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This study may be freely posted on other bbs' and distributed to others provided this leader remains with the study text at all times. This study is primarily a coverage of the SPIRITUAL SYMBOLISM of INCENSE as it was used ceremonially in the Old Testament times. Since INCENSE is a "TYPE", or allegorical picture of prayer, it gives us a better understanding of the subject. ******************* THE INCENSE OF TRUE PRAYER ******************* Ephesians 6: 10) "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11) "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. " 12)"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places]. 13) "Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 14) "Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; 15) "And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16) "Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. 17) "And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 18) "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;" We broke off in the middle of the sentence for a purpose. As we look at verse 18 where Paul says, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit," we are looking at a text that many times creates confusion. People often ask, "How often should I pray and how much time should I spend in prayer?" We want to reemphasize that so many times people begin to see the Bible as JUST a set of spiritual rules and regulations rather than a guide for the spiritual life. We begin to try to interpret it in a manner of putting precise limitations and boundaries on something which goes beyond boundaries. You cannot put a length or a depth or a height upon that which is of the seventh dimension. Friend, anything which pertains to our spirit is seventh dimensional. It is of the spiritual realm. Certainly, prayer pertains to our spirit. In fact, if we only speak words of prayer with our mouth, we are not heard by God anyway. So, prayer has to originate from the spirit or heart; therefore, prayer must be in the seventh dimensional realm and cannot be measured by length. Prayer cannot be measured by volume. It is not how long, short, or loud that you pray which is important; nor is prayer fervency based upon how many tears that you shed. Fervency of prayer is not based upon the urgency of your voice tone because all of those things are of the third dimensional "FLESH" realm. If there is any one thing that we want to get across during this prayer study, it is to make sure that our prayer lives are not of a materialistic or legalistic nature. In other words, we do not want to set boundaries, lengths, volumes, the manner of speech, etc. We do not want to make people feel that we have to be in a certain position (such as on our knees or flat on our face). We may find that many times our fervency of spirit affects the manner in which we utter our prayer. It may affect the length of our prayer. It may affect whether or not we feel we want to show the Lord that we are willing to go to the effort of getting down on our knees to physically humble ourselves in a position which will demonstrate to God what we are trying to portray to Him through our hearts. What we are trying to get across is that NONE OF THOSE THINGS IN THEMSELVES MAKE REAL PRAYER! It is not how you pray or what you do when you pray, but IT IS THAT WHICH COMES FROM YOUR HEART that makes the difference in being heard by God or not being heard by God. We realize that if our heart is not in a right relationship with God, then no matter what we say or how we say it we are not going to be heard anyway. The Psalmist David said that if he regarded iniquity in his heart the Lord would not hear him. That is precisely the way God still works today. In Psalm 141 we have an example of prayer as the psalmist David cries out from his heart and says, "Lord, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee. Let my prayer be set forth before thee [as] incense [and] the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips. Incline not my heart to [any] evil thing, to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity: and let me not eat of their dainties. Let the righteous smite me; [it shall be] a kindness: and let him reprove me; [it shall be] an excellent oil, [which] shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also [shall be] in their calamities. When their judges are overthrown in stony places, they shall hear my words; for they are sweet. Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth [wood] upon the earth. But mine eyes [are] unto thee, O God the Lord: in thee is my trust; leave not my soul destitute. Keep me from the snares [which] they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity. Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape." This prayer is much more simple than many of David's other prayers. We would like to look and see if we can break it down some. Many times we need Him for a shoulder to cry on through times of trial. He does not mind that. Show me a father or mother who minds having their child cry on their shoulder when they are going through hard places and I will show you a mother or father who does not love their child. God did not mind David coming to Him with his prayer. In fact, not only did God see to it that it was written down, but He also saw that it was nurtured, protected, and kept so that you and I still have access to this inspiration of David's heart. In order to understand David's burden in uttering this prayer, I hope you have read the story of David's life enough to realize that he went through some very rough places. He was chosen, sent, and even given his position by God, but his fellow man did not necessarily agree with God. Therefore, David had a lot of enemies. If you and I stand for God as we should, we will stand in that same position at different times in our lives. The more that we try to do the will of the Lord, the more we will make enemies in doing so. The principles hold true no matter who the enemy might be. David starts out by crying to his Father as Lord. He said, "Lord, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee." Obviously, David did not believe as most religions today do that God is everywhere. As a matter of fact, even though he knew that God indwelt his heart, he still recognized that God had the means even within David's heart of holding Himself and His communication from David. It is still the same way today. God can dwell in our hearts and He can still close the door from time to time. He can still put us through some difficult circumstances. He can still allow us to stumble along on our own for a time to awaken us to our absolute dependence which we have upon God. The psalmist David realized this. That is why he cried out and said, "Lord, make haste unto me." What he is saying in effect from his heart is, "Lord, hurry and come to me. I desperately need you! PLEASE HURRY!" It was a cry of desperation. Friend, it was that kind of trust and dependence that allowed David to be such a close friend to God. David said in verse 2, "Let my prayer be set forth before thee [as] incense; [and] the lifting up of my hands [as] the evening sacrifice." What he is saying is, "Let my prayer be to you as what incense typifies." Evidently David was praying with his hands outstretched symbolic of reaching out towards heaven, and he said "let this appear as the evening sacrifice". Verse 3 says, "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips." Here is a man saying, "Lord, I want you to accept my prayer. I am going to set my prayer before you; I beg you to accept my prayer." The first thing that he asks in his prayer is, "Put a watch over my mouth and the door of my lips." Could it be that David agreed with James? Could it be that David was in agreement in fact with many of the Bible writers? He recognized that one of his greatest dangers in striving to approach the Lord in prayer was what he would say with his lips? We can talk about prayer and say that prayer is a means of our approach to God. We can say what a privilege prayer is and talk about whether or not it should be long or short and all of these things, but the real problem which we have to deal with in approaching God is the problem of our being prepared for that approach. We must be in a proper condition to approach Him. One of the main reasons why there are times when our prayers are not acceptable unto God has to do with the very things David has mentioned in Psalms 141:3. David approaches the Lord and says, "Lord, I need you to come quickly, I need you to accept my prayer, and I NEED YOU EVEN TO PUT A WATCH BEFORE MY MOUTH AND KEEP THE DOOR OF MY LIPS." He was not asking God to put a temporary watch on his lips. He was realizing that the very lips that