Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and don’t speak. They must be carried, because they can’t move. Don’t be afraid of them; for they can’t do evil, neither is it in them to do good.
Jeremiah 10:5 (emphasis added)

Don’t speak. Have to be carried. Can’t do evil. Incapable of doing good. Wow. That just seems like a burden. No wonder Israel was being told not to fear them. But who is ‘them’? Idols and customs. Jeremiah 10:2 says “Yahweh says “Don’t learn the way of the nations, and don’t be dismayed at the signs of the sky; for the nations are dismayed at them.” Does this mean we should boycott all astronomers? Picket observatories? No. But when was the last time you looked at the daily horoscope ‘just for fun’? Yahweh continues in verse 3 “for the customs of the people are vanity”. The implications of this are deep. And it has everything to do with the idea of altars. Why is this important? Because the enemy understands altars and uses them effectively.

An altar is a supernatural landing strip. This is the place where the spiritual and the physical communicate. It is where you can meet with the spiritual. An altar is a power station. All power in the universe comes from God. The power of God was mandated to work ONLY within the Will of God (according to the Word). Anything found outside the will of God is in aberration. Altars, being landing strips, is where we can proclaim the Will of God through the Word and enable God to move (which means we have to align our will with His will) or try and gain power through other spiritual beings who are usurping it through our God-given right of dominion here on earth. An altar is a consecrated place. It is special. It is a place where you worship. Where your attention and will are turned toward a spiritual entity and you give it honour and praise through your words and actions. It is where you turn off the rest of your life and focus.

An altar is a place of exchange. The system was designed simply. We give the Lord praise, honour, and glory because He deserves it just by being who He is. We align our lives to Him and stay in His yard. He, in turn, is able to shower us with the Blessing that by His Grace He wants to give us. An altar therefore, is also a place of sacrifice. Jesus gave His blood on seven altars (I’ll get to that in a bit) and by giving, bought redemption for creation. The principle is the same for other spiritual powers. We give them, they project to us. Kind of like using a mirror to steal a sunbeam and shine it on something specific. An altar is a table of fellowship. Best model for this is the last supper (Matthew 26:17-25). Jesus had a party. It wasn’t a piñata and pizza affair, but it wasn’t a sombre, silent, and liturgical event either. It was thirteen friends sharing an important festival and a moment of worship (remember they sang hymns). Jesus turned it into an altar with communion (John 6:53-58, Luke 22:19-20). Why? Because altars are where covenants are made and sustained. Our God is a Covenant-Keeping God!

Abram (later Abraham) is a great example. He was called by Yahweh to go to a land of promise. When he got there, he built an altar of praise for having arrived (Genesis 12:1-7). Yahweh showed up and re-affirmed the promise and protection that they had covenanted together back in his homeland. Abram moved to the lowlands, built another altar, and prayed to the Lord (Genesis 12:8-13). It was his practice to seek the Lord. Which is good because next he messes up and God saves him from it — because they had a relationship, fellowship, and covenant. Abram didn’t ask for help when the situation was happening. Because of their relationship, God saved him. What did Abram do? Went back to where he first arrived and built another altar to pray (Genesis 13:3-4).

Abram and Lot, his nephew, had some strife and conflict — not between them, but their servants — and so they separated. Once they were separate, peace descended. So Abram built an altar to celebrate the peace and security granted by Yahweh (Genesis 13:14-18). Yahweh promised Abram (now Abraham) that if Abraham would have faith and trust in Yahweh, then Yahweh would always provide for him. Abraham was challenged at his altar of provision (Genesis 22:9-14). But because of their altar of covenant (Genesis 15:12-21) Abraham was able to pass. Because he BELIEVED what Yahweh said. Altars are powerful places where our lives are transformed by God’s Grace.

But altars are also a spiritual platform where spirits (God, angels, or demons) land. Altars are where humanity meets with divinity. Once we meet at that table of fellowship, altars transform to a system of authorisation of promises, vows, and agreements between divinity and humanity. The witches of the world understand this. They use altars as a way of drawing the energy they want in their lives toward them. They use totems and symbols that are representative of the powers and entities that they want to operate and they use those entities to get what they want. This is pure rebellion against the Will of God and is listed in scripture several times as among the biggest transgressions. Not our will, but His (Luke 22:42) is the guiding principle that should operate in our lives and especially wherever and whenever we altar.
In modern language, an altar is an API between the natural world and the spiritual. I’ve lost some of you. It’s okay. An API is the gateway that bridges your website browser with the content provider through the internet. Without an API your computer could look for Google all day long and never find it.

Without an API CNN could break the news that Europe fell off the globe and unless you were in Europe you would never know about it. Gateways are the points at which we meet and communicate. Does that mean that you need to build a complicated altar and start sacrificing on it? No. Thanks to Jesus, we have an upgraded option. “Therefore I urge you brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1-2). It isn’t wrong to have a room or a place you go to seek the Lord and commune with Him. There is a benefit to that. It can help us to focus our minds (Jews use prayer shawls for that exact purpose). But we ALSO are to make OURSELVES an altar. To turn our hearts into an altar to the Lord (Hebrews 13:10).

