Unity and Fellowship

And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: of shittim wood shalt thou make it. A cubit shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof; foursquare shall it be: and two cubits shall be the height thereof: the horns thereof shall be of the same. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof, and the sides thereof round about, and the horns thereof; and thou shalt make unto it a crown of gold round about...And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it.  And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations.  Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering; neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon.

Exodus 30:1-3 and 7-9

Like every other piece of the tabernacle God instructed Moses to build, the altar of incense is filled with shadows pointing to Christ and our relationship with God through His mediation.  With all that is going on in the world around us we need to stop and rest at this altar often.  The altar of incense is that special place of relationship with God in Christ that prepares us to go beyond the veil into His holy presence.  Chaos and confusion disappear in the face of God.  Come and see.

By now you know that even the measurements of the furniture of the tabernacle have something to teach us.  The dimensions of this altar which symbolizes daily prayer is no different.  The altar measured one cubit wide x one cubit deep x two cubits tall.  One is always a number that speaks of unity.  For God, this is His greatest goal for us as believers.  He wishes that we would live our lives in complete unity with Heaven.  What can we do for God if we are out of fellowship with Him anyways?  Absolutely nothing!  For this reason the LORD wants us to see this number that also denotes primacy as an important message.  First and foremost, there must be unity with God whether we move forwards, backwards, left or right (length and depth).  Our relationship with Him and with others through Him must be first place.  (Isn't that the first commandment?) When we have nothing else between us and Him we will bear the fruit needed to be a witness to a lost world.   On a similar vein, I was sharing with someone the other day about the letters Jesus addressed to the 7 churches in Revelation 2 and 3.  What was the problem with the first church?  They were doing much--but they left their first love.  Jesus was reminding Ephesus that there is nothing more important then your relationship with God in Christ.

Two also has an important message as we examine this incense altar.  Which dimension was measured as two cubits?  The height was.  All of us usually speak of reaching "up" to God.  It is for this reason that the height is two as this is a number that is related to Christ and His fellowship with suffering.  Two always speaks of Jesus.  What member of the Trinity is He?  What cross was His on the day He was crucified?  Which "Adam" is He?  The point is that Christ is the "middle man", the mediator, the daysmen, the go-between, our Great High Priest.  Two also speaks of fellowship.  Amos asked, "Can two walk together except they be agreed?"  Can there be unity with God without fellowship through Christ?  Absolutely not!  If you reach up to God it must be through the person and work of Jesus Christ the LORD.  There is no other way.  

To strengthen that point the Holy Spirit also shared that the incense burnt on the altar daily had to be burnt using fire from the brass altar.  Leviticus 10 relates the story of two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, who offered strange fire before the LORD and were destroyed.  There is no great mystery as to what the strange fire was.  It was just that--strange fire.  They used a source of heat other than the brazen altar to ignite the incense.  Maybe they just used a branch from their campfire?  Who knows?  However, it was not the ordained source of fire clearly revealed by God.  Any prayer that does not originate from the altar of sacrifice was and still is strictly forbidden.  In other words, there is no prayer outside of the sacrifice God appointed for unity with Heaven.  That sacrifice is Jesus.  There is no acceptable prayer outside of Jesus Christ's name!

The incense itself is the symbol of prayer.  There is one more message as well associated with the acceptable incense.  As we are associated with Jesus the Lamb of God, we are to be a living sacrifice at His altar. Where do you begin (and end) your journey with God?  At the cross.  That cross speaks of repentance.  Prayer without a life lived at the altar is just as deadly as prayer offered in the name of another.  If there is to be true unity and fellowship with God--it must be in and through Christ in a spirit of total dependence on His atoning work.  When there is this agreement, then the power of our prayers will reach out to all of the world around us.  This is the message found in the four horns around the top of the altar.  They represent the power of prayer through Jesus name while in unity with Heaven that breaks every stronghold.  Is your prayer life in unity and fellowship with God in Christ?  Keep looking "up" in Christ as He is Soon2Come!

Refocus

Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

Romans 16:17-18

Where do false teachings originate?  Paul is actually pretty clear on their point of origin. They are a manifestation of the flesh.  Note this portion of Galatians 5:19-20, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these;...hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,..."  Did you catch that?  False teaching is often manifested from and supported by the flesh. Think about it. All false teaching has roots in the original temptation used by the evil one in the garden.  That means they come from the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The Apostle John also confirms this notion in 1 John 2:16 when he shares, "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."  They are nothing more than demonstrations of worldliness and carnality.

