Rabbi Schneider - The Altar of Incense: How to Have Continuous Prayers
Be careful what you're praying for. Stop asking God for what the world wants. Stop praying to the Lord to just satisfy your own indulgences and the lust of your flesh. I'm so thankful to Yeshua for giving us the pattern of intimacy with him in the mishkan, which is the Hebrew word for tabernacle, which we find revealed in the 25th chapter of the Book of Exodus. I'm talking today beloved; I'm continuing on the piece of furniture that we call the Altar of Incense, revealed in the 30th chapter of the Book of Exodus. The verse number 1 of that chapter, the Lord tells Moses to build this Altar of Incense. In the 8th verse, we read that this incense should be lit by the priest and burned by the priest continually. We also learn there beloved, that they were not allowed to burn any foreign incense on the altar.
Let me read for you verse number 8 and 9 of Exodus 30: And when Aaron trims the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense, there shall be, now listen, perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations. So this is about continuous prayer; it never stops, because the minute you stop praying, you'll die. It's like running out of air, prayer is like the oxygen of the believer. It's not just stopping in the middle of the day, and putting your hands together, and praying like this beloved; prayer is just simply walking in a supernatural awareness of God. That's why before Yeshua raised Lazarus from the dead, he said Father, I thank you that you hear me, I know that you always hear me, but I'm saying it out loud that the people might know you hear me, and then he said Lazarus, come forth.
Yeshua walked in continuous prayer, meaning that he was always communing with his Father, it was internal, it was deep. In fact, sometimes praying out loud can even be a step backwards. Don't misunderstand, it's good to pray out loud, but you need to get a hold of the fact that God hears even your, your softest whisper, even the subtlest whisper of your heart, God hears and he responds to. And so the Lord says I want this incense to be burning before me perpetually. And we beloved, are the temple of the Holy Spirit, we're the temple that this Altar of Incense is in now, and our prayers should be continuous. Revelation 8:3 and 4 tells us that before the throne of God, there is an incense mingled with the prayers of the saints, continuously ascending to the Father.
David said: let my prayers ascend before you as incense. And right now, this incense that the Lord told Moses, is to be burned perpetually in Exodus chapter 30 verse 8. The fulfillment of that beloved is inside us, that there's supposed to be a perpetual ascending of our Spirit to the Lord. And of course, Yeshua HaMashiach continuously is making intercession for the saints. And so God wants us to walk in a supernatural awareness, that he hears the slightest whispers of heart, that he understands that the, the most minute motive, an aspiration, and for us to develop an awareness of this. And then he goes on to say this here as we continue to study the Altar of Incense, he says: You shall not offer any strange incense on the altar.
In other words, the incense that the priests were to offer in the tabernacle beloved was a certain mixture that the Lord himself prescribed of the different spices. And the only incense that could be offered on the altar was according to the exact prescription that the Lord gave concerning what was inside that incense. And the Lord said a strange incense you shall not offer. And what this says to me is that the types of prayers that we should be praying are the types of prayers beloved that please his heart, and are in conformity to his will. You see for example: Israel kept on asking for a king, they said we want a king like the other nations. This wasn't God's will. God wanted to be Israel's King, but Israel kept on praying for something that God didn't want, so eventually God gave them a king and it ended up becoming a bad situation for them. And so God is saying don't offer strange incense; don't be praying things that I don't want you to be praying for.
Don't be praying to become famous in the world; don't be praying to become, to achieve the American dream. Pray for me to establish my kingdom in your heart and in your life. Pray that you'll be strengthened with divine might in your inner man. Pray that you'll know my love. Pray that you'll be able to please me with your life. Pray that you'll become steadfast in your walk with me. Pray that you'll be able to take a hold of me and live in victory. These are the types of prayers beloved, that are not strange incense; these are the types of prayers beloved, that are already revealed as God's will in his Word. So be careful what you're praying for. Stop asking God for what the world wants. Stop praying to the Lord to just satisfy your own indulgences and the lust of your flesh. Don't burn strange incense beloved, burn the sweet incense beloved, that comes from a heart that's given over, hallelujah, to him.
