PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 184: FIVE NECESSARY QUALITIES FOR END TIME LIVING - PT 6
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 184: Five Necessary Qualities for End Time Living – Part 6
The ALTAR OF INCENSE is a Golden ministry, a Sweet ministry, a Come Up Higher ministry, a Morning and Evening ministry, a Horning ministry, a Crowning ministry, a Four-Square ministry, and more next week. How do these things affect our day-to-day lives in our families?
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. We’re still going on our series, Five Necessary Qualities for End Time Living. We are up to P, Prayer and Praise. We’re still talking about that. I want to continue talking today about the altar of incense, because there are many aspects to this which really affect us in our lives right now.
To catch you up, we found out that it is a GOLDEN ALTAR. Number two, it is an ALTAR OF SWEET INCENSE. Number three, it is the HIGHEST PIECE OF FURNITURE in the tabernacle.
MORNING AND EVENING ALTAR
Now, number four, they had to attend to the altar of incense, the golden altar, every morning and every evening. It talks about that in this passage in Exodus 30:7, 8: “And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at evening, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations.” It wasn’t only something that they were to do back then in Exodus chapter 30. It is something for all generations.
So, why did they have to come morning and evening? Because God wanted this beautiful, sweet incense to be a perpetual incense, never going out. Always filling the Holy Place. And He also wants that beautiful, sweet incense to fill our homes too. He doesn’t want it to ever go out.
In fact, the morning and the evening principle is a very important principle in the Word of God, especially as we read about it in the tabernacle because they had to come to the brazen altar. That was outside the actual tabernacle and that is where they sacrificed the animals every morning and every evening. A lamb in the morning, a lamb in the evening.
They did lots of other offerings as well. But this was one that had to be conducted every single day. It was something that God wanted. He wants this morning and evening principle. It’s very precious to Him. They did this lamb for sacrifice right up until Jesus came. In fact, they kept on doing it even after Jesus was crucified. But when the Temple was ransacked in AD 70, that was the end of the sacrifices then, because the Bible tells us that Jesus was sacrificed ONCE AND FOR ALL
But at that time, it had to be morning and evening. Just as they would come every morning and evening to do it, and every single sacrifice pointed to Calvary, pointed to the ultimate and final sacrifice of the pure, spotless Lamb of God upon the cross, I love to look back and not forget. Every day, when we pray together at our family devotions, I love to remember to thank the Lord for His sacrifice. I don’t think we can ever be thankful or grateful enough, because I don’t think we’ll ever even understand, even in eternity, the enormity of His sacrifice for our salvation and to redeem us. So, I love to look back and thank Jesus for His incredible sacrifice to give His life to save me, someone so unworthy.
Then you went into the tabernacle, and they had the candelabra, the seven-branched candlestick. That had to be lit every morning and every evening because the light was never to go out. They had to pour the oil in the lamps, and to attend to the wicks, and get rid of all the junk and the burned stuff every morning and evening.
Also, they had to attend to the altar of incense every morning and evening too. It was a principle that God established. That’s why we love to have our family devotions, or whatever you call it in your home. It doesn’t matter what you call it, as long as you do it. Some people call it worship time. Some people call it Bible time. Whatever you like to call it, as long as you do it.
We call it family devotions. It used to be called “the family altar.” I don’t think anybody calls it that today. It’s sort of a forgotten phrase, but actually, it is a biblical phrase. It comes from the Word of God. I think it is, if I go over to it, in Leviticus 6:8-13. Here Moses is speaking about establishing the altar.
The brazen altar was made of brass on which they would do the sacrifices. He tells them there, that was another thing they had to do morning and evening. They had to attend to the fire on the altar every morning and every evening.
So, he says, in Leviticus 6:8: “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying. . .” It wasn’t Moses’ idea. It’s God’s idea. “The Lord spake . . . Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering: It is the burnt offering, because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it.”
And we go down to Leviticus 6:12: “And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out.” It was never to go out. And He repeats it again in verse 13: “The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.”
To keep it going, they had to keep attending to it, every morning and every evening. Come and take out all the ashes and get rid of all the junk. That’s what we have to do in our lives, too. Put on the wood to keep it burning. So, we read the Word of God to our family, to fuel our souls and fuel their souls, and keep them burning.
The only way we can keep the fire of God burning in our lives, and in our families, is to keep to the morning and evening principle. Once a day, the fire will go out. If we light the lamps only once a day, the light will go out. If we light the incense altar only once a day, the incense disappears. It’s not enough, once a day. It’s morning and evening. This is the principle, to keep the fire of God burning, to keep the light of God burning, to keep the sweetness of the incense of the aroma of the presence of God continually in our homes. This is what it takes to make these things a continual thing.
