The Lord today desires to recover the universal priesthood of all the believers in Christ for God’s building. He wants that all believers would be restored to a normal situation according to the divine standard from a condition of failure, degradation, loss, and abnormality.
We need to be open to the Lord in a fresh and living way, be up-to-date with Him concerning His heart’s desire, and simply be brought to a normal plane to be a normal Christian according to God’s standard, an overcomer, a priest to God. When the Lord fully recovers the priesthood, He will get the building up of the church; the priesthood is the building, and the building up of the church depends on the priesthood.
What is a priest? A priest is a normal believer in Christ who FIRST contacts God, receives God, and is filled and saturated with God until He permeates his entire inner being; then, he overflows with God to serve God. A priest pays much more attention to his being and his living than to his work; he is not one who mainly “works for God” but one who primarily “serves God by being mingled with God”.
As such a one, a priest is one who eats a particular kind of food: he doesn’t eat regular food, the food that all other people eat, but he eats the meat of the sacrifices and the bread of the presence. As priests our food is Christ as the reality of all the sacrifices and as the bread of God’s presence.
A priest is dressed in a particular way – he wears glorious garments designed by God; as believers in Christ, we are priests to God, and we need to express Christ and magnify Him by living Him out day by day. Christ is our glorious dress; He is our righteousness, and He is being wrought into us to become our glorious dress before God and man, the lived out Christ from within us.
As we eat Christ as our unique diet and are clothed with Christ as our garments, He enters into us and we enter into Him; the result is that He lives in us and we live in Him, and we become a mutual dwelling place of God and man, the church as the enlargement and duplication of Christ.
Every moment we need to enjoy the Lord so that we may also express Him; Christ expressed from within us all is the church, the holy priesthood as God’s spiritual house, the mutual dwelling place of God and man!
Being Filled and Saturated with Christ to Express Him and become God’s Dwelling Place
We may know that God’s desire is to gain a group of people who express Him corporately as His dwelling place, but do we live in such a way that we express Him? We have to admit that many times we express the self and even the flesh, and quite often we live in the soul, the old man, and the natural life instead of expressing God’s golden nature, Christ’s uplifted humanity, and His kingliness.
How much do we express the kingship (as seen in the purple color in our priestly garments)? How much do we express and experience Christ’s redemption (the scarlet)? We may contact the Lord yet without sensing the need for the Lord’s blood to cleanse us, or we may express how low we are in our current situation….but where is the expression of Christ in the church today?
As believers in Christ we are priests, and we need to express all that Christ is. In order to express Christ as the church, we need to be filled with Christ by enjoying Him until we are saturated with Him; then, we will become the tabernacle in reality, expressing Christ corporately. We must have the expression of gold, fine linen, blue, purple, and scarlet; when we express Christ in such an adequate way, we have put on the new man, and we are clothed with the Body of Christ.
The food, the clothing, and the dwelling of the priests are all related in our Christian experience; we need to eat the Lord and be filled with Him and we will express all that He is in a proper way, and the new man becomes our clothing; this clothing is our housing, the reality of the tabernacle, which is the reality of the Body of Christ.
If we do not express Christ as priests, we are still homeless; it is only in the proper church life that we can be at home and God is at home, since here we are filled and saturated with Christ until we express Him and thus become His corporate dwelling place, a place where we can rest, dwell, and abide, and a place where God is at home.
God’s house today is not something physical; God’s spiritual house today is the church, the built-up priests, the priesthood (1 Pet. 2:5). We are living stones, and we are being built together into God’s dwelling place, the priesthood, the church, His spiritual house; when we are filled with Christ and express Him, we become the church in reality, and we together with God have a place to rest, dwell, and abide together (see Psa. 132:8, 13-18; Isa. 66:1-2).
If we try to express Christ in and by ourselves we are finished; we cannot express Him without first enjoying Him and being filled with Him. This is the reason many Christians give up trying to express Christ, and this is the reason many believers did not find their home.
