Living Words
"Living Words" is a weekly podcast that explores the transformative power of scripture across a diverse range of Biblical books, guided by insightful devotionals from the author's own works. Each episode seeks to deepen faith and understanding, connecting listeners with the enduring wisdom and relevance of the Bible in their daily lives.
Living Words
Prayers Rising Like Incense: Worship as a Living Sacrifice
A sacred breath. An inhale of divine life. An exhale of worship. This profound rhythm forms the heartbeat of authentic covenant relationship with our Creator.
Discover how the simple act of breathing becomes a holy exchange when viewed through the lens of covenant. Your prayers and worship rise like golden incense before the sapphire throne of heaven, joining the vast multitude clothed in white whose offerings transcend time and space. When you draw in the fragrance of worship and release it back to God, you participate in something far greater than a religious ritual—you enter the very covenant exchange established with Abraham and sealed in Messiah's blood.
The Ten Words, once engraved on stone tablets, now find their home written on human hearts through the Spirit. They stand as eternal vows of the Bridegroom to His bride, not burdensome commands but promises spoken in love. This devotional journey illuminates the critical distinction between the Book of the Covenant and the Book of the Law, revealing what remains primary and what has been fulfilled in Yeshua.
True Sabbath observance emerges not as restriction but as profound liberty—a day set apart not for religious performance but for divine communion. Learn what it means to speak words of "gold and silver" rather than "wood, hay and stubble," understanding that every word uttered rises before the throne of Yahweh. The same power that raised Messiah from death now dwells within you, empowering you to move in the rhythm of covenant love.
What would change if you approached your next breath as a sacred exchange? How might your understanding of worship transform if you saw it as participation in heaven's reality? Join this intimate exploration of breath, covenant, and presence—where earth and heaven meet in the simple holiness of prayer.
Good morning, it's Sabbath and I've been doing my worship time. So the first thing when I got up this morning, you know I want to get myself right. You know I do my ten words and this is. It doesn't have to be exact. It's becoming more prayerful as it's becoming more internalized. We start with allegiance to the king. He's number one, one on one Shema Israel, yahweh Elohenu, yahweh Echad, he is one, he is one on the list of ones. So I want to set that expectation, set that tone, set that right in the morning and then flow from there. So I work my way through the remaining uh words, and so I did that. And then, you know, I came upstairs it's my, was my sacred space and get that.
Speaker 1:Put some incense on, as incense is the prayers of the saints, revelation eight. They're standing on the uh Sapphire floor of the sea of fire and glass. They're sitting on the Sapphire floor of the sea of fire and glass. They're standing on the sapphire floor of the throne room, palms raised, dressed in white robes, prayers ascending to the throne. That's the picture in my mind. So we take that, then, and we move forward with the devotion for today, which is songs raising up, songs rising up in worship. Songs of the saints, prayers rising before the throne that's the title of the devotional this morning, and what I see is a vast multitude clothed in white, and they stand before the sapphire floor of heaven with their palm branches lifted high, as their prayers and the songs rise like golden incense before the throne of Yahweh, and the smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand. That's revelation eight four. So we open up with that and we offer that worship. This worship transcends earth and time. The rising smoke, mingled with the prayer, reveals that what is spoken in faith doesn't stay confined to human lips. It ascends as a living offering before the throne of Yahweh. In the scene lies the heart of the covenants of promise. In this scene lies the heart of the covenants of promise.
Speaker 1:Every prayer that rises rests on the oath Yahweh swore to Abraham and finds its completion in the blood of Messiah. When you take a sacred breath during worship, drawing in the fragrance and exhaling it back, you're stepping into that same heavenly reality. Each inhale becomes a receiving of his life, echoing Genesis 2. And when Yahweh breathed into Adam the breath of life, each exhale becomes an offering a return of life back to the one who gave it a living sacrifice rising in covenant love. This act gathers the whole covenant story into a single rhythm.
Speaker 1:Abraham believed Yahweh and it was counted to him as righteousness. And that faith opened the door to the covenant of promise, where Yahweh alone passed between the pieces, swearing by himself to uphold the oath, even unto death In Messiah. This oath is sealed with blood. In Galatians 3.16 declares him to be the promised seed, the one to whom the promise was ultimately spoken. And when he raised the cup and said this is the new covenant in my blood, he united the faith of Abraham, the vows spoken at Sinai and the hope of David's throne into one act of covenant fulfillment. The ten words, once engraved on stone, now live on the hearts of His people through the Spirit. These are the eternal vows of the bridegroom to his bride. Not imposed commands, but covenant promises written in love. When you breathe in the fragrance of worship, you're taking in the reminder of that vow. The Ruach HaKadosh moves in that breath, aligning you with the Lord's rhythm, the pulse of heaven, where every covenant strand converges. It's not just a prayer, it's a covenant exchange. His breath into you, your breath back out to Him, bound together in the blood of the Lamb.
Speaker 1:Revelations 8-4 assures us that every soft hallelujah, every whispered exhale of worship joins the great chorus around the throne. It's the same offering that rose from the wilderness tabernacle, the same covenant breath that filled Abraham's lungs as he believed, the same holy rhythm that carried David's psalms into eternity. It's also the same breath that Messiah released when he declared it is finished. He sealed the promises forever. To stand in that ribbon now is to step into the very heart of the covenants of promise, where earth and heaven meet in the simple holiness of breath and prayer.
Speaker 1:Yahweh, covenant keeper and eternal king, let my breath and prayer rise before you as a living offering. Fill me with the life of your spirit as I inhale and receive my worship as I exhale. Seal me again in the oath you swore to Abraham and fulfilled in your son. Let this fragrance of faith ascend with the prayers of the saints as a pleasing aroma before your throne. Write your ten words deeper within me as I move in the rhythm of your covenant love. Write your ten words deeper within me as I move in the rhythm of your covenant love. May this Sabbath be filled with your presence and my life be bound to the promise sealed in Messiah's blood, now and forever. Amen, amen. So to me that's very heartfelt.
