An altar is a place where spirits meet to determine what takes place. It is a doorway linking both the physical and spiritual realms. Thus the reason God is desiring for His people to raise up prayer altars to Him.
There are different types of altars:
- Personal Altars — just between you and God
- Family Altars — your household and God
- Marriage Altars — you, your spouse, and God (if your spouse is unsaved or refuses to join, go before God on both your behalf)
- Church Altars — meeting to put the need of your church before God
- Community Altars — persons in your community meeting to pray for the community
- National Altars — Persons from across your nation willing to intercede on behalf of the nation, and God
There Are Different Types of Altars
1Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, this is your true and proper worship. 2Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is. His good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2
God Wants Us To Raise Up Altars To Him
Some reasons God wants us to set up altars are:
› He desires to visit His people
›He wants to bring a new season
› He wants to have open heaven over the land
› He wants to release an anointing
› He wants to release a specific blessing
› He wants to reveal Himself
God Wants To Meet With Us At The Altar
When you raise Altars, various things happen, such as:
— Open altars create open heaven
— God will establish a covenant with His people
— God will remove His wrath
— Prosperity flows
— Dominion and restoration are given back to his people.
— God gives you power
— He equips you with the gifts of the spirit
— You hear from God
When You Raise Altars Miracles Happen
The time is now. God wants to raise up giants! Do you want to be a giant in the kingdom of God, or do you want to be an ordinary servant? Remember, extraordinary things happen to extraordinary people. But you cannot be a giant or be extraordinary without erecting an altar before God where He comes down to meet and commune with you!
This is the time when God is strategically bringing His people together. The mere fact that you are reading this means you are among the chosen. But we need another outpouring if God is to do something among us. That outpouring requires us giving God some undivided attention.
God Wants To Raise Up Giants
No longer is it just about praying for family and friends, this mighty move of God is about nations. So God wants us to intercede for our nations. There are three types of intercessors:
- The Holy Spirit
- Jesus
- The Church
If you want to be an intercessor praying through the Holy Spirit and in the name of Jesus, you have to be selfless — not interested in the limelight. You have to be willing to allow the Holy Spirit to use you while you pale in the background. You have to be willing to give God ALL the glory, taking none for yourself.
Therefore, God has given us a mandate to raise altars. He wants every individual to have an altar. Every marriage to have an altar, every family to have an altar, every church to have an altar, every community to have an altar, and every nation to have an altar.
God Wants Us To Draw Close To Him
How to Set Up An Altar
Raising an altar means setting up a covenanted time between you and God. This means you will select whatever place in your home, church, community, and nation that you want to meet with God. So if it’s an individual, marriage, or family altar then you find a place in your home that you will go to pray at an agreed-on time. You then anoint this place with oil (usually olive oil is used) dedicating this place to God and setting it apart. Tell God that this is where you want to meet with him each day, week, or month — depending on how often you are able to do meet. If it’s a community altar, then you would find a place in your community that you would designate as your altar to God and again communicate with God the times you (and community members involved) would meet at this spot and what days and time. A similar process applies to all the altars.
Setting Up An Altar To God Is Easy
This time at the altar is a special time of intimacy spent with God undistracted. Once you have located your praying/meeting place with God, anointed it, and dedicated it to Him, please note these important points:
- Respect that covenanted time
- Whatever time you decide on make sure you stick to it
- Do not be late — God should not be there waiting for you. You should be there waiting for Him
- Please note that God is never late and he will ALWAYS show up at the covenanted time
- Maintaining that hour/ two hours or however long you agree to meet for is very important
- God will arrive at the exact time and leave at the exact time
- It does not make sense to go over that agreed on time — God would have already left!
- Time is important to God — thus the reason to dedicate a specific start and end time
Respect Your Altar Time
Three Easy Steps in setting up your Altar
- Anoint the place you chose as your altar and set it apart. (No need to literally build an altar with wood).
- Set the meeting dates along with start and end times that you know you can stick to.
- Show up on time!
God rewards faithfulness. Prayer altars can be broken by unwanted conversations which is one reason it is important to have a set undistracted covenanted time to lock away with God for that agreed period of time. So no cell phones, no children (unless you are at your family altar), no interruptions.
When We Are Faithful To God, He Will Be Faithful To Us
Different Types of Prayer
(Altar Prayer vs Seeking Prayer)
When it comes to seeking God, prayers have three (3) levels/stages of growth. This can be found in Matt. 7:7-8… “Ask and it shall be given you…”. These stages are:
- Ask
- Knock
- Seek
Stage 1 — Asking Stage
This is when you just got saved and all of your life is about asking. Asking God to help you grow, asking God to supply your needs, asking God to keep you away from temptation, etc.
Stage 2 — Knocking Stage
At this stage, we find that we have grown in the Spirit and are lifted to the level of knocking. The knocking stage takes some effort and a certain amount of maturity. This stage takes energy to destroy and tear down doors because it takes effort for doors to be opened.
There are Three Stages in Prayer
Stage 3 — Seeking Stage
Seeking is one of the most challenging stages of the believer. This is the stage where many fall, where many give up. This is a stage to find the inner you. To find your destiny, to find yourself in God. This is when you can find yourself calling on him and feel like you cannot find him, as if you are not getting anywhere. This stage calls for a higher level of sacrifice. But you have to spend more time with God seeking him diligently. This is when you hunger and thirst to stay longer with God, but it is a very challenging stage.
