Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
Altars are places of encounter with God where heaven meets earth. They are spaces of visitation and communication between God and his people. Altars are built to remember the markers of what God has done and to create a space for encounters with him. Coming to the altar involves sacrifice and a willingness to let go of old ways. Altars are places where God's name is remembered and where blessings are received. They are not physical structures, but rather spaces of prayer and worship. It is important to hunger for encounters with God and to participate in the amazing things he does. Remember that prayer is about building an altar and seeking communication with God. Altars are places where God's name is remembered and where he meets and blesses us. So let us come to the altar and encounter God. I want to be able to kind of share a bit, you know, we've talked about burning, we've talked about, you know, sacrifice, we've talked about, you know, the place of fasting, right, and kind of going into that place. And what I want to talk about today is, what are altars? You know, we talk about altars, we say, you know, let's, you know, an altar of praise or prayer, right, an altar of prayer, let's have an altar of this, an altar of that. You probably hear within the Christian community, we talk about altars. And so I just want to define altars in a very simple and very clear way. Altar is a place of encounter. An altar is a place of encounter. You know, there was a book by the Black, I think his name is Blackaby, and it's a really good book, and it talks about, you know, I'm just using this as an example, that we used to kind of talk about, like, you know, the markers, the markers. He has this word where he talks about the markers, that we have to remember the markers of the things that God has done for us, because that's what David did, right? He remembered the markers that actually helped bring him to the place of when he had to fight a bigger fight. He could remember the things that God has brought him through so that he can press towards the mark, right? So I'm just using a piece of what he says there, because he also talks about when we have an encounter with God, it also causes us to have a crisis of belief. Like, oh, you know, we have to do something new, and do I want to do that? So we kind of go through this process. But that's not what I'm talking about, but it's this piece here of being markers, remembering that we have markers in life. So it's a place where God shows himself and reveals himself. And it's also a place where heaven meets earth. It's a place where heaven meets earth. So if it's an encounter, it's a place where God reveals himself, and it's a place where earth meets heaven, and heaven meets earth. And this is where you see in the story of Joseph, where he lays his head down, which happens to be at a place where it was an altar already that was erected in that space. And he began to have an encounter with God, and God revealed to him that that place was a place he already had visited. And that's when he said, I didn't realize that this is Bethel. This is none other than the house of God. Right? So he's talking about it was the house of God. The house of God is the place where he is, right, is where he is. So also being a house of prayer, being a house of prayer, or having an altar of prayer, when we think about it in that capacity, it's also the place where earth meets heaven. It's a place where there is a portal, where there is communication between God's people and God. So we were just at a conference not so long ago where James, I don't remember his last name, but James who kind of, huh, a ladder and James, a ladder and had, you know, communicated and said, you know, people are always saying that they're a house of prayer. And he says, is there an open heaven there? Is God, is God, is God encountering the people there? Because if he's not, then it's not a house of prayer. It's just a, it's just a club or is this a place where people gather? And the question is, is God building it? Did God build it? Because if God built it, he would have an access point, right? So we, so, so an altar that we're talking about here is having encounters. Did you encounter God today? Did you encounter him today? You know, so, so it's, it's the idea that your encounter, your encounter with him shows that there is an altar. We have an altar right here. We always say, come to the altar. Why don't we come to the altar? That's a very good question. I never knew that. They used to have cushions when I was a kid and you just put your knees on it and you put your hand there and just wait until you get prayed over or behind there, there was a little, a little circular thing where you can have your, your, your communion. Remember, you can put your little cups in, little rolls underneath there. You can see how many times I've seen it. I see the details of it. But all I'm saying is that that's, that's what an altar is. It's a place where you come up in response of an, of an encounter, encountering God. When you respond to what God is doing, you begin to come up so that you can encounter God at the altar, right? So it's a place where it's a place of encounter with God. And there's often an exchange that happens. Last time I had talked about how we, you know, we can't come to God without burning, right? We can't come to, how can you walk up