he was going to use to speak to God were the very lips that he used to speak to everybody else. For example, let's say that David had been like a lot of us as human beings and that earlier that day David had lost control of his temper. Maybe he spoke to someone in a manner that was not a proper witness for a child of God. Now David is saying, "Lord, if I have spoken differently to others than I have to you, I need you to help set a WATCH over my mouth. Put a door on my lips." Why? So the speech comes across the same. It does not do any good to say, "Oh Father, you are so wonderful," if you just blasted one of His other children. Verse 4 continues, "Incline not my heart to [any] evil thing, to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity: and let me not eat of their dainties." The term dainties comes from a Hebrew word which means "sweets"; "that which is likeable"; "that which is enticing." David is saying in effect, "Lord, I do not just need you to cause my heart to be inclined away from things which are evil. Lord I need you to help me so that I do not take opportunity to receive of those things which the wicked have to offer that are acceptable yet enticing." He is saying, "Lord, I would rather have the WORST of the righteous and what they have to offer than the BEST of the wicked and what they have to offer." He says, "Do not let me eat of the dainties of the wicked but let the righteous smite me." In other words, he is saying, "I would rather the righteous would hit me than to enjoy the goodies of the wicked." Do we feel that way? You may say, "I want my prayer answered." Well here is a good example of how to get it answered. Did David get his answered? Yes, he did! David lived a miraculous life. In spite of his sufferings and sorrows, David was brought through miraculously time after time, detail after detail. God brought deliverance. The Lord used him in such a great way and to such a great extent that when it came to the prophecies of the coming of Jesus Christ, it was not said that Jesus would sit on Solomon's throne, Saul's throne, nor the throne of any of the other kings of Israel or Judah. All of the prophecies speak of Jesus sitting upon David's throne. David was special, and if so, then his prayers were special in the eyes of God. If God saw fit to record them in the Bible, they had to be special. So David prayed, "Do not let me eat of their dainties. Do not let me partake in their good; NOT EVEN THE GOOD of those who are unrighteous." Verse 5 continues, "Let the righteous smite me; [it shall be] a kindness: and let him reprove me; [it shall be] an excellent oil, [which] shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also [shall be] in their calamities." He is saying, "I am still going to be praying for them in their hardships and the terrible things that are coming upon them. This oil upon my head will be like a healing balm that will help me to have the right attitude for my enemies". He said, "Let the righteous smite me; [it shall be] a kindness." He means if the righteous deal with him it will help him to look upon his enemies and pray for them in their sorrow. In verse 7 he said, "Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth [wood] upon the earth." Have you ever cut wood or seen someone cut wood? Don't the blocks of wood get kind of scattered around when you are cutting it up? Symbolically speaking, he is saying our bones are scattered at the graves mouth. In other words, we are nigh unto death and near distress. It is almost as though our bones are laying out here scattered all over the place. Why did he feel that way? Because of the sorrow, heartache, and opposition which he was going through. He said in verse 8, "But mine eyes [are] unto thee, O God the Lord:" Look at this thing that David was going through in a general sense for a moment. David's particular need was that he was being pursued even to the point that multitudes wished to bring about his death. Couldn't this be applied in a way that could fit every single form of personal need that you and I have in the physical realm? For example, let's say you have a severe affliction upon your body. Isn't this a form of enemy? Isn't it pursuing you, coming after you to destroy you? Isn't that what an affliction is? Material and financial troubles are like an enemy following after you, striving to destroy you financially, physically, materially, and even spiritually. David recognized where the source of his strength was. He did not say, "But mine eyes are upon my problems." He did not say, "Lord, I am looking hard at those problems. I will not take my eyes off of them. I will not forget them. I remember them every waking moment." He did not say that. He said, "But mine eyes [are] unto thee, O God the Lord: in thee is my trust; leave not my soul destitute (or afflicted, or needy, or sorrowing)." "Keep me from the snares [which] they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity. Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape (Psalm 141:9-10)." He said, "Let the traps they set for me spring and catch them." You may say, "That is not a nice prayer." When you come right down to it, whether that prayer is nice depends upon what the feeling of your heart really is. The devil sets traps for God's people. The devil's people set traps for God's people. Do they get caught in their own traps? That is the continual circumstance of their life isn't it? Does God want that to happen? You may say, "I want to see them get help and get saved." Well they will not get help and be saved until they get awakened to their condition. They will not be awakened if they do not keep falling into their own traps. If you set a trap for somebody else and you never fall into it, if you never find out what it feels like to go through it, you will never awaken to the need of ceasing to do such. The psalmist David was not praying for personal revenge. What he is saying is, "Lord, let them fall into their own traps and their own snares. Let them be caught by that which they are striving to bring against me so that in effect, it will show them what kind of people they really are." Looking at the whole prayer, let us break it down very simply. The psalmist David begins by expressing to the Lord that He is Lord. He expresses to Him the purpose of his coming. He is crying out. He is in need. He is in desperation. He shows him that he recognizes his own need. He realizes the need of having a watch, having a door upon his mouth. He recognizes the need of having his heart inclined away from those dainties of the wicked and being willing to accept even the most dreadful things that would come upon those who are God's people through those who are God's people, so to speak. He goes on and shows how severe the enemy is coming against them; yet he prayed for them in spite of it. Didn't Job do the same thing when he prayed for his comforters who were actually false comforters and acted as enemies? David is doing the same thing in his prayer. He is expressing, "Lord, I am actually praying for these people." You may say, "Yes, but his prayer is a terrible thing; he prayed that they would fall into their own traps." Let me ask you this. Let's say that you have someone who is lost. Do you think you would be doing them good or justice if you prayed for God to keep them from having any hard places, heartaches, or afflictions along the way? Do you believe that you would be praying rightly? The Bible shows us not to fret ourselves because of the prosperity of the wicked. Friend, it is the prosperity of the wicked which results in the fact that God is not dealing with the wicked. If someone is miserable, it shows that God is at least making an attempt to do something with them. If they are not totally honest hearted, at least He is trying to change their ways for the good of His kingdom and on your own behalf. Things always have to get worse to bring a change. You may say, "They are setting traps for me. How can they get any worse than that?" Try to picture in your mind someone setting a trap for you. They go out and get caught in it. They are going to blame it on you because the trap was there. If it had not been for you, the trap would not have been there and they would not have been caught in it. You may say, "That is ridiculous reasoning." That is the only kind that people ever come up with if they are not following the Lord. Look at the picture David is painting. The wicked person is saying in effect, "I set a trap for you the righteous. I fell in the trap and was caught. I got hurt in the trap. This is terrible. I hate you worse than ever because if it had not been for you, there would not have been a trap in the first place." You sit there and look at them and think, "What in the world? I never heard of such stupid reasoning." That