“This is what you must do. You must break down their pagan altars and shatter their sacred pillars. Cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols. 6 For you are a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Of all the people on earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure.” (Deuteronomy 7:5-6)
An altar is more than just a physical structure—it represents a spiritual meeting point between the natural and the supernatural. It is a place of covenant, sacrifice, and communication with spiritual powers.
There are Godly altars and evil altars. Godly altars are built to honor the Lord (e.g., Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Elijah) and invite God’s presence, blessing, and covenant. While evil altars are built to honor false gods, demons, or dark powers. They invite curses, bondage, and spiritual oppression.Evil altars may not necessarily have been set up against you directly, but you inherited them. These are known as ancestral altars. Ancestral altars could have been set up in your family decades or even hundreds of years ago. Others you may grow up seeing and accepting as part of your family’s tradition, viewing them as a natural part of your life, not realizing these altars have been destroying your family for generations. This is because someone in your family had a terrible idea of covenanting the family and those born into it to the devil in exchange for something. This person would have received something through, witchcraft, sorcery, dedication, bloodletting, or whatever else they did that rewarded them satisfaction for a price. The price was the sale of the family to the devil.
There is a difference between generational curses and demonic altars. While a generational curse is set up by a blood relative, anyone can set up a demonic altar against you. Evil spirits are invoked at a demonic altar and assigned to go out to torment and destroy you and your possessions.
There are many reasons evil altars are set up against you.
Jealousy. Jealousy often leads to the establishment of demonic altars against individuals. Spiritual entities are called upon to hinder people’s progress using tools like satanic mirrors, water, and crystal balls. These altars aim to block advancement in education, career, finances, or family. As a result, whenever you approach success, something occurs that prevents you from progressing.
To Control You. Your activities seem to be out of your control. You receive advice, including from people close to you, but these suggestions do not produce positive outcomes — despite being incredibly good advice. You know your goals and the methods to achieve them, yet you struggle to find the time or resources needed to do so, but you manage to find the time and resources for other tasks. Once under the control of an evil altar your life is out of your control and under theirs.
To Study You. Monitoring spirits are deployed to observe individuals’ activities during the night, even as they sleep. For serious Christians who are advancing spiritually, these entities seek to ascertain their spiritual capabilities and determine if they pose a threat to the spiritual realm. If deemed a threat, they attempt to identify moral weaknesses that can be exploited to undermine them. This underscores the importance of leading a life free from sin. The downfall of numerous influential men and women of faith often occurs due to the exposure of secret lives being lived, such as secret relationships and character flaws. Occasionally, adversaries may send witches disguised as assistants, secretaries, prayer partners, choir members, or family friends to gain proximity and subsequently cause harm. It is crucial for those called and chosen by God to remain vigilant and prayerful in spirit. Monitoring spirits are also deployed to assess whether individuals are worth their time and resources.
To Destroy You. John 10:10… ‘the enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy’… Satan uses agents at the altar to destroy you, your business, your success, your health, your finances, your marriage, and anything connected to a good outcome in your life. Remember that wedding dress at the evil altar in Uganda I spoke about earlier? That is a good example of this. Nothing good can come of that marriage unless the owner has been steadfast in prayer to counteract the curses sent out against her, her marriage and family. It is very unlikely that a stranger would have been the one to take this woman’s dress to a demonic altar. It would have been someone close enough that she may even have trusted, family member or close friend, to have gotten hold of such a valuable possession. The result of any satanic altar is destruction.
To Cause Barrenness, prolonged Poverty and Sickness. Evil altars have been known to cause many women to be barren, especially in the African countries where childbearing is paramount in many cultures. In some cultures, if a woman does not bear her husband children he can, upon the advice of elders, put her aside and find another woman who can bear children. This altar can even be set up to cause a husband to suddenly, and for no reason, reject his wife and family with an unhealthy attachment to someone else. Demonic altars are also set up to cause prolonged poverty, stagnation, sickness, and madness.
To Establish Evil Covenants. It can be used to set up or activate dormant ancestral covenants and stir up the operations of territorial spirits. Parents, grandparents, great grandparents etc. can sell the family bloodline and initiate other family members. Upon their passing, those initiated will have to establish or reactivate the covenant with the devil at an altar. So, while God is a covenant keeping God, the enemy also uses covenants to trap and keep persons bound in evil acts. Nothing good can ever come from the devil. Therefore, no covenant with him is good or beneficial.
How to Know When an Altar Has been Established Against You
On a more personal level, there are things that many persons experience or go through not realizing that these things are not normal. They are not innocent! Persons are not aware that the same habits they have like those of a parent or grandparent may very well be the work of an altar. Behind every habit there is a spirit. If it is not God, it is the devil. Many afflictions that persons go through are far from natural. Afflictions often come to keep us bound by making us so focused on what is going on that we either blame God or glorify the problem. When we focus on the bad happening to us, we are giving glory to the issue and by extension giving glory to the devil. God should take centerfold in our lives. Anything else that takes that position becomes our god. So you can become bound or lead by your situation or problem. Thus it can take the place of God.
