There are moments when God interrupts our world so clearly that we can’t go back to life as usual. For me, that moment came on October 8th, 2024, at 4:30 in the morning. I woke up hearing one phrase echoing through my spirit: “Smash the altars.”

It felt as though I had been in a deep conversation with the Lord while I slept, and this was the final instruction. But I had never heard a sermon on altars – certainly not one about smashing them. So I went straight into the Word, searching every reference I could find. For weeks, it felt like I was gathering puzzle pieces without the picture on the box.

Then came the breakthrough. I discovered several Nigerian apostolic pastors who teach on spiritual altars with fluency and clarity. Suddenly, the pieces I had gathered fell into place. I realized that altars are not merely Old Testament symbols. They are spiritual systems of connection – places where the unseen realm gains legal access to operate in the natural.

If we believe that water baptism transforms us spiritually, then we already understand that physical actions can open spiritual doors. Scripture shows us repeatedly that covenants are initiated and sustained through altars. The sacrifice matters – but the altar itself becomes a platform from which spiritual activity is authorized and continued.

This understanding reshaped the way I read the story of Gideon.

Most people remember Gideon for the fleece or the miraculous victory with 300 men. But his real breakthrough began long before the battlefield. It began with the altars in his father’s house.

Israel had built an altar to Baal, and it had been speaking over the nation – authorizing oppression, fear, and devastation. The Midianites consumed everything Israel planted. Seven years of loss… until the people finally cried out to God. His first response was not an army. It was a call to repentance.

Then God sent the Angel of the Lord – Jesus in pre-incarnate form – to commission Gideon. Before Gideon ever strapped on a sword, God told him to tear down the evil altar and build a righteous one in its place.
 The order matters.

Tear down.
 Then build.
 Because an altar will always speak. And if we don’t build a righteous altar on the ashes of the one we tore down, the enemy will gladly fill the vacuum.

When Gideon obeyed, everything shifted. National deliverance began. Legacy began. Victory began.

This is where the message gets personal.

In our lives, altars of addiction, fear, shame, poverty, rejection, or bondage may have been built long before we were born. Some of us were next in line to tend those altars. But the mercy of God interrupts family patterns. He calls us not only to dismantle what was evil but to build altars that speak blessing, righteousness, and freedom over generations still to come.

A friend of mine, Alexis, experienced this firsthand. Her family was under relentless financial attack. No job seemed to stick. Their car was repossessed. Even the simplest tasks became blocked. But when she offered a sacrificial seed of her time to God, something broke. Her missing documents were revealed in a dream. Unexpected money arrived. And new opportunities opened.
 Why?
 Because she tore down an altar of poverty and built a righteous altar of financial freedom.

I have seen this in my own family. After dismantling an altar of addiction and building an altar of righteous freedom, I watched my sons make choices they never would have made months earlier. Freedom began speaking into them before they even understood why.

This is the power of righteous altars.
 They speak.
 They continue.
 They shape legacy.

Deliverance happens when you tear down the old.
 Destiny unfolds when you build the new.

If you feel the weight of patterns that have plagued your family…
 If you’re ready for something different to speak over your life…
 If you want freedom that doesn’t fade but grows…

Then it’s time.
 Time to tear down the old.
 Time to build something holy on the ashes.
 Time to partner with God to rewrite the story of your family.

The altar you build today will speak long after you’re gone. Let it speak life.

Let’s pray:

Father, we come before You with grateful hearts, humbled by Your mercy and power. Thank You for opening our eyes today to see the altars that have been speaking over our lives, our families, and our generations.

Lord, we declare that every evil altar is coming down in Jesus’ name! No longer will fear, poverty, addiction, shame, or generational bondage have a legal right to speak into our lives. By the blood of Jesus, we silence every voice of the enemy.

And now, Father, we choose to partner with You as builders. Teach us to establish righteous altars that continually declare Your covenant of freedom, blessing, and protection over our families and this region.

We surrender our lives as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to You. May the words we speak and the offerings we give rise up as worship that never stops resounding before Your throne.

Jesus, You are our Chief Builder. Complete the good work You’ve begun in us and let the altar we build today impact generations to come.

We seal this moment in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
 Amen.