“and be kind to one another, tender❤ed, Grace-giving-forgiveness, just as God in Christ Grace-gave-forgiveness to you.
BE, THEREFORE, IMITATORS OF GOD, AS CHILDREN LOVED! and walk in Agape-Love, just as Christ also Agape-Loved you/us, and gave-up Himself for us, an offering & a sacrifice to God, as a FRAGRANT AROMA.“
. Ephesians 4:32-5:2
. Reading Luke 1 in the Greek text, I didn’t get past v9, Zacharias being appointed to “burn incense” in “the temple of the LORD,” (the people having gathered outside for prayer, to pray, at the hour of incense offering).
. All I wanted to do was to read through Luke; but I got wrecked at v9, as Holy Spirit drew my heart to tear apart the text, to unveil God the LORD’s heart in what what was taking place in THIS verse particularly.
. The word, “temple” – “ναὸν” – “na-on”, is rooted in the verb, “ναίω”- “nai-o”, meaning, “to dwell”. Ephesians 2:21 says that WE “are being built into a dwelling place of God … into a habitation“ (this word, “habitation”, connotes a “down home place”, where you find rest) “of GOD in the Spirit.” (Jhn 14;2; Eph. 2;21-22).
. (God’s purposed goal ultimately, in our being built into this, in our being so rooted and grounded in His love, to where all of Jesus’s faith is set AND rested at home by God’s Power through the Spirit into our inner man, is towards us, as the Ekklesia, being filled with the ALL the FULLNESS of God, – Eph.3:16-21 – to where verse 20 explodes through the Bride of Christ).
. God our Father WANTS (and is therefore INTENTIONALLY building) a dwelling for Himself through believers, – the very Body of Christ Jesus on earth, of His Son here – a downhome dwelling place, exactly as He had IN Jesus when Jesus was on earth, as seen in the four gospels.
. Yet what He is doing, through increasing numbers of willingly surrendered (or surrendering) believers, is this side of the victory of the cross … towards exponentially manifesting that ‘finished work of the cross/resurrection/Throne-seated’ glory of His Son, Christ Jesus our Lord/LORD to the principalities and powers in the heavenlies, (Eph. 3;10), that the weightiness of that glory glows, with authoritative power, the very Lord-ship of King Jesus on earth, through the ekklessia bride of Christ who lives as One with her Lord/LORD in His royalty of manifest righteousness.
“But thanks be to God, Who always leads us in triumph
. in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma
. of the knowledge of Him in every place.
. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those
. who are being saved and among those who are perishing.
. 2 Corinthians 2:14-15 (NASB)
. We cannot carry and wear the weightiness of this Glory as the Ekklesia Bride of Christ separate from the ever-living/everlasting fragrance of our LORD Jesus; for it is His willingly laid down life for our redemption which wafts that continual aroma of His cross’s sacrifice, that which gained for us the royalty in which we henceforth forever stand.
. The aroma of the Spirit of Christ Jesus upon us is what makes the words of our testimony a fragrance of His life alive in and through us unto those around us.
“a certain priest named Zacharias … while he was performing
his priestly service before God … he was chosen by lot to burn
incense, having entered into the temple of the LORD.
And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside
at the hour of the incense offering. And an angel of the LORD
appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense.” exrpt frm Luke 1:5, 8-11 (NASB/middle of v. 9-lit Grk txt order)
. The verb, “to offer/to burn incense” – “θυμιᾶσαι” – “thumiasai”, is rooted in the verb, “θύω” – “thuo”, meaning, “to sacrifice/to kill for sacrifice”. Indeed, the very word for “Altar” is also rooted in this word.
. But incense itself is not from a sacrifice …
. I didn’t understand the significant tie to sacrifice in the priest offering the incense in his praying.
. So I went back to Leviticus 16:11-19, because it is there that the LORD instructs Moses as to the incense offering … it was here where I received the revelation to which Holy Spirit was drawing my ❤.
. Please pay attention to this, Beloved. For this has EVERYTHING to do with the prayers WE offer up, in the force of the answer of those prayers from heaven – (Rev. 8:3-5).