to a consuming fire and not burn, right? So, so if you're coming to the altar, know that as you're coming towards the altar, something is dying. That's why people don't like to come to the front. And if they do come to the front, it actually is like the other one where God tests you with fire and you end up crumbling because what you built wasn't really on him. Okay. So that's just something to kind of keep in perspective as I'm, as I'm moving into this particular area of what is an altar. So now you know what you build when you pray or when you're in this place, it's really building an altar. You're building at a place where you can encounter God who has a special place in their room where they pray. Right? Now it's not a physical altar. It's not like I put something here and I do a whole bunch of stuff. And I'm not saying that, you know, you can't decorate. I'm just saying that it's not that kind of an altar. What it is, is you're actually creating a space of visitation where you get to spend time to have a visitation with the Lord, where there is a space where you can go to knowing that, that every time you go there, God sometimes shows up and sometimes he doesn't show up. But the fact is you're being faithful because you continue to show up, right? And that's the beauty of it. That's the beauty of it. I remember when I was younger and I wanted to, I loved, I love being, um, I love going to church. And this is like when I was a teenager, I couldn't wait to go to church because I could not, I never knew what God was going to do. Like, like, think about that. I want to go to church because I don't want to miss what God is going to do. I mean, who does not want to be a part of it? I want to be a part of a church that way. This is what we are going to be. I just want to say that I want you to hunger to come to the house of God because of all the amazing and crazy and wonderful and beautiful things God is going to do. And I want you to participate with that. So now to get to my message, I felt like, wow, Lord, keep on doing it. So in Exodus 20, 24, 20, 24, and I'll go through this fairly fast today just because I want to make sure we get out at a good time, decent time. So Exodus 20, 24, I do not have any slides, so please write this down. This is going back into what is, what are altars? You shall make an altar of the earth for me and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your ox in every place. Now I want you, I'm going to do this with you. Say place. Place. Oh man, come on man. Say place. Place. Come on. There you go. So in every place where I cause my name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. I mean, ah. So he's building an altar to where a place where he will cause his name to be remembered and where he will meet you and bless you. I think that's a better definition of what an altar is. An altar is you erecting something to sacrifice because it's a place where he causes his name to be remembered so that you can go there to be blessed. I mean, that's such a beautiful, beautiful picture and imagery. And so that when you come before the Lord, just know that that is what you're doing. That is what you're creating. That is what, where, why we pray. I mean, think about why we pray. We don't just speak words because they're nice to say. Sometimes they feel good to say, right? But we're doing it because we're trying to build an altar. We're putting, we're putting, we're putting fire on the altar because we're encountering the Lord. It's the place where I said, it's the place where heaven meets earth and earth meets heaven. It's a place where there is communication. It's a place of communication. And you know it's being heard because there's a doorway that goes directly to heaven. Genesis 13, 3-4. Genesis 13, 3-4. It says, he went on his journey. This is Abram. He went on his journey from the Negev as far as Bethel to the place, say place, oh come on, say place. All right. Just want to make sure you guys are awake and participating. All right. Where his tent had been at the beginning. So I'm going to say it again. To the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Ai. To the place of the altar which he had made there formerly. And there Abram called on the name of the Lord. So he traveled to a place that he previously erected an altar so that he can actually go there to call on the name of the Lord. It's like you hear people that will go an hour to two hours away from their location to go to the house of the Lord. You've heard that before? You hear people that do that, right? They travel. You've done that. You've done that. I mean, we go to our father's house all the way out in Virginia. Because one, it's our spiritual father, right? And prophetess Ashley. Like they're our parents, but guess what? We meet God there all the time. Every time we go there, we meet God. Every time we go there, we encounter the Lord. Every time we go there, God has something to share and say. And isn't it good that you know that you can go to the house of the Lord and you can inquire him and you can call on his name there knowing that he will respond. He will respond. So I want to walk you through some of this process really quick here. I'm going to walk you through what does this really look like, you know, if I were to kind of give you an imagery. You know, God reveals himself, right? One, and you can put number one if you want to write this down. Number one, God