The Bible says, "The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." If you are a Christian, you are righteous because of Christ. "Their righteousness shall be of me saith the Lord." So this covers the righteous part and enables you to come to the throne of grace boldly. But perhaps, even though you are righteous in Christ and have prayed fervently, you have not been able to say your prayer "availeth much." It has not been "effectual." You are puzzled. Your heart says: Lord, if I am righteous in Christ and I pray as fervently as I know how, why don't I have more results in prayer? It can be summed up in one word: incense. The answer is in the incense.

Listen carefully and you will see how a brief study of the word incense will make you much more effective in prayer.

I read from the book of Exodus, Chapter 30, verses 6 and 7, "And thou shalt put it before the veil that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee. And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it." Listen to two sentences again. First God says, "where I will meet with thee." Second, "sweet incense every morning." God meets with man in the burning of the incense. This is talking about men ministering in the service of the Lord. That is Old Testament, but every word of the Old Testament has spiritual meaning that shows you and me how to live a New Testament life.

Move with me for a moment into the New Testament, into the book of Acts, Chapter 13, verse 2. "As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said . . ." I want to stop right there so you will see clearly what happened. They ministered to God and they heard the voice of God; they ministered to the Lord and they established communication. Notice this does not say that they ministered for the Lord; they were not doing something for Him, they were ministering to the Lord. Now what does this mean? If you know, it will unlock a door for you because it is obviously something that brings results. While they were doing it they heard from heaven. What is ministering to the Lord? The answer is in the incense.

The Old Testament man who ministered to the Lord burned sweet incense. That incense is a type, a foreshadow of something that these men were doing here in the New Testament. They were burning New Testament incense. I think you know by now this has something to do with worship and prayer.

David said in Psalm 141, "Let my prayer be set forth before Thee as incense . . ." It is evident that incense speaks of prayer, but what kind of prayer? There are many types of prayer. What kind of prayer is it that is like a cloud of sweet incense drifting from the heart of a man toward his Lord?

You might be surprised at what this word really means in its original use in Hebrew. It comes from a Hebrew word "Qatar" which means, and I quote from a Hebrew and Chaldee dictionary, "fumigation, thus driving out the occupant." The Bible says in Acts 7:48, ". . . the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands . . ." And in another place Scripture says, "Know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit?" In order to worship God, in spirit, we offer Him this New Testament incense. You see, we must fumigate the temple. We must drive out the other occupants. And who dwells here in the place of the Most High? It is old mister natural man, the old self. Now don't misunderstand my use of this word. I am not telling you that you must first get rid of all traces of self and then God will come in. This would be a gross error. I know people who thought for years that they must empty themselves, then they could be filled with God--that if they totally eradicate all self then God will come in. These people are chasing a folly, running after a mirage. It is impossible for the flesh to empty itself of its nature.

No! Fumigating the temple, driving out the occupants, means something else here. We are filled with our own devices, our imaginations, our doctrines, our opinions of others, our feelings about many things, our judgments, longings, fears and fretting. We take these to prayer. We go to worship with these. Now I want to show you prayer that is not incense, prayer that does not fumigate the temple and send billows of sweet scent to the Lord. It is prayer that centers around the old natural man. The prayer that tells about all of his faults, flaws and weaknesses . . . you know what I mean. You go to prayer and say, "God, I'm no good, I never will be. I can't do this, I can't do that," prayer that is framed by our doctrines; petitions that express all of our fretting, verbalize all of our frustrations; prayers that tell about how terribly strong the sin is that has us by the throat; prayers that put all of our doubts into words. Oh God, why? Why did this happen? Why did that happen? So you see what takes place, instead of fumigating the house, we are breeding more vermin. Instead of the glory of God filling the house, we have an overwhelming sense of the old natural man and all of his undesirable traits. And how can we pray with faith then?

Instead of a cloud of love and adoration arising in the form of prayer, we have a lot of fears, self hatreds, doubts and other carnal thoughts buzzing around the house like so many ugly flies. This kind of prayer doesn't fumigate the house and thus drive out the occupants; it just hatches out more flies. God wants us to bring our needs to Him, of course. He invites us to pray for help. He says, ". . . ask and you shall receive." But before we start asking, we'd better establish a good live line of communication. Remember they began to communicate with God when they ministered to Him. Remember those two sentences I gave you at the beginning, "where I will meet with thee" and "sweet incense every morning." You will meet with the Lord in the offering of the incense. The incense will fumigate your house. That is the voicing of praise, the expression, the verbal expression of your adoration--praise and thanksgiving, which is a pure form of praise. Begin all prayer with praise.

God said David was a man after His own heart, and David said, "Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise, be thankful unto Him and bless His name." God said, ". . . whoso offereth praise glorifieth Me." Psalm 33 says, ". . . praise is comely for the upright . . ." Psalm 135 says, "Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the name of the Lord; praise Him, O ye servants of the Lord . . . Praise the Lord; for the Lord is good: sing praises unto His name; for it is pleasant." And in another place the Bible says, ". . . O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. O give thanks to the Lord of Lords: for His mercy endureth forever: to Him who alone doeth great wonders."

David was a giant killer. David said, ". . . by my God have I leaped over a wall and run through a troop." David was a winner. He knew how to pray. His prayer was scented with incense. Praise and thanksgiving was the fabric of his prayer life. Because of praise and thanksgiving David was able to say to God, ". . . Thou has turned for me my grieving to dancing, thou has put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness."

Paul the apostle was a winner, a conqueror in spiritual battles, a champion for the cause of Christ, and his prayer sent billows of incense upward. He said, ". . . I cease not to give thanks." If you asked Paul, "Paul, what can I do to light the incense, to get the smoke stick going that will fumigate my house and send pillars of sweet prayer-vapors to God? What should I do?" And his answer would come ringing to you out of the Bible, ". . . in everything give thanks." Paul gave thanks and a jail became a door to a miracle. Paul gave thanks and God's power shook his chains loose and swung open his prison door, and he saved the life of another. Paul gave thanks and a shipwreck turned into a productive missionary venture.

When you give thanks to God and praise His name, your imprisoning circumstances will lose their grip upon you. Those little things that seem of no value, and those shipwrecks of life will turn into something productive. Those apparent failures are transformed by thanksgiving. This is why we are counseled to send up the incense of praise, to fumigate our house, to drive out doubts and grumblings, murmurings and complaints . . . drive them out with the words of praise to God. This is why the Bible says, "Praise ye the Lord . . . sing unto the Lord for the Lord taketh pleasure in His people, let the saints be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouths."

In the first chapter of the Gospel according to Luke, we read about Zacharias who was to become the father of John the Baptist. He was an old man and had served God for many years, and for many years he had prayed for a son but his marriage had proven barren. The Bible says about him and his wife, "They were both righteous before God and blameless." You see that they were righteous and they had prayed fervently but their prayers had not availed. However, late in his service for God, Zacharias was chosen to minister at the altar of incense. He was burning the incense and the Bible says, "There appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing at the right side of the altar of incense." That angel told the servant of God he would, by a miracle of God, be a father. His prayers were answered.

Some of you hearing me now have prayed fervently. You are righteous in Christ but you have not availed in prayer. Listen, you hear from heaven at the altar of incense, miracles begin when you are sending clouds of praise to heaven. Ministering to God is not telling the "modernists" where they are wrong, or arguing with the false cultists; it is not pointing the finger of condemnation at those who do not believe the truth. Ministering to God is loving Him and worshiping Him, and this is why the Bible says, ". . . keep yourselves in the love of God." If you want to be effective in any ministry for God, then the most important part of your life will be ministering to God at the altar of incense.