Now for the last several weeks, we've been going over many of the scriptural prayers. I wanna conclude that section today, even though we could go on for many, many weeks looking at scriptural prayers. But today what I'd like to do, is I would like to look at the prayer beloved, that Messiah Yeshua himself told us to pray. All of us know that prayer, it's in hallelujah, the Book of Matthew, known beloved to many of us as the Lord's Prayer. Our Father that art in heaven, hallowed by thy name; and so what we're doing is we're studying here the tabernacle as a blueprint for how to walk in intimacy, how to enter, enter into a deeper knowledge of God's love, and we see that every piece of furniture in the tabernacle was put there by the Father himself to show us how to have intimacy with him. Because he said I'm giving you this tabernacle as a pattern to show you how we can dwell together, how we can have fellowship together.
And so in the tabernacle is the Altar of Incense, and the Lord is saying if you wanna walk hand in hand with me, and experience my love, and know how much I love you; prayer needs to be primary in your life. And so what we're doing now is we're studying; well what, how should we be praying? And so we're looking at the Lord's Prayer, Matthew chapter 6 verse number 9: Yeshua said pray then in this way: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Do you know, I was listening to a radio broadcast just yesterday, and the guy in the, it was a Christian station, and the minister on the Christian station was inviting people to try out JC, you know that stands for Jesus Christ.
Well I understand that he was trying to connect with people, and he was trying to you know, build relationship with people, but you know the Father; God needs to be reverenced. The Lord says I will honor him who honors me. So he, you know to just refer to him all the time as JC, and that's a little bit too familiar. Familiarity breeds contempt. The Scripture said Yeshua couldn't do many miracles in his own town, because they were, regarded him just in the natural, too familiar, too common. No, Yeshua said when you go to pray, reverence your God, love him and reverence him. Don't treat him as common. He's not just another one of your buddies. Sure he's a friend, but before that beloved, he needs to be honored as a Holy Father, and as a Holy God.
So Yeshua said when you pray, pray then in this way: Our Father, Avinu, the Hebrew word for Our Father; Avinu, Our Father who art in heaven, holy is your name. You see when Moses met God, what happened? He realized he was on holy ground and he took his sandals off. The Lord said take off your sandals, for you're on holy ground. When Isaiah saw the Lord, he fell on his face. When John met the Lord, on the island of Patmos, he fell on his face; they had a revelation beloved, of the holiness of God. When the Lord revealed himself to the children of Israel at Mount Sinai; the mountain shook and fire came upon us, they had a revelation of the holiness of God. The Lord said I'm making you tremble like this that you might fear me, in order that you might not sin. So Father, we wanna reverence you as holy. And I'm gonna ask you right now that are visiting, and tuning into this broadcast right now, visiting with me, the Lord through this broadcast.
Let's lift our hands, and we want our visitation to be constant, and continual, and perpetual Lord. Hallelujah, even as you visited us Father God, through Yeshua and have come to dwell with us forever; we come to you now Father, and wholly give ourselves to you forever. And we ask you, listen what we're gonna do, Yadid beloved ones, we're gonna ask the Father to put his fear in our heart. I'm not talking about the fear of the world; I'm not talking about the fear of man, that's from the devil. I'm talking about the fear of God that's clean and converts the soul. Cause Yeshua said when you pray, pray this way: Our Father, who art in heaven, holy is your name. And so we're asking the Father to put a holy reverence for him in our hearts. Now if you wanna agree with me in this, let's lift our hands to the Lord right now. You that are watching now through the television set, we're gonna come to the Father's thrown now.
Father, we ask you in Yeshua's name, Avinu, Our Father, we ask you to put the fear of the Lord in our heart. Yeshua, we ask you by your Spirit, to put within us the gift of the fear of God. You told us Yeshua, that when we pray, we should begin by addressing our Father as holy: holy is your name. Father, we confess that often times, Father we lack a reverence for you. We lack a holy reverence for you. We wanna come to you Father God, with the revelation of who you are, how powerful you are, how glorious you are. And so we ask you right now for a supernatural revelation of your holiness. And we ask you Father, that you would impart the fear of the Lord that's clean, and that converts the soul into our hearts right now, in Yeshua's name.
And then the Lord continues, he says when you pray, you pray in this way: Our Father that art in heaven, holy is thy name, and then he says, we begin by saying: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I wonder how many of us are really, when we come unto the Lord in prayer, seeking first that God's will, will be done. When you, think about this for a second, it, is your prayer life mostly about you asking God to do what you want him to do, or is your prayer life mostly about finding out what his will is, and praying for his will to come to pass?
