Fully Destroy the High Places

Recently during a time of worship, the Lord led our congregation into a time of declaring His Lordship followed by a time of surrender. During that time, I felt I heard the Lord speaking to me saying, "My people must fully destroy the high places in their lives". I was intrigued with the language He used, but immediately began to recount in my mind stories of kings and rulers in the Old Testament where it said of them, "but they did not destroy the high places".

These high places in the Old Testament passages were places where pagan gods had been worshipped. It is difficult to even describe how terrible and utterly evil these high places could be such as Molech, where history portrays babies and children were thrown into a burning furnace of the idol as a child sacrifice. (2 Kings 23:10) Even if the altars were no longer actively being used, God wanted these places dismantled and cleansed of the former attachments and evil activity.

A quick look at the world around us and it doesn't take much discernment at all to see that evil abounds, dissension is escalating and many people are hurting and suffering. High Places are all around us if we have discernment to see. At the same time, God is moving powerfully worldwide and we see the beginnings of the great harvest we have waited and longed for. Salvations are on the increase, prodigals are coming home, and young people are flooding into churches and revival arenas. How glorious!

In the middle of all of this spiritual activity, God has been putting His finger on things within His Church that are out of alignment. Some of this has happened suddenly, causing alarm and a sober awakening for many. Others have been revealed slowly, like a long unfolding story. In either case, awakening is necessary for the Bride to be aroused from Her sleep, and obedience is necessary for Her to see the fulfillment of all she is called to be. It is time for the Bride to rise up to Her full stature.

Our modern day high places are sometimes more subtle than those of the Old Testament, and even somewhat sophisticated. We shouldn't let the deceptive facades keep us from discerning what God recognizes as evil. High places can be evil things that we as the Church have allowed by our passivity, or they can be things we have willingly joined with that conflict with God's highest and best for us. So, what does it mean to destroy the high places in our lives? When the high place is recognized and acknowledged as sin, we must repent of our agreement and participation with whatever the evil might be, then refuse to partner with it again. When we confess it as sin, we are coming into alignment with how God sees it. Because of the blood of Christ, we can receive His forgiveness and cleansing.

Altars of Communion, Covenant, and Intimacy

In the Old Testament, the pagan altars or high places were a mockery of what God had put into place. Altars were to be a place of intimacy with God, a place of covenant, and a place of communion. It should not surprise us that the enemy still seeks to erect false altars and high places today. These false altars are places where we give our attention, our resources, and even our hearts. They seek to rob us of the deep communion that God intended us to walk in with Him. Essentially, high places are where anything other than God is worshipped. When we have these idols in our hearts, we become lukewarm at best in our level of passion with Him. An idol doesn't have to be something evil in and of itself, though it may be. The problem occurs when we give it priority and our affection over God.

God is calling His Church, His Ekklesia, to a higher place with Him. When our hearts are fully His we walk in greater authority with Him. At the same time He is moving in the hearts of His people to fully destroy the high places in their lives, He is also calling us to our personal altars with Him. The Holy Spirit will direct and guide us in the process of destroying the high places or false altars in our lives. He is moving and looking for deep surrender and hearts that burn unhindered with passion for Him. This altar is a place of renewed consecration, surrender, and oneness with Christ.

Every High Thing Must Come Down

God has called us to destroy the high places in our personal lives, but He is also calling us to partner with Him to bring down the high places in the world around us. Many times these high places are principalities and spirits that have ruled over regions allowing the evil one to continue to steal, kill, and destroy those whom God has created as His sons and daughters. Jesus has already paid the price for their freedom, but it is the Ekklesia that must step in to enforce the victory and rule of God's kingdom.

As we walk in surrender and personal holiness with Him, we grow in our authority to dismantle what the enemy has sought to erect as ungodly high places.

In the Old Testament, Josiah was a king who modeled destroying the high places well.

Josiah became King in Jerusalem when he was just eight years old. He was known as a righteous King and one who sought to follow God with his whole heart, destroying every evil things that would oppose the one true God as seen in the following scriptures:

2 Kings 22:2, "He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and followed completely the ways of his father David not turning aside to the right or to the left."

2 Kings 22:10, "He desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice their son or daughter in the fire to Molek."

2 Kings 22:13, "The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption--the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molek the detestable god of the people of Ammon. Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones."

2 Kings 22:25, Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did--with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses."

The above scriptures are just a few from Josiah's journey that depict his intent to rid the people and landscape of idols and the high places where they were still worshipped. What a legacy to have followed the LORD with such great passion and zeal!

God's Extravagant Covenant of Love

As I meditated further on why God was choosing this moment to speak such a strong word, I felt He showed me His desire to bring greater breakthrough and freedom not just for individuals, but for family lines and generations to come. Our acts of obedience to fully destroy the high places in our lives with the help of Holy Spirit, will have lasting impact and bring freedom from darkness for generations to come. God longs to release His covenant of love, not just to us, but to a thousand generations that follow us.

"Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments." Deuteronomy 7:9

"You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments." Exodus 20:4-6