is the analogy, the way that it looks to one in these circumstances. So, it appears that things are getting worse but do you know what may come about as the result of it once they finish fuming, spouting, and carrying on? Do you know what the end result may be? They finally do get their senses back and they finally do realize it is not really your fault after all. They finally realize that if they had not been so hateful and set the trap, they would not have been caught in it. If they get their minds straightened out where they can see straight, then maybe they will get straightened out themselves. As long as they have a trap set and nothing is happening, you will never get them to wake up. They have to get caught in their trap first. They have to do some screaming and yelling first. Then, just maybe, they might wake up to their real condition and need. This gives us the whole theme of David's prayer wrapped up in the thought of expressing his own need. He shows his own need and unworthiness. He shows his utter need of God. He pours out his heart concerning his difficulties and then he sums it all up by saying, "But Lord, it is you whom I am trusting in and all of these difficulties amount to nothing as long as you are taking care of things." Then he finally finishes it out by saying, "Lord, I know what is going to help my enemies. You let them be caught in their own traps. This is going to start the process over again. They are going to be madder than ever at me for awhile, but it might wake them up." David expressed a lot of things in these few short words. You could pray this prayer in a matter of moments, but he covered a lot of detail. One of the central thoughts that we want to expand ties in with this condition which David asked God about in the second verse where he speaks of the incense. He says, "Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." Look at the first half of that verse where he is stressing that he wants his prayer to come before God as incense. Let's cover some scriptures which will help us understand that the incense represents prayer. Revelation 5:8 tells us, "And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four [and] twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints." I have always thought it was interesting how people get so mixed up in their teachings by literalizing part and spiritualizing part and mixing it all together right in the same context. I realize that there are times when statements within the context could show us to do that very same thing, but if there are no such statements, we had better be careful to be consistent with our manner of interpretation. The verse of Revelation that we just read is a statement which concerns several things. NO ONE would argue (if they have any knowledge of the Bible at all) about the identity of the "LAMB". All Bible students will agree that the "Lamb" is a symbol of Jesus. However, many people turn right around and talk about people LITERALLY playing harps in heaven. In fact, that doctrine IS COMMONLY taught throughout the realm of "professed christianity" today. If we are to gain real truth from this or any other text of scripture, we MUST be consistent in interpretation. If the "LAMB" is symbolic in Revelation 5:8 (and it is), and the verse itself explains that the "golden vials full of odors" are symbolic, then all that pertains to those symbols will also be symbolic. This means that the following are ALL symbolic (among other things): 1. The "four beasts" (should be obvious from description). 2. The 24 "elders" 3. The "harps". 4. The "book". 5. The "golden vials". 6. The "odours". If you will notice, the word "odours"' is translated from a Greek word which means incense. This is in the center reference in most Bibles. He is saying this incense is a symbol of the prayers of saints. We know that this incense is not LITERALLY the prayers of saints. He is speaking symbolically, that this incense is the prayers of the the saints. In Revelation 8:1-3 we see a similar symbol: "And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer (or a golden bowl); 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." We know that the prayers of the saints are symbolized by incense, and now this angel is given MUCH incense to offer with the incense of the prayers of the saints. Anybody with any understanding of scriptural principles will realize that this angel is Jesus Christ and the incense which he is offering is his own prayers of intercession. This pictures the high priestly work of Jesus Christ offering intercession in behalf of the saints as he offers up HIS prayer before God along with the prayers of God's people. In Exodus 30:7-8 in the "type" of the tabernacle we see pictured another example of the "type" of PRAYER. "And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning (This is speaking of the altar of incense which he has just described.): 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." If you will notice, Aaron is to burn incense every morning and every evening, and it is called a PERPETUAL incense. In other words, he puts the incense on to burn of the morning and he puts the incense on to burn in the evening, but it is a PERPETUAL incense. Paul's words are, "Praying always." I have met people who took that verse of scripture in Ephesians 6 and actually interpreted it that if they were to be totally without sin in their manner of prayer, they could not even so much as go to sleep without somehow committing a prayer to their subconscious mind where they would "dream" a prayer all night. Some people believe that they actually have to pray twenty-four hours a day OR that they must at least be in prayer during every hour they are not asleep in order to be praying always. Paul's preaching was based on Old Testament typology. What Paul said was based on what Paul understood of these very simple types. It is obvious that they are types. Paul said so in the Hebrew letter. He said all of these things pertaining to the tabernacle are examples or types of heavenly things, or spiritual things. So he is showing us that they were to offer this incense perpetually. Yet, they considered it perpetual as long as they practiced it regularly every day. A lot of times people will say, "I will pray at a certain time every morning and a certain time every evening." That is fine. There is nothing wrong with that as long as we don't fail to take advantage of EVERY OTHER opportunity for us to pray during each day. A lot of people say, "I pray before I eat." That is one kind of prayer. It is a sanctifying process from God, but it is not the type of prayer that will get you by day after day. A prayer before eating is good. It is ordained by God and taught by the scriptures, but that is just one kind of praying. Let's examine some of these principles which pertain to our prayer life (from the type) and see if we can learn how we are supposed to pray in this particular manner. In the earlier portion of Exodus 34 he has described the altar and the usage of the incense, but now in verse 34 he is going to tell us how the incense is made. In type, he is going to tell us how this prayer is made. If the incense is a type of prayer, then wouldn't the ingredients and compounding the ingredients be a picture of how to pray? It is not something that we can deal with in the thought of "do this and do not do that." We can learn about this form of prayer by looking at the types. Exodus 30:34-38 says: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; [these] sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like [weight]. And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure [and] holy: And thou shalt beat [some] of it very small, and put of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee: it shall be unto you most holy. And [as for] the perfume which thou shalt make, ye shall not make to yourselves according to the composition thereof: it shall be unto thee holy for the Lord. Whosoever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto, shall even be cut off from his people." You may say, "This is not talking about incense; it is talking about perfume." I would challenge you to look up the word translated perfume in the Hebrew. Even in Strong's concordance it will show you it is exactly the same word which is translated "incense". If the translators had been consistent, then this would say in verse 35, "And thou shalt make it an incense, a confection after the art of the apothecary." In verse 37 it would say, "And as for the incense which thou shalt make." The reason that it is translated perfume is because incense was a form of perfume. It put forth a sweet smell. Let's look at these ingredients. We will take them one at a time. The text says that the incense must be properly compounded. In other words, it says that there is to be a balance, a like weight of each and every ingredient. What does this mean? We have taught over and over again how that anything we do for God needs to have a proper balance. Prayer needs a balance as well. Prayer must be balanced in its "ingredients" then. Aren't we inclined (as human beings) that if we have a particular problem, it is about all God hears from us in our prayers? Are we susceptible to the type of praying that if we are really going through something difficult, or if we are really needing help, aren't we inclined to say, "Lord, thank you for everything; I praise you for everything you've done for me. Now Lord, for the next forty-five minutes you are going to hear how bad my problem is and how much I need help." Or do we balance our prayers by spending some time thanking God for what He has done, and truly giving Him the honour, praise, and glory for what He has already accomplished while striving not to spend any more time or place any more emphasis upon our own needs? Do we cover all of the different categories which make up a good "blend of incense", or are we inclined to just be spiritual beggars ("Gimme, gimme God.")