The Psalms tell us that we are to delight ourselves in the Lord and he will give us the desires of our heart (Psalm 37:4). This means we need to know our hearts, we need to know our desires, and we must allow those desires to be informed and then formed by our love and worship of God. How do we know when our desires look like God's desires for us? How do we know when our desires are purely motivated and not motivated by sin or selfish desires?
I prayed about this and this is what I believe the Lord said...I bring the fire down from heaven to burn up the sacrifice. I remove the iniquity. Not you. Your job is not to cleanse and purify your heart. You don’t create a clean way, I do. Your job is to release your dirt to me on the altar of Your gold. Let it be burned up so all that remains is what I intended. A clean slate. Your truest self. My intention for you untainted by selfish ambition.
GOD removes those sins, the selfish ambition, the impure desires in our hearts. He burns them at the altar. Part of preparing the altar is to find a proper sacrifice. Identify the things robbing you of your peace and put it on the altar. Don’t attempt to remove them yourself. They will come back. They are cunning. Our heart in its unredeemed state is wicked and deceitful (Jeremiah 17:9). We can't redeem our own hearts, we can't remove impurities ourselves. Maybe for a short time, not forever. God’s removal is permanent.
If you want renewal, if you want your heart to look like the Lord's, if you want your desires to be met by the Lord, you must make the sacrifice at the altar. It’s beyond talking about the altar and revival. Revival starts when it begins in you. Do you have a sacrifice? Something you are willing to let die so that Christ can occupy more space in your heart and mind? Put it on the altar, sweet sister. It's time.