Beloved, his will is good; his will that, is that you would know him, his will is that you would experience his love. His will beloved, is that you would enter into the depths of intimacy with him. His will is that he'd be able to use you and flow through you to build his kingdom. His will is all good, but I wonder how many of us, if we really stopped for a second and examine ourselves, and think about the way we pray; is it more about God, give me this, and give me this, and give me this, and do this for me? Is it more about what we want or is it more lining up with what Yeshua said, when you pray, pray thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So when we come to the Father beloved, we're asking that his will would be done first of all, in us. Cause Yeshua said before we get concerned with what's outside of us, we should first be concerned with what's in us.
Remember, Yeshua said you know take the, take the log out of your own eye, before you try to point out the speck in your brother's eye. So first of all, we should be concerned with God's will being done in us on earth as it is in heaven, and what's his will beloved? His will is for you and I to be conformed to the image of his Son, Romans chapter 8. And so every day, the Father's purpose for you is that he would conform you to the image of his Son. He wants to make you and I like Jesus. We think about who Jesus is; Jesus said he didn't come to do his own will, but to do the will of him who sent him. Yeshua said I have food that you know not of. My food is to do the will of him who sent me. Yeshua said if you're gonna be my disciple, you must pick up your cross, and deny yourself, and follow me for everyone that tries to save his life, will lose it, but he that loses his life for my sake, shall save it.
So Yeshua, we wanna be conformed to your image, we wanna be like you Jesus, whose only purpose, Yeshua, was to do the will of the Father. Help us to focus Jesus, on your heart. Help us to know your heart. Help us to stop seeking from things that are outside of you. Deliver us from being distracted from the devil and for being tempted by the devil. We just wanna see you Jesus, and become conformed to your image and your will, so put your power upon us right now Lord, and conform us every day God, to the image of Messiah Yeshua, we may continue Father, to come under your authority and under the domain of your kingdom.
And Yeshua says you pray then: Thy kingdom, thy will be done, Father, on earth as it is in heaven. And then Yeshua says that after we pray that, we should continue on and pray in this way: Give us this day, our daily bread. And this is where when we bring to the Lord our personal needs. Lord, today we thank you, because all our prayers are supposed to be, first of all, prayers of thanks. The Scripture says bring all your prayers and petitions to the Lord with thanksgiving. And so what this means beloved, is that when we come to the Father in prayer, we're coming with an attitude of thanksgiving. We're bringing our request to him, but we're coming with an attitude of thanksgiving. We're thanking him first of all for all the things he's already done.
Sometimes when we pray beloved, we're not thanking the Lord for the things he's already done. Every time we come, we're asking him for our, what we need know, and what we want him to do in the future, but sometimes, many of us are not thanking him for the things that he's already done. And let me ask you a question: if you gave someone a gift, and gave them another gift, and gave them another gift, and then gave them another gift, and they never thank you for the other gifts that you'd previously given them; would be inclined to keep giving them gifts. No, the Father wants us to develop an attitude of thankfulness. Remember Yeshua healed the ten and only one came to give thanks? And Yeshua said: I healed ten, but only one came to give thanks. He said where are the other nine? So when we come to the Father, Yadid beloved ones, asking him for our daily bread: give us this day our daily bread, Yeshua taught us to pray; we come first of all thanking him for what he's already done and then bringing to him our new request.
So Father, we wanna thank you for all the things that you've already done for us, and from where you've brought us from, and for your supernatural protection, and all the good things Father, that you've brought into my life; I thank you Father, and I praise you, and I give you glory, and I honor you, and I glorify you Father. Thank you so much for your love for me.
And now we bring to the Father our new needs: Father God, we wanna love you more, we wanna know you. Father, that I pray about my health, I pray about my finances, I pray about this person that I am concerned for Father, and I pray about this relative that needs your help, and I pray about so and so. We bring to him then our new needs, the, the daily bread that we need today, and the bread that we need most of all beloved, is the bread of his presence. Yeshua said I am the bread of life. And after we bring to him our request for our daily bread, which consist of both the material things in life, and the deeper issues of the heart, the spiritual things in life; we end that section by thanking him that he's gonna do those things. Bring all your requests and make them known to the Lord with thanksgiving. "Thank you Father God, that you're gonna do these things; I thank you in advance".
