn to burn the incense by praying.