Scripture reading: Proverbs 23:7
The horns of the Altar of Incense in the Tabernacle of Moses signify the absolute necessity of the work which they depict – the necessity of the soul being offered. The offering must be “without spot or blemish, a male of the first year.” God’s perfect offering is prime, not second grade. Many of us give God what is left of a life half lived for Him, but He wants the FIRST FRUITS of our lives. The term WITHOUT SPOT OR BLEMISH carries much meaning here. Hebrews 5:9 speaks of Jesus Christ on this wise,
“And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation.”
To the casual reader, this would suggest that Jesus was not perfect but was made perfect, BUT when we see the thing in the Spirit, then we understand that Jesus Christ could only be made the perfect sacrifice through BEING SACRIFICED. Thus, it was through His suffering that He became the perfect sacrifice. To be this, He had to suffer in the flesh. Here again, we have another scripture which has sometimes been misinterpreted by us.
1st Peter 4:1 says, “For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.”
It is a fact that many have suffered in the flesh and have not ceased from sin, therefore, the word “suffered” here must carry a specific spiritual meaning. The suffering in the flesh which God requires is not a type of penance as some think, but the RESISTING OF THE FLESH AND ALL its desires. Thus, suffering in the flesh destroys the power of the flesh life and immobilizes the force of its enticements. The mind of Christ leads us into this type of suffering.
When we look at the term “without spot or blemish,” we can see, therefore, that it speaks of a soul as the lamb of old without any scar or tarnish of sin, which has been thoroughly cleansed of God, and emptied of self, and offered to its Maker for His use. It is possible that a person can reach the stage right HERE AND NOW, where he or she does not sin with his Mind, neither with his or her Emotions, neither with the Will, nor with the Desire. When you are in this condition, then you only need to make sure that your motive for all this was not SELF. Self PRESERVATION could easily make a man get so smart with His God that he would submit and do all he needs to do. If self-anything is our motive, then self is still alive. All our motive must be GOD AND GOD ALONE. God’s people, God’s plan, God’s will. Lost, utterly lost in God, and absolutely rejecting that which we knew to be the thing called self. When Adam fell, his thought pattern fell. Now we rise and our thought pattern must rise.
“For as he thinketh in his heart, SO IS HE” Proverbs 23:7.
(Excerpt from The Pattern, 2nd Edition, 1995, pg. 139)
Thought for today: If self-anything is our motive, then self is still alive. All our motive must be GOD AND GOD ALONE.
Sonlight Devotional 