? We must remember that one of the greatest characteristics of this incense was "of EACH shall there be a LIKE WEIGHT"; equal amounts of each part and everything properly in balance. (A) Looking at the ingredients of God's recipe for incense (prayer), the Hebrew word translated "stacte" means "to ooze forth as drops". The Hebrew word translated "stacte" is only translated that way in this one place. In Micah 2:6 the word "prophesy" is used three times, and every one of them comes from this same Hebrew word. Could "prophesying" be an "oozing forth" of the Word of God like "drops" or small portions falling from heaven in order to supply the whole "picture" of the will of God? Deuteronomy 32:1-2 says: "Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:" This word translated "drop" is not the same word in the Hebrew; however it is a word sufficiently close in its relationship as to have almost exactly the same meaning. What he is saying is, "My doctrine shall drop as the rain (i.e. my doctrine shall prophesy as the rain; my doctrine shall ooze forth as droplets of rain)". In other words, God says that He sends His doctrine in little tiny "drops" or small portions. Yet we need MANY drops of His word in order not to be suffering from SPIRITUAL drought (even as is true literally). This word "stacte" would symbolize something oozing, flowing forth, and dropping. Even the translators saw fit to translate the Hebrew form as "prophesy", which we realize pertains to the word of God. Does the word of God have something to do with our prayers? Does God love His Word? YES! Therefore He likes to be reminded of His Word. He likes for us to speak of His Word when we pour out our hearts to Him in prayer (and I am not talking about just quoting scripture). In fact, the first ingredient in the list of ingredients for incense (as a type of prayer) is that which pictures (symbolically) the word of God. Why would God want us to make use of His Word in prayer? Why would He want us to say, "Lord, you said, 'Thus and thus'?" Think about it. How many little children say, "But Daddy, you said....; Mommy, you said...." It is strange how small children remember better than Mommy and Daddy do. Of course, in God's case it is different. He does not forget. We do not have to speak of it to remind Him. He wants to know whether or not we believe what He said. I do not mean that we should speak to Him in a demanding way. A small child who will say, "Dad, you said it was going to be this way, NOW YOU DO IT!" needs his mouth fixed even if you have to do it from the other end. That is not a right attitude for a child to manifest towards his parent and it is certainly not right for us to act that way toward God. We are not saying as the "prosperity movement" of today, "God, you have to give me this. You owe it to me because you said so!" We are not teaching that kind of attitude. Instead, we are to come to God with this thought: "Father, Jesus told me he would never forsake me and that where he is is where You are. Sometimes I feel as if I am getting far away from You, but You have promised me that You will not let that happen so I am depending on You being there. I know that You are hearing me. Father, and You told me that You would not put on me anymore than I could bear; so I know that what I am going through is not too big a load because You know how much I can bear and I do not." You do not have to quote that statement word for word. God is not interested in you quoting it so much as He is interested in you knowing what it means. When I was a child, all of the churches stressed memorization of the scriptures. They had contests and all kinds of things going on so that people would memorize what the Bible said. I was memorizing what it said and did not have the slightest idea of what it meant. In fact, I was not even paying any attention to its meaning because I was so interested in winning the prizes by being able to say what it said. That is why that when I went into the ministry I completely ceased trying to attempt to memorize scripture. If we happen to remember it, it is because of the fact that we use it a lot and it sometimes gets stuck there in our mind. God never said that we should memorize the Bible. The Psalmist David said that he hid God's word in his heart, and that is what you and I need to do. The WORD of GOD is what the Bible MEANS; NOT WHAT IT SAYS. We could pray in this manner: "Father, the psalmist David made the statement I am thinking of but I know that You inspired him to write it down. He said that he had never seen the righteous forsaken or Your seed begging bread. Father, I am trusting. I know that You are going to take care of me. You spoke through Jesus and he made the statement that You even see the little sparrows when they fall. Even the very hairs of my head are numbered. Father, You said that. I believe it. I believe You are concerned about me. I really need your help." So many times people approach the Lord in prayer and they say, "Lord, please do this, and Lord, please give me that." When it is all over, they go away and forget what they said because they did not really expect Him to do anything anyway. They are not a bit surprised with what happens. They are not a bit surprised when they find out that nothing happened, because they did not expect anything to happen. I do not know why they even waste their time praying. God is not hearing them anyway, as it does not come from their heart. It is His Word which means so much to Him. It is His Word that He wants to mean so much to us. Because everything focuses and centers around His Word, then God is desirous for you and I to make use of His Word in our approach to Him. He wants us to bring it to Him. What Father would not feel at least a little bit appreciative of a little child who comes up and says, "Daddy, do you remember that you told me when I got the stuff picked up in my room, and the garbage taken out, and the dishes washed, that you would play ball with me? Do you want to come look at the dishes, and my room and the garbage can? (Hint, hint!)" If you were that child's dad, would you get mad and say, "I will do it in my own good time. You just leave me alone!" Surely not!!! If you did not mean it in the first place, you should not have said it. We, as human mothers and fathers may fail in that direction, but God does not. God says what He means and does what He says. Therefore, we can depend on Him. We cannot have the attitude, "I have You backed in a corner God, You have to do this because You said so." We cannot have the attitude of trying to pin Him down and force Him to do something because He said so. We must not approach Him in that manner, but rather in simple faith saying, "Father, you said it, I believe it and now I am trusting and waiting on it." That kind of "oozing forth" (not under pressure) of God's promises and our acceptance of WHAT He has promised (by faith and not by sight) is stacte. It is like the word of God oozing forth from our life and providing one of the ingredients for this precious incense (prayer). (B) The next ingredient, "onycha", is also (like "stacte") a word which is not commonly used in the scriptures. It is a word which has much to do with the sweet smell of this incense. The word in the Hebrew from which "onycha" is translated means several things. Sometimes in classical usage it means a fingernail, or a shell such as a mussel, clam, or creature of this sort. In this particular case it speaks of the shell of a certain form of mussel or mollusk, a shell creature which was commonly found along the shore of the Mediterranean. Stacte was a product of some small trees found up around Syria, but onycha is a product of the Mediterranean Sea. All of these ingredients for the incense are within a reasonable distance of the area of Palestine. All of these ingredients which God required were to be found at sufficient distances that it took some effort to collect them and to bring them together. While Syria was on the northern end of Palestine, the Mediterranean Sea was along the western edge of Palestine. This "onycha" had a shell which, when ground into powder and added to the mixture of incense, produced a very sweet, aromatic smell. Notice what was necessary in order that the onycha shell might be used in the mixture which formed the incense. It had to be GROUND TO POWDER. Can you imagine trying to mix this concoction together and leaving whole shells from these mollusks in it? The Bible shows us that the incense had to be beaten into a very fine powder. What would this onycha portray to us then? This is an ingredient which is aromatic in the sense that it has a sweet smell. However, in order to emit this sweet smell, two things are required: 1. It must be ground up into a very fine powder. 