These days we have been enjoying the matter of being recovered by the Lord to be priests to God who live and function in a normal way for the building up of the church, the Body of Christ.
Many believers love the Lord, read His word, and regularly attend the meetings of the church, but not many believers live and function as priests to God. All believers in Christ are priests to God, and a priest is one who serves God by being in God’s presence to be infused with God and filled with God, and one who ministers God to people.
According to the Bible, the first mention of the word priests is in Genesis; before the Aaronic priesthood in the people of Israel, there was Melchizedek, a priest of the Most High God, who came to minister bread and wine to Abraham as he was returning from defeating the five kings who took his nephew Lot and his people captive.
According to the record of the Bible there are two orders of priesthood: the priesthood according to the order of Aaron and the priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek.
In Hebrews we see an expounding on these two orders of priesthood; Christ is the High Priest according to the order of Aaron to offer Himself as the all-inclusive sacrifice for sin, since He entered into the Holy of Holies with His own blood and made propitiation for us all once for all. Also, Christ is the High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek: He ministers the processed and consummated Triune God into us, His people, for our life and life supply.
In Heb. 2:12 we see there’s a transfer of priesthood from the order of Aaron to the order of Melchizedek. The priesthood according to the order of Aaron has much to do with sacrifices and propitiation, but the priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek has to do only with ministering something of God to man.
This week we want to see what are these two orders, what are their particulars, why there is the need of this transfer, and how can these be applied to our Christian life and church life. Specifically, today we want to see what is the basic significance of a priest in the Bible.
A Priest is one who Comes from God and Ministers Something of God to God’s People
![The bread and the wine [ministered by Melchizedek to Abraham] signify God as our enjoyment, God being ministered to us to refresh, sustain, support, strengthen, and nourish us that we may grow with all the riches of God. This is the primary task of a priest. In principle, we who serve God today are His priests. As priests, our main responsibility is to minister Him to people. (W. Lee, Life-Study of Hebrews)](https://i0.wp.com/agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/The-bread-and-the-wine-ministered-by-Melchizedek-to-Abraham-signify-God-as-our-enjoyment.jpg?resize=600%2C450&ssl=1 "The bread and the wine [ministered by Melchizedek to Abraham] signify God as our enjoyment, God being ministered to us to refresh, sustain, support, strengthen, and nourish us that we may grow with all the riches of God. This is the primary task of a priest. In principle, we who serve God today are His priests. As priests, our main responsibility is to minister Him to people. (W. Lee, Life-Study of Hebrews)")
What is a priest? According to everyone’s understanding, a priest is one who serves God; such a definition is correct but not adequate. According to the Bible, a priest is one who serves God and ministers God to man. A priest’s function is twofold: first, he ministers to God but spends much time with God to be filled with God, and then he ministers the God he has enjoyed and experienced into others.
In a sense, serving God is secondary while ministering God to man is primary. Serving God is the hidden foundation of a priest’s life, while ministering God to man is the visible living and attitude of a priest to God. If we as believers know only to serve God by spending much time with Him and being filled with Him, and yet we don’t minister God to others, we are not proper priests in God’s eyes.
We are here not merely to do things for God but to minister God to people. This means that we first come to God, are filled with God, and then we minister the God that fills us and constitutes us into His people. Nothing less than this is the priesthood.
In light of this we can clearly see the degradation in today’s Christianity and even to some extent among ourselves. In all our functioning in the meetings of the church we need to minister God to others.
The first mention of a priest in the Scriptures establishes the principle of a priest; it is not Aaron who is the first priest but Melchizedek (see Gen. 14:18-20). Melchizedek was a king and a kingly priest; he was a priest of God the Most High, and he came to Abraham not to offer sacrifices for his sins but to feed him with bread and wine.
Melchizedek came from God and ministered something of God to Abraham. Bread and wine (which can also be found in the New Testament at the Lord’s supper, the Lord’s table) signify the processed God being our enjoyment and being ministered to us to nourish us, refresh us, strengthen us, sustain us, and comfort us.
Melchizedek didn’t bring grains of wheat and grapes to Abraham – he brought bread (grains that were grounded, mingled with oil, and baked – they were processed) and wine (grapes that were pressed to issue in wine to refresh and strengthen). Bread and wine point to God who went through a process to be eaten by us for our supply and nourishment.
As priests, our responsibility and function is to minister the processed God to others for their supply, comfort, nourishment, support, and sustenance. The foundational story of the priesthood in the Bible is that of a person coming from God and ministering something of God to God’s people.
First we need to spend time with God, be in His presence, be filled and saturated with Him, and have Him as our everything; then, we come from God and meet people and minister the God we enjoyed and experienced to them for their life supply.
Lord Jesus, we want to be priests in reality, those who not only serve God by spending time with God but also minister something of God to people! We come to You as our High Priest to enjoy bread and wine, the processed Triune God as our life supply, and we go out to meet people and minister something of the Christ we have enjoyed. Oh Lord, save us from the degradation in Christianity today, and make us real priests who function in serving God and ministering God to others! We come to You as our High Priest to enjoy and be supplied with the processed Triune God as the bread and wine, our life supply. Lord, fill us to the point that we overflow with God to others!