reveals himself or makes himself known. Sometimes he makes himself known by his name. Sometimes he makes himself known by what he does, right? The God who provides. Well, how could I call him God that provides? Well, you know, I told you the story that I was doing fasting and all of a sudden, this debt that I had in another state all of a sudden appeared at my doorstep that they didn't know that I actually lived there. And it appeared there and I said, we canceled this such and such amount of money. And I was like, wow, like it totally floored me. And I actually had a check in. It was actually legit. It was actually real. It was actually taken care of. I actually had to take it to the tax person so they can add it there because it took care of what it needed to take care of. So he showed himself to be my provider there. So he showed himself in his name. He showed himself as the provider. Number two, God is inviting you into encounter. So when he reveals himself and he shows himself to you, he's also inviting you into encounter with him. Now explain a little bit more on that a little bit later. Three, in response of him wanting to invite us into encounter and revealing because he revealed himself, an altar is built from a place of revelation, right? An altar is built from a place of revelation. So he reveals himself, you're invited into an encounter, and from that place of being invited an altar should be the response. Building an altar should be a response. Number four, altars are not just built because of revelation. God reveals himself. I know he's inviting me to join him, and then I'm invited to build an altar, and I'm like, ah, build an altar, Lord. That's not the purpose of building an altar. It's not just so that we say we had a revelation. It is so, it is built for sacrifice. So when we build an altar, it is actually built, not because of the revelation, it's built, it's built in response of the revelation, but it's really built so that we can actually sacrifice something. And number five, God expects sacrifice for revelation, encounter, and communion with him. That could have went with four, but I added a five. I'm trying to think like my wife. How would I put this together? So God expects sacrifice for revelation. As I've told you in the last, in a couple teachings ago, or messages ago, you know when I said that you walk towards the Lord, and something burns. And so come before the Lord with something to burn. Come with something to burn. So when you're encountering God, that altar, there's always something that I do to burn to keep that altar alive. I feed that altar, and the way that you feed that altar, if it's an altar of prayer, then the sacrifice is what? What do you sacrifice to build an altar of prayer? Well, I set time aside. That's a sacrifice, right? What time? That is a sacrifice too. What am I doing? I'm keeping that altar that I've had encounter with him, that he showed himself, revealed himself to me, when I prayed. I was praying and I had a vision. I was praying and I fell asleep and I had a dream. I was praying and I heard the audible voice of God. I was praying and I saw an angel come to the Lord, and this is what the angel said to me. And so now we constantly come because we want to encounter God, okay? So I want you to encounter God by building altars in your life. Prayer being the primary one. I want us to go to Exodus 3. I'm not going to read it, I'm just going to kind of give some examples on what this little bit looks like. Exodus 3, 2 through 6. Now this is the story of Moses, and I'm going to kind of say this a little bit different, maybe. Maybe it's the first time you've heard anybody say this, possibly, I don't know. But I feel like it's a new revelation, a new revelation for me, at least. Because Exodus 3, it talks about how Moses, Moses, an angel of the Lord revealed himself to Moses as a blazing fire in the midst of the bush. We know that story, the burning bush. And because of that, he was intrigued because, guess what? He was intrigued because he saw the burning bush and he was like, why isn't the bush being consumed? Why isn't the bush being consumed? So then, when Moses came close, he was told to take off his sandals. Because God said that this is holy ground. So why did he have to take off his sandals to walk into a place called a holy ground, or it being a holy ground? Why were his sandals affecting him from entering into this place, place, place of encounter with the Lord? Why did he have to take off his shoes? Well, I'll give you a prophetic description and an image. It's because in customs, taking off your shoes meant that you weren't going to allow the filth of the world to enter into your home. You cannot walk in the filth and enter into the place. You can't walk into that place with wearing filth. The stuff that you walk on throughout the day, throughout the world, you're walking on the ground where it has all sorts, and they weren't as clean as we kind of are now. Like, you step on something, you're stepping on a lot of something. You don't know what they're stepping on, but they were just... And oftentimes, if we remember, this is why some places, if they had some level of wealth, they had a servant who would wash your feet for you, too, which would be an additional cleansing of the filth that you don't want to bring in. What was the first thing that Christ did to his disciples? He knelt down and he washed the filth off