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"Teaching
the things concerning the
The
Royal Priesthood
Book
One
By J.
Preston Eby
Table of Contents
Chapter
Title
Page
3.
The Priests Display His Glory
27
5.
The Compassionate Priest
51
6.
Partakers of the Heavenly Calling
62
7.
Qualifications of the Priestly Calling
74
8.
Qualifications of the Priestly Calling (cont.)
86
9.
Qualifications of the Priestly Calling (cont.)
98
10.
Qualifications of the Priestly Calling (cont.)
110
11.
Qualifications of the Priestly Calling (cont.)
123
12.
Qualifications of the Priestly Calling (cont.)
134
13.
Qualifications of the Priestly Calling (cont.)
147
14.
The Progression of the Priesthood
159
15.
The Expanding Priesthood
171
16.
The Expanding Priesthood (cont.)
183
Chapter
1
A
In the Bible there are a
great number of words, phrases, and expressions that are especially significant in the
creative and redemptive plan of God. One of the first such phrases was uttered by God
Himself before ever He brought mankind into being when He said, "Let us make man in
our image." This was the purpose of God condensed into about as few words as can be
used. Then there were the inspired words of Isaiah when he prophesied, "Unto us a
child is born; unto us a Son is given." Connected with this were the words of the
angels unto the shepherds, "For unto you is born this day in the city of
There are many other examples
of such words and phrases, but one we want to consider in this message is the proclamation
of the Lord to His people in Ex. 19:5-6: "And ye shall be unto Me A KINGDOM OF
PRIESTS." The full text reads, "Now, therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed,
and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for
all the earth is Mine: and ye shall be unto Me A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS, and an holy
nation." The subject of the royal Priesthood, like many of the themes of Scripture,
is inexhaustible. It sparkles as the twinkling stars of the heavens with glories which
many have not yet beheld. Let us put our eye to the telescope of the Holy Spirit, and
allow this grand subject to be brought nearer to our spiritual vision for, in so doing, we
shall behold more of the grandeur and ineffableness of the "High Priest of our
profession, Christ Jesus," and of the purpose and majesty of OUR ONENESS IN HIM. This
makes it mandatory upon us to remove the shoes from off our feet and tread carefully upon
this holy and mysterious ground. But at the same time it also holds out the promise to us
that we shall here gain an insight into some of the most marvelous and glorious things in
God's whole mighty work of creation and redemption.
A PEOPLE FOR A PURPOSE
Turning to our text, the
first thing that we notice is the injunction to obedience. "If ye will hearken to My
voice indeed, and keep My covenant." We could not think of a disobedient people being
for God - "a peculiar treasure, a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation." The
apostle Peter speaks of the saints as "children of obedience;" they are begotten
of that nature, and characterized by it. He speaks of "being born again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the living and abiding Word of God" (I
Pet. 1:14, 23). Man after the flesh is born of corruptible seed, but there is another
generation born of incorruptible seed, who desire earnestly the pure milk of the Word, and
then the strong meat of the Word, and who grow up into the measure of the stature of the
fullness of the Christ by it. They become "a chosen race, a kingly priesthood, a holy
nation, a people for a purpose" (I Pet. 2:9). Just what the Lord proposed in Exodus
chapter 19.
As one has written: "In
the sovereign operation of the Spirit of God upon mankind, there is the apprehending of
those whom He chooses to become a part of His specific workings for this day. In every age
He has selected those whom He wills, drawing them out and beyond the normal course of this
world's living, and placing within them a Divine Call, a sense of destiny which must be
fulfilled. This inworking of His grace results in the formation of a 'new creation
species' which becomes part of that 'firstfruits' for the demonstration of His love and
salvation for all mankind. It is clearly written, 'And it was of His own will that He gave
us birth as sons by His Word of Truth, so that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His
creatures - A SAMPLE of what He created to be consecrated to Himself' (James 1:18,
Amplified). Hence this divine selectivity is a vital part of the outworking of His own
purpose, not for the excluding of all men from His salvation, but rather for the
consummation of that plan, as they become instruments through whom His grace and mercy are
revealed to others."
To these the word of promise
is given: "Ye shall be a PECULIAR TREASURE unto Me above all people." Many of us
know all too well that this word "peculiar" has often been used to cloak
religious conduct both strange and irrational. People have been known to dress in outmoded
or unusual styles of clothing, to act in wild and curious ways, and to do rather weird
things and then grin a self-conscious grin and justify it all by saying, "Well, we
are called to be God's peculiar people!" The English word "peculiar" in the
language of A.D. 1611 (when the King James Bible was published) had no connotation of
queerness, oddness, ridiculousness nor foolishness. It translates the Hebrew word GULLA
meaning "to shut up wealth - to put the jewels, treasures, etc. belonging to a king
in a safe, protected place because of their extraordinary value." It was God's way of
emphasizing that His special people would be of great importance, value, and purpose to
Him - a treasure above all other treasures.
Every loving mother and
father has a good idea of what God meant. There are babies in houses up and down every
street, as you can tell by the baby clothes hanging on the lines of a summer day. But in
the house where you live, there is one little infant in particular, and he is a peculiar
treasure unto you above all others. It does not mean necessarily that he is prettier, but
it does mean that he is the treasure above all other treasures, full of hope and purpose
in your lives, and you would not trade him for any other child in the whole world. He is a
peculiar treasure! This gives us some idea, at least, of what we are - God's special
jewels marked out for Him!
But it means infinitely MORE
than that! The apostle Peter, reiterating the covenant of Ex. 19:5-6 states, and the
Diaglott beautifully renders, "But you are a chosen Race, a Royal Priesthood, a holy
Nation, a PEOPLE FOR A PURPOSE; that ye may declare the Perfections of Him who called you
from darkness into His wonderful light." In the phrase, "a people FOR a
purpose," it has been pointed out that the word "for" is the Greek word
"eis" meaning INTO, and signifies that forward action of God taking a people and
leading them onward, preparing them, purifying them, until they become merged into ONE
with His purpose and reality. A people INTO A PURPOSE! So many wander through their whole
life time here upon earth with no aim, no vision, no goal, no purpose for living, no
understanding as to the why of this schooling experience under the dealing of God's hands,
and no preparation for what lies beyond.
The sovereign Lord and King
of the universe says that He is choosing a people to be His very own "special
treasure" for the outworking of His purpose. It is said that a bar of steel worth
five dollars, when made into ordinary horseshoes will be worth only ten dollars. If this
same five-dollar bar is manufactured into needles, the value rises to $350, but if it is
made into delicate springs for expensive watches, it will be worth $250,000. This original
bar of steel is made more valuable by being cut to its proper size, passed through the
heat again and again, hammered and manipulated, beaten and pounded and finished and
polished, until it is finally ready for its delicate task. This truly is a parable which
sets forth a vital truth concerning the elect of God. Let us realize that God expends His
effort only on that which gives promise of having value. The farmer does not spend time
tilling the sand hill that has no value for crops; he puts most of his time and work into
the heavy field which has the greatest promise of an abundant harvest. When God leaves us
utterly alone, and does not lay His heavy hand of dealing upon us, we may be sure that our
lives are barren, and fit only to be "vessels of dishonor" in the great house of
His Kingdom.
Someone has said,
"Sunshine all the time only makes a desert." We need the clouds, the dark days,
the storms, the rain, the winds, just as much as we need the sunshine, and God who is
molding our lives, seeking to make us into the image of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the One
who knows what is best for us if we would be a part of HIS PURPOSE in the earth. In this
connection, we hear Job saying, "He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried
me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10). Notice that Job does not say, “I
know the way that He takes," but rather, "He knoweth the way that I take."
We would like to know what God is doing. We would like to pull aside the veil and see the
end from the beginning. We would like to know the way that He is taking us, but if we did,
and if we could see, we would not need faith to believe and accept GOD'S WAY. So Job, in
the midst of all his deep afflictions, found comfort, not in the fact that he knew the
reason and the answer for all of God's dealing with him, but he took encouragement in the
truth that GOD KNEW WHAT HE WAS DOING. "He knoweth the way that I take," he said
confidently, and then his faith leaped over every barrier, and as he looked into the
distant future, he cried, "When He hath tried (processed) me, I shall come forth as
gold."
As His special treasure He
has a great and wonderful plan for us. There is no need to comment at length on the
instruments He employs in preparing us to be what He desires, for we have them on every
hand, pressure upon pressure, difficulties, testings, trials, labors and cares, along with
the precious blessings, victories, and triumphs of His grace. But it is essential to
realize that the Father has great PURPOSE in it all that we might be trained, developed,
processed and formed with a view to our being part of His greater purpose which
encompasses the ages yet to come. Treasures are not locked in the treasure-house merely
because they have great value - they are there RESERVED UNTO A PURPOSE. In due time they
shall be brought forth to serve as vessels of honor at the royal banquet, as adornment for
ruling dignitaries, as materials for some splendid building or magnificent temple, or yet
to support a fighting army, to conquer other kingdoms, to secure the peace, and to make
provision for the needs of the people.
A treasure for a purpose!
What a calling! There is a company, gathered out of all generations, and joined unto the
Christ, which in due time shall be led forth out of the Father's TREASURE HOUSE OF SONS to
be the manifest expression of His image, character, and nature, the revelation of the
fullness of His power and glory, who shall carry to fulfillment all of His counsel and
will. For these the whole creation groans, and they are in the process of preparation,
reserved unto a day of manifestation. God knows every detail of His redemptive plan for
His creation, and precisely the work to be wrought by each of His kings and priests, and
He chooses by His election of grace those previously marked out (predestinated) according
to His foreknowledge, and who shall come INTO PURPOSE at the appointed time as Sons of God
to deliver groaning creation from the bondage of corruption, restoring all back into God
again, praise His wonderful name!
A
And just what is God's
purpose? He declares, "Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for
all the earth is Mine: and ye shall be unto Me A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS." Since kingship
was virtually the only type of government or state known in the ancient world,
"kingdom" could well be translated today as a "government" or
"state." A GOVERNMENT OF PRIESTS! A PRIESTLY STATE! A HOLY NATION OF PRIESTS!
God offered to
The Greek Old Testament
(Septuagint) states that they were to be "a priesthood of kings." It was
intended to be the way of life, the office, the nature, the ministry of all
When God first created man...
when he had come fresh from the fingers of his Maker ... when he had inhabited that
primeval garden and knew all the delights of that heavenly realm ... when he saw the
glories of the spangled heavens above and the beauties of the world and nature about
him... there is no doubt that the greatest bliss and the highest joy which mankind knew in
this world was that communion he had with his Creator who walked in the garden with him in
the cool of the day. Man was created to have fellowship with God. No doubt, the greatest
ecstasy, the sublimest joy, that man can ever know is to experience fellowship and union
with God. When man sinned and the whole human race was plunged into vanity and chaos,
suddenly there came across the sunshine of that fellowship a dark cloud which blotted out
the light and hid the face of God from man. Man now was not only a banished criminal, but
he was also an estranged son, cast away from the Father's heart and home and no longer
experiencing that blessed fellowship and beautiful relationship with his Creator, God, and
Father.
Man has wandered long and far
seeking something he knows not what. His heart is empty and it will never be filled until
it is filled with that blessed love of God. He will for ever be restless until he finds
himself at home in God again, until he knows once more that oneness with the living
God.
"Wherefore in all things
it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of
the people" (Heb. 2:17). "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet
without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain
mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb. 4:15-16). There are two things
every man needs - reconciliation to God - and grace to help, strengthen, and give
overcoming victory in time of need that we may continue the journey, pressing forward into
the fullness of our redemption in Him. These instinctive cravings of the soul are as
mighty and irrepressible as the craving of the body for sleep or food; and they are as
evident amid our luxury and refinement as in primeval forests, or beside the historic
rivers of antiquity.
To meet these two needs -
reconciliation and grace to help - men have constituted one of their number a priest. That
word has an ominous sound to our ears, because it has been associated with immoralities
and cruelty. The world has never seen more unscrupulous scoundrels than its priests,
whether of Baal or Moloch, of Judaism or the Papacy. All through the ages it has seemed
impossible for men to receive power in the spiritual realm without abusing it to the
injury of those who sought their help. Study the history of the priesthood, which murdered
the Christ because He threw too strong a light upon its hypocrisies and villainies; and
you have the history of every priestcraft which has darkened the world with crime, and
saturated its soil with the blood of its prophets and the saintliest of men.
AND YET THE IDEA OF THE
PRIEST IS A NATURAL AND A BEAUTIFUL AND A SCRIPTURAL ONE. It is natural for men who are
conscious of sin barring their approach into the presence of a holy God to say to one of
their fellows, "Our hands are stained with blood, and grimed with toil; our garments
spotted with pollution and dust; our lives too busy for us to spare time for those rites
which alone can fit the sinner to stand before the eye of God; do for us what we cannot do
for ourselves; prepare yourself by holy rite, and vigil, and fasting from sin, so as to be
able to stand in the presence-chamber of the All-Holy; and, when you have acquired the
right of audience with Him, speak for us, make reconciliation for our sins; and then come
forth to us, ministering of His life and blessing those who have not attained to your
position, but yet struggle with the strong, rough, bad world in which they
live."
This seems to be the
underlying thought in all that vast system of this world's priestcraft which has built
temples in every land, reared altars on every soil, and constituted a priesthood among the
most degraded as well as the most civilized races of mankind.
And there is great BEAUTY in
the work and ministry of a true priest, as God has ordained. In the Levitical Priesthood
of the Old Testament the priest who had a true priest's heart was not always engaged in
the bloody work of sacrificing flocks of fleecy sheep, by which alone, in those rude days,
the cost of sin could be computed; the true priest would have other, and, perhaps, more
touching work. He would be the shepherd of the timid souls around him; listening to
confessions whispered over the heads of the dumb victims; feeling compassion for erring,
helpless, and wayward ones; comforting those who were passing through scenes of sorrow,
till faces, shadowed with tears, began to gleam with holy light; arresting the proud hand
of the oppressor. Never possessed of self-interest; never looking for ease, or pleasure,
or gain; never resting while one poor wanderer was away in the snowdrift or on the desert
floor. Yes, and more! He would be the spokesman of souls, praying for those who did not
pray for themselves; praying with those who knew not what or how to ask; interceding for
the whole race of man. Ah! such was the ministry of the true priest, beautifully typifying
the greater priesthood to come, the chosen race born from above, the holy nation conformed
to the image of God's Son, the royal priesthood, the people prepared for HIS
PURPOSE.
THE MINISTRY OF PRIESTHOOD
Deep down in the heart of men
there is a strong and instinctive demand for a priest, to be a mediator, to lay one hand
on man, and the other on God, and going between both to bring the two together into
unification. A priest or priesthood infers that there is a reason why such has been called
into play. It denotes that there is an estrangement between God and His creatures and the
priest ministers to bridge that gulf and bring about peace and at-one-ment.
Webster's dictionary defines
priest as: a mediatory agent between God and man. In the Old Testament the word priest is
translated from the Hebrew word COHEN, the root meaning of which is "one who stands
up and draws nigh for another." The Greek word, in its root, means "to
minister." Thus, a priest is one who "draws near and ministers on behalf of
another." And the priest always draws nigh and ministers in TWO DIRECTIONS - drawing
nigh to God on behalf of the people and drawing nigh to the people on behalf of God. The
priest stands and ministers unto the Lord on behalf of the people while, on the other
hand, he ministers unto the people on behalf of the Lord. The ministry of the priest is an
intermediate or go-between ministry. He reaches out with one hand and takes hold of God;
he reaches out with the other hand and takes hold of humanity; and he brings the two
together by virtue of his priestly ministration.
The inspired writer to the
Hebrew saints says of our Lord Jesus Christ: "We have such an high priest, who is set
on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a MINISTER OF THE
SANCTUARY, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man" (Heb.
8:1-2). What does he mean when he says that Christ is the "Minister of the
Sanctuary"? In every temple there was a god, an unseen god, to whom the temple was
devoted. But there was a priest, the priest of that temple, who was to receive the
petitions or the sacrifices of the worshipper and to get the answer back from God. So it
was with Aaron in the Old Testament. It is said of him and of the priests of
There is both a Godward and a
manward work in reconciliation and redemption. And so our great High Priest, Jesus, stands
as the Minister of the Sanctuary, as the Priest of the Tabernacle, the realm of His
dwelling, and He ministers in a dual way. Christ as the Minister of the Sanctuary, has
done these things: First of all, He opened the sanctuary, the way into the fullness of the
presence and life and power and glory of God. This He did by His blood, pouring out His
life, making it available so that in its power we have access into God. When He ascended
into the heavenlies He entered, with His own blood, by the energies of His own divine
life, into the Holiest place. And we read that with that blood, with that sacrifice - the
better sacrifice of a divine life - the heavenly things were cleansed, and that in opening
up the Holiest with His blood, He secured for us complete and most confident access into
God's presence and glory. In Himself He brings us nigh unto God. But He does more. Without
interruption there flows back from the Father to the Son, in whom He delights, a stream of
blessing to impart to His people upon earth. And even so, as the sunlight streams from the
sun, there flows forth unceasingly from the Son of God a stream of life and light and love
and power and glory unto all who believe. It is flowing even now. Oh! we must realize
this. The Christ brings us nigh to God IN HIMSELF and IN HIMSELF He brings God into us.
"To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself" (II Cor.
5:19).
In the Old Testament on the
Day of Atonement, on that day and that day alone, the High Priest entered in beyond the
veil, from the
The mystery of it is that ALL
ISRAEL - every man, woman, and child - were on that day identified in the person of the
High Priest. He was a representative man, a corporate man as it were. The whole
congregation of
The High Priest was thus the
mediator between God and the people. He carried the presence of God, the sins and needs of
the people, and carried the people in him. He obtained from God the power to declare the
remission of sin and the right of blessing the people. God drew nigh unto the people in
the person of the Priest. God ministered of Himself unto the people through the blessing
of the Priest. "And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and
came out, and BLESSED THE PEOPLE: and THE GLORY OF THE LORD APPEARED UNTO ALL THE
PEOPLE" (Lev. 9:23). The service of the priesthood is clear, FIRST TO MINISTER TO THE
LORD, then to stand between the Creator and His creation, to minister the life of Christ
to those who sit in darkness, in the region of the shadow of death, until all are fully
reconciled to God again. The body of the Christ, as its glorious Head, must be a kingdom
of priests, a people for His purpose.
True priestly blessing is to
flow out two ways: TO GOD, and to man. "BLESS THE LORD, O my soul: and all that is
within me, bless His holy name" (Ps. 103:1). "Thus will I BLESS THEE while I
live; I will lift up my hands in Thy name" (Ps. 63:4). As a dear brother in the Lord
has written: "There is something so precious about the action of a child that turns
to you with their hands outstretched and lifted up to you - signifying their desire to be
received of you, of their trust, of their love, of their willingness to cast themselves
upon you for their care. Is this not an earthly parable of what it means to BLESS THE
LORD, lifting up our hands in His name? We freely acknowledge that we love Him, we trust
Him, we commit ourselves to Him, we desire to be received by Him. An uplifted hand
bespeaks volumes of blessing to the Lord. And uniquely enough, while we are thus blessing
Him, speaking well of Him, and signifying to all that we deem Him worthy of our love and
trust, it brings rich blessings to our own heart as well, for He does receive us, and He
does become our strength and security, our sufficiency for all things. Praise God!
"'GIVE UNTO THE LORD, ye
kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the
glory due unto His name: bring an offering, and come before Him: worship the Lord in the
beauty of holiness' (I Chron. 16:28-29). The outflow of our spirit in worship before Him
need not be limited by time or space, nor affected by circumstances, nor hindered by lack
of others with whom to unitedly worship. Even this phrase included, 'bring an offering' -
in blessing the Lord there surely are more ways of bringing an offering, than sending a
check to the needy somewhere. That is all well and good in its place, as He directs and
orders our way. But we are now speaking of, GIVING TO THE LORD - offerings of praise,
expressions of our adoration, songs which magnify Him in our consciousness, so that our
spirit flows out to Him in love.
"There is another facet
to consider also, for the very girding up of the loins of our mind, to bless the Lord,
will restrain thoughts which are negative and unfruitful. Ah, you cannot truly BLESS THE
LORD, and sing praises to Him, and at the same time think Condemnation thoughts toward
your neighbor because his dog dug up your flower bed. Therefore we are encouraged to
'bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name.' When ALL THAT
IS WITHIN US is centralized in the act of blessing the Lord, it has brought our whole
being into harmony and oneness, positive and upbuilding. Wonderful! Then there is a
reaching out to bless others - this is a ministry unlimited by time or space, unhindered
by an Iron Curtain, or any other such man-caused barrier. As our 'vapours of blessing'
ascend, the Spirit of the Lord can cause them to distill in blessings in the remote
corners of the earth.
" 'And as soon as David
had made an end of offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he BLESSED THE PEOPLE in
the name of the Lord of hosts' (II Sam, 6:18). 'The king (Solomon) turned his face, and
BLESSED THE WHOLE CONGREGATION of
I cannot emphasize too
strongly the important truth that ALL PRIESTHOOD has a double outreach - ministry to both
God and man. It could not be otherwise, for a priest is one who "stands between"
two factions in mediation, and the moment a priest ceases to touch both God and man,
unifying the two, he simply ceases to be a priest. He may be a worshipper who speaks to
God, or a king who rules the people for God, or a prophet who speaks on behalf of God, but
no man can have a one-sided ministry and be a priest. The priest must minister unto God on
behalf of men and unto men on behalf of God. The priest must touch God with one hand and
mankind with the other hand, bringing the two together by his ministration. Anything less
or different than this is not priesthood at all.
When Moses blessed the
priestly tribe of Levi he said, first, "They (the Levites) shall teach Jacob (the
carnal man) Thy judgments, and
True ministry, however, the
ministry of the Spirit, will always touch men in their deepest hearts and commend itself
to their consciences. We can always know the source from which a man is drawing who speaks
in "the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth," and with "the ability which
God giveth;" and while we should ever pray to be delivered from the mere effort of
man's intellect to handle the holy truths of God, we should diligently cultivate that
power to teach which stands connected, as in Levi's case, with the denial of the claims of
flesh and blood, and with entire consecration to HIS PURPOSES.
In the second aspect of
Levi's ministry we have a very elevated point: "They shall put incense before Thee,
and whole burnt offering upon Thine altar." This is ministry UNTO THE LORD. We put
incense before God when we are enabled, in the power of communion, to present in His
presence the sweet odor of the Spirit's work in our lives and the sacrifice of praise. But
a priest never approaches God solely for himself, he continually represents men unto God,
so in Rev. 8:3-4 the incense of worship is offered up "WITH the PRAYERS of the
saints." In either of these dual roles, the Levites in ministry to their brethren,
and the Levites in worship before God, it was as acceptable in the sight of God, and as
divine an exercise of his priestly functions, for a Levite to instruct his brethren as it
was for him to burn incense before the Lord. This is very important. We should never
separate these two things. If we do not see that it is the same Spirit who must qualify us
to speak FOR God as to speak TO Him, there will be a great lack in our ministry. And if we
endeavor to speak only FOR God and do not minister TO Him, or, if we minister TO Him but
fail to MINISTER HIM unto men, then we know nothing of THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD. Oh God! make
us priests indeed.
It is interesting to note
that the Melchizedek Priesthood is also a priesthood flowing in two directions. "And
Melchizedek, king of
Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
High Priest of the Melchizedekian Order, to which we, the members of His body, the Royal
Priesthood, are called, and while He has beautifully offered Himself up to God as a sweet
smelling savour, an acceptable sacrifice, and the incense of all His divine attributes, He
also "is able to SAVE THEM to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever
liveth to make intercession FOR THEM" (Heb. 7:25). I have met many would-be Sons of
God across the land who pride themselves that they have been called aside to MINISTER UNTO
THE LORD, but they have absolutely no corresponding vision to SAVE MEN, and wouldn't walk
across the street to minister to a needy soul. Ah, I do not hesitate to tell you, precious
ones, that such have no true revelation of what is embodied in the MELCHIZEDEK PRIESTHOOD.
How I rejoice in the knowledge that Jesus Christ, the High Priest of the Melchizedek
Order, does indeed have a ministry manward! Without it I, and you, too, precious friend of
mine, would still be lost without God and without hope in the world. Thank God, HE REACHED
DOWN HIS HAND FOR ME!
"Let us therefore come
boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time
of need" (Heb. 4:16). "...that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest
in things pertaining to God, to MAKE RECONCILIATION FOR THE SINS OF THE PEOPLE" (Heb.
2:17). "And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, BUT ALSO FOR
THE SINS OF THE WHOLE WORLD" (I Jn. 2:2). HE ever liveth to bring such victory to His
creation, none left out, none rejected, for "I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw ALL MEN unto Me" (Jn. 12:32), and "all the ends of the world shall
remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before
Thee" (Ps. 22:27). And there shall come a priesthood who shall truly labor together
with Christ until all enemies are subdued under His feet, until death is no more, until
all things are made new, until the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth, as
the waters cover the sea, and until HIS LIFE FILLS THE UNIVERSE, praise His name!
Furthermore, the Priesthood
of the Sons of Zadok revealed in Eze. 44:9-31, contrary to what many teach, is also a dual
priesthood, to God and man. "And the Levites that are gone away from Me, when Israel
went astray, which went astray away from Me after their idols; they shall even bear their
iniquity. Yet shall they be ministers in My sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the
house, and ministering to the house: they shall slay the burnt-offering and the sacrifice
for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them. Because they
ministered unto them before their idols, and caused the house of
How clear that there was a
class of Levites who busily served in the temple, and yet they were not serving HIM; they
were merely serving the HOUSE. If an Israelite came along to the temple and wanted to
worship God, those Levites would come to his aid and help him offer his peace offering and
his burnt offering. They would help him drag the sacrifice to the altar, and they would
slay it. Surely that was a grand work to be engaged in! And God took account of the
service of those Levites who helped men bring their offerings to the altar, and who
ministered to the house. Yet, because of their departure from the Lord, HE STRIPPED THEM
OF THEIR PRIESTHOOD, and all that they did was not ministry to Himself. They were serving
the house, but they were not serving God. And they were not called priests, for their's
was a one-sided ministry.
But what do we really mean
when we talk about serving God or serving the temple? Here is what the Lord said:
"But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of My
sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, THEY SHALL COME NEAR TO ME TO
MINISTER UNTO ME; and they shall STAND BEFORE ME to offer unto Me the fat and the
blood." The conditions basic to all ministry that can truly be called ministry
"unto the Lord" are - drawing near to Him and standing before Him. Such ministry
is confined to a certain place, "They shall enter into My sanctuary, and they shall
come near to My table to minister unto Me." Ministry that is "unto Me" is
in the inner sanctuary, in the hidden place, alone with God, not in the outer court
exposed to the crowd. Unless we really know what it is to draw near to God, we cannot know
what it is to serve HIM. It is impossible to stand afar off and still minister to HIM. We
cannot serve HIM from a distance, encumbered with the activities of THIS WORLD. There is
only one place where ministry to Him is possible, and that is in the
But we may think, as many do,
that these sons of Zadok, because they did not minister TO THE HOUSE, had no ministry
whatever UNTO MEN. NOT SO! For the Lord had a further word for these sons of Zadok, and
gave them this instruction: "And when they go forth into the utter (outer) court,
even into the utter court TO THE PEOPLE, they shall put off their garments wherein they
ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers ... and THEY SHALL TEACH MY PEOPLE the
difference between the holy and the profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean
and the clean. And in controversy THEY SHALL STAND IN JUDGMENT (as judges); and they shall
judge it according to My judgments" (Eze. 44:19,23-24).
Can we not see by this that
there is NO PRIESTHOOD OF ANY ORDER which is excluded from the dual ministry which true
priesthood embodies. To abolish either of these roles would be the destruction of the
priesthood itself. Watchman Nee wisely wrote: I love to read in Acts 13 about the prophets
and teachers in the Church at
God has always wanted a
priesthood. The priesthood is foundational to the outworking of His redemption and central
to His plan of the ages. The covenant of God still stands today: "Now therefore, if
ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be A PECULIAR TREASURE
UNTO ME ABOVE ALL PEOPLE: for all the earth is Mine: AND YE SHALL BE UNTO ME A KINGDOM OF
PRIESTS, AND AN HOLY NATION." Oh, beloved, come, let us now open our hearts wide to
Him. Come, and as we gaze upon this glorious ministry and its life-flow to all the
families of the earth, let us yield ourselves unto God that He may work His wondrous work
in our lives, bringing us into such union with Jesus, the High Priest of our profession,
that we become in nature and power His ROYAL-PRIESTHOOD in the earth! The manifestation of
the Sons of God for which all creation is in travail is nothing more nor less than the
full manifestation of God's fully developed and empowered body of KING-PRIESTS AFTER THE
ORDER OF MELCHISEDEK. Those apprehended unto this ministry are indeed, A PEOPLE FOR A
PURPOSE!
This is but a feeble
introduction to so vast and glorious a theme, which winds its way like a mighty shimmering
river through the pages of Holy Writ. We shall pursue this subject, Lord willing, in
coming issues.
Chapter
2
ALL
THE EARTH IS MINE
"Now, therefore, if ye
will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto
Me above all people: FOR ALL THE EARTH IS MINE: and ye shall be unto Me A KINGDOM OF
PRIESTS, and an holy nation" (Ex. 19:5-6).
The subject of the Royal
Priesthood, like many of the themes of Scripture, is inexhaustible. It sparkles as the
twinkling stars of the heavens with glories which many have not yet beheld. Let us put our
eye to the telescope of the Holy Spirit, and allow this grand subject to be brought nearer
to our spiritual vision for, in so doing, we shall behold more of the grandeur and
ineffableness of the "High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus," and of the
purpose and majesty of OUR ONENESS IN HIM. This makes it mandatory upon us to remove the
shoes from off our feet and tread carefully upon this holy and mysterious ground. But at
the same time it also holds out the promise to us that we shall here gain an insight into
some of the most marvelous and glorious things in God's whole mighty work of creation and
redemption.
And just what is God's
purpose? He declares, "Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for
all the earth is Mine: and ye shall be unto Me A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS." Since kingship
was virtually the only type of government or state known in the ancient world,
"kingdom" could well be translated today as a "government" or
"state." A GOVERNMENT OF PRIESTS! A PRIESTLY STATE! A HOLY NATION OF PRIESTS!
God offered to
There is a strong and
instinctive need in this world of sinful men for a priest, to be a mediator, to lay one
hand on man, and the other on God, and going between them both to bring the two together
into unification. A priest or priesthood infers that there is a reason why such has been
called into play. It denotes that there is an estrangement between God and His creatures
and the priest ministers to bridge that gulf and bring about peace and atonement.
Webster's dictionary defines
priest as: a mediatory agent between God and man. In the Old Testament the word priest is
translated from the Hebrew word COHEN, the root meaning of which is "one who stands
up and draws nigh for another." The Greek word, in its root, means "to
minister." Thus, a priest is one who "draws near and ministers on behalf of
another." And the priest always draws nigh and ministers in TWO DIRECTIONS - drawing
nigh to God on behalf of the people and drawing nigh to the people on behalf of God. The
priest stands and ministers unto the Lord on behalf of the people while, on the other
hand, he ministers unto the people on behalf of the Lord. The ministry of the priest is
thus an intermediate or go-between ministry. He reaches out with one hand and takes hold
of God; he reaches out with the other hand and takes hold of humanity; and brings the two
together by virtue of his priestly ministration.
THE DIVINE
I have often characterized
our text as the GREAT DIVINE SANDWICH. A sandwich is two slices of bread between which is
placed meat, fish, cheese, or the like. Three items are necessary to make a sandwich, the
two outer items - two identical slices of bread - and in between another, and different,
item. Such is the structure of our text. There are two statements of like nature
surrounding and enclosing another and different kind of statement. Notice the two outer
statements: (1) Ye shall be a PECULIAR TREASURE unto Me above all people (2) Ye shall be
unto Me A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS, and an holy nation. Then, "sandwiched" in between
these two wonderful promises is this remarkable word: FOR ALL THE EARTH IS MINE.
Can we not see by this that
the purpose of God to establish in the earth a Royal Priesthood is rooted in the great
fact that ALL THE EARTH IS HIS? That all the earth is His answers the WHY of priesthood.
Long milleniums ago at Sinai the cry went ringing forth: "Ye shall be a peculiar
treasure unto Me above all people: FOR ALL THE EARTH IS MINE," and the words that
follow may correctly be stated thus: "BECAUSE ALL THE EARTH IS MINE ... ye shall be
unto Me a kingdom of priests."
