Golden Altar | Sonlight Devotional

Posts Tagged ‘Golden Altar’

The Prayer of the Saints

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged Firstfruits, Golden Altar, Prayer, Soul of Man on April 13, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Scripture reading: Romans 8:22-28

Revelation 8:3 says, “And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.”

The concerted prayer of the people of God and the cry of the people of God is coming from the whole earth and is coming up before God. God has ordained a special angel to present this. Let me show you exactly what happens to the prayers of the saints.

Romans 8:22-23, “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.” It is a cry for His kingdom to come, His will be done, in our earth even as it is done in heaven. Verses 24-26, “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. 26 Likewise the Spirit (not just the saints of God, but the Spirit of God, the Holy Ghost in us) also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”

God is Himself causing us to pray the right prayer. The Holy Spirit within us is groaning and causing us to groan and pray the right prayer to God so that the kingdom of God might come in the realm of earth even as it is in heaven.

Romans 8:27-28, “And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”

Revelation 8:3b, “And there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints…” What is the meaning of that? In the Tabernacle, the priest offers the incense at the Golden Altar. THE INCENSE IS A TYPE OF THE SOUL OF MAN. He was offering his soul and the souls of the people for the sins of the people and his own sins.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pg. 155)

Thought for today: Remember, God Himself is causing us to make right prayers through the groanings of the Holy Spirit within us.

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God’s Presence Within

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged Altar of Incense, Day of Atonement, Golden Altar, High Priest, Moses' Tabernacle on January 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Exodus 30:1-10

I pray that God might open our eyes that we might see His work in this hour, for I believe that those who behold will receive. I believe that God is making us to see the thing, and then to walk in it and receive it. I believe that He has begun to tell us in direct terms that we can now enter in. Formerly, we looked forward to the firstfruits and the resurrection of the Christ within us as something in the far future. But I am seeing that it is being offered to us as something that has already been done in the heavenlies, and that we are being encouraged to enter in.

Today, I want you to remember the Day of Atonement in the Old Testament times, when the priest would go through the veil. He had been preparing for this moment for a whole year. The day had come when he should go through the veil, and it was a fearful place. He had done all that was necessary in the tabernacle: the lamp was lit, the bread was changed, and he was now before the golden altar for the last time before going into the Holy of Holies, into the presence of God.

The Golden Altar was the place of the offering of the soul. The priest takes out a handful of incense and places it on the fire. The incense goes up into smoke, which tells him that God has accepted his prayers; and he says to God, “This is for my sins and for the sins of Israel.” He was offering his soul, because Israel had laid their hands on him to be their scapegoat, and he became their sin bearer. He was now ready to give up all, totally, to go through the veil. He might not return alive, because he was going into the very presence of God. He wanted to see God manifest His pleasure in his offering by shining forth in the Shekinah glory. It would shine from between the cherubim, but he was not able to look upon it. He would fall upon his face and worship God when the power of God came upon him.

We should notice that there is a deeper, inner work being done now in the hearts and lives of believers. Those who are really going on with God are going into a fullness they have never experienced before. The lamb was chosen ten days before he was offered and so there seems to be a selection going on in the Spirit as never before. Something in the individual seems to be saying, “I do not have much interest in the things of this life anymore.” It seems to me that there is something more important among the brethren, that their hearts are turning away from the world and turning more to God.

The hand of God is offering the people of God that fullness which we so long prayed for. “THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE…” seems no longer to be in the far future, but is being activated by the Spirit right now. I see God getting His people into shape, because He must have a people without spot or wrinkle.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, April 1997, pg. 1-2)

Thought for today: Let God’s deeper, inner work be done in your heart and life so that you may experience the fullness that is awaiting His people just round the corner. May your prayer today be, “Not my will, but thine be done.”

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Standard of Righteousness

Posted in Faith in God, tagged Genesis 22, Golden Altar, Holiness, Obedience to God, Righteousness on September 25, 2019| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Genesis 22:1-14

I want us to look at the place God is bringing us to. When you look in Genesis 22:1-14, you can read a little story about a flesh and blood man who pleased God. As you read through it, you will notice that verse 5 is a very peculiar verse. Just imagine: Abraham is carrying the boy to kill him, to offer him as a sacrifice, and he is telling the young men who was with them that, “He (Isaac) and I will come back.” Amen! Hallelujah! Now, that is some sort of faith! He was going to kill his son believing that God would raise him again from the dead.

Now there are a few other things that God has been showing me concerning this story. First of all, God made Abraham choose a site in the middle of Jerusalem. There was no Jerusalem there at the time, and on that site right now, the Mosque of Omar is covering the stone where Abraham offered up his son. I believe God preserved the site because He has something else to teach us. God did not want any Jewish temple to be put over it, and so He made the Arabs come along and put an abomination over the stone so that the Jews might not worship the ground.

The Lord is speaking to us through this story. What I want to talk to you about is “righteousness.” Righteousness! Abraham, as a physical, natural man, was not righteous; but the Bible said that because Abraham obeyed [believed] God, it was counted to him for righteousness (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3). So obedience became the standard of righteousness for us.

Now, if you obey God, you will also be righteous. As a matter of fact, you cannot be righteous without obeying God, and you cannot be holy without obeying God. Holiness is a requirement for seeing God. The Bible says in Hebrews 12:14 that you cannot see God unless you are holy. I am asking you, how many of you here are holy? Raise your hands. So then, you will not see God! Isn’t that what it says? I should think so! I should think that the Bible is saying that without being holy, “NO MAN SHALL SEE GOD!” Without holiness, no man shall see God, and without righteousness, you cannot serve God.