So how do you know that an evil altar has been raised against your life or family and that you need to do something about it? Some common signs are:
Nightmares. There is a difference between a dream and a nightmare. Dreams bring good report, but nightmares bring evil reports. The devil will always try to counterfeit what God has established or instituted. Example, dreaming about all sorts of snakes chasing you; maggots coming out of your skin; falling into darkness; dead people talking to you; dreams of having sex with people or demons; having many children attaching themselves to you, etc. are signs of oppression. One of the most common dreams is dreaming of seeing or conversing with a dead family member. If your relative has died and you are constantly dreaming that you are talking to them, this is not of God. The dead cannot give you winning lotto ticket number — they are dead! They cannot be having conversations with you of any kind. These are ‘familiar spirits’ conjured up by the devil to manipulate and trick you into submission. The Bible says…
“ For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten. 6 Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun”. (Ecclesiastes 9:5-6).
That means the dead has no connection with the living. The devil knows the vulnerabilities of man and will always look to prey upon this. That is why it is so important to know the Word of God. When you miss a loved one, the devil uses this to interfere in your dreams. When you awake from that dream, command the spirits of manipulation interfering with your dreams to leave and let him know that you will not have anything to do with the dead.
God promised us in Joel 2:28-30 that we will dream dreams and see visions — not nightmares. So, dreams are from God, but nightmares are from the enemy. If you dream that you have been trapped in a building with no open exit and being chased to be beaten or killed; that you are being chased from a big mountain and find yourself falling off; or in the middle of the river and being held under to drown — God is warning you of what the devil has planned. Sometimes you may nightmares that you are shot, stabbed or beaten so severely that when you wake you feel so tired and beaten up as if you were running a marathon. If these nightmares persist, then this too is a sign that an altar has been set up to destroy you. When you awake, pray against these nightmares and free yourself from any such altars.
Intermittent illness. You may experience illnesses that manifest at particular times or seasons, and persists regardless of medical treatment. In fact, physicians often fail to find a physical cause for these symptoms which later resolves itself spontaneously after a certain duration. Conditions such as arthritis are often blamed as they may worsen during rainy seasons. So, there are people being treated for arthritis simply because doctors believe this to be the culprit, yet it is not because medications do not provide relief. If this is you, investigate other factors beyond the physical, like doing a spiritual mapping then addressing general curses and strongholds.
Resentment towards teachings on deliverance. When you experience discomfort while listening to teachings on demons and deliverance, it is beneficial to pay attention to your reaction. This resentment may occur regardless of your religious status. Sometimes, teachings on demons, deliverance, and breaking from altars may cause you to become very uncomfortable and defensive. If you find yourself in this situation, it might be an indication that you need deliverance, an evil altar could have you bound and the demons you carry are fighting back.
Repeating the same sin. If you’re repeatedly struggling with a sin despite efforts to overcome it, it might be due to deeper issues. Change your prayer strategy by naming and casting out any spiritual strongholds hindering your growth. Repent sincerely and ask God for help while binding and casting out that specific strongman related to that sinful habit.
The desire to commit suicide. Once you start having suicidal thoughts that pulls you into depression and especially for no apparent reason, then an altar may have been formed against you to get you out of the way completely. No one is above this type of altar. In fact, this is the type of altar that was set up against Elijah by Jezebel, who declared that she would not stop until she killed him. She had evil altars serving Baal that she would have gone to, calling Elijah’s name and invoking those evil spirits to attack his mind by telling him to kill himself. Now look at Elijah, a mighty warrior who had just brought down fire on Mt Carmel, killed 450 prophets of Baal, caused a revival in Israel, prayed down rain after 3 1/2 years of famine — yet he was now running away stopping only to sit under a tree praying for a quick death to end it all. This was abnormal for such a mighty man of God and evidence that an evil altar was at work against him.
Not acting like yourself. Usually you may be a soft hearted kind person enjoying the fruits of a happy marriage and family life, but then someone visits your home and you become very aggressive — starts beating your wife, accusing her of all sorts of things she is not guilty of, andnothing that she does is right anymore. It may be that your wedding picture was taken to an evil altar and being used against you by someone close to you.
Accident prone. I spoke to a lady a while back and she told me that she is now afraid to drive because for no reason and out of nowhere she just keeps crashing, hitting other people’s cars or running of the road. In the middle of the day, she would be falling asleep behind the wheels, yet she was not tired. Something is definitely wrong with this scenario, especially when coupled with the fact that she cannot read her Bible for five minutes without falling asleep, nor can she pray without the same thing happening. Yet when she undertakes other tasks she is fully alert. If this is you then an altar of affliction has been set up against you. When sickness or accident keeps happening every time you have say an examination, promotion, job interview, new job, etc. or when you are beginning to grow or desiring to grow in Christ, an altar is active against you.
Depression and despair. You fall into such depression that you do not want to see people, always shutting yourself away, not socializing, not wanting to leave your home, feeling comfortable in a dark room with curtains drawn and just always wanting to be left alone. This is not Godly. The devil knows when you rejoice in the Lord faith develops and your strength is renewed. He wants to keep you depressed and sad so that you can become fed up with life and wish for death. Suicide is always a result of depression, and this type of behavior usually leads to thoughts or even the act of suicide.
Unexplained marks on the body. Before gaining knowledge about evil altars, I met many individuals over the years who claimed waking up with marks on their bodies which they could not account for as these occurred mysteriously. You can wake up with bleeding cuts, severe scratches, puncture holes on your skin yet not knowing the cause. According to Ugandan author and pastor, Michael Kimuli, this is the result of evil spirits tampering with your blood and health. He said that they can use satanic needles to inject you and pull your blood which can cause serious sickness if not dealt with on a spiritual level.
For more on identifying evil altars in your life and how to fight against them, see ‘Strategies to Defeat the Enemy’ by Donna Hussey-Stewart
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