ALL THE EARTH IS MINE
In the light of this
Scripture I would like to reaffirm something which the world at large, and many
Christians, seem to have forgotten: THIS IS GOD'S WORLD! Long before time began...long
before a single heavenly body inhabited the vast regions of space ... GOD WAS. When He
told Moses to tell Pharaoh that the "I AM" had sent him, God was talking about
His eternal, present-tense existence, before anything else had been "framed by the
word of God." I cannot - try though I may - picture a time when there was nothing but
God in all the vast expanse we call SPACE ... not one star, planet, or galaxy. I cannot
imagine what it could have been like not to have a world ... with its towering mountains,
its vast canyons, and its majestic waterfalls thundering down from the awesome heights in
indescribable power, then sweeping on to the seas. The total absence of all these things
is beyond my poor, limited comprehension. But the truth remains, as stated in the first
four words of Scripture: "In the beginning God..."
Long before the worlds were
made ... long before the billows rolled across the boundless seas long before the
mountains thrust their towering, snow-capped peaks up through the clouds... long before
there was one flower, or the song of any bird, or the roar of any beast... yes, long
before there was anything at all ... THERE WAS GOD. Then the blessed Word of God rolls
back the curtain of antiquity and shows us God at work, creating all that is, and all that
ever was. This passage of Scripture goes a mighty step further and establishes for all
time and eternity the OWNERSHIP of this world: "In the beginning GOD created the
heaven and the earth." He made it, and it is His. No one can take it from Him. It was
then that God wrote His signature of ownership - a signature that reaches from the earth
to the farthest outposts of the cosmos.
There is an understanding
that is developing in the consciousness of the "called out ones," those who are
going beyond the static creeds and empty traditions of the Church systems and pressing on
into the purposes of God, to know that ALL the earth is the Lord's. Not just a tree or
two, not just a mountain or two, not just the Church, but all of it, the very fullness
thereof. We are His whether we know it or not, we are His whether we like it or not,
whether we desire to serve Him, or whether we are presently in rebellion against His will.
It is both heartening and assuring to read such Scriptures as these: "The EARTH is
the Lord's, and the FULLNESS THEREOF; the WORLD and THEY THAT DWELL THEREIN" (Ps.
24:1). God has everything in the palm of His almighty hand. He is sovereign. Jesus is
King! Jesus is Lord! Job said, "In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and
the breath of ALL MANKIND" (Job 12:10). The current population of planet earth is
more than four and a half billion. For 1990, it is projected there will be six billion,
and by the year 2000, it is estimated there will be six and a half billion residents on
our planet. GOD GIVES BREATH AND LIFE TO THEM ALL AND THE EARTH IS THE LORD'S AND THE
FULLNESS THEREOF.
The prophet Daniel penned
these inspired words: "The Most High ... liveth forever, whose dominion is an
everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation. And all the
inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and He doeth ACCORDING TO HIS WILL in the
army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say
unto Him, What doest Thou?" (Dan. 4:34-35). God is saying to us that HE IS SOVEREIGN.
Another way to express that truth is: God owns the earth and everything in it - He does
what He wants to do and nobody can stop Him from doing it. In particular He is sovereign
with what He does with the earth. God does not have to ask anybody's permission to do
anything He wants with any part of the earth - and none can hinder or resist Him!
Now, I was raised with the
mentality that somehow the devil got the whole thing and that the earth belongs to
"the prince of the power of the air" and "the god of this world." NO,
IT DOESN'T! God owns it all and He gives it to whom He wills. He has the right to appoint
stewards over creation based on His purpose and their faithfulness, regardless of moral,
religious, or other considerations.
Let us look at three people
in the Scripture whom God raised up to rule in the earth. Isa. 44:24 to 45:7 talks about
Cyrus, the Persian king whom God put in charge of the earth. In Isaiah, the prophet called
Cyrus God's shepherd. That's astounding, to think God would raise up a heathen king to
accomplish His purposes in the earth. God says, "I will raise up Cyrus, My shepherd,
and he is to rule over the whole thing by My divine appointment." In Dan. 4:28-37, we
discover that Nebuchadnezzar ruled by God's divine appointment. If we think of the
If the earth is the Lord's
and the fullness thereof, then we need to somehow come to understand that God has never at
any time dealt with Satan on a percentage basis. God never did tell Satan that he could
have ninety percent and God be satisfied with ten percent. Neither did God ever say that
Satan could have even ten percent and He, God, would be satisfied with ninety percent.
WITH GOD IT IS ALL. It ALL belongs to Him. First, because He created it, and second,
because He redeemed it. God has assigned to Satan a limited sphere of influence over the
creation, for the outworking of God's wise and wonderful plan, but HE HAS NOT CEDED NOR
TRANSFERRED OWNERSHIP OF EVEN ONE INCH OF IT TO SATAN FOR A POSSESSION. To say that there
is any part of God's creation that Satan will possess forever is a horrible blasphemy
against God. As one has written, "Not always, however, shall men be in opposition to
our Creator, for after all present travail is ended, and man has run his course of
self-will and rebellion, there shall be an inflow of the love of God into every heart
which shall draw the creature back to his Creator, to serve Him with a whole heart, and
worship before Him in complete obedience to His will. So great a transforming power is the
operation of His grace in man, that we shall come to Him in love, and serve Him because we
want to serve Him, freely and joyfully."
When Melchizedek, priest of
the Most High God, blessed Abraham, He said to him, "Blessed be Abram of the Most
High God, POSSESSOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH." This word possessor comes from the Hebrew
root meaning to erect, create, and thus TO OWN. From a verb meaning to contain, or hold.
As the Scripture says, "IN HIM we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts
17:28). He contains us, even before we begin to contain Him, as the INDWELLING CHRIST. Man
has been HELD by God, long before man ever received God into his own being to contain Him.
HE is the POSSESSOR of heaven AND EARTH. Furthermore, "BY HIM all things
consist," or are held together, and "Thou hast created ALL things, and for THY
PLEASURE they are and were created" (Rev. 4:11). This answers the question of the
apostle, "Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the
Gentiles also" (Rom. 3:29), for He is "the God of the spirits of all flesh"
(Num. 16:22) and He has decreed, "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, ALL YE LANDS.
Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we (all
lands) are HIS PEOPLE, and the SHEEP OF HIS PASTURE" (Ps. 100:1, 3).
IT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE GOD'S
WORLD!
I will be the first to admit
that this world doesn't look very much like something that is owned by the great and good
God. At 5:30 A.M. on July 16, 1945, a light brighter than a thousand suns illuminated the
desert sands of
I look out over the world
today and I see demons stalking through the lands, with literally billions of people held
in the prison houses of the dense darkness of false religions, worshipping idols, and
devils, and the gods of superstition, tradition and fear. I look out over the world today
and I see the spirit of strife and hatred and war, thousands dying daily at the hands of
terrorists, in bloody revolutions on the battlefields of the world. I look out over the
world today and I see more than one third of the inhabitants of earth, nearly two billion
people, enslaved under the iron heel of godless, atheistic communism. It doesn't look much
like God's world, but IT IS!
I look out over the
third-world nations today and I see poverty and squalor and ignorance on an
incomprehensible scale, millions of people starving to death, pitiful little children with
protruding eyes and stomachs bloated from malnutrition, without hope in the world. I look
out over the industrialized nations of the West today and I see untold millions of people
bowing before the gods of humanism, secularism, and worshipping before the shrines of the
gods of pleasure, sex, perversion, and debauchery. Fornication, adultery, and
homosexuality are all a big joke, just something to laugh about. In
I look out across our land
today and I see millions of our children on drugs, spaced out, angry with the world,
hostile to parents and all authority, and out-of-joint with society. I see that evil
teachings, incredible in their filth and degradation, have crept into our public schools
on every hand while God, prayer, and the Bible have been thrown out and openly ridiculed.
I see a giant crime wave of unprecedented proportions sweeping across our cities, New York
City alone has between five hundred and a thousand bank robberies each year, rape is out
of control, murder is commonplace, and nothing and no one is safe on our streets anymore.
IT DOESN'T LOOK MUCH LIKE A WORLD THAT GOD WOULD OWN, DOES IT? BUT, HE DOES!
This present evil world is
hideously marred by SIN. Let us make this thing more personal. Go with me to yonder
hospital, and listen for just a moment to the cries and moans of the sick and the
suffering. See the red eyes wet with tears, and think of the bleeding hearts behind those
tears as they carry that loved one away. Go with me to yonder prison and see the young
lives blighted and shriveled with sin, caged up like wild animals. Follow me now to yonder
asylum, and listen to the unintelligible jargon of those poor, pitiable souls with their
aberated reason and deranged minds, probably because of an act committed by their
grandfather when he had his fling, and the very walls seem to whisper the word, SIN,
S-I-N! It doesn't look very much like God's world, my friend, but IT IS!
I can't really imagine how
much a million is. A dollar a day since the birth of Christ would total only three-fourths
of a million dollars. I can't imagine the suffering of a million people, let alone a
billion or four and a half billion. Yet, that's the reality of today's world. Famine,
illness, fear, oppression, exploitation, poverty, hopelessness, sin, all that is the daily
lot of billions of people. Doesn't look like a world that belongs to God, does it? But, IT
DOES!
YE SHALL BE A
I earnestly pray that God
will give a spirit of true humility to all who read these lines, for revelation and
understanding are given only to those who humbly confess their ignorance before God. I am
persuaded that the professing Church which so glibly speaks of "the priesthood of all
believers" actually knows and understands practically nothing about God's ROYAL
PRIESTHOOD. God's express purpose for forming the Royal Priesthood in the earth during
this present age is because ALL THE EARTH IS HIS. "Ye shall be a peculiar treasure
unto Me above all people: FOR ALL THE EARTH IS MINE: and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of
priests." God is preparing a priesthood because He owns the earth, the whole world,
and all they that dwell therein.
The Scriptures clearly reveal
how ownership is one of the central thoughts in both creation and redemption, the link
that binds them together. Two things are always inherent in ownership - purpose and
responsibility. Do you not know that if a person makes or buys anything he surely has some
PURPOSE in mind for it? And is it not also true that when a person makes or buys anything
he has a RESPONSIBILITY to it? The man who buys a good hunting dog has a definite purpose
in owning the dog, and if he is not a hunter he will not buy it. With ownership of the dog
there comes the responsibility for the dog, to feed and care for it and treat it humanely.
You have, I suppose, sometime bought something? As you have paid your money for it and it
was delivered to you did you not have a plan for it? And are you not now responsible for
it?
Take a simple illustration.
Almost twenty years ago
We love with a deeper
intensity the children of our own procreation. Suppose a father has five sons, four normal
and one abnormal, will he not lavish more love on the abnormal than on the normal ones? Is
there any price that he can pay, however great the sacrificial cost, that he will not
provide if perchance he may redeem the abnormal one? Is there any effort possible that he
can make that he will not undertake in order to restore that one to normality? Lift it up
to the spiritual plane and we have the necessity in the heart of the great Creator, the
good and gracious Father of all mankind, to provide REDEMPTION AND RESTORATION FOR HIS
CREATION, the work of His love! And it is from this great fact of GOD'S OWNERSHIP of the
world that He says, "Because all the earth is Mine...ye shall be a
Johnny came home with a bad
report card and put all the blame on teacher who had it in for him. That was not the end
of the world, but it was almost the end of the world when, unleashing the tragic
holocaust, Adolph Hitler blamed the Jews for all the woes of the world in his day.
"Scapegoatism" is old. Adam put the blame for his sin on Eve, and Eve shifted
the blame to the serpent. But God, the great Proprietor of all does not place the blame on
others - HE HIMSELF TAKES FULL RESPONSIBILITY for all that has happened to His creation.
"For the creation was subjected to frailty - to futility, condemned to frustration -
not because of some intentional fault on its part, but BY THE WILL OF HIM WHO SO SUBJECTED
IT. Yet with the hope that creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and
corruption and gain an entrance INTO THE GLORIOUS FREEDOM OF GOD'S CHILDREN" (Rom.
8:20-21, Amplified).
We are not in this life
because we willed to be here in this world. The whole human race is not here because of
its will. God is RESPONSIBLE for our existence here in the flesh, lowered into the realm
of vanity, sin, and corruption. Adam was not responsible for his existence, for God by HIS
WILL brought him into being. In fact the whole race of humanity is God's responsibility.
We are here because of his plans, desires, purposes, and will, and God is a God of
PRINCIPLE. He having begun a work, will finish it and not throw it aside because it was
marred by Satan and sin which He knew was coming.
Ah, while men are busy
blaming others for the world's problems, and the devil for their own, God Himself as Owner
of all takes His great responsibility for all and therein lies the basis of the whole
scheme of creation and redemption. Rom. 11:36 says from the Diaglott, "Because OUT OF
HIM, and THROUGH HIM, and FOR HIM are all things. To Him be the glory for the ages.
Amen." The Amplified Bible beautifully renders this, "For FROM HIM and THROUGH
HIM and TO HIM are all things. For all things originate with Him and come from Him; all
things live through Him, and all things center in and tend to consummate and to end in
Him. To Him be glory forever! Amen." To say the least, it will give us great peace of
mind and heart if we can see and understand that all things came out of God and were
created by Him. And it will help us greatly if we can understand that God as Creator and
Owner takes responsibility for the world today. GOD IS RESPONSIBLE for every human being
that has ever lived, is living, or who ever will live. And because He is responsible and
has great purpose for His creation HE WILL DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
God has a plan! Indeed, God
has a wonderful plan for this world! It is a plan of which the architectural drawings were
made in eternity. It encompasses the minutest detail of all creation. I assure you that
when time has run its course, and when the last trump has sounded and the veil is dropped
upon the scene, we shall discover that that plan has been worked out to its very tiniest
detail, just as God had planned it in eternity - that His will has been done! That is an
amazing thought because it often seems as if the world is flying off unattended, like a
chariot where the driver has fallen off, the horses are running wild, the reins are
flapping in the breeze, and it is threatening to go over the precipice at any moment. Yet
the Scriptures would have us know that God, the sovereign Lord of history, has His hands
firmly upon those reins and that His plan is coming to pass. Think about it! Our God is
perfect in all His attributes. He is perfect in His power. He is perfect in His holiness
and justice. He is perfect in His love and mercy. He is perfect in His wisdom and
omniscience. Therefore, His plan must be perfect. Indeed it is a perfect plan!
I cannot believe, as some
naively believe, that God could ever be satisfied with a world gone awry and a people gone
astray, such as we see in evidence today. Just as sure as we restored our demolished home,
so certain is it that God will save and restore a lost world! "Because all the earth
is Mine, ye shall be unto Me a
A. E. Saxby wrote: "The
character, as well as the ability of the maker, is visible in the thing that He makes. If
a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, then it is certain that the great Creator of
all, who is holy in all His ways and righteous in all His works, who is good and only
doeth good and whose tenderness is over all His works, can design nothing the end of which
is not pure happiness and usefulness. Whatever catastrophes may have intervened, and
however mysterious are the processes by which His goal will be reached, it follows, from
the fact of His impeachable character, that the consummation of His work will justify all
His methods. So wide is His care, and so minute, that a falling sparrow is noted and
remembered. Peter gives Him the title of 'the faithful Creator,' meaning thereby that His
responsibilities are fully met in a manner only possible to infinite power and love. If
His creatorship yearns over a broken bird, how much more will it reckon with all the
forces that have combined to mar the image of Himself in the man He has made. If He
employs the discipline of a father, the sacrificial love of a mother, the stern justice of
a judge and the passionate affection of a husband - and all these are figures chosen by
Himself to set forth His attitude towards men and His work for and in them - it is to the
end that His great designs of love may ultimately triumph. If He turns men to destruction,
it is that He may say, 'Return ye children of men' (Ps. 90:3). If the vessel is marred in
the hand of the Potter, it is that He may make it again another vessel (Jer. 18:4). If His
work is marred, then His own face will be more marred than any man's, that He may buy back
those who have sold themselves for nought. Creation is full of mysteries, but the revealed
character of the Creator suffices to assure us of a triumphant solution to them all. Only
a traitor to His person and character would deny such a God this certainty!"
A great preacher has shared
this beautiful insight: "Never can it be said that a holy God loves an unholy thing.
And yet God loves sinners - bringing the often-repeated question, 'Why?' GOD LOVES THEM
FOR WHAT HE SEES IN THEM OF HIS LOST AND FALLEN IMAGE, for God can never love anything
directly but Himself! God loves everything else for His own sake. 'For THY PLEASURE they
are and were created.' God sees in Jesus Christ what you would have been. And this is why
God loves lost men. He loves them not by excusing their sin; not by taking an attitude of
carelessness; not by any willingness on His part to become morally lax - but He loves them
because He once stood and said, 'Let us make man in our image.'
"Here is an illustration
that could fall within our own human experience. A man and a woman meet. After falling in
love, they marry and have one child, a son. They have a great deal of pleasure as they
consider the boy's features. Each says that he looks like the other. Then they change it
around and insist that he looks like this one - then again, that one. But the child is
their son, and they try to see each other in that boy! The years pass and the boy grows up
and approaches manhood. The hour comes when he breaks with society. He chooses to go
outside the law. He drinks, gambles, lies, steals, cheats - and then he murders. He
becomes a fugitive from justice, known to be vicious and cruel. The father of that lad
dies before the outlaw is caught and thrown into prison. But the grieving mother goes to
see him.
"She knows he is
finished. Evidence of every kind is against him, fingerprints everywhere, a thousand
witnesses. He will pay for his crimes. The mother looks through the bars. It is her son
standing there, now a full-grown man. Can she love his cruel deeds as an outlaw? Can she
love those heartless acts of gangsterism? Does she love his cold-eyed cruelty? No! She
hates them with everything in her good heart. But as he stands there, cornered and silent,
she sees beyond him in her memory the man who is no longer with her, and she thinks, 'If
only he had been a good boy - he would have just been the image of his father.' She pours
out her heart in tears, doesn't she? She loves the boy - but she does not love one thing
in him that made him an outlaw! She loves THE IMAGE OF THE MAN SHE LOVED and to whom she
gave herself with the promise to follow until the separation by death. And she loves her
son, for in him she sees THE LOST AND FALLEN IMAGE of the man she loved!
"We know that God looks
down at the human race and sees us in our awful sin. The apostle Paul has recorded
seventeen deeds which he describes as the works of the flesh - but they are only the
beginning. It would take many sheets of paper to write down the long and dreadful list of
sins that man has been capable of committing and is still doing. God is still looking and
He hates jealousy, deception, lying, gluttony, uncleanness, impurity, cruelty. We cannot
ever think that God loves sinners carelessly, loosely, foolishly, with the thought: 'I
don't care - I love them anyway!' No, it is plain that He loves them because He sees in
them THE LOST AND FALLEN IMAGE OF WHAT ADAM WAS AND OF WHAT CHRIST IS and loves them
REDEMPTIVELY now for Jesus' sake" -end quote.
I believe that God now loves
all lost men. There are lost men in jails and prisons and insane asylums. They are in
saloons and brothels and in death and judgment and hell, and God loves them all. He still
remembers them and remembers His Son on the tree, suffering and dying on their behalf. And
in the redeemed body of this resurrected and glorified Son He now prepares a Royal
Priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, a SON COMPANY, a KING COMPANY, a PRIEST
COMPANY, to restore mankind into the image of God again. "Because all the earth is
Mine, ye shall be unto Me a
In Rom. 8:20 Paul moved by
inspiration states that the whole creation groans for this "priesthood." I put
"priesthood" in there, but that's exactly what He's talking about. The whole
creation groans for the MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD for "the creation itself
also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the
children of God" (Rom. 8:21). 1 see it. I see something stirring in the atmosphere. I
see a people being taught of God, purged, purified, processed, perfected, taking on the
mind of Christ, transformed again into the image of God, taking their rightful places -
sons and kings and priests unto their God. They have received a vision of what they are
destined to be in God, and of what they are being prepared to do for creation. The message
of the hope of sonship and the high calling of God in Christ Jesus is going forth in power
in this hour and circling the globe as multiplied thousands of the Lord's people are
heeding the call. God is removing from the hearts of these the foolish desire to "fly
away" to some far-off heaven somewhere, as He unfolds within their ransomed spirits
the beautiful PURPOSE He has in His firstfruit company. "Because all the earth is
Mine, ye shall be unto Me a
Blessed indeed is that
company of King-Priests, the Kingdom of Priests, the Royal Priesthood that sings the
glad-anthem: "Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for
Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and
tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God KINGS AND PRIESTS: AND WE
SHALL REIGN ON THE EARTH" (Rev. 5:9-10). Priests that REIGN! Priests that REIGN OVER
THE EARTH! Ah, precious friend of mine, if ever you would reign over the earth, first you
must be possessed of a priestly nature - the ministry of reconciliation. The ministry of
the Royal Priesthood is rooted in the redemptive work of
Do you not know that if a
person buys anything he will surely TAKE POSSESSION of it when it is brought to him? You
have, I suppose, some time bought something? As you have paid your money for it, was it
not turned over to you, and were you not willing to receive it and take possession of it?
And if it were not turned over to you after you paid for it, would you not then take
appropriate measures to see that it IS DELIVERED INTO YOUR POSSESSION? The higher the
price you paid for it, the less was there any doubt that you would take possession of what
you paid for. "But" - you will perhaps answer - "if I buy something, I know
what it is, and that it is worth the price I paid. But THE WORLD, with its sinful heart
and self-will and rebellion and wickedness - there is reason to fear that He who purchased
it will not receive it, will not possess it. When I buy an article and another of less
value is sent to me, I refuse to receive it; I send it back with the message: 'This is not
what I bought and paid for.' " You are right, but consider what the difference is
between Him who bought the whole world, and mere human purchasers. He bought what He KNEW
WAS BAD, precisely BECAUSE IT WAS BAD; and which HE WILL ACCEPT AS BAD, THAT HIS LOVE MAY
HAVE THE JOY AND GLORY OF MAKING IT GOOD. How wonderful this is! The Scripture says:
"Christ died for the ungodly; while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." It
says, further, that the price of Christ's blood was paid for those who denied the Lord,
for those who sold Him, even for His rejectors. What love!
We must realize how
inseparable REDEMPTION and POSSESSION are. Neither can exist without the other, but
redemption leads to possession. Redemption is too often looked at from its negative side
as deliverance from sin, from drunkenness, from lying, etc. But its real glory is the
positive element of being redeemed UNTO HIMSELF. Full possession of a house means
occupation: if I own a house without occupying it, it may be the home of all that is foul
and evil. God has redeemed me and made me His own with the view of getting complete
possession of me. He says of my soul, "It is Mine," and seeks to have His right
of ownership acknowledged and made fully manifest. That will be the full outworking of
redemption when God has entered in and taken complete and entire possession. It is
redemption that gives God His right and power over me; it is redemption that sets me free
for God to now bless and possess: it is redemption realized and filling my soul, that will
bring me the assurance and experience of all His power will work in me. In God, redemption
and possession are one.
The Scriptures are clear -
the WHOLE WORLD belongs to God first by creation, and second by redemption. The ministry
of the Royal Priesthood is to minister to the creation on behalf of God that He might have
entrance to possess all of what He has paid for as His habitation. God's priests know and
understand that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world, and they that
dwell therein. God's priesthood knows that the Lord has a right to every heart, and the
devil has a right to NONE. We are going to press the claims of God our Father and of the
Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit upon every heart of every man, woman,
and child in this age and in the age and ages to come until our great and glorious God
fully and completely possesses all that He has redeemed for Himself, praise His wonderful
name!
As a member of the Royal
Priesthood I shall fight that battle for the supremacy of Christ. I shall claim that every
foot of this earth and every man upon this earth and under the earth belongs to Christ,
for He made the earth and He made every man and He "tasted death for every man."
Therefore, every foot of the earth; and every man on the earth and under the earth belongs
to Christ my Lord. I claim for His this great and universal Kingdom. The Church has
forgotten that the Christ came to establish a Kingdom and that it must break in pieces and
CONSUME (take into itself) every other kingdom including the devil's kingdom. The Gospel
which Christ preached was the Gospel of the
Those who have received the
call to the Royal Priesthood preach the Gospel of the
I notice that
"Ask of Me, and I shall
give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for THY
POSSESSION," says the Messianic Psalm. Christ conquered, and He is conquering, and He
is to conquer. I claim this earth for God for He made it. I claim this earth for God, for
the earth is the Lord's. The sea is His, and He made it. His hands formed the dry land. I
claim everything that comes out of the bowels of the earth for God, for "the earth is
the Lord's and the fullness thereof" and "all the gold and the silver is
His." I claim every man in
I proclaim to you, as a
minister of God, that the Church is here in this world for the establishment of the
Because all the earth is His
God is raising up a Royal Priesthood to reign in mighty spirit power and authority over
the earth, not to be little human dictators but with an outflow of life and light and
love, touching God with one hand, and humanity with the other, bringing the two together,
that God may indwell men by His Spirit and live and rule in them in power and glory. The
kingly nature in us is not to dominate over men's lives, but to deal with and break the
power of self-hood and rebellion and sin and the devil that men may be reconciled unto
God. Kings have power and authority, priests reconcile in mercy and love. But once the
reconciliation has taken place, and the Christ is enthroned, we deliver men up to God,
even the Father, that GOD IN THEM MAY BE ALL IN ALL. That is the principle of the Kingdom.
We rule only to subdue them unto God - then GOD RULES IN THEM. He rules first THROUGH US,
that He may rule finally IN THEM.
God has always wanted a
priesthood. The priesthood is foundational to the outworking of His redemption and central
to His plan of the Ages. The covenant of God still stands today: "Now therefore, if
ye will obey My voice indeed and keep My covenant, then ye shall be A PECULIAR TREASURE
UNTO ME ABOVE ALL PEOPLE: for all the earth is Mine: and YE SHALL BE UNTO ME A KINGDOM OF
PRIESTS, AND AN HOLY NATION." Oh, beloved, come, let us now open our hearts wide to
Him. Come, and as we gaze upon this glorious ministry and its life-flow to all the
families of the earth; let us yield ourselves unto God that He may work His wondrous work
in our lives, bringing us into such union with Jesus, the High Priest of our profession,
that we become in nature and power His ROYAL PRIESTHOOD in the earth! The manifestation of
the Sons of God for which all creation is in travail is nothing more nor less than the
full manifestation of God's fully developed and empowered body of KING-PRIESTS AFTER THE
ORDER OF MELCHISEDEK. Those apprehended unto this ministry are, indeed, A PEOPLE FOR A
PURPOSE!
Chapter
3
PRIESTS
DISPLAYING HIS GLORY
"Now, therefore, if ye
will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto
Me above all people: FOR ALL THE EARTH IS MINE: and ye shall be unto Me A KINGDOM OF
PRIESTS, and an holy nation" (Ex. 19:5-6).
I have often characterized
our text as the GREAT DIVINE SANDWICH. A sandwich is two slices of bread between which is
placed meat, fish, cheese, or the like. Three items are necessary to make a sandwich, the
two outer items - two identical slices of bread - and in between another, and different,
item. Such is the structure of our text. There are two statements of like nature
surrounding and enclosing another and different kind of statement. Notice the two outer
statements: (1) Ye shall be a PECULIAR TREASURE unto Me above all people (2) Ye shall be
unto Me a
Can we not see by this that
the purpose of God to establish in the earth a Royal Priesthood is rooted in the great
fact that ALL THE EARTH IS HIS? That all the earth is His answers the WHY of priesthood.
Long milleniums ago at Sinai the cry went ringing forth: "Ye shall be a peculiar
treasure unto Me above all people: FOR ALL THE EARTH IS MINE," and the words that
follow may correctly be stated thus: "BECAUSE ALL THE EARTH IS MINE ... ye shall be
unto Me a
In the light of this
Scripture I would like to reaffirm something which the world at large, and many
Christians, seem to have forgotten: THIS IS GOD'S WORLD! There is an understanding that is
developing in the consciousness of the "called out ones," those who are going
beyond the static creeds and empty traditions of the Church systems and pressing on into
the purposes of God, to know that ALL the earth is the Lord's. Not just a tree or two, not
just a mountain or two, not just the Church, but all of it, the very fullness thereof. We
are His whether we know it or not, we are His whether we like it or not, whether we desire
to serve Him, or whether we are presently in rebellion against His will. It is both
heartening and assuring to read such Scriptures as these: "The EARTH is the Lord's,
and the FULLNESS THEREOF; the WORLD and THEY THAT DWELL THEREIN" (Ps. 24:1). God has
everything in the palm of His almighty hand. He is sovereign. Jesus is King! Jesus is
Lord! Job said, "In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of
ALL MANKIND" (Job 12:10). The current population of planet earth is more than four
and a half billion. For 1990, it is projected there will be six billion, and by the year
2000, it is estimated there will be six and a half billion residents on our planet. GOD
GIVES BREATH AND LIFE TO THEM ALL AND THE EARTH IS THE LORD'S AND THE FULLNESS THEREOF.
I will be the first to admit
that this world doesn't look very much like something that is owned by the great and good
God. But I earnestly pray that God will give a spirit of true humility to all who read
these lines, for revelation and understanding are given only to those who humbly confess
their ignorance before God. I am persuaded that the professing Church which so glibly
speaks of "the priesthood of all believers" actually knows and understands
practically nothing about God's ROYAL PRIESTHOOD. God's express purpose for forming the
Royal Priesthood in the earth during this present age is because ALL THE EARTH IS HIS.
"Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: FOR ALL THE EARTH IS MINE:
and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests." God is preparing a priesthood because
He owns the earth, the whole world, and all they that dwell therein.
Of what value is a priest,
anyhow? Well, he does something that no other ministry can do. Speaking not of the
valueless priesthood of a pagan god, but the typical priesthood of the Old Testament, the
priesthood of Aaron the Levite, Heb. 5:1-3 says: "For every high priest chosen from
among men is appointed to act in behalf of men in things relating to God, to offer both
gifts and sacrifices for sins. He is able to exercise gentleness and forbearance toward
the ignorant and erring, since he himself also is liable to moral weakness and physical
infirmity. And because of this he is obliged to offer sacrifice for his own sins as well
as for those of the people" (Amplified). If there were no sin against God, and no
estrangement from God, there would be no need of a priesthood, particularly a High Priest.
Adam in the beginning, in the image and likeness of God, needed no priest. Jesus Christ,
the last Adam, was born into a race of sinners, but He needed no priest, for He had a
virgin birth through Mary and His life was the life of God. He was born sinless and grew
up sinless and remained sinless down to His sacrificial death (I Cor. 15:45-47; Heb. 7:26;
1 Pet. 2:21-24). Because of His sinlessness, He could become a High Priest and offer a
perfect sacrifice for all.
While the High Priest of the
typical order of Aaron was the representative of the people before God, he was at the same
time the representative of God to the people; he blessed them in the name of God; counsel
came to them from God by means of the Urim and Thummim which were in his breastplate, and
he and his successors taught the people as the immediate representatives of God. He filled
a double capacity; he was for the people toward God, and for God toward the people: he
laid one hand upon God, and the other upon the people, uniting the two as it were within
himself.
The ministry of the High
Priest, together with the entire priesthood, was first carried out in the tabernacle God
commanded Moses to build in the wilderness. It is called the "tabernacle of
witness" in Numbers 17. In Rev. 15:5 it is called the "tabernacle of
testimony." It was the one and only place where God witnessed and testified to
The Lord would not accept any
sacrifice, no matter how perfect, which was not brought upon the altar in this one and
only tabernacle. In Lev. 17:3-4 we read: "What man soever there be of the house of
Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat ... and bringeth it not unto the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an offering unto the Lord before the tabernacle
of the Lord ... that man shall be cut off from among his people." There was only one
place of sacrifice permitted, and that was at the altar in the gate of the tabernacle. It
was the sin of
The channel through which
this ministry flows to the world is the body of Christ, for the entire body of priests
under the High Priest is the extension and projection of His own High Priestly ministry.
And so we read: "So then, brethren, consecrated and set apart for God, who SHARE IN
THE HEAVENLY CALLING, thoughtfully and attentively consider Jesus, the Apostle and High
Priest Whom we confessed as ours" (Heb. 3:1, Amplified). The Authorized Version
reads, "Wherefore, holy brethren, PARTAKERS OF THE HEAVENLY CALLING, consider the
Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus." Holy brethren! In the
previous chapter the word "brethren" had been used twice. "He is not
ashamed to call them BRETHREN." "It behooved Him to be made like unto His
BRETHREN." The sacred name is now applied personally: Christ's brethren are brethren
in Christ, brethren in His high calling of sonship, brethren in His holy calling of
priesthood.
Holy brethren - PARTAKERS OF
THE HEAVENLY CALLING! What is elsewhere spoken of as a holy calling is here named a
heavenly calling. The calling is that of priesthood. "Seeing then that we have a
great HIGH PRIEST, that is passed INTO THE HEAVENS" (Heb. 4:14). "For Christ is
not entered into the holy places made with hands, but into HEAVEN ITSELF, now to appear in
the presence of God for us" (Heb. 9:24). How awesome the words: "Holy brethren -
PARTAKERS OF THE HEAVENLY CALLING!" Co-sharers with Him in His heavenly priesthood!
