THE FIRE AND THE ALTAR

Dr. D. K. Olukoya

Our message this week gives answers to many questions many people have been asking. It is called, “The Fire and the Altar.”

In the book of 2 Chronicles 7, we see the story of a man who was great and wonderful when he was still on fire; a powerful man before he moved from the fire into the smoke. In that chapter as well, we read about the great move of God in his life when he was on fire. That man was Solomon. He built a mighty temple for the Lord and was burning for God so much that in verse 5, we see how his zeal for the Lord was at a high tempo. Let us see what he offered to the Lord on the day he dedicated the temple. 2 Chronicles 7: 5: “And king Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty and two thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep; so the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.” What a wonderful preparation. People were invited from all over the place for the dedication of the temple, which was one of the greatest architectural designs in history. It was a thing of pride to the Israelites, a building for which 20 cities in Israel were given to pay the debt incurred for its construction.

2 Chronicles 7:1- 2: “Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the house. And the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house.” Everything was set. The sacrifices were on the altar but something was missing, that was the fire. Immediately, the fire fell, the glory of the Lord followed.

Beloved, the end of all things, including man’s occupation on earth, is coming. All the activities of man shall soon be brought to a halt. Very soon God will signal the last subject on His timetable. There are so many signs indicating this. There are prophecies in the Bible, which talk about these signs. All Bible prophecies will eventually end at the second coming of Christ. That time, the Lord will stop warning people and those who have stubbornly refused to leave their sins would get married to them forever. These prophecies are quite clear.

Jesus is coming back. He will come for His own people. He will remove them from this sinking world and later; things begin to happen here. When He came the first time, it was as a lamb to take away the sins of the world. The world did all kinds of things to Him at that time. But His second coming will be as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. At His first coming, human beings looked at Him and concluded that He was not worthy to be alive. So, they nailed Him to the cross. He is going to come back with that cross-turned upside up, meaning that the cross will become a sword. He is coming back with a sword.

He came the first time meek and gentle, riding an ass. But now, He is coming as a conqueror, riding a horse. He came at first as a servant in humility but He is coming back as a king in power. He came the first time as a Saviour to die, but He is coming back as a Judge to rule. A songwriter says, “The Lord is coming and the foundations of the earth shall shake.” He came the first time to wear the crown of thorns but He is coming back to wear His golden crown. When He came the first time, He was beaten with rods but He is coming back to rule the nations with the rods of iron. He came the first time to die on a cruel cross, but He is coming back to reign on a glorious throne. When He came the first time, the Bible says, “His own received Him not,”but at His coming back, every knee shall bow whether willingly or unwillingly. For you and I to be ready to rule with Him, certain things must happen in our lives.

An altar is a place designed for sacrifice. When you have an altar, then you must have something called a sacrifice and a priest. But if you have the priest, the altar and the sacrifice, and the last ingredient, which is fire, is missing, then you are going nowhere. What I am saying is that many of us need more fire than we have now if we are to make the rapture. All those who have seen the vision of rapture know that it is a vision that nobody can clean away from your memory. It is not possible to clear it out because it is going to happen. But the sad thing about it is that it would happen as when a thief comes in the night. Many people would not even know that it has happened when it would have been over because there is no fire inside of them.

If you attend church services, sing in the choir, preach, write tracts, evangelize or prophesy, we thank God for your life. But I want to give you a counsel: The Bible says, “Whatsoever your hand findeth to do, do it with all your might,” because a time will come when even those who had worked hard would cry for not working harder because of the glories that are going to be shared. The Bible says that eyes have not seen and ears have not heard what the Lord has prepared for those who love Him. I made up my mind over 20 years ago that I am not going to miss the good thing that the Lord has prepared.

