The Place of Divine Exchange
1 Kings 18:38–39 Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!”
THE THRESHOLD OF DEATH
I was twenty-four, and my life was in a dark spiritual place. I was literally self-destructing through demonically inspired choices. Without realizing it, I was aligning with Satan’s plan for my life instead of the King of Glory’s plan.
At 24, I had been a drug addict for most of my life up to that point. The first time I smoked marijuana was at age 7. By age 10, I was experimenting with every hardcore drug available. From age 10 to 24, I lived high most of the time. That’s a sad existence, and most people NEVER come out of it or survive it.
By my early 20s, my soul was possessed by alcohol and drug addiction; I was in DEEP bondage. Crack cocaine was the drug of choice in that era, and it had taken many of my friends’ lives. It had such a strong grip on me that even though I knew I might die if I took another puff from the crack pipe, I did so anyway.
In late October 1990, I was smoking crack, lost all feeling in my legs and arms, and couldn’t even call 911. I knew my heart was about to literally blow, as it had with many of my friends who overdosed on crack. On the threshold of death, I cried out to the LORD, Please save my life. In that moment, a supernatural, tangible shalom presence of God came over me and instantly brought me down from the effects of those drugs. For those who most likely don’t understand, that doesn’t ever happen naturally!
Less than a couple of months later, I entered God’s 12-step program. On December 12, 1990, I got up from the pew at Hammond First Assembly of God and literally took about 12 steps down to the altar. I wasn’t a casual seeker deciding to pray a sinner’s prayer. I knew it was an all-or-nothing decision when I came to Christ; that’s why I waited so long, literally to the point of death. My mother and 3 siblings clearly demonstrated the all-or-nothing gospel (Apostolic Gospel) that transformed each of their lives. They were totally transformed by absolute surrender at the Eternal Altar, the Cross!
12/12 — ALTAR BUILDERS IN THE SPIRIT AND POWER OF ELIJAH
Luke 1:17 He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, “to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,” and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
I didn’t initially realize the significance of being transformed on 12/12. But the LORD spoke to me through the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel, where Elijah repaired the LORD’s ruined altar. Elijah took 12 stones, one for each tribe of Israel, and poured 12 pots of water over the sacrifice — 12/12. Later, Elijah threw his mantle on the next generation — Elisha — who was plowing with the 12th pair of oxen — 12/12 again.
I believe that just as John the Baptist went before the Lord in the spirit of Elijah, preparing a people for the Lord’s first unveiling and manifestation, so the next generation — the Elisha generation, the double-portion generation — is coming to prepare a people for the LORD’s last unveiling and manifestation. I'm not speaking of preparing a people for the rapture, but of preparing a people to become the habitation of the latter glory of Father's House.
Over 30 years of full-time ministry, I have been troubled by not seeing that level of transformation regularly. But I have been given a promise that I hold onto to this day. The LORD said to me, “Just as I transformed your life in a moment on 12/12/1990, there are coming 12/12 moments of atonement when everything changes. I want you to contend for My 12/12 sudden moments and 12/12 true apostolic foundations. The last apostolic age will be greater than the first apostolic age — it is the Latter Glory, the greatest glory!”
ALTARS OF TRANSFORMATION AND BLOODLINE REDEMPTION
In 1975, my brother Rick was on a weeklong LSD trip with my other brother Mike and Mike’s friends. During that trip, the LORD appeared to Rick and said, “This is your last chance – go to that center on the back of the book someone just gave you.” The book was “Run Baby Run” by Nicky Cruz, and the center was Teen Challenge in Brooklyn, New York, which was birthed through David Wilkerson’s ministry. That encounter began a redemptive cycle in my family and bloodline. My mother was baptized in the Holy Spirit and became Thunder Woman. She thundered in warfare prayer, demanding that the devil let go of the rest of her children. This thunder was praying in the Holy Spirit (speaking in tongues, Acts 2:3–4), a way of wielding the sword of the LORD.
Back To The Altar — God’s 12 Step Program - The 12/12 Altar
On that life-changing day, 12/12/1990, something happened that I can never fully explain, except that the Father of Glory touched me with His all-consuming fire, and in one second—I was transformed. I was not improved or helped along. I wasn’t given Biblical principles as tools for recovery—I was instantly delivered from 14 years of drug addiction and transformed at the altar.
I never went to rehab or sat through a twelve-step program. I went to an altar, and everything changed in a moment of Divine Atonement.
I’m sharing my testimony for several reasons. It speaks to the power of prayer, especially praying in the Spirit and prophesying over the family with the Word of the LORD. The Lord doesn’t just want to save one. He wants to redeem an entire bloodline, as he has done in my immediate family and among distant relatives.
The Lord has promised me 12/12 altars connected to the eternal altar, altars of transformation. One key is the Apostolic Gospel, the 12/12 Gospel, not the Sinner’s Prayer Gospel, but an all-or-nothing, absolute surrender to the goodness of the blood of the Lamb. I see a whole army of transformed ones coming forth in this fullness-of-time moment for the Harvest of the Lamb.
The LORD desperately needs a Pentecostal praying people who release the unsheathed sword of light from the Father’s mouth through their own. The sword will cut family members to the heart and cities, too. The unsheathed sword of the LORD, coming from the mouth of His Covenant Body, will strike down Satan’s plan and the hordes of hell, and will unsheathe angelic swords of the Hosts of Heaven.
A new army of altar builders is being raised in the spirit and power of Elijah; they will restore the Apostolic Gospel and the 12/12 altars of transformation.
A PLACE OF DEATH AND RESURRECTION
The altar is where heaven and earth meet — where the sweet aroma of sacrifice ascends and the Voice of the Father descends.
The question is not whether the altar works. The question is whether we will come to it with everything we have, hold nothing back, and let His all-consuming fire do what only His fire can do.
Every altar must be connected to the Eternal Altar of the Cross to be truly legitimate. The Cross is not a one-time event; it’s a lifestyle. We have been summoned to take up our Cross and follow Him. That doesn’t happen only at the point of being born again, the Cross is a lifestyle.
If we are truly going to see a new apostolic prayer movement come forth in this fullness of time, the old must die so the dead can be raised. The Eternal Altar of the Lord is a place of death and resurrection. We must bring the very things God gave us in the past season to the Eternal Altar (the Cross) and allow Him to deliver a death blow to them. If not, they will not manifest resurrection power in the days ahead. Remember, you can’t have resurrection power without continually going to the Cross.
I’ll end with this: a word the Lord gave me at a strategic time of transition. There can be no old in the new. Surrender the old, and I will make all things new.
REFLECTION
Is there something you are still holding back from the eternal altar — some area of your life, your ministry, your finances, your relationship? Have you let any areas remain untouched by His fire?
PRAYER
LORD, I come to Your altar today with all that I am. Touch me with Your all-consuming fire. Do in me what I cannot do for myself. I surrender to You now, as completely as I know how. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
DECLARATION
The all-consuming fire of the Living God lives on the inside of me, and He who began a good work in me will bring it to completion. I declare that me and my whole bloodline is being redeemedby the power of the finished work of Christ upon the cross. I declare Zechariah 4:6: Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.
Ed Watts · Zion Gate Ministries · Altars of the Voice of the LORD