2. It must be burnt in the fire. What "large item" is in our prayer life which requires the most effort to break it down very fine, yet when it is broken down it produces a sweet smell? It is something which is an ingredient in our prayer life. We do not have any scripture which comes right out and tells us what this "onycha" represents, as this is the only place where the word is used in the entire Bible. We must try to determine what is the hardest thing to break down and grind into "powdered form" in our lives. It will be something that affects our prayer life. There is something in our life which is like an old hard shell. There is nothing wrong with a hard shell as long as you grind it up. The trouble is that if you are STILL hard shelled, then you have not been ground up. Can God use our flesh-life if it is beaten to a pulp (symbolically)? I am not advocating physical abuse. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:27, "I keep under my body, and bring [it] into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." He was talking about humbling down his flesh and "powdering" it into subjection. The symbolism he is using has to come from old testament writings and their symbolism. He said he was keeping his body "pounded down", or in other words, he was humbling it or (symbolically) grinding it up, pulverizing it, and beating it to powder. If we keep our body under (our flesh), and if we bring it down and make it submit, can sweetness come forth from it? Can that which we express in our attitudes, desires, emotions, and actions of our life actually be sweet? Does the Bible teach us that our flesh can actually be brought under the authority of the word of God and ruled by the word of God? Can our bodies actually be made to do all things to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31)? Does our Bible teach us that these fleshly bodies, these earthen vessels which we have, contain a treasure? In 2 Cor. 4:7, Paul made the statement that, "we have this treasure in earthen vessels", and he was speaking of the glorious "light" of the word of God. That means there is something very precious within these earthen vessels. You may say, "That is right, but it is because it is within our spirit." That is true, but our spirit permeates through us just as this sweet smelling savor permeated throughout the onycha shell. Once it was beaten up, pounded upon, pulverized, and made into a fine powder, all of this strong sweet smell was able to come out. Somehow, permeating through us is this treasure of God's precious WORD. It is IN these old "hard shell" bodies of flesh that we contain (as in a "vessel") this "treasure". Someone may say, "We already have the word of God in the first ingredient", but Paul made the statement in Ephesians 6:11 to "put on the whole armour of God", and then he named off what that armour consisted of. In one manner or another, every single piece of the armor relates to the word of God. Every piece of our "garments", our "weapons", etc. is provided by the word of God. Anything which has to do with the spiritual realm is going to be connected with the word of God. You can expect to find the word of God somehow portrayed in every aspect of our prayer life. We have one part of it where we can actually speak of it to our heavenly Father. Now we have an "ingredient" of it where we can actually exude the sweet smelling savor of the WORD in the presence of our heavenly Father. There is an abundance of scripture which in some way relates to this thought. For example, the fact that God states that strong stand which He has against sweat. He hates the smell of sweat because that is the exuding of the natural product of the flesh. That is what the flesh smells like in itself, but you beat the flesh down, spiritually speaking, and pulverize it with the word of God. Remember, the Bible says the word of God is a hammer. Well, if it is a hammer, all that you have to do is take that hammer to your shell and beat it to a pulp and you have all of this good smell which can come out. Every single person who has ever served God and blessed God has done so in their flesh, but to do so they have had to beat their flesh down with the hammer of the word of God and beat it to a powder, pulverize it, put the fire to it, and let the smoke ascend to heaven. You may say, "You have to have two witnesses to prove it." Well, those witnesses do not have to use the same statement, word, or symbol. Those witnesses only have to point to the same principle in type. We have plenty of them. Most people go to church and God takes His Word, using it as a hammer, and pounds on them. They get cracked and broken in pieces, and they go home and say, "He did not have any right to do that." They haul out the glue and start patching themselves up. Actually, what they should do is to keep all of the little pieces and bring them back the next service so that they can get pounded down a little finer. The preacher is not doing the hammering, but God is. So, we have two ingredients both having to do with the word of God. When we approach the Lord in prayer, we have to have a knowledge of Him in order to say, "Father, you said this and I know you are going to do it because I believe it." We have to have knowledge of His Word to even know what He desires for our life. We have to have the word of God to break this flesh down and pound it into powder or else there cannot be anything sweet coming forth out of it. The word of God is essential to pray. (C) The third ingredient, galbanum, means in the basic Hebrew "a richness or fatness." It is something in an extravagant sense. When we think of fat, we think of excess rather than the essential. Again, we are faced with a word which we do not find in any other scriptures so we have to look at this thought within its context. The only thing this could possibly refer to is that which we must offer to the Lord in prayer. It is that which is beyond what is of necessity and essential for life; that which is the richness, fatness, or excess, so to speak. This would have to do with our giving forth praise. So far we have stacte, onycha, and galbanum which altogether will form the kind of prayer life which God would want us to have. We have the oozing forth of God's Word. We can speak to our heavenly Father of those things which He has promised us. We have the crushing, grinding, and beating down to powder of our flesh in order that the Lord might be blessed and glorified in it. So that is an humbling of ourselves. In other words, it requires the word of God to approach God in prayer. It requires an humbling of ourselves to approach God in prayer. It requires a pouring forth of richness or excess which, of course, would have to do with that which is beyond what is required or essential. It has to do with the pouring out and praise, extra glory unto the Lord. You could purely address the Lord to the exact need, but He wants more than that from us in a balanced prayer life. It is just like a child going to his father. He could say, "Dad, I am hungry. I need something to eat. Amen." The word "amen" means "let it be so." Dad would appreciate it a lot more if he would emphasize how much he appreciates that he has fed him in the past, and that he is trusting him to do so again. That is a whole lot better attitude, isn't it? In the same sense we could say, "God, I need this. Let it be so. (Amen.)" God does not want that kind of prayer. He wants a balance of all of these ingredients. Therefore, we see the richness, the fat, or the excess more than what is the essential for life or more than what is absolutely required. We