The Secret of our Functioning as Priests is being Washed by the Life-Giving Spirit

The tabernacle with all its furnishings and utensils in the book of Exodus is a type of the experiences of Christ that we need for the building up of the church as the building of God, God’s habitation on earth. Christ is everything to God and man, and He is the reality of each and every item in the tabernacle:

• He is the Redeeming crucified Christ taking away our sins (the altar of burnt offering),
• He is the life-giving Spirit as the issue of the crucified Christ to wash us and cleanse us (the laver of bronze),
• He is the mingling of God with man (the tabernacle),
• He is the embodiment of God to shine out God and branch out in man for God’s expression (the golden lampstand),
• He is the bread of God’s presence as the serving supply for the saints (the table of the bread of the Presence),
• He is the interceding One at the golden altar seeking man’s cooperation in intercession (the incense altar),
• He is the embodiment of God to be the expression of God with the law of the testimony, the hidden manna, and the budding rod in resurrection (the ark of the testimony).

Christ is really everything to God and man for the building of God with man, the church consummating in the New Jerusalem. We need to enter into the experience of Christ in many aspects so that we may build up the church and be built up into the dwelling place of God.

We have seen many wonderful aspects of our experience of Christ as the ark, the propitiation place, the incense altar, the bread of the presence, the lampstand, and the altar of burnt offering, and this week we are focusing on the laver of bronze, one of the most neglected yet vitally crucial item in the tabernacle.

Without the function of the laver of bronze, no priest could do anything in the tabernacle; the very first thing that the priests had to do is get washed: they had to wash their hands and their feet at the laver of bronze, and then they could go on to experience the other items in the tabernacle and minister to God.

We need to see that the secret and the key to the operation of the tabernacle is the laver of bronze.

The Secret of our Functioning as Priests is being Washed by the Life-Giving Spirit

In Exo. 30:19-21 God emphatically and specifically ordains that Aaron and his sons would wash their hands and feet with water from the laver before they go into the Tent of Meeting, before they come to the altar to minister, and before they do anything. The laver is for the operation of the tabernacle, and without being washed at the laver no priest could minister to God or bring people before God in the tabernacle.

The priests had to offer many sacrifices on the burnt offering altar, such as, the burnt offering, meal offering, peace offering, sin offering, and trespass offering; these were necessary for the proper operation of the tabernacle. Then, the priests had to arrange the bread on the table in the Holy Place, trim the lamps of the lampstand, and intercede at the incense altar.

All these are their function and responsibility, but before they did any of these things, they had to make sure they washed their hands and their feet at the laver of bronze. The laver of bronze is the secret to the operation of everything in the entire tabernacle; if the priests didn’t wash their hands and feet at the laver before they did anything, death would ensue.

The secret to our functioning as priests is the experience of Christ as the laver of bronze, that is, the experience of the constant washing of the life-giving Spirit. Without the laver, nothing in the tabernacle of in the outer court could operate; without us being washed and cleansed and renewed by the life-giving Spirit, we cannot function as priests, and we cannot enter into the deeper experiences of Christ for the building up of the church.

If the laver had been removed from the outer court, everything else in the tabernacle and the outer court would still be complete, but there would be no way for these things to operate.

Christ as the life-giving Spirit washes us, cleanses us, renews us, and removes any dirt and defilement from our contact with the world so that we may serve a living God in a living and new way. Before we can serve God and function as priests we need to exercise our spirit and enjoy the washing of the life-giving Spirit. Without the washing of the divine life, the flowing of the life-giving Spirit, we cannot come and enter into more experience of Christ in a subjective way.

We need to remain in the constant union with this Christ who is the life-giving Spirit, and only then can we function as priests and experience Christ in a deeper and more subjective way as the reality of the items in the tabernacle.

We need to spend adequate amount of time with the Lord and let Him shine on us through His word (the “mirror” of the laver of bronze) to expose the worldliness and dirt in us, and we need to allow the life-giving Spirit to wash us, renew us, and reconstitute us to be qualified to experience Christ in a deeper way for the building up of the church.

