Transcription
An altar is a system of authorization, meaning an altar is a system that authorizes something. Without an altar, there are certain things that will not be authorized. An altar, it is that system that gives permission to something, and all time, it is that system that approves something. Meaning, no matter what you want, no matter the desire, no matter the hunger, if there's no altar to approve that which is in the spirit to come to men, it will not come down.
So, an altar now becomes that system that says yes to something that is in the spirit, in order for that thing to come down. An altar is a place of spiritual activities. What that means is, it is a place where divinity meets humility. It is a place of encounter. But you cannot talk about up and not talk about down. You cannot talk about left and not talk about right. The law of balance does not allow that. So, if an altar is a system of authorization, because of the law of balance, it then should tell you that an altar can authorize good, and an altar can authorize evil.
An altar, so you guys understand, those who are still trying to understand, is a place where spirits land and spirits take off. It's a spiritual airport. And the reason why an altar is a system of authorization is because, because the law of territory says no entity can enter another territory without a body that suits that territory. If I take you to Mars right now, you will suffocate. You will need some space suit in order to survive in that environment. And the reason why you are unable to breathe once you leave planet Earth is because you don't have the body that is required in order to thrive in that territory. So you need some masks around you, you need some bodysuit around you. Without that, you are an illegal entity. You will die.
So, spirits are not allowed in the realm of men. That's why it is an unusual thing for a person to see a ghost and say, "Hi, are you hearing me?" And that is because spirits are not allowed on Earth. They need a body. And we established this three weeks ago that you are a spirit possessing a soul but living in a body. Why do you need a body? You need a body in order to be here. As a spirit, you exist already, and you existed already, but you existed somewhere. That's why it says, "Jeremiah, before you were formed in your mother's womb, I knew you." So Jeremiah existed somewhere, somewhere where only spirits are allowed. But in order for Jeremiah to come to Earth, he had to pass by his mother's womb to get flesh. So he had to pass by his mother's womb to borrow flesh, because without flesh, you cannot exist in the realm of men. It will be a miracle for a woman who is pregnant to go to a labor room, labor room, and give birth to a spirit. That's why Jesus existed before the existence of existed. Exist as long as he is the Word and he is in the spirit, he cannot come and save men. But in order for him to save men, he needs the flesh. That's why the book of Hebrews then says, "A body you have prepared for me," and that was Jesus talking. Glory be to God, because him being a spirit is illegal in our realm. Spirits are illegal.
But how did people find a way of bringing spirits in our realm? They found a way by the reason of altars. So when an altar is erected, an altar is to give permission to a spirit that does not have a permission to come. So a spirit can be on Earth, and God says, "What are you doing here?" The spirit won't answer God. The spirit will say, "That altar summoned me."
How to build an altar? And I have to be very clear here, that in our time, by the reason of being a new believer or by the reason of being in Christ Jesus, altars are not to be erected physically. Meaning, altars are not physical structures or monuments. In our time, in Christ Jesus, you don't have to physically put an altar together like Elijah did. So from verse 30, we see the ingredients that Elijah used to raise an altar. But how do we raise altars? Pay attention now.
Number one, the Bible says, "And Elijah repaired the altar that was broken." That was the first thing that Elijah did when he came into the picture. He didn't talk a lot. He repaired what? The altar that was what? Broken. Many people miss this step in raising altars. Most people emphasize on other things and forget the very, very important thing, and that is a place of repentance and brokenness. Meaning, when he repaired the altar, he entered a place of repentance. It don't make sense. That is what it means to repair the altar of the Lord that has been what? Broken. And the reason, reason why the prophets of Baal had power is because the children of Israel had neglected even the altar of the Lord. So the first thing that he does is he repairs the altar. That is the place of repentance and brokenness. You want to raise an altar that can authorize spiritual activities in your life, it cannot be without repentance, whether as an individual, or as a family, or as a territory. You want to see the power of God come down, you want to see the supernatural materialize into the natural, it starts with genuine repentance.
The second ingredient that is needed to build or to raise an altar is the Word of God. When we talk about the Word of God, we are talking about the promises of God. What did He say to you? Because the Word of God becomes your guarantee. That's why when you speak in the spirit, even angels will ask, "Upon what guarantee are you standing?" But if you are standing on the Word of God, they have no choice but to hearken to your voice.
