During the writing of Chapter Nine as Father began revealing the vivid realities of the Anointing which He had encrypted in the wilderness sanctuary, He said, "I AM My own interpreter, and I will make it plain." The Anointing in Jesus testified that He was the true Bread and the true Light, identifying Himself with the emblems of the showbread and the lampstand in the Holy Place. He openly confessed that He was the living fulfillment of two of the three emblems of the Holy Place, but I didn't remember any direct confession He made regarding the third emblem of that apartment, the "altar of perpetual incense."
When I asked Father to show me what He had purposed to reveal about His Son, when He designed the "altar of perpetual incense", He opened up such sweet and significant meaning regarding the hidden life of His Messiah, when He came the first time. The true meaning of this altar and its incense, was so apt and touching to the Two Witnesses, because of the close vantage point from which Father has given us to see and experience the intimate life of Messiah, at His return. The returned life of Messiah, in Michael, has revealed the truth about His first appearing in Jesus of Nazareth.
The day that Father opened up what He had encrypted in the third emblem of the Holy Place, I was sitting outside as He had drawn my heart out to Him for His light, and all at once He took me up into His vision. I was looking out over the orderly arranged tents of the ancient wilderness congregation, pitched at a little distance around the "Tent of Meeting" which was centered in their midst, and which was surrounded by its white linen courtyard. Two distinct columns of smoke were ascending from the sanctuary, one column of smoke was arising from the "altar of perpetual incense" inside of the Holy Place, and the other column of smoke was arising from the "altar of continual burnt offering" within the linen enclosed courtyard outside.
At the same time that I saw these two columns of smoke ascending before me in my vision, I became aware that I was also feeling them ascending from within myself, as well. I was not only seeing the ancient wilderness sanctuary, but I was in Messiah, and was a living sanctuary. I found myself identifying two distinct expressions of the life of the Anointing which the Witnesses have seen arising continually from Michael's own life as an "ascending sacrifice". These two "offerings by fire" we have seen and heard portrayed so vividly before us, since the appearing of Messiah in the new land. And yet, because of the marked way in which Michael has lived them out before us, we have also found ourselves identifying these same two expressions ascending from within ourselves to the Father, as well.
This is the meaning which Father Himself encrypted in those two altars, and which He was now making plain, as He opened up to me, in the sweetest way, the true significance of these "offerings by fire", and, what was actually being offered up continually.
Father showed me that He had made the "altar of continual burnt offering", in the courtyard, to be a companion type of the "altar of perpetual incense" within the Holy Place. Together they pointed forward to the two distinct natures of the life of Messiah. His human life revealed a continual yielding up and giving over to His Father - as the Son of Man, and His divine life revealed a perpetual drawn out dependence and yearning desire for His Father - as the Son of God. This two-fold living sacrifice of Himself was continually ascending to His Father from the very real altars of His twofold life. From these two "offerings made by fire", Father purposed to make very understandable to us, the state of the two natures embodied in the born again soul.
Of the "altar of continual burnt offering" it is written:
Now this is what you shall offer on the altar; two lambs a year old shall be offered day by day continually, one lamb...in the morning, and the other lamb in the evening...for a sweet and satisfying fragrance, an offering made by fire to the Lord. This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the Tent of Meeting before the Lord, where I will meet with you to speak there to you. Ex. 29:38-42 Amplified.
The "altar of continual burnt offering" was located in the courtyard, directly on the way into the Holy Place, and was appointed for the offering of flesh and blood. This first altar must be passed in order to enter through the first veil into the Holy Place. This altar prefigured the offering up of the flesh (human) and blood (life) of the Son of Man, Who would continually yield up and give over to the Father, His human nature, in one unbroken and irrevocable sacrifice. The column of smoke continually ascending heavenward from the morning lamb and the evening lamb were meant to bring God's people into the reality of the continual nature of the offering up and giving over to the Father, which occurred every moment in the life of God's Lamb, both at His first coming as the "Lamb of God", and at His return, to consummate the "marriage of the Lamb".
