The Need for a Thorough Recovery of the Priesthood for God’s Building through us

As believers in Christ we are members of the Body of Christ, and we have the privilege and responsibility to be one with Christ, the Head of the Body to build up the church as the Body of Christ. The Lord today is building up His church by building Himself into us, His believers, through making His home in our heart through faith (Eph. 3:17); by building Himself into us, God is built into man and man is built into God for the mutual dwelling place of God and man, the church.

If we realize that God’s desire is to work Himself into His chosen people, then the goal of our work will be to minister God into others so that the Triune God may build Himself into their being. This is what a priest of God does: he first spends time in God’s presence to be infused, filled, and saturated with God, and then He brings God to man and brings man to God.

We need to be recovered to being the priesthood for God’s building; we need to allow God to build Himself into us and then cooperate with Him to minister God into others for God to build Himself into their being. The intrinsic nature of our work for God is not anything outward but the building of God into man.

The Apostle Paul worked for God, and whenever he spoke of his labor he said things like, “My children, with whom I travail in birth until Christ is formed in you” (Gal. 4:19). The intrinsic nature of Paul’s work was that Christ would be wrought into the believers until Christ is formed in them; for this, he struggled, he labored, and he even travailed again in birth for the believers.

Furthermore, Paul sought to present every man full-grown in Christ; for this, he labored, struggling according to the Lord’s operation which operates in him in power (Col. 1:28-29). Paul didn’t merely spread the gospel to many cities and nations – he announced Christ, ministered Christ to others, and labored and struggled over the believers until they were full-grown in Christ, having Christ living in them and being formed in them.

Paul was a priest to God, and he cooperated with the Lord to build up the church by ministering Christ to others so that God would build Himself into their being. We need to also be such persons today.

Working for God by Participating in God’s Building, the Building of God into Man

On the one hand, the priests ministered to God; they spend much time with God, experienced God, were supplied with God, were enlightened by God, and had God as their everything (their food, their clothing, and their dwelling). On the other hand, the priests ministered God to man: they worked for God by imparting God into man for man to be built up as God’s house, God’s dwelling place.

Today we need to work for God by cooperating with God’s building, the building of God into man. Our work for God should not be with wood, grass, or stubble, but with gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Cor. 3:12, 17); we need to build the church not with the attainments we have or our natural way of living but with the Triune God whom has been wrought into us and has constituted us through our experience of Him.

As we allow God to work Himself into us by being strengthened into our inner man by the Father through His Spirit so that Christ may make His home in our heart, we have some constitution of God that we can minister to others for the building up of the church. Christ builds His church (Matt. 16:18); only what is of Christ can build up the church. If we bring something of ourselves into the church, we mar the building of God, but if we experience Christ and then minister the Christ we have experienced into others, we build up the church.

Actually, when we minister Christ to others, God is building the church though us. The church is not merely a group of people who have been redeemed and regenerated by God; the church is the mingling of God with man, divinity mingled with humanity (Eph. 4:4-6). As such, the church is built up by Christ being added to us and by all the members ministering Christ to one another. God is building Himself into man, that is, the divine element is being constituted in the human element, and man is built into God, that is, the human element is being constituted in the divine element.

As God is being built into us through our experience of Him, we become God-men – we become the same as Christ in life, nature, expression, and function, but not in the Godhead; as we are built into God, God becomes man and lives again in us the same kind of life that Jesus lived on earth. This is the church: the mingling of God with man, the constituting of the divine element into the human element so that God may live in man and man may live in God, God being expressed through man and man living out God by being fully one with God in the mingling with God.

Our work for the Lord should be governed by such a revelation and understanding of God and God’s building. As priests to God we need to work for God by being one with Him for the building up of the Body, the mingling of God with man. The church is not built up by your natural ability to speak eloquently, sing professionally, give a touching testimony, move others to tears, make others happy, or encourage others to go on in the Lord; the church is built up by our participation in God’s building – the constitution of the divine element into the human element and of the human element into the divine element.

