Being the Holy Priests who are Possessed by God and who Live Christ to Light the Lamps

The holy task of lighting the lamps in the Holy Place was the service of holy persons, the priests, those saturated with God, filled with God, and living absolutely for God; these ones express God in their daily living and minister God to others.

Lighting the lamps is a holy task belonging only to the priests; no common person was qualified to light the lamps or burn the incense, and no common person had the right to burn the incense.

We need to be the holy priests of God today, those who are filled with God and saturated with God, those who minister to God and to man.

We serve God in the church, which is the tabernacle of God today; God’s dwelling place on earth is the church, and we as believers in Christ live in the church life and have the responsibility to light the lamps and burn the incense.

God’s intention and purpose is to have a building on earth for His dwelling place, a mutual dwelling place between God and man, and that this dwelling place would become His expression on the earth.

In the Old Testament we see how Moses was given a vision of the tabernacle together with its pattern, together with the ordinances and offerings and the priesthood.

In the New Testament the priesthood and the tabernacle are one and the same thing; we are both the dwelling place of God and His serving ones, His priests.

God wants to gain a priesthood, a corporate group who are His spiritual people and who express Him and are filled with Him.

This group of people is the believers in Christ, the church on earth today; as the many believers in Christ and members of the Body of Christ, we today have the responsibility to enter into the Holy Place (a type of the meetings of the church) and light the lamps to cause the divine light to shine.

We need to light the lamps, and for this we need to have a proper living – we need to express Christ in our daily living, just as the priests had to wear the priestly garments when the were lighting the lamps.

From evening to morning, our duty is to light the lamps; today we are during the night-time, in the dark part of this age, and until the Lord comes we need to light the lamps in the Holy Place so that God’s people would have light, we would enjoy the many rich aspects of Christ, and we all would advance toward the Holy of Holies to be in God’s direct presence.

Being the Holy Priests who are Possessed by God and who Live Christ to Light the Lamps

The holy task of lighting the lamps in the Holy Place was a service of the priests; the common people cannot do this, only the holy persons, the priests, can light the lamps.

If we are common people, if we are just like the ones in the world today, we are not qualified to light the lamps; only holy priests can enter the Holy Place and light the lamps.

What does it mean to be a priest? Being a priest, according to the entire Bible, is being one who is possessed by God, filled with God, saturated with God, and living absolutely for God.

Being a priest means that God is our profession; our unique occupation is to enjoy God, love God, be in His presence, and be filled with God.

There’s a price involved to be a real priest; we don’t just show up to the meeting and say, I’m a priest! It all depends on how much we are possessed by the Lord, how much we are filled and saturated with God, and how much we live unto God absolutely.

Being a priest depends on how much we live Christ during the week, how much we are clothed with Him, whether in our private times or in our times with other people.

The lighting of the lamps in the Holy Place requires the service of this kind of person (see 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6). We are a holy priesthood, a royal priesthood, a genuinely spiritual priesthood; may this be our reality day by day.

When we speak of being a priest, we especially need to consider the clothing of the priest; the priest needed to have a breastplate, an ephod, a robe, a tunic of checkered work, a turban, and a girding sash – these are holy garments for the priests.

What do these garments signify? They signify the expression of Christ in the priesthood and, in particular as it relates to us, our priestly garment is Christ lived out of us.

When we live our daily life, going about our daily chores, our job, and the other activities we do, are we expressing Christ?

On the one hand we have Christ as the embodiment of God within us, and on the other, we need to have Christ as our expression, our living. Christ needs to be lived out of us.

He needs to inwardly saturate us and permeate us, and outwardly He needs to be lived out of us.

As holy priests we need to daily spend time with God, being in His presence, saturated with His beauty, so that we may radiate His excellence; as we are infused with Him, His element operates within us to transform us inwardly and conform us outwardly to His image.

When such a metabolic process takes place, we will spontaneously express Christ.

But if in our daily living we do not have the expression of Christ, then whatever we do in the church meetings will be hypocrisy, something of a show that we put on for others to see.

If we’re not clothed with the living of Christ, our real priestly garments, we are not qualified or equipped to light the lamps.

Our qualification to light the lamps in the Holy Place today is being possessed by God, being filled with God, being saturated with God, and living Christ to express Him; then, whenever we meet, we spontaneously light the lamps.