Of the "altar of perpetual incense" it is written:
You shall put the altar of incense in front and outside of the veil that screens the ark of the Testimony...And Aaron shall burn on it incense of sweet spices...a perpetual incense before the Lord...You shall offer no unholy incense on the altar. Ex. 40:26,27;30:7-9 Amplified.
The "altar of perpetual incense" was located within the Holy Place, directly on the way to the Most Holy Place, and was appointed for the perpetual offering of pure incense of sweet spices. This second altar must be passed, in order to enter through the second veil into the Most Holy Place. This altar, hidden from the sight of the congregation, within the "Tent of Meeting", prefigured the life of the Son of God which was hidden from the sight of the Jewish people, within the human life of the Son of Man.
This second altar revealed that not only the flesh and blood of Messiah, but His divine life - the Anointing within that human life - would also be consumed perpetually, as on the altar of incense. The divine Anointing within the Son of Man, would be in a state of being continually used up and consumed, in following His Father's instructions, which were operative at every moment, during His entire life. The column of smoke perpetually ascending heavenward from this sweet incense, was meant to reveal the uninterrupted nature of the sacrifice of the life of the Son of God, so that only the Father's life was lived and seen in Him. It portrayed the perpetual nature of the Son's divine, yearning, dependence, His continually ascending desire for His Father, which would arise without interruption, from His Holy Place of drawn out desire, as the sweetest incense to Him from Whom He came forth.
Both the "altar of continual burnt offerings", and the "altar of perpetual incense", were refreshed in the morning, to burn slowly all through the day, and then refreshed again in the evening, to burn slowly all through the night. Initially, in the ancient "Tent of Meeting", God Himself provided divine fire for the two altars, and then communicated His purpose that this divine fire never be allowed to go out. The high priest cherished the divine fire on the two altars and kept it alive by the continual offering up of the two types of sacrifice.
In the life of Messiah, the fire that burned upon His living altars, was also divine fire. "Our God is a consuming fire". Heb. 12:29. "Who among us can dwell with that devouring fire? Who among us can dwell with those everlasting burnings?" Isa. 33:14 Amplified. Only the One from God could dwell in the "consuming fire" and "everlasting burnings" of God, His whole life a voluntary yielding up to the Father, a continual, consumable offering.
He met all the requirements [for the human and the divine offering] once for all when He brought Himself as a sacrifice which He offered up. Heb. 7:27 Amplified.
Christ [the Anointing]...has loved us, and has given himself for us [while within us] an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. Eph. 5:2.
When Jesus told the local folks in His day, "The Bread that I shall give for the life of the world, is My flesh," His statement revealed a truth which the people of His day never saw. "Then the Jews angrily contended with one another, saying, How is He able to give us His flesh to eat? And Jesus said to them, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, you cannot have any life in you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood." John 6:52,53 Amplified. The majority of Jews could not receive the human life of Jesus, the flesh (human) and blood (life) that tabernacled "God with us," yet Jesus said that this is the very part of His sacrifice, which would be life to us. Why did Jesus say that it would be life to us, to eat His human life? Because when a soul truly sees, and takes in, the reality of the experience that Messiah had within real, live, flesh and blood, that soul "gets" that the divine Anointing yielded to by any soul, lives His divine life in that soul's flesh (human) and blood (life), just as the Anointing did in Jesus of Nazareth. The human life of Jesus was given to us, to reveal the human life of any soul with the Anointing in it.