. The altar of incense was/is set before the Mercy-Seat – the ark of the Covenant – … The Throne … where is the blood of the Lamb, the Voice of the blood, the decrees of King Jesus’s Lordship. (Ex.30:1-8; Heb.9:3-4; 12:24b; Eph.1:22).
. Incense offered before the LORD IS PRAYER!
. The Old Covenant, in all that is written, is pointing to New Covenant revelation of Jesus (Lk. 24:27).
. What I found in Leviticus16 is that there is ALWAYS a direct link to the sacrifice, to the ACCOMPLISHMENT of the sacrifice, of Jesus on the cross, in the offering of “burnt incense” before the Judgment seat (become) Mercy seat of God’s Throne.
. Please hear this, Beloved. This will change your heart motive in prayer, and you’ll find the torn veil an open heaven reality of your faith, of your believing, when you pray.
. The fragrant aroma of incense offering captures the attention of God the LORD/Lord (Rev. 8:4), (in similar fashion as a quality perfume on a wife turns the head & heart of her husband towards her – Song of Sol. 1:12; Mk.14:3). (The one having ears to hear, let him/let her hear)
. On the day of atonement, when the high priest was allowed access into the Holy of Holies, before he got to enter, there was a sacrifice to be slaughtered and burnt upon the altar of sacrifice.
. … the fire was prepared – upon the altar where blood was shed and upon which the offering was placed.
. From THIS ALTAR OF SACRIFICE, coals from the fire of the altar of the SIN offering, were taken, WITH incense, into the tent of meeting, in order to offer the Fragrance of the incense, with prayer, upon the altar of incense before the Mercy seat … where the cloud of the incense, from the burning caused by the coals of the fire of the SIN offering, would cover the Mercy Seat, the place of the LORD’s unveiled Presence. (Lev.16:13).
. The incense’s FRAGRANCE cannot ascend apart from the burning coals of the fire of the SIN offering.
. … Selah … (If you will let Holy Spirit speak to you through what is written below, the paragraph above will become ongoing revelation in your private time with Jesus).
. The sacrifice that makes us clean, that took from us sin, sin’s voice, sin’s accusation, sin’s authority, sin’s power, the very record of remembrance, the ramifications of sin, of missing the mark of the glory of Jesus’s image in us, the coals of THIS sacrifice that WE take with us with the incense offering of believing prayer, is what makes our prayer A FRAGRANCE of incense (from the cross of Jesus, exactly as Holy Spirit speaks in Eph. 5:2) capturing Almighty God (our Father’s) attention.
. Why?
. Because this cloud of the fragrance of the sacrifice of Jesus carries the Sweet Aroma of the LOVE of God, of Jesus’s laid down life, in redeeming each one of us! 😭 (Rom. 5:8)
. You CANNOT remain unchanged by THIS Grace thru Holy Spirit working, where this understanding, in your Spirit-man, of this precious value of Jesus’s sacrifice, becomes the coals, always, of whatever you pray, whatever is your incense offering.
… Selah …
. The sacrifice, the New Covenant sin offering/guilt offering unveils the EXTENT of God’s Love to you, Beloved,
. … in redeeming you, in freeing you from all that is sin & acquainted w/ missing the mark of God’s Glory, IN REMOVING/BLOTTING OUT FOREVER THE REMEMBRANCE of sin. (Holy Spirit is intentionally after setting THIS into our ‘willing to be transformed’ heart).
. The impact of the THIS … THROUGH you … of THIS fragrant aroma upon you, will set an unprecedented TRUE fear of God increasingly in the earth as THIS begins to flow like a River out of Believers … towards first each other, and also to the world 🌍🌎 – Ps. 130:4).
. The weightiness of the comprehension of THIS that we hold as ‘valuable’ & ‘true’ in our ❤ becomes the fire of the coals in our incense of offered prayer before God, …
. … with NO veil as to whether or not He hears and/or receives our prayer …
. … towards answering WAY beyond our expectation (I.e. Gabriel bringing answer to Zacharias – Lk.1:11-17)
. Beloved, let me say again: The coals from the sacrifice carry the weightiness of the extent of how beyond our imagination is God’s forgiveness – UTTERLY – of us … because this Awesome God is also our Abba Father FULL of beyond comprehension Love. (Eph. 3:8b, 19).
