Today I wanna talk about alters. There are a lot of alters in the bible and a lot of sacrifices that the people of Israel made. The alter that I want to talk about though is found in 1 kings 18.
I'm not going to quote the whole chapter(waaay too long) but it's a really cool part of scripture. Elijah has just challenged the king, the prophets of Baal and half the nation to a showdown on Mount Carmel. Elijah builds an alter to The Lord and he rains down fire from heaven proving once and for all that God is the one true God. A nation turns to God in a day because one man built an alter. The heart cry of Elijah was enough to stir the heart of God to move in a powerful way.
The interesting thing that Elijah did was pour water over the sacrifice. Elijah didn't do this just to be difficult. Nothing is hard for God. If God had just made a flame appear under the sacrifice then Elijah's prayer would have been answered. The reason he poured on water is because he couldn't be satisfied with anything other than the full fire of God raining down from heaven.
Some times we pray sparky prayers. Prayers like "oh God! Just give us a few sparks. Nothing too special in our church, we want to keep you contained inside our comfort zone ok? A few sparks should keep the nutters on the front row happy. Then we can just get back to 'doing church' and feeling good about ourselves..."
I believe God is raising up a generation of intercessors and revivalists who will not be satisfied with 'a few sparks'. This generation needs to encounter a God worth living for! The fiery rain of heaven is the answer! This is how revival is born. The age old story of man's desperation for God and God's pursuit of his beloved bride is being relived and retold on a grand scale that creation has never encountered before! However, this grand new scale of awakening demands a grand new scale of fire raining down into the hearts of a generation. This is God's passionate response to our heart cry: "Somebody! Build me an alter!"
Spiritual alters are the foundation on which Revival is built and prayer and intersession are the process by which they are built. They are symbols of mans dependence on and desperation for God's presence. Without him we are just a pile of dirt but with him we are a royal priesthood. Alters are the embodiment of this idea and a landing pad for the angels of heaven. As we humbly and constantly lay our lives on these alters God answers us and opens the floodgates of heaven over us.
I recently heard a story in a sermon told by Cindy Jacobs about a group of kids who spent hours interceding and asking God to move. One meeting in a mall (Not a typo by the way. This group was praying in a mall, not a hall.) resulted in people nearby falling onto the pavement and being unable to stand up until someone told them about Jesus. It was like they were literally glued to the pavement! Healings and salvations were taking place and Gods glory was manifested! The secret behind this amazing miracle? They had been praying for five hours. No wonder God was moving! These guys spent five hours at a time, building alters!
The challenge: (I should hope it's pretty obvious!) let's pray! Lets interceed! Lets live hard for Him. Come on Church! Lets build an alter!
Jack the church kid
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