An altar also 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.
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.
The Lord said that the fire upon the altar should be perpetually burning, and was never to be put out (Lev. 6:13); and from that fire was taken the fire for the incense, and from no other source (Lev. 10:1-6);
It is my responsibility to build an altar to the Lord in my heart, maintain it, and visit it frequently. I take my sin, sorrow, faults, and failings to God at this altar and offer them as I would a burnt offering, letting God’s fire consume them and reprove me. I take my confidences, joys, and praise as peace offerings, willingly sharing them with my Master and continually submitting them to Him. I call on the Lord at my altar, discussing my requests and desires with Him, and seeking His face concerning them.
Finally, it is at the altar where God answers from Heaven by fire. Since my body is the temple, I can never leave my altar. As I maintain "altar-consciousness" and listen for God’s voice, I will hear Him speak through His Word, through other Christian brothers and sisters.
For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people."
2 Corinthians 6:16(NIV)
You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:5 (NIV)
I encourage you today to become altar-conscious. Build your heart’s altar to the Lord by making a determination to spend daily time with Him. You may have to repair your neglected altar.
Once that altar is built and maintained then the power of God, Christ Himself will begin to work in you and through you. Remember it says that fire shall be burned continually on the altar, along with the incense. We know that the fire represent the dunamis, dynamite of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit. The incense represents the prayer of the saints.
How brightly is the fire burning on the altar of your heart? Does it need to be fanned, to be rekindled? He makes his angles spirits and his ministers a flame of fire. How much are you on fire for God? He said He will baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire!
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