must have an outpouring in our prayer life of something which will be beneficial and pleasing to God. Do you believe that one aspect of our prayer life is our praise and appreciation to God for those things which He has already provided? Do you believe He would be so likely to provide more if we do not even thank Him for what He has already provided? We do not have a lot of proof texts to be able to make usage of the terminology. Instead, we have to take the meaning, the term, and what it represents, and look at it in its context. We must take it within what the Bible shows to be the characteristics of true prayer. We could preach the same message from other texts. I am just using this one because the Lord led us into this particular passage for this time. Also, it brings together all of these different characteristics into one. It is a very quick study, whereas, other in areas we have to go into depths here and there. These characteristics can be proven and if I felt you were not already somewhat familiar with them, we would go to some new testament writings and would verify what we are saying. I believe we already know that what we receive from God is to be received with prayer and thanksgiving. (D) After those sweet spices, it says that there was to be pure frankincense mixed into each one with each one being balanced together in equal weight. "Frankincense" means "to be white." Of course that is easy symbolism. White symbolizes purity and the righteousness which we must have to go to God in prayer. We know that we are to have as great a degree of righteousness in ourselves by striving to live in a way to please the Lord. What if we fall short of absolute purity and righteousness? What if we are spotted, tainted, or not in ourselves perfectly white? How do we have the opportunity to mix in the frankincense so that it is balanced in the picture? Through Jesus Christ. He is our "white." He is our purity and our righteousness. Therefore, part of our prayer should be the emphasis from our heart. It is not how we say it or how long we take saying it, nor how we word it, but that expression from our heart of our realization of our need. No matter how much we have accomplished, or how far we have grown spiritually, we still have a desperate need of absolute righteousness in Jesus Christ. That is something which needs to be expressed in a full, complete opportunity to go before the Lord in prayer. Generally, this incense of prayer is our private prayer life. It is very difficult in public prayer to have enough time to have the opportunity to go into all of these things. Normally, public prayer is for a particular purpose at the moment. This is our prayer closet praying, so to speak. In this prayer closet praying, we need to be able to communicate with the Lord as the stacte illustrates, to take the opportunity of showing Him that we believe His Word. We have accepted what He has said and believe it will come to pass. We need to be able to express to Him our nothingness and unworthiness. We need to take our flesh and grind it to powder, so to speak, in our own mind and His sight. Then the word of God can flow forth from our being and be a sweet smelling savor for the Lord. We need to be able to bring forth this richness before the Lord as we pour out our heart in praise unto God. We need to be able to express all of these things coming to God through Jesus Christ, realizing how desperately we stand in need of Jesus in order to be able to approach the throne of grace. Those four ingredients must be blended together, but don't make that something where you time it by a clock for each type of prayer. Whatever you do, do not make prayer into something legalistic. Do not ever make prayer into something which you try to time out, or plan out, but try to bring those four ingredients into your private prayer life every opportunity you have to come before the Lord. It will definitely enhance your relationship with God and you will see more prayers answered, not just in the sense of the Lord saying, "yes," or "no," but in the sense of your being able to know that God definitely heard and moved in behalf of the need for which you were praying. The four ingredients were to be mixed together and then they were to take a small portion of it and beat it very small. In other words, it has to be a fresh preparation of each portion. It was not sufficient to make use of these ingredients in a large quantity and then let them go for a long time. Before usage each portion had to be beaten very fine at that time. Let's look at Psalms 51 and see if we can see a picture of what this is portraying to us. In Psalms 51 we have David's prayer of confession and asking forgiveness for his sin. He had fallen into sin with Bathsheba and had Uriah killed. David is really pouring his heart out before the Lord. He makes a statement which fits in with our symbolism which we are studying. He said, "For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give [it]: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God [are] a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise (Psalms 51:16-17)." Any child knows that to break something means to render it into smaller pieces. Even if you break a plate into two pieces, it is still two pieces which are smaller than the original. To break something indicates to reduce it in size as far as the individual parts. When we see in Exodus 30 that it is to be broken very fine, it means to be broken and broken and broken again. Through the years we have tried to aid in this breaking process by what we teach concerning sin, our nothingness, and our unworthiness outside of God. We have tried to teach what the Bible portrays about mankind within himself. We have tried to do that in such a manner as to keep us in this attitude to where we can approach the Lord with a broken and contrite heart and spirit. One of the greatest problems we face in the religious world today has to do with people becoming inflated with their egos and all excited about their own achievements feeling that they are something. Really, the only manner in which we can approach God is in this broken condition. We have to picture ourselves as being pulverized into powder. Everyone has seen wheat which has been made into flour. It did not start out that way, it had to be ground into that condition. Even so, God said this mixture had to be broken down. So, what we bring before God has to be FRESHLY administered in the sense of breaking it down and detailing it for each time which it is used. The shell of the onycha had been broken down and reduced to very fine-sized particles. However, just before it was used, the priest had to take it and break it down into finer particles. He had to take the overall mixture and pulverize it so that it was very fine. Unless that is accomplished, most of it will be wasted. There will be very little sweet smell come forth when the fire is placed underneath it. It will not provide much incense or sweet smelling savor. How do we bring these ingredients and actually break them down as we approach the Lord in prayer? Is it something we can do once and after that just say, "Ditto, Lord, I mixed it last week"? You may say nobody prays that way. That is true, but sometimes there is a temptation to think, "Well, I already told Him this once. He already knows it, so this time I will just make it quick. I have already said, 'Lord, Your Word says, and I believe it.' So this time I will just say, 'Lord, I believe your Word. Do it'." It might not be quite that bad, but don't we have a tendency as human beings in the flesh to remember that we have said those things before? You may say, "But the Bible says not to pray with vain repetition." The way some people talk you would think the Bible said not to pray with repetition. Isn't there a difference between praying with repetition and praying with VAIN repetition? Jesus taught that because of the man's importunity, because he came back again and again seeking in behalf of his need, that he received the answer which he was desiring. Jesus sought the Lord three times before he settled it as far as going to his crucifixion. Paul sought the Lord three times before God answered Him that His grace was sufficient. Even in that, you have to recognize that the three was stressed for a reason. Three is the number of the flesh. Paul sought the Lord symbolically speaking just as much as he could, and approached the Lord within his fleshly means as much as his fleshly conditions and circumstances would allow him. I know Paul approached the Lord three times because he said that he did, but that is symbolic of our seeking the Lord too as often as our flesh can be broken down. As long as our flesh can be beaten down and powdered to the extent of approaching the Lord as we