. God’s heart, Abba Father God’s purposed intention, in our becoming imitators of Him in this full expression of His Forgiveness of us, is for transformation into the express image of Jesus in THIS outflow sacrifice of Love.
. To walk supernaturally natural in THIS Love will unveil to one another in the Body of Christ, and then in FULL Light before the world, a Revelation of God in His Love, which will cause MANY to weep in true repentance into salvation. (Zechariah 12:10).
. New Covenant Forgiveness received, because it is rooted in 1 Cor. 13:4-8 Agape-Love, carries the Fragrance of Jesus’s sacrifice of Himself to God.
. It is an aroma that pours out the fragrance of God’s beyond comprehension Love which so washed and removed the very stain of sin, of offense, the record of remembrance … Yes, It does this to us, but is ALSO to do this THROUGH us – (2 Cor. 5:14-21).
. When we give ourself to be the River of Life of this kind of Love through us, the Fragrance of Christ, from His cross, it becomes an aroma to God actually smelled by those around us, lost or saved. (2 Cor. 2:14-16).
. Beloved, Holy Spirit is calling the Bride of Christ, the Ekklesia, with intention to Grace her by Dunamis power, to a Throne seated consciousness of faith, a higher place than the position in which she has been (in her heart), to live in His Love, THIS Love, … (Eph.3:10-21 – but especially vs 16 & 17a)
. … to become His Love to her, that she NEVER lets out of her sight the holes in His hands and feet, the forever scars of His redemptive Love in redeeming her & clothing her in His Royalty -> His Righteousness!
. When we retain unforgiveness, to any degree, keeping the offense alive in our ❤, Beloved, where we do not release by Grace, as the revelation of His Grace-Love, IN FULL, COMPLETE FORGIVENESS, becomes more manifest in our hearts, according as we have been released through such Love, and then we go to offer incense, we are not giving place to the coals of the sacrifice to waft the fragrant aroma of the Finished Work of Jesus through our life, which is supposed to ascend in our prayer …
. This is not condemnation, Beloved. My own heart is pursuing Him right here, to let Holy Spirit mold me and make me to become such Love -> a Love that utterly releases, with no account of sin, without even the ability to be provoked when wronged, a Love that covers ALL things … because THIS is how we’ve been loved by God in His forgiveness of us.
. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus to walk out this workmanship of Him in our lives. We cannot grit our teeth to try to become this. Yet we CAN give ourselves to Him, to His workmanship, towards Holy Spirit transforming us into such Love by His Grace.
. The evidence in you, Precious Believer, of RECEIVED Love, is in the outflow from your ❤, ‘naturally’ as a Believer towards anybody, most especially within the Body of Christ.
. The degree with which you retain unconditional Love, Beloved, in Forgiveness is the degree to which you have not realized the unconditional Love of God in how extensive is His forgiveness/release/blotted out record OF YOU!
. Don’t you dare stop praying, Beloved, if you find your heart not at this place of unconditional Love. Rather pursue the Crazy awesome transforming Love that is God through Jesus in your relationship private time with Him – (1 Cor. 14:1a). There is Grace for growing into this, Precious One.
. There is Grace unprecedented to come to the Throne of Grace, to Abba God, to the sprinkled blood, to receive His Loving-kindness in His Mercy, to obtain Grace for HIS WORK in transforming you, to let Holy Spirit unveil and inundate you with how much you have been forgiven …
. … so that THAT oil of Grace becomes the oil to give up to the cross hurts and offense, and to be transformed into growing and becoming, increasingly, unconditional Love, the nature of the seed of God that was seeded into us when we were born again, when our old man was co-crucified with Jesus, and co-buried with Jesus, and we were raised a New Creation in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 6;3-11: 2 Cor. 5;17-19).
