Building An Altar

Building An Altar
Alice Smith
It happened in 1970, around 2:30 a.m. one morning. In this prayer time, I begin by reading a page from my favorite devotional book then I read a passage from the Bible. Next I lay on the floor to pray, where for the first 20 to 30 minutes I praised God for every detail of my life.
Suddenly this memorable prayer time in the wee hours of the morning was interrupted with a heavenly urge to let go. Let go of what, I wasn’t sure. But the Spirit of the Lord was so strong in the room that I couldn’t move from the floor. As I wept before Him, the Lord asked me, “Alice, where is the altar you have built for me?” I was confused until the Father reminded me of the life-changing altars that men in the Bible had built.
The Israelites feared the Baal-worshiping, mean-spirited Midianites who camped on their land and ruined their crops. So they cried out to God for help. One day, as Gideon threshed wheat in a winepress, an angel of the Lord spoke to him saying, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” Gideon was confused. He reminded the angel that he was a small man and was considered the least in his clan. However, with a spark of unusual boldness, Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign and don’t go away until I come back with my offering and set it before you.” And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”
Gideon prepared the meat and bread as the angel instructed and placed them on a rock. The angel then touched Gideon’s offering with the tip of his staff and a flame from the rock consumed it. As the angel disappeared, Gideon was left with an overwhelming sense that he had just seen God face to face. “But the Lord said to him, ‘Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.’ So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it ‘The Lord is Peace.’” (See Judges 6, NIV paraphrased.)
From this brief but life-changing encounter, Gideon, with a mere 300 men defeated the Midianites, which were “as thick as locusts.” Gideon’s weakness became his strength after his face-to-face encounter with God, and he was never the same. As a result of his sacrifice, Gideon discovered that God was his peace. Are you building an altar of experience that will change you?
Abraham’s life-changing experience occurred at an altar as well. When Isaac, his promised son, was around 15 years old, God gave Abraham the most difficult test of his life. He instructed Abraham, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about” (Gen. 22: 1-2, NIV).
Abraham rose early the next morning and saddled the donkey with wood for the sacrifice. Abraham, Isaac and his two servants had walked for three days when Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. “He said to the servants, ‘Stay here with the donkey while I and boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you’” (v. 5).
When Isaac asked his loving dad where the sacrificial lamb was, Abraham—brokenhearted yet faith-filled—explained that God Himself would provide a lamb. Scripture records, “When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, ‘Abraham! Abraham’!

“Here I am,” Abraham replied.
“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” the angel said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."

At that moment Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught in a thicket. He released Isaac, sacrificed the animal and worshiped God. Abraham named the altar, “The Lord will Provide.” Just as the heavenly Father would one day sacrifice His son, Jesus, for Abraham, He wanted to see if Abraham would sacrifice his son, Isaac, for Him. As a result of Abraham’s obedience, he discovered that God was his provision.

My altar of experience changed my life forever, too. I named my altar “The Lord is Present.” For in it I learned that the world’s best arguments and the opinions of men can never invalidate my experiences with the Lord! That early morning in 1970, as I surrendered my possessions, my dreams, my husband and children and my ministry to the Lord, I was converted from living for myself to living for God’s kingdom. As I relinquished everything in my control to Him, I was filled with His Holy Spirit.

An altar is a place of sacrifice and death, so beware of building an altar in an attempt to get something from God. You’ll never be able to manipulate God toward your own ends. This isn’t “let’s make a deal.” To sacrifice something to the Lord in order to receive something in return from Him is no sacrifice at all. Exodus 20:24 “Do not build (an altar) with dressed stones (human plans) and don’t go up to my altar on steps (pride and self promotion). Any true sacrifice will kill all self-interest. Sadly, most of us know sacrifice in theory, not in reality.

Have you built your altar? On that altar were your eyes open to see God in a way you had never see Him before? If not, then build an altar to Him today; climb upon it and ask for heaven’s fire to consume you and for revelation to change you. I guarantee you will never be the same!