First Love

Guest (Male): Welcome to First Love with Dr. Robyn Kassas and Dr. Nathan Kassas, where faith meets real life. In this weekly broadcast, you'll discover practical and spiritual keys to reclaim God's story in your life, deepen your relationship with Jesus, and encounter Him as your first love, whether for the first time or all over again.

No topic is off-limits as we make Jesus real, relevant, and relational. Stay with us; your journey back to first love starts now.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Welcome, everybody, back to First Love. My name is Dr. Nathan Kassas, and I'm sitting here with Dr. Robyn Kassas. Dr. Robyn, how are you?

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Oh, that was really interesting, the journey we went on with the ark, with the altar of incense. What a journey!

Dr. Nathan Kassas: So much to pour out and unpack. And so in that line, we actually want to continue on the altar of incense.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: I think we wouldn't do it justice unless we did.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Yeah, because I think that people think, "Oh, the altar of incense, yeah, incense, praise, prayer," but there's so many rich gems that if we really allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate, as you've said in the candlestick, we can really get the fullness.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And the balance. Wow, we often won't go near the Holiest of Holies because we don't feel balanced. But this is a part of what God put there for you to see you can be put on that and balanced and lifted up before the Lord God Almighty.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Well, I want to bring out a couple more interesting things if I can. Some scientific stuff as well as theological stuff that I think would help people to get the fullness of what the altar of incense represents.

We were talking in the last episode about the olfactory pathways, the nose, the smell, and why it's so important. And I began to share how God allows the smell to bypass the emotion and the brain. Just to give a little physiology here, emotion and fear are all located in the amygdala of the brain, as well as we have short-term memory and memory in the hippocampus.

So when God allows that smell through the olfactory senses and pathways of the brain to bypass, He's actually saying our worship, when we choose to engage in true devotion, our worship can go past the pain of memory and it can go past even the point of unfiltered emotion. That's what worship can do. That's why it's so powerful.

Remember that God designed incense because incense is something that is crushed. Remember, for incense to actually be able to be smelled, it has to be crushed. So this is talking about, as you've been bringing out, the process. We can't become sweet-smelling aroma until we first allow the smell that we've brought in from the world to be crushed so that God can arise a new sense of smell from our lives.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: So tell me if the listeners could understand this: what do you mean by "the world"?

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Well, the world meaning... I hate to bring this analogy out, but when you go into a certain place, like let's say you go to a bar where everyone's smoking, you walk out with smoke on your clothes. You walk out smelling like where you've been.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: That's it. There's the key: smelling where you've been.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Yeah, and we can't be sweet-smelling to the Lord because when He smells our life, He can't smell stronger than Jesus where we've been.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: We have to smell like the Lord. We have to smell like Jesus, that crushed and sweet-smelling... remember with Mary, how she prepared Him, that alabaster box. And in the Old Testament, the Jewish faith was all about preparing that one.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: So because incense and fragrance was a part of imprinting identity, I have a statement here: We can't think our way into the Holy of Holies; we have to be remembered into it.

What does that mean? It means God has to remember our devotion. That brings us into the fullness of His intimacy with us. Sometimes we try to think our way in intellectually. We try to think our way in, "If I say this, if I pray this, if I sing this right, if I do this," and it comes back to that performance.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And I think what you're saying here is really important with the word "I." When you keep adding, "When I, I, I" all the time with great emphasis, it becomes you first.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Lord Jesus, Dr. Robyn pulling it out! Because the olfactory system bypasses the thalamus, it goes straight to the limbic system, which directly affects memory, emotion, and identity.

Psalm 141, verse 2, says, "Your prayers rise as a sweet-smelling aroma." Prayer at this level is not praying requests; it is a change of longing. It is a change of desire. And when we have changed our longing, it actually rewires our identity.

When we come up as a sweet-smelling aroma to the Lord, we don't smell like what we used to smell like. Put it in the terms that you said: we don't smell like where we've come from. We smell new. It doesn't just move God; it actually reshapes us as an intercessor to God.

This is an important part that we didn't bring out in the last episode. The altar of incense is praise and worship, but it's also intercession. This is where Jesus fulfills this because He intercedes for us day and night before the Father.

Constant incense is coming up before Jesus. And the Holy Spirit, as you've shown in many teachings that you've illustrated this, He presents those prayers to Jesus. Some of those prayers still have the smell of the world.

So what does He do, as you've demonstrated in the past? He takes them, Jesus, and He plucks out that one, He plucks out that one, He removes that smell and He removes that smell, and then He goes, "Here, Father, here's sweet-smelling aroma."

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And it's actually shown visually, as when you said "plucked out," it's like a dove. You can pluck out feathers. That's what the Holy Spirit does: He plucks out all the feathers that really won't smell good to the Lord in your prayers.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Because again, going back to the significance and how it ties in with the brain, God has built this journey on purpose. Nothing is accidental; nothing is out of sync. We keep saying you can't skip past: immediate access does not mean immediate intimacy.

The thalamus in the brain governs everything except smell. When I say that we're actually bypassing the thalamus, the thalamus in the brain decides what gets through and what doesn't. It's like that sensory filter.