. Jesus heals the broken💔 Hearted, Beloved … But He also then Grace transforms us so that our ❤ NEVER gets broken again … Because we died to self, to everything we got in Adam – all soul ties – anything that gave place to self to vulnerability towards being able to be broken..
. Paul told the Corinthian believers, “I purposed not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ & Him crucified” – (1 Cor.2:2). Why? This keeps alive in our ❤ the extent of God’s love (Rom.5:8), the value & cost of our redemption, our forgiveness.
. When we hold on to even shreds of unforgiveness, where we really don’t release (as though the one who offended/hurt us never sinned, as God HAS done thru His Love with us) we are (unwittingly?) EXALTING THAT OFFENSE, THAT HURT above the cost of the sacrificed Life of God’s only Son …
. … because we’ve “thrown into prison” (in our minds, our soul,) the one who “owes us the debt” by the hurt, by the kept remembrance of the offense. (See Jesus’s own words as to this in Matthew 18:21-35).
. … we exalt that offense above the cost of Jesus’s split blood, above the cost of His Life, above the death He died while bearing YOUR sin … above the extent of how much WE’VE been forgiven by God our Abba Father …
. … and we offer prayers without the coals of the fire of the sacrifice of Love – the Greatest sin & guilt offering that can ever be offered in all of eternity … and wonder why prayer doesn’t get answered, or we don’t see the “exceedingly abundantly beyond” promised by God in Ephesians 3:20.
. This is a serous matter with the LORD/Lord right now.
. Jesus’s words from Matthew 18:22-35 are before the Ekklesia Bride of Christ. She has been believing, praying (& even fasting), for a MASSIVE global harvest. If we, if you individually, do not waft the fragrance through your life from the coals of the sacrifice of Jesus, ALL that is His Love in His complete and utter forgiveness, with ALL that this word denotes adn connotes, you will not turn heads to the perfume of God’s Love upon you.
. The Spirit of Jesus will NOT give to the Ekklesia portion of the bride not walking in this garment of righteousness in unforgiveness, in cold love, especially towards one another, of the stewardship entrustment of that great harvest until she gives herself to the transformation of such unconditional Love in FULLY RELEASING thru Forgiveness exactly as she has been Graced in Love in this way.
. … Selah …
. … This needs to sink deeply into the ears of your heart, Beloved.
. …
. Let it be said again:
Holy Spirit will NOT give this exceedingly beyond answer of the harvest until the Bride of Christ wears her white wedding dress of His Royalty in Grace, His Righteousness, until she walks FAITHFULLY in the stewardship entrustment of FORGIVENESS from out of transformed ❤ of God’s Love towards one one another, in Transformed Love.
. Her “ministry” apart from such transformation would be merely a clanging noise, …
. She would be nothing in power ministry (1 Cor. 13:1-3) apart from this transformation of Love. The stewardship of discipleship of new converts would fall apart without this set 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 transformation into becoming the Love by which she has been loved.
. Oh, Beloved, there is a freedom of rest by Holy Spirit for us if we will step into THIS River from the Throne.
. There are prayers Abba God wants to answer so exceedingly beyond, that it will set in us an Awe of God, of our LORD Jesus, of His blood, over & over again for all our days. (Eph. 3;20 – in accordance to the prayer of Paul in vs 16-19).
. There is a glory beyond the brightness of the sun for The Bride of Christ if she will walk in THIS Royalty. She has a Fragrant perfume to put on which will turn the head of Her Lord, Her Husband – The King of kings – (Esther 5:1-2) … which will render a judgment manifest from the throne on her behalf … for MULTITUDES on the earth. (Esth.8:17; Dan.7:22).
. I know these words are strong, Beloved, to the point of being intense. If you will hear Holy Spirit, He WILL release Grace for radical transformation.
. What I’m hearing from Him is far stronger than my words in these blog posts.
. God EXPECTS fruit from the seed He planted in us, the fruit of a release of Grace/Love horizontally, with each other, according as each of us has been Grace-released by God through the sacrificed blood of Jesus.
. Holy Spirit, Abba Father – God Himself – is looking for THIS in His people across the earth!
