Offering on the altar
And when he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. [Revelation 5 : 8]
For the longest time, I thought of an offering unto the Lord in terms of tithe. In retrospect, I can understand why this was the case. I mean, I grew up in a culture where the idea of offering in church was quite pronounced, this of course being in monetary terms. There’s nothing wrong with that, after all the bible does emphasise the importance of tithing in several scriptures. What I didn’t understand however, is that there are various types of offerings that I could raise up to God on my altar and He will gladly receive them.
The book of Leviticus was the place where I first began to receive enlightenment in this area. Leviticus is one of those books that I find a bit hit and miss to be very honest. Basically without the help and illumination of the Holy Spirit, I just don’t get it. Back in the day (read, that one and only time) when I bravely decided to read the Bible in a year, I recall getting stuck and throwing in the towel somewhere between Leviticus and Numbers. I had given up that particular structured approach when I found myself back in this good old testament book one evening. You know how sometimes you see something once in the bible and all of a sudden, everywhere you look it’s there? That happened in this case. Ever noticed how many times the phrase burnt offering pops up in the bible? A whole lot.
In the book of Leviticus, scripture speaks of different types of offering to be presented upon the altar as administered by the Levites and priests. We learn of burnt offerings (and the very precise instructions accompanying these), the grain offering and peace offerings. We are told repeatedly that these offerings are a special gift, a pleasing sacrifice to the Lord. There’s then mention of sin offerings and even guilt offerings!
Now, I have a very curious mind and as soon as I saw this, my interest was piqued. At that point in time, the Holy Spirit had been ministering to me about the importance of raising an altar unto God. I had by that point built the Lord an altar, I had swept away the ashes from the altar by re-igniting my prayer life. I had understood that I needed to pray and ask God to send down His sea of fire to burn brightly upon my altar even as I fanned the flames to life. I thought I was done with the series when suddenly I asked myself - hold on a minute, what’s the offering on my altar? The scriptures I had read spoke of kings, priests, prophets and the people of Israel presenting burnt offerings to God. Clearly in the year 2021, this burnt offering of an animal (variously described as a young bull, a goat, sheep, a bird) was not applicable in my case. Neither was the thought of presenting such a sacrifice in my bedroom - upon which my altar is raised- appealing!
As I pondered this matter, I took to studying scripture. I began to ask the Holy Spirit to give me understanding. What was the offering to be presented upon my altar? I jotted down some bullet points and looked for scripture to back my thoughts and as I did so, the Lord gave me deeper understanding.
Prayers are an offering unto God. As I jotted down my thoughts, I asked the Holy Spirit - is prayer an offering upon the altar? A few hours later I ‘randomly’ came upon an Instagram post that clearly answered my question.
And when he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. [Revelation 5 : 8]
Then another angel with a gold incense burner came and stood at the altar. And a great amount of incense was given to him to mix with the prayers of God’s people as an offering on the gold altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of God’s holy people, ascended up to God from the altar where the angel had poured them out. Then the angel filled the incense burner with fire from the altar and threw it down upon the earth; and thunder crashed, lightning flashed, and there was a terrible earthquake. [Revelation 8 : 3 - 5.]
Going by Revelation 5 :8, our collective prayers rise up to the heavenly altar as incense where they are held in gold bowls. According to Revelation 8 : 3, an angel is presented with more incense (believed to be the Holy Spirit’s intercession made on our behalf when we do not know exactly what to pray for). We are told in Revelation 8 : 4 that the combined sweet fragrance of our prayers along with what we believe to be the intercession of the Holy Spirit rises up as a sweet fragrance to the gold altar before the throne. God then uses this to accomplish His will here on earth as it is in heaven.
Praise and worship is an offering unto the Lord. “We bring a sacrifice of praise, unto the House of the Lord”. The song played endlessly in my childhood echoed clearly in my ears as I considered this matter. Hebrews 13 : 15-16 tells us “Through Him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge His name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”
Giving is an offering unto the Lord. We all know the words in Luke 6:38 – “Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” It is good to give, yes, but the posture of our hearts as we do so must be right. God does tell us that He loves a cheerful giver, not a reluctant one or someone giving under compulsion.
Service in the Kingdom is an offering unto the Lord. 1 Corinthians 9:13 asks “Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share from the altar?” Philippians 2 : 14 to 17 provides words of exhortation. “Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless. But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy.” And in Hebrews 6 : 10 scripture says : “For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints”.
Tithe is an offering unto the Lord. God Himself summarises it succinctly in Malachi 3 : 10 when He says, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” Sowing is another. As we are told in 2 Corinthians 9:6 – “The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” When you sow a seed, make it clear to God that you are sowing this seed that it may speak on behalf of a specific matter.
So dear sisters, now that you have built your altar and fanned it into flame, take a minute to ask yourself what offerings you are presenting to the one true living God. Ask yourself if truly, He will find your offerings acceptable. Before you ask our Father to send His heavenly flames of fire to burn the offering and bring with it your breakthrough, please check that the offering on your altar is without blemish; a special gift, a pleasing sacrifice that will be received as first fruit, as sweet incense unto the Lord.
Stay blessed, ladies and remember - you are God’s favourite daughters. Please act like it , x.