And again, we know if we're praying anything according to his will, he hears us and he will do those things, hallelujah. And then Yeshua says: And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive our debtors, as we forgive those that trespass, hallelujah, against us. You know it took me a long time in my walk with the Lord, in my journey with God, to realize how important it is and how serious it is that I forgive those that have sinned against me. Remember, Yeshua told the parable about the individual that owed him a debt that he couldn't repay. And Yeshua said, forgave him in the parable. But then that one that had been forgiven, left and as he was walking away forgiven, somebody came to him that owed him money. And he said I'm sorry, I can't pay you. And the guy that had just been forgiven said, you're gonna pay.
And then Yeshua found that one that he had just forgiven so much, yet who wouldn't forgive somebody else, and Yeshua said didn't I just forgive you a debt you couldn't repay? Why then would you not forgive this person their debt? And then Yeshua said turn him over to the torturers until the debt is paid in full. You see beloved, there are two laws in the universe. There's the law of grace, beloved, there's the law of the higher grace, which is forgiveness. And then there's the second law, the law of justice. And if we wanna walk in forgiveness, if we want our sins to be forgiven beloved, then we have to practice forgiving others. But if we won't forgive others, and we want justice, if we wanna hold an I.O.U. over people's lives and demand justice from them; then that's how the Lord's gonna relate to us.
So we need to be practicing forgiving other people, and releasing them from their debt, even as Yeshua looked at those that were piercing em, and said forgive them Father, for they know not what they do. And the love of God just flowed from him, overpoweringly, and overwhelmingly so that the devil couldn't get in. If we wanna have that kind of love and fullness flowing through our life, if we wanna walk in the fullness of the Father's forgiveness, and the experience of his love; then we need to make the decision beloved, to release others and forgive others. It doesn't mean that we have to be best friends with people that hurt us. It doesn't mean that what they did wasn't very serious. But what it means is that we don't set up ourselves as their judges, and we say that just as Jesus died for my sins, so he died for that person's sins too. And if he died for that person's sins, who am I to hold over judgment on them, when Jesus has died for their sins and forgiven em.
And so we release those people. If it's difficult, try not to think about those people, and every time somebody comes to your mind, that you're having a hard time forgiving, just say I release that person, and then just immediately look back at the Lord, and look at the Lord, and don't get snagged in to thinking about em. But it's very important for the love of God and the grace of God to flow through your life to release people that have sinned against you. And then Yeshua continues on beloved in this prayer and he says here: And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And what's interesting here is that we don't know what we're gonna face tomorrow. Only God knows what we're gonna face tomorrow, and when I hear about people, you know falling into sins, and, and doing things that we would consider, consider atrocious, I always say before the Lord: but by the grace of God, there go I. So Yeshua says pray that the Father will not lead you into temptation, but deliver you from evil. And we're praying this beloved, for today and even for tomorrow; because the Father knows what we're gonna face tomorrow.
And so Father God, we ask you to lead us not into temptation. To protect us Lord, because we see so many people falling to the right or the left, all around and we know Father that by, but by your grace, there go we Father, because their flesh is no different than our flesh. So we ask you Father, to lead us not into temptation, but to deliver us, hallelujah, from evil. Thank you Father God, for delivering us from evil; you're our only hope, so Father God, take a hold of our wrists Lord, and deliver us from the miry clay.
And if you don't think that you need the Father's protection from sin, and deliverance from it, get ready to fall beloved, because except by his grace, everybody will fail. And then finally the Lord tells us to pray there in this way: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. And so we end our prayer in the thrux, the heart of it is a praise to the Father: holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, is what the divine beings say upon the throne of God day and night, forever and ever. So I hope that this series that I've been teaching beloved, on the tabernacle as it relates to prayer has been a blessing to you.
And Father God, right now I just pray that you release into your people a new freedom to pray. I pray Father God that the words that I've taught and preached during this series of messages, have brought enlightenment to your people as to how to pray, that they've liberated your people from some of the molds that they've been in, thinking that prayer is just when you're praying out loud, or thinking that prayer is to consist of just those things that are on the surface. But instead Father, that we would focus on praying for the deeper issues of life Lord, the issues of the heart that your kingdom, Abba God, would be built in our lives. Father, that we be conformed to the image of Your Son; that our lives would become a pleasing and a fragrant aroma to you Father God, in every respect. Father, that you would bless us and that we would be a blessing. Beloved, God bless you today. The Lord loves you, in Yeshua's name.