of his people's feet, and he says, you must do this for one another. That's a beautiful image now, right? We must learn how to help each other out and clean the filth off of one another, so that we can be well presented before the Lord. So going back to the sandals being taken off, right, he took off the filth, and he took off the filth, but Moses, when he entered into that place, when he entered into that place, Moses would be a living sacrifice. The reason why he's a living sacrifice is because, if you think about it, that burning bush, he was intrigued because the bush wasn't burning, the angel was within the bush, the bush wasn't burning. Remember when I told you about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? They went into a place that was burning, and the reason why they didn't burn was because they were already on fire. They did not burn because they were already with the consuming fire. And then he revealed himself when they went into an earthly fire, and realized that they were already with a fire. Moses did the same thing. He entered into the place, he was the living sacrifice to go into this place and be burned by the Lord, because he had to leave the filth behind. He could not, where he was going, he could not carry the filth of the world. That day, his life became an altar of encounter, revealing the ways of the Lord and reflecting his glory. Think about it. Every time he showed his face, he had a cover because he was shining all the time. This is the time that he spent with the Lord. He was actually considered God, and Aaron was going to be his prophet. So it's just, again, these imagery, the way the Lord had shared this, that he basically was representing God, to the point that God said, you're going to be like a God, and he's going to be like the prophet. I'm going to speak to you, you're going to speak to him, like I speak to you. And he's going to speak for you, like you speak for me. But that goes to show that he entered into that place, and he became a living sacrifice, and he became a place of encounter, because miracles, signs, and wonders followed his life. Followed him. When he spoke, things came to pass. When the Lord told him to do things, when he did it, he said, put your hand inside your jacket. Pull it out. Ah! Leprosy. Put it back in. It's gone. What is this? Right? That's the power I'm giving you to go, now go, I'm with you, go, right? So it takes sacrifice to burn. So I want you to know that this is a place where it is required for us to be, to be in that place requires us to burn. It requires us to burn, it requires us to sacrifice something for that altar to constantly be active. So I started this off by saying, what is an altar? And when we talk about all these altars, and we need an altar of this, we need an altar of that, we're talking about praying into the seven pillars, which a pillar holds up a house, we have seven of them, and let's make altars of our pillars, so therefore we live by these pillars, and they have supernatural components that are always occurring because we live by them, we sacrifice by them, because it brings us closer into our relationship with the Lord. Right? If we're going to be a house of prayer, we need to pray. We're going to be a house of generosity, we need to be generous. If we're going to be a house of glory, we need to go after God until his glory and his power is released on the earth. If we're going to be a house of prophets, then we need to learn to prophesy in this house. Right? If we're a house of family, then we need to care for each other, wash each other's feet. Now these are part of the pillars that I had shared. So now, here are some sacrifices, here are some hints for some sacrifices. Remember the sacrifice is part of the response of God revealing himself. Part of the sacrifice is God revealing himself. We build an altar because God revealed himself, and we have a sacrifice to keep that going. So I want to now give you some sacrifices that you can think of, because the sacrifices are actually built in our hearts. They're built inside of us. Sacrifice number one, Hebrews 13, 15, sacrifice of praise. So let me say something, if I say something up here that is the word of the Lord, and you know that word is for you, I hope I hear sacrifice happening. Praise God, praise his name wildly, because you're putting fire on the altar. So I'm teaching you how to respond, remember how we always talk about, it's about the response. I'm showing you how do you keep that fire going, where there are sacrifices, and that sacrifice, one of them, is praise. So you hear a word that you are in agreement with, you come up and you receive healing, you come up and you encounter something about God you didn't know, praise the Lord. Let us be that house that says, Amen, praise you Jesus, thank you Father, like yes! Because that is a sacrifice. You just gave God a sacrifice of praise. You just ignited the altar that he wanted you to encounter. Now continue to praise him for that, because you're going to keep that fire going there. Alright, second sacrifice, Psalms, I believe it's 50 at 5-0, yeah 50-23, Psalms 50-23. The sacrifice of thanksgiving. When God reveals himself to you in a way that blesses your heart, that you know that God did something amazing, not only do you give a sacrifice of praise, but you give a sacrifice of thanksgiving. And in some places in the Old Testament it talks about thanksgiving, how