This phrase, “the family altar,” was taken from this very passage. This altar of the fire upon the altar. The idea of, yes, we want to keep the fire of God burning in every member of our family. We’re going to also have a family altar.
I remember many years ago going to an Above Rubies family retreat. Colin and I walked in. We were a little late getting there because of our transport. The people were singing, and they were singing this great old hymn. To tell you the truth, I had never heard it before. But I loved the words. And I’m going to read them to you, because I think it’s a wonderful hymn. It also has a line in this hymn which is rather interesting.
- God give us Christian homes!
Homes where the Bible is loved and taught,
Homes where the Master’s will is sought,
Homes crowned with beauty Your love has wrought;
God give us Christian homes;
God give us Christian homes! - God give us Christian homes!
Homes where the father is true and strong,
Homes that are free from the blight of wrong,
Homes that are joyous with love and song;
God give us Christian homes;
God give us Christian homes! - God give us Christian homes!
Homes where the mother, in caring quest,
Strives to show others Your way is best,
Homes where the Lord is an honored guest;
God give us Christian homes;
God give us Christian homes! - God give us Christian homes!
Homes where the children are led to know
Christ in His beauty who loves them so,
Homes where the altar fires burn and glow;
God give us Christian homes;
God give us Christian homes!
Now, that sounds like a real Christian home, doesn’t it? We have lots of Christian homes today in name only, like we have RINOS, Republicans In Name Only. I think we have a lot of CHRINOS, Christians In Name Only.
This is not actually the testimony of every Christian home, but there was a line there that I picked up and heard everyone singing it.
“Homes where the altar fires burn and glow.”
“Wow,” I thought. “That’s amazing. I know what that’s talking about. I wonder if anybody here singing it knows.”
So, they ended the time of praise and worship. I got up to say hi to everybody. I said, “I wonder, folks, does anybody know what this line means? You’ve all been singing, “Homes where the altar fires burn and glow.” Who knows what we’re singing about?”
Well, do you know, there was not one hand that went up! Not one person knew what they were singing about! That’s a bit sad, isn’t it? But they were singing about the altar fire, the family altar, because back when that hymn was written, it was the norm for Christian families to have the family altar where the family gathered together morning and evening.
They didn’t gather around an actual, literal altar. We don’t have altars today. But we have a time. We have a place where we choose in our home where we’re going to meet together. It can be different in different homes. We don’t all have to do it the same. As long as we find our altar, the place where we want to be, the time when we want to meet.
In our home, we love to do it at mealtimes because that’s a gathering time of the family anyway. I find, as I was raising our children, that it’s pretty hard to get them together, especially as they’re getting older. It’s very easy when they’re all little. Even that has challenges.
But, you know, getting them to the table, getting everyone together, especially as they get older, and they’re all doing their different things, and going here and there, it’s quite a challenge to get everyone together.
But the table, the meal table, is a drawing place, because everybody wants to eat, especially if you make a lovely, nutritious, beautiful meal, with lovely spices and aromas. It smells so wonderful, and the aromas are filling the house. Everybody wants to come. They are drawn to the aromas and to the kitchen.
So, you draw everybody to the meal table. To me, the meal table is very important anyway. I love to gather the family. I’ve never, ever allowed our children to sit around to eat in front of the TV, eat where they like, when they like. No, we eat at the same time, together. Together, at the family meal table.
Because we’re gathered there, at the end of our meal, we will have our family altar, or our family devotions, where we’ll read the Word, and we will pray together and worship and sing. I have found it a wonderful secret to make it happen by doing it at the table.
In fact, as we come to the end of our meal, guess what, ladies? We don’t even clear the table, because I find that if we do clear the table and everybody gets up, and they start scraping their dishes and taking them to the counter, by the time they get to the counter, help! I can’t even get everybody back again! So, I don’t even let them go! That’s why I do that. I have found that we have the time, and we never really notice the dishes are there.
My husband will begin to open the Word and read to the family. Then we’ll pray together and sing a song or hymn or worship song. So that is the family altar, where we’re coming to meet God. The altars that they made back in biblical times, when the patriarchs made altars, they built those altars as a place to cry out to God and to hear Him speak.
Now, this is the same thing we’re doing. We’re not building a physical altar, but we’re committing to a time and a place where we’re going to listen to God. We’re listening to Him speak from His Word, and we’re going to call out to Him, and pray and intercede.
