Got Altar? (A Repeat Episode)

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear in all forms. It emphasizes the importance of faith and allegiance to God and the power of His word. The transcript discusses the concept of altars and their significance in spiritual communication and transformation. It warns against idolatry and the use of altars by other spiritual powers. The focus is on communion with Jesus as the ultimate altar and sacrifice. The transcript also highlights the different aspects of Jesus' sacrifice and the freedom it brings. It encourages the listener to prioritize their relationship with God and to remember His unconditional love. Welcome to Fear No Fear. Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit embrace you today. This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture. We reject fear in any and all forms. Fear is a spiritual force, the currency of darkness and ignorance. It's what we inherited when Adam gave up his faith and Satan uses it to keep people down. His only weapon is words. If he can get you believing or looking at words of fear, he's got you. Instead, we champion faith as an allegiance to God, as a belief and trust and loyalty to the Lord God Almighty. We accept the evidence of His word as unvarnished truth, as is, just as it's written. We get close to His perfect love through the word, and perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4.18 All scripture is taken from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Visit eBible.org Jeremiah 10.5 They are like a palm tree of turned work, and don't speak. They must be carried, because they can't move. Don't be afraid of them, for they can't do evil, neither is it in them to do good. Don't speak, have to be carried, can't do evil, incapable of doing good. Wow, that just seems like a burden. No wonder Israel was being told not to fear them. But who is them? Idols and customs. Jeremiah 10.2 says, Yahweh says, don't learn the way of the nations, and don't be dismayed at the signs of the sky, for the nations are dismayed at them. Hmm, does this mean we should boycott all astronomers, picket observatories? No, but when was the last time you looked at the daily horoscope just for fun? Yahweh continues in verse 3, For the customs of the people are vanity. The implications of this are deep, and it has everything to do with the idea of altars. Why is this important? Because the enemy understands altars and uses them effectively. An altar is a supernatural landing strip. This is the place where the spiritual and the physical communicate. It is where you can meet with the spiritual. An altar is a power station. All power in the universe comes from God. The power of God was mandated to work only within the will of God, according to the Word. Anything found outside the will of God is an aberration, a borrowed power. Altars, being landing strips, is where we can proclaim the will of God through the Word and enable God to move, which means we have to align our will with His will. To try and gain power through other spiritual beings who are usurping it through our God-given right of dominion here on Earth is an abomination. An altar is a consecrated place. It is special. It is a place where you worship, where your attention and will are turned toward a spiritual entity and you give it honor and praise through your words and actions. It is where you turn off the rest of your life and focus. You think about that. An altar is a place of exchange. The system was designed simply. We give the Lord praise, honor, and glory because He deserves it just by being who He is. We align our lives to Him and stay in His yard. He, in turn, is able to shower us with the blessing that by His grace He wants to give us. An altar, therefore, is also a place of sacrifice. Jesus gave His blood on seven altars. I'll get to that in a bit. And by giving, bought redemption for creation. The principle is the same for other spiritual powers. We give them, they project to us. Kind of like using a mirror to steal a sunbeam and shine it on something else. An altar is a table of fellowship. The best model for this is the Last Supper, Matthew 26, 17-25. Jesus had a party. I mean, it wasn't pinata and pizza, but it wasn't somber, silent, and liturgical either. It was 13 friends sharing an important festival and a moment of worship. Remember, they sang hymns. Jesus turned it into an altar with communion. John 6, 53-58, and Luke 22, 19-20. Why? Because altars are where covenants are made and sustained. Our God is a covenant-keeping God. Abram, later Abraham, is a great example. He was called by Yahweh to go to a land of promise. When he got there, he built an altar of praise for having arrived. Genesis 12, 1-7. Yahweh showed up and reaffirmed the promise and protection that they had covenanted together back in his homeland. Abram moved to the lowlands, built another altar, and prayed to the Lord. Genesis 12, 8-13. It was his practice to seek the Lord, which is good, because the next thing he does is mess up, and God saves him from it, because they had relationship, fellowship, covenant. Abram didn't ask for help when the situation was happening. Because of their relationship, God saved him. What did Abram do? He