That does not mean a calling from some far-off heaven, or a calling to the heaven, whence
the call proceeds. No, there is much more in it. Heaven is not a place, but a state, a
mode of existence, a dimension of reality, the life in which the presence and glory of God
are revealed and experienced in their unhindered power. And the heavenly calling is that
in which the power of the heavenly life works within to make our life heavenly. When Jesus
was upon the earth the
The heavenly calling is the
calling unto the priesthood of the Christ. Hebrews is very clear about this. "Now the
main point of what we have to say is this: We have such a HIGH PRIEST, One Who is seated
at the right hand of the majestic God IN HEAVEN, as officiating PRIEST, a MINISTER in the
holy places and in the true tabernacle which is erected not by man but by the Lord"
(Heb. 8:1-2, Amplified). The message is clear - Christ is the great High Priest of the
heavens and we are called to be PARTAKERS WITH HIM in that heavenly calling. It is here -
in the spiritual ministry of spiritual priests - that God comes to meet with man in the
power of the blood of His Son. It is true, "There is one God, and ONE MEDIATOR
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (I Tim. 2:5), but it is also true that
"God hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath GIVEN UNTO US the
MINISTRY OF RECONCILIATION. Now then WE are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did
beseech you by us: WE PRAY YOU IN CHRIST'S STEAD, be ye reconciled to God" (II Cor.
5:18-20). Ah, yes, we are holy brethren, PARTAKERS OF THE HEAVENLY CALLING!
The priesthood of Christ! Is
that a dead doctrine? Is that merely something that Christ is and does in heaven apart
from us? No, indeed. As Sons of God we are partakers of His heavenly calling. The
priesthood has its roots in sonship, for "He that said unto Him, THOU ART MY SON,
today have I begotten Thee...saith also in another place, THOU ART A PRIEST forever after
the order of Melchizedek" (Heb. 5:5-6). Again, "The law maketh men High Priests
which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh THE SON,
Who is consecrated for evermore" (Heb. 7:28). The divine life of THE SON is what
gives His priesthood its power to bring us into His life, and His life into us. It means
that all the love and holiness of God dwells in the Son. Sonship means that when our
spirits are quickened by His Spirit and we are made partakers with Christ, we not only get
a blessing that is outside but we get the Spirit of the Son within us. Jesus, the High
Priest, does His work WITHIN US. He imparts of His own life, power, and ministry. We
cannot have the priesthood in full power except as the power of HIS LIFE is fully inworked
within us. If we begin to understand that, then we shall see what is meant by the fact
that we are called to be priests, because we have the very life of the HIGH PRIEST in us -
not only imputed, but the High Priest Himself dwelling powerfully within us and working
effectually through us, praise His wonderful name!
What does priesthood mean?
Self-sacrifice to death (of self) for God and man. That was the spirit of Jesus, and that
is the spirit that Jesus wants to breathe into every priestly heart that is willing to
yield itself to Him. Oh, precious friend of mine, He, through the eternal Spirit, gave
Himself up to God, a sacrifice without a spot. And when I receive of that eternal Spirit
into me, the priesthood of Jesus becomes a reality and the double work that Jesus does
becomes my work too. Praise God! it becomes your work. And what is that work, that double
work? To take hold of God with one hand, and the creation with the other, bringing the two
together into oneness! I said in a previous article that with the priest in
I know it is the prayer of
all who truly receive the call to priesthood: "God, help us that sonship may not be a
thing of spiritual self-indulgence. God, help us that sonship may not be to us some kind
of elite, exclusive, country-club, holier than-thou-super-duper position. God, help us
that we may not be feasting upon the deep revelation of truth while our hearts do not beat
for our fellow creatures." God has a firstfruits company who are becoming the LINE OF
HOPE FOR CREATION, because they themselves have an anchor of hope that reaches beyond the
veil to find its reality in the all-sufficiency of Christ. So one are we to become in Him,
that we shall stand betwixt God and man, the connecting link, the hope of all creation
which now groans in travail. While the Sons are reaching forth to the fullness of
"the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Tit.
2:13), the "earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the
Sons of God" (Rom. 8:19). How unspeakably meaningful and precious, then, becomes the
wonderful promise: "Because all the earth is Mine: YE shall be unto Me A KINGDOM OF
PRIESTS!."
A PRIESTHOOD ... TO SHOW
A Christian magazine reported
the graduation speech of Stephanie Mills given at
On a cosmic scale is it not
the same with man? If we are simply the creatures of this life, and this world comes and
goes, the day will come when this whole solar system will have fallen into the dark hole
of entropy and the second law of thermodynamics will have brought everything to a heat
death and the world, as we know it, will be no more. There will be no significance to our
lives; there will have been no significance. Significance points to a sign and the sign
must be seen. But there will be nobody to see or even read the history. Therefore, our
lives will have been nothing but sound and fury, meaning nothing, purposeless. Ah, but
Jesus Christ, who opens a portal on eternity, gives meaning and significance to our lives,
and to the lives of all mankind, indeed, to the whole cosmic creation of God!
Many, even saints, are
worried about this problem-filled world in which we live. We see nations which seem to be
on collision courses; it seems inevitable that this world is going up in one great nuclear
holocaust. One day the button will be pushed and there will be a great exchange of
missiles flying over the whole world. There will be nothing then but the withering wastes
of the once verdant land. Ah, but my friend, may I say that Jesus Christ, the King of
glory, has come forth from the grave and is riding on His white horse of righteousness and
power, going forth conquering and to conquer! All the rulers of this world rule according
to His command. He raises up nations and casts them down. He places the wickedest of men
upon the thrones of men and they do according to His will, and His will will inexorably
come to pass. What peace calms the troubled soul when we know that we know that all is in
HIS MIGHTY HAND. I do not hesitate to tell you that His Kingdom shall triumph in all
realms, every knee shall bow before Him owning Him as King, every tongue shall glorify God
by calling Jesus Lord and serving and obeying Him with a willing heart, because Christ is
the sovereign Lord of this world, and His will shall be done.
"Now, therefore, if ye
will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto
Me above all people: FOR ALL THE EARTH IS MINE: and ye shall be unto Me A KINGDOM OF
PRIESTS." This is indeed a wonderful word of hope because it comes from Him who is,
unquestionably, the hope of the world. He is its ONLY hope! Because all the earth belongs
to Christ our Lord He is preparing THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD to restore all into Him again.
There is coming a day - glorious day! - when there shall rise up from the throats of the
billions of men and women of every race and tongue and out of all generations and ages the
chorus of hallelujah and praise which shall forever be the celestial song of all creation.
Glory!
I am reminded of a story of a
parson down in the
With the progressive
unfolding of divine revelation the knowledge that God is not producing a remnant of
weak-kneed escapists begins to gird up the mind, and childish notions of "flying away
to heaven" are happily cast aside for a more pure word of truth. We know that this
earth lies under the pollution of its inhabitants, and even this earth shall be cleansed
and set to right by His Kingdom. Because ALL THE EARTH IS HIS, we are being constituted a
As THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD we
shall go forth among our fellow-men, in all the nitty-gritty of everyday life, to show
forth the virtues, the graces, the Perfections, the lovely character of the Christ. Every
movement of a royal priest should emit of the fragrance of Christ. Nothing else becomes a
member of the Royal Priesthood. To be occupied with myself, to be taking counsel for my
own ease, my own interest, my own enjoyment, to be seeking my own ends, to be caring about
my own things, and using the gifts and callings of God for my own advantage, is not the
act of a royal priest at all. Christ never did so; and I am told to SHOW FORTH HIS
VIRTUES.
As one has so aptly written:
"There is to be a declaration, a telling out, a showing forth. It is interesting that
the Greek word given for 'show' in our text Scripture has only been used once in the New
Testament, it is EK-AGGELLO. EK means OUT OF, and AGGELLO means angel, or literally
MESSENGER. Because the message and the messenger become one, all that proceeds from the
messenger, be it a message in words, or a life expressed, it is to declare the Perfections
of HIM who hath wrought in them so great a salvation. We are to become HIS DISPLAY
messengers, living manifestations of His Perfections, of His excellencies, of His virtues,
etc. It is not only a telling forth, giving voice, but it is a living manifestation, and
the Amplified translation gives, 'that you may SET FORTH the wonderful deeds and DISPLAY
the virtues and Perfections of Him...' The producing of His firstfruits is for the
specific purpose that they might become the demonstrators of His grace in the ages to
come. DISPLAY VESSELS to reveal what God can do, as well as becoming instruments through
which the same grace flows out to others. Thus the process shall continue until all have
been brought to a saving knowledge of Christ, delivered from the thralldom of sin and
decay, and brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God" -end quote.
What a high, holy, heavenly
calling! And how reminiscent of Paul's statement in Eph. 2:4-7: "But God, who is rich
in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath
quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ' ages to come He might SHOW the
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Jesus Christ." So
vast, so marvelous are the wonders of His grace, it will require the ages to come to
continue to unfold these wonders, and He has purposed that there should be A PEOPLE
through whom He would give this demonstration. ,, That in the ages to come He might
SHOW..." "Show" is from a Greek word meaning "to exhibit, to put on
display like a work of art, to demonstrate." The Amplified Bible reads, "He did
this that He might CLEARLY DEMONSTRATE through the ages to come the immeasurable
(limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace in kindness and goodness of heart toward
us in Christ Jesus." Kenneth Wuest translates, "In order that He might EXHIBIT
... in the ages that pile themselves upon one another in continuous succession the
surpassing wealth of His grace in kindness to us in Christ Jesus." Show...
demonstrate ... exhibit the riches, of His grace - unto whom? Not to those who already
know it - that would be useless nonsense. But to those who do not know it! And not as an
expression of God's scorn, ridicule, or cynicism, saying to the multitudes of hopelessly
lost men and women, "Just LOOK at what you missed!" That would be no
demonstration of the RICHES OF GRACE nor would it be an exhibit of His UNSURPASSED
KINDNESS!
Ah, God is preparing a divine
show for all the earth, indeed for the entire universe. The mighty Barnum, in describing
his circus, said it was THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH. True, Mr. Barnum was a great showman
and, for its kind, he had a great show, but God is the Master Showman and is preparing to
give the world THE GREATEST SHOW IT HAS EVER SEEN. It is a theatrical of MERCY and GRACE
in a world of wrath and violence. This will be God's master stroke as the curtain rises on
the world's greatest drama God's Great Show - THE MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD! Praise
His name, once the finishing touch is put on the last stone of His living temple of Kings
and Priests, the firstfruits of His redemption, in ages yet to come He shall put His grace
and kindness inwrought in us ON DISPLAY so that the entire creation may walk across the
stage of His cosmic theatre and behold and see and finally come to understand and
appreciate WHAT GOD HAS PROVIDED FOR ALL MEN IN CHRIST.
ALL WHO HAVE EARS TO HEAR
MUST HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT IS SAYING UNTO THE CHURCHES. Across the land and around the
world the Spirit is saying today that He is preparing a people, He is preparing a body, He
is preparing Sons who shall be conformed to the image of His Son, who shall be partakers
of the divine nature, who shall have the mind of Christ, who shall be brought to glory and
who then shall become the very express image of the Father, the very brightness of the
Father's glory and the outraying of the Father's person. Even as the first Son, who went
into the ground and died as a corn of wheat to produce other Sons in His likeness, bearing
His image - He was the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of the
Father's person - and God sent Him to be the Saviour of the world. God is now preparing
Sons, God is now preparing a body for that first Son, we are the body of the first Son,
the body of the Christ, the body of the King of glory, the body of the great High Priest
in the heavens after the order of Melchizedek. We are the body of the Christ and in and
through these Sons, when all have been brought to His fullness, His salvation shall be
manifested, exhibited, and demonstrated unto the ends of the earth. The Lord is saying to
His people in this day: "For this cause have I raised thee up and sent thee to be a
light unto the nations and thou shalt be MY SALVATION to the ends of the earth" (Isa.
49:6; Acts 13:47).
While the Royal Priesthood
has a mighty ministry manward, even unto "all the ends of the earth" which
"is the Lord's," yet, how meaningful these words: "Because all the earth is
Mine: ye shall be U-N-T-0 M-E a Kingdom of Priests." UNTO ME! God is raising up a
people today, Sons who no longer are self-conscious. The secret of Jesus' sonship was,
that He paid no attention whatsoever to Himself. "Whatsoever I see the Father do,
that is what I am doing; whatsoever I hear the Father speak, that is what I say." The
Father said "You are the way, the truth, and the life," so Jesus said, "I
am the way, the truth, and the life." He was not saying it with His eyes turned
inwardly, thinking how important He was, thinking how vital He was to the situation. He
was saying it because His heart was set on the Father, on doing His will, on speaking His
words. He said, "The Father has given Me the words I should say." "If any
man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God." God is raising up Sons in these
days, whose eyes are set upon the Father, who will declare, "We are the light of the
world," not because of any self-consciousness, but because of a God-consciousness,
Who is saying to us, "Arise and shine, for thy light is come and the glory of the
Lord is risen upon thee" (Isa. 60:1). The Lord said to Paul: "They will not
accept thy word; turn to the Gentiles, for I have set thee to be a light to the Gentiles,
thou shalt be My salvation to the ends of the earth." If Paul were diplomatic, if
Paul were religious, if Paul belonged to the Ministerial Association, if Paul were
self-seeking, if Paul were self-saving, he would have kept the revelation to himself and
just walked out of town calmly and said, "Well, they do not understand, but really, I
have a deeper and greater calling, I will just go off and fulfill it." The Father
said to Paul, "I have set thee to be a light to the Gentiles. Thou shalt be My
salvation to the ends of the earth." So he said to the people, "For thus hath
the Lord said unto us: I have set thee for a light to the Gentiles, thou shalt be My
salvation to the ends of the earth!"
When those who treasure the
beautiful hope of sonship speak the words the Spirit is speaking to the Churches in this
hour, people demand, "Who do you think you are?" When we declare that we are
called to be the manifested Sons of God, to grow up into the measure of the stature of the
fullness of the Christ, to partake of a greater ministry than that of the Church-age, to
set all creation free and reconcile all things in heaven and in earth back into God,
people ask, "Just who do you think you are?" It really makes no difference who
WE think we are, but it makes a great deal of difference that we know WHO AND WHAT WE ARE
APPREHENDED TO BE IN HIM. Our ears have heard the sound of the trumpet, we cannot - dare
not- settle for anything less, we must follow on to know HIM in all His glorious and
eternal reality, to become His kings and priests in the earth, a new people prepared for
the new day! HE THAT HATH AN EAR LET HIM HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT SAITH.
Are you willing today, in the
presence of God, to hear the word of God: "As the Father hath sent Me, so send I
you." Someone says, "How can you declare such things?" Because they did not
originate with us, it is the Father who is saying them in us. We are not commissioning
ourselves. We are not a group of people who of our own selves have a burden for the lost
creation, we have the burden of the Lord in our hearts. And what His burden is, that is
what matters. If we were a people with our own burden for the lost, to try and help
people, we would say, "We have tried everything else; we have had apostles, we have
had prophets, we have had evangelists, pastors, and teachers, we have had gifts of
healing, working of miracles, we have had money and missionary programs, we have had
everything and it did not get the job done, so let us now try this sonship message."
We are not such a people. God
has not put on us the problems of the world - God has called us unto HIMSELF - that we may
live unto HIM, that we may be totally committed unto HIM, that He may send us out to bring
salvation to humanity. If this thing began with OUR BURDEN, I would be suspicious of it.
If we were wondering whether
Let us not sell creation
short in these days. Let us not deny the Lord who purchased us to be a
The compelling passion of my
life is to be filled with all the fullness of God and come into the image of Jesus Christ.
The deep cry of my heart is for the satisfaction of knowing that my life counts for God.
As God knows my heart, it is not a selfish desire. The reason I want to be like Jesus is
because I love Him so, but also because it is the ONLY WAY I can ever be used in the
restoration of fallen creation. I see the needs of the world around me, and realize that I
am practically powerless to do anything about it. Oh yes, I can pray, believe God, and see
occasional conversions, healings, deliverances, and blessings. But anyone who says that
they have reached the place where their ministry is meeting the needs of the world is
either blind to the needs of man, or a proud hypocrite.
You will never be able to do
anything with this old world until you do what the Scottish Highlander did with his gun.
He looked at it and said, "She needs a new lock." He looked at it again and
said, "She needs a new stock." And he looked at it again and said, "She
needs a new barren." Lock, stock and barren - you will have to change the whole
thing! And how can it be done? "Now, therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and
keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all
the earth is Mine: and YE shall be UNTO ME A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS."
Ah, dear ones, here is the key to God's priesthood:
You will never change your mate, you will never charge your children, you will never
change your friends, you will never change your neighbors, you will never change the
problems and circumstances which surround you, you will never be able to change THE WORLD
until, first of all, YOU HAVE BEEN THOROUGHLY CHANGED! "He that saith he abideth in
Him ought himself also to walk, even as He walked." "Again, a new commandment I
write unto you, which thing is true in Him and in you" (I Jn. 2:6,8). When Paul wrote
to the
Why tell people things that
are only true in Jesus Christ, but which do not work in us? A preacher can do that, but a
SON never can. If it is operating in His life, it must come to be operating in our lives.
If it is true in Him, it must be true in us, for He is the head of the body, the High
Priest of our priesthood. He is come, not only to be our Saviour, but our Lord and our
Life. "Be ye holy, as He which has called you is holy." If holiness is true in
Him, then holiness must be true in us. "Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is
perfect" (Jn. 5:48). If perfection is true in Jesus Christ, then perfection must be
true in us. Jesus prayed in His prayer in the 17th chapter of John: "That the love
wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be IN THEM, and I IN THEM" (Jn. 17:26). If the love
of God is truly expressed in Jesus Christ, then it must be truly expressed in us.
"God is spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in
truth" (Jn. 4:24). Jesus Christ worshipped the Father, Jesus Christ loved the Father,
Jesus Christ did the Father's will. Thank God that He did find a man in whom His will, His
love, His grace, His truth, His holiness, His power, His life could find a dwelling place
and expression. But would it not be sad if there were not a people today, the body of
Christ, saved by His blood, cleansed by the washing of the water by the Word, indwelt by
His Spirit, transformed into His image, in whom that same thing is true that is true in
Him? If He loves and we do not love, if He is light and we are in darkness, if He is
expressing the grace and mercy of God and we are expressing malice, envy, and strife, then
He has not become our life and we have not yet become HIS PRIESTHOOD.
God is forming a people, a
priesthood, who, when they stand up and say, "God is love," are not talking
about God's love in heaven. No! They will be expressing the God of love in their own
person. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son." Everyone
likes a verse like that. But how many would like a verse like this: "God still loves
the world so much that He would like to give His Sons, RIGHT NOW." We do not like
that. We like to be Sons if God will keep us, bless us, if He will take us to His bosom
and never let us go. But what does God do with His Sons? Ah, He GIVES THEM! Jesus said,
"As the Father has sent Me, even so send I you." What did Jesus also say?
"This is My flesh, My body, which I give for the life of the world." If the Sons
are His body, then will He not GIVE US for the life of the world one of these days?
"Oh," someone says, "I do not like the kind of religion where I do not get
something." Well, that is how it starts, by receiving, but it must not end there. We
must come to the place where God can give us! Whatever is true in Him, may God make it
true in all of His Sons. Not just for our sakes, but for other's sakes, that they may open
their hearts and let God do something in them. "Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works, and glorify God." They will sense the working of
the life of Christ in you, and glorify God. If you have been trying to prove something to
somebody out of the Bible, LET IT BE PROVED BY YOUR LIFE INSTEAD! That is sonship. That is
priesthood.
Do you know what the
There is the true temple. And
the purification of the temple begins in the spirit. Would you worship God? Oh, not in circling depth, nor height, But in the
conscious breast, Present by faith, though veiled from sight, there doth His Spirit rest:
Oh, come, thou Presence infinite! And make Thy creature blest.
If you are to worship God in
a holy temple, let Him cleanse your spirit, let Him cleanse your soul, let Him cleanse
your body, and worship God in the temple of your own Being. God wants that. Therefore it
is that God sent His Son, not merely to cleanse the outer court, but through His death,
through His resurrection, through His life, and in the power of His Spirit, to cleanse man
FROM THE CENTER TO THE CIRCUMFERENCE. Hence it is that the purification of the
I know no definition of God
more sublime, outside of the Scripture, than this definition of a philosopher of
What does it mean to be a
CENTER WITH NO CIRCUMFERENCE? Let us use Martin Luther as an illustration. ONLY Martin
Luther received the revelation of justification by faith in his day. Yet it was not for
him to take that unto himself and use it as his own, a private revelation, a personal
experience, but God gave it to him for the enlightenment of the whole Church. Today we all
profit, because of God's revelation to Martin Luther. The truth became embodied,
personified in Martin Luther's life; then there was a declaration, a telling out, a
showing forth. The impact of Luther's life and message has been like the ever broadening
ripples flowing out from the center where one small stone was cast into the water. He
became a center for the operation of God, and today he has no circumference as the word he
proclaimed continues to flow out, affecting creation in greater and greater measures,
resounding from the highest heaven unto the lowest hell.
And that is how it is, God
must work mightily WITHIN US before He can work effectually THROUGH US. We must become a
center before we can have a circumference. The message and the messenger must become one,
all that proceeds from the messenger, be it a message in words, or a life expressed, it is
to declare the Perfections of HIM who has wrought in us so great a salvation. We are to
become HIS DISPLAY messengers, living manifestations of His excellencies, virtues, and
glories, not bearing a word about Him, but becoming the living expression of HIMSELF. Oh,
beloved, take time to believe this! Take time to worship until your heart is filled. Come
now, let us open our hearts wide unto Him. "O my High Priest, breathe Thy Spirit into
me! Breathe Thy Priestly Spirit into me! I am a member of Thy body; I have Thy life in me.
Like Thee, I am called to be a priest. Lord Jesus, breathe Thy Spirit into me until I am
like Thee in all of Thy ways that Thou mayest be glorified and all creation blessed. Make
me a center of omnipotent God. May the river of Thy love and grace and power flow, and
flow, and flow until the outflow of Thyself from my center knows no circumference,
enveloping all creation in Thy life and light and love. May my priestly heart be a center
which is everywhere, whose circumference is nowhere!" God
will make the reality ours.
Chapter
4
THE
MAKING OF A PRIEST
The book of Revelation is
without doubt one of the most important and wonderful books ever written. It is difficult
for many people to understand because it is written in highly symbolic language,
understandable only to the spiritual mind. When the book of Revelation was written, John
was IN THE SPIRIT. This is a fact of supreme importance. The realm of the Spirit is a
realm beyond the reach of the natural. Spiritual things are all about us to such an extent
that we live and move and have our being in them, yet the natural man can never see them
until the Spirit draws aside the dusky curtains of our carnality and opens our eyes to the
realities of the spiritual world. Vivid imagery marks the book of Revelation.
There are powerful
representations of scenes both in heaven and on earth. The central scene is the THRONE OF
GOD. All other things are related to the Throne. In his glorious vision the beloved
apostle John saw this truth and describes in intense and picturesque language the majestic
drama which passed before his vision. "After this I looked, and, behold, a door was
opened in heaven...and immediately I was in the Spirit: and, behold, A THRONE WAS SET IN
HEAVEN, and One sat on the throne" (Rev. 4:1-2). "Behold, A THRONE!" This
Throne is the very center of the universe. Not the physiographical - but the spiritual
center! The Throne is a SYMBOL bespeaking that realm of God's absolute dominion and
omnipotent power. The Throne is not a literal seat in some far-off heaven somewhere; it is
the omnipresent dimension of God's sovereign authority and power In the book of Revelation
all "heavenly things," that is, all SPIRITUAL REALITIES, are revealed in their
relationship to the Throne of God. And while the Authorized Version states that "ONE
sat upon the Throne," you will note that the word "One" in your Bible is in
italics, meaning that the word does not appear in the Greek text but is supplied by the
translators in an effort to clarify what they perceive to be the intent of the passage.
And while it is true that there is ONE sitting upon the Throne, it is equally evident that
that ONE is a CORPORATE BEING - a many-membered body! God is a God of corporateness.
Christ is a Christ of corporateness. "For as the body is ONE, and hath many members,
and all the members of that one body, being many, ARE ONE BODY: SO ALSO IS CHRIST" (I
Cor. 12:12). While there is only one God and one Throne, yet the God of the Throne shall
ultimately and eternally be manifested in corporateness through a vast company of His Sons
who are themselves "the FULLNESS OF HIM that filleth all in all." God is a
Spirit and he that is joined to the Lord IS ONE SPIRIT. Therefore, He who sits upon the
Throne is One - but that One is a Corporate One even as Jesus says, "To him that
overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My Throne, even as I also overcame, and am set
down with My Father in His Throne" (Rev. 3:21). This is that eternal unity of the
many-membered FAMILY OF GOD of which Jesus spoke when He said, "That they all may BE
ONE as Thou, Father, art IN ME, and I IN THEE, that they also may be ONE IN US. And the
glory which Thou gayest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I
in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect IN ONE" (Jn. 17:21-23).
THE FOUR BEASTS
In addition to the beautiful
description of the symbolic Throne with its effulgent glory, our attention is immediately
directed to certain objects IN, BEFORE, and AROUND the Throne. Three different
prepositions - three distinct relationships to the Throne. Everything in the whole book of
Revelation is shown to be either IN, BEFORE or AROUND the Throne. In Rev. 4:6-8 four
wonderful beasts are brought into view. "And before the Throne there was a sea of
glass like unto crystal: and IN THE MIDST OF THE THRONE, and round about the throne, were
four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the
second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast
was like a flying eagle The word "beasts" is an unfortunate translation, being
necessarily associated in our minds with the brute creation and that which is typified
thereby. It is not the Greek word THERION which in thirty-five instances in the book of
Revelation is translated beast, meaning a "wild and ravenous beast," thus
denoting an animal of ferocious disposition. It is, rather, the Greek word ZOON which
signifies simply a "living creature" and is so translated in all modern
translations of the Bible. In Revelation the word THERION is used as a type of the brutish
and tyrannical kingdoms of THIS WORLD, ruled by the carnal, depraved, and vicious nature
of unregenerated men. But the word ZOON means LIVING CREATURE, or A CREATURE EXPRESSING
LIFE. How significant, then, that these four CREATURES OF LIFE are found "in the
midst of the Throne" and "round about the Throne," occupying the central
position in the Throne while emanating as a radiance out from the Throne. The picture is
clear - these are in some way identified with, and representative of, "HIM that sits
upon the Throne." A further key to their identity is found in Rev. 5:6 where we read,
"And I beheld, and, lo, IN THE MIDST OF THE THRONE...stood a LAMB as it had been
slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth
into all the earth." Ah, notice the divine parallel: "In the midst of the
Throne...stood A LAMB" and "In the midst of the Throne...were FOUR LIVING
CREATURES. In the midst of the Throne! The four "Living Creatures" are four
manifestations of LIFE - the LIFE OF THE GOD OF THE THRONE! They are four representations
of NATURE - the NATURE OF THE GOD OF THE THRONE! The four Living Creatures are four
expressions of the NATURE OF THE DOMINION of the Throne.
If you want to know what the
God of the Throne is like, then take a look at the four Living Creatures in the midst of
the Throne, for in them is manifest the attributes of the life of the God of the Throne.
If you want to know the nature of the rule and power and dominion of the Throne, then
understand the nature of the four Living Creatures in the midst of the Throne, for these
embody within themselves the character of the dominion of the God of the Throne. But not
only do they represent the life and nature of the God of the Throne; not only do they
express the character of the dominion of the Throne - they likewise reveal the very life
and nature and character of A-L-L WHO SHARE THE THRONE in union with the Christ! Ah,
precious friend of mine, if you cherish the hope of the overcomer to "sit with HIM in
His Throne," then all that the four Living Creatures represent must be wrought out in
your life, their nature becoming your nature, for naught but the nature of the Lamb and of
the four Living Creatures can stand "in the midst of the Throne.
It is not my purpose in this
Study to unfold the glories typified by the four Living Creatures, but merely to point out
that they reveal the nature of the Throne, the realm of God's omnipotent power and
sovereign dominion. They bespeak the position and ministry of KINGSHIP. God REIGNS! The
Lamb REIGNS! The four Living Creatures REIGN! The Overcomers REIGN! All are IN THE THRONE!
And if you would share that Throne as a KING, dear one, then the nature of God, which is
the nature of the Lamb, which is the nature of the four Living Creatures, must become YOUR
NATURE, too! "And...the four Living Creatures and four and twenty Elders...sung a new
song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou
wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and
nation; and hast made us unto our God KINGS AND PRIESTS: and we shall reign on the
earth" (Rev. 5:8-10).
THE MULTITUDE "BEFORE''
THE THRONE
After this I beheld, and, lo,
a GREAT MULTITUDE, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people,
and tongues, stood BEFORE THE THRONE, and BEFORE THE LAMB, clothed with white robes, and
palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God, which
sitteth upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb. And one of the Elders answered, saying unto
me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto
him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me? These are they which came out of great
tribulation (pressure) and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of
the Lamb. Therefore they are BEFORE THE THRONE of God, and SERVE HIM day and night in His
temple: and He that sitteth upon the Throne shall dwell among them" (Rev. 7:9-10,
13-15).
This is the great company of
the redeemed of all ages who wash their robes and make them white in the blood of the
Lamb. But note their location relative to the Throne: "After this I beheld, and, lo,
a great multitude which no man could number... stood BEFORE THE THRONE, and BEFORE THE
LAMB." The four Living Creatures are IN THE THRONE - KINGS reigning with the Christ!
But the great multitude is not in the Throne; it is "before" the Throne,
"serving" Him who sits upon the Throne. These do not rule or reign, but they are
redeemed, washed in the blood of the Lamb. These have been delivered out of the sin and
death and travail of this present evil age, and receiving the life, joy, and victory of
Christ's redemption are "servants" of God. These did not "grow up into Him
in all things," they did not qualify for the HIGH CALLING of God as KINGS AND PRIESTS
UPON HIS THRONE, but by His matchless grace they believe on Him and find their place
"before" the Throne and "before" the Lamb and "He that sitteth
upon the Throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst
anymore...for the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them, and shall lead
them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes" (Rev. 7:15-17).
The great mass of Christians
of all ages, and the multitudes yet to bow in humble submission and loving adoration
before Him in the ages to come, belong to this great company. The imagery is drawn in
allusion to the encampment of the children of
THE TWENTY-FOUR ELDERS And
ROUND ABOUT THE THRONE
Were four and twenty seats:
and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and
they had on their heads CROWNS of gold" (Rev. 4:4). "Twenty-four other thrones
SURROUNDED THE THRONE and seated on these thrones were twenty-four Elders, arrayed in
white clothing, with Crowns of Gold upon their heads" (Amplified).The twenty-four
Elders bear-a special signification for they are represented as distinct from both the
four Living Creatures "in the midst" of the Throne and the great multitude
"before" the Throne. These Elders occupy a unique position described as
"round about" the Throne - yet UPON THRONES! In order to fully appreciate the
scenery here drawn by the Spirit we need to go back and examine one particular of the
order established by God among the people of Israel after they came up out of the land of
Egypt. It is important that we get a clear idea, not only of the structure of the
Tabernacle of Moses, but also of the arrangement of both the people and the priesthood in
relation to it. Below I give you a diagram of that arrangement.
In this arrangement we see
the same typical picture, under different symbols, as that presented to us in chapters
four and five of Revelation. The Most Holy Place was the abode of the God of Israel among
His people. When the Tabernacle was set up as described in Exodus chapter forty, then the
Shekinah, the Cloud of God's Presence, covered the Tent of the Congregation, and the glory
of the Lord filled the Tabernacle. It is interesting to observe that while the Cloud of
God's Presence rested upon the entire Tabernacle complex, the glory of the Lord
"FILLED the TABERNACLE," thus designating the Sanctuary Place as the DWELLING
PLACE or the TABERNACLE OF GOD. Later God said to Moses, "Speak unto Aaron thy
brother, that he come not at all times into the Holy Place within the veil before the
mercy seat, that he die not: for I WILL APPEAR IN THE CLOUD UPON THE MERCY Seat"
(Lev. 16:2). Isaiah rectified, "O Lord-of Hosts, God of Israel, that DWELLEST BETWEEN
THE CHERUBIM, Thou art God" (Isa. 37:16). God was IN the Cloud, He APPEARED in the
Cloud, He SPOKE out of the Cloud, He LED Israel by the Cloud, and in the Cloud He DWELT IN
THE HOLY PLACE. Thus, the Tabernacle was in very fact GOD'S THRONE among
The Tabernacle is the
dwelling place of God - His Throne, His sphere of activity, the center of His power and
glory. The Camp of Israel, the great multitude "before" the Throne, is the whole
world of mankind outside of God, estranged from the life that is in Him. But there is a
third company - the CAMP OF THE PRIESTS - situated, as it were, "round about the
Throne," directly BETWEEN the "Throne" and the "great multitude."
