Holy Priests go to God for People; Royal Priests come from God to Minister God to People

Since all believers are priests to God, we need to know and realize what a priest is according to the Bible, otherwise we are not living and functioning as a priest of God. According to the entire revelation of the Bible, a priest is one who goes to God to spend time with God, be filled with God, serve God, and bring man to God, and then he comes to man to bring God to man and minister God to man as food and life supply.

There are these two main aspects of the priesthood: the priesthood according to the order of Aaron (bringing man to God) and the priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek (bringing God to man). We need to experience both aspects of the priesthood, and especially we need to know how to minister God to man in a practical way.

Kingly Priests are Filled with God and Minister God to others for God’s Expression

In our Christian experience today, the kingly priests are those who come from God to care for God’s people – just as Melchizedek came from God to meet Abraham and minister bread and wine to him (see Gen. 14:18-19). This means that, as we serve in the practical church life, the real priesthood comes into being when we minister God to others so that eventually they will become God’s expression (1 Pet. 4:10; 2 Cor. 3:18).

How do we “minister God to others”? What does it mean to minister the processed God to the saints for their life supply so that they may become God’s corporate expression?

As believers in Christ and members of the Body of Christ, we are involved in many practical things in the church life such as meetings, practical services, arranging things, cooking, singing, visiting the saints, outings, preaching the gospel, shepherding the new ones, vital groups, and many other things. But in order to have the real priesthood there has to be the ministering of God.

It is not only when we pray and prophesy in the meeting that we minister God but even as we carry out the practical service we should do the same! For example, as we clean and set up the chairs before the meeting starts we could pray for the saints. When we cook and set up the table for the Christian students to eat and enjoy Christ we can touch the Lord and pray.

As we do practical things we need to enjoy Christ and minister Him to others. The practical things we do should be a means to minister Christ.

How can we minister Christ? First, we need to come to God and enjoy Him through singing, praying, calling on the name of the Lord, and opening to Him. Then, we need to seek to be filled with God so that we may overflow with Him. We cannot give others what we ourselves don’t have; if we are not filled with Christ, we don’t have what to minister to others.

Before we do any service in the church life we need to enjoy Christ, contact Him, and be filled with Him, and then we need to be open and allow Him to flow through us. Christ wants to flow through us, but we need to be open persons and allow Him!

Ministering Christ is not something doctrinal or deliberate; we minister Christ by first contacting Him, being filled with Him, and being open to Him to allow Him to flow through us to others. As we serve in the church life we need to minister Christ to others.

As we all learn to minister Christ to others even in the practical service of the church, we all become God’s expression. The way Christ makes us God’s expression is by ministering God into us until we’re filled with God and express God. As we enjoy Christ’s ministering to us, we can cooperate with Him to minister Him to others for them to become God’s expression.

Remember: in order for us to minister God to people we need to contact the Lord, be filled with Him, and let Him flow through us; when God flows through us, people will sense it. When we minister Christ to others, we become the priesthood for God’s corporate expression.

Lord Jesus, we want to be kingly priests in our experience today by contacting You, being filled with You, and then overflowing You to the saints as we serve in the church life. Lord, fill us with Yourself and cause us to be open to allow You to overflow from us to others! Save us from merely doing a common service to God in the church life. May our serving in practical things and our being with the saints in the church life be in the principle of being filled with Christ and ministering Christ to others for God’s corporate expression!

Holy Priests go to God for People and Royal Priests come from God to Minister God to People

On the one hand we are holy priests, and on the other, we are royal priests; just as Christ, we are priests both according to the order of Aaron (holy priests) and according to the order of Melchizedek (royal priests).

We need to remember, however, that the Aaronic priesthood solves the problem of sin, and the kingly priesthood fulfills God’s eternal purpose; the Aaronic priesthood took away sin, and the kingly priesthood brought in God as our grace (see Heb. 1:3; 4:16).

On the one hand we are holy priests going to God to represent God’s people and bring their needs to Him, and on the other hand, we are royal priests coming from God to the people to represent God and minister God to them (1 Pet. 2:5, 9).

As holy priests, we offer something to God for the sake of people, and the royal priests declare the things of God to people. Hallelujah, we are both holy priests and kingly priests, going and coming in two directions; we are going to God with man and we are coming to man from God to minister God to man and meet their need.

The Lord needs to recover both of these aspects of the priesthood in our Christian experience in the church life so that we may be the holy priests offering spiritual sacrifices to God (1 Pet. 2:5) and kingly priests telling out the virtues of God (1 Pet. 2:9).

In the past we may not have had the thought that we are not only holy priests but also kingly priests coming from God, representing Him, to minister Christ to others. Many times I have had the realization that we are the kingly priests, those coming from God to others. We are here representing God, declaring something of God to people, declaring His excellency, His grace, His life, and His divine nature to others. The church is this kind of priesthood. The church is composed of those who are regenerated, purified in their soul, nourished and growing up, and built together as a living house to contain God, to be indwelt by God, to serve Him as the holy priests, and to minister Him to people as the royal, kingly priests. (Witness Lee, A General Sketch of the New Testament in the Light of Christ and the Church, Part 3: Hebrews through Jude, pp. 331-332)

If we were to make a comparison between the two orders of priesthood, the priesthood of Aaron solves the problem of sin, is of the tribe of Levi, is man-centered (focusing on man’s need), it is based on Christ’s earthly ministry, it is something inserted (and not God’s original intention), it is temporary, emphasizes on holiness, and goes to God on behalf of people.

The priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek fulfills God’s purpose by ministering God as grace to man, is of the tribe of Judah (it is kingly), it is Christ-centered, it’s according to God’s original intention, it is eternal, emphasizes righteousness, and is our coming from God to represent Him and minister Him to people.

As holy priests we go to God to contact Him, be filled with Him, and bring God’s people to Him, and as kingly priests we come to man with God to minister God to man and meet man’s need. May the Lord recover the priesthood among us in all the local churches today!

Lord Jesus, thank You for making us holy priests to offer spiritual sacrifices to God and kingly priests to tell out the virtues of God. Lord, recover the priesthood among us in all the local churches on earth today. We want to be those who contact God, are filled with God, bring man to God, and we want to come to man to bring God to man and minister God to man. Lord, may we be those who come from God to others to represent God, declare something of God to people, and represent God on earth!

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, Life-study of Hebrews, msgs. 13-14, 32 (by Witness Lee), 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:
  # Lord, we meet to seek Thy face / And in one accord to pray; / We a holy priesthood are, / Waiting on Thee here today. / Here together we would pray, / Touch the highest and the best, / Till our spirits mingled are / And Thy Church is built and blest. (Hymns #772)
  # What a blessing, what a priv’lege! / Called of God a royal priest, / That this glorious, holy office / I should bear, though last and least. / All the building of the Body / On the priesthood doth depend; / Ever praying in the spirit / I this office would attend. (Hymns #848)
  # By all the hymns and prayers we offer here, / Christ the reality we would express; / All the activities in fellowship – / Christ thus in operation manifest. / ’Tis in His Name we meet, in Spirit act, / With nothing in our mind to formalize; / ’Tis by His pow’r we pray, in unction praise, / And with Himself in spirit exercise. (Hymns #863)