We need to Draw Near to God to be the Priests and Kings Ministering to Him Today

The more we draw near to God to be closer to Him as priests and kings to God, the more important we are to Him, and the more He can fulfil His purpose through us.

The picture portrayed by the allotment of the land in Ezek. 48:1-35 shows that, in the restoration from Dan in the north (v. 1) to Gad in the south (v. 27), all the Israelites will enjoy Christ, but their nearness to Christ will not be the same.

The priests were closer to God and more important to Him, but those in Dan were far away from God. As believers in Christ we have been made by Him to be priests and kings to God, and now we need to live and function as priests and kings by drawing near to God to be closer to Him.

The closer we are to God by daily spending time with Him in His word to draw near to God, the more important we are to Him for the fulfilment of His purpose. This means that we need to contact the Lord every day, minister to Him, and open our entire being to Him.

We may think that, if we do many things for God and in the name of God, He will be pleased with us. But what God desires to gain is a group of people who draw near to God, choosing the better part, a group of people who listen to Him, are infused with Him, minister to Him, and then allow Him to carry out His purpose through them.

Our daily portion is Christ Himself – He is our food and drink, and He is the good land in which we are rooted, we live, and we have our being. As we take care of the daily activities and responsibilities in our human life, we need to take Christ as the reality of all the positive things.

He is our real car that carries us to work for the fulfilment of God’s purpose. He is our real chair on which we rest, as we are at work. He is the reality of the air we daily breathe. Christ is our real reward, and our real work is to labor on Christ to gain Him and be filled with Him.

The more we enjoy Christ as the reality of the good land, the more He becomes an all-inclusive land to us, and the more we have something with which to build up the church.

It is only by enjoying Christ as the reality of the good land that we can build up the church as the temple of God and the house of God. In enjoying Christ and serving God, our nearness to God determines how useful we are to Him and how important we are to His purpose.

Seeing that our Nearness to God Determines our Importance to Him

The nearness of the tribes of Israel to the temple is determined by their importance to God for the fulfillment of His purpose. According to the picture portrayed by the allotment of the land in Ezek. 48, there were seven tribes at the north and five at the south, and the temple was right in the middle.

The closest to the temple were the priests, then the Levites, and then the king and the royal family with the princes, and then the workers of the city, then the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin.

All Israelites were allotted a portion of the land – all of them had a portion of Christ as their enjoyment, but their nearness to Christ was not the same.

The nearness of the tribes to Christ was determined by their importance; the most important were the priests, who are closest to Christ and who maintain the fellowship between the people and the Lord.

Then, there were the Levites, who maintain a service to the Lord; finally, there were the workers of the city, those who maintain God’s government; in addition, there is the royal family with the king and the kingship.

The fellowship of the priests, the service of the Levites, the work to maintain God’s government, and the kingship all come out of the riches of the land. This means that, spiritually speaking, in the church all the fellowship, service, work, government, royalty, lordship, and kingship come out of the enjoyment of the riches of Christ.

The more we enjoy the riches of Christ and draw near to God, the more we are closer to the Lord, and the more important we are in His purpose. We need to enjoy the riches of the good land daily; we need to daily enjoy and be saturated with Christ as the all-inclusive One, and we will get closer and closer to Him.

We should not be like Dan, far away from God and His purpose, but we should draw near to God, be in His presence, and enjoy His riches.

Our aspiration should be to be important to God and useful in His hand for the carrying out of His economy. For this to happen, we need to have no distance between us and Him; we need to draw near to God, enjoy Christ with all His riches, and daily spend time in His presence.

God has made us a kingdom of priests and kings; He made us a kingdom, priests to our God and Father (Rev. 1:6). By birth we are priests to God and kings to God; now we need to live and function as priests and kings.

We need to daily contact the Lord as priests, ministering to the Lord and drawing near to Him, and we need to be under the Lord’s rule so that we may reign in life as kings.

We shouldn’t be content with not being close to God but rather come forward to him, enjoy Him, be filled with His riches, and go on with Him.

Lord Jesus, we aspire to be closer to You so that we may be important to You and useful in Your hand for Your purpose. Save us from being far away from You. We draw near to You to enjoy You and be filled with all Your riches. Increase our enjoyment of the riches of Christ as the good land. We want to enjoy You more so that we may be closer to You. May we be the priests and kings in reality, contacting You, ministering to You, drawing near to You, and reigning over everything negative for You.