. He is intentionally looking, bcuz of what He wants to accomplish (thru the Bride of Christ, the Ekklesia) in glorifying Jesus, His sacrifice, towards forcefully throwing the enemies of Jesus under His (& His Bride’s) feet. (2 Chron. 16:9a; Ps.110:1-3 et al).
. With an ache in my ❤ for her, for Jesus’s Bride …
. You are Greatly Loved, Beloved
. Mark
PS.there is being posted here a link to the message from Dan Mohler, “What Happens When you Don’t Forgive”, I encourage you to take time to hear it. He teaches how not to let your heart get broken again, where unforgiveness can never again touch your soul.
https://youtu.be/UJeohxAo5VE?si=hsEco0ijky1xRVXv
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I intentionally wrote “Grace – gave – Forgiveness” in the Eph. 4:32 opening verse at the top of this blog, because that word in Greek translated “forgive” carries the Greek verb “to Grace”.
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** – Beloved, you are free to print this and any Kairos for your own study. Take the time to go through these scriptures, and let the Holy Spirit write them and bear witness to them in your hearts and minds. Let the Word of God and the Blood of Jesus and the witness of the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you wash through you and renew your mind. These blogs are meant to be Bible studies, so you are free to print up any newsletter of this blog site for your own study. Feel free to copy and reset these Newsletter with lines in them for notes.
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– If you have never believed into Jesus Christ, you can do so now, from your own heart and words. If you wish help to pray, pray, “LORD Jesus, I believe You died for me and as me because You love me. I receive Your Forgiveness for my sin. Thank You for shedding Your blood to cleanse me, for making me clean, for breaking the power of sin in my life, for transforming me as a gift of Your Grace to me. I ask You to live inside of me. I thank You, Jesus, for giving me eternal life, that I might know You and Your Father, as my God, forever. In Your Name, LORD Jesus. Amen!”
_ If you just believed into Jesus, if you prayed this prayer to believe into Jesus, it is of great importance that you be water baptized (Mk. 16:16a; Acts 10:47-48a; Rom.6:4). And ask Jesus to baptize you in Holy Spirit & fire. Share your faith, what Jesus has done for you.
– For those of you who have believed into Jesus; take communion often (I Cor. 11:23-26; Lk. 24:30-31a). Let communion be a refreshing of the Blood and the Spirit (Heb. 9:14) to cleanse your conscious from sin consciousness to righteousness consciousness, that you are indeed clean, as a gift of His grace. You are no more, Dearly Beloved, under condemnation; rather, you are under justification – eternally! (Rom. 4:25b, 5:21;b; Heb. 9:11-12). You will find the Holy Spirit of Jesus unveiling Jesus to you from the scriptures like you’ve never seen Him before.
kairos – (Kahee-ros’) – Strong’s concordance defines this word: “an occasion, I.e. set or proper time.” The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible (NASB) defines this word; “season, time, but not merely as a succession of moments, which is chronos,” [from which we derive the English word ‘chronology’]. “Kairos, however, implies not the convenience of the season, but the necessity of the task at hand, whether the time provides a good, convenient opportunity or not.” This must be understood. Strategic times of the Lord do not necessarily imply good or convenient times. We are in Kairos times. Maybe not good or convenient times, but definitely strategic, opportune times because of the season we are in. We must have “ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches,” (Rev. 2:29), so as to respond correctly to the Kairos time.
* Some Scripture for this letter is taken from the (NASB) – NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, (c) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Other references translated from Grk. Txt as presented in T. Newberry’s Englishman’s Greek New Testament, Zondervan Publishing – 1982- originally published in London, Eng. 1877
Scripture references not showing a Translation in Brackets are this writer’s translation from the Hebrew Massoretic Text as it appears on the web-site “qbible.com”, our from the Greek text of Thomas Newberry’s “Englishman’s Greek New Testament”. Some definitions given to Hebrew words are also referenced from qbible.com website, as well as from Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, Baker Book House Company, (C) 1979
Several Translations and study guides to which this author refers are taken from biblehub.com website.