Our home is God’s home: the church, and in the church we need to exercise to ENJOY Christ, be FILLED with Christ, and EXPRESS Christ corporately in His riches, His divinity, His uplifted and fine humanity, His redemption, His salvation, His kingliness, and His heavenliness. Then, we are at home and God is at home: we have a mutual dwelling place, God and man, in the mingling of God with man for the expression of God in humanity.
Lord Jesus, we want to pay attention to enjoying You and being filled with You until we express You and become Your dwelling place. Lord, fill us and saturate us with Yourself so that You may be expressed through us in an accurate and full way and thus make us Your dwelling place, the tabernacle in reality. Oh Lord, how we long to express You in a proper way by putting on the new man and being filled and saturated with Christ! Lord, may we and all Your believers find our home in the church, the corporate expression of God in humanity!
Being Found Enjoying Christ so that His Expression may Emanate from Within us!
As we got into the matter of the food, the clothing, and the dwelling of the priests, I realize more and more that they are not separate things; rather, Christ as the food gets into us, saturates us and fills us, and is spontaneously expressed through us as our clothing, our garment; the result is that He dwells in us and we dwell in Him, and we put on the new man, the church, the dwelling place of God.
In the Old Testament the priests wore the building upon their garments: on their chest and shoulders they had precious stones set into the enclosures of gold. This shows how we are living stones being built up as a living, spiritual house, a holy body of priests to offer up spiritual sacrifices unto God (1 Pet. 2:5).
How can we “wear the building of God” in our experience? Simply reading about this or understanding this doesn’t mean that we depend on Christ and on the Body; we need to be transformed into the image of Christ by enjoying Him and being filled with Him until we express Him fully, and then automatically our individualism will be gone.
While we enjoy Christ as our nourishment and food and digest Him, He will be saturating and permeating us so that we may express Him. Then this expression becomes our garment, and upon this garment there is the building of the saints as the precious stones set into the gold. Thus, the building up of the church is in the expression of Christ, and this expression comes out of the enjoyment of Christ.
Every moment we must be found enjoying Christ so that an expression of Him might emanate from within us. Then, in this expression, we will have the building up of the Body….May the Lord bring us into such a priesthood. (Witness Lee, The Priesthood, ch. 10)
We need to be found every moment enjoying Christ so that His expression may emanate from within us; this expression of Christ from me and you and others is the church, the holy priesthood as God’s spiritual house, the mutual dwelling place of God and man (see Psa. 90:1; 91:1; John 15:5; 14:23; Eph. 3:16-17; 1 Pet. 2:5; Rev. 21:3, 22).
May we seek to enjoy Christ moment by moment as our daily supply, our unique diet, until we are filled with Him and we emanate Him to express Him spontaneously and thus become the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God, the priesthood. Whether at home or abroad, we want to gain the honor of being well-pleasing to Him, that is, the honor of being in Christ, the One who is most pleasing and beloved to God, and having Christ live in us.
May the Lord recover the priesthood to such an extent that many of His believers are found day by day enjoying Christ so that His expression would emanate from within them!
Lord Jesus, we seek to gain the honor of being well pleasing to God by being in Christ (God’s beloved) and by having Christ live in us. Oh Lord, keep us enjoying You until we spontaneously express You in our daily living and are built up with others into the church, Your corporate expression. Lord, gain Your corporate expression in all Your believers who are filled, saturated, and permeated with God until they live out God! We want to be found every moment enjoying Christ so that an expression of Christ would emanate from within 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,” ch. 10, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Priesthood or God’s Building, week 3 / msg 3, Christ as Food, Clothing, and Dwelling of the Priests.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# All his portion, all his living, / Everything the priests possess- / All is Christ and Christ forever, / In His all-inclusiveness. (Hymns #911)
# Now the church is but the priesthood; / Thus the priesthood formed we need; / When the priests are knit together, / Then the church is built indeed. (Hymns #848)
# Holy priests are living stones / For God’s building work today; / If these stones would builded be / All the priests must learn to pray. (Hymns #849)
About aGodMan
Eating Christ is crucial to have a new beginning with God every day! Ephesians 5:26 shows us that Christ wants to sanctify us, by cleansing us by the washing of water in the word, that he might present the church, us believers to himself glorious , not having spot or wrinkle, [no sickness nor oldness] or any such thing; but that the church, us believers ourselves should be holy and without blemish.” [Ephesians 5:26, 27.] Every time, when we take in God’s word we are being sanctified by the washing of the water, (the Spirit), in the word so that we may enjoy fellowship with God moment by moment and enjoy Him throughout the day. We become one with Him in Spirit and reality and abide in Him.
