Ministering as a Priest by Coming to the Throne of Grace to Receive Mercy and Find Grace

How can we minister as a priest of God today? The way is clearly shown in Heb. 4:16 and Rev. 22:1 – we need to come forward to the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace for timely help!

In Revelation we see that out of the throne of God and of the Lamb flows a river of water of life, and in Hebrews out of the throne flows grace and mercy for timely help. Today if we come to the Lord in our spirit praying to touch His throne, we will receive the flow of the water of life, the flow of the Spirit, and this flow brings us grace and mercy for timely help.

This is the way to minister as a priest, by first coming forward with boldness to the throne of grace to receive the flowing Spirit as the fresh supply of mercy and grace. Then, we just flow out what we have received and enjoyed from the throne of God.

When we come to the throne of God, we are supplied and refreshed with the flow of grace; then, the throne becomes the throne of authority to judge in us any improper situations or things that don’t correspond to God. In this way we are both priests (by touching the throne of grace) and kings (by touching the throne of authority).

God desires that we would enter into the Holy of Holies in our spirit so that we may touch the throne of grace and allow the living water to flow through us – this flow will cause us to be built up in His divine life and become His dwelling place – His holy and royal priesthood.

Coming Forward to the Throne of Grace

In Hebrews we are encouraged to come forward with boldness to the throne of grace (which is in our spirit) so that we may receive mercy and find grace for timely help.

When we come forward to behold God, when we come to contact the Lord by praying in our spirit to touch His throne, something happens in our being – we experience the Spirit flowing into us, in all our being, and through us to supply us with grace and mercy.

On the one hand the Spirit is the anointing, slowly coating us with more of the Triune God; on the other hand, the Spirit is flowing from the throne of God and into our being, supplying us inwardly with grace and mercy.

We may feel we are not worthy to touch the throne of God, but His mercy reaches us and qualifies us to be in the position to receive His grace for our timely help.

The Flowing God is our Timely Help

What is this “timely help”? Is it merely God doing something outwardly for us when we desperately need it? We all have a lot of prayers to the Lord, and we make all our requests known to Him.

But many times the Lord doesn’t answer our prayers in the way we think He should, in the way we think we need “timely help”. We may touch the Lord, and yet our prayer for this or that urgent matter may not be answered.

What really matters is that we receive timely help, which is the flowing God into us as living water. As long as we touch God and contact Him, He will flow into us and through us, and this is all that we need. Outwardly the situation may be worse, the problems may be more, but inwardly we experience unspeakable peace and joy.

What we need is NOT that the outward situation would be sorted out, but what we need is God to flow into us to inwardly water us, supply us, and nourish us. As the song says, Touching Jesus is all that really matter – and your life will never be the same!

Whenever we apply the blood of Christ and come forward to the Lord, we touch the throne of grace and experience God as the flow of grace and mercy to refresh us, water us, nourish us, and supply us (Heb. 10:19-20; 1 Pet. 1:8).

This bring us indescribable joy and unspeakable peace, no matter how difficult the outward situations may be or how harsh our circumstances are.

We simply need to touch the throne of grace, and God as Spirit will flow to be our timely help.

The Throne of Grace and the Throne of Authority

God has only one throne, and God in Christ is on the throne in the middle of the New Jerusalem and in the center of the universe.

To us as God’s believers this throne is the throne of grace – we come to the throne and we receive mercy and find grace. But to God’s enemy, this throne is of authority, defeating him and subduing him.

We are priests and kings to God by enjoying the throne of grace (to supply us) and the throne of authority (to subdue the enemy in us). Out from God’s throne flows a river of water of life to supply us with grace (Rev. 22:1) and a river of fire for judgement (Dan. 7:9-10).

We need to touch the throne of grace and allow the water of life to flow through us and supply us with mercy and grace for timely help. This strengthens us and enables us to touch the throne of God’s authority so that He can judge any improper situations in us, anything that doesn’t correspond to His holy nature.

Being priests to God means we touch the throne of grace and receive mercy and grace for timely help; being kings to God means we touch the throne of authority and all the improper things in us are dealt with by God.

God desires that we as His saved people would enter into the Holy of Holies to touch the throne of grace and allow the water of life to flow in us and through us. When this happens, our inner condition will match the New Jerusalem, and the church life becomes a miniature of the New Jerusalem!

In such a condition, the throne of God and of the Lamb are set up in us, and the river of water of life flows in us and out of us toward others to supply them. This builds us up in God’s life to be God’s dwelling place, His habitation, His temple.

Lord Jesus, we want to come forward with boldness to the throne of grace. We come forward to Your throne in our spirit that we may receive mercy and find grace. Lord, we just want to touch You and enjoy You the God who flows as a river of grace. Lord, touching You meets all our needs and is our timely help. We need Your watering and refreshing, and we need Your inward joy and peace. Judge in us what doesn’t correspond to You, Lord, and anything that is improper. We enthrone You in our being. Make us Your habitation, Your dwelling place, your Spiritual house!

References and Further Reading

• This sharing is inspired from brother Ed Marks’ sharing in this message and portions in, The Priesthood and God’s Building (ch. 8), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on Crystallization-Study of Daniel and Zechariah, week 12 (entitled, The Priesthood and the Kingship for the Building Up of the Church as the Temple of God).
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Let us therefore come forward / With boldness to the throne of grace / That we may receive mercy and find grace / For timely help.
  # 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;
  # I come before Thy throne of grace / With hungry heart on Thee to feed, / Thy grace and mercy to receive / To help me in this hour of need.