Our service as priests is in the nature of a warfare, for we are a priestly army and whenever we do any service for God, it is in the nature of spiritual warfare; all our priestly service is a spiritual fight.
We should not be, however, warfare-focused but rather, as we clearly see in picture in Numbers 3-4 and in reality in the New Testament, we should be the priests and Levites of today who serve God and enjoy God all the time.
We need to be those who spend an adequate amount of time with God to be infused with God and filled with God, and all our service for God – whether “practical” or more “spiritual” – will issue out of our enjoyment of God.
All believers in Christ are priests, and when we serve God in the church we do both practical things and spiritual activities. We should not separate, however, serving in practical affairs in the church from our priestly service.
We see this in type in Numbers, where the Levites had their work assigned by the priests, and they were under the supervision of the priests.
As priests and Levites to God today, we need to do all the practical things we need to take care of by being under the supervision of the priestly view, that is, we need to be priests whether we prophesy in the meeting or clean the toilets in the meeting hall.
We may have to give a ride to some saints from the airport or bring the students to the home meeting, and this may be a practical and “non-spiritual service” that we do, but even as we do this service, we need to contact the Lord, be filled with Him, and be saturated with Him.
In everything we are and do we need to be before the Lord, enjoy Him, contact Him, and seek to know His thought, His burden, and His intention; then, whatever we do will be a priestly service, and we will be one with the Lord in everything.
We should not consider that, as we mow the lawn at the meeting hall, arrange the chairs before or after the meeting, cook for the saints, tidy up for the group meeting, give rides to the saints, usher the saints in the meeting hall, or clean the toilets – we shouldn’t consider this as a non-spiritual service.
Yes, we do need to exercise our ability to serve God in the church in the practical things, but our primary order of business should be to contact God and be filled with God, and allow God to be the One serving in us. This is our duty, responsibility, and privilege as priests and Levites to God in the church life today.
Our Priestly Service before God is in the Nature of a Warfare, a Military Service
In Hebrew the word “service” in Num. 4:3, 23, 30, 35, 39, and 43 is warfare, indicating military service. When we touch the spiritual service, when we exercise to do our priestly service, we touch God’s move, and when we touch God’s move, we touch the resistance of God’s enemy. This happens every time.
In Numbers 1 we see how the Lord numbered His people for the army, in Num. 2 He told them to be arrayed in a particular way around the tabernacle (as an army would encamp), and in Num. 3 we see the priestly service; this shows us that our being formed and arrayed as an army is related to our priestly service before God.
The holy service of the priests and the Levites involved warfare.
There are at least two examples regarding this matter, illustrating the fact that the holy service of the priests – the priestly service – involved warfare.
In 1 Sam. 4 we see a negative example with Eli, who was the high priest, with Hophni and Phineas, his sons. Eli was 98 years old, he was blind, and his two sons had a weak and degraded priesthood; the priesthood under Eli was degrading, and the Lord’s word was rare.
One day the Philistines came, waged war against the Israelites, and captured the Ark; the one thing the people of God was supposed to safeguard and protect, the Ark of the Testimony, was lost to the enemy. Then, on the same day. Eli and his sons perished. This shows us a negative example of the fact that the priestly service is in the nature of a warfare.
But in Joshua 6 we see a positive example under the leadership of Joshua; the people of Israel came to Jericho, the first great city in the good land, and this city was fortified and having a high wall.
The way they took over this city, however, was not by waging war with the army at the front; rather, as God instructed, the priests went first and marched around the city, blowing the horns, and on the seventh day, the walls came down.
Who would ever fight a battle like that? This is the first battle the children of Israel fought in the good land beyond the river Jordan, and the priests won that victory; this is God’s way of fighting.
Today we as priests of the gospel of God should consider ourselves as warriors, those involved in spiritual warfare. Our holy service as priests and Levites is in the nature of a warfare, a military service; therefore, we as New Testament priests are warriors, and our priestly service is a fighting.
Actually, everything that we do for God in our service to Him is in the nature of a spiritual warfare, for the enemy opposes God and, when we serve God and do things for Him under His command, the enemy hates us.
Lord Jesus, open our eyes to see and realise that our priestly service before God is in the nature of spiritual warfare, and our holy service is actually a military service. May we be aware of the fact that whenever we touch God’s move, we touch the resistance of the enemy, and our service as priests and Levites is in the nature of spiritual warfare. Amen, Lord Jesus, we stand with You; we stand on Your side, in Your victory, one with You and with our fellow priests for Your testimony on the earth.
Our Priestly Service is a Fighting; Every Service in the Church is a Spiritual Warfare
As believers in Christ we are priests of God, and as priests, we should consider ourselves warriors, for all our priestly service is a fighting, and every service in the church is in the nature of spiritual warfare (Rom. 15:16).
