Keep The Fire Burning-Ariel Blumenthal

Good article from Ariel Blumenthal of Revive Israel, in Israel rpeacher riverjabbok7@yahoo.com

Keep the Fire Burning

by Ariel Blumenthal Our Revive Israel team places great emphasis on daily “PPP” (Praise, Prayer, and Prophecy) sessions: staff prayer on Sunday, open meetings on Monday through Thursday, and congregational intercession on Friday. Here is an encouragement (based on Leviticus 6:12-13) for all who seek to build some kind of regular prayer/worship watches: The altar: a designated place for offering sacrifices and establishing communion with God. Under the New Covenant, animal sacrifices are not necessary. But the Lord is building our hearts like an altar. From our hearts through our mouths, we “smoke up” to God all kinds of praises and prayers, thus keeping the fire of the Spirit fresh in our lives. The wood: the priest is to “burn wood” on the altar every morning. Who chopped the wood, stacked it, kept it away from termites and brought it to the temple? We want the fun part of praising, dancing, proclaiming, intimacy with God, etc. But someone has to maintain the sound system, replace the guitar strings, clean the worship room; make sure the toilets are working, etc. Running a prayer room means a lot of behind the scenes work, keeping the wood ready so that a high quality fire can burn on the altar. Morning: the Hebrew phrase, “in the morning,” occurs twice in a row. The Scripture emphasizes the importance of stoking the fires of worship and intercession first thing in the morning! Of course, we can worship and pray 24 hours a day, but there is something very special about giving God our best time, before the busy-ness of the rest of the day sets in. Burnt offering: is the foundation for all other worship; it was to be offered continuously, even through the night (thus called by the Rabbis the tamid, or “continuous” offering.) The Burnt Offering is entirely for God: consumed wholly unto Him, as a pleasing aroma. Even the ashes must be brought to a sanctified place outside the camp. We come as a Kingdom of Priests to offer the worship that He deserves, without concern whether we will get anything out of it. Fellowship offering: in this “peace” offering, there is some tasty meat for us! God is good, and loves to fellowship with His children and give them good things (Luke 11:13), but the experience of His goodness should not be confused with our motivation to worship Him. The repeated message from the glimpses of heavenly worship in the Book of Revelation is: He is Worthy!!