2 Descripción de la Zona de Estudio
2.1 Cuencas Analizadas
2.1.2 Cuenca del Río Limay
I even feel a little hesitant to talk about the four qualities of the incense of prayer, but
if we can avoid turning it into a methodology, it will help us in our journey from prayer into His brilliant presence.
1. Stacte was a sweet spice. It was found on or near the northern border of Israel and in Syria. It took a full day's journey by foot to reach the trees that oozed forth the resin that was baked until the spice, called stacte, emerged. Both the Greek and Hebrew names for this spice mean "to ooze forth or to drop." It was used at times as a metaphor for the emergence of the Word of God or for the act of prophesying. In both cases, it creates the picture of something that has been stored up inside of you oozing or bubbling out from an inner abundance.
When we store up the logos, or written Word of God, within our hearts then, when the wind of God breathes upon it, it may become a spoken, revelatory rhema Word into our lives. The first quality of acceptable incense of prayer is a rich store of the Word of God in our lives, which oozes forth upon demand to drop onto other people. Prayer is abiding in the living Word, which is obviously Christ.
It will cost you something to store the Word of God in your life. It will cost you time and a priority shift. It generally will land you in difficult circumstances, but it is worth it. Once you fill your heart with this sweet spice of God's Word, it will ooze forth from every pore of your life and being and permeate your prayers with a sweetness that pleases God and blesses everyone it touches.
2. Onycha refers to finely ground aromatic powder produced from a mollusk shell found in the Mediterranean Sea. Although the distance involved to get onycha was less than that for stacte, this powder could be obtained only by making a lengthy trip to the sea to gather a particular type of mollusk or mussel. The mollusk shells were ground into a fine powder and then burned with fire to produce the sweet fragrance so vital to the holy incense.
Our lives should continually release an aroma of fragrant offering unto the Lord. But how does onycha from the Old Testament incense mixture fit into this picture? Have you ever felt like you have been "ground into a pulp" or been broken into little pieces by a trial or circumstance? Have you been "burned" by the thoughtless or deliberate actions of other people? The prayer you offer after enduring these events bears the fragrance of onycha. Scarred prayer warriors reek of onycha. Prayer is a lifestyle of brokenness before God; prayer is communion bathed in the sweet fragrance of a crushed spice called humility and brokenness. David wrote from the depths of brokenness, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise" (Ps. 51:17).
3. Galbanum is "a yellowish to green or brown aromatic bitter gum resin derived from several Asian plants."1 The original Hebrew word, chelbenah, meaning "richness or fatness," implies that galbanum comes from the richest or choice part.2 Galbanum is the oily substance that is used to hold all the other elements together.
The overriding conviction that "God is good" will hold your life together and help bring unity among brethren who have different qualities and varying
beliefs. Too often we have allowed ourselves to divide into "camps" based on particular areas of truth or emphasis. For example, people of the "Word camp"
eat the Word of God. They know the Word, they love the Word, they preach the Word, they proclaim the Word, and they pray the Word—sometimes at the expense of mercy and brokenness. The "brokenness camp" includes many
"revival-type people," who at times seem to be in an unspoken competition to see who can get the lowest so God can be the highest. That's all well and good, but it is only one piece of a greater whole. We need all the camps and their corresponding truths working together. We need an equal proportion of the extravagance, richness, and fatness of our good God to bind us all together in harmony.
My wife, Michal Ann, recently received an amazing God Encounter. The manifested presence came into our bedroom and a voice spoke to her and said,
"Receive the goodness of God into your body." Since then she has done a word study on "goodness and mercy". Believe me, you will be hearing more about this in the future. This has rocked her world and sending her into another orbit. Receive the goodness of God right now into your life! It will transform you!
To receive anything from God, you "must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him" (Heb. 1 1:6b). We must believe that He who freely gave His Son will also freely give us all things. We must believe in the richness, the fatness and the goodness of God.
4. Frankincense is "a resin [obtained] from the bark of trees of the genus Boswellia.
As the amber resin dries, white dust forms on the drops or tears of frankincense, thus giving rise to its Semitic name. In biblical times most frankincense came either from or via Sheba in southern Arabia."3 The Hebrew word for frankincense i s lavona, which literally means "to be white."4 Perhaps this foreshadowed the righteousness we received when Christ, the scion or branch of David, hung on a tree and shed His blood. By the time the blood of the Lamb dried on the tree and the earth, we were made "the righteousness of God in Christ" by God's grace and love. It is the blood, shed and applied to us, that cleanses us from all sin. It is through the blood that we are dressed in white and made fit for the Kingdom.