Beloved, there is a lesson, which you must learn about the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is a teacher but if He talks to you and you keep rejecting Him, He would leave you alone because He is a perfect gentleman. If somebody comes to you and says, “So, upon all the messages you are listening to, you are still doing this,” it means that you have been neglecting the Holy Spirit. You should cry unto the Lord because it is a bad testimony for somebody to say that to you. It is a sign that something is wrong somewhere. If you do not repent on time, the Holy Spirit may stop talking to you. He would be fed up with teaching you if He finds that He keeps repeating the same lesson. He would leave you alone and conclude that you are a dunce. Sometimes, God has to push some people around before they can become wise. Some people complain that they don’t know why things are not working: there is no money, all road seems to be blocked, no husband, no this, no that, but the Lord is saying that these things are very minor if only you can get fire into your life.

The Holy Spirit is saying you should get fire into your life but you are avoiding that. Instead, you have your lipstick in your bag, waiting to paint your lips in your car after the service. You put your ear-slavery aside during service only to put it on again after service while saying, “They are too rigid in this place, they are preaching false doctrine.”

THE ORIGIN OF EAR- PIERCING

Ear-piercing has a demonic origin. In those days when slaves were being sacrificed, the way to identify the ones marked for sacrifice was to punch holes in their ears. Eventually, one day, some slaves revolted and were not used for sacrifice. Then they decided to be decorating the holes in their ears with jewelry. That was the origin of the earring. Unfortunately, you find believers who are talking about getting to heaven, saying that they want fire and they want God to be talking to them everyday, yet they are buying earrings that are as big as their ears. Later, you hear them complaining that they do not know why spirit husbands, marine spirits, etc are disturbing them.

So many people have wasted time going to society churches. Some have dressed to kill others. In other churches also, anytime some people remember Sunday service, their hearts would beat faster because they would be thinking of the kind of dress to wear since they would not wear the one they wore the previous Sunday so that people would not say that they are poor. Meanwhile they know that economically, it is wise for them to just wash that one and iron it. But because they want to please people, they put themselves in bondage.

After hearing about the uselessness of jewelry and its demonic nature, a certain sister packed all her jewelry to England and sold them, and with the money she bought herself a V-Boot Mercedes Benz Car. She had as much as that while she was busy ridding in a dead car. What an avoidable bondage! Many people are so ignorant of spiritual things that they cannot discern that certain designs on jewelry are satanic. For example, jewelry that carries the sign of stars. Some of these stars are witchcraft signs and they are putting them on their ears saying, “I cover it with the blood of Jesus.” It would not work because the blood of Jesus does not ask you to be testing God like raw materials for making bread. This is why the fire is not there.

Many people are complaining that the Holy Spirit is not talking to them when in fact He is doing so in one way or the other. But the problem is that they refuse to listen. After sometime He would leave them alone and would not speak any more. I pray that you don’t get to that stage, in Jesus’ name.

There must be fire on the altar of your life if you are going to be useful to God at all. When men began to worship God in the Bible, they all started to build altars. An altar is a place of slaughter. We have lots of unslaughtered men coming to the house of God and this is a problem.

A lot of people have hidden sheep and hidden cows in their houses, and we are telling our Samuel that we have killed them. The Lord is saying, “What then is the bleating of the sheep and the oxen I am hearing.” A lot of us have bleating sheep and all kinds of things in our houses entering into the ears of God and we are saying we don’t know why we are having problems instead of us being blessed. The Lord is saying, “I am ready to bless you, after all the earth is mine and the fullness thereof. But what then is the bleating of the sheep that I am hearing? Why don’t you sacrifice them?”

Some people are quick to complain that there is no love amongst brethren. If you look at it properly, you would find out that they are the ones who do not have love or exhibit it.

Sometime ago, a certain man was brought to the church. By the time he came, he was defecating in his trousers. Some brethren gave him a bathe and somebody took him to the hospital and started to give him money, food and other provisions. He got well and added some weight. Then somebody counselled him to look for a job since he was now strong, and he said, “I don’t like wahala (working to make a living). It was wahala that I made before that made me to be sick.” They suggested some lighter jobs to him but he refused to do anything. He preferred the free food he was getting. So, those who were giving him money and provisions said, “Since you are not ready to work we cannot continue to assist you.” Before you could say Jesus is Lord, he wrote to the General Overseer to say, “There is no love.” I wonder what kind of love he is asking for.