We need to Draw Near to God to be the Priests and Kings Ministering to Him Today

The most important ones to God are the priests and kings, and according to the revelation in the New Testament, all believers in Christ should exercise to be priests and kings (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rom. 15:16; Phil. 3:3; Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 20:6; 22:3b-5).

We are all priests in the New Testament, so we need to live like a priest. This means that we need to draw near to God every day and in every situation. For us to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ it maters how near we are to the Lord.

How near are we to the Lord? Are we far away from Him? If we are far from the Lord, we need to pray that He draws us to come closer to Him. If we draw near to God, He will draw near to us (James 4:8).

We shouldn’t merely wait for God to draw us near to Him – we should draw near to God and come forward to Him to be the priests and kings ministering to Him today!

We may be like Martha in Luke 10, doing all kinds of things for the Lord and His people, and even asking Him to send others to help us do so many things for Him….but the Lord wants one kind of person: He wants us not to be anxious and troubled about many things but choose the good part, sitting at His feet and listening to His word.

We need to draw near to God, be close to Him, and listen to His words. One thing is needed: that we draw near to God and listen to His word. We need to be those who draw near to the Lord every day and even moment by moment.

How can we draw near to God? In Heb. 10:22 we see that we need to come forward to the Holy of Holies with a true heart, with full assurance of faith, having our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

We need to not shrink back but come forward to the Lord; don’t wait to be “invited by the Lord” – simply come forward to Him!

We may be busy doing things every day, but before we do anything, we need to shake off our passivity, take the initiative, forget about our feelings and emotional state, leave aside all the things that occupy us, and draw near to God!

We need to come forward to God first thing in the morning. Then, we need to have a true heart; such a heart is not only honest or correct, but upright, not crooked, a heart that is single and not distracted.

We need to draw near to the Lord not merely with our lips but with our whole heart (Matt. 15:8); we need to turn our heart to the Lord to draw near to Him and enjoy Him. How can we draw near to the Lord and enjoy Him if our heart is not there?

When we turn our heart to the Lord, the veil is taken away, and we can enjoy the Lord with full assurance of faith. When we draw near to God we should not look at our feelings or our fickle soul, but come forward to Him and turn our heart to Him, letting the Lord direct our heart into the love of God and endurance of Christ.

We draw near to God by believing that He is and He is a rewarded to all those who diligently seek Him.

As we draw near to the Lord, He shines on us and exposes our sins, failures, defects, shortcomings, lusts of our flesh, and wrongdoings; we need to confess these, and apply the blood of Jesus, so that we may have our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience.

As we confess all that the Lord shines on, the blood of Jesus cleanses us, and we are cleansed from an evil conscience.

Finally, as we draw near to God, our bodies need to be washed with pure water; this refers not only to our physical body but to our conduct and living, our behavior.

Not only our heart needs to be right, but our conduct, our behaviour, and our attitude, all need to be washed by the Lord’s word as we draw near to Him.

We want to be brought near to the Lord to be where He is and minister to Him as priests and kings.

Lord Jesus, we want to draw near to You to be the priests and kings ministering to You today. We come forward to You right now. We leave all things behind, we shake off our passivity, and come forward to You with a true heart. Turn our heart to You. Cause our heart to draw near to You and be with You. Lord, we look not at our feelings but to You: direct our heart into the love of God and the endurance of Christ, with the full assurance of the faith. Sprinkle our heart from an evil conscience, and wash and cleanse us with pure water. Lord Jesus, we want to be brought where You are, be close to You, and function as priests and kings ministering to You!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ezekiel, msg. 27 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Ezekiel (2), msg. 11 (week 23 in the HWMR), The Holy Temple and the Holy City in the Holy Land.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Draw me, dear Lord. / Draw me today. / From everything else, dear Lord, / Draw me away. (Song on drawing near to the Lord)
  # We come forward to the new age, / With assured heart, true and bold. / To enjoy th’ eternal purpose, / Ne’er to shrink back to the old. (Hymns #1217)
  # Come forward now to God through Him, / Ne’er shrink back to destruction; / Come forward now to get the life, / Which brings the proper function; / Come forward now the life to take, / By life His people us He’ll make, / And swallow death forever. (Hymns #1130)