リロノカオリ

Message Title: The Basis of All Our Priestly Service - the Fire from the Altar of Burnt Offering

we need the Lord to train us with the basis of all our priestly service, which is the fire. the only fire we want is God Himself as the consuming fire. in the Bible, all the other fire is called strange fire, and we do not want the strange fire. 

I. God is a consuming fire. 

Hebrews 12:29 For our God is also a consuming fire.

Deutoronomy 4:24 For Jehovah your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Deutoronomy 9:3 Know therefore today that Jehovah your God is the One crossing over before you as a consuming fire; it is He who will destroy them, and it is He who will subdue them before you, so that you may dispossess them and destroy them quickly, as Jehovah has said to you.

why did Christ come to the earth? what is the purpose of Christ's earthly ministry?

Luke 12:49 I have come to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish that it were already kindled!

Luke 12:50 But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am pressed until it is accomplished!

the baptisim here is the death of the Lord on the cross. so the death of the Lord was a fire-releasing death, which released and cast fire on the earth. this fire is now the seven-fold intensified life-giving Spirit within us. so this fire is now burning within us, and causes us to burn each other. 

Zechariah 2:5 For I will be her wall of fire round about, declares Jehovah, and I will be the glory within her.

in the New Jerusalem, the glory of God will be the centre within the city, and this glory will shine through the transparent wall of the city to be its protection of fire. the Lorc came to the earth and cast the fire when He died on the cross, and this fire is His infinite divinity, and it is the impulse of our spiritual life.  

Jeremiah 23:29 Is not My word thus - like fire, declares Jehovah, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

the word of God is like a fire, which burns us and burns away many things in which we have confidence. as the hammer, the word also breaks down our natural life, our flesh, all the negative things in our being. 

Leviticus 9:24 Then fire came forth from before Jehovah and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they gave a ringing shout and fell on their faces.

the fire burnt on the altar of the burnt offering came down from the heavens, and later in the chapter, Jehovah commands that the fire shall not go out. so the first thing the priests do everyday is to make sure the fire on the altar is still burning. 

Romans 12:11 Do not be slothful in zeal, but be burning in spirit, serving the Lord.

this divine fire, the burning Triune God, enables us to serve Him and even sacrifice our lives to Him. 

II. Every Priestly Service to God must be based on the Fire from the Altar of Burnt Offering, and Our Service must be the Issue of the Burning of this Fire

our service must come out of the burning of God's fire, the fire from the altar. everyday, we need to pray to the Lord, “Lord, may my service come out from You today, not rely on my natural self, abilities, but rely on the fire from the altar.”  and when we take this fire as the source of our service, as the source of our energy in service. if we take any other source, our service will soon run flat, and we will become weary and burnt out. but this fire from the altar, the divine energy will always energize and motivate us from within. 

this is my favourite point in the whole outline:

"This fire burns on those who love God, who offer themselves to God, who are willing to forsake everything for God, and who are willing to place themselves in His hands in order to be broken."

i used to think that it is just enough to love the Lord, then everything else should be fine. but here it tells us that not only we need to love God, but we need to be willing, which means there is a price we have to pay, to forsake everything. most of the time, we are too afraid to be broken, because we still love ourselves too much, much more than the Lord. However, if we want to have the burning fire within us, it does not come in a cheap way. we need to be willing to forssake everything, willing to be broken, then this fire will burn on us. we should not let this word pass by lightly. rather we should turn this into our prayer, "Lord, make me a person who loves You to the uttermost. I would like to offer myself to You." our love for the Lord, qualifies, perfects, equips and trains us to serve the Lord, to be burning on fire for the Lord. 

if we offer ourselves to God sincerely, i.e. lay ourselves on the altar, fire will descend from heaven and burn us. how can we offer ourselves to God sincerely? sometimes, when constrained by the love of God, we will be willing to lay on the altar, but very quickly we jump off from the altar, because we think it is too painful and too hard for us. from our root, we are not absolute for God, we are only absolute for ourselves. that is why we need the Lord to be burnt offering. only the Lord Himself is the absolute One for God. now He is our burnt offering. we can lay our hands on His head and take Him as our absoluteness. if we do in this way, we will have the fire from above to burn us. and this fire will produce within us a powerful serive. 

1 Corinthians 3:11 For another foundation no one is able to lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

1 Conrithians 3:12 But if anyone builds upon the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, grass, stubble,

1 Conrithians 3:13 The work of each will become manifest; for the day will declare it, because it is revealed by fire, and the fire itself will prove each one's work, of what sort it is.

also, if our service and work is the issue of fire, our work will stand the test of fire. only the work which comes out of the divine fire can pass through the test by fire, stands and remains. the time will come, when all our work needs to be put through the fire, which means that we need to take heed to how we carry out our work today. is that gold, silver, precious stones? or it is just wood, grass and stubble??

III. We must serve God not with strange fire but with the fire from the altar

what is strange fire?