May we be those who find this secret and apply this secret to our daily life so that we may function as priests and build up the church as the house of God!

Lord Jesus, we want to know the secret of being thoroughly washed by the life-giving Spirit so that we may function as priest and experience You in a deeper way for the building up of the church. May we be those who spend an adequate amount of time with You in Your word to be shined on by You, exposed by Your light, and washed by Your Spirit so that any dirt, defilement, and negative thing would be removed from us and we would be qualified to function as priest in the church. Keep us in the constant union with Christ as the life-giving Spirit to enjoy the washing and the cleansing!

How we need the Washing of Regeneration and the Renewing of the Holy Spirit!

Most believers know the wonderful redemption of Christ, and they treasure the precious blood of Christ; the redemption of the cross deals with our sin before God, but we still have a problem – we have the earthly defilement.

Simply by living in this world, going to work or to school, and going about our daily life, we are being defiled and contaminated by this world. Therefore, we need not only the cleansing of the blood of Christ (which deals with sins) but also the renewing of the Spirit, the washing of the life-giving Spirit.

The washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5) are for dealing with and removing the inward defilement.

Whenever we desire to approach God and sense that we are condemned and defiled, we need the washing of the blood to deal with our condemnation and the renewing of the Holy Spirit to rid us of our defilement. We may need ten minutes to make a petition regarding a certain matter, but prior to making the petition, we may need twenty minutes to seek the cleansing of the blood and the renewing of our inner being. One cannot enter the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies without spending time at the altar and the laver. If a person has not spent much time passing through the altar and the laver, he is not able to have much experience of the Holy Place and of the Holy of Holies. The altar deals with our sin, and the laver deals with our filthiness. A person who seeks spiritual experiences must pass through the altar and the laver. (Witness Lee, Three Aspects of the Church, Book 1: The Meaning of the Church, p. 170)

This is true if we check with our experience: we can’t intercede for others or experience Christ as the lampstand just like that – we need to first spend time with the Lord to be renewed, washed, and cleansed by Him, so that any filthiness and contamination from the world would be removed.

Many times we don’t even want to pray – we don’t feel like praying, or we think we prayed yesterday for the same person, so why intercede now….the world with its contamination adds layers of dirt and defilement on our being, and we need to be thoroughly washed before we can experience Christ in a deeper way.

Daily we need to set aside time, both in the morning, and throughout the day, and even in the evening, to just touch the Lord, enjoy Him in His word, and allow the process of the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Spirit to take place in us.

Even when we meet with other saints, many times we may want to talk to them about worldly things, politics, sports, etc…Oh, how we need the constant washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit!

Lord Jesus, we need the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit day by day! Wash us today in Your word and by Your Spirit. Remove all filthiness and contamination from the world as You expose it in us through Your word. Lord, we love You, we come to You, and we allow You to shine on us and wash away anything of the world so that we may be cleansed and reconstituted beings, priests serving God in the church life. Lord, You know our thoughts, our desires, our intentions, and our doings….keep us in this process of being washed and cleansed!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, brother Dick Taylor’s sharing in the message for this week, and Three Aspects of the Church, Book 1: The Meaning of the Church, p. 170 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (3), week 7 (week 31), The Laver of Bronze.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # The Spirit ever giving life / Transforms me thus with life divine; / Renewing all my inward parts, / In life He makes Christ’s image mine. (Hymns #244)
  # Oh, purify us, Lord, today; / Wash all our natural life away. / Speak now Thy words in us, / And make us glorious. / O Lord, do speak in us today. (Hymns #1135)
  # Jesus is the living Spirit / And the living Word; / When we touch Him by pray-reading / We receive this Lord. / Jesus is the living Spirit / Who among us flows; / Fellowship of life in spirit / Unity bestows. (Hymns #1142)