Speaker 1:This is the tone of worship that was set for me this morning by the Holy Spirit, this breathing in and breathing out, the very breath we breathe, the very words we say, the songs we sing, all of it is raised up before the altar, before the throne of God, which is why we should be very careful about what we say. We want to make sure that we say words that are gold and silver and precious stones. We don't want to speak forth wood, hay and stubble, because that'll all burn up. We want to speak forth those things that are going to be refined. He does take the dross, he does take away the wood, hay and stubble, because you're being purified.
Speaker 1:That is the process of sanctification. You know, in our core, in our flesh, we have great evil and depravity, but he overcomes that and that's part of the circumcision of heart, where he opens up your heart and he writes his words on your heart as tablets of flesh. But you've been circumcised in heart now and you're empowered by the Ruach. The Holy Spirit, the Holy One, is within you, the same power that raised him from the dead is within you to empower you to live to new life. It doesn't take you out of the flesh. You still have the flesh. That's still your duty, it's still your obligation to, to mortify the members of the, to mortify your flesh, put your flesh to the grave and let the spirit reign. Let the spirit rule, and I hope that the, I hope the devotion, blesses you this morning. That's my prayer for you today. This is Sabbath. Sabbath, rest, have a good day in it, just relax. No worries, you know I forbid it. No worries, I can forbid nothing. But here's the thing the spirit of Yahweh wants to commune with you today. He wants to spend time with you today. So today's the day we rest and you. But there's liberty in that right. I mean, we're not under the Levitical oral code where you couldn't go a Sabbath day journey or you can't lift your mat. We're not part of that. That's part of the tutor, that was part of the tutor.
Speaker 1:The Sefer Ha'Latorah, the book of the law, that is, which is not for you, that part of the covenant. It's not a covenant of promise, it's just a. It's a mosaic code and it was added as a prosthesis because of transgression. It was an accommodation. It's not his perfect will, it's his permissive will. The perfect will is the ten words, the book of the covenant, the sefer habarit, the book of the covenant which is inside the ark Because that's his house, that's where your heart is Inside the ark, because that's his house, that's where your heart is inside the ark. And the book of the law went on the outside of the ark Because it was a witness against him for the transgression and it remains a witness. But we are obligated. If you're obligated to anything, you're obligated to love. You're obligated to anything. You're obligated to love, you're obligated to love. The ten words are primal. They're primal, they're primary. The ten words are primary. That's the weightier part.
Speaker 1:As Yeshua said and as James called it, the royal Torah and as Paul told Timothy, rightly divide the Torah, rightly divide it. There is a dividing point. There's two covenant administrations. There's the administration of love, the wedding vows that were accepted, blood ratified. Moses put the blood on the people, he put the blood on the book and it was confirmed with a meal, a fellowship meal, in the presence of God, on the very floor of the throne room. It was confirmed, sealed, finished. That covenant was a covenant of promise.
Speaker 1:Then what happened? That night? The wedding night? The bride was a covenant of promise. Then what happened? That night? The wedding night? The bride was unfaithful, the bride took another lover. The bride committed adultery. And the husband? What did he do? He divorced her. He divorced her, but he didn't send her away to her death, although 3,000 did die. He put a tutor over her. He put an administration, a Levitical priesthood over her. He wanted her to be the priest. It was to be a nation of priests.
Speaker 1:When he went up that mountain, moses went up the mountain. He was to receive the plans and the architecture for a royal national priesthood of Melchizedek, but it was all ruined, fractured before he ever got back down. And then that administration, instead of a nation of priests, it became a group of priests. The priest, ephraim, aaronik, sons of Aaron, became the priest and Melchizedek was suspended and the Levitical order was birthed. It was born, but it was a prosthesis, it was a prosthetic. It was there as an accommodation to sin and it had a terminus. It had a terminus. So the Mosaic code has a terminus and the terminus is until Shiloh come. Until Shiloh come.
Speaker 1:So who is Shiloh? What is Shiloh? Shiloh is peace. Shiloh is descent One. Shiloh is Yeshua Messiah. So this administration, this book of the law code, this Mosaic law, will be upon you to your generations, until Messiah come.
Speaker 1:Messiah came, messiah came and he fulfilled it. He lived it perfectly. He kept, of course he kept the 10 words, the covenant, book of the covenant, because that's who he is, he embodies it, he is the royal Torah, he is the embodiment of it. But he also kept the law perfectly, the book of the law, not the oral traditions and ridiculous codes and the hand washings and all the stupid, ridiculous stuff that the Pharisees and the Sadducees were all about. That was all from Talmudic Mishneic Babel, and he rejected it. He rejected it, but he did keep the Torah, the book of the law, the Mosaic code, kept it, fulfilled it, set it aside because it was no longer needed.
Speaker 1:He had arrived, the new priesthood was alive, the Melchizedek priesthood had returned, it had been restored to the people. So now the new covenant in his blood is Melchizedek priesthood had returned, it had been restored to the people. So now the new covenant in his blood is Melchizedek. You don't need the blood of bulls, goats, lambs and rams anymore, because the blood of the lamb has now been applied to the holy place and it's been finished. The Daniel 9.24 message from Gabriel tells us that 70 weeks are determined upon thy people, and those six things were all fulfilled. And that's where we stand today. We stand in His presence, redeemed under the covenant, the ten words that he's writing on your heart. But my prayer for you is that you'll have a good day today and a good week next week, and until we talk again in Yeshua's name, amen.