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ''The Israelites shall encamp each by his own tribal
standard or banner, with the ensign of their fathers' houses, opposite the Tent of Meeting
and facing it on every side. Then the Tent of Meeting shall set out, with the CAMP OF THE
LEVITES IN THE MIDST OF THE CAMPS" (Num. 2:1,17. Divine infinite purpose lies behind
this whole arrangement and the moment the wonderful significance of this dawns upon your
spiritual understanding, you will see that God has placed a PRIESTHOOD COMPANY between
Himself and the world of mankind! A priest or priesthood infers that there is a reason why
such has been called into play. It denotes that there is an estrangement between God and
His creatures and the priest ministers to bridge that gulf and bring about peace and
at-one-ment.
As I have explained in a
previous article, Webster's dictionary defines priest as: A mediatory agent BETWEEN God
and man. In the Old Testament the word priest is translated from the Hebrew word COHEN,
the root meaning of which is "one who stands up and draws nigh for another." The
Greek word, in its root, means "to minister." Thus, a priest is one who
"draws near and ministers on behalf of another." And the priest always draws
nigh and ministers in TWO DIRECTIONS - drawing nigh to God on behalf of the people and
drawing nigh to the people on behalf of God. The priest STANDS BETWEEN. He reaches forth
with one hand and takes hold of God; he reaches out with the other hand and takes hold of
humanity; and brings the two together by virtue of his priestly ministration. This great
truth reveals why God placed the Camp of the Priests directly BETWEEN Himself and the
people of
We are inclined to lightly
pass over many profound statements of Holy Scripture. The Priesthood was divided into
twenty-four orders for this stated purpose: "This was their order for coming on duty
to serve in the house of the Lord, according to the procedure ordered for them by their
forefather Aaron, as the Lord God of Israel had commanded him" (I Chron. 24:19,
Amplified).The Priesthood numbered thousands. Of course, all those priests could not go
into the temple at one time, so they were divided into courses and assigned to work
shifts, each "course" of Priests and Levites came on duty for a week, from one
Sabbath to another. When a "course" was on duty, all its members were bound to
appear in the temple, and the service of the week was subdivided among the various
families which constituted a "course." The point I wish to emphasize here is
this: It took all twenty-four courses to MAKE UP THE ENTIRE PRIESTHOOD OF GOD! As the
Father unfolds these truths to the inner man, we become convinced that as the four Living
Creatures "in the midst of the Throne" reveal the glory of KINGSHIP, so the
twenty-four Elders "round about the Throne" reveal the glory of PRIESTHOOD KINGS
AND PRIESTS! A
The four Living Creatures -
KINGS! The twenty-four Elders - PRIESTS! Together they bow low before the great King of
kings and High Priest of the heavens, intoning this NEW SONG - "Thou hast MADE US
unto our God KINGS AND PRIESTS: and we shall REIGN over the earth!" Ah, beloved,
those are not mere words, God's meaning of a "song" is "message;
revelation." All songs are meant to convey a message. Man calls anything a song, any
weird beat, any unnatural accents, any harmonic dissonance, any melodic discord, the
ba-ba-bu of the jungle and the raucous racket of rock music is merchandised as a song. A
"new song" in spiritual language means a NEW REVELATION, a NEW MESSAGE, a NEW
EXPERIENCE in God. A new song is born when men experience the inworking of a new message,
the message and the messenger so becoming one until the messenger BECOMES THE MESSAGE.
I am reminded of Cartwright,
the backwoods preacher of a past century, who used to sing a hymn as he went through the
woods: "No foot of land do I possess. No cottage in the wilderness” and one day
a man presented Cartwright with a cottage and a piece of ground, and he went on his way
singing: No foot of land do I possess, No cottage in the wilderness; and he stopped and
said, "Joseph Cartwright, that is a lie; you have got a cottage and land; YOU CANNOT
SING THAT HYMN!" Every time the Spirit of God unfolds new dimensions of truth to our
hearts, effecting further transformations into His image, and the fulfilling of His will
in our lives, a NEW SONG is born. The old song was good and true in its time, but we can
sing the old song no more, for a new day has dawned, a new glory has arisen, a new reality
is birthed within, praise His name.
God is even now preparing a
people, overcomers, a Royal Priesthood, a Kingdom of Priests, and while the Church world
continues on with its time-honored traditions and childish delusions, singing about cabins
in the corner and mansions over the hill-top, a people is arising in the earth with a new
and wonderful vision - to become Kings and Priests unto God their hearts vibrating with
the melodious strains of a NEW SONG, the song of a people with a purpose, a company
gathered out of all generations, joined unto the Christ, which in due time shall be led
forth to be the manifest expression of His image, character, and nature, the revelation of
His power and glory, with an outflow of His life and light and love for all mankind. For
these the whole creation groans, and they are in the process of preparation, BEING MADE,
in the skillful hands of the Great Potter, a
God knows every detail of His
plan for His Kings and Priests, and precisely the work to be wrought upon each one to
conform them unto His own priestly heart. Ah, those who receive THIS CALL, who cherish
THIS VISION, being motivated by THIS HOPE, indeed sing a NEW SONG which can be learnt by
none but those apprehended ones, the firstfruits of His redemption. This is the ineffable,
preeminent Song; ineffable because it strikes a chord, the vibration of which cannot be
discerned by the carnal man; preeminent because it is the Song of the Lamb that stands in
the midst of the Throne, the King of kings and the High Priest of OUR PROFESSION, who in
all things has preeminence! THOU HAS MADE US PRIESTS "Thou...hast redeemed us to God
by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and has MADE US
unto our God KINGS AND PRIESTS" (Rev. 5:9-10).
This passage is one of rare
beauty. It is like a precious diamond, the effulgence of whose radiance dazzles the mind.
It is a drop of pure distilled essence, whose fragrance fills the rooms of the heart of
every man and woman who has received the call to sonship. It is a joy forevermore and a
challenge to all who comprehend its message. It must be engraved deeply upon every heart
of God's Royal Priesthood. It exalts and glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. "THOU hast
MADE US!" THOU ! There is so much depth to that text that I am afraid that we often
do not perceive it. It is like a beautiful star-studded sky on a bright clear night and
one cannot even begin to grasp the vast depth that lies above us. So it is with these
marvelous words: "Thou hast MADE US TO BE KINGS AND PRIESTS!" Can you say that?
As we plumb its depths a little more I hope that you will ask yourself the question more
carefully, "Am I being MADE a PRIEST unto God? Is the process of transformation into
the priestly nature taking place in my life?" My deepest desire for you, dear one, is
that you will come to be able to experientially say these words: "Jesus Christ is
MAKING ME A PRIEST!" Not in the sweet bye and bye - but HERE AND NOW!
A great and important truth
is contained in that declaration, and one which most Christians deny. Theoretically all
Christians believe that in a sense "we are God's workmanship," but in practice
most of them deny it by all their self-effort to MAKE THEMSELVES. In other words, most
Christians live as though the responsibility of their own development and perfection
rested entirely upon themselves. My earnest prayer is that the blessed Holy Spirit will
help us to understand this most absolute and literal truth: We do not have anything to do
with our own "becoming" excepting to "yield ourselves unto God" (Rom.
6:13). Listen: "THOU hast redeemed us by Thy blood ...THOU hast made us unto our God
Kings and Priests." THOU! Oh God! the work will surely be done, and done well, for it
is Thou that doest it. Jesus, the High Priest of our profession, does His work WITHIN US.
He imparts of His own life, power, and ministry. We cannot have the priesthood in full
power except as the power of HIS LIFE is fully inworked in us. If we begin to understand
that, then we shall see what is meant by the fact that we are called to be priests,
because we have the very life of the HIGH PRIEST in us - not only imputed, but the High
Priest Himself dwelling powerfully within us and working effectually through us, praise
His wonderful name!
The quality and power of this
indwelling life of Christ is spoken of in Heb. 7:15-17. "And it is yet far more
evident: for that after the similitude of Melchizedek there ariseth another priest, who is
made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE.
For He testifieth, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." The
wonderful priesthood of Jesus is after the power of an ENDLESS life. We now come to what
is implied by the word "endless." This is the Greek word AKATALUTOS meaning
indissoluble or permanent. The power of an endless life is the power of an indestructible
life - eternal life. To understand what kind of life this is we must connect it to God,
the eternal One. Eternity is an attribute of God and His divine life and has its true
existence only in fellowship with God's life which is the life of eternity. These precious
words are the key to the life of Sonship! Jesus lives in the Spirit as High Priest in THE
POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE. And as He lives, so He works in that power. Each work He works
within us He is able to do in the power of an endless life. What He works within us is
INDESTRUCTIBLE. He works it within Us AS A LIFE, as our own life, so that it becomes our
very nature to delight in God and do His WILL. He is not a Priest-in the House of God in
some far-off heaven somewhere, but a Priest in the House of God WHICH WE ARE. His
Priesthood acts as an inner life within us, lifting us up, not in theory or thought, but
in Spirit and in Truth, into a vital knowing of God. He breathes His own life in us. And
He works it in as THE POWER OF LIFE, a life that is pure and holy, full of vitality and
strength, unchangeable and indestructible, because it is HIS LIFE.
The sole object of this
indwelling and inworking life is that God may reveal His Son in us in all His beauty and
glory and power a Priesthood to minister Himself to His creation. However clearly we see
by the eye of revelation and faith the truth of this realm of Kingship and Priesthood,
however earnestly we desire it, however firmly we think we grasp it by faith, all will not
avail - GOD HIMSELF MUST DO IT! God Himself must admit us to His presence, and make His
face to shine upon us. And as the path to Priesthood, God Himself must write His law in
our hearts, give us the new divine nature in such power of the Holy Spirit, that it is HE
that works WITHIN US both to will and to do. God Himself must by the Holy Ghost so shed
abroad His love in our hearts, that to love becomes as natural to us as it is for the dove
to be gentle. God Himself must by the Holy Ghost so fill us with the nature of
righteousness that to be righteous becomes as natural to us as breathing. God Himself must
by the Holy Ghost so clothe us with the mind of Christ, that to think the thoughts of God
becomes as natural to us as are the self-serving thoughts and desires of the unregenerated
man. God Himself must by the Holy Ghost so make us vessels of mercy that to be merciful
becomes as natural to us as the emotions of anger and retaliation are to the carnal
nature.
Consider, dear brother,
sister, is it not GOD HIMSELF who has faithfully directed all your steps, who has
initiated every circumstance of your life, who has given sight to your poor blind eyes and
caused you to behold the majesty of HIS PURPOSE? Is it not GOD HIMSELF who has led you out
of the blinding traditions and enslaving bondage of Babylonian religion, and nurtured you
and brought you to the place in which you stand in the Christ today? I do not hesitate to
say that no more than you can SAVE YOURSELF can you MAKE YOURSELF an overcomer, BRING
YOURSELF to perfection, or OF YOURSELF apprehend the beautiful ministry of Priesthood unto
God. What man by taking thought can add a cubit to his stature, Jesus asked. What part by
self-effort does a man take in accretion, in digestion of food, in the reflex actions of
the body? Men need only reflect on the automatic processes of their natural body to
discover that this is the universal Law of Life. What does any man consciously do, for
instance, in the matter of breathing? What part does he take in the circulating of the
blood, in keeping up the rhythm of his heart? What control has he over growth or the
physiological change at producing maturity? What man ever came into the world by his own
will? In point of fact man is born by the will of another, every organ of his body GIVEN
HIM, every function arranged for him, brain and nerve, thought and sensation, will and
conscience, all provided for him ready made. And yet he turns to his spiritual life AND
WISHES TO ORGANIZE THAT HIMSELF!
Oh preposterous and vain man,
thou who couldest not make a finger nail of thy body, thinkest thou to fashion this
wonderful, mysterious, subtle soul of thine after the ineffable Image? Wilt thou ever
permit thyself TO BE conformed to the Image of the Son? Wilt thou, who canst not add a
cubit to thy stature, submit TO BE raised by the Divine Life within thee to the perfect
stature of the Christ? Ah, it is truer "THOU HAS MADE US to be Kings and Priests unto
God: and we shall reign over the earth." All of us have this treasure in earthen
vessels, and we are continually being changed from glory to glory. For years God had put
me on His potter's wheel and made me a certain shape. For years I was an evangelist and,
whenever the Lord wanted to move in the soul-saving, evangelistic realm, I was right
there. No problem at all. I was in the evangelistic shape. My whole mind was conformed to
that ministry, my whole thought, everything. All about me was conformed to that. But if
God wanted to move any other way through me, He could not. That was my shape. If He came
in that shape I said, "Come, Lord Jesus." If He came in another shape I couldn't
handle that, so I said, "Go, Lord Jesus." Most of us have had a certain shape
and we have been hardened to that. The only way the Lord could appear to us and appear in
us and appear through us, would be in that form. It has been the "Baptist" form,
the "Pentecostal" form, or the "Charismatic" form. It has been the
"evangelistic" form, the "apostolic" form, the "divine
order" form, the "healing" form, the "deliverance" form, the
"miracles" form, the "tongues-speaking" form, the
"prophesying" form, or a hundred other forms. But the highest glory of the
ministry of Christ is embodied in these two wonderful Offices: KING and PRIEST.
He is indeed "the King
eternal" and "a Priest forever" after the order of Melchizedek. And while
we truly praise God for all the manifestations and ministries of this present "in
part" realm, so graciously bestowed, yet our hearts cry out mightily for a GREATER
REALITY and a HIGHER MINISTRY for the blessing and deliverance of the groaning creation.
Our deepest desire is that He may so thoroughly transform us into HIS IMAGE, so completely
CHANGE OUR SHAPE until we fully BECOME all that Kingship and Priesthood mean. A friend has
so beautifully written of this truth "Kings and priests - the magnitude of this
calling is far beyond the outreach of the natural mind, how God shall receive into Himself
a people through whom He shall execute His judgments and His mercies. A people that shall
'rule with a rod of iron,' and yet shall 'comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them
that mourn in
Although there are those who
would dare to presume to announce 'themselves' as Kings and Priests today, that they might
usurp control over the people, and exalt themselves above measure, we are firmly persuaded
that 'no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God' (Heb. 5:4). HE
THAT IS CALLED OF GOD - that is the qualifying statement, for whom God apprehends He also
thoroughly disciplines and purifies, yea, 'whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and
scourgeth every son whom He receiveth' (Heb. 12:6). For 'a pupil is not superior to his
teacher, but every one WHEN HE IS COMPLETELY TRAINED, READJUSTED, RESTORED, SET TO RIGHTS
AND PERFECTED will be like his teacher' (Lk. 6:40, Amplified)."In many of its aspects
'haste' is a mark of immaturity. To those who are now becoming spiritually mature, there
is also an undergirding of knowledge that 'to every thing there is a season, and a time to
every purpose...' (Eccl. 3:1), and they desire to only move in GOD'S TIMING, not to rush
ahead in a final outburst of 'self-promotion' to claim to be this, or that. When the
vision seems to tarry, we can well afford to 'wait for it; because it will surely come, it
will not tarry' (Hab. 2:3). At the Father's appointed time He will fully manifest His own
- placing them in the position for which He has been preparing them.
"That the preparation
process has been extreme, its requirements to the UTTERMOST, is readily seen as most
necessary in view of the tremendous calling to be realized. This is not a position to be
filled by a novice, one that is undeveloped, untrained, one that is still of a 'double
mind' - torn between his own will and the will of God. The challenge of the calling is
such that it demands complete conformity to HIS DEATH, ere we are to partake of His more
abundant life, and to be able to freely give that life to others. TO HIM THAT OVERCOMETH,
to him that has gained the victory 'will I grant to sit-with Me in My Throne, even as I
also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His Throne' (Rev. 3:21). Yes, in the
making of kings and priests through whom to administer the affairs of His Kingdom, HE has
carefully selected His vessels, and is now processing them by means that stagger the
imagination-with their intensity and scope. But God shall not be satisfied with an
'inferior product,' hence the transformation must penetrate into every fiber of our being,
until the whole becomes A NEW CREATION in Christ Jesus.
“When God quickens these
revelations to our spirit, deep inside, even if the flesh would like to cast it aside,
this quickened truth doesn't let go of you. You say, 'It cannot be for me, I'll never
qualify.' But that does not change it at all. For the gifts and the callings of God are
without a change of mind on God's part. He knows exactly where He will bring you, the
exact route to get you there, and it matters not how devastating it seems betimes. Be
assured that God is bringing you by the easiest route possible for Him to fulfill His
purpose in you. HE maintains the proper pressure, the exact heat of the fiery trial, and
the length of time for its processing. But He will not allow you to be tested beyond that
which you are able to bear. He will press you to the far limit to accomplish that for
which He has apprehended you. In ourselves we are not sufficient for these things, 'but
our sufficiency is of God, Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not
of the letter, but of the spirit' (II Cor. 3:5-6). The CHRIST WITHIN is equal to it all,
so we cast all our cares upon Him, while He brings us through to ultimate victory.
'Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it' (I Thes. 5:24)" - end quote.
For years we thought that the
manifestation of the Sons of God would be the manifestation of what some people could do -
raising the dead, emptying out the hospitals, asylums, and so on. John said, "These
are written that Jesus IS" - not Jesus HAS, or Jesus CAN DO - "Jesus IS the Son
of the living God; and that believing ye might have life through His name" (Jn.
20:31). He IS a wonderful Saviour, Healer, Baptizer, and HAS all power and can DO
anything. But it is not only what Jesus HAS, nor what Jesus can DO. "That ye might
believe that Jesus IS!" If you believe and confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus,
WHO HE IS, you will be saved. We are not changed one iota by believing what Jesus HAS, or
what Jesus can DO. The power is in WHO AND WHAT HE IS. The unveiling of the Sons of God is
not the revelation of some people that can DO something. No, it is the unveiling of some
people that have BECOME something. "To as many as received Him, to them gave He power
to BECOME the sons of God" (Jn. 1:12). "Thou hast MADE US unto our God Kings and
Priests." If Jesus IS who He IS, then certainly He can DO all things, but the doing
is incidental, merely a by-product of the BEING. If you are BECOMING what HE IS, the signs
will follow automatically, you cannot help it.
But we are not following
signs. We are "following on to KNOW THE LORD." Our hearts are set on HIM. We are
not becoming occupied with ourselves, we are occupied with what He has said that He would
MAKE US, for HIS sake. "This people have I formed FOR MYSELF." "Ye shall be
UNTO ME a
Once God has you, it is up to
Him to MAKE YOU whatever He desires you to be. He can make the vessel as it pleases Him.
If He wishes to make you a healer, that is not your business. If He wants to make you an
evangelist, or a deliverer, or a teacher, or a King-Priest after the order of Melchizedek,
let Him MAKE YOU whatever He wants to make you! And when the revelation of His calling
bursts within your bosom, embrace the calling with all that is within you, yielding to all
the processings necessary to bring it to pass. Do not drown the high purposes of God in a
flood of false humility. Set your face as a flint, turn neither to the right hand nor the
left, consider not your own weakness, faults, inability or insufficiency, for YOUR
SUFFICIENCY IS OF GOD! HE WILL MAKE YOU! And there must be no other-people consciousness,
being occupied with what other people think. The only thing that matters is that you have
the thoughts of God and do the will of your Father. "We have the mind of Christ"
(I Cor. 2:16). Those who cherish the hope of sonship are no longer people-conscious. We
are no longer world-conscious. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus: who...made Himself of no reputation" (Phil. 2:5-8). When you have no
reputation, what does it matter what anybody thinks? Whether they think good or bad does
not make any difference. God wants a people in whom the mind of Christ is so fully formed,
that all they have is a GOD CONSCIOUSNESS.
So He has made us Kings? That
is His business. All glory be to Him! He has made us Lords? All glory be to Him! He has
made us sit in heavenly places? All glory be to Him! He has made us Priests? All glory be
to Him! He has made us Saviours? All glory be to Him! For so many years we have sold
ourselves short, thinking, "God will be lucky, when the trumpet blows, if three of us
are ready." For such a long, long time we have glamorized everything else but the
name of the Lord. God must have a people today who do not care one whit whether they were
born in a stable or raised in Nazareth, or have any natural abilities whatever according
to this world's standards - a people who are walking in fellowship with Him, a people who
are living in such total yieldedness to Him that whatever He wants to make them, He can
make them. However He wants to reveal Himself, He can do it. Whatever He wants to
accomplish through them, He can do it. Do you see how this takes all the strain out or us?
If you are a King and a Priest, if He gives you authority over all the power of the enemy,
if He says, "Whosoever sins you remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosoever
sins you retain, they are retained," if the full authority and His own life is
manifested in you because HE is manifested, then you can go into a city and they bring out
a dead boy and you stop the procession and say: "Young man, arise!" and when he
arises you can hand him back to his mother and keep going about the Father's business
without a picture for the magazine and without taking up an offering.
What was the secret of Jesus'
ministry? He could perform any miracle and walk away from it. The miracle was incidental.
Raising the dead, feeding the multitude, or preaching a sermon, all was incidental, He
never tried to learn how to raise the dead or perform a miracle, He sought only to KNOW
THE FATHER AND DO HIS WILL. When He rode into
Chapter
5
COMPASSIONATE
PRIESTS
"Thou...hast redeemed us
to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast
MADE US unto our God KINGS AND PRIESTS" (Rev. 5:9-10). This passage is one of rare
beauty. It is like a precious diamond, the effulgence of whose radiance dazzles the mind.
It must be engraved deeply upon every heart of God's Royal Priesthood. It exalts and
glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ. "THOU hast MADE US!" THOU! There is so much
depth to that text that I am afraid that we often do not perceive it. It is like a
beautiful star-studded sky on a bright clear night and one cannot even begin to grasp the
vast depth that lies above us. So it is with these marvelous words: "Thou hast
M-A-D-E U-S TO BE KINGS AND PRIESTS!" Can you say that? As we plumb its depths a
little more I hope that you will ask yourself the question more carefully, "Am I
being MADE a PRIEST unto God? Is the process of transformation into the priestly nature
taking place in my life?" My deepest desire for you, dear one, is that you will come
to be able to experientially say these words: "Jesus Christ is MAKING ME A
PRIEST!" Not in the sweet bye and bye - but in the nasty HERE AND NOW!
THOU HAST CREATED ALL THINGS.
There is a wonderful contrast drawn in Rev. 4:11 and 5:10, wherein it is stated,
"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast
CREATED ALL THINGS, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created...and hast MADE US unto
our God kings and priests: and we shall reign upon the earth." O Child of God,
consider how great and full of meaning these words are! "Thou hast CREATED all
things...Thou hast MADE us." There is a world of difference between the terms
"create" and "make." Away back yonder in the dim and distant ages that
are gone it was written, "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because
that in it He had rested from all His work which God CREATED AND MADE" (Gen. 2:3).
The phrase "created AND made" is a faulty translation, and it is so pointed out
in the margin of some Bibles. It should read, "...which God created TO make."
Young's Literal Translation renders this verse, "And God blesseth the seventh day,
and sanctifieth it, for in it He hath ceased from all His work which God had PREPARED FOR
MAKING." Another translation says, "And God proceeded to bless the seventh day
and make it sacred, because on it He has been resting from all His work that God has
CREATED FOR THE PURPOSE OF MAKING." In other words, God created the whole vast
universe for the purpose of forming or making it into something He still had in mind!
The word "create"
literally means, in Hebrew, "to select for a formative process." The New
Webster's Dictionary defines its meaning as: To bring into being; produce; specifically to
evolve from one's own thought or imagination. "Thou hast created ALL THINGS." We
do not live in a world made up of a single ball of solid matter. Our earth is but an
infinitesimal part of a marvelous and complex system. Since the dawn of history man has
marveled at the mystery and grandeur of the heavens. On a clear night, our own galaxy, the
Milky Way, can be seen as a star-studded ribbon circling the sky. Our earth is a massive
sphere some 8,000 miles in diameter; yet the sun has a diameter 100 times larger than the
earth. Viewed from afar, our solar system - the sun and nine revolving planets - would
appear as a disc in space nearly eight thousand million miles across. And now consider
this - three hundred and fifty million solar systems are reported with their suns,
planets, and satellites in our galaxy alone! Then beyond all this, far beyond our Milky
Way are additional THOUSANDS OF MILLIONS OF GALAXIES - as common as blades of grass in a
meadow! So far, using the largest and most sophisticated telescopes, astronomers have
probed the universe to a distance of over one hundred thousand million million million
miles. If we could ride on a beam of light at the speed of 186,000 miles a second, it
would take some ten thousand million years to travel this distance! Still, astronomers
have been unable to find the edge of the universe. Perhaps it is endless; no one knows.
With this in mind, how great are the words of inspiration: "Thou hast CREATED A-L-L
T-H-I-N-G-S!"
The Bible opens with one of
the simplest and yet most profound statements ever penned by human hands. "In the
beginning - GOD!" How awesome to realize that there was a time when there was nothing
- absolutely nothing - but GOD! There was no earth, no moon, no planets, no sun, no stars,
no galaxies, no angels, no devils, no men, nothing anywhere but God Himself. And yet there
was such a time. Paul caught something of the sublimity of this eternal and self-existent
One and wrote to the saints at Colosse: "For by Him were all things created, that are
in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible...all things were created by Him,
and for Him: AND HE IS BEFORE ALL THINGS; and by Him all things consist" (Col.
1:16-17). Let me emphasize this wonderful and important truth. "He is before all
things" means that He is not Himself one of the "things." He is B-E-F-O-R-E
ALL THINGS. And just as sublime is the truth that "by Him ALL THINGS CONSIST."
Young's Literal Translation renders this literally from the Greek: "Because IN HIM
were the all things CREATED...and Himself is before all, and the all things IN HIM HAVE
CONSISTED."
This raises an important
question. If God was "before all things," then OUT OF WHAT did God CREATE all
things? When I was a boy we had a "Sunday School" definition of the word create.
"To create," I was told, 'means to make something out of nothing." To my
young and unlearned mind that sounded altogether logical. After all, I thought, if God is
God, and God can do anything, then surely it is no problem to God to MAKE SOMETHING out of
NOTHING! But as I grew older and learned something of the laws of physics, I discovered a
simple but demonstrable fact, namely, that out of nothing - nothing comes. Also, out of
something you get no more than that thing is able to contain. You cannot take a gallon of
milk out of a pint bottle unless you refill the bottle again and again. You cannot put a
hundred dollars in the bank and take out a thousand. The man who seeks to take out of the
bank far more than he put in will find himself a recipient of free board and room for many
months to come! This, then, is a fundamental point of natural law. We recognize that out
of nothing, nothing comes. And even God, in all His omnipotence, DOES NOT MAKE SOMETHING
OUT OF NOTHING!
If there was ONLY GOD, and
absolutely NO THING other than God, what kind of material did God have at His disposal out
of which to construct all things? If you were standing completely alone, with nothing but
your own being existent, what material would be available for making something other than
yourself? The answer is, of course, YOU WOULD HAVE TO MAKE THE "THINGS" OUT OF
YOURSELF! And friend, this is precisely what God did. Now we can understand the full
import of those words inspired by the blessed Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul:
"Because IN HIM were the all things created...and Himself is before all, and the all
things I-N M-I-M HAVE CONSISTED" (Col. 1:16-17, Young's Literal).God couldn't create
the world from dirt, because dirt is part of the "things" He created. He
couldn't create it from magma, for magma is part of the "things" created. He
couldn't create it from gases, for all the gases in the universe are among the
"things" created. I trust you can see, dear reader, that since God was BEFORE
ALL THINGS, and since it was IN HIM that all things CONSISTED, it is abundantly clear that
the very source and substance of things IS GOD HIMSELF! Of the energy and substance of His
own Being God brought forth and created all things - OUT OF HIMSELF! "Because OUT of
Him, and through Him, and for Him are ALL THINGS. To Him be the glory for the ages"
(Rom. 11:36, Diaglott).
To create means to form the
visible from the invisible, taking that which is not seen and fashioning it into something
that can be seen, taking the inaudible and making it audible, causing the intangible to
become tangible. This is why artists and musicians are said to "create"
paintings and music. They draw from the invisible and indiscernible emotion, imagination,
and inspiration of their OWN SOULS and produce upon canvass or as a musical composition
the exquisite beauty, form, and harmony of that which existed only in the invisible realm
of thought. Inventors, in a certain way, are creators. The visible out of the invisible -
that is CREATION! THOU HAST MADE US PRIESTS. We have noted that God created TO MAKE.
Create and make are not the same thing at all. God both creates and makes. In creation He
has produced all visible things from the invisible properties of energy inherent eternally
within Himself. But to "make" bespeaks the taking of that which is already
visible, created, and CHANGING OR ALTERING ITS FORM so that it acquires a new identity and
state of being in the visible world.
The New Webster's Dictionary
defines "make" as: To bring into being by SHAPING a portion of matter or by
combining parts or ingredients. As I write this article I sit before a hugh oak desk. This
desk was one time a tree. Men took the tree, chopped it down, sawed it into boards,
planed, sanded, and shaped the boards, and built them into a desk. Long millenniums ago
the oak tree was CREATED, but the desk was MADE. God CREATED oaktrees, and men took the
tree and MADE the desk. The tree, in creation, came from the invisible mind and mighty
power of God; but the desk was fashioned, shaped, and made from the already created tree.
In the beginning God created
man, formed him of the dust of the ground, lowering him into the realm of carnality,
frustration, limitation, and futility. In pursuing his own self-hood instead of the Spirit
of God, man fell even further into sin, sorrow, and depravity. If we want tangible
evidence of the wreckage that sin has made in the world, we do not have to go further than
our own selves to discover that when the CHRIST DOMINION is gone, there follows the
unleashing of every carnal and devilish thought, attitude, and action. Man has been
weakened to such a degree that instead of ruling the animal world, the ANIMAL NATURE rules
in him! Sin and self choke the virtue from his soul, and Satan laughs him to scorn, while
unclean spirits and every vile thing parade about upon the stage of his mind and body.
Because of the weakened state of our being through sin, the terrors of life frighten us,
the pressures fray our nerves, and our hearts fail. The cares of this world turn our lives
into a pressure cooker and so overwhelm us until our emotions erupt in fear, anger,
hostility, or depression.
The nature of the natural man
IS ANYTHING BUT THAT OF A PRIEST! And now comes the word - "Thou hast redeemed us to
God by Thy blood...and hast MADE US unto our God kings and priests." Ah,
"things" are created, but "priests" are MADE! If you are a priest,
there is something about you that is not ordinary; you have distinct and distinguishing
characteristics. You are no longer part of the problem you have been so thoroughly
transformed from the spirit of self and of this world until you have become in your very
state of being THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM. What is a priest? Who are the priests today?
They are those who are indwelt by the Christ and are living in the Christ and by the
Christ to manifest the Christ. It does not matter what you do or what your job is. You may
be a school teacher, a businessman, a doctor, a nurse, a student, a housewife, a mechanic,
or a preacher. The essential and basic thing is that Christ lives in you and that you live
in Christ, experience Christ, walk in Christ, and manifest Christ in all your life. This
makes you a priest.
Consider the sons of Aaron
when they were brought to Moses. What did Moses do? He removed their clothes and put upon
them the priestly garments. What are the priestly garments? They are the manifestation of
Christ. Christ manifested upon you is the robe of the priest. What the priests eat
represents Christ, what they wear represents Christ, and all their living and doing
represents Christ. To be a priest you must live in Christ and serve with Christ. When you
teach in school, you teach in Christ; when you do business, you do business in Christ;
when you take care of your home, you do it in Christ; when you speak with your neighbor,
you speak as Christ; when you touch men, you touch them with Christ; when you meet your
enemy, you love with the love of Christ; whatever you handle, you will handle with Christ;
whatever you do, you will do with Christ. You are in the garment of a priest. You are
equipped with Christ, you are adorned with Christ. You will manifest Christ. You will
minister Christ. Ah, beloved, this is the ministry of priesthood. And only God can MAKE US
priests! "Make" means to ALTER THE FORM OR CHANGE THOROUGHLY.
There can be no priesthood
without first a thorough change. Sin, self, greed, hatred, criticism, retaliation, ego,
unconcern, immaturity, pettiness, unrighteousness, all must be dealt with. Thus, we are
not seeking just a salvation experience, the forgiveness of our sins, covering over the
past, and hoping for the best in the future, but we desire that the Spirit of God, working
mightily within, shall bring a thorough change in us, until every word, will, attitude,
action, and reaction shall flow from HIS HEART unto all about us. You can be a believer
and die and go to heaven without such a thorough change, but you can NEVER BE A PRIEST
WITHOUT IT! You can speak in tongues, prophesy, see visions, fall out under the power, and
be an apostle without such a thorough change, but you can NEVER BE A PRIEST WITHOUT
IT!" It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure"
(Phil. 2:13). "GOD working in you." What a marvelous expression!