Let's note a few quick examples.  Some latch hold of a teaching as if it is some new revelation--a secret knowledge hidden from the masses that they alone are privy to.  At times they even go on the offensive with their lie going everywhere sharing it as if they were the greatest Bible expert in the world.  Rest assured that the fleshly, corrupt  fruit of the pride of life is associated with this.  They are not trying to edify nor uplift Christ and His church.  On the contrary, they are actually causing the other carnal sins listed above: wrath, strife, sedition, and the like.  A specific example, there are those who in pride feel it is their duty to enlighten others with their sage understanding of the rapture.  They set dates or go to sites with a viewpoint other than theirs for the sole purpose of causing dissension.  Rather than build up others, they purposefully argue and bring chaos.  While they say that it is to share truth, their harsh, prideful, and unforgiving attitude is exposed. This example is pointed out because it happens continually.  Almost every time something that relates to the timing of the rapture is mentioned, it engenders a fight. Is this not a sin of the flesh?  Yes, there are differences of opinion, and there will be until Jesus comes and settles the issue.  We have a mission of winning a lost world even while putting away the pride that keeps us from our task--refocus!


There are many today who promote and follow the lust of the eyes; furthermore, there are also many who relish in this sort of teaching so they heap to themselves teachers with itching ears.  Jesus does want us to lift our eyes and take serious notice.  He wants us to see that the harvest of souls in the world around us is rotting on the vine even while teacher after teacher refocuses the church's attention from the lost and dying to the temporal blessings of the world around.  Jesus also reminds us that there is no profit if we gain the entire world of goods and services while we lose our soul!  Please remember that neither your house, car, boat, bank account, job, nor any other thing this world has to offer leaves this earth.  The baubles of this world also have a Divine appointment with the fires of judgment.  They will all, ALL, burn someday.  Only one work of man enters eternity--the scars on the body of Christ the King.  You are very limited in what you can take into eternity with you.  You can win family, friends, and loved ones you win to Christ.  They are the only thing that can enter eternity with you.  Get your eyes off of the fleeting, light, and worthless things that are redirecting your attention from eternity and the eternal task given to you by Heaven's Throne.  All the world has to offer is worthless trinkets--refocus!

 One of the saddest facts is that too many today are also following and promoting the lust of the flesh in the name of grace.  Does God extend grace?  Of course!  However, find me one passage where He allows us to use the mercy and grace He has given in the awful and awesome sacrifice of Christ as a cloak or license for sin.  It is not there.  It is in the satanic bible, "Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law."  Yet, it is not found once in the Word.  Quit making excuses for sin in your life and repent before God.  Take your shortcomings to Christ that He may cleanse you from all unrighteousness.  Find the grace that is greater than your sin and that begins the healing from sin's consequences God wishes you to experience.  Quit listening to the lust of the flesh teachers who act as if grace is a license to do wrong and hear what the Word God promotes--a sold out life that is transformed by the power of God.  "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. "  Romans 12:1-2  Please--refocus!

In closing, I would like to share God's replacement for our pathetic works of the flesh which He has judged as worthless from an old post entitled Nine.  Nine is a number that symbolizes judgment as well as giftedness and fruitfulness.  In Christ, God deems our works void, but He gives a replacement.  "Our love is pathetic, and our goodness is corrupt.  If we strive to please him in selfish acts of flesh, we will be found to be empty, barren, and fruitless; however, God provided a replacement for our worthless fruit.  It is the 9 fruit of the Spirit.  When the substitutionary system based on the blood of animals was judged and ended, God opened up free access to the throne of grace through the person of Christ.  In the same way, God judged man's fruit as worthless and rotten to the core, but He provided a replacement cultivated by faith in Christ and the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit.  He also judged the ministry works of man and replaced them with the 9 gifts of the Spirit.  The message is clear--the work of Jesus is all that God will accept.  Therefore, barrenness and fruitlessness in our lives is a clear sign that we are not appropriating the gifts and fruit of the Holy Ghost as God requires."

Have a blessed day in the LORD and keep looking up!  Jesus Christ is surely Soon2Come!