THE EVENING SACRIFICE
Teaching By Pastor Dr. Joel Dabbas
SCRIPTURE:
"Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice." | Psalm 141:2
There are mysteries that believers must understand in order to profit from the systems of the Spirit. The kingdom of God is within you as soon as you become born again, but the rate at which everyone will manifest the kingdom differs; it is to the degree of insight into the mysteries of the Kingdom that you have. You remain in the spiritual nursery when you lack understanding of the mysteries of the Kingdom.
There are several watches of the day, and several events take place within these watches. One of those events, according to Scripture, was the evening sacrifice, which takes place at the ninth hour.
But what is an evening sacrifice?
In ancient times in Israel, every morning, at about 9 a.m., the first sacrifice was laid upon the altar in both the Tabernacle of Moses and later in the Temple of Solomon. This was the morning sacrifice, and the people of Israel gathered together to worship every morning at this time as the sacrifice was laid upon the altar and offered to the Lord. Then again, at 3 p.m., the evening sacrifice was laid upon the altar, and once again the people of Israel gathered at the Tabernacle/Temple to worship as the sacrifice was offered to the Lord. The morning and evening sacrifice was the daily schedule of an Israelite.
The principle of this sacrifice is that it must be carried out in the temple. So, no temple, no sacrifice.
King David had written this Psalm during a season of separation; he was either running for his life from King Saul, or from Absalom, or was in a situation in which he was cut off from the place of worship and could not participate in the daily sacrifices. But David does not allow himself to feel cut off from the Lord because he is cut off from the Tabernacle:
"May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting of my hands be like the evening sacrifice."
David was saying, "I may not have a sacrifice to lay on an altar right now, but I do have hands and a mouth! I can lift up my prayers to you, and in the lifting of my hands, I can offer You me!"
He understood that if the principle is "no temple, no sacrifice," he is the mobile temple of God and so he won't be restricted by a physical building in order to give unto God sacrifice.
Here are some powerful examples of events related to the evening sacrifice:
First is Elijah. He was up against the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, and by twelve noon, he urged them to call on their god to answer by fire. They kept shouting and cutting themselves, but there was no answer. When it was about the time for the evening sacrifice, Elijah stopped them and called down fire to consume the altar. He had the spiritual intelligence on the events of that hour and knew that he would gain victory for God at that time (1 Kings 18:36-39).
Likewise, in Matthew 27:46:
"And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is to say, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’"
Jesus, the perfect and highest sacrifice of God, released His Spirit at the time of the evening sacrifice.
So David, in our anchor text, reveals something powerful as one who has insight into the dimensions of the Spirit. He said, "Let the lifting of our hands be as an evening sacrifice." The meaning of this is that there is a realm a believer should get to, where the power that the people of old evoked and encountered at the evening sacrifice can be unveiled by just the lifting up of the hands in worship.
Lifting up your hand is a posture of surrender; it is a statement of "O Lord, take all of me; You have all of me." It is a declaration of "O Lord, You own my everything and I give unto You my everything."
The best sacrifice anyone can give unto God is the sacrifice of ourselves (Romans 12:1-2). When this is genuinely done unto God, it stimulates heaven's response.
Just like fire came down for Elijah and swallowed the altar, the fire of God will consume evil altars when you declare.
Just like Jesus gave up the Ghost and the earth shook, things that are anti-destiny in your life will be shaken away.
Finally, Jesus became the perfection of the evening sacrifice and the perfect sacrifice in time and all of eternity, so that we can be one with God and have the authority in Jesus to manifest the power people of old saw when they engaged the evening sacrifice.
Peter and John afterward went out at the ninth hour (the time for the evening sacrifice) to worship and pray as usual. But the difference this time was that they were coming on the heels of the sacrifice of Jesus, and they manifested the power of God by healing a man lame from his mother's womb (Acts 3:1-11). Create a time with God and be consistent with it; by this, you are creating a spiritual climate of power and possibilities.
Continue in deep communion with God.