Furthermore, Ephesians 4:24 tells us to be renewed in the spirit of our mind and to put on the new man, that after God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Not only every morning or every day do we become one with God in our mingled spirit but we are being renewed in the spirit of our mind having put on the new man that after God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Our mind, the leading part of our soul becomes righteous and holy as we not only live but walk according to the Spirit, the anointed one within in our daily lives. Our righteousness, the acts in our daily living are no longer based upon our own thinking of good and evil, but based upon a sense of life, peace and the speaking of the Lord in our intuition that give us direction for all our activities throughout the day. As we let the peace of Christ arbitrate in our hearts having life and peace in all our doings we experience the put ting on of Christ of as our righteousness and holiness. It is in such a way that the divine attributes become our clothing, possessing both the essential and the economical Spirit of God
As we maintain such a relationship by living in the reality of Christ, we come to the meetings with other believers in Christ to express Him and serve him as a corporate priesthood practically in all the services of the church life. It is such that a service that the Father is looking for from all those who worship Him. John 4:23, 24 says, “But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, [reality]: for such doth the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is Spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Amen Lord Jesus! Thank You Lord for Your drawing power towards us, Your tender mercies and Your loving compassion they do not fail. So we open to You again, afresh and anew, for Your filling. Keep us Lord coming to You, keep us Lord poor in spirit, ever desiring more of You dispensed, and infused into every part of our being. Feed us Lord Jesus, as the bread that came down from heaven, the bread of life You are to us each day that satisfies all of our hunger and clothes us with our priestly garments, that makes us precious stones fit for Your building, the building up of the church, the home You are longing for, a dwelling place of God in spirit. Lord Jesus, be our unique diet, for our proper priestly attire, to be the dwelling place of God with man and man with God, that Your heart’s desire, Your will and purpose for man be fulfilled. Keep us Lord, enjoying You more each day, keep us Lord exercised in spirit, by calling upon Your name Lord Jesus, as the way to breath Your name in prayer. Make us Your priest for Your dwelling place, a dwelling place of God with man and man with God, a dwelling place of God in spirit. Flood us with joy, be the strength of our life, to overflow You into others as the riches of Christ, for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ, the home You are longing for. Recover the priesthood in all Your believers, fill us and saturate us with more of Yourself, to be the overflow within us, that satisfies Your heart’s desire and satisfies man’s heart desire, to be in Your likeness, with Your image, to have dominion with You over the earth, as a greater expression of Yourself. Lord, we want to be found in You as a good and faithful servant, and hear the words, well done good and faithful servant, enter now into the joy of the Lord. Lord Jesus, we love You so! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! I thank You Lord Jesus! Amen.
Amen, thank you while reading this message as I exercise my mingle spirit I filled with joy in my heart because our real food and drink is Christ Jesus himself who fills all in all in the church the living body of Christ Jesus,He is our everything! Moment by moment we touched and contact Him in our mingled spirit we are filled with His divine life and nature, He is our real joy and satisfaction no one can satisfy us only God. Amen hallelujah we just only bow Him that we are nothing we can do nothing all it depend God’s mercy that He will fill us He’s grace into our being as our reality…God is strong. ..He’s love wide and deep unmeasurable love towards us. ..just open up ourselves unto him fully then He will dispense Himself into us!