This is where sometimes if information bypasses or overloads the thalamus, emotional processing becomes what we would call in the psychoanalytical world "disregulated." This is where perception becomes chaotic.

We are so into filtering everything that we never enjoy anything. This is where the incense bypasses the filter that we would put on ourselves before the Lord. Because it's one thing for the Holy Spirit to filter you, but it's another thing for you to filter yourself.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: That's why the balance of the four horns lays you completely in balance to do with you touching and filtering something in or filtering something out. You're balanced, and you get lifted, balanced to the presence of God.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: What am I saying to the listeners? I'm saying you don't have to, as we go to the break, you don't have to filter yourself. The altar of incense, the incense is God's designed filter. It filters your life without you even trying because what you behold is what you worship and what you become.

So literally, this is where the fire that's on the altar that brings the incense, it will filter out what goes up before the Lord. You don't have to help Him along.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And so therefore, just before we go to a break, that means... and isn't it reassuring that it was rekindled every morning, every evening, and the burning never ceased? Why don't we go for a break?

Guest (Male): You're listening to First Love with Dr. Robyn and Dr. Nathan Kassas. The story isn't finished yet, and neither is what Jesus wants to reveal to your heart today. Let's jump back in and pick up right where we left off.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: All right, we're coming back in, Dr. Robyn. You've been bringing out an important point that I would like to again tie in some significance. You spoke about the balance of the altar. Can you just expand on that for a little bit more for those that might have not heard last week's?

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Before you enter into the Holiest of Holies, you must come to the fifth piece of furniture, which will take you in. It's not a case that you can walk around it; you just have to go to it and then you experience going into that next place.

That's where the altar of incense is, where the continual burning of the fragrance is going up to the Lord because your praise and your worship is going up to Him. That puts you in a position where you're placed on this altar in the spirit where He will lift you right up into His presence.

Because the balance is the four horns, which represents the four Gospels. It was square. It didn't mean it was an organization; it meant that it was what God said. There were four horns to make it a square that made it totally equal in your mind, your will, and emotions because you've entered into a place where you're going into your spirit to have your emotions balanced.

You're not in and out, up and down, believing one minute and not believing the next. That is all dealt with when you come into His presence. You can then enter into a place where He loves you to worship, to praise. He wants you to be a real worshiper. Why? Because He's conceited? Not at all. But it's the truth.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: If you don't do it, the rocks will! But He's the truth. And so interesting you talk about praise. Another thing that I would like to point out to people just to bring some real big significance here to understand science and how it just correlates so much with Scripture.

We've done these things in church for years and we haven't understood the prophetic significance. Yes, we can get that, but the scientific significance. Along with praise comes the clapping of hands. I just thought it would be interesting to bring this out. A Japanese neuroscientist actually did a whole research on the power of clapping.

I thought, I like to do these things, I like to ask God why. When we applaud something, why do we clap? When we want to give something homage or worship, why do we clap? Why do we applaud? Why that sign? There's got to be some kind of significance to it.

A Japanese neuroscientist demonstrated... I'm reading from an article here that I've pulled up... that sharp acoustic stimuli like a clap disrupted entrenched neural pathways.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Scientifically!

Dr. Nathan Kassas: So what does that mean? In a nutshell, literally, it means that when I praise and when I clap my hands... we know the age-old meaning: you're slapping the devil in the face. But why are you slapping the devil in the face? Because the clap, the sound of a clap like what I'm about to do now [Claps], it breaks mental cycles of rigidity in thinking.

I can actually declare in a praise and worship song the truth, and then by clapping, I seal that new pathway over the cycle of what I have previously believed.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: So you let that former mindset go and embrace the new mindset.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Exactly. And that's why it's so important who you clap for. Because if you're clapping for a superstar, what that superstar is promoting to you or proclaiming to you even through their artistry, it is forming a new mental pathway in your brain.

If you clap for them, it's your way of saying, "I'm sealing what you've created on my brain," so that it's embedded. It's not just something that comes and then flies away; I'm actually embedding it in. I'm breaking the neural synchrony of the old pathway with an overriding sound that breaks the sound barrier, which is the clap.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: So that's why we have to have the four horns to lift us balanced, level, all the way up to the face of God.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Very, very true. And because our claps are only meant to go for One. Only for the applause of One and only give applause to One. So the challenge is out even on myself right now: we've got to be careful who we clap for.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Because we are giving a blessing to it.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Exactly. And we're giving our mind to it. We're actually allowing that to be embedded into...

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Can I say and we'd have to be very careful that we're not giving our mind to an open way of believing. We have to be very careful what we allow our mind to believe.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: It's so true. So just to give you the science here, a Japanese neuroscientist... I can't remember his name... but he has demonstrated that the sharp acoustic force of a clap disrupts entrenched neural pathways and synchrony, shocking the human brain out of rigid patterns. This is why praise will break your heaviness, worship will disrupt your oppression, and sound will shift your atmosphere.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Do you remember we did... please!