Now, lovely, precious ladies, if we’re really, truly Bible-believing, God-fearing families, to do that twice a day is the least we can do. I know many families who do it three times a day, just as Daniel prayed three times a day. David said: “Morning, noon, and night, I cry out to God” (Psalm 55:17).
You can do it three times a day if you would like to. That would be wonderful. But two is actually a minimum. We at least gather together morning and evening to the family altar.
All right. And it says, “Homes where the altar fires burn and glow.” You see, that keeps people in the home burning and glowing with the fire of the Lord.
Everything was not just for fun. Everything spoke of some aspect of our salvation or understanding of Christ. The four horns on the brazen altar speak of salvation for every person right to the four corners of the earth. Not one is missed out. Jesus died for all.
Then, there are four horns on the four corners of the golden altar too. That speaks of prayer and praise, because that’s what it represents, prayer and praise going up from the four corners of the earth. And also, prayers for people right out to the ends of the world, to the four corners of the earth.
Our prayers should not only be for ourselves, and for our little family. They should reach out to the nations, reach out to the four corners of the earth. As we’re teaching our children to pray, we teach them how to pray beyond their little world.
That’s a big thing that we have to teach, dear mothers. But that’s something we need to do, is to broaden the understanding of the needs of the world to our children so they can become interceders. Children can become interceders. Wow! Children love to pray, and God hears their prayers.
That’s why I love to have prayer boxes in our home. I find them such a blessing. I’ve talked to you about prayer boxes before. I wonder, are any of you doing it? Have you made any prayer boxes? Oh, I hope so, because you will find it such a blessing, especially for your children.
Well, I find it a blessing too, because often when I come to pray, there are so many things on my heart. But there are often things that I miss because I don’t think of them. But when I take the card out of the prayer box, it reminds me.
Currently, I have ten different prayer boxes in our home on all different subjects. When I started doing this with our children, I started with our family prayer box. That was the first one I ever started with. In that, I put the names of all our family, Mummy and Daddy, grandparents, aunties and uncles, and the extended family around us so that we could faithfully remember to pray for one another.
It’s good for the children, learning to pray for one another. Maybe one of the boys has had a fight with Johnny just before he came to the meal table. Now, as the box goes around the table, out comes his name! He’s got to pray for him. Well, that’s good, isn’t it, because we have to pray for one another, even when we are not feeling too happy about one another.
But then, as with everything, I think we start little, and everything grows. Do you find that? That everything, you get an idea, you get a revelation, you get something that God puts on your heart. And you do it. You’re faithful to do it. As you do it, then it gets bigger and bigger. So now, we have ten different prayer boxes.
I’ll tell you the ones we have. We have our family prayer box.
Then our cities, capitals, and countries prayer box. The countries in the world, and the cities and capitals which are the most strategic in the world, we have a lot of them in that box. That’s a wonderful way for your children also to get to know about the world. Sometimes they can’t even pronounce the name of a particular capitol or country. You have to teach them. You can teach them about it, and what are the needs of those countries, and we pray for them.
We have our world-changing prayer box.
We have our nation-changing prayer box. Well, actually, this one is not a box, because a friend of ours brought us a little miniature Liberty Bell. So, we keep all our nation-changing cards in our Liberty Bell. We use this very frequently, because, oh my, how we need to be praying for our nation at the moment! I trust you are praying every day for this nation. Oh, yes.
In fact, on Thanksgiving, after our big Thanksgiving dinner, we always have toasts. Well, really, that’s speeches. Different ones will get up and toast to something or someone that they feel they want to talk about. This particular Thanksgiving, I think every speech was a political speech, but a very positive, wonderful one. They were great speeches.
One guy got up and he said he felt it would be great if we could sing
God Bless America, land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Through the night with the light from above.
From the mountains to the prairies,
To the oceans white with foam.
God bless America, my home, sweet home.
So, we all sang that together. And he was saying how, with so much negativity coming upon our nation, how important it is to pray a blessing upon her. We’re planning to do this regularly, along with our singing another hymn or worship song, to sing that prayer over America as we come together every day.
We have our Israel prayer box. We’re commanded to pray for Israel. Yes.
And the persecuted church prayer box. We are commanded to pray for the persecuted church. I hope that you remember to do that. How can we let a day go by when we don’t pray for our fellow believers who are suffering?