should, there is no limitation. There are places in the scripture where some people have jumped to the conclusion that God will only grant forgiveness a limited number of times. Some people think it is seven times. Others go to where Jesus spoke to Peter and think it is seventy times seven. I am sure God has had to forgive every one of us more than 490 times. When I say every one of us, I am speaking of mankind as a whole. The terminology was symbolic. Paul's life was not to picture three times. Jesus' example was not to picture three times. It was to show us that as long as we feel a need of breaking this flesh and approaching the Lord in behalf of any particular need, we can do so. If you feel that after three times, three dozen, three hundred or whatever, that God has answered or heard and said, "I heard you but it is not going to happen that way," or at least given you a definite answer, then that is time to stop praying about that and pray for something else. Do not put a numerical figure on how many times you must approach the Lord for any particular need. Just because we have gone to the Lord in a great deal of prayer and had a real season of prayer with Him, it can pose a grave danger for us to just go to Him again and say, "Well, here I am again Lord. I still have those same needs. I still love you just as much and praise you just as much. Bye." That will not do the job. Look at the natural. A child might say, "Dad, I talked to you a lot last week. I do not have much time today so I will just have to say ditto to everything that I said last week. See you later." I do not believe that sounds like a very loving relationship between a father and son. Prayer is a blessing. It is a privilege. It is a means of communication. It is something which we have to be careful lest we see as some form of drudgery, a religious requirement which we have to do. It is a privilege as is everything which God teaches us. You may say, "I HAD to give this up. I HAD to give that up when I started going to church down there." I have never known of God holding a gun on anybody, and I sure didn't. If you feel that way about it, you might as well do it. To give up things for God, or to take on tasks for God, are things that if we do not rejoice in our heart (I am not saying that the flesh will not give you any battles) and feel like we really want to do this for the Lord, then we should not do it. Serving God is a PRIVILEGE! Giving up things or taking on responsibilities because God said so is a PRIVILEGE! If you do not feel that it is a privilege, then by all means DO NOT DO IT! I would hate to think that you come to church because you are afraid that someone is going to think badly of you if you do not. If that is the only reason you go, then do not come. There is one reason that we ought to be in church. If we love the Lord and the word of God and know that He is going to give it to us, then we ought to be here if we want it. So many people say, "Oh, I forgot to pray. I HAVE to pray." Nobody HAS to pray! It is a PRIVILEGE. We know that if we are God's elect, that He loves us as He says He does because God does not lie. If we really love Him as we profess to love Him, then we ought to enjoy talking with Him. We ought to enjoy trying to learn the word of God so that we can say, "Father, You said this and I believe it." We ought to enjoy breaking and crushing these fleshly ways so that we can be powdered and let the goodness of the word of God flow forth out of our lives to bless and praise Him. We ought to love to do that. "Father, I am beating this flesh down and I want my heart to be able to be poured out to you. I really love and appreciate all that you have done for me!" We ought to be able to pour out the richness, the fatness, the excess. "Praise the Lord" should not be just words. "Thank you Father" should not be just words. Sometimes you hear small children when their mom or dad does something special for them. I heard one once and he was saying, "OH DADDY, DADDY, DADDY, DADDY, DADDY!!!!!!" He had just received something that he thought was real special. He had so much gratitude that all he could say was just, "DADDY! DADDY! DADDY! DADDY! DADDY!!!!!!!" He was saying more than that in his heart. His dad heard it. It is what comes from the heart. We need to know doctrinally and know in our hearts what Jesus has done for us. We need to know what it means to us and know what it is accomplishing for us and be able to thank the Lord and declare to Him that knowledge. It clothes us in a white robe. I do not have to prove this scripturally. Anyone who has ever used incense of any kind should be able to understand it. There is no strength to the odour where it will flow out and fill the location where it is until you set the fire to the incense. We are living in a world which is offering up the wrong kind of incense. People hold them between their fingers and God says, "It stinks." This is a different kind of incense. This is the kind God likes. One Hebrew word having to do with sacrifice means "to ascend." Smoke by its very nature rises upward. The smell of this kind of incense which God had them compound was to symbolically rise heavenward in type. We told you before that God is not literally "up", but "up" is the symbolic direction of that which is right. God is symbolically "up." Actually, God is within; He is wherever He wants to be in that sense. The smoke rises as a sweet-smelling savor. How is it produced? From these ingredients. You may ask, "How does that relate to prayer?" Let's look at how it relates to prayer. James 5:16 tells us, "The effectual (repeated, intense) fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth (or accomplishes) much." What do we have to do? We have to light the fire under the incense once we have those characteristics within our prayer. Throughout those characteristics there has to be a fervency. For example, can't you just see somebody offering stacte as one of the ingredients in a dull monotone: "Father, your word says, thus and thus and thus. It just bores me to death but it says it, so I expect it." That isn't real fervency, is it? Fervency will provide a drive, a commitment, a belief. Fervency will bring the fire from the heart and transform the incense. The smoke of incense rises naturally. If we have the proper ingredients and if we have a fervent attitude of heart, will our prayers rise and come before God automatically if we meet those conditions? Sure, it is a natural thing. Our prayers will automatically ascend before the throne if we use the right mixture and the fiery intensity and fervency of our heart is behind it. Will the sweet smelling savor be there in our prayer? Will God find our prayers pleasing to Him? Will He actually enjoy our prayers? Try to remember how you usually pray. Try to picture yourself on the other end as God listening. See how inspired you get. See how blessed you get. See how bored you get. I think God deserves better than many times what we offer up to Him. He deserves a sweet-smelling savor. He gives us His Word and it excites our hearts if we really love Him. Therefore, we ought to be able to speak to Him and offer to Him what He desires in this blending and be a blessing to Him. We ought to be able to excite the very heart of God. If you do not think that is possible, you are thinking with head knowledge instead of with your heart. Exodus 30 tells us it is a perpetual incense. That must be important. In other words, it is not something which you do today and forget for the rest of the week. It is not something which you do now and forget in the morning. It is a private prayer life and communication with God where you can really take principles and strive to learn how to mix a proper blending of these ingredients into each prayer in private. Exodus 30:9 says, "Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering; neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon." It was not just essential for them to offer incense. It had to be right incense. Let me give you an example of that in Leviticus. This is a serious matter, saints. Leviticus 10:1 says, "And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not." Notice, they put fire and incense, and offered strange fire. Study that type in its entirety and look at it in the relationship to what it portrays is possible in a person's prayer life. Many people say it was because it was STRANGE fire. The way it is translated leaves that impression. The Bible did not really talk about or condemn strange fire only in one manner. In other words, the only thing that was considered strange fire was fire which did not come from off of the altar. Nadab and Abihu had access to the fire from off the altar more easily than any other fire. Keep in mind, the incense was to be offered in a special manner, for a special purpose at certain times. There was a complete set of rules pertaining to the incense being offered. The one thing we can see from this text is that Nadab and Abihu took their censers and put fire in it. We are not told where they got their fire or where they got the incense. We are told that it was strange fire, but the way it is worded in the Hebrew indicates it actually is referring to the whole situation as being strange. It is a strange offering. For some reason or other they did this and it was not at the right time, or in the right manner, or was not using the right ingredients. Literally speaking, they probably got their fire from right off of the altar. It would have been more difficult for them to access the incense because the incense was kept stored, protected, and watched over because it was so sacred. I would not doubt that they grabbed any old thing for incense and that made it a strange ceremony in the eyes of God. What did God do? Did He pat them on the back and say, "Fellows, you should not have done that but I love you too much to do anything about it."