We know how combustion works
mightily in the cylinder, forcing up and down the piston, giving power to the engine. We
know how sap works mightily within the branches, forcing itself out in leaf, blossom, and
bud. We know of incidents where men were so possessed of devils that they spoke and acted
as the inward promptings compelled them. These express but weakly the idea of the
"inward working" of God, which towers infinitely beyond. Have we not all been
conscious of some of these workings? We have known them when the breath of holy resolution
has swept through our natures; every sigh for the will of God; every strong and earnest
desire to be like Him; every determination to leave the nets and fishingboats to follow
Jesus; every appetite for spiritual things; every impulse to live and sacrifice and give
for others; every aspiration to love and lift and restore the groaning creation; every
prayer lifted heavenward in intercession for weak, needy, suffering and sinful humanity;
every effort to bless those about us - all these are the result of His inworking and the
promise of the Priestly Ministry!
COMPASSIONATE PRIESTS
The wonderful book of Hebrews
is literally packed full of mysteries, types, shadows, and allegories, all pointing to the
ministry of God's Royal Priesthood, which are only unfolded by the Holy Spirit as we are
able to bear it. Hebrews chapter five sets forth five qualifications that the High Priest
must possess. All the members of the Royal Priesthood who are, with Him, "partakers
of the heavenly calling," must have the qualifications, but the High Priest in
particular." For every High Priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things
pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: who can have
compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way, for that he himself also
is compassed with infirmity. And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for
himself, to offer for sins. And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is
called of God, as was Aaron" (Heb. 5:1-4). Here we have defined the intrinsic nature
of the priestly office. The verses just quoted contain a general description of the
Levitical High Priests. Five things are here said concerning them. First, he must be
"taken from among men," that is, he must partake of the nature of those on whose
behalf he acts. Second, he acted not as a private individual, but as a public official:
"is ordained for men." Third, he came not empty-handed before God, but furnished
with "gifts and sacrifices for sins." Fourth, for he himself was not exempt from
infirmity, so that he might the more readily succour the distressed. Fifth, he did not
presumptuously rush into his office of himself, but was chosen, prepared, and approved of
God.
Let us look at two of these
more closely. "For every High Priest taken from among men..." First, then, his
humanity is insisted upon. Greek mythology abounds in stories of gods who walked the earth
giving the impression that they were men. They looked like men. They acted like men. But
when the need arose they cast off presence, put forth their powers, and revealed their
divinity. They were not really men, but gods in disguise. Many Christians have thought of
Jesus in this way. He was God, looking like man, but not really man. But Jesus knew
Himself to be a man, as His response to the first temptation shows, "MAN shall not
live by bread alone" (Mat. 4:4). He was subject to all the limitations that compass
our mortal frame, He knew weariness (Jn.. 4:6), hunger (Mat. 21:18; Lk. 4:2), and thirst
(Jn.. 19:28), Bodily life has its joys and its sorrows, and He knew them both. But human
life includes more than bodily experiences. Our emotional lives are a very important part
of our being. And, as we can see, Jesus had emotions just like all other men. He could be
joyful (Jn.. 15:11), or sorrowful (Mat. 26:37). He experienced love for others (Mk..
10:21), and compassion (Mat. 9:36). It was astonishment which marked His reaction to the
faith of the centurion (Lk.. 7:9) and to the unbelief of the men of
A High Priest must know and
experientially understand the limitations of those he represents. "Who can have
compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; FOR THAT HE HIMSELF ALSO
IS COMPASSED WITH INFIRMITY" (Heb. 5:2). On three different occasions Matthew tells
us that our Lord was "moved with compassion" on the multitude. Frankly, when you
read the New Testament you read of Jesus doing miracles, healings, signs and wonders, but
Christ never went around looking for a miracle to perform. HE WENT ABOUT DOING THE
FATHER'S WILL. The Father brought Him to a place where His heart could be moved with
compassion. Coming to a town He sees a funeral procession and as a Son, developing the
nature of a Priest, He is filled with compassion when He sees the widow and her dead son.
There was no social security in those days, and the boy was the only person to look after
the widow, so He stops the procession, raises the boy, hands him over to the mother, and
goes about the Father's business.
I find that the basis of the
ministry of Christ was not power - IT WAS COMPASSION! When He saw the multitude He was
moved with compassion. They were hungry, and He said, "Let us feed them." When
He met the leper He was moved with compassion and He laid His hands on him and healed him.
He could have said a word to heal him by the spoken word, but that man needed the touch of
somebody's hand on him, he had been separated from people so long, he needed more than to
be healed from his leprosy, he needed the sense of the hand of God upon Him. When Jesus
looked upon the careworn faces of the toiling, tax-ridden multitudes - taxed by cruel
priests; taxed by Herod; taxed by Pilate; taxed by their own sins and sorrows; wearily
burdened, wounded at heart, and heavy laden - He was moved with compassion. "Who can
have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; FOR THAT HE HIMSELF
ALSO IS COMPASSED WITH INFIRMITY." The condition which develops compassion in us, is
that WE OURSELVES get compassed - surrounded, hedged in - by the problems, the
difficulties, the needs that are going to be represented in the people to whom we
minister. So many of us are intolerant in certain areas of our lives because we have not
gone through the pressure, we have not been compassed by that particular infirmity or
weakness or need.
Priesthood demands suffering,
trial, testing, tribulation, and pressure. Sonship demands relationship with God. He sends
the Spirit of the Son into our hearts and we cry, "Abba, Father!" Maturity and
development in God come through chastening and all the dealings of God. Now God intends
that all of us should be Sons of God, and that all of us should be a
Christ was a Son before He
was a Priest. He was not a Priest during His years in the flesh, but He was a Son. Christ
as a Son, in order to fulfill His present ministry on the right hand of the Father' is not
fulfilling it simply as the Son of God. As a Son He came to die to provide redemption, but
to provide the priestly ministry on the right hand of the Father "we have a great
High Priest, that is passed into the heavens." The Son had, as a Son, to go through
the experience that was necessary to perfect Him for the understanding heart of the
Priesthood. "We have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of
our infirmities; BUT WAS IN ALL POINTS TEMPTED LIKE AS WE ARE, yet without sin" (Heb.
4:15). "Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He
suffered; and being made perfect, He became...AN HIGH PRIEST AFTER THE ORDER OF
MELCHIZEDEK" (Heb. 5:8-10). "Every High Priest...must be compassed with
infirmity." Consider now that the Christ was tempted in all points like as we are -
so that He might be a High Priest touched with the feelings of OUR INFIRMITIES. "But
EVERY MAN is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust (desire), and enticed"
(James 1:14).
Anything, to be a temptation
for us, must excite something within us that responds to the temptation. That for which we
have no desire, can never tempt us. I used to think, as many do, that Jesus was so high
and holy that He could not be affected by the things that affect us. He was high and holy,
but not to the extent that He could not be touched by the same infirmities, weaknesses,
and feelings that touch us. He knows how the person feels who is tempted to lie, curse,
steal, murder, or commit adultery. There had to be the desire in His flesh to answer the
temptation, but, blessed be God ! HE OVERCAME IT ALL! He was tempted in every point as we
are, YET WITHOUT SIN. He overcame all temptation and in the one instance of the desire to
go His own way, He resisted even unto blood. He was the first to do this AND HE ENTERED
INTO PRIESTHOOD.
There is something diabolical
about temptation, something satanically bewitching and bewildering. It stirs up our senses
and excites our emotions and passions. For the time being the forbidden thing seems more
important than anything else in the world. It weakens our powers of judgment, both moral
and spiritual. People who are otherwise very intelligent will in a brief season of
temptation commit wholly unthinkable follies which they often live to regret a whole
lifetime afterwards. It paralyzes our will. Our many good resolutions melt like wax in the
hour of temptation. All this temptation frequently does simply by being permitted to press
in upon us. It is like chloroform. If it gets too close to us, it will deprive us of the
very possibility of offering resistance. But, praise God, "God is faithful, who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make a
way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it" (I Cor. 10:13).Ah, Jesus could have
been a SON without being so totally compassed with infirmity, but HE COULD NEVER HAVE BEEN
A PRIEST WITHOUT IT. He might have been perfect in character, and desirous to help us;
but, if He had never tasted death, how could He allay our fears as we tread the verge of
"Who can have compassion
on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way." The High Priest could not be a
hard-nosed business man. And he could not be a legalist, one who would take the law and
hew unto the very line with it. He could not be a tyrant, enforcing his own will and
desires and purposes. HE HAD TO HAVE COMPASSION ON THOSE WHO WERE IGNORANT. The word
translated here "have compassion" is rendered in the margin "reasonably
bear with" and means to be moderate in passion, or to moderate one's own feelings.
The point stressed seems to be that of mental and emotional balance, neither coldly
distant nor uncontrollably excited. One without feeling, on-the one hand, or one all torn
up by the problem, on the other hand, could not minister as a Priest. He had to be
moderate in passion - gentle, pitying, sympathetic, merciful, gracious, kind, helpful.
That is why God told Ananias: "Go lay your hands upon Saul," for Saul needed the
hand of somebody laid on him in mercy and forgiveness and grace and compassion, because
his hands were red with the blood of the martyrs and he had come up to Damascus to torture
and kill again. Paul came into union with God through Jesus Christ, and in union with the
body of Christ through the hands which Ananias laid on him, for there was the mercy and
the grace of God on a level that could reach him.
That is what the Royal
Priesthood is for, it is so that Christ who is in the heavens, full of compassion, can
have a body here on the earth level wherein He can meet the needs of people. When God
wanted to deliver
Who was a good Priest? Paul!
Paul was a great Priest because he was a consoler, he knew how to minister comfort.
"By the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of
Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ" (II Cor. 1:4-5).
Suffering is a part of Priesthood. "And whether we be afflicted, it is FOR YOUR
CONSOLATION AND SALVATION, which is effectual in the enduring of the same suffering which
we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is FOR YOUR CONSOLATION AND SALVATION. And
our hope of you is stedfast, knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall
ye be also of the consolation. For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our
trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength,
insomuch that we despaired even of life. But we had the sentence of death in ourselves,
that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: who delivered us
from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that He will yet deliver
us" (II Cor. 1:6-10).In every situation Paul found himself limited, compassed about,
hedged in by suffering and difficulty. For years I prayed, "Lord, anoint me, empower
me, send me that I might go forth and do signs and wonders and miracles and build the
There is such a yearning
within - "O God, bring me to that place where I can become a comforter to those that
need comfort." Again and again we read it in Isa. 40:1, "Comfort ye, comfort ye
My people." And yet it seems we do not have enough to say, we don't know what to do,
or how to do it. Ah, that is why He is working now in us, filling up all that we lack of
THE SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST, that now and in the ages yet to come we might become the vessels
of His grace and mercy and compassion, so that we might bring comfort and healing and
restoration to those in need. There have been those precious folk who have said to me,
"Brother Eby, I don't understand. Since I came into this sonship message things have
gotten worse - all hell has broken loose." That is just what you need - IF YOU WOULD
BE A PRIEST! Have you not known some beautiful saints to whom you naturally betake
yourself in time of trial and sorrow? They always seem to speak the right word, to give
the very counsel you are longing for; you do not realize, however, the cost which they had
to pay ere they became so skilful in binding up gaping wounds and drying tears. But if you
were to investigate their past history you would find that they have suffered more than
most. They have watched the slow untwisting of some silver cord on which the lamp of life
hung. They have seen the golden bowl of joy dashed to their feet, and its contents spilt.
They have stood by ebbing tides, and drooping gourds, and noon sunsets; but all this has
been necessary to make them comforters and healers; THE PRIESTS OF MEN. The only persons
on earth who really understand our sorrow are the persons who have travelled the SAME
VALLEY of despair. Only those who have been bereaved know what bereavement really is. They
alone can shed the sympathizing tear and intercede in power with God, for they alone truly
understand. Others may kindly and with feeling offer their condolence, but they can do
little more than that, for they have not experienced the pain and loneliness of our loss.
The reason our blessed Lord is TOUCHED WITH THE
FEELING OF OUR INFIRMITIES is that-HE KNOWETH OUR FRAME. He remembereth that we are dust.
He Himself was a "man of sorrows and ACQUAINTED WITH GRIEF." He knew what it was
to be despised, afflicted, and rejected of men. He knows what it is to be misunderstood,
to be dragged from prison and judgment with NO MAN to declare His generation. He knows
what it is to be tempted in all points as we are tempted, and, though He knew not sin and
no guile was found in Him, yet the sympathizing tears flow from His eyes as He extends His
nail-pierced hand to lift us from the shades of our gloomy night to the ineffable light of
the plane on which He dwells. You say you have had troubles enough? Only if you have no
passion to be a Priest! If you come into the office on Monday you are just as tired as the
other fellow, you have the same flu, the same problems, the same limitations, you have no
secret formula to save you out of them, because every Priest has to be compassed, shut up,
hedged in with the same infirmities, so that he can have an understanding heart for all of
humanities problems. If you are going to be a manifested Son you must first get bound
because God wants His Sons to be Priests, kingly Priests who show forth both authority AND
redemption. You must not only have the authority of Kingship, but also the compassion of
Priesthood. Paul says in effect: "If I give all my goods to feed the poor, but I do
not love the poor, I still have no power to help them," because IN GOD, POWER IS
BASED UPON COMPASSION AND LOVE AND MERCY.
God wants to fill us with
that love, and inwork that compassion, and when you love the people that you are working
with, you find that when you have the compassion to love them, and want to minister to
them as a Priest, you are enthroned, you have the power to do it also. There has been too
much ministering based on POWER that was not based on COMPASSION. I do not mean
sentimental, mushy, soulish pity, but the compassion that floods our heart and comes from
God, so that we can love the unlovely. After many years of walking in divine health,
blessing, and victory, why is God today lifting His hand from many precious saints and
allowing sickness, pressures, and tragedies to seize upon them? Because He intends that
people, to BECOME PRIESTS, those through whom His compassion and mercy and love and power,
will come to humanity. Have you not noticed that many great healing and deliverance
ministries of the past were birthed into being by servants of God who themselves had been
at one time in great physical need. We also see this principle exhibited in those who
manifest a great love for the saving of lost souls in the truth that "he who is
forgiven much, the same also loves much" (Lk. 7:47)
Let me say now, I DO NOT
RECOMMEND THE PRIESTHOOD - I RECOMMEND SONSHIP! When you are a Son you have an
inheritance, great wealth, blessings from the Father's hands, and freedom. "Whom the
Son sets free, is free indeed." As a Son you have power to do things, but the moment
you become a Priest, they put you in chains: compassed, surrounded, hedged in, pressed on
every side by infirmity. Infirmity is weakness. I pray that as God deals with us in these
days that we will not despise our limitations, our infirmities, and our sufferings,
knowing that "He was in all points tempted, like as we are." Christ was tempted
as a Son, but after that there came a temptation in testings that had nothing to do with
Him, but were preparing Him for the perfection of the Priesthood. As Sons of God, with
full inheritance, we should be blessed beyond measure, we should have no problems, by
rights we should be in perfect health, have good jobs, money in the bank, and everything
coming to us. Most Spirit-filled Christians today choose to walk only in their sonship
privileges of BLESSING, HEALTH AND PROSPERITY. And they do not know it, but they SHALL NOT
REIGN WITH CHRIST.
Ah, it is the PRIESTS that
reigns and to the Priests God says, "No, I am going to limit you here, put you
through pressure there, subject you to suffering, hedge you in and compass you about with
infirmity, not because you have no rights, but that it will work a compassion, an
understanding, a mercy, a grace, work something in you so that out of that will flow a
river of love, forgiveness, pardon, redemption, and then a flow of power, an enabling, an
ability. Oh! may God's consuming fire consume all the self-pity which may be left in some
of us. Some could have made better progress, but just at the time God was perfecting them
in the priestly nature they began to feel sorry for themselves. Like children in school
they think they have a hard time, till they become teachers themselves and find that it is
harder on the teacher. Many young people, instead of getting their schoolwork done,
complain, and then they fail and wonder what is wrong. When God's consuming fire begins to
work in us and the trials and pressures overtake us, if we then feel sorry for ourselves
and drown in a pool of self-pity, we are disqualified. O my brother, my sister, lay hold
on God's grace which will so do a work in you that when you meet some poor soul in the
same place you have the answer: the grace and the mercy and the power of God is sufficient
for him also! But if you do not let it work in you, it will not work through you. If God
would deliver us from all our troubles we would never help anybody, never understand the
other fellow's dilemma; and that is why God keeps us the way we are and plagues us and
puts us under pressure, not because we are not Sons, not so we will complain, and not that
we will despair or faint, but that we say, "Lord, let it work in us that divine grace
and longsuffering and compassion that will then flow out to minister to others."
When the suffering is
completed, and we are perfected In the PRIESTLY NATURE, then we can walk in the fullness
of our inheritance and His glory shall be revealed in and through us, praise His name! Let
me share with you an illustration by Charles Spurgeon that I think says it so eloquently:
Suppose it was one of the times when a great plague comes upon the city of
Unless you have experienced
that healing balm and unless your life has been restored, you will not be able to
sympathetically enter into an understanding of what is being done, of this great
enterprise of tremendous moment which is being accomplished, as in the house of this great
man and his loving son. You allow him to touch your body and you feel the health restored
to your limbs. You begin to find that life once more pulses throughout your frame and
again, you know the restoration to health and soundness. But even still you will not yet
be fully able to enter into that fellowship. You must come to some sort of a sympathetic
understanding of what is really happening around you. You must see that there is nothing
in
At that point, my friend, you
begin to enter in and understand the deep mystery of the fellowship of the father and his
son. Just suppose that one day in that great house you meet a young man who announces that
he, too, is one of those who has been brought in and healed and restored and has been
adopted into the family. You find out a little bit about him. You notice that he is
dressed in a sporting way. He has a tennis racket under his arm and he is on his way out
the door. As he comes to the drawing room near the front door, he peers in and says to the
son, "How is it going with the plague today? How many was it this week?... Oh, that
is splendid! I'm delighted to hear it. I'm on my way to the courts to have a game."
Would such a one as this ever be able to enter into the fellowship of the father and the
son? Never! Or, perhaps, you meet another man not nearly so frivolous or flippant as the
first. He is dressed in a three-piece suit, his umbrella is under his arm. You find that
he is on his way to the Board of Trade. "Well, you know, business has to go on even
in the most difficult of times, and in times like these it is possible one can make a good
profit if one keeps his eye open and his nose to the grind." He, too, stops by the
drawing room, tips his hat to the father and son and says, "Glad to hear that the
work is going well. I left a check on the table in the hallway to help continue the work.
How is that poor soul there doing? My, he does look bad. But I must run along now.
Business first." And he is on his way. Can such a person as this ever enter into that
mystery of fellowship between the father and the son? That will remain ever as alien to
him as someone from another planet! Ah - there are no arm-chair Priests in the
God wants Priests who are so
willing to be numbered with the transgressors, so identified and touched with the feelings
of people's infirmities, whose bowels of compassion are so moved, that they are willing to
be one with the people they are sent to deliver. That, dear ones, is why some of you have
never known what the mystery of the fellowship of the Father and the Son is. You are an
alien to the greatest undertaking in the history of the universe - the healing and
redemption and restoration of the whole creation! Your heart is estranged. You would
rather stop the world and get off. You would rather go to heaven and play harps and
flutter about with angels. You are even now busy, busy, busy about many things, but that
which rests heavy upon the heart of God and of His great Son, the Great Physician and High
Priest of the heavens, is foreign to you. Oh! would that God could open your eyes to what
is going on in the world...to what is really important in the world...to what is really of
eternal significance in the world...that you may see the great plan and work of the Father
and His Son; that you might submit yourself to God to enter in and become one with those
things that beat most intently in their hearts.
"Wherefore in all things
it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and
faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God...for in that He Himself hath suffered
being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted. Wherefore, holy brethren,
PARTAKERS OF THE HEAVENLY CALLING, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession,
Christ Jesus; for we have not a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin" (Heb.
2:17-18; 3:1; 4:15). "If ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye
shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all the earth is Mine: and YE
SHALL BE UNTO ME A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS" (Ex. 19:5-6). "Thou...hast redeemed us to
God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast MADE
US UNTO OUR GOD KINGS AND PRIESTS: and we shall reign on the earth" (Rev. 5:9-10).Oh,
beloved, come, and as we gaze upon this glorious MINISTRY OF COMPASSION and its life-flow
unto all the peoples of the earth, let us yield ourselves unto the intense processings of
God that He may work His wondrous work in our lives, bringing us into such union with
Jesus in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, that we
BECOME in nature and power HIS ROYAL PRIESTHOOD in the earth!
Chapter
6
PARTAKERS
OF THE HEAVENLY CALLING
"WHEREFORE, holy
brethren, PARTAKERS OF THE HEAVENLY CALLING, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our
profession, Christ Jesus" (Heb. 3:1)
It has been said that when,
in the Scriptures, you read a "wherefore" or a "therefore" you ought
to know what it is THERE FOR! Though that statement contains a bit of humor, it embodies
an obvious and important truth. With this verse the third chapter of Hebrews begins, and
that "wherefore" hinges what the writer now says upon all that has been
established in the previous two chapters. Wherefore means "for what or which cause or
reason" - that is, seeing that the facts before presented are true, for that cause,
for that reason, because of that - let this action now be taken.
The book of Hebrews begins in
chapters one and two with a glorious declaration as to how God speaks or reveals Himself
to us. Once He spoke through prophets. But now He speaks or reveals Himself to us in
Sonship. Moffatt's and Phillips' translations and the Amplified New Testament are
especially beautiful and revealing in this portion of Scripture: "Many were the forms
and fashions in which God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets, but in these days
at the end He has spoken to us by a Son - a Son whom He has appointed heir of the
universe" (Moffatt). "God, who gave to our forefathers many different glimpses
of the truth in the words of the prophets, has now, at the end of the present age, given
us the truth in the Son" (Phillips). "In many separate revelations - each of
which set forth a portion of the truth - and in different ways God spoke of old to our
forefathers in and by the prophets. But in the last of these days He has spoken to us in
the person of a Son, whom He appointed Heir and lawful Owner of all things"
(Amplified).
In the first chapter the
angelic order is contrasted with the realm of Sonship and we are made to know how much
better Sonship is than the angelic realm. "Being made so much better than the angels,
as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they" (Heb. 1:4). Being
made so much better! A better nature, a better name, a better authority, a better
inheritance, a better relationship with the Father. Verse seven tells us that angels are
created beings, and are made winds (spirits), and His ministers (servants) a flame of
fire. But verse eight goes on to tell us that the SON has a throne which is forever and
ever (to the age of the age). Sonship is a relationship to Diety that angels cannot know.
Heb. 1:10 shows that the first-born Son was the creator of heaven and earth. God Himself
became human substance brought into this world of sin. When the first-born came into the
world of men the angels were told to worship Him. "When He bringeth in the first
begotten into the world, He saith, Let all the angels of God worship Him" (Heb. 1:6).
Why? Why did they have to be told to worship Him? Because He was so much in the likeness
of man. Mortal man was lower than the angels and angels would not worship man. They had to
be told that this man was more than a man, that He was more than angels, He was Deity
veiled in humanity. I am sure that many of my readers would tremble in awe in the presence
of a mighty angel. Yet, the realm of Sonship is HIGHER FAR THAN THE ANGELS WILL EVER
ATTAIN TO. This is the place Jesus walked and overcame every enemy.
Chapter two shows how that
Jesus identifies with sinful humanity in a way that He never did with angels. He never
left the realm of omnipotent and omnipresent Diety to take on the nature of angels. He
descended much lower than that. "For a little while" He was made lower than
angels. The term in verse nine "made a little lower than the angels," is a time
phrase, and means that He was "made, for a little while, lower than angels."
When He took upon Him the seed of Abraham and was in all things made like unto His
brethren, He descended far, far beneath the dignity of the great Archangel. But only for a
little while. All this was necessary that He might become through association with our
needs, a merciful and faithful High Priest, to make reconciliation for the people.
Taking upon Him the seed of
Abraham, means that He laid hold of their needs for the purpose of helping them. Gal. 3:16
& 29 show clearly that we who are the called of God are the seed of Abraham. We are
his brethren. Heb. 2:16 in the Amplified reads, "For, as we all know, He (Christ) did
not take hold of angels - to give them a helping and delivering hand; but He did take hold
of the fallen descendants of Abraham - to reach them a helping and delivering hand."
The Clementson translation says: "For verily, not of angels doth He take hold, but He
taketh hold of the seed of Abraham." In the Interlinear Greek-English New Testament
it is worded: "For not indeed of angels takes He hold, but of the seed of Abraham He
takes hold." The old song "When He Reached Down His Hand For Me" is so
meaningful here. He came down to LAY HOLD OF US. He APPREHENDED US. He CHOSE AND ORDAINED
US.
And how does He take hold?
There is no way in which God can take hold of a creature other than by entering into him
with His life and spirit, so imparting His own goodness and power, and bringing him into
union with Himself. So did Jesus take hold of man. He entered into humanity and became one
with it. And so He takes hold of individual souls by entering with each into personal
union and fellowship. Notice the closing verses of this beautiful chapter: "Wherefore
in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a
merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for
the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to
succor them that are tempted" (Heb. 2:17-18).
The laying hold implied His
identifying Himself with them, and this again was impossible without being made like them
in all things. So only could He save them. It was indeed needful, so that He might become
a merciful and faithful High Priest. Here we have for the first time, the word High Priest
- a word which is used in no other book of the New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ, but
in this Epistle is its central thought. The message is clear - Christ became man, not
merely to die and atone, but that in doing this, He might be a faithful and merciful High
Priest. His relation to us was to be a personal one. He must Himself minister to us the
salvation He worked out. Everything would depend upon His winning our confidence, getting
possession of our heart and love, and as a living Leader guiding us into the path to God.
It is this which makes His human life on earth so precious to us. It proved Him faithful:
we dare fully trust Him. It found Him merciful: we need not fear coming to Him. He was
made in all things like unto His brethren, that He might become a merciful and faithful
High Priest.
PARTAKERS OF THE HEAVENLY
CALLING
WHEREFORE! "WHEREFORE,
holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of
our profession, Christ Jesus." Wherefore - seeing how true it is that the Christ came
into man's world and fully shared his weaknesses and sorrow; seeing how true it is that
the Christ is now exalted as High Priest to the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens -
as PARTAKERS IN THIS HEAVENLY CALLING let us CONSIDER JESUS, the APOSTLE and HIGH PRIEST
of OUR PROFESSION. An apostle is the first advocate and initiator of a new order. A High
Priest is an intercessor between God and man. Jesus is the Apostle of our profession. He
is the sign Son, the first begotten Son, the pattern Son. He is the Apostle and High
Priest of an entirely new order of Priesthood. All who are to come to Sonship and
Priesthood through the ages shall come into that same wonderful image of Jesus Christ. It
is time now, above all times, for us to mightily stress these truths. I see no possibility
of any long delay until the hour of the MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD becomes a
reality. We do not attain the realities of Sonship by thumb twiddling or presumption. They
appear as a great vision before our understanding and we attain them through surmounting
faith, patience, endurance, testing, and eternal vigilance.
As our APOSTLE Jesus Christ
proclaims and opens up the way before us, and as our HIGH PRIEST He reconciles us fully to
God that we may walk in the calling ordained for us. And what is that calling? TO BE
PARTAKERS WITH HIM IN HIS OWN HEAVENLY CALLING! Here are indeed great words!
"Calling" here, as always in the epistles, has reference not to an invitation to
go to some far-off heaven somewhere, but to a PRESENT heavenly state of being. For New
Creation men, according to Col.1:12, have already been made "meet to be partakers of
the inheritance of the saints in light," and our "citizenship IS in heaven"
(Phil. 3:20), and God hath "raised us up together, and made us sit together IN THE
HEAVENLIES in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:6).
The heavenly calling is the
calling unto the Priesthood of Christ. Hebrews is very clear about this. "Now the
main point of what we have to say is this: We have such a HIGH PRIEST, One Who is seated
at the right hand of the majestic God IN HEAVEN, an officiating PRIEST, a MINISTER IN THE
HOLY PLACES and in the true tabernacle which is erected not by man but by the Lord"
(Heb. 8:1-2, Amplified). Hear it! O ye Sons of God, Christ is the great High Priest OF THE
HEAVENS and we are called to be PARTAKERS WITH HIM IN THAT HEAVENLY CALLING.
The notion, held by the vast
majority of evangelical Christians, that the Priesthood of the Christ is an INDIVIDUAL,
SINGULAR PRIESTHOOD exercised by Himself alone in some far-away heaven, is an absurdity.
The term "High Priest" is a relative term, "high" being translated
from the Greek word ARCHIEREUS, meaning "chief" in order or rank. It is the same
word translated "chief priest" or "chief priests" in numerous
passages. It is a title denoting the CHIEF OR HEAD OF AN ORDER such as the terms
"Chairman of the Board," "Archangel," "Chief of Police,"
"Speaker of the House," "King of Kings," etc. It should be clear to
every thinking mind that you cannot have a High Priest without a Priesthood any more than
you can have a Chairman of the Board without a board for the Chairman of the Board to be
chairman over. You cannot have a High Priest without a Priesthood any more than you can
have an Arch-angel without an order of angels for the Arch-angel to be leader of. You
cannot have a High Priest without a Priesthood any more than you can have a Chief of
Police without a police force for the Chief of Police to be chief of. You cannot have a
High Priest without a Priesthood any more than you can have a Speaker of the House of
Representatives without a House of Representatives for the Speaker of the House to be
speaker for. You cannot have a High Priest without a Priesthood any more than you can have
Jesus as King of Kings with no kings for Him to be the King over. High Priest! The High
Priest in heaven! Ah, yes, and we are holy brethren, PARTAKERS OF THE HEAVENLY CALLING,
having Received the vision of becoming ONE IN HIM, to share in this heavenly Priesthood,
and as we follow on to know HIM in all His glorious fullness we shall see a ministry
unfold before us which leads to deliverance and restoration for all God's creation. Our
task will not be left undone, for we shall have the ages before us to carry it through to
victory, and to HIS praise!
In the Old Testament,
although there was a work for the whole priesthood to do, there was one specific work to
be done by the High Priest, that no other priest could perform. This work of ATONEMENT
that the High Priest performed once each year, could be done only by himself, but the
whole priesthood would manifest that work through the whole year. We read in Heb. 8:1-2,
"Now we have such a High Priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the
Majesty in the heavens: A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which the
Lord pitched, and not man." Paul makes the definite statement in this passage that we
NOW possess such a High Priest
Now Peter tells us that WE
ARE A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD. Under the law the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies once a
year and made atonement for the people. THEN HIS WORK WAS DONE until another Day of
Atonement came around, at which time he would go through it again. But for the year, THE
PRIESTHOOD ministered to the people. The priesthood ministered to the people THAT WHICH
THE HIGH PRIEST HAD DONE BEFORE GOD IN THE HOLIEST. The sinner would bring his offering
for the sin he had committed and turn it over to the priest. Then the priest would offer
it and there was nothing the priest could do but go to the sinner and say, "YOUR SIN
IS FORGIVEN." Now all that the priest had done WAS TO MINISTER THAT WHICH THE HIGH
PRIEST HAD ACCOMPLISHED IN THE HOLIEST. With great earnestness I pray that God will open
your understanding, for that, precious friend of mine, is precisely what the Royal
Priesthood is commissioned to do to minister to a lost and dying world that which our
great High Priest has accomplished through the power of His precious blood in the heavens!
The entire body of Priests under the great High Priest is the extension and projection and
fulfillment of His own High Priestly ministry. The Lord Jesus lived here on earth under a
deep consciousness of having a mission from His Father to fulfill. He continually used the
expression, "The Father hath sent Me." He knew what this mission was. He knew
the Father had chosen Him, and sent Him into the world with the one purpose of fulfilling
that mission, and He knew the Father would give Him all that He needed for it. Faith in
the Father having sent Him was the motivation and power for all that He did. In earthly
things it is a great help if an ambassador knows clearly what his mission is; that he has
nothing to do but to care for its accomplishment; and that he has given himself
undividedly to do this one thing For the members of the Royal Priesthood it is of no less
consequence that they should know that they have a mission, what its nature is, and how
they are to accomplish it.
Our heavenly mission is one
of the most glorious parts of our conformity to our Lord. He says it plainly in the most
solemn moments of His life: "As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you" (Jn.
20:21). After the Lord had fulfilled His mission on earth He ascended into heaven, and
became to the world the Unseen One. And now He has given over His heavenly mission to HIS
ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, having entered into them in mighty spirit power to perform it. They must
so represent Him, the Invisible One, that from seeing them men can judge what He is. Every
Priest must so be the image of Jesus, must so exhibit in his person and conduct the same
love, grace, and power, as animated the Christ, that from them the world may know what
Christ is like, and be touched by Him. Oh, my soul! take time to realize these heavenly
thoughts: The purpose of the Royal Priesthood is to reveal glory and minister the work of
the great High Priest of the heavens.
