ALTARS AND THEIR INFLUENCES

SPIRITUAL ALTARS AND THEIR INFLUENCES

From the Biblical standpoint, as was the case of Abraham (Genesis 17) the issue of ancestral covenants is a serious one. God’s dealing with any man usually begins with a legally binding covenant. Any good covenant, especially the kind God had with Abraham involves three major issues:

COVENANT TERMS

What each of the party stands to gain from the agreement (Genesis 17:1-8, Deuteronomy 7:12-16)

COVENANT TOKENS

Usually a visible physical sign or proof that one or each of the parties involved wears (many times on the body) to signify the existence of a mutually binding covenant between them. (Genesis 17:9-14).

COVENANT RESPONSIBILITIES

These are the various obligations each party to a covenant is supposed to faithfully observe and keep (Duet. 7:11-12). Apart from other things, Israelites were expected to build altars unto God not only for their ritual sacrifices, but as a means of servicing their ancestral covenants for a continuous hold on their land of inheritance.

As soon as God entered into a covenant with Abraham promising him and his offspring the land of Canaan, Abraham without much hesitation proceeded to build altars on the land (Gen. 12:1-8) thus spiritually securing the land. During his lifetime: Abraham erected 3 main altars on the land of Canaan. Isaac took over from where his father stopped and built an altar on the same parcel of land (Gen. 26:23-25).

Genesis 12: 1-8 (KJV)

1 Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

4 So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

6 And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.

7 And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.

8 And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.

Genesis 26:23-25 (KJV)

23 And he went up from thence to Beersheba.

24 And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.

25 And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac's servants digged a well.

Jacob, Isaac’s second son completed the family’s practice of erecting altars to secure Canaan by building 3 main altars himself (Gen. 28:10-19; 33:18-20; 35:6-15). So, in 3 generations, we have seen _7 altars _– a perfect number, signifying that Canaan’s land was eternally secured for Abraham’s children – the Israelites. That is why no one can permanently take away Canaan from the Israelites. The land is perpetually covenanted.

Genesis 28:10-19 (KJV)

10 And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.

11 And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.

12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

13 And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;

14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.

17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.

19 And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first.

FUNCTION OF ALTARS

When functional altars (shrines) or groves are built on a land, several spiritual things are set in motion within the vicinity.

An altar is a place of sacrifice to the god(s) of your covenant(territorial spirits).
An altar is a place of contact with the spirit world. It is a place of trafficking of either angels or evil spirits(Gen. 28:12).

AN ALTAR IS A PLACE OF SERVICING COVENANTS.

A functional altar activates ancestral covenants and stirs up the operation of community or territorial Spirits.
An altar is a place of invocation – a place where you can call up your god into manifestation. God and evil spirits respond to altars very quickly. Hence, we see God reacting favorably to a functional altar Noah built unto Him after the flood

Genesis 8:20-22 (KJV)

20 And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

21 And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Similarly, Balaam knew that before he could successfully curse the Israelites, he had to build altars. He begged that 7 altars be built for him and seven rams and seven oxen be sacrificed thereupon (Num. 23:1-3, 27-30). As he attempted to invoke the spirit of witchcraft for enhancement, God stopped him. He knew he could not operate without altars.

So it is from these numerous altars and high places on various parcels of land in Africa that terrible rituals are performed and serious invocations made regularly, thus bringing the land under a perpetual covering of darkness.

When you build an altar on a portion of land, you are indiscreetly drawing that land into a covenant with the god you are serving. So, lands with altars and high places on them are covenanted lands.

This is what we as Christians are to deal with as intercessors. With sufficient knowledge and anointing, we can minister permanent deliverance to many oppressed communities and open up the land and its people development and the gospel.

TYPES OF ALTARS

Basically, altars are built on 3 main levels:

TERRITORIAL ALTARS

Altars erected mainly on land, in houses, forests, crossroads, markets and on mountain sides and tops.

MARINE ALTARS

Altars placed within water bodies, oceans, streams, wells, lakes and rivers (This is haven for marine spirits that afflict several marine or riverside communities). Pharaoh of Egypt drew much of his satanic powers from the waters (Exodus. 7:14-15, 8:20).

ASTRAL ALTARS

These are spiritual altars placed in many heavenly bodies such as the sun, moon and stars by secret Satanic words and enhancements. This is where many rulers draw their powers from. Many of them cannot do without the services of stargazes and the like (Daniel. 2:2, Genesis. 1:14-18).

Daniel 2:2 (KJV)

2 Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to shew the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.

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