that also produces that peace as well, like thanksgiving and peace come together. So when you're giving thanks unto the Lord, it's also a peace offering. But I couldn't find it separately, so that's why I'm saying thanksgiving. But also when we talk about going into the courts, going into the kingdom, we go in with thanksgiving and praise. So what we're doing is, we're entering into God's kingdom, sacrificing. He's already teaching us how to sacrifice. We come up here, we start our service, thank you Lord Jesus, thank you Father for this, thank you. Like we need to learn how to thank him for many, many things, because we have a lot to sacrifice. If we think about it, if we just say thank you and that's all you can do, then you haven't really encountered him in certain areas of your life to thank him for many things. We can thank him until tomorrow about many things, and we could probably repeat it multiple times because how many times, he constantly gives us the same thing too. So we have a lot to burn, we have a lot to bring before him. Romans 12.1, presenting your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice. Presenting your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice. That means you're all, but also that means, there's a scripture that talks about, you know, don't give your members up to evil. So that means that those members can also be given up to the Lord. I give this part of my life to the Lord, I give that part of my life to the Lord, I give this part of my life, all those parts make up the member of who you are. I give you my job, I give you my hobbies, I give you my pleasures, I give you my excitement, I give you my, whatever they may be, I give you my relationships, I give you my children. These are all sacrifices. And here's the other sacrifice, Luke 12, 32-34. Luke 12, 32-34. The sacrifice of the treasurer, or the treasury. The sacrifice of finances, the sacrifice of money. So that also means this, if you, and this is a thing. Last Sunday, I think it was, God did, last Sunday, was it last Sunday, we were just like all over the floor, was it one of our prayer nights, when we were like, just, people were, when was that? Was that a Sunday? I think it was last Sunday. It was Sunday, right? Where we were just like, and then God just started, people falling out, and it was just like, we said, so into this, right, so into this encounter. That is exactly what we're doing. That sacrifice of sowing, sometimes that's all that we can do, because we can praise, but sometimes you just want to do something more, right? You can praise, you can give God thanks, but that too, that giving is a sacrifice. That giving, so when you encounter something, or again, you hear a word, like sometimes I'm listening to certain messages, you know, Apostle Malik may say something, I'm like, man, I agree with that word, I'm like, I'm sowing into that. I'm sowing into that word, because I'm coming to an agreement that I'm encountering God with. I encountered that word, and that word encountered me, right? So that was a place where I met with the Lord, because he spoke to me through that one word. But we look at it as, sometimes we get all earthy, and we get like, oh, money this, money that, money this. But what we're really doing is, we're actually teaching you how to present sacrifices before your Lord, so that the altar of visitation and encounter, right, that he revealed himself can consistently be active in your life. And every time he says something good, put something in. Every time he says something that impacts your heart, sow, be a good, be a cheerful giver, because you're going to give cheerfully, because you know it's building something in your life. I have to walk around, every time I stop and I walk around, it just feels funny. Now I want to just quickly give you a warning, we're going to get closer to the end, but I want to give you a warning. I want to give you a warning. As we're able to sacrifice for encounter, right, we encounter the Lord, he reveals himself, we build an altar, we sacrifice something on it, so therefore that altar is on fire, and it's a consistent place where we can encounter the Lord, right? It's a consistent place. And just to let you know, in Scripture they did go to old altars, and they rebuilt altars too, okay, so if you haven't been in an altar in a long time, then just know that you can go there, rebuild its foundation, and ask the Lord to reignite it, and give to it, right? Not to the altar, but like, give a sacrifice to the Lord, and just know that he's willing to always encounter you. Just as I said about Abram, who went back to a place, I don't know how long it's been since he's been in that place, but he knew that he could encounter God there, the altar was already built, and he basically just sacrificed there to reconnect with the Lord, at a place that he already is. He's already in that place. But here's the warning. Defilement affects altars. Defilement affects altars, and if you're not careful, that defilement, that defilement can actually produce a defiled altar. So if that altar is defiled, it will build an altar to encounter something else. So keep that in mind, and I'll kind of give you some clarification on that. So make sure the altar that you're building is of the Lord, but also know that if it's of the Lord, you want to protect what's of the Lord, and don't neglect that space. Or don't add something that should not