Number three, sacrifice. Number three, sacrifice. In order to engage the power of sacrifice, you need to understand that there are about four levels of sacrifice. The first sacrifice that must be put upon the altar is you. Romans 12:1, "I beseech you therefore, what, brethren, by the what? Mercies of God, that ye present your what? Your body is a living sacrifice, uh-huh, holy, uh-huh, acceptable unto God, which is your what? Which is your reasonable service." So the first sacrifice that you must put, remember I said there are four levels of sacrifice, so the first level is you as a sacrifice. So that is the first sacrifice you must put on the altar.
The second sacrifice that God demands from us in building altars is our praise and worship. The first one is you, the second one is praise and worship. Hebrews, Hebrews 13:15, "Therefore let us what? Let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, uh-huh, proclaiming our allegiance to his name." So what type of sacrifice is this? Praise. Come on now, read your Bible. So it is not every time where I have to sacrifice. I do sacrifice like I'm told. I can literally sacrifice by praising God. When you read the Bible, you realize that Paul and Silas in the book of Acts chapter 16, the Bible says, "And they sang, they praised, and they prayed." Not because they were musicians, but they sang and they prayed. Raised because these people understood something that many people don't know today. And according to the Bible, the Bible then tells us what happened. There was an earthquake. It means as they praised, they were actually giving a sacrifice of praise. Glory be to God, and they created a portal from the prison that touched the heavens, and God came down in response. And the Bible says, "And there was an earthquake." By just singing and praising, it was not just singing and praising, it was a sacrifice.
The third sacrifice is prayer. Whether holy or unholy altars are powered by a sacrifice of prayer. Meaning, as long as there is no sacrifice of prayer, that altar will not come to life. That's why Leviticus 6:13 says, "The fire must not go out." And we understood that God was talking to priests here, and it brings us back to prayer. Hence, you will see that those who practice all sorts of divinations and sorcery and all these things, you'll see them making enchantments, speaking and casting out spells. What are they doing? It's a sacrifice of prayer. They understand that for one to open or service a spiritual portal, deities require a sacrifice of prayer. Anything that you call a god requires a sacrifice of prayer. So if you call a tree a god, you pray to that tree, and that is because it's a deity to you, and every deity requires the sacrifice of prayer.
The fourth one is a sacrifice of a seed, that is giving. There is more into giving than just dropping money. Just because you are bringing money to the stage or to the altar, it does not mean you are dropping a seed of sacrifice. There is a consciousness, and there is an understanding that must support what you are doing. Seeds have different voices in the realms of the spirit, and if you are doing what you are doing out of ignorance, you will not see results. That's why you will hear people say, "The more the, the higher the sacrifice, the stronger the altar."
The final key to raising an altar is by prophetic decree. Is by what? Prophetic decree. So you don't start by prophetic decree. You start by repentance. You don't just come in, "Hey, in the name of Jesus, I wish..." What's happening? You start by repentance. Glory be to God. And we see it in the life of Prophet Elijah. How everything was built. He did not just come and start calling fire. The prophetic decree came at the end. We see him gather even stones representing the Word of the Lord. We see him bringing sacrifice, the bullock, are you hearing me? And then we see him speaking, "Oh God of Israel, hear me and answer me." And right there, those are prophetic decrees. And the Bible then says, "And fire came down from what? From heaven."
Now we are about to destroy evil altars. We could not have gotten to where we are without us teaching what we just taught. And this, believe it or not, out of everything that I said, that was the most important and the most powerful. Because a lot of people talk about raising altars, but nobody teaches them how to raise an altar according to the scripture. People can talk about altars, but when you ask them, "How do I raise an altar?" they will tell you stories. But you today have a secret and you have a mystery that you can teach your children, and your children will teach their children, and their children will teach their children. That to raise an altar, you must start with genuine repentance. Because there are certain things that you might have been involved in that to you, it was just an act of foolishness, but to God, it was more than that. Some of you, you went to a place where you said, "Ah, I just fornicated. I just slept with somebody." Yet before God, you entered into soul ties, covenant. So before God, that thing is standing like this, and you, you have moved on. Why? Because you are told, "Just declare and decree." So as long as you have not gone through the place of genuine repentance, it's very difficult for you to get to the decrees that we are talking about. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He said, "My ears are not closed so that I cannot hear you. My eyes are not closed so that I cannot see you."