Fire must be on the altar of our lives. All of us must be one great burnt offering for the Lord. Before we can be completely free from the world and its sin and problems, we must go to the altar. Are the enemies pursuing you? You go to the altar and let us see what the enemy would do to a dead man.

God is looking for active people, for the last day army, those who want to swallow fire and go and vomit it where and when necessary. Not those who come to church everyday and yet have nothing to do in the house of God other than to make reports about people and complain about others. I always ask when such people are going to report themselves to God.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE FIRE OF GOD FALLS UPON YOUR LIFE?

When you get to the altar and the fire of God comes upon your life, your life will be rearranged and reversed. All the worldliness in you will burn away. Then what has value in the face of man will have no value to you at all. A lot of people like to deceive themselves. On their wedding days, they borrow big cars like Mercedes Benz cars to carry them to church. After the wedding, they return the car and the following day, you see them at the bus stop looking for bus or taxi. That is one day of deception. Some people extend deception to every area of their lives.

Many of us are running away from the altar. We are struggling to escape while God is dragging us there. Many people are struggling to run away from the hand of the Almighty. They hang their legs on stones and dirty grasses because they do not want to go to the altar. All the magazines of the world and dresses of the world, (any dressing that shows your shape in a way that will make people to be running after you, transparent dresses, etc) are not of the Almighty God. When the Muslim woman goes to her mosque, she covers every bit of her hair. It is in the house of God that you find sisters putting handkerchief on their heads. Some do not even bother to cover, they tell you that they forgot. Why? There is no fire. You need to leave everything on the altar of God. If you don’t get there, God cannot make much use of you. But when you get there, you can serve God the way God really wants you to serve Him.

WHAT ALTAR ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?

The altar represents death to sin or the cross. It represents the offering up of your soul. In the Old Testament, where animals were used for sacrifice on the altar, the animals sometimes struggled when they were being dragged to the altar. They could smell the blood of other animals that had been slaughtered so they struggled to retain their own lives. But they were still forced to the altar. Likewise, God uses death to kill that which is undesirable in our lives and to kill carnality. You have to go to the altar and allow the knife of the Holy Spirit, which is the word of God to go through your life.

If the fire of God does not come upon our lives, we would be wasting time. God really cannot use us. Without being on the altar, God cannot begin the process of using you although you may be a good signboard or a wonderful bus conductor. Nice signposts point to a place but the bad thing about signposts is that they don’t leave where they stand. You tell people: “Come to our church, the power of God will touch you,” but you are busy going to one club or the other and dinning with cult members who are not friends of Jesus. Without being on fire, God cannot convert you to a useful vessel. But on the altar, you are completely submitted to God. When the fire comes upon you, you burn for God and you can be a sweet offering unto the Lord.

HOW CAN WE KNOW THOSE THAT ARE ON THE ALTAR

1. They recognise their sinful position.
2. They run away from sin. They don’t go around playing with sin.
3. They recognise the vanity of this world.
4. They have hunger for the word of God and for prayer.
5. They completely lose touch with worldliness.
6. They pursue holiness 24 hours everyday.

I believe strongly that all ministers should be sent for deliverance because sometimes, among ministers, you find the greatest envy, jealousy and fighting. When church workers envy one another, it is a sign that they are not on the altar. When you find a married man playing around with his messenger or tea girl at his place of work, it is a sign that he is not on the altar. A person who says, “My anger is going little by little, I thank God,” is certainly not on the altar. Believers whose body temperature goes up when it comes to the issue of money are not on the altar. Not paying your tithes correctly is a sign that you are not on the altar. There are many people too who want the gift of prophecy for commercial purposes. Such people end up seeing masquerades and spirit husbands instead. It is a sign that they are not on the altar.

When there is malice in your mind against anybody, it is a sign that you are not on the altar. Gossips, listening to gossips, back-biting or demonic exaggeration are signs that a person is not on the altar. When something did not happen before you and you say, “I saw it, I was there,” it is a sign that you are not on the altar. For some people, silence is the best because the more they open their mouths, the more they get into trouble. There are husbands, wives and children in a family who tell lies. Everybody is lying to one another.

