Being Ashes

“And he shall take away its crop with its feathers and cast it beside the altar toward the east, in the place of the ashes.” (Leviticus 1:16, RecVer)

Ashes in the Bible indicates the result of being burnt as an offering. Meaning, the Ashes confirms that the offering has been accepted by God. Which further means that the one being offered is completely put to death and issues in resurrection. 

The past few weeks, especially, the past few days, the Lord has been gracing me to experience Him as my burnt offering. It was not an easy experience though. For, without the Lord’s special grace, it would have been impossible for me to even be an offering, much less being burnt to ashes. I could have felt being rejected. But under the Lord’s light, I could see the invisible sovereign hands of the Lord Jesus, touching me and perfecting me. Be it in the matter of coordinating for the seekers conference, or the remark by the brothers on the report to the brothers, or the direct message from the brothers concerning an article I drafted. They were all used by the Lord to deal with my self and to perfect me. These were all the experiences the Lord blessed me with, so that I can gain Him and experience Him as my burnt offering; to be burnt to ashes.

These ashes are resulting in transformation to make one more and more precious, even to become as precious as the New Jerusalem. The ashes of the burnt offering are placed towards the east, alluding to resurrection. Therefore, anyone who experience becoming ashes experience resurrection as well. Being burnt in crucifixion will always result in transformation to ashes in resurrection. 

Today evening, as we were accommodated in the meeting hall of the church in Taguig, Phillipines, I met a brother with whom I could fellowship experientially on the matter of loving the Lord with the first and best love and giving Him the first priority. He was so touched by the fellowship and testified that even before the training began he has already been trained and received the message already. We had a wonderful time of brotherly fellowship. Perhaps, this is an issue of becoming ashes after being burnt. 

I need more and more experiences of being burnt to ashes. In fact, this should be a daily and continual experience in my whole Christian life. I dare not say that I have become ashes already. In fact, I am just beginning to experience being burnt. This experience of burning should continue all the days of my life until the Lord comes back. I need more grace to be on the line of experiencing Christ as my burnt offering and being burnt to ashes day by day. 

Lord, grace me to experience being burnt to ashes more and more, day by day..