His seed has come into us, we
have been born of the Spirit of God, God is having a people in whom is the Spirit of His
Son, so that there is a relationship with the Father and a forming and a revelation and an
outflow of the Father's character, mind, and will. For what reason? So that God can appear
IN THE MIDST of His apprehended ones and so that God can appear THROUGH His people at any
time He wants and in any form He needs to appear. "When He shall come to be glorified
IN HIS SAINTS, and to be ADMIRED IN ALL THEM THAT BELIEVE in that day" (II Thes.
1:10). Long centuries ago the prophet Malachi asked the burning question, "Who may
abide the day of HIS COMING? and who shall STAND when HE APPEARETH? for He is like a
refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of
silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi (the priesthood), and purge them as gold and
silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness" (Mat.
3:2-3).Jesus Christ wants to reveal Himself, not only as Saviour. You know the old story:
"Jesus is my Saviour, Healer, Baptizer, Sanctifier, and thank God - I rejoice over
this more than anything else - He is my coming King." Is it not because we have not
been sure whether we wanted this Man to RULE over us? We do not mind Him ruling over
Castro and the devil and the millenium, but we have not wanted to be totally conquered and
ruled by Him. That is why we have kept Him coming. The Lord wants to be King NOW. But He
wants to be more than that. You first have to know Him as King. We have sung through the
years a little chorus that goes like this: "Oh King of glory, We bow before Thee,
Take Thy throne and reign within our hearts." We first have to know Him in His
Kingship, in His authority, in His government. We have to first know Him as King. But why
does He desire us to know Him as King? Why does He desire to set up the throne of His
Kingdom in our hearts? So that He can make US to become kings!
But that is not the end. He
is not setting up His throne in us, just to make us kings. But He is establishing His
throne in us - "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood,
and bath made us kings and priests unto God" - He is making us kings in order that He
shall now be able to appear and manifest Himself in the midst of the kings as THE KING OF
ALL THE KINGS. The world will never know Him as the King of Kings until there are kings
among whom He can stand and reveal Himself as King of Kings. Do not think you will be
puffed up in pride or use the power for your self-interest when you become a king.
"Oh, when I become a king I will..." When you become a king, that is just the
beginning. It is just the beginning of the opportunity for the REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST
AS KING OF KINGS. I want to tell you that that is a life-changing concept, yet, some of
you have never even begun to touch the hem of its garment. Our Captain, our King, has WON
the victory! He has conquered death! He has conquered hell! He has conquered US! And now,
we partake of His victory. We need to know that we can never conquer with Christ until we
have been conquered by Him. We will never reign with Christ until we are REIGNED OVER by
Him.
"Well," you say,
"why does He not appear as King of Kings?" Because most of us are beggars.
"Oh, God, please bless us; Lord, do this, do that; give us this, give us that."
And if He appeared as King of beggars, we would be ashamed before Him. In all our poverty,
in all our need, in all our self-pity, in all our limitation, foolishness and carnality,
should suddenly the Majesty of the heavens, the blessed and only Potentate appear, why
right away we would fall with our faces in the dust in shame before Him. But if we are
standing as kings in the presence of God, reigning in life, undefeated and victorious,
overcomers and conquerors in all things, rejoicing because His throne is in our hearts,
then we welcome the King of Kings in the midst of the kings.
"Who shall stand when He
appeareth?" I tell you in truth that it is those who have been MADE ONE IN HIM in
that in which He is appearing. Those are able to stand with Him when HE appears. God is
teaching us the way of overcoming, the reality of His authority and Lordship. Why is He
establishing that authority and that Lordship in the hearts of His people? Because He is
the Lord and the Head of the body, the Church. Of course you will never know His Lordship,
except by the Holy Spirit: "No man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy
Ghost." The Lordship of Jesus Christ must be set up in our hearts, where His will
becomes our delight. Why does He want us to come into lordship and authority? So He can
appear in the midst as the LORD OF LORDS! If we are not lords, He cannot come as Lord of
Lords. He is not Lord of Slaves. He is Lord of Lords. Why is God bringing Sons to glory?
That in the midst of all Jesus Christ might appear as the pre-eminent One, THE SON among
the Sons!
Do we love His appearing? Do
we want God to make us a people for Himself, so that in whatever form He desires to
appear, He can appear in the midst? The inspired apostle John has taught us that when HE
APPEARS, WE MUST BE LIKE HIM. It says, "We shall be like Him," but it also
means, "We must be like Him." Can we not see that if we are not like Him in the
way He wishes to appear, He cannot appear in that form? We are the body, the vehicle, the
expression and manifestation of the Christ. Because we are HIS BODY, whenever He manifests
Himself, He will manifest Himself in the form of that body, in what ever form the body is.
Among the saved He appears as Saviour. Have you not noticed that the only manifestation of
the Christ through saved people is salvation? Go to any Church on any corner where all the
people have experienced of Christ is the gift of salvation, the forgiveness of sins, and
what will they be preaching and ministering? Why, salvation, of course! He appears there
as the Saviour. But go among people who have found Him in healing power, and in what form
does He appear in the midst? Why, as the Healer! Among those baptized in the Spirit, He
appears as the Anointed and the Anointer, the Christ, and His anointings are manifest in
power and glory.
But there is one form in
which He will and must appear in these last days and throughout the ages to come. If He
must appear as Saviour, He must appear among Saviours. If He must appear as Deliverer, He
must appear among Deliverers. If He appears as the Chief Cornerstone, He must appear among
living stones. If He appears as the Son of God, He must appear among many brethren
conformed to His image. If He comes as Lord, He must be Lord among other lords. If He
comes as King, He must be King among other kings. If He is going to be revealed as God, He
must be revealed among the gods (Ps. 82:2,6). And if ever creation is to see and know Him
as the great High Priest of the heavens, HE MUST BE REVEALED AMONG THE PRIESTS!
"Who shall stand when He
appeareth?" When He appears as King, only the kings can stand with Him, everybody
else has to fall before Him. When He appears as Lord, only the lords are able to stand
with Him, the rest will bow before His appearing. When He appears as Judge, only the
judges (I Cor. 6:2; Dan. 7:22) can stand with Him, all the rest will cringe before Him.
And when He appears as High Priest, only the priests, those elect saints born of a
priestly heart, possessed of the priestly nature, are able to stand with Him! But because
His priests are polluted, corrupted, undeveloped, and immature, He comes first to
"SIT as a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: and He shall purify the sons of
Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in
righteousness" (Mal. 3:2-3). Ah - He sits among those being purified and prepared as
His Royal Priesthood, He appears among those being refined as the great Refiner, But in
due time, praise His name, He appears among them as the High Priest and they stand with
Him unto the blessing of all the ends of the earth!
THE HIGH PRIEST AND THE
PRIESTS
The priesthood of Aaron
foreshadows Christ in a very striking way. The honour of being High Priest is not open to
man's ambition. No man can take it to himself (Heb. 5:4). The High Priest ministers in
such holy matters that only God can appoint him. Thus it was that Aaron was called of God
to this task. He did not take it to himself; nor did Moses make him High Priest. God
called him to do this work, and no one else could have done so. In the same way,
"Christ glorified not Himself to be made an High Priest"(Heb. 5:5). He was a
High Priest because God made Him so. He was "called of God" (Heb. 5:10) to this
office.
It is inspiring to meditate
upon the thought given us in Ex. 28:1: "And take thou unto thee AARON THY BROTHER,
AND HIS SON'; with him from among the children of Israel, that HE may minister unto Me in
the priest's office, even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons."
God chose five men, Aaron and his four sons, and then referred to them in the singular
pronoun "that HE may minister." The ministries of these five men were
inseparably wrapped up in each other, so that God saw them as one. Aaron did not minister
without the priests (except on the Day of Atonement), and the priests could not minister
without the High Priest. This is all very wonderful, for Christ does not minister alone.
God has called us to be priests that we might share in the ministry of reconciliation. We,
too, like the priests of old, cannot minister apart from our great High Priest upon whom
we depend at all times. The Father has called us unto Sonship that we might stand with Him
and cry, "OUR VERY OWN Father!" He is apprehending many for the authority of
Kingship that He might be "the King of Kings." He is making many to be Priests
after the order of Melchizedek that He and they may stand in ONE MINISTRY unto the Father
- satisfying the heart of the Father for the fellowship of Sons through whom He may reveal
His person unto the whole creation. And even now, all creation is standing on tiptoe to
behold the glorious sight of God's Sons coming into their own. And because of the wise and
gracious councils of God from eternity, Christ now has no identity APART FROM US, the
fullness of Him that filleth all in all. The Father looks at His Son AND His Sons, His
High Priest AND His Priests, and says, "that HE may minister unto Me!"
In my meditations upon the
Order of Melchizedek, I find it impossible to separate between the High Priest and the
Priests. Under the Aaronic Order the HIGH PRIEST was the one who went into the Holy of
Holies. He passed through the veil and entered into the place unseen by all others. The
PRIESTHOOD did not do this. But, precious friend of mine, if you think that Jesus is
keeping all the glory of that realm to Himself, then you just haven't read Heb. 6:19-20.
"Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which
entereth into that within the veil; whither the FORERUNNER is for us entered, even Jesus,
made an High Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedek." Let me repeat - the
only person permitted an entrance BEYOND THE VEIL was the High Priest.
While manifested on this
earth plane, Jesus Christ left us His personal example that we might follow in His
footsteps. It is a way that leads BEYOND THE VEIL into the glories of the Father. It was
necessary that He tread all the course that we might be able to follow all the way into
divine fullness. HE IS THE WAY unto the Father, and by our union with Him we find it is
first a way of humiliation before it becomes a way of exaltation. Thus we humble ourselves
under the mighty hand of God, assured that in due time HE will lift us up, and we shall
live in His sight.
A FORERUNNER is one who goes
ahead of others. He goes ahead as a sample of those who are to follow. Jesus is our
FORERUNNER, which clearly indicates that others are expected to follow on into the same
realms of glory. Christ, a Priest forever after the Order of Melchizedek, is our
FORERUNNER, He went first, and where He went, we are to go. The Forerunner blazed the
trail all the way, and we rejoice in this fact, but then He also came back, by HIS SPIRIT,
to escort us all the way into the glory beyond the veil, the glory of a PRIESTHOOD AFTER
THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK. Full well He knows the route, for He has travailed it all the
way through to victory, and now is able to guide us down the same path into the glorious
victory which He obtained. It is HIS daily enabling that gives us strength to carry on
until the consummation is reached.
WE HAVE A HOPE. That hope is
the anchor of the soul. Our hope in the Christ is the anchor of that life both sure and
firm, and it has entered into the veil, taken there by our FORERUNNER, even Jesus. He is
the Forerunner. He ran ahead of, or before us. This being true, it is evident that WE ARE
GOING TO RUN ALSO. What He entered into we also will come into. He simply has opened the
way for us and He is the ANCHOR or the HOPE of that LIFE which is behind the veil. This is
all an accomplished fact.
Let us remember, however,
that in the Old Testament order it was only the High Priest who could enter into the Holy
of Holies. None else could enter, and even the High Priest would enter in with fear and
trembling and only after much preparation and vested with special garments. But how
glorious the word! "And having an High Priest over the house of God, LET US draw near
with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water" (Heb. 10:21-22). In verse nineteen
of this same chapter we read, "Having therefore brethren, BOLDNESS TO ENTER INTO THE
HOLIEST by the blood of Jesus." We, the Royal Priesthood, DO HAVE BOLDNESS TO ENTER
IN. We need not wait, and we do not have to go to some far-off heaven somewhere. This
thing is taking place WITHIN US right at this time, blessed be HIS wonderful name! For us
it is a glorious privilege to enter in because Jesus Christ, our High Priest and
Forerunner, has opened the way and bids us enter. Multitudes know Jesus Christ as their
Saviour, Baptizer, Healer, Sanctifier and Blesser, but do you know Jesus as your
Forerunner? Do you know Him as the Forerunner of the MELCHIZEDEKIAN PRIESTHOOD? Now we
hear the word to us and it is that we are to come in with BOLDNESS. Come right into the
Holy of Holies. Come right into the presence of God. Come right into the glory of God.
Come right into that high and holy realm that only HIGH PRIESTS enter! We need not be
afraid, for we have a High Priest who is NOW appearing in the presence of God FOR US, not
IN OUR PLACE, but ON OUR BEHALF, for that is the true sense of the words "for
us." This wonderful High Priest ABIDES in the presence of God and we are to come
right in.
Yet many stand without. Some
dwell in the
God has a people in the earth
today who are not ordinary people. They are not people of this earth, but people of the
PRIESTS INDEED
I must emphasize with all
solemnity, beloved, that when God chooses men to be Priests He means for them to BE
PRIESTS. Priesthood is not an honorary title, a gift, a reward, or some emotional blessing
to be worn like a merit badge for show. Priesthood is real. Priesthood is ministry, to God
and to men. Priesthood is work. Priesthood is caring, loving, touching, interceding,
forgiving, healing, changing, transforming, teaching, and doing all necessary to bring
lost and dying, sick and sorrowing, tormented and hostile men back to God. Priesthood is
praise and worship and consecration and holiness unto the Lord. The priesthood of Aaron
was set apart, sanctified unto the Lord, that they might serve in holy things. There was
to be no life of luxurious IDLENESS, of worldly EASE and COMFORT. They were, it is true,
to lack nothing, for we find that full provision was made for all their needs; but their
life was to be A LIFE OF SERVICE, and that service in the very presence of God. I am
convinced that great numbers of people today think that Sonship is a matter of the head;
that it is believing theoretically and intellectually certain "end time truths."
These kind of folk want a constant diet of exotic "revelations," but no
inworking or outworking of His life. "What is your latest revelation, Eby?"
"Give us something rich," is their cry., But they are not the least bit
interested in BECOMING THE REVELATION. You can believe all the "Kingdom
Message", and be on the highway of the devil, just as in the Churches today a man can
be a first-class theologian and be the bondslave of a first-class devil. You can know all
the points of Calvinism and never know God. You can know all the answers in the Catechism
and never touch God. And you can know intellectually all the "deeper teaching"
of this hour and be spiritually bankrupt. You can understand theoretically the whole thing
and never possess anything. You are like a man who has a beautiful picture of a
magnificent estate, and all the title deeds to that estate, but they are not in his name.
He has no rights of property there at all. There are multitudes of people today who
describe, and truth can fully describe, many great and wonderful things connected with the
Kingdom of God, but they do not possess any of them. What is the use of talking about a
thing unless you possess at least something of it? What is the use of talking about a
religion that does not possess you? Why talk about a God and a realm that is afar off, and
does not possess you? What is the use of talking about a calling and a ministry that is
mere theological theories? That may do something for a moment, but a theory never did
anything until it was put into some practical form. You may have a very fine theory, and
it may, if properly applied, become a very powerful thing; but as long as it remains a
mere theory, what is it? Of no use at all.
I know men who are
theoretical engineers, and practical fools. I know men who are theoretical
educationalists, and do not know how to teach anybody anything. I know men who are
theoretical financiers, and they have not a dollar to bless themselves with. I know men
who are theoretical politicians, and could tell President Reagan and his Cabinet how to
manage the nation, and they cannot manage their own families. What is the use of a theory
that is not embodied in practice? What is the use of a revelation that cannot be
demonstrated in a tangible shape? That is the question.
I am very glad that I am
living in a practical age. The world understands practical things quite well, thoroughly
well. It is far better than the Church is. Jesus said, "The sons of this world are
for their own generation wiser than the sons of light." They are wiser, far wiser for
their own generation. They do not talk theories. They do not take any stock in the man who
does not reduce the thing to practice. Has any man down town taken time to waste on a
fellow who comes into his office, gassing and talking? They say, "Have you anything
practical to tell us? If not, get!" If they were to say that on Sunday morning to
their ministers, how many ministers would have to get!
I do not hesitate to tell you
that there are no arm-chair Priests in the
Priesthood is the spirit of
the High Priest. Jesus lives, and Jesus has loved us, and has Himself cleansed us in His
blood. He bestows upon us the disposition of priesthood by His indwelling. His indwelling
is but the first step, then follows the INWORKING by which we BECOME that which has first
entered into us as an embryonic life. The spirit of Priesthood is love. Love is the queen
of all the graces of the Christ life. Love is the passion of self-giving. It never stops
to ask what it can afford, or what it may expect to receive in return; but it is ever
shedding its heart's blood. It will pine to death if it cannot give. The love of Christ,
which went out so tenderly to those who walked and talked with Him when He was upon earth,
is no less far-reaching and eternal to usward. It is this fathomless love of Christ that
conquers; and His all-conquering, boundless love, is the banner unfurled in the lives of
His Kingdom of Priests. O precious love divine, higher than the heavens, deeper than the
abyss, broader than all the ages of time! O mighty love that reached through countless
ages and brought Christ down from the bosom of the Father to redeem creation; which
brought Him to the tomb; which brought Him back to the right hand of God, as the High
Priest of the heavens who ever liveth to make intercession for us; which is now shed
abroad in OUR HEARTS by the Holy Ghost!
"Love your
enemies," said Jesus. Can you not love even your enemies with the love of God which
is perfected in you? Not with your own love, but with God's love. God loves the world -
and gave His Son to die for it. He loves the world, notwithstanding its vileness and sin
and hostility. It is easy enough to love that which is amiable, pleasing, and lovely; but
true Love - the Love of God - surpasses that, and loves the unlovely and the loveless, and
if you are a Son of the Highest, possessing His Love, you will love like Him and thus
demonstrate your divine lineage. You shall be a fitting representative of your Father
which is in heaven, for He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth
rain on the just and on the unjust and is kind to the unthankful and to the evil.
Love is bound to triumph in
the end and all humanity, however rough and coarse now, is but the raw material out of
which the great Master Workman makes beings higher than the angels. Blessed is the man who
has come near enough to the heart of God in His plans and works to see in the rudest and
most unsightly block of unfinished humanity "the Perfect Man" - and to love and
serve that ideal - God's finished man regardless of his present stage of development.
Viewing all humanity thus, out of the heart of God, and out of the heart of God's great
High Priest, you, as a child of God, and a member of the Royal Priesthood, can afford to
treat all mankind, irrespective of their attitude toward you, or God, with the most
magnificent and lavish generosity, for you have the infinite resources of your Father to
draw upon. It is no wonder that the natural man cannot love his enemies, since he has a
very slim stock of love anyway, even for his friends, and what he has is a very inferior
article, the blemished love of an unregenerated heart. It is not likely that he is going
to bestow any of this stuff upon those who hate and curse and abuse and persecute him. Nor
is it any great loss to them either! But you - a child of God ~ a Priest of the Most High
- with the same nature as Him who is Love - with an unlimited supply of perfect love to
draw upon - you can afford to love everybody. You can be a perfect spendthrift in love and
never fear of exhausting the store. Love your enemies? Why, of course you can! God your
Father loved YOU when YOU were HIS ENEMY!
I love the story of Leonardo
da Vinci. According to the legend, some lads were visiting the famous artist. One of them
knocked over a can of paint. It upset the artist because he was working very quietly and
sensitively. He became angry, threw his brush, and hurled some harsh words to the helpless
little fellow who ran crying from the studio. The artist was now alone again. He tried to
continue his work. He was trying to paint the face of Jesus, to portray in that face the
strength of His character, but he couldn't do it. His creativity had stopped. Leonardo da
Vinci put down his brush. He went out and walked the streets and the alleys until he found
the little boy. He said, "I'm sorry, son. I shouldn't have spoken so harshly. Forgive
me even as Christ forgives. I have done something worse than you. You only spilled the
paint. But I, by my anger, blocked the flow of God in my life. Will you come back with
me?" He took the boy who sat in the studio with him. They smiled as the face of Jesus
came quite naturally from the Master's brush.
"Wherefore in all things
it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a MERCIFUL and
faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of
the people" (Heb. 2:17). As Jesus is a faithful and merciful High Priest in things
pertaining to God, so His body must be the same. A merciful Priesthood! How this world
needs mercy, and how little of it there is! So He is raising up a new creation Man who is
merciful. Many are concerned about the qualifications necessary to be a part of this new
creation
"Blessed are the
MERCIFUL: for they shall obtain mercy," is one of the principles of the
"The quality of mercy is
not strained." Gentle and heavenly mercy is of God. When God speaks of mercy, He uses
a figure which is of the sublimes" character. He says not only that His mercy endures
forever, but that His mercy is above the heavens, as if it were the dome of Infinite Love
over all.
"I say to thee, do thou
repeat, To the first man thou mayest meet, In lone highway or open street, That he and we
and all men move Under a canopy of love, Broader than the blue sky above."
Mercy is a jewel. It shines
brightest in the fair crown of God Himself. It seems as if it were the central diamond in
the diadem of heaven. On the brows of all who are God's children there is no brighter gem.
He sets a crown of forgiveness and tender mercies upon our brows. When we are merciful and
kind and compassionate, we are most like God. This mercy must extend in all directions and
in connection with all things. It must extend to the lower creation, which is a subject we
do not, perhaps, sufficiently touch. Man is placed in a position of great power and can
exercise great kindness or great cruelty. God says the merciful man is merciful even to
his beast.
When mercy is given and
kindness is shown to the lower creation, how they respond to it! How oftentimes a kindness
shown to a dog, for instance, has been the means for saving a life! A child is kind to a
dog and cares for it. How many lives have been saved by grateful and faithful dogs! Ah -
that is why I say your dog will be among the first to know when your heart is imbued with
the priestly nature. All about you will know. If men were merciful how different the world
would be! Wars would cease, strikes would cease, crime would stop, the divorce rate would
drop to zero, greed and envy of men would disappear, and none would speak ill of another.
It is the man without mercy; it is the unkindness and cruelty of the unregenerated nature
which has made this world so sad. Thank God! through the Christ sin shall pass away and
the earth shall be filled with the glory of God. The Royal Priesthood is but the
firstfruits of this wonderful redemption, the harbinger of glorious things to come as that
which is first wrought out in them is in turn ministered unto the creation until all
things are made new in the Christ. Praise HIS name!
Chapter
7
QUALIFICATIONS
FOR PRIESTHOOD
"Now when these things
were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first Tabernacle, accomplishing the
service of God. Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both
gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect...which stood
only in MEATS AND DRINKS, AND DIVERS WASHINGS, AND CARNAL ORDINANCES, imposed on them
until the time of reformation" (Heb. 9:6,9-10).
The priesthood of Aaron
foreshadows Christ and the Royal Priesthood in a very striking way. The services of the
Aaronic priesthood were carnal ceremonies dealing with the outward manifestations of the
flesh - gifts and sacrifices and divers washings, "...the blood of bulls and of
goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the PURIFYING OF
THE FLESH' (Heb. 9:13). The numerous external rituals performed by the priests all pointed
to various aspects of the PROGRESSIVE WORK of salvation, sanctification, and perfection
wrought out in the life of the believer. The sacrifice slain by the priest at the
Tabernacle gate typified our justification by the blood of Jesus Christ. The brazen laver,
wherein the priests washed their hands and feet, represented the cleansing of our walk
from the sins of the flesh by the washing of water by the Word. The golden candlestick in
the
All of this sets forth the
PROCESS of redemption whereby God's chosen ones are progressively changed from Adam's
carnal nature into the image of the Son of God. Thus, the priesthood of Aaron IN NO WAY
PREFIGURES THE GLORY OF THE PRIESTHOOD OF THE CHRIST AFTER THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK. The
Aaronic priesthood typifies the long and tedious PROCESS by which men BECOME PRIESTS,
while Melchizedek is the PATTERN of the HEAVENLY PRIESTHOOD when the process is complete.
Melchizedek points toward the ULTIMATE GOAL of priesthood - the glory that is now
Christ's; whereas the Aaronic priesthood characterizes the MEANS to that goal - the
dealings, purgings, changes, transformations, furnishing, and equipping that bring us
finally to the Melchizedekian glory. The Aaronic priesthood reveals the qualifications
which must be met, and the prescribed order by which they can be met, while Melchizedek
reveals the majesty of the FINISHED PRODUCT. Aaron signifies PROCESS; Melchizedek
signifies ORDER. If you want to know how to become a priest, give yourself to a reverent
and prayerful study of the Aaronic priesthood, following on to experience all it
signifies. If you want to know what is the glory of the priesthood once all the
qualifications have been met, look unto Jesus the High Priest of the heavens after the
order of Melchizedek.
"Thou art a priest
forever after the ORDER of Melchizedek" (Heb. 7:17). Melchizedek is a priesthood of
order! Jesus Christ was made a priest forever after the ORDER of Melchizedek. The word
"order" in this passage is from the Greek word TAXIS meaning "regular
arrangement; fixed succession of rank and character; official dignity." The verse can
well be paraphrased: "Thou art a priest forever according to the arrangement rank,
character, dignity, and order of Melchizedek." The word "order" is
something like the word "order" we use when we speak of various religious
orders, such as the Franciscans or the Dominicans within the Roman Catholic Church. Well,
the Bible says that Jesus Christ is a priest of the MELCHIZEDEKIAN ORDER. And that was a
very startling statement when it was first made. It was startling because the people who
heard it first, knew of only one order of priests. Those were the Levitical priests of
"If therefore perfection
were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further
need was there that another priest should arise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be
called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of
necessity a change also of the law. For He of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to
another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. For it is evident that our
Lord sprang out of
Perfection could not be
obtained under the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, and
"the law made nothing perfect", rather it was to serve to bring the people into
the knowledge of sin - "that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly
sinful" (Rom. 7:13). The knowledge of sin then brought the people under the sentence
of death, for the soul that sinneth, it shall die - and sin is the transgression of the
law. Thus this ministry of law, under the Levitical priesthood, was a ministration of
condemnation leading into death.
This is why Jesus had to be a
different and higher kind of priest. He had to have the MELCHIZEDEK CONNECTION. It is not
my purpose here to explore in detail the glories of the Melchizedek priesthood - I must
save that for another time. But having established that the Melchizedek priesthood is an
order, let us also know that the order of Melchizedek is THE ORDER OF THE SON OF GOD.
Melchizedek was himself "made like unto the Son of God" (Heb. 7:3). And of Jesus
it is written, "He that said unto Him, Thou art My Son, today have I begotten
Thee...saith also in another place, Thou art a priest forever after the order of
Melchizedek" (Heb. 5:5-6). If you, dear reader, would know the glories and grandeur
of this great order of Melchizedek, then look directly unto Jesus THE SON OF THE LIVING
GOD. The order of Melchizedek is the PRIESTHOOD OF SONSHIP. The one "made like unto
the Son of God" bears the name of this wonderful order, and the firstborn Son of God
is Himself OUR FORERUNNER into that order. He went first, and where He went we are to go,
praise His name! All who come into sonship through the ages shall come into that same
wonderful image of Jesus Christ and shall reign with Him as priests in the order of
Melchizedek. Ah, precious friend of mine, would you learn how to become a priest? Meditate
deeply upon the ministry of the order of Aaron - for therein is contained in symbol, type,
and shadow the mystery of the path to priesthood with all its processings and
qualifications. Would you know the glory which lies ahead when the processings are
complete? Look unto Jesus the prototype - the first sample and pattern of the FINISHED
PRODUCT!
PRIESTS AND LEVITES
With the ever-deepening
desire within us to be filled with HIS fullness, that the realm of the "in part"
be swallowed up into "that which is perfect," there is this continual reaching
out for the realms beyond. Glimpses of revelation touch our spirit, and we thrill to that
which He has prepared for them that follow on to know Him. And how we yearn to have it all
RIGHT NOW! Yet we realize that it is a PROCESS, a going "from strength to
strength" and "from faith to faith" and "from experience to
experience" while we are being "changed from glory to glory." So by His
grace we settle down to walk it out day by day, yielding to Him that He might bring us to
that prepared place and position where we are truly His Royal Priesthood in all that that
means.
"At that time the Lord
separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before
the Lord TO MINISTER UNTO HIM, and to bless His name, unto this day" (Deut. 10:8). I
would point out that God chose the ENTIRE TRIBE of Levi to be His ministers. As God moved
through the camp of
While the whole tribe of Levi
was chosen to be the ministers of God, only one family of Levites (the house of Aaron) was
chosen to the priesthood. I would draw your attention to the important fact that all
priests were Levites, but not all Levites were priests. The Mosaic legislation made a
sharp distinction between the priests and non-priests or ordinary Levites. The priests
must belong to Aaron's family; the Levites belong to the larger family of Levi. Priests
were consecrated; Levites were purified. Levites were considered a gift to Aaron and his
sons. The fundamental difference consisted of this: ONLY THE PRIEST HAD THE RIGHT TO
MINISTER AT THE ALTAR AND ENTER THE MOST HOLY PLACE. The rebellion of Korah, a Kohathite,
against the uniqueness of Aaron's priesthood illustrated, in the way the rebellion was
subdued, the heinous nature of attempting to enter the priesthood without the necessary
prerequisites. Priestly duties were confined to the male members of Aaron's family, with
the Levites, the rest of the tribe, acting as their assistants. This arrangement began
with the setting up of the Tabernacle, as before this no particular family or tribe was
assigned to minister in the things of God.
The children of
As
How obvious it should be to
every thinking saint that all Christians, while spiritual Levites, are not part of the
elect company of the Royal Priesthood. That is because the vast majority of believers live
in the Outer Court of spiritual experience in their relationship to God. In spite of all
their noisy profession, and constant flurry of religious activities, they inhabit that
realm where the natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God. Deep
spiritual things are foolishness unto them; neither can they know them, for they are
spiritually discerned. These are comfortably at home with the lifeless forms, static
doctrines, empty ceremonies and repetitious activities of
I must emphasize again that
in the type of the Levites and Priests, all Priests were Levites, but not all Levites were
Priests. So in the antitype all members of the Royal Priesthood are redeemed men, but not
all redeemed men are part of the Royal Priesthood. To deny this would mean the destruction
of all the typology of the Old Testament. In
AARON AND HIS SONS
As we proceed with our study,
we will observe that when Aaron is considered alone, he represents the High Priestly
ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. Aaron with his sons typifies the priestly ministry of
the Royal Priesthood - the
QUALIFICATIONS FOR
PRIESTHOOD
There were three primary
qualifications for priesthood in the order of Aaron: (1) birth (2) freedom from blemish
(3) maturity. The very first requirement was that one must be A SON OF THE HIGH PRIEST. A
man might be the brightest and most capable Levite, but if he was not the offspring of
Aaron he was prohibited from serving in the office of the priesthood. One could be the son
of the High Priest, however, and still not be qualified for the priesthood IF THERE WAS
SOME BLEMISH IN HIM - any kind of disease, deformity, or physical impairment. Furthermore,
one might be the son of Aaron, and a perfect physical specimen, at that, and yet, he could
not assume the office of priest until he reached the age of maturity. Priesthood was not
for babes, nor for children, nor for adolescents - maturity being the ultimate
requirement. With all the reverence and respect of my ransomed soul I must tell you that
these are the same requirements laid upon all who aspire to be a part of God's wonderful
Royal Priesthood!
God's people make a serious
and fatal mistake when they cling to the tradition taught them at the beginning of their
walk with God. When they do this, they shut the door for God to teach them anything. Their
tradition is at best but a fragment of the whole. The life of a Christian should be a
continual progression in God, but he cannot progress without spiritual revelation, and
revelation will greatly modify and often times completely break the chains of human
tradition. While the boast of some men may be that they already possess by faith, and as
part of their limited experiencing of God, all that God intends for them upon this earth,
let us rather glory in the fact that as the light of His love grows brighter, we are being
CHANGED INTO THAT SAME IMAGE from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. And
let us with the great apostle Paul bask in the sunlight of the hope of THE PRIZE which he
called THE PRIZE OF THE HIGH CALLING OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS, and like him, not settling
for our present "in part" attainment in Christ, "forgetting those things
which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before...press toward the
mark for the PRIZE of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:13-14).
One of the most damning
errors ever taught God's people is the senseless notion that simply by virtue of the new
birth ALL BELIEVERS ARE MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD and automatically rule and reign
with Christ. This error is believed and taught by countless millions, but it is
nevertheless an untruth. The Bible nowhere teaches that. To the contrary, the burning and
challenging word of Christ to the Churches is: "To him that OVERCOMETH will I grant
to sit with Me in My throne, as I also OVERCAME, and am set down with My Father in His
throne" (Rev. 3:21).
The twenty-four Elders in
Rev. 4:4 are beheld seated upon priestly thrones and they have on their heads CROWNS of
gold. The most common term rendered "crown" in the New Testament is the Greek
word STEPHANOS. The popular name "Stephen" is derived from this word, and this
crown was usually a laurel wreath woven of fragrant branches, or the like. It was granted
to winners in the Panhellenic games and also as a token of public honor for distinguished
service - especially of military leaders who had been victorious over their enemies on the
battlefield. It was also given at marriage feasts, especially in royal families, to
celebrate the joy of the bridegroom in having "won" the maiden for his bride.
This crown always denotes a VICTOR'S CROWN - the crown of an OVERCOMER!
