UNAUTHORIZED INTERCESSION!

"You shall not offer strange incense on it." (Ex 30:9).

In my last post I shared the story of two men recorded in Luke 18 who went into the Temple to pray. The first man stood in pride and declared his righteousness before God. The second man bowed his head and cried out for mercy. Jesus said that the second man went home justified and the other did not.  I want to share with you today what Holy Spirit is leading me to speak on this pressing matter of intercession in this season. The first man, the Pharisee, prayer was not accepted by God because the Pharisee offered "strange incense" before God. In other passages the word strange recorded in Exodus 30:9 is "Unauthorized." Please receive this revelation in the spirit. As much as our God loves everyone and desires that all would come to Him in intercession, praying and crying out to Him in fervency God will only accept the intercession or prayer that He has authorized.

There is a deceptive mindset in the Church that teaches that I can come to God anyway that I want. I can say to God anything that I want to say. I can come to God and He will accept me and whatever I do in any way.   But I must expose that delusion, for it is a lie that had created deception in the House of the Lord. The pattern that God gave to Moses reveals spiritual principles that dictate and determine our entrance into the presence of our King.

When God gave Moses the specificity to build the Tent of Testimony, a picture of the manifest presence of God in the midst of His people God told Moses to build the altar from WOOD and then God said cover it in GOLD. Wood is the prophetic picture of humanity. Gold is the prophetic picture of Deity. If you love the Lord and have received Him as your Savior and Lord then you are an altar, you are the place where God desires to meet you. But God wasn't satisfied with just your humanity, He placed Himself in you and called you His temple, the place where He lives. Yes you are human but now you are more than human. God lives in you. Deity is in you. You are Gold, made righteousness in the sight of God by the sacrifice of Jesus.

Because of who you are you must always offer to God the incense that He has ordered. You must offer the intercession that He requires. He will not accept your unauthorized intercession. The first man, the Pharisee offered to God strange fire. He offered  to God an intercession that exalted himself. It was a self righteousness petition and God judged it and called it UNAUTHORIZED. That man stood before God and praised himself. He despised others. He declared his acts of righteousness. He offered God what God did not authorize. And God would not receive it.

In the house of God on this Sunday September 23, 2012 much incense will be offered and God will judge it as UNAUTHORIZED. Many will offer intercession that comes from pride. Many will pray with an unforgiving heart. Others will pray without repentance. Many will pray in the name of Allah. And God will judge it as UNAUTHORIZED! Don't let that be you. Hear God through these words. He will accept what He appoints. He only receives what He authorizes. Learn what is pleasing to Him and offer Him what He calls SWEET.   

IS YOUR INTERCESSION A SWEET AROMA TO GOD?

Exodus 30:7, "Aaron shall burn on it sweet incense every morning....a perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations."

If you read my last blog you read that God is calling forth believers who will be altars where intercession is being offered day and night. Again I say that the incense burned on the altar in Exodus 30 is a prophetic picture of intercession or prayer. If you have not read that blog then visit http://www.bernardboulton.blogspot.com to read my entry on September 11, 2012.

Today I want to share with you how intercession is received by Adonai our Lord God. Aaron, the high priest,  was commanded to offer sweet incense to the Lord. This sweet incense was made and offered to the Lord and it carried a fragrance that not only filled the Tabernacle but ascended toward the heavens to the very throne of Adonai. From this principle Holy Spirit is saying that the attitude (represented by odor) is just as important as the act of intercession. Because our intercession is an act of worship before the Lord it must be presented to Him in a way that is pleasing to Him. You may be thinking isn't it enough that I pray? Shouldn't the Lord be pleased that I took the time to pray? And I believe that He is pleased but because God is a God of order revealed in principles, patterns and protocol it should move us to know what His Will is so that He may be pleased with everything that we do.

Holy Spirit showed me that this word, "sweet incense" is talking about the attitude that you release your intercession from. Immediately my spirit was led to see Isaac who humbly allowed his father Abraham to lay him on the altar at Mount Moriah as a sacrifice. God loves humility and intercession offered from a humble heart is a sweet fragrance before Him. A humble spirit says before God, "I'm coming to You but I am weak and I need You."

Again I am led by the Teacher Holy Spirit to the parable that Jesus told in Luke 18. There were two men in the Temple, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee prayed, "God I thank you that I am not like this tax collector." The tax collector prayed, "God be merciful to me a sinner."Jesus said, in my words, the tax collector prayer was a sweet incense before the Lord and the Pharisee was not. Why? Because the tax collector stood before the Lord in humility and the Pharisee stood before the Lord in pride.

God is calling intercessors who are humble before Him. Intercessors who knows that they need Him and are willing to say so and show so. Is your intercession a sweet aroma before our Lord? My intercession for you is that you can say yes.

Pastor William McDowell calls us to intercession in this musical offering to Adonai. Receive it and be blessed.