In the wilderness "Tent of Meeting", the "altar of continual burnt offering" had to be passed first, before the altar of perpetual incense could be approached. Thus it was with Messiah, the living "Tent of Meeting," as well. Jesus asked the religious folk of His day, "Do you say of the One Whom the Father consecrated and dedicated and set apart for Himself and sent into the world, You are blaspheming [You are an impostor], because I said, I am the Son of God? John 10:36 Amplified. Because the Jews couldn't receive the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, they were never able to get past that altar of His humanity, the veil, to see and appreciate the other sacrifice which was continually ascending from the living "Tent of Meeting." They couldn't see the Son of God, Who was dwelling among them in His "tent of flesh." They never saw the sweet breathings of soul arising continually from the heart of the Son for His Father, as the pure, sweet incense perpetually arose in the Holy Place. They weren't aware of, and certainly couldn't appreciate, the deep thirst and continual reaching out of heart, that came forth unbidden from the living Sacrifice, to the One from Whom He had come forth. Yet, type met Antitype in this acute and perpetual drawing out of Messiah's heart, and His continual dependence and unbroken desire for His Father, came forth from within Him as the sweetest ascending incense. During Messiah's entire life, the perpetual "sweet savor" from this "offering made by fire," was arising without interruption.
On both of the altars in Jesus' life, a very real life was being continually sacrificed; for not only the human life of this living "Tent of Meeting" was continually laid down and offered up, but His divine life as well.
Who, although being essentially one with God and in the form of God, possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God...stripped Himself of all privileges, so...He became like men. Phil. 2:6,7 Amplified.
The Son of God had sacrificed the divine powers of God, which He had naturally inherited, and which had existed in all their fullness within Him, before He came to this earth, and this sacrifice never ended; for when the Son took on flesh and blood, He also took on the utter dependence of having nothing in Himself on which to rely. "He emptied Himself." Phil. 2:7 RSV. The Son was fully dependent upon His Father's communication of His daily will, and His provision to fulfill that will. The Father was the Son's continual supply. The Son voluntarily became a dependent, fully unable to exist or sustain Himself, fully unable to subsist or to perform anything, without the direct aid of His Father. It was the continual sacrifice of His sovereign advantages, which produced the utter, sweet dependence by which the Son lived, and openly confessed:
I am able to do nothing from Myself, independently, of My own accord - but only as I am taught by God and as I get His orders. Even as I hear, I judge, I decide as I am bidden to decide. As the voice comes to Me, so I give a decision, and My judgment is right, just, righteous, because I do not seek or consult My own will, I have no desire to do what is pleasing to Myself, My own aim, My own purpose, but only the will and pleasure of the Father Who sent Me. John 5:30 Amplified.
Only the Anointing can feel the utter dependence of having His own divine life emptied out, and not have anything of Himself. Only the Anointing can say, "I am able to do nothing from Myself," and from the utter depths of His continually yielding up soul, cry out from within us, to His Father in childlike trust, "Abba, which means, Father, everything is possible for You." Mark 14:36 Amplified.
The Jews were not the only ones who had to look past Christ's flesh and blood in order to see and acknowledge Who was really in that man from Nazareth. Jesus Himself had to, as well. Jesus did not have outward physical evidence that He was the promised Messiah, the Anointed Son of God. There was nothing tangible which He could use to prove to Himself that He was any different than any other man. None of the circumstances that occurred in His life were incontrovertible evidence that He was the Anointed One. The Anointing had to go through the human veil of the body He lived in, as well.
Jesus' mother must have related to Him what the angel told her regarding His conception and birth, along with the testimony of the shepherds who were directed by an angel to His birth place, and Simeon and Anna, the two witnesses of His dedication at the temple when He was eight days old. He remembered when He was twelve, that He felt something awaken within Him, as He experienced such keen identity with the lamb that was being sacrificed by the high priest; but none of those things were proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
Jesus had to believe in the One (Christ) Who was in him, in the same way that everyone else had to. When Christ (the Anointed One within Jesus) gave spontaneous testimony of what He had just seen and heard from His Father, Jesus of Nazareth had to believe that testimony which was being borne from out of His own soul. There was a veil that Jesus had to go through, in order to believe the testimony of the Christ Who was within Him. It was the veil of human sense, the illusion of what appeared to be true to His human eyes, what felt real to His human feelings, and what seemed to be reality to His natural human nature. The veil of human sense would naturally invalidate the words that the Father spoke of the Anointing Who was within Jesus.
