I’m so glad that the diction around the priesthood is being claimed back by the church in recent decades. Words like altars, priesthood, shrine and sacrifice are not new to the traditional African man. The diction itself is not evil and has made its way back into the Christian vocabulary. It’s the practice of it that we must make sure to clearly distinguish. First of all, we are a royal priesthood, we have an altar, and we are beseeched to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice. These words are literally in the New Testament. Mind you, even in the Old Testament, God desired a kingdom of priests. That’s exactly what He got in the New Covenant as Christ made us kings and priests unto God. It may sound occult to present yourself as a living sacrifice, but always remember that the enemy counterfeits. If there is a counterfeit, there is an original.
Personal Altar & Corporate Altar
A personal altar is for one person. Any other altar for two or more people is a corporate altar. Such altars include family altars, national altars, etc. Can one person have more than one personal altar? Abraham raised 4 personal altars. Job had a family altar. David raised a national altar to stop the plague. An altar is simply an embassy that gives spirits the visa to operate in our human world. As long as it gives spirits the legal rights to operate within a certain territory and intervene in the physical realm, it’s an altar.
That being said, the biggest and most powerful altar is the Cross. Ephesians 1:7 in The Message translation states: “Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds“. By this altar, we receive power to become the children of God. By this altar, we are born again, born of God and a new creation. It is the brazen altar in the Tabernacle of Moses because it satisfies the wrath of God, offers a more pleasing sacrifice and enables one to come boldly before God.
God in the Midst of His People
For an individual, one has God with you, God inside you and God upon you. These are different expressions. However, as a community (2 or more persons), we have God in the midst of us. This arrangement is only available where two or three gather in God’s Name. Individually, my body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Corporately, we all come together to form the temple in which God dwells. Ephesians 2:22: “In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Matthew 18:20 says, “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them”.
This arrangement is one of the many things the finished works of Christ secured for us. We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession. Do you realise our priesthood here is not just personal but corporate, captured in the context of people and nation? The inheritance we have access to in Christ is not personal but corporate. He has “qualified you to share in the inheritance of His Holy people in the Kingdom of Light” (Colossians 1:12). We are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. God was not only looking for an individual. He was looking to make us part of a family. We altogether are the bride of Christ.
The Need for Koinonia Among the Brethren
Any Christian who isolates themselves will not make it to the end. If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. Please share this with your friends who believe in Christ but prefer not to be part of a church. If you want to pray for 40 days, pray alone. If you want to pray for 40 years, pray with the brethren. “I can pray and worship God in my room”. You won’t even do that for more than a year and you’ll stop.
Even with keeping our consistency with our personal altars, it is necessary that someone close to you knows. Have time to pray with the brethren and have time to pray alone. Could you let someone else know that you have a scheduled time you pray alone, preferably your spouse? So that on the days when you find it hard, accountability will make sure you don’t quit.
That is the literal idea behind Christ building His church. As He is building you and building me, He is building a corporate body. That’s why we are called brothers and sisters. We are a family. There is one baptism, one faith, one body, one faith, one hope of our calling. Just as we are one Spirit with God, we are one Body. Just as the Father and Son are One, Christ’s finished work makes us one with each other.
Baptism is not only a matter of repentance, cleansing and washing away. It is also a symbol of death and resurrection. Even more so, it is the technology by which Christ incorporated us into His death and resurrection. It gets better; it’s this same technology that makes us the Body of Christ. There is one baptism, not three. Just as there is one God, not three. Baptism is one of the finished works of Christ. Christ is the Head of the Body and we are the parts. He is the Vine, and we are the branches. We individually come together to form the corporate group and corporately, we come together to form one individual; the Bride of Christ.
During the time of Moses,
