Restoring The Altar

Introduction

Have you ever had the feeling that something has been missing in the Church but you can’t seem to put your finger on exactly what it is?

We pray

We fast

We worship

We preach

We fellowship with one another

Yet we rarely see the Spirit of God move as we know the Bible says that He can. What is missing?

John 10:10 ESV

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Question: What would the thief (Satan) want to come steal, kill, or destroy in your life?

Answer: Anything that gives you the life God has promised you!

I have come to tell you this morning that sometimes the enemy doesn’t even have to take something physically away from you to steal it from you.

Sometimes you still have exactly what you need right in front of you, but the enemy has stolen your joy, he has stolen your peace, he has stolen your confidence and you have probably thought to yourself that you don’t even know why you’re trying anymore.

What’s the point? Some of you haven’t seen a move of God for so long, your spirit is so thirsty and dry within you that you feel as if God Himself has turned away from you or maybe He has turned away from the Church.

Listen to me today, if you will receive the word that God has given me for this hour you’re going to see God do things nobody would ever thought was possible in every facet of your life!

But I also bring a warning; if you will NOT receive this word, you will continue down your pathway of frustration, worry and woe when Jesus has already promised that is not the life He chose for you!!

God brought us salvation through Jesus so that we could live at a different place than the rest of the world.

John 15:19 ESV

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

1 John 2:15–17 ESV

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Looking into the world or towards the world for the answers that can only be found in Christ will only spell trouble for those that are called by His name.

The enemy of your soul doesn’t want you to hear this today. Many times in the Word of God, when the messenger of God comes with a Rhema Word, Satan will try to destroy that message any way he can so that it will not go forth and accomplish the will of God.

1 Kings 18:7–9 ESV

And as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him. And Obadiah recognized him and fell on his face and said, “Is it you, my lord Elijah?” And he answered him, “It is I. Go, tell your lord, ‘Behold, Elijah is here.’ ” And he said, “How have I sinned, that you would give your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me?

Prophets in the OT were very aware that they could face death by simply being obedient to declaring the Word of God as they had been instructed.

The Condition of The Altar

An altar is the place where humanity meets divinity.

Most people get confused when they come into a church because the pulpit usually stands in the middle of the platform.

In reality, the most important part of any church building is the altar.

If you approach to the altar will change today, you will begin to see a marked change in your walk before the Lord.

Did you know that the original Hebrew word for altar is misbe’ah?

It comes from a word meaning “to slay”

To slay? You mean death? Why are we always talking about death?

Proverbs 27:6 ESV

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

In order for us to move forward as Christians and as a church, we have to discern where we are as a body of believers.

Do we love God?

Do we love our neighbor as ourselves?

Are we faithful to the call of God?

Is God confirming our ministries with signs and wonders following like in Acts?

If the answer is no, then there is a disconnect somewhere and so we begin to seek the source of the problem with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Deuteronomy 28:9–14 ESV

The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them, and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

There have been many times when God’s people have not followed Him the way He has prescribed and they have suffered the consequences of their own actions.

Spiritual famine happens when we do not keep the fire on the altar of God. To do that we must remain humble and ready at all times. But we grow weary when we need to remain steadfast.

When famine happens the necessities of life are unavailable, death happens. It makes people desperate, desperate enough to do things we would have never considered under normal circumstances. When you are hungry enough you would be surprised at what you will eat just to try to stay alive.

There has been a spiritual famine in the Church for some time now if you will hear it. Masses of people have followed after questionable doctrines hoping they would bring life back to the Church but they have only produced more death because they were not of God.

Turning Back To God

There are many spirits that have positioned themselves within the Body of Christ to deceive if possible the very elect of God.

They have no business amongst us. Jesus was known to have stopped services to cast them out.

Baal spirits- sensual, enslaving

Jezebel- manipulative, controlling

Whenever our focus is on what people are doing over what God is doing, the Holy Spirit is not in control. If we allow another spirit to operate, they will. We must turn our eyes away from ANYTHING that is not life-giving, that is not of God.

Look at what Elijah says to Ahab

1 Kings 18:17–18 ESV

When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals.

A system was being judged by God, He sent Elijah to announce the message. The anointing of God has been replaced by sensual spirits in many churches.

We don’t need another cliche or catch phrase to motivate God’s people, we need to return to the altar of God and meet Him there.

When God sends messages of correction through His servants, they are always met with detractors from within the family of God itself.

Acts 7:52 ESV

Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered,

What is the purpose of an evangelist? To bring the truth of God to the world so they can repent and believe the Gospel.

What is the purpose of a prophet? To tell us that God is going to bless us mightily? That God is going to prosper us in all our ways? That God is going to protect us from anything bad no matter how we walk before Him?

FALSE!!!!!

The prophets of God are sent to tell His people to return from their wayward behaviors and follow God! They are very often not well received by the children of God.

Restoring the Altar

We said in the beginning of this message that the altar is the place where humanity meets divinity.

Does it have to be these wooden benches? No, but it HAS to be somewhere! If there is NO ALTAR, you are not moving in the supernatural strength of God. You are moving in your own strength and the enemy has deceived you into thinking its ok.

Listen, we all have things in our lives that nobody else knows about. Nobody else needs to know, but bring them to God before they take you away from God.

God has been so faithful to me when I have failed Him so often. I don’t deserve His grace and mercy any more today than I did the first day I asked Jesus to be my Lord and Savior. But I have learned that every once in a while, I better check the condition of the altar in my life. Am I even using it?

1 Kings 18:30 ESV

Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” And all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down.

Come near to me- Elijah calls attention to himself only to show the people what needed to be done.

He rebuilt the altar that had been torn down and abandoned.

If Elijah had never rebuilt the altar, the supernatural work of God would not have happened as it did. There was a lesson for the Israelites that day as there is for us today.

When we leave the meeting place of God, we fall into the traps of the enemy as Adam did in the Garden.

God will never be satisfied with His people living below His calling for their lives, He will always call us back to the altar where our will can be slain and His can be received.