A Priest is a Person Saturated and Filled with God until God Overflows through him

As believers in Christ, we are a kingdom of priests, the corporate priesthood of God, those who are not only called, saved, and regenerated by God but who also are priests to God.

The term “priest” has been spoiled and thus much misunderstood in today’s Christianity, so much so that many believers would not even associate themselves with a priest. But according to the divine revelation in the Bible God desires that all His people would be priests. In the Old Testament God wanted that the entire people of Israel would be priests, and in the New Testament all the believers are priests to God, a royal priesthood and a holy nation.

A priest, however, is not merely one who “serves God professionally” or one who is ordained by some religion, being authorized to perform certain rites and administer certain sacraments. According to what the Bible shows us, a priest is not merely one who does things for God but one who spends much time with God to be infused with God, filled with God, and taken over by Him so that God would do things through him by flowing out through him.

Throughout both the Old and the New Testament we see many people who were not called “priests” but functioned as priests since they loved God, sought after God, opened to God, were filled with God, and God had a way to flow through them in a wonderful way to accomplish wonderful things.

In the New Testament the first apostle (Peter) and the last apostle (John) both were functioning as priests and both assured us that all the believers in Christ are priests to God. We need to realize that a priest is not merely someone who does things for God but one who is saturated, permeated, and taken over by God so that God would fill him to the extent that God would do things through him to accomplish His purpose.

God desires that all His people would be priests, those who are open to Him and spend much time with Him to be infused with Him, flooded with Him, and filled with Him to the point of overflowing with God, and that overflow of God is work.

A Priest is one who is Filled and Saturated with God until God Overflows through him

Our concept, idea, and view of what a priest is needs to be adjusted and corrected according to what the Bible says.

A priest is one who serves God, but what does it mean to serve God? Does the almighty God who can do everything and who has everything – does He need us to do something for Him? He can do more than we can do, and He has more than what we can offer; God doesn’t need man to work for Him and do things for Him, but He wants man to be open to Him, be filled with Him, and be saturated with Him.

The main function of a priest is NOT to work for God but to spend time in the Lord’s presence until he is one with the Lord in spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). We all, with unveiled face, need to be beholding the Lord and reflecting Him like a mirror, and we will be transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18).

We need to spend more time in the Lord’s presence. We shouldn’t just do morning revival, have 15 minutes morning watch, read the Bible according to a set schedule, etc – as if we’re “doing something for God”; rather, we should be those who spend our being and our time in the presence of the Lord until we are saturated and permeated with Him.

There is absolutely NO substitute for our time with the Lord. We need to spend time with Him, get into His presence, stay there to be infused with Him, and go deeper with Him. A simple prayer to help us in this is, “Lord, here I am, not ready to work for You, but ready to be filled and possessed by You and to be one with You.”

Our main function as priests is not to DO things for God or WORK for God but to spend time in the Lord’s presence until we are one with Him in spirit and He has a free way to flow through us. If we open ourselves to the Lord, opening our entire being to Him and letting Him come into us to fill us, saturate us, and be one with us, then He will do something through us, and whatever He does will flow out of Himself (see Rev. 22:1-2).

The problem is that, as we love the Lord and are zealous for Him, we are ready to do many things for Him yet without spending adequate time with Him to be filled with Him and be one with Him.

In God’s eyes it is more important for us to spend time with Him to be filled with Him and be one with Him than doing many outward good and necessary things for Him. May the Lord have mercy on us and bring us back to Himself, back to His revelation in the Bible, so that we may be the priests He needs and He can flow through today.

Lord Jesus, here we are: we’re not ready to work for You but we open to be filled and possessed by You so that we may be one with You. Lord, we come to spend time with You in spirit, allowing You to fill us and saturate us with Yourself. We open to You, dear Lord, and we seek Your face; we love spending time in Your presence to absorb You, receive You, and be made one with You. Flow into all our being to occupy us and possess us. Lord, flow into us, fill us, and overflow from us for the accomplishment of Your purpose!

