Both in the Old and in the New Testament we clearly see that God’s desire is that all His people would be priests to God (Exo. 19:6; 1 Pet. 2:9).
The only way we can become this kind of men that the Lord needs is by allowing Christ Himself – the One who lives in us – to reproduce Himself in us. We need to be thoroughly convinced, broken, and subdued to realize that we cannot make ourselves into anything or anyone useful to the Lord, and we need to open to the Lord and allow Him to reproduce Himself in us.
Christ is the prototype; He is the priest, the Son of Man in the midst of the golden lampstands interceding for us right now, ministering the processed God into us; as such a One, He made us a kingdom, priests to our God and Father (Rev. 5:10). First, through His redemption He purchased us back to God, giving us a righteous standing before the holy God, and then He is making us a priesthood by reproducing Himself as the ministering priest in all those who are open to Him.
Christ is the Priest in the Holy of Holies bearing our names before the face of God and ministering bread and wine to us, and He wants to see on the earth a corporate entity that is a reproduction and a reflection of Him, so that whatever He is doing in the heavens at any time would be worked out through His priests on the earth.
We need to see what a priest is – what is the definition of a priest – according to the divine revelation in the holy word of God. There are four main characteristics of what a priest is, and this whole week we will be diving into these:
- A priest is a person who lives solely for God’s interests and serves Him.
- A priest is a person filled, saturated, and permeated with God.
- A priest is a person mingled with God and one who contacts God in this mingling.
- A priest is a person who ministers to the Lord.
It is good to open to the Lord and tell Him,
Lord Jesus, make me a priest, a reproduction of Yourself! Touch what needs to be touched in my being and cause me to open to be filled, saturated, and permeated with Yourself! Lord, gain me through the mingling of divinity with redeemed humanity. Gain something in me and take a further step in my being to make me a priest to God.
A Priest is a Person who Lives Solely for God’s Interests and Serves Him
What is a priest? A priest is a proper human being, one who serves God and lives solely for God’s interests. He may have a job, a family, and other responsibilities, but he lives solely for God’s interests and serves God.
According to the dictionary, a priest is a person who serves God professionally; this is not an incorrect definition, but what does it mean to serve God? Many Christians and non-Christians alike think that to serve God is to work for God; this is wrong! To say that a priest is one who serves God is right, but to say that to serve God is to work for God or do things for God is incomplete and wrong.
A priest is a full-timer, a full-time serving one; all believers in Christ are priests, therefore all believers are full-time serving ones. Being a full-time serving one doesn’t mean that you have to drop your job and devote yourself to the work of gospel preaching, studying and preaching the word, etc – this is a degraded understanding.
A full-timer, a priest, is one who lives to the Lord. A priest doesn’t have the “job” to serve God; his living is to serve God. None of us should live or die to ourselves, but whether we live or we die, we do it to the Lord, for we are the Lord’s (Rom. 14:7-8). Christ died for us, therefore we all died, so that we would no longer live to ourselves but to Him who died for us and has been raised (2 Cor. 5:15).
We don’t live merely “for the Lord” but “to the Lord”, that is, we take the Lord as the aim of our living, realizing that we belong to Him and are one with Him, being under His leading and constraint, being under His direction, and living to satisfy His desire and accomplish His purpose.
Whether we are a stay-at-home mother, a full-time working man, a student, or a job-seeking person, we live to the Lord, taking Him as the aim and goal of our living. Priests are normal and proper persons; they realize that God’s plan is to work Himself into a group of people in order that He might be their life and that they might become His expression (see 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6).
Priests are not “religious people”, those serving God is not a religion or a religious activity to them; priests live to the Lord in their human life, work, and activities, and they serve only Him.
Our God is a God of purpose; in eternity past before the foundation of the world, He had a heart’s desire, a good pleasure (Eph. 1:9), according to which He made a purpose and a plan to accomplish His purpose (Eph. 3:11). God determined in His plan to work Himself into a group of people so that He might be their life and they might be His expression (Eph. 1:5); based on this divine determination, God created man to receive Him, be filled with Him, and be saturated with Him so that man would flow God out and become God’s living expression on earth (see Gen. 1:26; 2:8-10; John 7:37-39; Eph. 3:19; 1:22-23).
A normal and proper human being is one who is a priest, that is, one who serves God; if we are not priests serving God in all that we do, we are abnormal (Rev. 5:10). We no longer live to ourselves; others may live to themselves, but we have settled this: in health or illness, good or bad, we live to the Lord, being one with Him to contribute to the fulfillment of His purpose!
Lord Jesus, make us normal and proper human beings, those who realize God’s plan to work Himself into man and who seek to be filled and saturated with God! Oh Lord, we belong to You, we are one with You, and we want to be under Your leading and direction, living a life to satisfy Your heart’s desire and accomplish Your purpose. You died for us, You were raised, and now You’re in us to live in us and reproduce Yourself in us: make us Your priests, those who live to God, taking the Lord as the aim of our living and being filled with God!
A Priest is one who Receives God, is Filled and Saturated with God, and Flows God Out
As human beings we should be priests to God, those who live to God and seek to receive God, be filled with God, and be saturated and permeated with God so that we may flow God out and become God’s living expression. A priest is one who receives God, who is filled, saturated, and permeated with God, and who has God flowing out of him so that he might be a living expression of God (1 Pet. 2:5, 9).
Although a priest is a person who serves God, this doesn’t mean that he primarily works for God or does something for God; according to the revelation of the Scriptures, to serve God is to contact God, to receive God into us, and to be filled, saturated, and permeated with God (see Rom. 1:9; 8:11).
