Of Altars & Pulpits

The word altar means ‘A place of sacrifice.’ In Romans 12, we are told to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God, wholly and acceptable!

The problem with living sacrifices, someone said, is that they crawl off the altar! That’s many of us today. Many of the young generation!

They do not bother to sacrifice, but want to show up on that big stage. They want to be a powerful man and woman of God with over 5000 men attending their services!

I’m not stopping you from dreaming big, from having big faith…No! I’m trying to let you know that each manifestation of a pulpit comes after a building of an altar!

A pulpit is a raised place where the gospel can be preached! But what gospel will be preached without a sacrifice of your time in the Word of God!

What knowledge or wisdom shall you preach without a sacrifice of other programs in order to create time in God’s presence! The price will always be sacrifice!

The sacrifice qualifies you for the Pulpit! We want to be like many men of God…(which is not a bad thing) but we forget to ask, ‘what goes on in the secret places of these men we want to be?’

These mighty ministers pray and fast, they have gone through stuff you haven’t a clue about. They have sacrificed lots, and God rewards them daily, with more souls to bless, to heal, to open eyes, to father and to disciple!

What do we do? We want it easy! We expect to see more facets of God with having the same hunger for Him we had yesterday! Praying as brief as we did yesterday! Reading the bible as quick as we did yesterday!

Child, to impact generations, you are going to need to pray without ceasing!

Many a times, when my band was invited to sing & minister through gospel music via multiple platforms at University, we’d pitch in some friends who attended rehearsals only once out of the 5 or so times we had had!

Recently we had prepared for over 2 months to sing at a certain Church. We were not our desired number. Out of 10 members, 7 showed up, of who 4 were vocalists. We were short by 2 vocalists.

A friend who never attended any of the rehearsals once showed up at the pulpit, and rehearsed with us! The others begged I let her sing. I nodded, but all the time we sang, through the corner of my eye, I’d see she was out of sync!

I had Jesus LOUDLY in my head ask sweetly; ‘What do you think you are doing?’ (I lost concentration.) He added, ‘Sorry, but she hasn’t paid the price required to minister at this pulpit. I didn’t see her sacrifice!’

I kindly told her to step down!

The sacrifices we make lead to higher places and dimensions in the Spirit!

Declaring His word when you are going through bad times strengthens your trust in Him, and when He does come through for you, you receive a pulpit; a testimony, and an experience upon which you’ll share!

Sacrificing your thoughts for His word, when you have no job, and you confess that He won’t withold any good thing from you, will provide confidence in Him, plus a story to share to someone else who’d be tired of seeking a job (thus a pulpit from an altar)

In God’s mind, as long as you imagine something, it is done to Him. That’s why Jesus said just imagining lust or having sex with one of opposite in your mind, it’s already sin. Why? Because to God it’s as though done in actualness!

This is also expressed in Genesis, when Abraham was told to sacrifice Abraham! In Abraham’s mind, he had the thought that he’d sacrifice Isaac. Remember God sees our imaginations like reality, thus He never let Abraham complete the sacrifice, for he counted it done!

He counted Abraham having sacrificed Isaac, as he represented Jesus who’d later be sacrificed for all of us!

From Abraham’s sacrifice an altar was born! God provided a lamb to be sacrificed! And Abraham named an altar, calling it The Lord Will Provide! From his altar, a pulpit emerged. The pulpit was…

(Genesis 22:17-18)….blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which [is] on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

Remember a pulpit is a platform from which the gospel shall be preached. Look around. After Abraham’s sacrifice (by faith) He became a father of all believers!

The believers are us who preach the gospel today. Jesus is one of Abraham’s seed, which God promised that all nations shall be blessed in. When we accept Jesus the blessings of Abraham fall on us as well!

But here’s the best part. Jesus as well sacrificed himself (to become an altar) and he became a pulpit (by which the gospel came)! Everyone preaches by Jesus today! His sacrifice led to a global pulpit!

When you lose yourself to Him as well, you become an altar, and then a pulpit! Do you know what happens when you do? You share in Jesus’ gospel like the woman who anointed Jesus’ feet and washed them with her hair (Mark 14:9)

What that simply means is, you too shall be talked about alongside Jesus! Today, we still talk about John, Paul, David, Peter, C.S Lewis, Smith Wigglesworth, T.L Osborn, Kenneth E Hagin, Billy Graham etc…

These sacrificed themselves and have now become pulpits by which we preach. Their testimonies are used. They sacrificed their souls and their souls are now pulpits.

The small sacrifices are those. Sacrifices of faith, first fruit, food, time, bodies, worship, praise, souls… They launch us deeper and make us wise whereby King Solomon states he who wins souls is wise! (Prov 11:30)

Just like altars lead to pulpits, the sacrifices lead to souls. The more the sacrifices, the more the souls! In one way, whatever sacrifice you make in matters concerning God, they have their end reward as more souls getting blest, comforted, edified, encouraged, or receiving salvation!

And when offered a pulpit, to preach, let’s not defile it by preaching anything none other than the gospel. In case you’ve been told of it late, & haven’t prepared adequately, you’ll find that your sermon will emerge from one of your recent sacrifices…

Keep Sacrificing!