Dr. Nathan Kassas: The resonance of Season Casting, how we showed the sound barrier and the sound resonance and its importance in clapping, worship, declaration, speaking, prophesying. God is a God of resonance.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: When He said, "Let there be light," it went into the atmosphere straight away and created what He said. You and I both did this on... what was it called? Our Season Casting 2026. And we had virtual reality. It was so good. What did we end up doing? Can you explain that to the people?

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Yeah, we actually ended up showing different scientific presentations of how sound is incorporated into worship and praise and speaking into a scientific instrument of sound waves and showing the sound waves. We also showed with light through light beams, lasers, how prayer works across the quantum world. It was so powerful. It was literally quantum science.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And then we turned around and just put the cap on the bottle. We got Dr. Tony to turn around and we had the board with the sand and such, and we spoke into a microphone. His voice said, "Mountain move." And the sand blast up into the air, came down, and formed matter.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And that's why the Scripture, Mark 11: If you say to this mountain, "Be moved," and in your heart and do not doubt, but believe that what you have believed shall come to pass, it shall be done.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: But the power of speaking it came to pass. It came down and formed a pattern, something that was able to see. In a way, I suppose God uses virtual reality even in this tabernacle. He didn't have these things on the head to take us into another realm; He actually walked us in by showing us what's going to happen in the future with this virtual reality.

Because you and I went into the most amazing experience. We just did it everywhere, took the Scriptures, connected through light, and made a networking and the power of prayer. It was amazing.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: If I could make a statement to help people understand the importance of their prayer: Praise is not just an emotional expression. Yes, it is an emotional expression, but it goes deeper. It is actually what I would call neurological interruption.

When we praise, we are interrupting those mindsets, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:5. He says, "Casting down every vain imagination that has not come into the obedience of Christ and being ready to punish those disobedient thoughts."

So by us elevating the sound of our praise and then sealing it with an applause or a clap, we are actually disrupting what has been the normal in our lives and introducing a new normal.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: And then speaking creates the matter. I was blown by that, I was really blown up by that. That enhanced my faith to speak what God says to speak.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And so, Dr. Robyn, we're coming to the end. The last thing that I wanted to mention about this altar of incense, some significant things here: The Scriptures say that the altar was three and a half feet high and, as you've mentioned, a perfect square. If I could just quickly bring out two things about this just to give some prophetic significance.

It's important because it ties into once again revealing Jesus as the fulfillment of each piece of the tabernacle furniture. So as I was saying, the prophetic significance of the altar of incense and its measurements is this: again, recorded in Exodus 30, it's three feet high and it's one and a half feet by one and a half feet. As you've mentioned, a perfect square, which is the leveling out, that equilibrium, that balance.

But in Scripture, the number three consistently represents resurrection, witness and testimony, and divine completeness. Now, the altar of incense is elevated. This is important: higher than the table and the lampstand, showing that intercessory prayer rises from resurrection life and not from fleshly striving.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: There we go! It's actually higher. So you don't pray from survival; you pray from victory.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And that's why the prayers and the altar that lifts up the prayers is elevated higher than even the table of showbread and literally the lampstand because it has to be higher. It's a higher place now we're coming from.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: So you're speaking about... you said you don't pray from survival, but you pray from revival. That's what you pray from.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: The altar of incense proves that access without alignment stops at the curtain. I love what you said: Prayer is not from survival, it's from revival. That was so good.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: The revival of the heart.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: Yeah, because this is the last place that you're not allowed to look like Jesus. Because when you go into those Holy of Holies, if you don't look like Jesus, you're going to die. You can't walk into His presence looking like yourself.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: No, you can't!

Dr. Nathan Kassas: And lastly, it's one and a half feet square because literally it is a perfect square symbolizing, as you've mentioned, stability, order, and integrity. But the number one and a half is key. One and a half is incomplete on its own. It needs another one and a half to be three.

So humanity plus humanity, or heaven and earth. So it can't just be heaven's prayers that are going up; it's got to be earth's prayers. So God can't move unless someone on earth is ready to pray His movement into existence.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Wow! So it has to be the one and a half of heaven and the one and a half of earth.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: So that balances it. There it is, you've said it. And so, Dr. Robyn, the last thing that we want to quickly mention before we start to close, because we're going to go into the next chapter of this, which is what next week?

Dr. Robyn Kassas: The veil.

Dr. Nathan Kassas: The veil. So I want to mention just as an introduction to get people's appetites whet: the veil is important because this veil wasn't torn. You had to go through it. It's only the veil in the Second Testament that God tears. And those five colors that we mentioned that were in the resurrection and the crucifixion of Jesus and the five colors of the tabernacle, they are in the very veil.

So there's an important thing that we'll bring out next week about that. Over to you for your final words.

Dr. Robyn Kassas: Well, you now are getting a glimpse of how we can truly believe the words in the Bible and how they are scientifically backed up and spiritually backed up and even physically backed up. Don't say God has left us without understanding. We can receive that understanding through illumination. God bless you.

Guest (Male): Thanks for spending time with us today on First Love. If today's message spoke to you, share it with someone. And if you're looking for more teachings, visit www.torcc.org. That's T-O-R-C-C dot O-R-G for more. We'll be back next week, same time, same truth. And as you go, don't forget: the One who loved you first is still loving you best.