Burning Altars by Goodness Temidayo

God meant business and was not in anyway joking when he said “The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out . ”

There is a place of reinforcement, a place where we resort to recharge, re-fire, and get renewed as we retreat into the presence of the Almighty for all round restoration.This intentional act is what makes our inner man to experience the dynamism of revival and freshness of life needed to sustain our pilgrimage here below.

To demystify the subject matter in this context, let’s take a look at the old testament where diverse set of offerings were required by the Lord. The scripture records that the priest performs the atonement by sprinkling the blood of the animal on the side of the altar and at another instance, selected part are being burnt on the altar and not just anyhow or anywhere.

Even in this contemporary dispensation,the sacred duties of the chosen and elected ones in the sanctuary is still being executed on the physical altar with high reverence to Yahweh. God has deemed it fit to be just like that right from the onset .

When an altar is not burning,it lacks the necessary ingredients to make it aflamed.In the same vein, any believer who is not burning for Christ is void of the divine anointing,lacks God’s grace and is far away from the very nature of God which is holiness.

An‘ altar' , therefore,is a sacred place where spiritual sacrifices and offerings are being offered, thereby creating an avalanche of life to activate renewal, reconciliation and all round recovery until we are completely transformed from glory to glory, reflecting the beauty of the One that matters most. 

 

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However, to experience a life that is on fire, offer meaningful/acceptable sacrifices as well as blazing the trail of doing great exploits for our Lord and King, it starts in the secret place.

The truth is‘You are responsible for your fire!’ Hence, you must be earnestly willing to pay the sacrifice required of you to stay ablaze for God's glory .One of the major intents and desire of God for humanity is to see the fire of holiness and Christ likeness burning in us without any form of corruptible act that tends to extinguish the fire up on our altar.

Alas! He declared in His word saying“quench not the Spirit. ”This is because the devil is in a serious warfare with the believers and he continually seeks for avenue to always quench the life of God upon a believer's altar.

The obligation to take heed and constantly examine ourselves so as to be sure we are still on track and not just basking in the euphoria of congregational revival is ours. Come to think of it, if other believers won’t consecrate their time, zeal , energy , and stay disciplined enough to keep their altars aflamed, there would not be anything like congregational revival and such gathering will just be that of a dead,wobbling people.

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Here comes the urgent question for all; How can the fire upon our altars be sustained? So many people attend spiritual conferences and seminars with the aim of returning to deliver, they are so much charged and can’t wait to start exploring only to discover that after a short moment , they begin to loose virtues and become completely dry because they do not take definite actions.

To start with,the place of being intentional and deliberate in growing our roots cannot be overemphasized. It should be noted that no other person can grow your root except you and the deeper your root in Christ is, the more visible and long-lasting your fruit will be. This is the utmost foundation of building a firing altar that will stand the test of time.

After this mindset has been successfully established,daily consistent action that demands some spiritual inevitable exercises such as studying the Word,praying ceaselessly in the Spirit , biblical fasting, and choosing the path of faith over fear must be taken. It is in doing this we develop a listening ear for God and we are empowered to obey Him per time regardless of how challenging it may be.

Moreover, we must be willing to yield and consecrate ourselves for the master's use.A man who has no capacity for God’s business and has no usefulness in the kingdom profitability cannot stand strong before he begins to fade and eventually fall off .The secret of a powerful and burning altar is found in your secrecy .How?When you are in the secret, what do you invest your time on?Are you mission minded?Are you a worthy intercessor who seeks to birth forth the souls of the lost into God’s kingdom until they are finally encountered? Is your heart burdened enough to get your knees bent before the Father for a sinful , lost and adulterous generation that is in desperate need of the Saviour? There is no better time to arise and be spent for the Master's use other than now. Don’t just dangle or wander, grow.

Furthermore,sustaining a living altar that is on fire for the Lord requires zero tolerance for sin. The devil is not resting as he constantly seeks to attack the spiritual lives of people until they are finished. That is why we must be fully armored, consciously staying on guard in order to overcome and triumph over the tactics of the tempter. Know ye not that each victory achieved consolidates our strength as compromise ruins and makes a ship wreck of one's christian testimony? So, stand firm and stay aglow.

In addition, the glory of God must be our earnest pursuit if we want to become a lasting tool in God’s hand, a heavenly ambassador that heaven will firmly be proud of and more grace will then be released for us to keep manifesting.

Show me a man whose desire in service to God is nothing but God’s glory despite the magnanimous, marvellous, and mysterious things God is doing through him and I will show you a man whose altar is energetically burning and producing results because such a man’s life is, like a sweet smelling savor whose sacrifice indisputably ascends to the throne of the Father and the divine aura of God’s fresh glow upon him becomes visible to all .He must increase while we (self) must decrease.

It is of key importance to be wary that you never get to a point in your life when you feel you have arrived in God’s presence and beg into settle because if you settle, God settles,and consequently the victim become replaced. May this not be said of us (Amen).

It is also important to understand that the ministry you are going to operate for God, coupled with  the result you get , will be dictated by the depth you’ve grown in Christ overtime. Remember the great shepherd spoke about bringing forth thirty fold, some sixty and some hundredfold.It all depends on how ready we are to take the responsibility of activating and availing ourselves the opportunity of being in God’s presence for Him to pour His life into us.

Conclusively, in this perilous times when the mighty are fallen, the love of men for the things of the Spirit is waxing cold and distractions seems to overtake what is required of the latter day saints, let's  leverage on the grace of God, appropriate His power into our lives and graciously embrace His help to keep our altars burning any day, any where and under any condition.