So, what are we looking at? What are we talking about? We are talking about God calling a people to the place of an altar. Do you know that the altar that Abraham built for his son was a type of the Golden Altar in the Tabernacle? Right there he was ready to kill him, but did he kill him? He did. Yes, he did. Amen! Jesus was slain from before the foundation of the world, yet Jesus walked up and down in Galilee and in Israel until He was slain on a cross. In other words, when a thing is done in the Spirit, it is done! God knew that Abraham was not fooling. He was coming down with that knife, because he knew that God said he should do it. God said he should do it, and so he was coming down with the knife. Now, God is talking to you about your Isaac!

We were discussing things that God would allow if God is good. If God knows everything I am going to do tomorrow, then, you see, as a fatalist, I can say, “Well, everything is all right. There’s nothing I can do! I really cannot do anything!” And yet, the Almighty God, Who made the heaven and the earth and all men, said to you, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Why should God be telling me that I should be perfect even as God is perfect if I cannot do anything about it? Don’t you see that you have the handle and you can do something about it?

There is something that God wants us to understand, and that is that we are unfinished work. I am not finished. I am an unfinished work, and God says the only way I can be finished is if I will do what He tells me to do to finish the work.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, November 1999, pg. 4-7)

Thought for today: Choose to obey God today so that it would be counted to you for righteousness.

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The Soul of Man Offered on the Golden Altar

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged Golden Altar, Hiding Place, Offering of the Soul, Revelation 4 on July 24, 2019| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Revelation 4:6-11

The soul is an area where spirits want to reign. Remember, the soul of man is the throne of God, therefore every other spirit desires to get in there to reign and to rule. When we accept Jesus, we receive a cleansing of the soul area – the mind, emotions, will, and desires. These areas are not yet fully possessed by the Lord Jesus. We have to surrender each area to the Lord. The sacrifice at the Golden Altar is where the soul of man is offered to God.

When the fifth trumpet is being blown, it is the fifth message to the soul of man. This message says that when we give God our heart, He will give us His kingdom. The heart of man, then, is being wooed by God. While this offering of the soul is being made, many other terrible things are happening (the pit is opened and so forth), but God has provided man a hiding place. Whenever we give our soul over to God, we come under the shadow of the Almighty (the sixth work of grace in the church). As we come under this shadow, hell literally breaks loose on earth. God will not allow the enemy to pour out his wrath upon the nations until His people are safe under His shadow. We see then that the fifth trumpet calls us to a place of safety. Those of us who obey this call will be under the shadow of the Almighty. When the sixth trumpet blows, we will already be safe.

We need to understand what God is saying to us, where we, the CHURCH, ARE at this time. We have been here for a long time. I have been saying from 1985 that we are at this point. God is bringing the church in. Some have been in longer than others. God is bringing people to the point where they do not want anything more of the world. They are fed up with the world. They hate the world and the things of the world. They want to submit everything to Christ. This is where we are! God is bringing us. The mind is being pulled towards thinking of nothing but Christ and the things of God. This is the work of the Golden Altar.

Those who turn back from the Golden Altar will go out to face the destruction in the world. Many men have turned from the Golden Altar without making the offering, not knowing that they have turned. They believe they are still going on. It is like a man going along a road lost, because the road is the wrong road, but he does not know it. He thinks he is going on the right road.

At this point of time God is requiring of every Christian AN OFFERING, and this offering is not from your pockets, it is from your soul! He wants your mind! He needs your emotions now! Unless your emotions are tied up and bound up under Christ, you are in trouble, because the enemy will be able to reach you. Brethren, our emotions (ANGER – and the things we use our emotions to do – many things – to love – to operate in the world), God is saying that OUR EMOTIONS must now come under God or we are in grave danger.

Where is our will? Is our will bound up with Christ or is it loose and hanging out there in a place of danger? The will must be offered to God even as the priest offered the burning incense praying for his soul and the soul of his people. As the incense burns and the smoke goes up before God, God accepts it because it is an offering of peace and an offering of righteousness. So it is that God is asking man to offer his will to God NOW!

The symbol of the will is the ox. In the Old Testament it was depicted as THE OX, a stubborn creature. In Revelation 4, when the will was brought under God, it was likened to a calf. A calf sucks milk and this is what GOD WANTS – THE CALF WILL, not the ox will. When the will is offered, it is transformed into a calf.

The last area of the soul to be offered is the desires. I once asked God, “How can I beat Satan at his game of tempting and disturbing and frustrating?” God said, “You can beat him by desiring nothing.” If you desire nothing, he has nothing to tempt you with. You cannot be tempted with something that you do not want. You are tempted with the things you want. This is the problem. If we could so control our desires that we put them entirely in God and we only want the things God wants for us, then we would be able to overcome every temptation of Satan. There is no way you can be tempted with something that you do not want or do not like. THE DESIRES then are depicted AS A MAN (Revelation 4:7), because the human being is a creature of desire. He has more desires than any other creature.

The mind is typed by the eagle, the flying eagle – restless, always flying high. The emotions are typed by the lion – savage, brutal. The will is typed by the ox. The desires are typed by the man. We have to get all these areas under the Spirit of God. When man has his mind, his emotions, his desires, and his will under God, then Christ can begin to come forth within the soul area of man and we receive the mind of Christ, the emotions of God, the will of the Father, and the desires of Christ.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pg. 178-179)

Thought for today: God is requiring of every Christian AN OFFERING, and this offering is from your soul!

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