On our side, we need to give ourselves to the Lord to spend time in His presence and be filled with Him and saturated with Him; however, when we serve Him – either in practical service or in spiritual service in the church – the enemy will oppose us.
The army that the Lord is gaining today is a priestly army; as priests, we fight the battle for the Lord, and together as a priesthood we fight for God’s interest on earth. Therefore, we must give ourselves to prayer and spending time in the presence of the Lord to fulfill our priestly ministry.
Before we do anything for God, whether prophesying in the church, contacting the saints, or practical service, we need to first serve as priests in the Lord’s presence.
We need to be priestly people first of all; the elders need to be priestly, the deacons need to be priestly, the brothers need to be priestly, and the sisters need to be priestly. Without being priests, we cannot serve the Lord or be good brothers and sisters in the church.
We must be priestly husbands, priestly wives, and priestly parents; we need to be priestly in all things. The apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, elders, deacons, ministers of the word, and soldiers in the army – all must be priestly.
As husbands and wives we must be priestly, as children and students, we must be priestly, and as serving ones in the church, we must be priestly. This means that we first of all open to the Lord and spend time in His presence to enable Him to fill us, saturate us, and even swallow us up so that we may be fully one with Him.
We need to be saturated with the Lord, filled with His word, always praying to be one spirit with Him, and have the Lord as our content; then, we will be His expression.
When we are priests to God who contact God and are filled with God, He will be able to say something through us and express something from within us; He will fight the battle in us and through us, He will preach the gospel through us, and He will teach the word or do practical service in us and through us.
Whatever we do and say will be a channel for the Lord to flow out. This must be our way of living, our way of work, and our way of service. All the spiritual work we do for God, whatever form it takes, as long as it touches the things of the spiritual realm, is in nature a warfare (2 Cor. 10:3-5).
Preaching the gospel, edifying the saints, administrating the church, and praying – all are a kind of warfare, and we in all our priestly service wage a warfare against the enemy (see Eph. 1:17-18; 3:8, 14-19; 4:12; 6:10-12).
For example, preaching the gospel is a warfare; when we preach the gospel, we match God for His move, being priestly bringing God to others.
Satan definitely resists that, and as the god of this age, he blinds the minds of those who hear the gospel; but we are there to deliver them out of the kingdom of darkness and bring them into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.
According to Acts 26:18, our preaching of the gospel is to open people’s eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from authority of Satan to God; we preach the gospel as priests so that men would be delivered from the authority of Satan.
When we fulfill our priestly service to bring God to man through the preaching of the gospel, we seek to deliver them out of the authority of darkness and transfer them into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love (Col. 1:3).
Our preaching the gospel is wholly a spiritual warfare to drive out the power of Satan in men and bring in the kingdom of God.
Our spiritual warfare, however, is not according to the flesh; the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly but powerful before God for the overthrowing of strongholds, as we overthrow reasonings and every high thing that rises up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:4-5).
As we learn to nourish one another in the vital groups, as we perfect the new believers, and as we practice to prophesy for the building up of the church, fulfilling our priestly service, we fight against the reasonings, strongholds of the mind, and we stand one with the Lord to bring every thought under the obedience of Christ.
In the spiritual warfare we wage as we function as priests we bind God’s enemy. If our eyes have been opened by the Lord, we will see that the nature of our work in serving the Lord is that of warfare.
The more we are engaged in the Lord’s service, the more we are engaged in warfare; this is not something to be afraid of, but it is a reality, and we are one with the Lord and with one another to fight for God’s interests on earth.
Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to spend time with You in Your word, being in Your presence, so that we may be infused with You and saturated with You as priests to God. Fill us, Lord, and saturate us with Yourself, so that You may be able to say things through us and do things in us; may our living and speaking be a channel for You to flow out. Lord, we stand with You on earth as the priesthood for You to move and act on earth. We stand against and overthrow any reasonings and high thing rising up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to the obedience of Christ. Amen, Lord Jesus!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1966, vol. 1, “The Priesthood,” ch. 6, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallisation-Study of Numbers (1), week 3, The Service of the Priests and the Levites for God’s Move.
- Hymns on this topic:
# All the building of the Body / On the priesthood doth depend; / Ever praying in the spirit / I this office would attend. (Hymns #848)
# Lord, anew we give our bodies; / May we be transformed to prove / All Thy will, to know Thy Body, / And therein to serve and move. (Hymns #913)
# We must ever preach the gospel, / Cherishing and nourishing; / Loving them as our dear children, / As our priestly offering… / We must ever preach the gospel, / Learning how to prophesy / For the building of the Body, / Thus the Lord to glorify. (Song on, We must ever preach the gospel)
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