How appropriate that we
should read of the Royal Priesthood: "And round about the throne were...four and
twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads CROWNS
(stephanos) OF GOLD" (Rev. 4:4). Golden Stephanos! Golden Victor's Crowns! Gold is a
symbol for the divine nature. And how true that we are only able to fully overcome by
being made partakers of HIS DIVINE NATURE! To be "crowned" means to be given
kingly authority. As the kingly authority and dominion of God's divine nature ascends the
throne of our lives to rule within us - we are CROWNED, RULED OVER by God, but more than
this, MADE RULERS, not after the carnal concepts of the flesh, but in the love, justice,
and glory of God's own character!
Of course the crowns of
fragrant branches won by the Greeks in their athletic contests were short lived, for they
soon wilted and became dead and brittle. In contrast to this OUR STEPHANOS are
incorruptible crowns which will never fade away - for the Royal Priesthood is of the
MELCHIZEDEKIAN ORDER - after the power of an endless life. In the Theatre of Ephesus there
was found an inscription which read: "He fought three bouts, and was crowned two
times." In like manner the Sons of God will soon be rewarded for their bouts with
"principalities and powers" which have their rule in the darkness of the carnal
mind. God is even now bringing forth an INCORRUPTIBLE people, OVERCOMERS! Who shall
overcome ALL THINGS. And of them, finally, it shall be said: "They fought many, many
bouts, and were crowned EVERY TIME!" No more weakness and failure. No more flunking
two tests and winning one. Overcoming ALL THINGS! A Royal Priesthood. Priests reigning in
God's own nature, love, and power. Reconciling the world. Subduing all things. As kings
they are seated IN THE THRONE; as priests they sit ROUND ABOUT THE THRONE: from this
intermediate position becoming the bond between the God of the throne and the creation
desperately needing HIS LIFE. Hallelujah!
AARON AND HIS SONS
Priesthood BEGINS with the
new birth. But being born again no more makes one a priest than being born into Aaron's
house made one a priest. Right birth was the first requisite - but merely the first step
down a long path of preparation. The story goes that a group of tourists visiting a
picturesque village saw an old man sitting by a fence. In a rather patronizing way, one of
the visitors asked, "Were any great men born in this village?" Without looking
up the old man replied, "No, only babies." The greatest men were once babies.
The greatest saints were once toddlers in the things of the Spirit. Priests are not born.
Saints are born to be priests, but become such only after the divine process has been
completed.
Aaron was High Priest.
Aaron's sons were priests under, and in association with him. Aaron and his sons
constituted a priestly family. One of the greatest books about the priesthood is the book
of Exodus. Everything in the book of Exodus is presented in a progressive way. From the
starting point of enjoying Christ as the Passover lamb, the children of
The first qualification for
priesthood is birth. You must be the son of the High Priest, the offspring of His priestly
nature. To qualify everyone must give his pedigree, his genealogy. We must have a
spiritual genealogy. The priests of
If we were to live a thousand
years twice told, and spent all that time working, we could not work ourselves into the
position of holy priests; but the moment we believe in Jesus - the moment we come to Him
in simple faith - the moment we give Him the full confidence of our hearts, we are born
anew into the family of holy priests, and are then privileged to grow in grace and stature
that we may draw nigh and do the priestly ministry. How could anyone, of old, have
constituted himself a son of Aaron? Impossible! But being born of Aaron, he was thereby
made a member of the priestly house. I speak not now of capacity, but simply of the
position and the potential. This latter was reached not by effort, but by birth.
Since we inherit our
priesthood from God the Father, we take on His character and traits. God has a priestly
nature and we inherit this spirit from Him. Someone will surely ask, "But if we must
be the offspring of our High Priest, Jesus Christ, how then are we born of God, who is our
Father? How can both the Father and the Son be OUR FATHER?" To which I ask another
question: "Who is Jesus Christ?" The Scripture says of Him: "And when even
was come, they brought unto Him many possessed with devils: and He cast out the spirits
with a word" (Mat. 8:16). That word was not Christ's word at all. I do not believe
that Christ ever cast out a devil. I do not believe that Christ ever healed anybody. I
believe what Christ Himself said: "The words that I say unto you I speak not from
Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, HE doeth His works" (Jn. 14: 10). Who did
the works? The Father! Did Jesus do them? No! He never said He did. He said: "My
Father worketh even until now, and I work" (Jn. 5:17). He gave the glory to the
Father. The words which came from the Christ's lips were not the words of Christ at all.
It was the Word of the Father. Christ never said to a sufferer, "Brother, be of good
cheer." ALL CHRIST'S WORDS AND WORKS WERE THE WORDS AND WORKS OF THE FATHER. He
always said, "Son, be of good cheer." Was that not the Father's Word? Was it not
the Father talking in Him? He said to that woman, "Daughter, thy faith hath made thee
whole." Did He say "sister"? No! Was it our Brother or our Father, who was
talking? I do not hesitate to tell you that it was our Father, as the prophet said,
"His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, THE EVERLASTING
FATHER, the Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6). Remember that it is our Father who works;
that He sends forth His Son; that He sends forth His Spirit. I do not hesitate to say that
the words Christ spoke were the words of His Father, His Father speaking in and through
Him.
The Father was IN the Son;
Deity was IN humanity. Paul clarifies the matter by writing, "But unto us there is
but one God the Father..." (I Cor. 8:6). Not one God the Father, and another God the
Son, and yet a third God the Holy Spirit! God IS SPIRIT and invisible, without flesh and
blood. Therefore, He robed Himself in human flesh (I Tim. 3:16) in order to have blood to
shed for the sins of the world. And this Man Emmanuel, God with us - the Son of God - who
is He? Jesus Himself answered the question when He spoke these immortal words: "If ye
had known Me, ye should have known My Father also: and from henceforth ye know Him, and
HAVE SEEN HIM. Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus
saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet thou hast not KNOWN ME, Philip?
HE THAT HATH SEEN ME HATH SEEN THE FATHER; and how sayest thou then, show us the Father?
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak
unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, HE doeth the
works" (Jn. 14:7-10). Oh! my brother, if you have seen the Christ you have seen the
Father and, if you have been born again of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God which
is the Christ, you have also been born of the Father.
We hear of the new birth and
we think we understand it. Faintly we hear the truths of sonship and imagine we are
already Sons of God. We have seen through a glass darkly, but face to face we behold all
things as they are. The mists that have hung like shrouds upon the distant majestic peaks
are fleeing away before the rising sun of righteousness that we may know as we are known.
In the true and eloquent words of another: "Believers of all ages have sold
themselves woefully short on all the great promises of God. We have been content to say
that every believer was born again and needed but to wait until some distant day when he
would fly away to heaven either by death or by rapture. I remember seeing this sign
vividly portrayed by the public highway: Except a man be born again, he CANNOT GO TO
HEAVEN. That statement, I fear, has been the sum and substance of Christian belief, but we
have missed the true meaning of the truth given to Nicodemus so long ago. To be born from
above is to be BORN FROM A HIGHER REALM. Spirit is higher than flesh even though both
should grow together in one body. To be born of the flesh is one thing, for there you are
born into a NATURAL REALM capable only of partaking of NATURAL THINGS. But to be BORN OF
THE SPIRIT is to be born into a new and higher realm where the ETERNAL THINGS are CLEARLY
SEEN before us even as natural things are seen by the natural man. Without the birth from
above it is IMPOSSIBLE to see the
"The realm of the new
birth is the REALM OF SONSHIP. It is the realm where Jesus Christ, the Son of God, LIVED
AND MOVED and HAD HIS BEING. Not that He was born again, for He had never sinned nor died
and needed not the regeneration of ordinary men. But He lived and moved in the REALM OF
SONSHIP full and complete. He lived and moved in the REALM OF THE KINGDOM which He came to
proclaim and which for three years or more He demonstrated in small part. As Moses led
Israel to Kadesh Barnea where they could actually see the promised land but through
unbelief turned back to the wilderness, so Jesus led the whole world to a sort of
spiritual Kadesh Barnea where the glory of the Kingdom came into full view only to be lost
sight of in a spiritual wilderness in which we have wandered for almost two thousand
years. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived in a realm above and beyond the realm of
ordinary men, for while we have lived as sons of men, He lived as the Son of God. While we
have been FROM BENEATH, He was FROM ABOVE. While our kingdoms have been of the earth, He
was not from hence. While all this is undeniably true to any honest man, yet, praise be to
the eternal purpose of God, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became the Son of man that we
who were born sons of men might become Sons of God" end quote.
Regeneration, new birth, sons
of God - these are all terms with which most Christians are familiar. The beautiful
ANALOGY is accepted by everyone. But all this means to the average Christian is that he
conjures up the nice spiritual feeling of thinking of himself "as if" he were a
"real" Son of God, as Jesus is. The average Christian has absolutely no idea of
the transcendental implications of this new birth into the family of God. Most think of
being a child of God as sort of an "honorary" title conferred on them by an
indulgent God who accepts them as "little adopted human children" to whom He
plans to give as their reward for accepting His gift of eternal life, a beautiful park, a
celestial playground called "heaven." This heaven is designed for them to enjoy
for eternity, playing, loafing, running, shouting, rejoicing, visiting, playing harps,
waving palm branches, and doing what ever other sinless thing their hearts may desire.
But let us understand what it
really means to actually be BORN into the very family of GOD. I like to turn the phrase
"the family of God" around, in order to better catch its significance. Instead
of saying that we are born into the family of God, it is just as correct to say that we
are born into the GOD FAMILY! I may say, by way of illustration, that I was born by
natural birth into the family of Eby. But this also means that I was born into the EBY
FAMILY. I am of the EBY KIND. I AM EBY. Not only are men born into the family of God, but
they are born into the GOD FAMILY. Not only are we birthed into the
The new birth is nothing less
than the birth of a God-being, the birth of a Christ creature, who becomes "Christ IN
YOU the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27). There is no new birth outside of the actual birth
of an actual Spirit Being, who becomes the "inner man,” the new "me."
It is MY SPIRIT quickened by HIS SPIRIT, God birthing of His own divine life into me thus
making me alive from the dead, a new creature on the Celestial Plane. So many Christians
glibly talk about a born again "experience," or a "change of heart,"
being wholly ignorant as to what must transpire to produce this change, to implement this
experience. Our Lord said, "Ye must be BORN," not now of the flesh, but of the
Spirit. Religionists, both then and now, are incapable of grasping this greatest of all
truths and its astounding implications. And so they fail to understand that as a woman
gives birth to a son, bringing an actual child into the world as a living, breathing,
personality with an individual identity, nature, mind, and will, so does GOD GIVE BIRTH,
delivering out of His own loins the offspring of Himself, of His own kind, of the GOD
SPECIES, to grow up into the fullness of His own divine Being. The new birth is nothing
less than the birth of an actual divine, heavenly Being, a Son of the Father, who is as
ageless and deathless as is his immortal Parent, a brother by birth of our Lord Jesus
Christ; like Him in every phase of His Being, differing only in development and rank
How wonderful are these
things! They are far beyond our expression or the ability of the most eloquent to
describe! It is a marvelous fact that the very life of God is communicated to the
believing heart via the new birth. But what is the life of God? It is the content of God
and God Himself. All that is in God and all that God Himself is are in the life of God.
All the fullness of the Godhead is hidden in the life of God. The nature of God is
contained in the life of God, and His wisdom, knowledge, will, power, and glory. Every
facet of what God is and can do, is included in the life of God. With any kind of living
thing, all that it is rests within its life. All its capabilities and functions issue out
of its life, and all of its outward activities and expressions originate from its life. It
is that kind of living thing because it has that kind of life. Its being rests in its
life. God is the supreme living Being, and all that He is, of course, is in His life. All
that HE IS - whether truth, holiness, light or love - is derived from His life. All His
expressions - whether goodness, righteousness, mercy or forgiveness - are derived from His
life. His life causes Him to have such divine capabilities and functions inwardly and such
divine actions and expressions outwardly as well. The reason that He is such a glorious
and powerful God is that He has such a glorious and powerful life. Hence His being God
rests in His life.
Armed with this knowledge can
we not now see that it is in the new birth that the PRIESTLY SPIRIT of our Father is first
imparted as a divine seed into our lives? Jesus Christ is the KING-PRIEST SEED! The
harvest is always just exactly what was planted! Priests, by reason of SONSHIP, inheriting
God's nature, inherit all the varied virtues of that nature. Obviously the very basis of
the receiving of this priesthood begins with being BORN FROM ABOVE. There is a begettal,
fullness of birth from above, of those "which are born, not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, BUT OF GOD" (Jn. 1:13). For 'of His own will
begat He us with the Word of Truth, that we should be a kind of FIRSTFRUITS of His
creatures (literally, the creatures of Himself)" (James 1:18). These are a chosen
race, a kingly, royal priesthood, developed, processed, trained until they fully OVERCOME,
and then at His appointed time, are received into Himself, to share His throne.
In closing this article I am
impressed to share from the writings of the late Douglas Wilson:
Not long ago we were reading
from chapter twelve of Hebrews concerning the true sons and the bastard. We had often
meditated on the fact that the child known as a bastard child COULD IN NO WISE help or
change the circumstances of his birth. We knew well there was a stigma attached to the
child, under the Old Testament especially. We were never quite able to reconcile all that
we were told concerning such children, until just recently the Lord put a thought in our
minds that settled the whole question. We quote now the passage from Heb. 12:5-10.
"And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh to you as unto children, My
son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him;
for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. If ye
endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father
chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement whereof all (sons) are partakers, then
are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which
corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection unto
the Father of SPIRITS and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their
own pleasure; but He FOR OUR PROFIT, that we MIGHT BE PARTAKERS OF HIS HOLINESS."
In the above quotation we
find two kinds of sons. At least in one sense of the word they are sons. There is the son
that receives chastening of the Lord, and there is the bastard son who does not. In one
sense of the word, the bastard or as some translations put it, the spurious son, is as
much a son as the true son. It can make no difference whether the spurious son knows who
his father is or not, HE HAS ONE, just the same as the legitimate son. We have come to see
there is something in this and related passages that we would like you to consider. May we
first of all examine some reasons why children are brought into the world. Let us remember
always that the child itself has absolutely nothing to say about being brought into this
life. It has nothing to say about its color, nationality, birth place, sex, or anything
else. We may say that at least some of these things are determined by the laws of nature,
but we would rather say they are determined by the laws of God working ALL things
according to the counsel of His own will, and that applies to all people.
The first and basic reason
for the birth of children is for the preservation and increase of humanity. Humanity has
no other way of preserving itself except through the birth of children. Whatever other
reasons there may be, and there are several, they will all rest upon this basic one, the
inherent instinct for self-preservation in humans. The savage in the jungle, or the highly
educated and refined person in the highest strata of society, must return to this basic
principle in order to perpetuate himself and the rest of the human race.
We suppose that the greatest
NATURAL reason for bringing children into the world is because they are desired and wanted
for themselves. The love of husband and wife, combined with the father and mother nature,
is designed and given to humanity to cause them to want and desire to bring children into
being, simply because they DO LOVE AND DESIRE THEM. The principle and greatest desire in
the lives of such parents is to have a family, to provide well for that family, and to see
that each member of that family is started into his or her life with the best possible
advantage and preparation that the family can provide. Some children are very, very
fortunate and blessed of God, for they enter into a loving family circle and have parents
who desire the best for them. The atmosphere is conducive to the best development of the
children, and in that love and care there runs the vein of discipline, given to cause the
children to develop into the men and women that the parents have in mind they are to be.
Another group of children are
brought into the world through ignorance. Many of these children are unwanted and the care
they receive is minimal. Sometimes they are abandoned or given away. In yet another group
of children we find those who are born into this world only because of the sexual desire
of the parents, married or unmarried, and these children are unplanned for and unwanted.
These are illegitimate children, humanly speaking, the children without a father and many
times deserted by the mother. Many of them are absolutely not wanted and they become the
shame of the family into which they are born. The stigma of their illegitimate birth
follows them continually. These children are the victims of the uncontrolled passions of
their parents and these are children that are born entirely WITHOUT A PURPOSE. They are
merely the result or the effect of two people fulfilling their uncontrolled desires. These
children are looked down upon by society and yet, they CAN IN NO WISE HELP THEIR CONDITION
OR THEIR BIRTH.
But now let us look at the
group that we are most concerned with. In this last group we want to consider those
children who ARE BORN FOR A PURPOSE. Their birth is not in any sense "accidental.''
The conception and birth are the result of planning by the parents to bring a child into
the world to accomplish a certain purpose. There is the knowledge of a need, a work that
must be done, and the child is deliberately brought into the world to do that specific
thing. Even before the birth, the child may be given by the parent over to that work, as
Samuel was given to the Lord by Hannah, and all efforts are made to bring that child to
the very highest capabilities to accomplish this purpose. THIS IS A CHILD BORN FOR A
PURPOSE and trained for it. SUCH HAVE BEEN THE KINGS OF NATIONS AND THE PRIESTS OF THE
ORDER OF AARON. Such ones stand out from others and their lives are different than the
lives of their fellows. Some know from their early childhood that they are destined for a
major role in the life of this world. These are children BORN FOR A PURPOSE even in the
flesh.
But let us see something
about the CHILDREN OF GOD. How loosely we have used that term! Any church member, or
church attendant calls himself a child of God. Yet we can observe that there is ABSOLUTELY
NO SPIRITUAL PURPOSE IN THEIR LIVES. We find multitudes of religious children, brought
forth in one manner or another, filling the churches, but we can discern no spiritual
purpose or destiny in their lives. They believe they are saved from hell and the devil and
someday will fly away to have nothing to do but go to church and wait for the coming of
the Lord, and in heaven they will have nothing to do, no responsibility, no constructive
ministry, just eternity to dance, sing, and shout. Yet these have no conception of
eternity, nor yet of the great and wonderful plans and purposes of God for His creation.
They are children BORN ENTIRELY WITHOUT A PURPOSE, or in the language of this article,
they are bastard children.
These children cannot help
their condition, neither can they do anything about it. The church system that was
responsible for bringing them forth, took no forethought as to why they would bring these
children into being. In all probability it was to increase the population of the church
and benefit the church budget. But for the most part they "just happened." What
we haven't seen in the past, but are now beginning to see, is that the true child of God
IS A CHILD BORN FOR A PURPOSE, and trained to the highest degree of ability to fulfill
that purpose. We emphasize again that even the bastard has a father, but he is a child
born without a "father purpose." He is just brought into the world to make out
as best he can. He receives no chastening (training) for any specific purpose, but just
grows up in whatever may come his way. But behold the wonder, the glory, the thrill, the
expectancy of a CHILD BORN TO FULFILL A PURPOSE! A true son, fulfilling the purpose of the
Father in the great work that is yet to be done throughout the ages to come.
We think of Jesus the Christ
in this particular. Surely none will deny that JESUS WAS A SON BORN FOR A PURPOSE. He was
the Lamb of God SLAIN FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD. He gave Himself BY THE ETERNAL
SPIRIT to fulfill the purpose of God in the work of redemption and recreation of the
world. God has a plan. He always has had a plan, even from before the beginning. And just
as God had a Lamb, a Firstborn, a Captain of our salvation, from the beginning, BORN FOR
THE PURPOSE of fulfilling His mission on our behalf, so does God have other sons BORN FOR
THE PURPOSE OF GOD in their mission and work. Just as Jesus learned obedience by the
things He suffered, so will all the other sons learn obedience by the same means, for
there is a world to come that will be under the jurisdiction of those sons as Kings and
Priests, and they must be trained.
Now we can begin to see this
passage about bastards and sons in a far different light than ever before. Now we see the
bastard, not as one condemned forever from the presence of God, but simply as one BORN
WITHOUT PURPOSE, yet one who in due time will be cared for by those sons BORN FOR A
PURPOSE. Surely this makes a division in God's people, it elevates some above the rest,
but ALL CANNOT AND WILL NOT BE KINGS AND PRIESTS. But there does rest upon the Kings and
Priests a great and awesome responsibility, and for that responsibility the sons MUST BE
CHASTENED, having already been BORN FOR A PURPOSE. Please keep always in mind that this
chastening is training for the place prepared for the son. - end quote.
Ah, beloved, do you not sense
in the depths of your ransomed spirit a sense of divine destiny - that you were indeed
BORN FOR A PURPOSE? Have you heard the sound of the trumpet thundering out the message: YE
SHALL BE UNTO ME A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS! truly we have received the call to sonship, to
kingship, to priesthood, and the plan of God overwhelms my spirit and my soul rejoices in
His unfailing purpose!
Chapter
8
QUALIFICATIONS
FOR PRIESTHOOD
(continued)
Levi was the third son of
Jacob. Normally the eldest son would have received the priesthood, but Reuben was
disqualified because of immorality. Simeon, the second son, was disqualified because he
did not protect the younger son, Joseph, when it was in his power to do so when Joseph was
in the pit. Therefore the priesthood was given to the third son, Levi. Levi received the
choicest of all the promises made unto Abraham. It is possibly the greatest promise any
man or woman can receive from Almighty God. In Gen. 15:1 the word of the Lord came unto
Abram in a vision, saying, "Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and THY EXCEEDING GREAT
REWARD." God said, "I am thy reward, Abram." There is no gift so great that
a man can offer than his own person. So God was promising to Abraham the greatest possible
gift He could give unto him - "I myself am thy exceeding great reward." In Mal.
2:4-5 God says, "And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you, that
My covenant might be with Levi, saith the Lord of hosts. My covenant was with him of life
and peace; I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared Me, and was afraid before
My name." Here God gives His reasons why Levi received the priesthood. There are
qualifications for every ministry.
In previous Studies of this
series I pointed out the truth that
The Lord passed through the
land of Egypt with the sword of justice unsheathed, to smite ALL the first-born, nor would
Israel's first-born have escaped, had not the sword fallen upon the neck of the spotless
victim and thus, as someone has beautifully observed, "There was death in every
house, not only in the houses of the Egyptians, but also in those of the Israelites: in
the former, it was the DEATH OF EGYPT'S FIRST-BORN; in the latter, the death of God's
Lamb." The Levites, then, were taken INSTEAD of those upon whom the sword of the
destroying angel should have fallen; or, in other words, THE LEVITES WERE, TYPICALLY, A
DEAD AND RISEN PEOPLE, and thus were no longer looked at in the same light as the other
tribes of Israel, but of NEW LIFE through grace, in which they were placed by God Himself.
And here let me observe that this is the path which every sinner must travel if he would
know experimentally anything of what Levi typifies.
There is no other way in
which to escape from the judgment of the law on the one hand, or from the horrid workings
of indwelling corruption on the other, than simply to see ourselves dead to both, and
"alive unto God through Jesus Christ." "How shall we," says the
apostle, "that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Know ye not that so many of
us that were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are
buried with Him by baptism into death; that, like as Christ was raised up from the dead by
the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (
All Christians today who
truly know Christ in the forgiveness of sins and the washing of regeneration, are
prefigured by the Levites who were the ministers of the Lord, His inheritance. But the
house of Aaron, one family among the Levites, the priesthood, one body under one Chief or
High Priest, was typical of the "little flock" which follows on to know the Lord
in all His glorious and eternal reality, the overcomers, gathered out of all ages, who
through faith, patience, and obedience qualify to sit with Christ upon His throne as a
Kingdom of Priests unto God. I cannot emphasize too strongly that although Israel as a
nation numbered well over a million at Sinai, and although a whole tribe of Levites, whom
God forbade Moses to number, were called for spiritual service, nevertheless five men only
(and their descendants) from the tribe of Levi (AARON AND HIS FOUR SONS) were then called
to stand "in the PRIEST'S office" and minister on a higher level unto God in the
Aaronic order, in the highest calling in Israel under the Old Covenant.
In addition to setting these
few special individuals in the Priest's office or the HIGH CALLING of the anointed Aaronic
order in the Old Testament dispensation, God also called the Levites to be separated
servants of the
Aaron and his sons were
"anointed" with the "holy anointing oil"; and they alone were called
to the HIGH CALLING of priesthood. They alone passed through the first veil into the
QUALIFICATIONS FOR
PRIESTHOOD
There were three primary
qualifications for priesthood in the order of Aaron: (1) birth (2) freedom from blemish
(3) maturity. The very first requirement was that one must be A SON OF THE HIGH PRIEST. A
man might be the brightest and most capable Levite, but if he was not the offspring of
Aaron he was prohibited from serving in the office of the priesthood. The first
qualification for priesthood is birth. You must be the son of the High Priest, the
OFFSPRING OF HIS PRIESTLY NATURE. Here we have a most wonderful thought connected with
Aaron. God made Aaron High Priest in such a sense that his life carried priesthood to all
his descendants. Through fifteen hundred years the descendants of Aaron were priests,
because they were sons of Aaron. The life of Aaron carried the blessing. And, oh, the
life, the divine life, of my High Priests. Do you think that that would carry less
blessing than the priesthood of Aaron? Verily no. Priesthood BEGINS with the new birth.
But being born again no more makes one a priest than being born into Aaron's house made
one a priest. Right birth was the first requisite - but merely the first step down a long
path of preparation and qualification. In the book of Leviticus, we have the offerings,
the priesthood, and many kinds of regulations. Leviticus can be divided into these three
parts: the first, dealing with the offerings, is from chapter one through seven; the
second, dealing with the priesthood, is from chapter eight to ten; the third, from chapter
eleven through the end of the book, deals with many regulations including offerings and
priesthood. There are all kinds of regulations typifying the life that glorifies God. We
cannot go into detail now regarding them all. If we could, we would see how interesting,
how sweet, how powerful, and how pregnant with meaning they are. There are many
regulations about what is clean and what is unclean, about what is separated and what is
not separated from common and worldly things, about how to act and how not to act. All
these are requirements for a holy life.
The second qualification for
priesthood is found in Lev. 21:16-24. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak
unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any
blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. For whatsoever man he be that
hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat
nose, or any thing superfluous. Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, or
crookbacked, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or
hath his stones broken; no man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall
come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not
come nigh to offer the bread of his God. He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the
most holy, and of the holy. Only he shall not go in unto the veil, nor come nigh unto the
altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not My sanctuaries: for I the Lord do
sanctify them."
One could be the son of the
High Priest and still not be qualified for the priesthood IF THERE WAS SOME BLEMISH IN HIM
- any kind of disease, deformity, or physical impairment. The regulations laid down in
Leviticus twenty-one show that in
The book of Leviticus deals
with the old Aaronic priesthood of the natural
"Whosoever...hath any
blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God" (Lev. 21:17). A blemish
is a FLAW IN CHARACTER. Webster defines blemish as: Any deformity, physical or moral;
flaw; disfigurement; to mar or disfigure. It speaks to us here of a weakness of character.
I have met a number of preachers who have a good knowledge of Kingdom Truth, eloquent
delivery, and great ability to influence people toward the purposes of God, but you cannot
trust them. They cannot be counted on to keep their word. They will not live within their
means, nor pay their honest debts. They leave a trail of unpaid bills and questionable
dealings wherever they go. Some live loose lives and have been caught repeatedly in
immoral affairs. They have a weakness which they blame on heredity, their environment, or
their circumstances. They show no sign of godly character. They may have a flaw of nature
such as a violent temper, strange lusts, weird and unscriptural doctrines, disorderly home
life, love of money, desire to control other people's lives, love of pleasure,
drunkenness, two-facedness, laziness or pride. They feel they just have to learn to live
with such things, for that is just how they are. Not so! Not, that is, IF THEY WOULD BE
THE PRIESTS OF GOD.
Ah, you can be a Christian
(Levite) and have some flaws of character. You can speak in tongues and have such flaws.
You can prophesy and have such flaws. You can fall out under the power and see visions and
have such flaws. You can heal the sick and perform signs and wonders and have such flaws.
Ask the Corinthians if this is not so! You can be an elder or an evangelist or, perhaps,
even an apostle and have such flaws. But I do not hesitate to tell you that YOU WILL NEVER
BE A PRIEST AFTER THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK WITH SUCH FLAWS! In the order of Aaron one
might be a son of Aaron - leprous, palsied, mad, or blind, not knowing his father - but
nevertheless a son; and because a son, never to be forsaken by his family or his God. But
he was not permitted to enter the inner sanctuary of the Tabernacle, nor to offer the
bread of his God, nor to approach the altar of his God, nor to officiate as a priest in
any of the high and holy things of Yahweh.
In the days of Christ there
was a court of inquiry instituted by the Sanhedrin whose function was to investigate and
confirm the qualifications of all new candidates for the priesthood. This court sat daily
in "the Hall of Polished Stones." Their first inquiry was into the genealogy of
the candidate. If he failed to satisfy the court about his perfect legitimacy, the
candidate was dressed and veiled in black, and permanently removed. If he passed that
ordeal, inquiry was next made as to any physical defects which disqualified for the
exercise of the priestly office. The third inquiry was about the age of the candidate.
Those who had stood the threefold test were dressed in white raiment, and their names
properly inscribed. To this pointed allusion is made in Rev. 3:5 where the Christ
declares, "He that OVERCOMETH, the same shall be CLOTHED IN WHITE RAIMENT..,"
Thus received, and afterward instructed in his duties, the formal admission alike of
priest and High Priest was by investiture. OVERCOMERS! WHITE RAIMENT! RIGHTEOUSNESS! Oh,
brethren, beloved of God, such are the qualifications for the priesthood.
The transcendent essential
factor is PERFECT SPIRITUAL CHARACTER. Character springs from nature. Character and nature
are not the same. Webster defines nature as: The INHERENT TENDENCIES directing
conduct...what a thing really is...quality...essence. As a degenerate human of Adam's
fallen race we were, one and all, born with a nature just the opposite of God's holy
nature. Paul describes our former nature in Eph. 2:2-3: "...in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also WE ALL had
our conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind; and were by NATURE the children of wrath, even as others." Yes
- we were by NATURE, INHERITED TENDENCY, the children (offspring) of wrath!
But now, praise God, as
children (offspring) of GOD, Peter says, "According as His divine power hath given
unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness (Godlikeness), through the
knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue...that.. ye might be partakers of
the DIVINE NATURE, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust"
(II Pet. 1:3-4). Ah, we are now made partakers of GOD'S DIVINE NATURE. This has been
effected through the NEW BIRTH, for nature is INHERITED. Being born of God we now share
HIS NATURE. And from this divine nature is developed DIVINE CHARACTER. Hearken, my
beloved, you who would understand the mysteries of the
CHRIST THE HEALER
This brings before us the
holiness required of "the priests, the sons of Aaron." The nearer one comes to
God, the more essential it is to maintain holiness. A degree of separation that might
suffice for the congregation, or for the Levites, would not be suitable for the priests.
"Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a
glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be
holy and WITHOUT BLEMISH" (Eph. 5:25-27). Thank God! there is deliverance in
So perfect, whole, clean, and
clear, without blemish, they were to be, those priests of the Old Covenant, that offered
those outward things, in the outward Tabernacle or
T. Austin-Sparks wrote,
"The highest purpose of God in the salvation of the believer is to bring forth in him
the fullest manifestation of Christ in every aspect of his character." A
"defect" is not necessarily a man's own fault; it might be the result of bad
teaching, Defilement acquired from the harlot church system, the spirit, or doctrines, or
methods of "Babylon" which cling tenaciously to ones spirit who has outwardly
"come out" of Babylon. Sometimes a "defect" is the result of one's own
lack of spiritual diligence. Peter speaks of some being "blind, shortsighted,"
and he accounts for it by their lack of diligence to make their calling and election sure.
Heb. 12:13 speaks of some being "lame," but states that they may be
"healed." Thank God! Have the flaws in your own character, precious friend of
mine, been magnified in your eyes until you despair of ever qualifying for the High
Calling of God in Christ Jesus? Today, dear one, I point you to JESUS CHRIST THE HEALER.
There is no use telling a man
he is a sinner, unless you tell him how to get out of his sin. Oh, how good of God,
convicting men of sin in order to show them the path of salvation! There is no use telling
saints of their disqualifying "flaws" and "blemishes," unless you tell
them how to get rid of their defects. Jesus said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Mat. 11:28). And they came. His hands
touched them and the fever fled, the spirits went out, and every form of disease and sin
and uncleanness departed, and they were made whole.
Come, see a little girl whom
He healed - come with me to
Think not for one moment, my
brother, sister, that Jesus Christ is the healer only of diseases of the body. He has come
to cleanse His Church, to sanctify and purify His people, to purge and refine and make
every whit whole His priesthood, and I declare to you today that HE IS THE HEALER AND THE
RESTORER OF THE PRIESTHOOD. Listen! The great and wonderful mercy of the Christ receives
those who have blemishes, and His power heals all who humbly bow before Him, calling upon
the name of the Lord. "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men
after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called" (I Cor. 1:26). Saints
who SEE THEIR CALLING - their high and holy calling in Christ - find neither room nor time
to live slip-shod, careless lives. Rather they, SEEING THEIR CALLING, give all diligence
to make their calling and election sure by daily surrendering all into the loving hands of
God in unending devotion and prayer. Searching the Word and digesting it as the
enlightening rays of the Holy Spirit fall upon them, they add to their faith with godly
diligence every spiritual grace. To faith they add God's virtue; to virtue, knowledge from
on high; to knowledge, temperance control and restraint in all things; to patience,
godliness; to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love - not the
wretched, abhorrent thing the world calls love, but that love which is of God, the fruit
of the Holy Spirit dwelling in a bloodwashed heart. Those who thus SEE THEIR CALLING are
healed of all blemishes, made perfect, clean, clear, whole.