Many Christians think that now that God has saved them and they love God, they should work for God and do things for Him; this is a natural, religious concept, and not the revelation of the Bible. It is easy to “do things for God” yet without living to God but doing things according to our own inclinations.
We first need to be saturated and permeated with God by receiving God and being filled with God, and then something will flow out as a service to the Lord. If we divorce the irreplaceable outward activities from the inward reality of touching the Lord and being filled with Him, our work will not stand the test of the divine fire.
Although a priest is a person who serves God, this does not mean that he works for God and does something for God. According to the revelation of the Scriptures, to serve God is to receive God into us, to contact God, and to be filled with God, saturated with God, and permeated with God. Furthermore, to serve God is to flow God out and, in this flow of God, to be built up with others as a corporate expression of God. This is the proper meaning of serving God and of being a priest. A priest is simply a person who is filled with God, one with God, taken over by God, and even possessed by God in a full way and built up with others in the flow of the life of God to be a living, corporate expression of God on earth today. This built-up corporate entity is the priesthood. (Witness Lee, The Living that Fulfills God’s Eternal Purpose, p. 94)
We may do many works for the Lord, but the Lord appreciates our oneness with Him, our being saturated and filled with Him more than things we do for Him yet not one with Him. God’s intention is not to call us to merely “work for Him”; His intention is that we first OPEN ourselves to Him in order that He may come into us to fill us and flood us until He has taken possession of every part of our being (Eph. 3:16-21).
We need to allow Him to make His home in our heart by opening to Him and allowing Him to fill us and saturate us, and whatever comes from our being filled with Christ will be our work for God in oneness with Him. We need to just be open vessels to the Lord, not seeking to know or do things but just being open to the Lord, spending time with Him, and being saturated with Him.
To be a normal human being is to live solely for God’s interest being saturated with God for Him to flow out. Our entire inward being must be saturated, permeated, and possessed by God (1 Thes. 5:23), and something will flow out of us spontaneously, and in this flow we will be built up with others (see John 7:38; Eph. 2:21-22).
Lord, we open to You to receive You and be filled, saturated, and permeated with God so that He may flow out of us and make us His living expression! Oh Lord, save us from focusing on the many necessary outward works for God without paying much attention to contacting God to be filled with God! Fill us Lord, and make Your home in our heart until You take possession of every part of our being. We want to be saturated, permeated, and possessed by You until You flow out of us and we’re being built up with others in this flow of life!
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, The Living that Fulfills God’s Eternal Purpose, ch. 8 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Priesthood or God’s Building, week 2 / msg 2, The Definition of a Priest.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / In the spirit seek His face; / Ask and listen in His presence, / Waiting in the secret place. (Hymns #784)
# If in spirit Him I touch, / With His riches filled I’ll be; / Life and light and love and grace / As a stream will flow thru me. (Hymns #769)
# Myself I open that Thou may flow in; / Op’ning myself to others, Lord, flow out; / By such a stream, the fellowship within, / Thou, Lord, expressed will be my life throughout. (Hymns #764)
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“A priest is simply a person who is filled with God, one with God, taken over by God, and even possessed by God in a full way and built up with others in the flow of the life of God to be a living, corporate expression of God on earth today. This built-up corporate entity is the priesthood. (Witness Lee, The Living that Fulfills God’s Eternal Purpose, p. 94)”
I am so glad that today all over the earth there is a priesthood of persons who are one with God, filled up with God, and build up with others in the flow of the divine life to be a living corporate expression. Every day when we spend time with the Lord, we behold the lord by receiving the living word as the Spirit and life whenever we read the bible. Mathew 4:4 tells us that, “man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God.” We are enlivened whenever we come to the word of God and it is the flow of Life from God as the Spirit that brings us into fellowship with God. Every time we open and contact God in his word we receive and have fellowship with this flow, the divine life of God that brings us into a deeper realization and appreciation of the love of God, the Grace of Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
Furthermore all those who faithfully come to Him to contact God in His word every day are sanctified by the washing of the water in the word. Ephesians 5:25-25 says, “ Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her that He might sanctify her by the washing of the water in the word, the He might present the church to Himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be Holy and without blemish.” The flow of the water is the Spirit that flows and sanctifies us to become Holy and without blemish. Every genuine priest who faithfully comes to His word every day is being washed from all the earthly defilements of this world, sin and death and become Holy not just positional but dispositional. Jesus said that the words that He speaks are Spirit and life, (John 6:63), and that the life that is in Him was the light of men. (John 1:4). It is such a life that enlightens everyone who comes regularly to His word and the light that enlightens us brings us into God himself, God’s presence.
1 John 1:5 says that, ”God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” When we are in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship with one another. Furthermore 1 John 1:7 says that if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son purifies us from all sin”. Once we are sanctified in such a way and maintain our position continually throughout the day and meet as believers in our homes or other meeting places, we truly are joined into a corporate priesthood. We have fellowship with one another with and in God’s presence. It is in such a simple way, as we come to the word every day and behold Him that we are being sanctified and constituted with Him to have and maintain a daily living as a corporate priesthood. It is such a corporate priesthood that God is looking for in all of us today!
Today in my locality and localities all over the earth, the Lord is raising up such priesthood. The Lord is rising up many believers who are being sanctified daily, to be separated to God, having the life and nature of God wrought into their being. It happens in such a simple way! As we spend time with the Lord Day by day and partake of God’s Holy life nature each time we open and contact Him in His word we are being build-up into Him and all become one corporate entity, having a living that fulfills His eternal purpose today! Praise the Lord from whom all blessings flow.