By Timothy Femi Abiodun

Text: Gen. 35:1-7 –

“And let us arise, and go up to Beth-el; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.”
Before a New Beginning comes, we must go back to the altar. The altar is where every journey of life begins; thus, any deviation can be corrected by going back to the altar. The Altar or Bethel is our meeting point with God, a place where all strange gods are done away with. Bethel is the place where we first met God and He showed Himself mighty in your life. Bethel is where we first received our salvation, a place where everything became new. 2 Cor. 5:17 says – “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. We became a New Creation in Christ.” From our above Text, Jacob was running as a fugitive from his brother and as he fell asleep he had a Divine Encounter with God. He saw a ladder with angels ascending and descending from Heaven; God Promised to be with him in his journey. Upon waking from his sleep, he set up an altar and called the place Bethel – The House of God. God has a timetable for your life, this is why we must always go back to our Bethel Altar. John 15:5 says without Him we can do nothing. Revelations 2:4-5 charges us to go back to our first love; invariable telling us to go back to Bethel so as to have a New Beginning. Going to Church is a form of getting back to Bethel to meet with God for a fresh start. Bethel is the place of reconnecting back to our source. Many are experiencing dryness because they have abandoned their Bethel. Heb. 12:22-24 says “But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” Our attitude and lifestyles many times made us to back the altar rather than facing the altar. Obadiah 1:17 says “But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.” There is Mercy upon the altar. God always shows His Mercy when we return to Bethel. Righteousness and Holiness is waiting for you as you return back to The Altar of God. God does beyond our expectations as we return to our Bethel. Eph. 3:20. God makes the impossible possible as you return to Bethel. He also prospers your way mentally and spiritually. Lev. 10:1-2 is a sad account of those that were careless by offering a strange fire before The Lord.

What Makes Men Turn Their Back To The Altar

• Our Sin – Isaiah 59:1-2
• Your non-involvement in things of God. Matt. 10:30
• Walking against the will of God in The Church
• Bring Worldliness to Bethel or learning the culture of the heathen Jer. 10:2
  Benefits Waiting for You at The Altar
• God will arise and have Mercy – Psalm 102:13
• God will pity and help you – Romans 9:15, Psalm 103:13
• God takes away our pains and gives us a New Beginning.
• God makes a way where there seems to be no way; He does the unusual for you. Isa. 43:18-19
• God takes over your battle when you come to His Presence. Exod. 2
• There are blessings in Bethel
• There is healing in Bethel
  In closing, the enemy does not want you to have a New Beginning, he wants to keep you stagnated. In Luke 15 when the prodigal Son came back to his senses, he returned back to His Father (Bethel) and He was restored and had a New Beginning. Take care of your altar of worship, prayer, study and meditation on The Word of God and you will see a New Glorious Beginning!