Being Genuine Priests to God by Serving God and Ministering God into God’s People
If we want to be the genuine priests to God today we need to realize that a priest is not only one who serves God but also one who ministers God into man. Even unbelievers know that a priest is “one who serves God”, and their concept is that a priest has a holy duty to just be with God.
We need to be uplifted in our understanding and appreciation of what a priest is, and we need to realize that both Christ’s main function as the High Priest and our function as priests to God is to minister God into man. Right now Christ is doing one thing: He is continually ministering God into all the believers in Christ. As priests to God our main function is to minister the Christ we have enjoyed, experienced, and filled with into people.
This is God’s original intention in creating man: He wants to be dispensed into man as life, the tree of life; this intention will be fully fulfilled and consummated in the New Jerusalem where all God’s people will serve Him as priests (Rev. 22:3). Hallelujah, our destiny is to be filled with God and minister God for eternity!
Today, however, we need to be recovered to our proper function as priests; the Lord needs to recover our service as priests. If we as priests know only how to render service to God without knowing how to minister God to man, the situation among us regarding the priesthood will be quite poor.
If we only know how to come to meeting on time, arrange the chairs, play guitar, cook for the saints, etc but we don’t exercise our spirit to minister Christ to others, then we’re no different from “good people” or from general Christianity, and our situation is quite poor.
We need to spend time with the Lord and be filled with Him, and at the same time we need to be genuine ministers of God to others. Only when there’s a ministering of God into others is there a genuine priesthood, and this is what God desires to gain today.
Lord Jesus, may we realize that our function as believers is not a small matter. We want to be genuine priests of God today, those who not only serve God but also minister God into man. Lord, save us from having a poor situation among us in which no one is functioning to minister God to others. We want to be filled, saturated, and permeated with You until we overflow with the Christ we have enjoyed and experienced to others! Lord, we want to exercise our spirit, deny our self, lose our face for Your sake, and minister God to people for their supply and strengthening.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. James Lee’s sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1965, vol. 2, “Functioning in Life as Gifts Given to the Body of Christ,” chs. 6-7, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Priesthood or God’s Building, week 5 / msg 5, The Two Orders of the Priesthood.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# Thou art the Priest from God to us, / The royal Priest of God; / Like Salem’s King, Melchizedek, / The minister of God. / With bread and wine Thou cam’st from God / To us in time of need; / Thou cam’st with God that we in Him / Might fully share indeed. (Hymns #193)
# Lord, I give You ground to make Your home in my heart. / Settle down and strengthen every inward part. / The unlimited Christ experienced by me, / To others I minister for Your glory. (Song on Ministering Christ)
# Christ to minister is service / Both to God and others too, / Christ, the surplus, e’er supplying, / Off’ring Him as service true. (Hymns #912)
About aGodMan
The main point with respect to Christ as the High Priest is not that He serves God but that He ministers God to us. We must go deeper than the superficial concept that a priest is one who serves God. Everyone, including the unbelievers on the street, knows that a Catholic priest is one who serves God, burns incense, and fulfills his “holy” duty. Even the heathen religions have priests. We need to cross the river out of this low concept into a higher one. God does not need your service, but He does want you to minister Himself to people. As the High Priest, Christ’s major job is to minister God to us. Mainly what Christ does within you is to minister God into you. This is our High Priest. He is continually doing one thing—ministering God into us. Some may say that Melchizedek did not minister God. But what about the bread and the wine—what do they signify? The bread and the wine signify God as our enjoyment, God being ministered to us to refresh, sustain, support, strengthen, and nourish us that we may grow with all the riches of God. This is the primary task of a priest. In principle, we who serve God today are His priests. As priests, our main responsibility is to minister Him to people. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Hebrews, pp. 146-147)
Here is a new song to enjoy, based on excerpt from: Life-Study of Hebrews, pp. 145-146, tune: The Universe Of God Consists/1296
https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/1296
What is a priest?…Although it is correct to say that–
The priest is one who serves God, it is not adequate.
A priest’s not only one who serves God but also one who–
Ministers God into man. All Christians think that a…
Priest’s one who serves God, but not many Christians know–
That, ultimately, a priest’s one who ministers God–
To man. In a sense, serving God’s secondary, while–
Ministering God to man is primary. The basic…
Significance of the priesthood is not to serve God,
But to minister God to man. If, as priests, we only–
Know how to render service to God without knowing how–
To minister God to man, we shall be quite poor indeed.
Amen. ..Lord Jesus have mercy and grant us more grace upon the church cause us to be a genuine seeker of You oh Lord that day by day Your devine life added into us as our reality . We may those a priest in reality the constitution is You so that the grace we enjoyed it will cause us our strength or power to preach the gospel to unsave people we can do nothing with out You in our midst. Oh Lord Jesus keep our heart always open soft to eat and drink of You every day bind the work of the enemy so that we can overcome our lazyness to read Your word. .. Thank you for loving us and we give our first love with you and we love Your appearing. ..hallelujah Amen!