What does this all mean? Well, one of the meanings is that we need to be careful where we spend our mental and physical energy. Are we sacrificing to another power than the Lord God? Oh, I don’t do that. I go to church. Yes, but do you look at your horoscope? Do you say ‘I can’t live without my morning coffee’? Do you spend more time eating at KFC than reading the Word? Are you letting spiritual entities get their hooks into you because you are giving your devotion to those symbols that attract them? Does that mean that we should wear sackcloth, eat nothing but bread and water, and only read the Word 24/7? No. But where is your heart? What are you holding up as sacred to you? A pious, wonderful, and god-fearing man asked Jesus what was needed to be saved. Jesus told him a simple principle: First, be WILLING to give it all up and second, subject your will to Jesus and do what He says, when He says, and how He says (Matthew 19:21). Is this hard? Well, yeah. When we let something get a hook into us it isn’t always easy to get it out. Sometimes it hurts too. But it is freeing. The important thing? God is there with you to do it. Jesus did the heavy lifting. And (remembering our verse today) those things that hooked us are nothing to fear. They can’t do anything if you don’t give them the authority too. We have dominion. We have free will. They have nothing unless we’ve altared with them.

What do we get when we altar with Jesus? Everything. And I want to say, the easiest way to altar with the Lord is communion. Don’t be afraid to take it more than once a month. Nothing in scripture tells us when or how often to take it. Why do many churches only offer it once a month? Because the church didn’t want it to become routine or ritual. We need to sit at the Table with our hearts first, then our minds, and focus on what it is and what is going on. When we take communion heart-fully, we have the right to communicate with the cross anytime. The power of the cross is released in communion because it is the body and blood of Jesus sacrificed for us that is providing the gateway for us to cross from the physical to the divine. It is the altar of altars. When we come to the table with our hearts and minds focused on Yahweh and what Jesus did for us, the cross power starts communicating with us. Which lets resurrection power flow in our situation. Not by FEELING but by TRUTH — deeper than feeling or facts (Romans 4:17). We have victory NOW because of the cross. Because through the cross, Jesus broke the curse.

In the Garden, Jesus shed his blood (Luke 22:39–53). It all started in a garden, Jesus dealt with it in a garden. The curse said we have to toil to get by, to get our sustenance. Here Jesus broke the altar of the spirit of toiling & sweating for sustenance. He restored the relationship where God can again be our source of all things (1 Corinthians 8:6). Jesus shed blood as they beat His face (Matthew 26:67). Your face represents your glory/self-esteem. Jesus removed the altar of the spirit of slander (Isaiah 54:17). He restores our glory and self-esteem. Jesus shed His blood when His beard was ripped out (Isaiah 50:6). The beard symbolises honour and dignity. Removing or plucking it is a symbol of shame (2 Samuel 10:4). Jesus removes the altar of shame.

Jesus shed (a lot) of blood when He was scourged (John 19:1-3). The scouring of Jesus deals with healing. ANY kind of healing. He bled so that we can reclaim our health (Isaiah 53:5, 1 Peter 2:24, and importantly Matthew 8:17). Jesus removes the altar of sickness. Jesus shed His blood when they shoved a crown of thorns through His flesh (Matthew 27:29). The curse included thorns and thistles (Genesis 3:17-18). They represent a spirit of poverty. Jesus removes the altar of poverty and enables us — in Him — to enjoy Abraham’s blessing of being empowered to prosper (Genesis 1:28 and Galatians 3:29). Jesus shed His blood by being crucified. Whether He bore the stereotypical cross we all know, a literal tree, or a Roman stake (as some are now claiming), Jesus was nailed to WOOD (Matthew 27:31-44). Hands and feet. Not tiny nails, thick spikes. Our hands and feet represent balance and productivity. The enemy can no longer hold the work of your hands. Your feet represent destiny: “A man’s steps are established by Yahweh. He delights in his way” (Psalm 37:23). Everything we touch ought to be Blessed through His hands. No devil can stop your destiny because Jesus’ bloody feet walks it out for us.

Jesus shed His blood when He was stabbed in His side (John 19:34). When a woman’s water breaks, she’s giving birth. Prophetically, the Bride of Christ was born right then. The last Adam was put to sleep and Jesus’ bride birthed (just like the first time – Genesis 2:21-23). Also, it speaks to broken hearts. Jesus’ blood destroys the evil altar of a broken heart. The blood of Jesus heals it, puts it back together, and enables you to continue full and whole.

This is communion. This is the altar of Jesus’ sacrifice. It covers everything the curse can bring against you. It covers everything the nature of the first Adam put into you as his seed. We can be transformed into the Last Adam’s seed. We can be transformed into the image of Jesus through Grace, by Faith, through the acceptance of Jesus and everything that His sacrifice represents. Don’t fear those idols of the world. Don’t fear what has hooked you. Take communion over it. Altar with God over it. Accept everything He has to offer — mindfully, carefully, and in alignment with the Word of God. As often as you need to. Never frivolously. Never ritually. Always with fellowship. Submission. Brokenness. He is our Source. Let Him be the source for you. Let Him finish it for you.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: John 19:28-30

The greatest thing you can do to show love for someone is to die for them (John 15:13). Jesus did that. He decided to do that before anything was made. Yahweh wanted us to have free will and made a plan for what He knew freewill would do. He loves us too much to make us subservient. He loves us too much to force us into anything. He loves us too much to leave us broken, sick, and lost. He loves us too much NOT to sacrifice for us. What God is like that? Is there any other God that pays a penalty instead of requiring one? “There is no one like you, Yahweh. You are great and your name is great in might” (Jeremiah 10:6). “But Yahweh is the true God. He is the living God, and an everlasting King” (Jeremiah 10:10). Doesn’t it make sense to put away the unnecessary busyness of the world, to put away what the world deems wise, what the world decides is good, and to follow Him who IS Good? Who is necessary? Who is our all? He loved you so much. Love Him back today.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.