Hey there, how are you doing this beautiful day? It’s September already! 2020 has been a weird year but by God’s amazing power we have been kept from harm. 

Today, I’m going to share on some stirrings I’ve been feeling in my heart. I’m sure you will start feeling them too.

THE ESSENCE OF PRIESTHOOD

I’m sure you might have a vague idea what this is about. In the Old Testament, there was a group of people who lived their lives to burn and to keep burning incense. From the age of about 30, they began work and only stopped when they retired. These were the priests. These were men dedicated to the Lord to stand before Him and minister to Him on behalf of the people. The system was such that these priests represented the whole nation and the people, who were not allowed to come directly before the Lord because they were unholy. Therefore, the priests were handpicked by God, consecrated or separated to be holy to Him,  being from the tribe of Levi to come before Him as a representative of the whole nation.

In the New Testament, the new order of things is that, as the tribe of Levi was called from birth to be priests to the Lord on behalf of their brethren, so the Lord has chosen us, believers, from our birth to be priests on behalf of our brethren in creation. What I mean is this, we as believers have been called to stand on behalf of our families, communities, nations and the whole world and burn incense on their behalf.

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;

1Peter 2:9

and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Revelation 1:6

I’m guessing The questions rolling around your mind would be: “where do we get incense to burn?” And “why do we need to do it?”

Let me address the incense first:

THE INCENSE

And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.

Revelation 5:8

From the above scripture, you can see the Bible state that the incense in those golden bowls were prayers of the saints. That’s the prayers of you and I! The incense that was coming out of the bowls were the prayers of you. It’s important to make this clear; I’m not referring to our prayers of God, “I need to pass my exams” or “Father, my car is late in coming” etc. They do have their place but not quite in this case. We need to refer to the Levitical Priesthood for the kinds of prayer this incense is.

The key thing here is that the priests ministered on behalf of their brethren. They made intercession on behalf of their brethren. And so, the prayers of the saints coming up before the Lord as incense were prayers made asking for heavenly intervention on the earth.

Why is this important?
I first heard of this quote from a friend several years ago:

It seems God is limited by our prayer life – that He can do nothing unless humanity asks Him

John Wesley

The first time I heard this, I went like, “this isn’t right.” But later I realized that, God created the earth and gave man authority over It.

The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s : but the earth hath he given to the children of men.

Psalm 115:16 KJV

The earth was given to man which he handed over to the Devil by choice. Man is the one who can invite or give permission for a spirit being to work on the earth because we are the custodians of this realm. Therefore for even a demon to work in the earth, he comes on the permission of someone. If as believers, we want heaven to be extended on the earth, then we need to invoke the help of God by prayers. This is the reason why we need to pray. This is the reason why we have to assume our positions as priests on the earth and pray.

Many things have gone wrong this year with the coronavirus. Many families have been bereaved because of this pandemic. Jobs have been lost. Many have been left without a source of income and have a bleak hope for the future. This is the work of the enemy and as believers we need to stand guard and pray, burn incense on behalf of our families. We need the help of heaven to clear up this mess we find ourselves in.

My beloved country, Ghana, is heading for elections and I use this opportunity as a wake up call to every believer in Ghana: Pray. Burn some incense.
Heaven has a choice in this matter. Hell has a choice in this matter. Know that if you don’t pray and establish the will of God in this matter, hell’s choice will win. It’s not just about praying for peace as we usually do. That’s important but more important is the Lord’s choice in this election.

If you need a family to join to pray, kindly contact our ministry line for more details. You are ever welcome to join our family of priests.