I mean, we are one body, and even if our little toe, you’re walking by something, and you kick a chair by mistake! Oh, it’s awful, isn’t it? You feel that pain, and your whole body goes out to comfort your little toes. It’s the same in the body of Christ when our precious brothers and sisters are being persecuted and tormented. Their bodies are being hurt. They’re hungry and they are cold. They’re even being martyred. Are we praying for them?
What does it say in Hebrews 13:3: “Remember them that are in bonds or in prison as though you are in prison with them, and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body?” In other words, you’re feeling their pain even in your body. That’s how we’re meant to pray for them.
I might have told you this story before. It was a while ago, about a year ago. Serene was coming down a ladder from the top story of their house because their house is always being added to. We say their house is the house that Sam is building because it never stops. It’s always something new he’s doing.
She was coming down the ladder with a long skirt on. It got tangled and she fell to the ground on her back. It was a very hard fall. She thought she may have broken her back. She was in incredible pain. She said to me, “Mum, oh, I was in such terrible pain! But the first thing I thought of was the persecuted church, because, you see, I don’t know how to pray for them. I feel so good, and I feel so amazing, and I don’t know how to feel their pain. But I was in such pain that I just cried out for the persecuted church!”
I thought, “Wow!” That was challenging to me. Wow! When we’re in pain, we can really then pray and intercede for them, can’t we? It was only a week or so later that I also fell and broke a couple of ribs. Of course, you know what broken ribs are like. They mend, but, oh, they’re terribly painful. So, I had much opportunity to pray for the persecuted church. That’s an important one too, isn’t it?
We have our salvation and healing prayer box, where we’re praying for those who need Jesus, and those who need healing.
We have our Above Rubies ministry prayer box. I certainly need a lot of prayer for Above Rubies.
And our Above Rubies helpers, all the helpers that have been with us over the years.
We have our Hilltop fellowship House of Prayer families. We pray for them.
So that’s ten prayer boxes we have. It’s so great because there’s so much to pray for, that we can forget about so many things. Especially prayers for children, because often, especially little children, they’ll just pray their little prayer, “Thank You, Jesus, for this lovely day. Give us a good night’s sleep. Amen.”
But if they get a card, you can explain it to them, and they’ve got something new to pray about. That’s a very important thing.
A HORNING ALTAR
We’re talking about how the altar of incense is an altar of horns. All right. Now, what do horns speak of in the Bible? They speak of power and authority. Therefore, the horns on the altar of incense are of power and authority. It’s in the place of prayer that we have authority and power with God. Power over demonic forces, and power over evil, something that we cannot have power over ourselves. But in the place of prayer, we’re coming into God, and we get with His power and anointing. There is power and authority in the place of prayer. We need to take it up.
The devil knows that, dear ladies. That’s why he has, I believe, dehorned the horns of the church. He doesn’t want the church praying. You know, I think that even affects us, as mothers, because our society has caused us not to live the way we’re meant to. The way we’re meant to live as a family is that, as evening is coming on, the mother is in the kitchen, preparing the meal for the family to gather round. That is a basic thing of family-ness, a powerful thing in keeping the family together.
But today, everything seems to happen at that time. All the football practices, and the basketball practices, and the music, and this and that, and everything. And the mother is running around in the car, taking her children to this and that. Help! How do you get home in time to prepare the meal? Wow! There’s hardly time, and you’re just having to get some fast food, and everybody is eating in the car.
You’re not having family devotions, because you’re not home in time. “Whoo-hoo!” says the devil! “Got them away from the prayer time tonight!” And he seems to get them away from the prayer time nearly every night, because there’s something on, and everybody’s going here and there.
We’ve got to establish a family life where we gather the family together. As we prepare the meal, because I have found, as you’re making an altar, not a literal one, but you’re making a time and place, the meal is part of that, very much. I have realized that if I don’t prepare the meal because I’m just doing something, or going somewhere, we will not gather to read the Word and pray. We do that because I prepare the meal. I gather the family. We’re there together. I’ve made the altar ready for us to hear from God and to cry out to Him.
We have to watch. Don’t let the devil dethrone your horns and take your horns away from you. Oh, my. We’ve got to keep up the horns. Let me read you some Scriptures about horns, shall I? I didn’t really mean “dethrone.” I meant “dehorn.” That’s what they do, often, to animals. They dehorn them so they can’t push and shove and gore.
But that’s we want to do in prayer! We’ve forgotten how to gore and how to push against the enemy in prayer! Prayer is not just some little, sometimes it is just a little prayer from our heart, but in times of storm and stress, we have to gore and push against the enemy! And we’ve got to use our horns! OK?
This is Bible. 1 Samuel 2:1: “And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord, mine horn is exalted in the Lord: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in Thy salvation.”