Lord Jesus, we want to be the holy priests who are saturated with God and possessed by God to be qualified to light the lamps in the Holy Place. Amen, Lord, keep us in Your presence to be infused with You and saturated with You, so that Your element may saturate us and permeate us and be expressed through us. Lord, may You be lived out of us today. May our daily living be the living of Christ, and our expression be the expression of Christ. Save us from hypocrisy; save us from putting on a show or pretending before others. Oh Lord, make us the holy priests who are saturated with Christ and who express Christ so that we may light the lamps in the Holy Place.

Being the Holy Priests of today who Experience the Genuine Lighting of the Lamps in the Church Meetings

The light in the Holy Place was not a natural light or a man-made light; it was a light that came from the golden lampstand, that is, from the divine nature of Christ.

The lampstand refers to the divine nature which is the support, that which supports the lamps with the light.

For us to experience the genuine lighting of the lamps in the church meetings, we must have a few elements or qualifications.

First, we must have Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, as the lampstand; we need to enjoy Christ, experience Christ, and be filled and saturated with Christ.

We need to have the divine nature as the gold, the element of the lampstand; we need to be partakers of the divine nature by enjoying the divine promises in the Word of God.

We need to enjoy and experience the uplifted humanity of Jesus as the wick of the lampstand; we need to eat the Lord’s humanity, partake in spirit of His human living by reading and praying over His word, and in our living the humanity of Jesus needs to be expressed.

We also need to experience and be filled with the Spirit of Christ as the oil; we need to be saturated with the Spirit, the all-inclusive compound Spirit of Christ for the lighting of the lamps.

Finally, we must be holy people as priests, those saturated with God and clothed with the expression of Christ as our priestly garments.

This speaks concerning our daily life; we can’t fake the Christian life, neither can we just put on a mask when we come to the meeting but rather, we need to experience Christ and be filled with Him so that He may become our expression.

When we come to the meeting we simply exhibit what we are and where we have been, what we have done, and where we are in our relation to Christ.

All these elements – the lampstand (the embodiment of God, Christ), the gold (the divine nature), the wick (the uplifted humanity of Christ), the oil (the Spirit of Christ), and the holy priests with the priestly garments (Christ as our expression) need to be our experience daily.

If we experience Christ in all these aspects and then we come to the meeting, we will spontaneously express Christ; we will automatically be those who light the lamps and, joining with the other priests, we will fight the battle as the army of God. Amen!

The priests were to maintain the lamps from evening to morning before Jehovah; nothing is said in Exo. 27:21 about the day, which shows us that the age of today is the night, not the day.

Therefore, we need the light to shine during this age of night until the day dawns, until the Lord as the morning Star returns (see Rom. 13:12; 2 Pet. 1:19).

By the light shining in the meetings during this age of night, we are enlightened to see more of Christ and to see more clearly the way into the Holy of Holies; we will enjoy Christ in His depths in God, and we will enter the Holy of Holies to be in God’s presence.

Lord Jesus, we want to be those who genuinely experience Christ day by day so that we may be the holy priests who light the lamps in the Holy Place. Save us, Lord, from living in darkness and from spreading darkness to others. Bring us into the light and keep us walking in the light day by day. May we daily enjoy Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God, enjoy the uplifted humanity of Jesus, are saturated with the Spirit of Christ, and live as holy priests who express Christ daily so that we may be qualified to light the lamps in the Holy Place. Amen, Lord, make us such ones, those who experience the genuine lighting of the lamps in the church meetings!

Read this article / blog post in Romanian – puteți citi acest articol și în limba română la următorul link – Să fim preoții sfinți care sunt stăpâniți de către Dumnezeu și care Îl trăiesc pe Cristos ca să aprindă lămpile.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus, msg. 115 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallisation-Study of Numbers (1), week 9, Lighting the Lamps.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Amid the darkness of this age / The light of life divine doth beam / In many centers of mankind / Where Jesus’ testimony’s seen. (Hymns #822)
  # In the meetings, in the meetings, / On the mountain, at the shore, / Jesus, Jesus, living Jesus, / He is here—what want we more? / Bury all the old religion, / Even Christianity— / Jesus, Jesus, we have Jesus, / He is our reality! (Hymns #1281)
  # All the clothing of his service / Is the beauty of the Lord; / Glorious splendor do his garments, / Breast and shoulder-piece afford. (Hymns #911)