Furthermore, on the brazen altar the heavenly fire burned all the offerings. The fire came down from heaven, representing and signifying God Himself as the consuming fire. God is the holy fire that consumes all the offerings. It is this same fire which consumes the offerings on the brass altar that must burn the incense on the incense altar. The fire is firstly on the outer altar; then secondly, it is used on the inner altar. This is the heavenly fire of redemption. Any other fire will be strange fire.
The offerings bring heaven down; that is, they join heaven to earth. The offerings are on the earth, but they bring the fire down from heaven. The fire, representing the God of heaven, becomes one with the offering. Eventually, a heap of coals is left burning on the altar. This is the joining of earth with heaven. This is the mingling of God with redeemed humanity.
The priests first enjoy this offering, and then they go into the tabernacle to offer the incense. This expresses something of Christ from within as incense to God. But even this incense must be burnt by the fire from off the offering altar. The odor of the incense will then go up to God. It is in this sweet odor, this sweet fragrance of the incense, that the priest can commune and fellowship with God.
Do we see that all these aspects are Christ Himself? Christ is coming down and Christ is going up. This is why I say that Christ is going forth and coming back.
Today, if we are going to be the real priests, we must burn the incense. This means that we must pray. But to pray does not mean that we go to God and ask Him to do something for us. Prayer means so much more than this. It means, first of all, to apply Christ as our offerings. When we pray to God, we must apply Christ as our sin offering, as our trespass offering, and as so many other offerings. Then we must feed on Christ to enjoy Him and take Him in. It is by this Christ with His redeeming blood that we can go into the presence of God. Then we will utter something from within—not from our mind or mentality, but something of Christ from deep within our spirit. This is prayer, and this is the way to pray.
To pray means to apply Christ as all the offerings, to enjoy Christ as nourishment, and then to utter something of Christ from deep within. 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.
All Christians know that they should pray. However, although they always say that they ought to pray, it is regrettable that very few Christians know the proper meaning of prayer. 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.
Suppose we rise in the morning to pray. First of all, we must apply Christ as all the offerings. When we begin to pray, we may have the deep conviction that we are sinful. Immediately, we must apply Christ as our trespass offering or as our sin offering. We must pray, “O Father, I am so sinful, but how I thank Thee that Christ today is my sin offering, and Christ this very moment is my trespass offering. I simply come unto Thee with Christ as my sin and trespass offerings.” If we do not pray in this way, we can never get into the Holy of Holies. This is why so many Christians are praying outside the spirit. They can never get into the spirit, which is the Holy of Holies, because they do not apply Christ as all the different offerings.
In contacting God, we must learn to apply Christ as the various offerings. This includes our confessions to God. We must confess that we are short in this matter and that matter, wrong in this and that. We also need to confess all our weak points. It is when we confess all these things that we apply Christ as the sin and trespass offerings, the peace offering, the meal offering, and the burnt offering.
Secondly, we need to enjoy Christ in the presence of God. Sometimes we may enjoy Christ by reading His Word. We take Christ in through the Word by prayer, through prayreading the Word, and we enjoy Him before God.
Thirdly, from within we utter and express something of Christ. 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.
To pray properly is not just to ask the Lord to do this or to do that for us. We have to go to the Lord, applying Christ as the different offerings, enjoying Christ as our full nourishment, and then uttering something of Christ from within as a sweet smelling savor which ascends to God. Only this kind of prayer will bring the shekinah glory of God into us. Then we will enjoy Christ in the presence 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 really takes time to burn the incense, but my deep feeling is that Christians today do not need anything else. What we need is the priesthood with the priestly function, that is, to burn the incense through all the offerings. If all the brothers and sisters reading this chapter would practice this priestly office daily, the whole situation of the church today would be changed. We must convert our times of discussion into the burning of the incense. Merely to say that we must pray is not good enough. It is not just to pray, but to burn 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.