What are people looking for in this old sinking world? If it is riches, the riches will end here. Is it enjoyment? What some people call enjoyment, is to go to night parties, dance to useless profane music with free and useless women or men, drink beer, give themselves headache and their lives hard work to do and say, “I am enjoying myself,” They do not know that it is the devil who is enjoying them. Is it immorality? How can you allow five minutes of enjoyment to lead you into hell fire. Is it worldly enjoyment? The Bible says, “The pleasure of sin is for a while.” Is it popularity? All popularity loses its relevance immediately you die. And there is no special death.

God has sentenced the present world unto death, but those who get on fire for Him on His altar will not have a part in the destruction that is coming. If you doubt the Bible, you will not make heaven. If your mind is filled with filthy thoughts, conversation, magazines, books and plays, if you are selling alcohol, drinking alcohol or moving about with alcoholic friends, you are going nowhere. People who are just living to have a good time and people who spend their life pursuing earthly possessions are not going anywhere. People who follow false religions are not going anywhere.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF FIRE

The burning candle is a kind of fire but if there is a serious wind, it cannot stand. Firewood fire is fire too but when you pour water on it, it dies down. Gas fire is another type of fire and the petrol fire is another fire. The welder’s fire, acetylene one is another fire. The fire of God upon the life of Christians can also be divided into five groups. Try to locate the group you belong for you to know how to pray. I am not asking whether you went to a Bible college or whether you were an elder in one church or whether you were ordained in America or by the greatest archbishop on the planet. My question is: “What is the level of the fire of God in your life?” When the fire of the Holy Ghost comes upon you, you loose yourself in God.

If you are under the ash category, you would be seeing spirit husbands and masquerades pressing you down on the bed and satanic arrows would be working in your life. If you are in the smoke category, things like fornication, adultery, pride and lying will still be playing around in your life and you will find it difficult to give up your worldly friends. That is what happens when you are living in the smoke. Those who belong to the spark group are hot today and tomorrow they are cold. They would prophesy today and tomorrow they are fighting in the street. Those in the coals of fire group have what it takes but they are just sitting in one place. They have the Holy Spirit, they can do counseling and they know the Bible but they are not doing anything. They just sit down like coals of fire, which cannot move them. People in the flame of fire group are those who are on fire for God and doing exploits for Him.

We all need to cry unto the Lord. God does not want us to finish our work here on earth and go to hell fire. We have much more serious business to do here on earth than what some people think. We must be on fire for God, and must vomit this fire anywhere we go.

Before we go into the prayers, I would like you to close your eyes and talk to God like this: “O God, forgive me, for my level of fire. I know that it is not sufficient. I know that you have been warning me and telling me that my present level is not good enough for You. I know you have been warning me day and night that anger should go, malice should go and I should stop back-biting and gossiping. You have been telling me that I need to climb up to the mountain. Please, forgive me Lord and help me.

If you are expecting the fire of God upon your life and you want the Lord to rearrange your life; you have decided that you want to stop pleasing yourself and your friends and begin to please God, I want you to pray from the depth of your heart. There is something the Bible calls the spirit of hell. When the spirit of hell is operating in somebody’s life, no matter how high up the persons grows spiritually, he would fall. When somebody finds it difficult to depart from a particular sinful habit, it is the spirit of hell in operation. It wants to push the person into hell fire. It is the spirit of hell that makes people to complain that they have been slighted or that people are gossiping about them. It is also the spirit working in those who rush back to dead churches after listening to the sound word of God and praying fire prayers because of empty posts. I would like you to raise your voice and pray the following prayer points with holy aggression.

PRAYER POINTS

1. You the spirit of hell, my life is not your candidate, in the name of Jesus.
2. O Lord, do not remove my name from the Book of life, in the name of Jesus.
3. If my name has already been removed, O Lord, rewrite it, in the name of Jesus.
4. (Lay your right hand on your head as you say this prayer point:) O Lord, let your glory fill the temple of my life, in Jesus’ name.