went back to where he first arrived and built another altar to pray. Genesis 13, 3-4. Now Abram and Lot, his nephew, had some strife and conflict, not between them, but their servants, so they separated. Once they were separate, peace descended. So Abram built an altar to celebrate the peace and security granted by Yahweh. Genesis 13, 14-18. Yahweh promised Abram, now Abraham, that if Abraham would have faith and trust in Yahweh, then Yahweh would always provide for him. Now, Abraham was challenged in his altar of provision, Genesis 22, 9-14. But because of their altar of covenant, Genesis 15, 12-21, Abraham was able to pass because he believed what Yahweh said. Altars are powerful places where our lives are transformed by God's grace. But altars are also a spiritual platform where spirits, God, angels, or demons, land. Altars are where humanity meets with divinity. Once we meet at that table of fellowship, altars transform to a system of authorization of promises, vows, and agreements between divinity and humanity. The witches of this world understand it. They use altars as a way of drawing the energy they want in their lives. They use totems and symbols that are representative of the powers and entities that they want to operate, and they use those entities to get what they want. This is pure rebellion against the will of God, and is listed in Scripture several times among the biggest transgressions. Not our will, but His. Luke 22, 22. This is the guiding principle that should operate in our lives, and especially wherever and whenever we altar. In modern language, an altar is an API between the natural world and the spiritual. I've lost some of you. It's okay. An API is the gateway that bridges your website browser with the content provider through the Internet. Without an API, your computer could look for Google all day long and never find it. Without an API, CNN could break the news that Europe fell off the globe, and unless you were in Europe, you would never know about it. Gateways are the points at which we meet and communicate. Does that mean that you need to build a complicated altar and start sacrificing on it? No! Thanks to Jesus, we have an upgraded option. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God. Romans 12, 1-2 It isn't wrong to have a room or a place you go to seek the Lord and commune with him. There is benefit to that. But we also are to make ourselves an altar, to turn our hearts into an altar to the Lord. Hebrews 13, 10 What does this all mean? Well, one of the meanings is that we need to be careful where we spend our mental and physical energy. Are we sacrificing to another power than the Lord God? No, I don't do that. I go to church. I pray. I sing hymns. Yes, but do you look at your horoscope? Do you say, I can't live without my morning coffee? Do you spend more time eating at KFC than reading the Word? Are you letting spiritual entities get their hooks into you because you are giving your devotion to those symbols that attract them? Does that mean we should wear sackcloth, eat nothing but bread and water, and only read the Word 24-7? No, but where is your heart? What are you holding up is sacred to you. A pious, wonderful, and God-fearing man asked Jesus what was needed to be saved. Jesus told him a simple two-part principle. First, be willing to give it all up. And second, subject your will to Jesus and do what he says, when he says, and how he says. Matthew 19, 21. Is this hard? Well, yeah. When we let something get a hook into us, it isn't always easy to get it out. Sometimes it hurts, too. But it is freeing. The important thing? God is there with you to do it. Jesus did the heavy lifting. And, remembering our verse today, those things that hooked us are nothing to fear. They can't do anything if you don't give them the authority to. Remember how altars work. We have dominion. We have free will. They have nothing unless we've altered with them. So what do we get when we alter with Jesus? Everything. And I want to say, the easiest way to alter with the Lord is communion. Don't be afraid to take it more than once a month. Nothing in Scripture tells us when or how often to take it. Why do many churches only offer it once a month? Because, generally speaking, the church did not want it to become a routine or a ritual. We need to sit at the table with our hearts first, and then our minds, and focus on what it is and what is going on. When we take communion heartfully, we have the right to communicate with the cross. Anytime. The power of the cross is released in communion because it is the body and blood of Jesus, sacrificed for us, that is providing the gateway for us to cross from the physical to the divine. It is the altar of altars. When we come to the table with our hearts and minds focused on Yahweh and what Jesus did for us, the cross power starts communicating with us, which lets resurrection power flow in our situation, not by feeling, but by truth, which is deeper than feeling or facts, Romans 4.17. We have victory now because of the cross, because through the cross, Jesus broke the curse. In the garden, Jesus shed his blood, Luke 22, 39-53. It all started in the garden, and Jesus dealt with it in the garden. The curse said we have