be there, because then it will be defiled. We give a weird example, I want to pray, I want to have a time of prayer with the Lord, and then here's a defilement. Now I'm going to take that space, and I'm going to pray and do yoga at the same time. Because I'm praying, I mean it's a meditation. But that practice is not a practice of the Lord, and you're bringing it into a place that's called holy, and you're, so which one are you building? After a while you can't do both, but you have both altars there, and so now you have mixture. Now you have a mixture, an altar of mixture. Or at least two altars side by side, one is of the Lord and one is not. Does that make sense? So Deuteronomy 22.9, Deuteronomy 22.9, do not plant two kinds of seeds in your vineyard. If you do, not only the crop you planted, but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled. So you can't plant two separate seeds in one place, it'll just defile the entire thing. So you cannot have mixture and say you're pure. Matthew 15, 18 through 20, it says, But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witnesses, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone. Now I want to, well Matthew 15, 8 says, The people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. So these are two things that are happening at the same time. I'm trying to act one way, but inside my heart there's something else. So what's in my heart is actually what's really there, what's really in me. And so I'm saying one thing, so now I can speak one way, but my heart is really far from God. And this is where also that money aspect comes in as well, because the Lord tests our heart with our money. So I come to a position, I would say, that God deals with our heart that way. That that's the way that we can get to our heart and really check where we are at times. So be concentrated. Let your altars be concentrated. And that was the last thing that I want to say is that we, I talked about how God encounters you. You build an altar, you sacrifice as a response, right? And it's like, oh that's what you do, you build an altar, you don't stop there, you sacrifice something. But, but don't forget there is a process for the altar too. I saved that for last. There's a process to building an altar. Now at other times in scripture they don't talk about it, they just say they built an altar and they sacrificed. But Leviticus 11.44, Leviticus 11.44, these are the last scriptures, then I'm done. Leviticus 11.44, I am the Lord your God, consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves along the ground. Right? So he's talking about us being consecrated. Listen to this, 2nd Corinthians 29.5. So I'm just kind of going into the consecration and do not be defiled space, right? 2nd Chronicles 29.5, listen to me, Levites. Consecrate yourselves now and consecrate the temple of the Lord that God, the God of your ancestors remove all defilement from the sanctuary. Exodus 29.27, for seven days make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. Then the altar will be most holy and whatever touches it will be holy. So one, I want to just say, it's your consecration. In the consecration you have to get rid of all the defilements in order for something to be consecrated. So whatever may be stopping you from living a consecrated life, you have to remove the defilement. So therefore, your sacrifice will be considered holy. We can come before the Lord as many times as we want. We can do all the types of actions we want to do, but it will not be accepted by the Lord. Think about Eli's sons. Think about Samuel's sons. The reason why they died was because they were defiling the work of the Lord. They were there to do the work of sacrifice, the meat and stuff like that. They were stealing, they were doing deals, they didn't care. And it actually says that even though they were doing that and they were working in the temple, it says that they did not know the Lord. They did not know the Lord and they lived in a temple. And it's because of the defilement God never revealed Himself. And because He didn't reveal Himself, what did He do? He says, away from me I never knew you. Away from me I never knew you. So I present this to you today because I want you to know how to build an altar for your life. And how do you sacrifice it? Consecrate the altars that you want, which means separate yourself, separate that place between you and the Lord. And don't let anything defile it. And don't bring anything defiling to it. I can't bring God a sacrifice that's defiled. I think I mentioned that before where Cain and Abel, right? Cain and Abel, Cain tried to give God a defiled thing and say that it was holy. And he's like, it's unacceptable. He's like, but I gave you the first of this. He's like, that's not what I consider to be good. Like, I thank you, but it's not what I require. So he tried to make something that wasn't good, good. We can't do that. Keep ourselves consecrated, separated, so that we can live not only just a holy life, but we can live in a consistent life that encounters God on a day-to-day basis. You know how to pray, guess what? You know how to go into, what do you need help with? Okay, I'm going to go to my place where I encounter God, and I will contend for you and people who are asking. Right? I know how to contend. I know how to ask the Lord. I know how to pursue my God and encounter Him. Thank you for listening. Stay tuned for more.