Seeking prayers are different from prayer altars. Seeking prayer is where you go to seek God for however long until you have found something — praying until something happens (PUSH).
Pray Until Something Happens (PUSH)
However, when it comes to covenanted altars, discipline is very important. This is where you respect the time of arrival and time of ending.
So the seeking prayer is unlimited but the covenanted altar prayers are limited.
Therefore, different prayer approaches are required based on whether it’s a seeking prayer or a dedicated prayer altar. Effective prayer altars have to be limited covenanted time.
Thus we have to be very careful before we build the covenanted altars as we have to be prepared to stick to it as we have to respect arrival and departure times.
The Holy Sanctuary And The Altar
“The king of the North will return to his own country with great wealth, but his heart will be set against the holy covenant. He will take action against it and then return to his own country.” Daniel 11:28
The enemy will attack the Holy Sanctuary. He will take over the temple (our bodies) then the Holy of Holies (our inner temples) and our sacrifices.
The Enemy Will Do Everything To Prevent Us From Drawing Close To God
Man is the Holy Temple of God. The Inner Place is the Holy of Holies inside of us where God dwells. Through the blood of Jesus, we all can enter into the Holy of Holies and offer sacrifices of self at the altar.
The Temple is a place for daily sacrifices. Thus the enemy attacks our temples because he does not want us to sacrifice to God. God created people to have a relationship with Him. That relationship brings God a sweet aroma. This relationship and intimacy in worship is the sacrifice that we bring to God.
An altar is a place of death, surrender, and intimacy.
So the moment you are at the altar God requires something from you – a sacrifice. Maybe that sacrifice is to forgive someone or to give up something that you have been holding on to. The moment you do what God wants you to do (to sacrifice what He asks you to) then He will take you deeper into the Holy of Holies.
Altar is A Place Of Death, Surrender, And Intimacy
But God will not take something away from you unless He intends to give you something in return! Isn’t that comforting?!
The Enemy Will Target:
As the enemy tries to stop us from getting into the Holy of Holies — into this deep place of worship and surrender to God, he will target —
- The Temple — our physical body
- The Inner Temple — The Holy of Holies
- Sacrifices — he will stop many from offering their sacrifice
We Should Get Into A Place Of Deep Worship With God
If we cannot sacrifice we are weak and without authority, which is what the devil wants. Thus his reason for attacking our sacrifices to God.
The devil has brought the battle against:
(i) The Church
(ii) The (physical) Body
(iii) Our Sacrifices
(iv) The Nations
If We Cannot Sacrifice We Are Weak And Without Authority
God wants us to repair the altar first. Just as he required Elijah to repair the altar of the Lord first.
1 Kings 18:30: Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the LORD, which had been torn down.
So How Do We Rebuild The Altar?
(i) By building your inner sanctuary first
(ii) By reading the word
(iii) By praying
(iv) By spiritual growth
We Should Rebuild The Broken Down Altars In Our Lives
We should focus on our destiny and what God requires of us. As the enemy targets the churches he is after our daily sacrifices. And so he will attack us spiritually, mentally, financially, etc. He attacks marriages because vows take place at the altar before God, and so we find a lot of marriages coming under attack. The enemy hates marriages. He is comfortable with persons living in common-law unions as no vows were made before God. In fact, while God ordained and sanctify marriages, the enemy came up with a counterfeit to go against God’s plan, this counterfeit is common-law unions. Which serves the same purposes as marriages but which are not ordained by God.
People have stopped offering themselves as living sacrifices. The Bible says the enemy will attack those who have broken covenant with God first. So the enemy attacks broken vows and broken covenants. Many people are running away from their vows and from making their sacrifices.
But the devil cannot enter into your life unless you open the door! And once he enters he attacks your inner sanctuary.
Prayer is more contagious than flu — the moment you catch the flu the people in your immediate surroundings start sneezing. But prayer is even more contagious, as people near and far can be affected, not just those around us. So once you start to pray, you become contagious.
The moment you overpower the enemy spiritually, you will overpower him physically.
You should sacrifice/ give something up at the altar, eg. time, resources, etc. Give to God what you love most — it has to be a sacrifice that means something to you. The better your sacrifice the greater your altar. Any altar that carries the higher sacrifice will rule! Devil worshippers also have altars and make sacrifices to their master. So there are good altars and evil altars. Whoever offers the higher sacrifice will rule. Remember, there are two realms in existence — the physical realm and the spiritual realm.
Effectual Fervent Prayer Altar
An altar should move the heart of God. The people who will affect/move God are the ones with the effectual fervent prayer altars.
You Should Give Something of Yourself At The Altar
To achieve this:
(i) A high level of righteousness has to be maintained
(ii) You have to go back to the truth
(iii) At the altar, you have to die to self
(iv) You have to remove the images from your life eg. sin, lust, fornication, greed, materialism, lying, etc. you have to kill that old man with that old Adamic nature.
Remember — the aim of the enemy is to control the seat in your heart where God sits. If he has this seat he will be in control of your life.
Do not expect God to come into your life, your home, your marriage, your business, your nation without you inviting him in. That is not how the spirit realm works. That is why the altar is so important.