The natural human senses of sight, feeling, and human intuition were not in agreement with what Father was telling the Anointing of Christ within Jesus. There was nothing in the human senses or nature of Jesus which would support the spontaneous testimony, coming from the One within him, Who was responding to His Father's word. Thus, the living "Word" within His "tent of flesh," had to pass through the veil of natural human nature, in the very body in which He lived, in order to believe His Father's word of reality to Him.
Human nature naturally only sees and feels and interprets everything from its limited human perspective. It does not have the capacity to see the invisible, as does the divine nature. To the human nature, it appears and feels there is a contradiction between the human reality and the divine reality, between the sensings of the human nature, and the sensings of the divine nature. This was the veil of flesh that the Anointing in Jesus had to go through. The veil of flesh would erect an impassible barrier between the reality of Father's personal word to a soul, and the only reality it can see with its human eyes, were it not for the divine eyes of the Anointing within it. The Anointing in Jesus of Nazareth always chose to give His agreement to the word of His Father, which He chose to believe as His reality, over the reality of His human nature.
Christ [the Anointing] has consecrated for us a new and living way through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. Heb 10:20.
The process of the living Word going through the veil of the human flesh it was within, happened quite literally for Jesus of Nazareth the first time, when the tiny, living body pressed His little way through the birth canal of His mother, and broke through the final membrane of flesh obstructing His appearance into visibility. Just as tiny human beings have been given to innately sense when the fulness of their time has come; and they know instinctively when to initiate their way through their veil of flesh which can no longer confine them, because the womb has become a prison instead of a place of growth - so did the tiny living Word Who had been spoken into human flesh. The Seed of God, spoken into Mary in secret, could not remain hidden within her forever, but grew and developed and then made His way through the veil of flesh He was within, to appear, in the fulness of time. The birth of Jesus revealed how the tiny divine Being, the Anointing, is conceived in the human soul, and how it makes its reality of existence, appear in the flesh it is within, in the fulness of time. More and more the soul can take in the nature of the Anointing. The wholeness of God is in the Seed, but the awareness of the soul does not instantly grasp the fulness of Him.
The birth process of Jesus of Nazareth was the first time that the living Word made His way through human flesh, but it was by no means the last time. During His entire time on earth, every word that the Father spoke into His living Word, made its appearing in His human life in exactly the same way, through "the veil, that is to say, his flesh." Heb. 10:20. "For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power, making it active, operative, energizing, and effective." Heb. 4:12 Amplified. Each word His Father spoke into Him was alive - a virile and vigorous Seed - unfelt and unseen at first, but nonetheless, growing in conscious awareness until the time had come to press its reality of Being, into visibility.
Just as a newborn baby innately knows where to turn to receive the nourishment that is natural to its growth and development, just so, the Word of God in Jesus innately knew where to turn for His nourishment and sustenance - "every word which proceeded out of the mouth of God." Matt. 4:4. The living Word of God, lived on every word from His Father. As a baby grows from the nourishment that it takes into itself, so, the little living Word in Jesus of Nazareth, took in every word from His Father, expanding and increasing the experience of divine reality within Him. "By faith we understand that everything in the life of the Anointing appeared by the word of God, so that what we see [what appeared in His human life] was not made out of things which were visible." Heb. 11:3 Father's Version.
The Word of God within Jesus of Nazareth was His stability and life. His human life was a living demonstration of the life of the Anointing that Father brought down from heaven for every soul to experience. The Anointing in each soul temple receives its nourishment to go through the veil of human appearance, from the same source as did Jesus of Nazareth - by the word of God.
Chapter 10, page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