Psalm 75:10: “All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.” Ladies, it is a marvelous thing to take the Scriptures into the place of prayer. Pray the Scriptures. When you’re praying the Scriptures, you’re praying in the perfect will of God.
I love to pray this Scripture: “Lord God, cut off the horns of the wicked!” Oh, there are so many in our nation who are wicked, who are bringing evil things upon this nation. They think they have all the power and authority in the world. But God can bring down their authority. He can bring down their horns. So, we can pray that they will be cut off, and instead, that “the horns of the righteous will be exalted.”
Psalm 89:17: “For Thou art the glory of their strength: and in Thy favor our horn shall be exalted.”
Psalm 92:10: “But my horn shalt Thou exalt, like the horn of an unicorn.”
Psalm 148:14: “He also exalted the horn of His people.”
Micah 4:13: “Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion: for I will make thine horn iron.”
Do you notice how it talks about how the horn of the righteous will be exalted? That’s what we’ve got to pray for, that the authority of the wicked will be cut off, and the authority and anointing of the righteous and the godly will be lifted up, lifted up and exalted.
Just listen to this prophecy that Moses prayed over Joseph. Deuteronomy 33:17: “His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push. . .” The word there means “to gore, to butt, to go against. “. . . to push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.” So, let’s take up our horns, dear ladies.
A CROWNING ALTAR
OK, number six: it is a crowning ministry. The altar of incense had a golden crown all around each side.
A FOUR-SQUARE ALTAR
I’ll go on to the next one, number seven. It is four-square. That’s a very interesting thing about the altar of incense, that it is four-square. Each side is exactly the same, whereas the showbread table was rectangular.
The altar of incense, four-square. It’s meant to be that it would have the same priority as other things in the, well, in our Christian life. In things that we do for the Lord, prayer and praise should not be little, or just have a little part. It must take part with the others. It’s four-square. That makes me think of a church meeting!
OK, if we had a really, truly four-square church meeting, what would we have? We would have equal parts of prayer, worship, the Word of God, and fellowship, because fellowship is very important in the Word of God. In Acts, they fellowshipped when they came together.
Well, is that true amongst our gatherings today? No, I don’t think so. I mean, people, when they go to church, the pastor will open with prayer. He will close with prayer. Maybe there’s a bit of other prayer, but I don’t think there is as much prayer as the sermon! The sermon may be for half an hour. Do we all pray for half an hour?
We may worship for half an hour. But let’s get everything in the same order, four-square. OK, four-square gospel. There is a church called the Four-Square Gospel Church. Colin and I actually became members of that when we were missionaries in the Philippine Islands.
But four-square means you’re not belittling one important thing and giving it more to the other. No, they must all have the same. That is very important too.
Oh, goodness. Time has gone, and I still haven’t finished! There are some more things to tell you. So, we’ll have to carry on next week, OK?
Oh, the Lord bless you, dear lovely, precious mothers and wives, in your home. Oh, I hope you can just get a glimpse of this beautiful, golden ministry, this four-square ministry, this horning ministry, this crowning ministry, this coming up higher ministry! This is what it’s all about, and this is one of the things that we have to have very much embedded into our lives and operating in our lives, as we prepare for whatever we will come across in our lives, if we may face end times in our lifetime.
So, do you think you can do it? Do you think you can bring more prayer into your home so it can be the testimony of your home? That there is much incense going up before the Lord? Do you think you can even have a prayer meeting in your home? At least have a great prayer meeting every morning and evening with your family.
If you’ve got a big family, woo-hoo! You’ve got a good, great prayer meeting! You’ve got eight, nine, ten children, you’ve got a bigger prayer meeting than a lot of churches have! Sometimes they only get three or four to the prayer meeting! You’ve got more! Wow! You can have a great prayer meeting, a powerful prayer meeting. You can change this nation. You can change the world through your prayers!
“Oh, dear Father, help us to get the vision, and please help us, Lord, to get on our feet and do it, Lord. Oh God, it’s so easy to just lag behind. But help us to truly say, “Oh, I will get up and go. When Thou sayest, ‘Seek ye My face.’ My heart said unto me, ‘Lord, thy face will I seek.’ Help us to respond, Lord God.
I pray for Your wonderful blessing over every family. Bless them with Your protection. Bless them with Your salvation. Bless them with Your healing. Bless them with Your anointing. And bless them with Your presence in their homes. And, Lord, I pray that the spirit of prayer will come upon them, from father to mother to children. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell * www.aboverubies.org
Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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