We need to follow the pattern of our brother Paul and minister Christ to others, labor over the saints and struggle over them so that Christ may be formed in them and live in them, and they would be full-grown in Christ.

Lord Jesus, may we be those who work for God today by participating in God’s building – the constitution of the divine element into the human element and of the human element into the divine element! Lord, save us from marring or damaging the building of God by bringing in our natural ability, our flesh, or our natural efforts; we want to build the church with the processed and consummated Triune God which has been wrought into us through our experience and enjoyment of Him. Lord, build up Your church through us. Build Yourself in us and use us as priests to dispense Yourself into others!

The Need for a Thorough Recovery of the Priesthood for God’s Building through us

As we endeavor to carry out the God-ordained way to meet and serve through begetting new believers, nourishing the new ones with the riches of Christ, perfecting the believers to function in their measure in the Body, and building up the church through prophesying, our work must be based upon the processed and consummated Triune God, who is constantly building Himself into His chosen people and who is building them into Him. The grace of Christ with the love of God is constantly being transmitted to us through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit for our experience and enjoyment of the Triune God (2 Cor. 13:14).

The Father is constantly strengthening us into our inner man with power through His Spirit so that Christ may make His home in our heart through faith (Eph. 3:16-19) so that we may become the Body of Christ, the mingling of God with man (Eph. 4:4-6). On His side, God constantly operates in His people who just open to Him and allow Him to work in them, with the result that God is building Himself into them and He’s building them into God; on our side, we need to cooperate with Him by participating in His building, that is, by ministering Christ to others for the building up of the Body of Christ, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem.

I was really encouraged to see this high vision of the building up of the Body of Christ from this quote,

The processed Triune God is embodied in Christ and realized as the consummated Spirit. This is the God whom we worship, preach, and minister to others. Today He is building Himself into His redeemed people in order to produce a house with Himself as the element and also with something from their redeemed and uplifted humanity. This house is the church, the Body of Christ. This house is the enlargement, the expansion, of Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God realized as the Spirit. As we carry out the God-ordained way in the four steps of begetting, nourishing, perfecting, and building, our work must be based upon the processed Triune God, who is building Himself into His chosen people. (Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, p. 201)

There is a great need for the recovery of the priesthood for God’s building; God’s building is the corporate expression of Himself in Christ through His Body. In order for God to gain His corporate expression in Christ through His Body, He needs a company of priests who care for God and His heart’s desire; He needs some who would turn to Him, open to Him, and allow Him to flow into them, fill them, saturate them, and permeate them to make them one with Him, so that they may come forth to minister to others the God who has been built into them.

May our dear Lord who lives in us, who daily supplies us with Himself, to whom we are consecrated, whom we serve, and whom we love with our whole being have a thorough and unhindered recovery of the priesthood for God’s building through us and among us.

Lord, have a thorough and unhindered recovery of the priesthood for God’s building through us and among us today so that the church may be built up, the new man would come into being, the bride would be prepared, the age would be turned, and the manifestation of the kingdom would come in. Lord, gain a company of priests who care for God and His heart’s desire, some who turn to God, open to God, and allow God to flow into them, fill them, saturate them, and permeate them to make them one with Him, so that they may come forth and minister to others the God who has been built into them!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1 & 2 Samuel, msgs. 28-30 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Priesthood or God’s Building, week 8 / msg 8, The Recovery of the Priesthood for God’s building.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # O Lord, we give ourselves afresh, Into Your training hands to be, / Molded, shaped, and worked on daily, To be vessels of Your glory! / May all my life and work declare, Uniqueness of Your recovery / To build Your Body, prepare Your bride, To bring You back, fulfill Your longing! (Song on building the Body of Christ)
  # God’s economy is His plan to dispense Himself / Into His chosen, predestinated, and redeemed people / As their life (as their life), their life supply, (their life supply) / And their everything / To produce (to produce), constitute (constitute), / And build up the organic Body of Christ, / Which consummates the New Jerusalem. (Song on, God’s economy)
  # Grant us grace, O Lord, that we / Treasure dear the priestly call; / In the spirit serve and pray, / That Thy church be built withal. (Song on, the Priesthood)