? Did He say, "Fellows, remember, God loves everybody and God would not ever hurt anybody because God is good and God is love."? Actually, He said, "POW, you are dead!" He killed them. Do you suppose then that it is possible for a person to actually die spiritually if they fail to offer the proper incense? You may say, "But we live by the word of God." That is very true. Do you suppose that one of the aspects of our being able to receive the word of God is dependent upon our using it properly including its proper place within this ceremony, the sacrifice of prayer? Do you suppose that it is possible for a person to die spiritually because they offered strange incense? Obviously, it is. The commandment in Exodus 30:9 says you shall not offer strange incense. That does not say, "Do not do it very often." It says to not offer any strange incense. Sometimes people fail to see just how far this strange incense is being developed in the religious world today. The charismatic movement today is a promoter of strange incense. The charismatic movement is a promoter of that which is claimed to be prayer in the spirit, which supposedly would be the most intense prayer. Yet, people claim that they do not really have knowledge of what they are communicating with this prayer in the spirit. People say, "I do not know what I said, but I praised God in a perfect manner because only God knows how to praise Himself." That is about as ridiculous as anything that I have ever heard. Praise is worthless if you only give it to yourself. If God could praise Himself, He would never have created man in the first place. He was not even satisfied with the angels which He created to praise Him. He had to create man and give him the choice, give him a degree of freedom where he could actually choose whether or not he would praise Him. The angels of glory praise Him because they were made that way. If God could praise Himself and be satisfied, He would never have created mankind, but God cannot praise Himself. God needs the praise from lesser beings such as ourselves and God needs the praise which comes from a heart that is compounding this incense. He wants praise from a heart that is mixing and blending the ingredients. When the priests compounded this incense,they surely had in mind that this was to be offered to God and had to be perfect. They weighed out each portion carefully. We are not talking about legalistically watching your clock and saying five minutes for this and five minutes for that. We are talking about making sure to balance the blend; making sure to use all of the ingredients at each time that we come before the Lord. We must make sure to beat them small. I have been beating things small this whole study. That is one thing God requires. We have to have it pounded down into little tiny particles; otherwise, we do not get it. God's principle is to break things down. He even wants things beaten small that are offered to Him. If I just preached His Word and forgot about you, I would still have to beat it small to offer it up to Him. So, take the particles and break them down real fine; detail them. God likes details. He is a God of details, a God of infinite wisdom. He can assimilate and absorb the details to the finest degree. God wants detailed praise. He wants detailed conversations with you about His Word and what you believe in His Word. He wants detailed pouring out of your heart and the condition that you see in your flesh. He wants detailed, as you pour your heart out to Him, how much you are trusting in Jesus and how much he means to you as your sacrifice or high priest. You may say, "That will take a little time." God does not mind. He has plenty of time. God considers us. Every bit of time that we have, God gave to us. If He asks for some of it, how can we blame Him? So, we take this and break it down fine, blend it together and offer it up to Him and it is a sweet smelling savor in His nostrils. It allows Him to look upon us with favor and to hear our cry and to communicate with us. The way the charismatic movement is advocating praying today without even knowing what they are meaning is not according to God's principles. It is not according at all to His plan. It will not fit the types, but it is supposed to be prayer. Therefore it can only be one kind; it is strange incense. It is false incense. God wants the kind where you know what you are doing. You can see the little pieces. You can pound them out, break them down, blend them together, and offer them up to Him. It is a real privilege to have a God who cares enough about us to show us the kind of prayer life He wants us to have. You may ask, "Why does He put it in the book in such strange manners where people cannot understand it readily?" Most people God does not want to pray in the first place. Most people He would prefer they did not pray at all because He knows that they are praying and thinking that they are talking to Him, while actually they are talking to Beelzebub. Beelzebub is answering them and they think that they are getting answered by God, so Beelzebub is leading them astray. They think that they are Christians and go out and carry on claiming to be Christians, and it sets the wrong example before the world. So God would just as soon that only His people have access to the real knowledge concerning prayer. God would just as soon that only those who truly love Him and desire His Word and to serve Him would be able to get the ingredients. FOUR INGREDIENTS OF INCENSE -------------------------------------------------------------------- * STACTE * ONYCHA * GALBANUM * FRANKINCENSE -------------------------------------------------------------------- * to ooze forth* the shell of * a richness or* white meaning * as drops * a mussel or * fatness * * * or mollusk * * -------------------------------------------------------------------- * word of God * flesh (ground* excess; * purity; our type of * * to a powder, * praise * righteousness * * put in fire) * * in Jesus -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. ingredients must be gathered from long distances of Palestine; takes time 2. use equal weight of each; balance all 4 ingredients 3. ingredients beaten very small; broken down 4. must put fire to it; fervency 5. done perpetually; whenever possible 6. do not offer strange sacrifices or suffer death -------------------------------------------------------------------- Remember this one last thought. I am still beating and pounding. Frankincense was somewhat common in different sections of the country. We have already told you where to find the stacte and onycha. Galbanum was fairly rare as well, but all of these ingredients could be accessed within a week's journey if you were a fast walker, or two or three weeks if you took your time. That meant that whoever was in charge of collecting these four ingredients for the compounding of them had to spend some time to gather them and bring them altogether and keep them handy for when they needed them. It takes some time to gather the ingredients for true prayer. The basis for true prayer is our understanding the word of God. It takes some time for us to put all of the pieces together and get all of the understanding, but once we get the ingredients, we can keep breaking it down smaller. Then when we offer it forth, God receives it and is blessed by it. Remember, if you bless God, He will bless you. Many people are crying out, "Lord, bless me", but they have forgotten to sow in order that they might reap. They have forgotten to bless Him in order that they might be blessed. Let's not forget. Let's offer the right kind of prayer; then we can expect the right kind of answers from Him.