Leviticus 10:1 And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in them and laid incense on it, and they presented strange fire before Jehovah, which He had not commanded them.

through the tragdic story of the two sons of Aaron, we can tell that they offered strange fire which "He had not commaned them". the two sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, did not offer the fire from the altar, but they offered common fire. from what we have talked above, our service should be the issue of the fire from above. any other fire, not from the altar, not from above, is considered strange fire, which signifies, all that we do relying not on God, but on ourselves, our natural abilities, natural strength, natural enthusiasim, natural affection. in all our serive, how much more we need to pray, "Lord, save me from any strange fire." the Lord loves us to be enthuastic for Him, but He wants this to be divine. the Lord wants us to love Him and to serve Him, not with common fire, but with divine fire.

come back to the two sons of Aaron. they were judged not because they did something that was not for God, but because they acted according to the natural life and did something for God in a natural way. when I first read this story, I felt so pitiful and unfair for Nadab and Abihu. they were not doing something sinful or wordly. you know, they were doing the priestly service in the tabernacle. but the result was that Jehovah stroke them to death. the reason was in verse 1 "which He did not command them". the point here is that, yes, they were serving God, but not according to what Jehovah commanded, but in a natural way. this is the sin of presumption. they presumed to do something for God, which means that they did something that God did not command them to do. 

Psalms 19:13 Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; Do not let them have dominion over me; Then I will be blameless and cleared Of great transgression.

in touching the divine things, we need to apply the cross to ourselves. otherwise, we will suffer spiritual death. if we have ever experienced such things in our Christian life, we will never be able to forget, in a negative sense. and we will never want such thing to happen again. 

Exodus 3:2 And the Angel of Jehovah appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a thornbush. And when he looked, there was the thornbush, burning with fire; but the thornbush was not consumed.

Exodus 3:3 And Moses said, I must turn aside now and see this great sight, why the thornbush does not burn up.

Exodus 3:4 And when Jehovah saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him out of the midst of the thornbush and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here I am.

Exodus 3:5 And He said, Do not come near here. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.

Exodus 3:6 And He said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

from the story how Moses was called by Jehovah, we can learn the principle. everyone who is called of God must realise that he is a thornbush with a fire burning within him and that this fire is God Himself. when God called Moses, He showed Moses the vision of the thornbush with burning fire. if we are called by God, we need to reaslie, that, we are nothing just a thornbush. But, within us the thornbush, there is the divine fire burning as the energizing power. we must let this divine fuel burn within us as our energy, strength and ability. 

IV. the fire on the altar of burnt offering should be kept burning continually; it must not go out, and it shall not go out

Leviticus 6:12 And the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it must not go out. And the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and he shall lay the burnt offering in order upon it and shall burn the fat of the peace offerings on it.

Leviticus 6:13 Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out.

this is the charge from God, that the fire "must not go out, and it shall not go out". so every morning, when the priests wake up, the first thing they should do is to make sure that fire does not go out, by burning wood on the altar. every morning, when we genuienly take Christ as our burnt offering, and consecrate oursevels to the Lord, and then enjoy Christ as the peace offering, immediately, the fire within us will rise up. in this way, we will be burned by God, and then we may burn others. do we take the Lord as the burnt offering in the morning, and in the evening???? we may do this in the morning for sure, but easily forget in the evening. we need to build up this habit as the priest, to offer burnt offerings both in the morning and in the evening. this will become a satisfying fragrance to the Lord. 

1 Thessalonians 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit;

there are ten points that we need to take heed to, so that we will not quench the Spirit. 

1. we must allow the Lord to burn us and to keep us burning continually by fanning our God-given spirit into flame. the most simple way to fan into flame is by calling on the name of the Lord.

2. we must enjoy God as the fire of love to love Him and others with His love. 

3. we must have a time with the Lord every morning to have a new beginning and be revived by Him. our Christian path should be brighter and brighter, until the full of the day. 

4. we must call upon the Lord, stirring ourselves up to lay hold of Him. 

5. we must pray read God's word, striking the Spirit of the Scripture with our spirit to catch the divine fire.

6. we must be filled with the sevenfold intensified Spirit as the seven lamps of fire and the seven flaming eyes of Christ by opening ourselves to the Lord unpreservedly in order to be enlightened by Him, burned by Him, and infuesd with Him. when God's light shines on us, there is exposing, but also there is supplying, because the light of God is the light of. within this light, there is also the killing function, killing all the negative elements within our being. 

7. we must always reoice, pray unceasingly, and give thanks in everything. 

8. we must speak for the Lord to impart Him into others, enjoying Him as our burning power for purging and motivating in God's economical move. to prophesy requires much prayer. we must give ourselves to be in the prayer for the ministry of the word. 

9. we must coordinate with one another in and among the churches to enjoy God as our sanctifying fire for His one move. this is signified by the four living creature in Ezekiel chapter 1. we should have coordination with one another, and then we will have the coals of fire, running to and fro among us. 

10. the burning of the sevenfold intensified Spirit as the seven lamps of fire motivates us to rise up and take action for the carrying out of God's economy.