to toil to get by, to get our sustenance. Here, Jesus broke the altar of the spirit of toiling and sweating for sustenance. He restored the relationship where God can again be our source of all things, 1 Corinthians 8.6. Jesus shed blood as they beat his face, Matthew 26.67. Your face represents your glory, your self-esteem. Jesus removed the altar of the spirit of slander, Isaiah 54.17. He restores our glory and our self-esteem. Jesus shed his blood when his beard was ripped out, Isaiah 50, verse 6. The beard symbolizes honor and dignity. Removing or plucking it is a symbol of shame, 2 Samuel 10.4. Jesus removes the altar of shame. Jesus shed a lot of blood when he was scourged, John 19, 1-3. The scourging of Jesus deals with healing, any kind of healing, whether it's spiritual, physical, mental, financial, in any avenue, in any arena, any kind of healing. Financial, you say? Yes. Poverty is spiritual leprosy. When Jesus does something, he does it for like everything, so it covers any kind of healing. He bled so that we can reclaim our health, Isaiah 53.5, 1 Peter 2.24, and importantly, Matthew 8.17. Jesus removes the altar of sickness. Jesus shed his blood when they shoved a crown of thorns through his flesh, Matthew 27.22. The curse included thorns and thistles, Genesis 3, 17-18. They represent a spirit of poverty. Jesus removes the altar of poverty and enables us in him to enjoy Abraham's blessing of being empowered to prosper, Genesis 1.28 and Galatians 3.29. Jesus shed his blood by being crucified. Whether he bore the stereotypical cross we all know, a literal tree, or a Roman stake, as some are now claiming, Jesus was nailed to wood, Matthew 27, 31-44. Hands and feet. Not tiny nails, thick spikes. Our hands and our feet represent balance and productivity. The enemy can no longer hold the work of your hands. Your feet represent destiny. A man's steps are established by Yahweh. He delights in his way, Psalm 37.23. Everything we touch ought to be blessed through his hands. No devil can stop your destiny because Jesus' bloody feet walks it out for us. Jesus shed his blood when he was stabbed in his side, John 19, 34. When a woman's water breaks, she's giving birth. Prophetically, the bride of Christ was born right then. The last Adam was put to sleep and Jesus' bride birthed. Just like the first time, Genesis 2, 21-23. Also, it speaks to broken hearts. Jesus' blood destroys the altar of a broken heart. The blood of Jesus heals it, puts it back together, and enables you to continue full and whole. This is communion. This is the altar of Jesus' sacrifice. It covers everything the curse can bring against you. It covers everything the nature of the first Adam put into you as his seed. We can be transformed into the last Adam's seed. We can be transformed into the image of Jesus through grace, by faith, through the acceptance of Jesus and everything that his sacrifice represents. Don't fear those idols of the world. Don't fear what has hooked you. Take communion over it. Altar with God over it. Accept everything he has to offer. Mindfully, carefully, and in alignment with the word of God. As often as you need to, never frivolously, never ritually, always with fellowship, submission, brokenness. He is our source. Let him be the source for you. Let him finish it for you. Our daily affirmation of God's love is John 19, 28-30. The greatest thing you can do to show love for someone is to die for them. John 15, 13. And Jesus did that. He decided to do that before anything was made. Yahweh wanted us to have free will and made a plan for what he knew free will would choose to do. He loves us too much to make us subservient. He loves us too much to force us into anything. He loves us too much to leave us broken, sick, and lost. He loves us too much not to sacrifice for us. What God is like that? Is there any other God that pays a penalty instead of requiring one? There is no one like you, Yahweh. You are great, and your name is great in might. Jeremiah 10, 6. But Yahweh is the true God. He is the living God and an everlasting King. Jeremiah 10, 10. Doesn't it make sense to put away the unnecessary busyness of the world? To put away what the world deems wise and what the world decides is good, and to follow him who is goodness? Who is necessary? Who is our all? He loved you so much. He still loves you. He will always love you. Love him back today. As we close, remember that you have birth. You are precious and valuable. Declare this, today, God loves that I, now you, fill in the blank. Was it a meal you made? A smile you gave? Did you get out of bed? Read? Put on socks? There's no wrong answers here. There is no end to God's love, and no end to the things about you that he loves each and every day. Pick one. And remember, the Lord loves you just because you're you. 1 John 4, 9-10 tells us, By this, God's love was revealed in us, that God has sent his only born son into the world, that we might live through him. And this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. His perfect love turned away God's wrath because of sin, and it casts out our fear too. See verses 18 and 19. We love because he first loved us. He just loves us. Can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.