The Priesthood God Desires is a Corporate Man Saturated and Permeated with Himself

As priests, we need to spend much time with the Lord to be saturated and permeated with Him; as a priesthood, we as the church need to be the corporate man who is saturated and permeated with God (see Eph. 3:17; 4:23-24; 5:18). The Lord doesn’t just want individual priests – He wants a priesthood, a corporate man, the church, who will fulfill His purpose (1 Pet. 2:5, 9).

If we are saturated and permeated with the glory of the Lord, we will be one with Him and one with one another in Him (2 Cor. 3:18; John 17:22, 24). How can we be one with one another in the church life? Not by merely dropping our opinions and seeking to be one with others but by spending much time with the Lord to be truly saturated and permeated with Him; when we all do this, when we all are saturated with the same glory and have the same image, we will be filled with the same Person, and we will be one with Him and one with one another in Him.

If we don’t spend adequate time in the Lord’s presence we will have problems, disagreements, misunderstandings, and even division in the church; but if we spend time with the Lord, we will be under His shining, His dealing, and His judging, and all the negative things will be terminated and we will be filled with the divine life and nature.

If we realize the desire of God’s heart, we will be fully open to Him so that He may flood us with Himself, make His home in our heart, so that He may make known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself (Eph. 1:5, 9; 3:16-17). All Christian work and service must issue out of this priesthood, out of this saturation and permeation with the Lord.

In Acts 13:1-2 there were some brothers who set themselves aside to pray and be filled with the Lord, and the Holy Spirit called two of them for His work; the rest laid their hands on them, prayed for them, and the whole church sent them out – and this sending was the Holy Spirit’s sending.

May the Lord save us from repeating the pitiful history in Christianity with much division and much work for God yet without much spending time with God. May we be those who see God’s heart’s desire, be fully opened to Him, and spend time with Him to be filled and flooded with Him so that He may have a way to flow out through us and work through us.

The Body life, the church life, is not an organization or a ritual but a corporate life in the flow of God. The building up of the Body is not an organization or a religion; it is the priesthood being manifested and expressed. When we function as priests by spending much time with God to be filled with God, we will be ready to fight for God’s interest; we will be numbered among the army, and we will fight as priests.

We all need to be priestly saints: priestly apostles, priestly evangelists, priestly shepherds and teachers, priestly prophets, priestly elders, priestly serving saints, priestly brothers, priestly sisters, priestly husbands and wives, priestly children, priestly young adults – we need to be a priestly people!

Lord Jesus, gain the priesthood that You desire, the corporate man who is saturated and permeated with Yourself. We fully open to You: make Your home in our heart, fill us, and permeate us with Yourself. Lord, shine on us to deal with anything negative and to bring in more of the divine element into our being. May all our work be an issue of being filled with You and saturated with You. Oh Lord, fill us to overflowing so that our work would be You working in us and through us.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Minoru Chen’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1966, vol. 1, “The Priesthood,” chs. 8-10, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (1), week 12 / msg 12, A Kingdom of Priests.
• Hymns to strengthen the burden in this article:
  # Take time to absorb Him, to gain the supply, / That we may be watered and nourished thereby; / The deeper the roots spread, the deeper the flow, / And richer and higher within us He’ll grow. (Song on Spending time with God)
  # For Thy glory and Thy kingdom, / May Thou hear Thy Body’s cry! / Now fulfill Thy holy purpose, / All our hunger satisfy. / May we all partake Thy Spirit, / Him apply in many ways; / His infilling, His outpouring, / And His gifts to share always. (Hymns #271)
  # The work must be the fruit of life, / Born thru the Spirit’s flowing; / As branches of the Lord, the vine, / Fruit bearing, life bestowing. / ’Tis Christ Himself thru us to work, / Himself as life expressing, / And all the riches of His life / To others manifesting. (Hymns #910)