In a recent encounter I saw a man of God build an altar then take a huge tree trunk of a log, placing it, almost slamming it, on top of the altar. I immediately said, “Fire on the Altar!”
A fire shall always be burning on the altar; it shall never go out.
Leviticus 6:12
The Altar of Fiery Worship & Prayer
What I saw in this encounter was a revelation of the mandate and need to build an altar of prayer, worship and sacrifice. This encounter happened on the heels of a recent Presence Night where, because of the increase of the weighty Presence of God’s glory, we felt the need to extend these meetings into the night to go deeper with God. We see the Old Testament pictures and types of worship and sacrifice, but now we are the living sacrifices who offer ourselves through lives of worship, prayer and devotion.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
Romans 12:1-2
We are exhorted in scripture to be fervent in prayer. This is the fiery element to our prayer lives where it transcends just praying, but moves into a place of being captured in the fire of prayer and worship.
the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
James 5:16-17
The Spirit of Prayer
Prayer and worship are very much used as the same word in the Hebraic meaning. The Hebrew word tepila that is translated prayer can also be looked at as a hymn or poetic. There is a prophetic inspiration that should accompany our prayers that many times can come out like poetry. Have you ever noticed how songs are poetic with rhyme? In others words our worship is just as much prayer as the prayers we pray for it is the spirit of prayer upon our lives.
The Urgency For Fire
In the context of this fire on the altar encounter, it was very much about the corporate prayer/worship gatherings. There was an urgency, work and commitment associated with it. There is a fire that is created, a synergy that can only be realized when we come together as one unified offering to the Lord. As we cultivate our own personal anointing in our personal devotion with the Lord our gatherings increase in glory and Presence with the power to bring significant breakthroughs in the areas we live.
Breakthrough Worship
I truly believe worship is to be at the forefront of our corporate gatherings, that which goes before. We see this pattern in the story of Jehoshaphat where the worshippers go before in song to break through for the victory (2 Chronicles 20:21). Secondly prayer in the Spirit, speaking in tongues is a close runner up thereby we are led by the Spirit in the prayers we pray and the declarations we make. In a dream I had just recently someone was speaking to me about the power of praying in tongues in which I responded Yes. You are speaking of Romans Chapter 8. This is where the Spirit makes intercession for us because we don’t know how to pray as we ought.
Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Romans 8:26-27
The person responded with excitement over this revelation. Then I saw the abundant provision of the Lord manifested because of the practice of this Holy Spirit prayer.
Make a fresh commitment to be yielded to the fire of prayer, the corporate gatherings of worship in the Presence of God with others and be lit with a passion for His glory and Presence.