As we fasted and prayed during the Hosea 10:12 Daniel Fast, the Lord revealed to us the need to repair the altars of our hearts, lives and families that have broken down.
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An altar always represented a place of CONSECRATION. Before God gave His Law to Moses, men made altars wherever they were.
An altar was often built to COMMEMORATE an encounter with God that had a profound effect upon someone. Abram (Genesis 12:7), Isaac (Genesis 26:24–25), Jacob (Genesis 35:3), David (1 Chronicles 21:26), and Gideon (Judges 6:24) all built altars and worshiped after having a unique encounter with God.
An altar usually represented a person’s desire to consecrate himself fully to the Lord. God had worked in a person’s life in such a way that the person desired to create something tangible to memorialize it.
An altar also represents returning to the LORD in wholeheartedness. During times of Israel’s rebellion and idolatry, the Lord’s altar fell into disrepair. The prophet Elijah, confronting the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, “repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down” (1 Kings 18:30). Elijah’s restoration of the altar was significant, given the rampant paganism of his day.
In the Bible, an altar means that all we have is for God and to serve God. Building an altar means that we offer everything we are and have to God. We need to place all that we are and all that we have on the altar.
An altar means that we do not keep anything for ourselves. An altar means that we realize that we are here on earth for God. An altar means that our life is for God, that God is our life, and that the meaning of our life is God.
Every human heart has an invisible altar where the war between the flesh and the spirit rages. When we surrender areas of our lives to the control of the Holy Spirit, we are in effect laying that area on the altar before God.
There were many incidents of Old Testament saints building altars – Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Gideon, David, Elijah, Zerubbabel, etc. Also, there were many hidden meanings concerning the building of altars in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
This is vital for us in this season of RESET. This RESET is about returning and re-aligning to the LORD as our ONE THING and the MANDATE that He has invited us to.
Many of the “altars” of our hearts, lives and families have broken down. We cannot expect the Lord to send fire on a broken altar. There is an old song that we have often sung in the past that is really appropriate for this season.
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FIRES OF REVIVAL
Verse 1
I came into the gathering of the people of the Lord
And found my way among them to His throne
I needed to return unto the altar of my God
To renew again my covenant with Him
Prechorus
And there I build an altar to His name
And realise my life would never be the same
And the fires of revival will come
Sweeping through my soul
And I touch the holy presence of my God
Chorus
Come build an altar unto the Lord
Return to worship and hear His word
And the fires of revival will come sweeping through your soul
And we’ll touch the holy presence of our God
Verse 2
I wanted to discover the first love we once had shared
Rekindling the fire deep within
I found the lamp still flickering in the temple of my Lord
And pour a horn of oil unto the flame
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That is what RESET truly means!
Hosea 10:12 says:
“Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you.”
1 Kings 18:30 says:
“Then Elijah said to all the people, ‘Come near to me.’ So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down.”
RESET to the ONE THING THAT IS NEEDED
RESET to GOD’S STORYLINE
REACH for GOD’S FULLNESS
