The Altar of forgiveness
It is not I, but the Father abiding in me who doeth the works.
The Altar as a subject is treated every first Sunday of the Lenten season. It comes when we have denied our personal ego and affirmed the truth of our being. When we have realized the one presence and one power in all the universe “GOD” and when we have known our true identity “I AM”.
Various Altars are being erected daily for the purpose of satisfying the human self. Jesus came to remind us of the everlasting Alter where God dwells and where our needs are always satisfied. In this presentation I am presenting the “Alter of Forgiveness”.
What is the Altar? Charles Fillmore in the Revealing Word defined Altar as a stabilized place of worship. A fixed definite place in consciousness, where we meet the Lord... face to face and are willing to give up our sins, to give up the lower for the higher, to give up the personal for the impersonal, the animal for the divine.
Noah (obedience through which seed for a new state of consciousness is saved) discovered the Love of God and His forgiving grace and constructed an Alter for the Lord (Gen. 8:20-21) The Altar and the works done in the Altar drew an everlasting covenant for perpetual generation between God and man and all creation (Gen. 9:8-17). Noah had just survived the flood and the great destruction of the world and had gotten nothing. He was grateful to God for life and sacrificed his energy and possession to build an Altar which attracted the everlasting covenant for the entire humanity. At the Altar in your consciousness can you make a sacrifice that can benefit humanity?
You are the Altar of God. “Know you not that your body is the temple of the living God?” The sons of Jacob had the Alter in their midst but they conspired and sold him into a foreign land that they may have temporary peace.
Joseph had to go into slavery, stay in the house of Portifa for seven years, in prison for seven years, famine for seven years because his brothers rejected him and sold him and finally the brothers came back to Joseph — the Altar — to ask for forgiveness. God does not need to forgive us because His nature is already LOVE and FORGIVENESS. We only need to repent and return back to God (Isaiah 55:7-9). When the brothers of Joseph approached him for forgiveness, he only gave them a reminder “But as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good...” (Gen. 50:20) while His brothers were jittery and fearful, Joseph was faithful and trusting only in God to lead him through all conditions of life.
When Abraham (Faithful obedience to the inner urge of spirit, the power of the mind to reproduce its ideas in unlimited expression) went to offer a sacrifice unto the Lord, He first of all set up an Altar of Love and dedication to God. In the Altar of God who is love, you cannot loose what rightly belongs to you. God provided a ram in place of that which rightly belonged to Abraham. Remember nothing will ever be yours unless it is first yours in consciousness. At the Mount of Jireh the Lord will provide (Gen. 22:8-14).
Jacob (an idea of the divine identity) discovered the Altar and exclaimed “Surely Jehovah is in this place and I knew it not (Gen. 28:16-22).
Hannah (the soul established in divine Grace and favour) had been at the altar on ceremonial basis for several years without making any possible progress but this time she decided to meet God face to face in order to take that which rightly belonged to her by right of consciousness. In spite of Eli’s misunderstanding of her posture, she focused only on the purpose of being at the Altar of God. She finally went home with the fulfillment of her heart’s desire. (1st Samuel 1:8-17) So will it manifest for the sincere minds that are connected with this message.
The woman at the well (inspiration through the intellect) neglected the Alter hoping to meet it somewhere else but when she discovered that the Altar was standing before her, she became a strong disciple that called many people to Christ. (John 4:10-14) What is your reaction as you now discover the Altar before you?
The woman with the issue of blood discovered the Altar after being made an outcast for years by the people. She persisted and was not discouraged until she had touched the garment of Christ that purified her inwardly and outwardly. Avoid distraction if you will get to the Altar. Be focused and determined and your purpose will be established.
To kneel down at the Altar means to humble yourself, to purify your words, your thoughts and actions. Physical kneeling before the Altar is good but spiritual kneeling — obedience, humility, ability to sacrifice the personal for the impersonal, the animal for the spiritual supersedes every other practices before the Altar.
To pray does not mean to change God. We do not go to the Altar for the purpose of changing God but to change ourselves to the pattern of God.
Sincerely and humbly let us approach the Altar of forgiveness where all impurities are being dissolved in the name of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ is now at the sacred Altars, all forces of darkness are dissolved and the hidden chains of negation are now revealed and broken. All false and negative inheritance is now transformed. The blind now receive their sights without hesitation as they appear before the sanctified Altar. The living Altar of God, Jesus Christ has now proclaimed for you neither do I condemn you... it is well with you in the name of Jesus Christ.