Do you want to be a priest?
Then "clean up your act," get rid of the blemishes! The Holy Ghost is closely
examining candidates for this ministry. The qualifying time is NOW. The "in
part" ministries of the church age may get by with blemishes, as did the Levites, but
the King-Priest ministry destined to deliver the whole creation from its bondage to
corruption must itself first be freed from every vestige of carnality, weakness,
limitation, sin, and death. How is this thing going to be done? "And the very God of
peace SANCTIFY YOU WHOLLY; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
BLAMELESS (without blemish) unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Thes. 5:23).
If you are to be cleansed, made whole, and preserved without blemish there is only one
way, and that is shown you in the verse that follows the one quoted above:
"Faithful is HE that
calleth you, WHO ALSO WILL DO IT." What a word! Well, then, why do you not come to
HIM to do it?
There is enough water in the
THE BLIND MAN
The very first blemish which
the Holy Spirit has signified as disqualifying one for the priesthood is blindness. Please
understand that these defects were applied naturally and physically to the Aaronic
priesthood, but they bear a deeper spiritual meaning for us today. A man who is physically
blind is not disqualified to follow on to know the Lord, but a man who is spiritually
blind and who cannot see the truths of God now being revealed by the Spirit, is not to
minister unto men nor unto God as a priest.
Bill Britton has aptly
written on this point: "You would not want a blind cook in a restaurant preparing the
food for your body. He might accidentally dump rat poison into the pot instead of baking
soda. He certainly would not be able to balance the ingredients properly. So much more
should we avoid having a blind man feed us spiritual food for our souls. It is tragic how
many blind cooks we have feeding the bread of God today! They can remember the size,
shape, and feel of the products of yesteryear when they had their vision. But if any new
product comes along, they are in immediate confusion. Their only action is to throw out
the new truth, because they are not familiar with it.
The problem is that some
poisons come in the same size and shape packages as old familiar truths. If they are
spiritually blind, they are in danger of feeding poison to God's people under the heading
of "old familiar traditional doctrine." There are poisons such as sectarianism,
the escape rapture theory, the Christmas folly, the false theory of 'Satan was once a holy
and beautiful angel called Lucifer, the choir leader in heaven and guardian of God's
holiness.' These are being set forth as good old safe and solid traditional doctrines.
This is an example of the blind feeding the blind. Saints whose sight is being restored
are escaping from such ministries. If you cannot see the present truth God is unveiling
today, then you are disqualified to feed the people of God. Go to the Healer and have your
eyesight restored. The problem in many cases remains that 'they have eyes, but will not
look.' 'Awake thou that sleepest...and Christ shall give thee light"' - end quote.
Over and over during the last
months of His life did our Lord tell the disciples that He must suffer and die. Most
tenderly did He warn them that the hour of His departure was approaching; but how
unconscious they were that the sun had commenced to go down and the night of His death was
closing in upon them. Although Jesus knew that His hour had come, none of His disciples
discerned the shadows that were already gathering around them. Jesus saw that the
disciples did not discern that His earth ministry was drawing to a close and that the hour
was at hand when they would be left alone. He would not have His beloved disciples
unprepared, and He gently pointed out to them the deepening shadows, and intimated that
the Bride would not always have the Bridegroom with her; but they could not understand.
They could not take in the import of His words, which so plainly set forth His death and
warned them that the time was at hand. Notwithstanding all He said to them concerning His
sufferings and death, His words were forgotten. Even as they traveled to
How plain were His words if
their understanding had not been darkened, and if their eyes had not been blinded by their
preconceived ideas. If they had taken in His sayings by the spirit of revelation, they
could have been prepared for the end that was so close upon Him and them; but they were
blind and could see no signs of gathering shadows. For over three years did Jesus Christ
walk with His disciples, teaching and talking with them. From time to time, He told them:
"The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and the chief
priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day be raised up." "But they
did not understand this saying, and were afraid to ask Him what it meant." We wonder
at the dullness of the disciples, and we cannot understand why they could not take in His
words and be prepared for His death.
Child of God, is it any
different with you and me? For years the truth of the manifestation of the Sons of God has
been going forth around the world. Especially during the last two decades has the message
of the Kingdom sounded forth as a trumpet and multitudes have heard the sound thereof.
Thousands upon thousands of saints have heard the voice of the Spirit exhorting them most
insistently to divorce themselves from the harlot church systems that steal their strength
away and devote themselves to Christ, and to Him alone. It is this harlot church system
that keeps prospective SONS from coming into vital union with Jesus Christ. I never cease
to be amazed when I see saints who claim to treasure the beautiful truths of sonship and
the
From infancy men have been
taught that they must be faithful to their church, which, if they only knew it, is not THE
CHURCH at all, but a sect or a denomination or a system that has become a winking whore
that steals their heart away from true relationship with Christ, robs them of union with
those precious ones who have been born of a priestly heart, and leaves them like prodigal
sons far away from the Father's house, sitting in filthy garments, defiled, hungry,
destitute, and companions of swine. You say that you long for a closer walk with Christ.
Then pour the ointment of your love upon HIS HEAD, bathe HIS FEET with your tears of
brokenness and repentance, and fill HIS HEART with your praise and worship and adoration;
and know of a surety that all who come aside from defilement and pour such fervent love
upon HIM will in a short time find themselves walking in a RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD that they
never dreamt was possible, for "if any man love Me...We will come and make Our abode
with him." Though the Spirit of God has been declaring the glory of A NEW DAY for
some years now, the same dullness is upon many to this hour, and even many who preach and
teach it, are living as though it were not so as they continue on in their old
religiousness. Let us take heed lest we, too, are unable to discern the wonderful things
God has prepared for His Sons in this hour; lest the same dullness and blindness happen to
us as were upon the disciples in that long ago.
To be BLIND means simply to
have NO VISION of what the Father desires. The natural mind is very dark and without
understanding. Only the Holy Spirit can awaken it. Human efforts to enlighten men to the
deep spiritual things of God will always fail. ONLY TO CHRIST IS POWER GIVEN TO OPEN THE
EYES OF THE BLIND even as the scales fell from the vision of Saul when Jesus purged them
away. This explains why the Bible remains to a great degree a closed book to the most
educated but unconverted or unanointed man, while it is an open book to many of the most
ignorant of believers. This explains why a man may be educated and trained to hold all the
theological degrees that all the theological seminaries in the world can bestow upon him,
and yet be utterly blind to the great spiritual revelations of the Word of God, while a
poor, simple, uneducated saint will see truths and revelations of infinite depth and
eternal glory in the pages of this blessed Book of Books which are absolutely
unintelligible to others. This explains why carnally minded men who have read the Bible
and studied it through and through, and know the Hebrew and Greek, will yet fail to find
the living Christ or the transforming power of the Holy Spirit or the glories of the
The following story came in
the mail some time ago and it is so real and worthy of quoting. A missionary saw this
fellow sitting on a porch. He spoke to this man, and said, "Are you lost?" The
man replied, "Why, no, I have lived here for forty years." The missionary said,
"I mean, have you found Jesus?" "I did not know He was lost," the man
responded. "I am here to find out if you are a Christian man," the exasperated
missionary tried again. The man answered again, "There is a Bill Christian who lives
three or four miles over the ridge." The missionary, being flustered, said again,
"I mean, are you ready for the judgment day?" "When is it?" asked the
man. The missionary replied, "Well, it may be next week or next month, we do not know
those things." "Well," the man answered, "when you know about them
things, let me know."
True, a bit of humor is in
that story, but the plain truth is that the understanding of the holy truths and the deep
mysteries of the Spirit of God are just as misunderstood and darkened by the natural mind
of the unspiritual man, as were the simple questions of the missionary by the poor
ignorant and unchurched man rocking away on his porch. The vast majority of the teachings
of the churches with their time-honored traditions, carnal creeds, and empty ceremonies
have no more to do with the
Men gaze steadily into the
skies looking for Jesus to come flashing across the heavens to snatch them up and carry
them away to some far-off heaven somewhere, but their spirits have never been enravished
with these enlightening words: "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and
HATH TRANSLATED US into the kingdom of His dear Son"(Col 1:13). Is that not an
illuminating statement? And while the preachers rant and rave and speculate about a
"rapture," displaying their carnal charts complete with pictures of automobiles
wrecking, trains derailing, and airplanes crashing while the bodies of the saints soar
away through the atmosphere, there are some humble sons of the High Priest who have EYES
TO SEE and have discovered a spiritual process NOW TAKING PLACE in every believer who is
earnestly pressing toward the mark for the prize of the High Calling of God in Christ
Jesus. From the far distant mountain peaks of revelation the inspired voice of Paul clear
as the morning song of the meadowlark sounds forth the message: "Even when we were
dead in sin, He HATH QUICKENED US TOGETHER WITH CHRIST, and HATH RAISED US UP TOGETHER,
and made us sit together IN HEAVENLY PLACES in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:5-6). Praise
God!
O what potent words were
penned by Paul when he prayed fervently for the Ephesian saints "that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of Him: THE EYES OF YOUR UNDERSTANDING BEING ENLIGHTENED; that
ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who
believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He
raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places"
(Eph. 1:17-20).
I do not doubt for one moment
that the great apostle Paul directed this prayer to the heavenly Father because he knew,
as perhaps few men have known, that ONLY GOD CAN OPEN THE EYES OF THE BLIND. Whenever God
comes, whenever God bestows mercy, the light of His countenance is our light, His
appearing is our vision, and His presence is our heaven. If we just touch Him, we see
light. The moment He hides His face from us, we are immediately in darkness. No matter how
much we strive for light, it is of no use; regardless of how much we struggle, it is in
vain. It is not that you are a little loose, so you cannot see light, and that I am a
little pious, therefore light comes; or that you are a little lazy, so you cannot see
light, and I am a little diligent, therefore I see light. Enlightening the eyes of our
understanding does not depend on our striving and struggling, but on the mercy and power
of God. Alas, how many there are today who make their own light by lighting lamps and
kindling fires. When darkness comes, they do not wait till dawn, till the sun rises, till
God moves afresh by His Spirit; they themselves go to kindle a fire, to stir up something
soulish by self-effort, to make light themselves. God says that all those who kindle a
fire to enlighten themselves shall end in sorrow. This is God's decree. What a serious
matter this is! May we submit ourselves to fear God and look to HIM for wisdom and
revelation from on high.
As one has written, "In
the midst of turmoil Job cried, 'I know that my Redeemer liveth, and He shall stand in the
latter days upon the earth, and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my
flesh shall I SEE GOD: Whom I shall SEE FOR MYSELF, and MINE EYES SHALL BEHOLD, and not
another.' He was positively sure in his own mind that in some distant future day he would
SEE GOD, but what he did not know was that AT THAT VERY MOMENT God was leading him into
the coveted experience. Within a few days he would shout with ecstatic joy, "NOW MINE
EYES SEETH THEE!" (Job. 42:5). It is easy to put off spiritual experience for the
milleniums to come, but God would have us enter them now. 'That I may KNOW HIM' was the
ceaseless longing of Paul's heart (Phil. 3:10). Too many sermons are preached ABOUT GOD,
but too few people come to KNOW HIM personally. You can never know people by hearing about
them even from their closest friends. You must see them, know them, and understand them
personally. However vivid a description may be given of an individual, you could still
pass him on the street without knowing who he was or even live in the same house with him
without knowing he was the person in question. So also it is with God. You will know many
things about Him by hearing, but you will only KNOW HIM when your eye SEES HIM. 'No man
can see God and live,' but that does not mean that he will give up the ghost and die. It
means that he will never live the same anymore, but will live as God lives in the
Spirit."
Ray Prinzing wrote: "The
Scripture is clear that 'where there is no vision, the people perish' (Prov. 29:18).
Literally, the people are 'naked,' for our vision is our covering until we are swallowed
up into the reality of its fulfillment. But we are also learning the tragedy of having a
vision and then not progressing on to BECOME the fulfillment of that vision, but rather to
get entangled in substitutes, and things of the world. Our earnest prayer therefore is
that we might have 'open eyes' to see as God sees, of all that He hath prepared for them
that love Him, and then to be progressively developed and prepared for its consummation.
It is also self-evident that THE OPENING OF OUR EYES TO SEE, IS A PROGRESSIVE WORK OF THE
HOLY SPIRIT. He reveals, quickens, unfolds according as He has also worked in us to
prepare us for the reception of that vision, and then He imparts the ability to go on and
become its fruition. 'For it is God Himself whose power creates within you both the desire
and the power to execute His gracious will' (Phil. 2:13,
"The purpose of 'seeing'
looks toward BECOMING, not simply to satisfy a curiosity, or just to fill a present need.
Seeing is knowing, and knowing is becoming. To see is to become what you see, for one is
transformed into the image of what he sees. Thank God, there have been those occasions
when it seems as if the veil has been drawn back a little, and we receive glimpses into
the realms of reality in Christ. These rare 'visions' begin to work in us, so that we
might be purged, purified, and prepared for more sight. And how we groan as we find this
heaviness of the veil of flesh still upon us, to blur and make hazy that which we would
behold more clearly. The carnal mind cannot see God! 'The world was made by Him, but the
world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not' (Jn. 1:10-11).
They saw Him as a 'man,' but they could not see Him as God. In fact we even read, 'Which
none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known, they would not have crucified
the Lord of glory' (I Cor. 2:8).
"Even His disciples,
after walking with Him for three years, found it hard to look beyond the natural realm of
the physical, so that 'Philip saith unto Him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth
us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet thou hast not known
Me, Philip? He that bath SEEN ME hath SEEN THE FATHER' (Jn. 14:8-9). "'When thine eye
is single, thy whole body also is full of light' (Lk. 11:34). Yes, you become what you
see! The more evil we see in one another, and then dwell upon it, talk about it, feed on
the negative, the more evil we are guilty of becoming. Our eyes become more negative, and
then next time we see that person we'll see even more negative things in him. 'Therefore
thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judges: for wherein thou judgest
another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things' (Rom. 2:1).
Certainly God cannot impart to us, unveil the vision of higher dimensions in Him, so long
as we still have the allure of the world imprinted as stars upon our eyes. The transition,
to focus our eyes upon HIM has been a process, it is not an instant revelation complete.
True, the fresh glimpses come suddenly, as a burst of light, but we do not yet fully
see" - end quote.
Ah, God is calling out a
people in our day, the age of lukewarm, self-satisfied
Chapter
9
QUALIFICATIONS
FOR PRIESTHOOD
(continued)
There were three primary
qualifications for priesthood in the Aaronic order: (1) birth (2) freedom from blemish (3)
maturity. The very first requirement was that one must be A SON OF THE HIGH PRIEST, the
OFFSPRING OF HIS PRIESTLY NATURE. Here we have a most wonderful thought connected with
Aaron. God made Aaron High Priest in such a sense that his life carried priesthood to all
his descendants. Through fifteen hundred years the descendants of Aaron were priests,
because they were sons of Aaron. The life of Aaron carried the blessing. And, oh, the
life, the divine life, of my High Priest! Do you think that that would carry less blessing
than the priesthood of Aaron? Verily, no! Thus priesthood BEGINS with the new birth. But
being born again no more makes one a priest than being born into Aaron's house made one a
priest. Right birth was the first requisite - but merely the first step down a long path
of preparation and qualification.
The second qualification for
priesthood is found in Lev. 21:16-24. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak
unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any
blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. For whatsoever man he be that
hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat
nose, or anything superfluous. Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, or
crookbacked, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or
hath his stones broken; no man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall
come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not
come nigh to offer the bread of his God. He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the
most holy, and of the holy. Only he shall not go in unto the veil, nor come nigh unto the
altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not My sanctuaries: for I the Lord do
sanctify them."
One could be the son of the
High Priest and still not be qualified for the priesthood IF THERE WAS SOME BLEMISH IN HIM
- any kind of disease, deformity, or physical impairment. The regulations laid down in
Leviticus twenty-one show that in
The book of Leviticus deals
with the old Aaronic priesthood of the natural
THE LAME MAN
"Whosoever...hath any
blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God" (Lev. 21:17). A blemish
is a FLAW IN CHARACTER. Webster defines blemish as: Any deformity, physical or moral;
flaw; disfigurement; to mar or disfigure. It speaks to us here of a weakness of character
or a spiritual lack. The second blemish which the Holy Spirit has signified as
disqualifying one for the priesthood is lameness. Please understand that these defects
were applied naturally and physically to the Aaronic priesthood, but they bear a deeper
spiritual meaning for us today. A man who is physically lame is not disqualified to follow
on to know the Lord, but a man who is spiritually lame and cannot walk out the life and
truths of God now being revealed by the Spirit, is not to minister unto men nor unto God
as a priest.
To be lame indicates one who
does not walk worthy of the vocation wherewith he is called. Bill Britton has written so
pointedly and powerfully on this subject that I am compelled to share his-words here.
"Now we are dealing with a priest who has good eyesight, but is lame. He can discern
what God is doing in this hour, he sees beautiful revelation truths. He can thrill your
heart with the message he preaches with great anointing. But he is lame. He cannot walk in
what he sees. He sees it, he talks it, but he can't walk it. There is a weakness in his
ability to follow the footsteps of Jesus. He cannot set a good example before the people.
He can tell them of the victorious Spirit filled life, but he cannot demonstrate a life of
victory. He is lame. There is a weakness. In Acts chapter three we find Peter and John
encountering a man who had no strength to walk. From his birth he had never walked
properly. How like a lot of Christians today! From the time they were 'born again,' they
never made a full commitment to God, and never had the strength to walk a clean Christian
life. Oh, they believed in Jesus, they wanted to go to heaven. They just could not seem to
walk in holiness of life.
"The lame man looked at
Peter and John, expecting some of the treasure he thought they might give him. But they
saw that he had a greater need than treasures. So they ministered to his need to walk and
be strong. So many today are begging for truths, spiritual revelations, and end-time
doctrines. They want to fill their purse with all these treasures. Their head knowledge is
powerful, but their walk is weak and a reproach to the
Sons of the High Priest! The
members of the Royal Priesthood are the offspring of the Greater Aaron, the High Priest of
our profession, Jesus Christ the Son of God. He is the pattern and prototype for all who
would follow after. Because the leg is a symbol of strength, God did not suffer the
soldiers to break the legs of our Lord Jesus when He died. "The Jews therefore,
because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the
Sabbath day besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken
away. Then came the soldiers, and break the legs of the first, and of the other which was
crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that He was dead already, they
break not His legs: for these things were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled, A
bone of Him shall not be broken" (Jn. 19:31-33, 36). Not a bone was broken of this
One who so perfectly walked out the nature and will of the Father all the way to the
cross, this strong One, the Captain of our salvation.
The lovely Shulamite in the
Song of Solomon made this wonderful statement about her King, who is the type of our Lord
Jesus Christ: "His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold"
(S. of S. 5:15). The feet, spiritually speaking, refer to walk or movement; but His legs
are mentioned here and they signify the power and strength behind the walk. One ancient
authority translates this: "His legs are pillars, or columns, of Persian
marble." This was the whitest, purest, and best - that from which the Grecian statues
generally were formed. It is interesting to note that the word for "marble" is
exactly the same as that which is translated in other Scriptures as "fine linen"
and this points to the Christ's inherent righteousness. Thus the Shulamite speaks of her
Beloved in all that He was in Himself, and all that He established in the strength of His
righteousness, as having inexhaustible strength and stability There was nothing in His
life or ministry which could be the least bit shaken or wearied. His legs were not the
uneven legs of the lame, as were those of all other men, but they were perfect, white,
strong, and stedfast, a type of unfailing strength.
All who came before Him fell
short, but He has never failed. There was some weakness or frailty in the walk of all
those blessed saints, patriarchs, and prophets who walked with God, even with those who
were the nearest to Him and seemed to be making straight tracks, as Abraham, Moses, and
David. Though for a long time they might walk steady and straight, at times there would be
mistakes, blunders, falls, a crooked step or a back step, which showed that their legs
were not equal - the harmony of their natures with HIS NATURE was not perfect. They needed
more dealings, additional processings, and further transformations. Then the Christ of God
came, the High Priest of a new order, and dwelt in the body that God had prepared for Him,
the body which was as wrought ivory encrusted with sapphires. As He came leaping upon the
mountains of separation and skipping upon the hills of praise and holiness, we praise God
that His legs were not unequal; neither were they lame as He unswervingly walked out the
will of His Father in wisdom, righteousness, and power. They were pillars of marble!
"His legs are as pillars
of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold" (S. of S. 5:15). Three times in the Song of
Solomon the Shulamite mentioned "fine gold," as at different times she referred
to the thoughts of His mind, and the works of His hands, and now here to the character of
His steps. The gold in Scripture is always indicative of the DIVINE NATURE. The sockets of
fine gold are His feet. As a pillar is set in a socket to make it steadfast, His legs are
represented as being made steadfast in the power of God's nature. Thus we are led to see
that it was God who was expressing Himself through the Son, sustaining Him in all His
ways, and finding full satisfaction and delight in Him through His perfect yieldedness as
He WALKED OUT the strength of the divine nature in human flesh. How meaningful then these
words of inspiration: "He that saith that he abideth in Him OUGHT HIMSELF ALSO SO TO
WALK, EVEN AS HE WALKED" (I Jn. 2:6). It is true that "He was in all things made
like unto His brethren" (Heb. 2:17). The other side of the truth also holds good: THE
BRETHREN ARE IN ALL THINGS MADE LIKE UNTO HIM. They are called to live like Him. They are
called to walk like Him. This is not demanded from them without their having the same
power. This power is the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, whom we have of God. Even as Jesus
was filled with the Spirit, and then led by the Spirit, so must we be also filled with the
Spirit and enabled to walk in the Spirit. Thank God! He is raising up a MANY BRETHREN
COMPANY, a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD among whom there is NO LAME, a people born of His Spirit, the
offspring of His priestly heart, with power to walk out His life here upon earth as the
revelation of HIMSELF to mankind. These, like their glorious Head and High Priest, have
legs as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of gold!
THE FLAT NOSE
The third blemish which the
Holy Spirit has signified as disqualifying one for the priesthood is a flat nose. This
seems very strange. But it speaks not of a flat nose as a racial characteristic; it has
absolutely nothing to do with a "pug nose" as against a "hook nose" or
a "pointed nose" or a "prominent nose"! The idea in the original has
to do with disfigurement. The New International Version and the Jerusalem Bible both
render it simply as "disfigured," while the Amplified Bible translates "a
disfigured face," and another version says "one with his nose slit." It is
talking about a nose that is disfigured, deformed, or mutilated.
Our nose is our smeller, the
way we discern whether something is fresh or rotten, pure or defiled. It is the instrument
of discernment. The importance of discernment is pointed out by the fact that God put our
nose in the middle of our face, right out front. In the beginning the vital, life-giving
breath of God was breathed into the nostrils of the man whom He had formed, vitalizing the
body made of dust, giving living expression and function to every member thereof. Have you
considered the truth that lies hidden in the divine fact that the breath was breathed into
Adam's NOSTRILS, the first part of the human body to be mentioned in the Holy Scriptures?
Wonderful indeed is the statement made by Job wherein he says, "The Spirit of God
hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life" (Job. 33:4). Earlier
Job said, "All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;
my lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit" (Job 27:3-4).
Centuries later the Apostle Paul, in his great message given on Mars Hill, confirmed that
God giveth to all life and breath (Acts 17:25). Just one puff of His vital breath and man
has life.
The nose is the most
important feature of the human face. Its size and shape have much to do with how a person
looks. The nose is most important, however, because the sense of smell is located there
and because it is wonderfully constructed for taking in and cleaning the air we breathe
into our lungs. A wall inside the nose separates it into two channels. These channels
begin at the nostrils and go up through the nose and become one channel again at the top
of the throat. Within these nostrils of ours the Creator has placed a marvelous network of
receptors. With wonderful instruments scientists have studied the construction of the
human nose with amazement. As odor-carrying air passes through the nose, it is examined by
many extremely sensitive nerve endings inside the membranes of the nose. These nerve
endings are the outposts or sentries of a pair of important nerves called the
"olfactory nerves," which lead to the brain. There are probably as many as
twenty million of these nerves in the pattern, all linked up with the trigeminal nerve,
the largest of the cranial nerves. Whatever is smelled by the nose is passed along on the
olfactory nerves like messages on a telephone wire. When these messages get to that part
of the brain that understands, sorts out, and identifies all the many smells the answer
comes back, revealing that we have smelled a rose or a vegetable stew or whatever else it
may have been. Scientists have estimated that of the multitude of tiny receptors built
into this marvelous system, as little as ten of them with a simple two-way response could
differentiate between literally hundreds or even thousands of odors. It has been asserted
that possibly as many as sixteen million distinct odor patterns can be identified.
The word "aroma"
comes to us from the Greek language. It is derived from the word "airo" which
means to "lift up" or by implication to take up and away. We are told that the
spikenard sends forth the smell thereof (S. of S. 1:12), just as if it had been sent out
on a mission. Such a mission would be vain unless some receptor captured the fragrance and
classified its odor to give it a value. Similarly, we could boldly say that there are many
delightful fragrances emanating from the presence of the Lord, only to lose themselves, so
far as we are concerned, undetected by the defective smelling apparatus of the carnal mind
and smothered in the choking smog of the worldly activity that encompasses us.
The nose means quick of
scent, quick of discernment; able to discern not only good, but also evil. A flat or
disfigured nose indicates, spiritually, one that does not have a sense of discernment by
the Spirit. Of all the virtues needed by God's elect in this treacherous hour, methinks
that discernment is among the serious. Ps. 115:6 tells us that "noses have they, but
they smell not." That's the way it is with people who talk about being overcomers,
manifested sons of God, priests after the order of Melchizedek, and deliverers of
creation, yet they themselves cannot discern soulish things from spiritual realities,
fleshly manifestations from divine operations of the Spirit of God, money-hungry and
kingdom-building preachers from a true prophet of God, or truth from error.
I am often appalled at the
vast number of saints I find across the land who treasure the beautiful hope of sonship to
God, but who at the same time are ignorantly devouring books published by occult
publishing houses, authored by deceivers of the first magnitude who deny the Lord that
bought us, rooted in eastern philosophies, laced with damnable pagan heresies like
reincarnation, science of the mind, white magic, masters of the far east, extra-sensory
perception, psychic phenomena, alpha waves, astral projection, clairvoyance, pyramidology,
so-called metaphysical Christianity, etc. etc. There are many like that today flat nosed
ones, who cannot DISCERN truth from error! I care not how profuse your knowledge or how
abundant your revelations of Kingdom Truth, if you have a flat nose, lacking in keen
spiritual discernment, you are disqualified for the high calling of God's Royal
Priesthood. You stand in need of a mighty healing!
There is placed in every true
Son of God an inward sensitiveness to spiritual things. We are made conscious, by this
sensitiveness, to the spiritual atmosphere about us, of our own relationship to God, of
the tone of meetings, of the spirit of truth or error, and of attitudes and actions that
either exalt the Lord or grieve the Holy Spirit. This faculty is our SPIRITUAL NOSE.
Perhaps its most important function is that which has to do with our personal contact with
God. In this we are made aware of the presence of God and convictions are given to us as
to His will and ways. So little are we taught about this and so little do we understand,
that often we disregard the "still small voice" within. It is soon quenched and
the Holy Spirit is grieved, and this inner sensitiveness is lost. This inner voice is
closely related to our communion with God. If it is lost, we need to repent and earnestly
pray that there may be a restoration of that which is lost.
Likewise, by this inner sense
we are told of the spiritual quality of a ministry, whether prophecy, preaching, teaching,
testimony, prayer, or worship. By this same operation of the spirit within one is made
aware of the motives in ministry. Among the things that are sensed are love, humility,
righteousness, gentleness, dependence on God, or, on the negative side, pride,
self-esteem, envy, strife, carnality, deceit, kingdom building, uncleanness. This inner
spiritual sense is DISCERNMENT. It is a "knowing" not derived from the physical
senses, natural knowledge, observation or suspicion. John Wesley called it "inner
witness"; George Fox called it "inner light." It is a divinely imparted
ability to the senses of the spiritual mind which enables one to perceive the spiritual
states and motives of men, though to the natural man this knowledge may be hidden. There
is also a natural intuition, perception, and cognition that are of the soul, and not of
the Holy Spirit. How necessary it is to walk close to the Lord and take care that we do
not mistake the natural for the spiritual! By a careful guarding against critical,
suspicious, uncharitable attitudes, and a concern for God's glory alone, we will be kept
from error in this realm. Many people have a keen sense of natural discernment by which
they detect conditions, but this is not discerning by the Spirit. As a result they may
think that which is of the natural is of God and be mistaken. Natural discernment fails
when it comes to the great mysteries of the spiritual realm and activity. "The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit," for they are spiritually
discerned.
Some years ago a preacher and
his lovely wife appeared in a Convention we held in
But the brethren received him
with open arms and opened numerous doors for him across the land. They flew him and his
companion to the mission station in
The brethren confronted him
with the truth and he promptly confessed that his whole testimony was a fabrication, a
lie, and his ministry a fraud. When asked why he did it, he replied, "God has raised
me up in this hour TO SEE HOW MANY OF HIS PEOPLE CAN BE DECEIVED!" And when that news
reached me, the Spirit within witnessed, "Amen!" But what an indictment! How
terribly awesome! For out of the thousands of saints and ministries exposed to this fraud,
only one prophet and myself (so far as I know) had discerned him!
Judgment begins at the house
of God. God is setting judgment in the midst of His elect today. We are not playing games.
God is not playing games. Sonship and revelation of the holy mysteries of God are not
playthings for the entertainment of the saints. There are qualifications for every
ministry, and the council is set, the Holy Ghost is closely examining candidates for this
ministry. The qualifying time is NOW. I care not how many wonderful acts of God you can
perform, or how many great visions and deep revelations you have received. It is
impossible for a man or woman devoid of DISCERNMENT to be a priest of the Lord! There are
no flat-nosed priests in the
I shall never forget a
Convention I attended once. It was sad - a monstrous mixture of flesh and spirit, of truth
and error, of the precious and the vile. Assembled was a great host of people, some very
spiritual, others exceedingly fleshly. There were true prophets of God there, and others
who were merely pretenders, prophesying vanities off the top of their heads. There were
profound truths of God ministered, while others consumed the valuable time rambling about
in a multitude of meaningless absurdities. The pastor's wife arose to receive the
offering. She declared that God had revealed to her that there were twelve persons present
who were to give $10.00 each, and seven people who were to give $20.00 each. These she
instructed to bring their offering to the front where she would lay hands upon them and
confer "the apostle's blessing" on the twelve, and "the deacon's
blessing" on the seven. For an hour it dragged on, pleading, coaxing, appealing, and
finally she gave up without getting the entire number.
Deeply grieved in my spirit I
was about to rise, walk to the pulpit, and read the Scripture, " Thy money perish
with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with
money" (Acts 8:20), after which I purposed to walk out of the Convention. At that
instant the Holy Spirit thundered in my spirit, "No, you don't!" I sat still.
Back in the audience a prophetess arose weeping, and began to anointedly prophesy the Word
of the Lord, saying, "Yea, My people, it is time that you learn the difference
between that which is of God and that which is of man. It is time that you know the
difference between that which is of the flesh and that which is of the Spirit. It is time
that you discern the difference between that which is truth and that which is error."
As the Spirit travailed
through this dear sister, my eyes were suddenly opened to behold by the Spirit the wonder
and awesomeness of what the mighty God was doing in that place that day. HE had assembled
His people together from far and near. HE had drawn both the babes and the mature, the
tares and the wheat, the men of God and the pretenders, the fleshly and the spiritual, the
true and the false. HE had set them side by side, the Sons and the bastards, drawing forth
a manifestation from each. And judgment was set in the midst! How terrible! The Lord would
then and there test, try, and prove His people, that it might be known WHO AMONG THEM
COULD DISCERN between flesh and Spirit, light and darkness, and truth and error. Those
able to discern went home justified, prepared to press forward into deeper depths and
higher heights of His glory. But those who could not discern, the flat-nosed ones, were
disqualified, and went their pitiful ways to sink ever deeper and deeper into the
bottomless muck of fleshiness, fruitlessness, delusion, and darkness.
Someone has written,
"Job tells of the one who smells the battle afar off (Job 39:25). You cannot deceive
him about the enemy. The battle does not sneak up on him or catch him unawares. Those who
live in a realm of darkness cannot see where they are going. But we are not the children
of darkness, so that day shall not take us unawares (I Thes. 5:4). There is a ministry in
the land, anointed of God, who have sharp discernment in the things of God. Some are
afraid of any new truths or end-time revelation, knowing that they have no discernment.
They fear that they might be deceived if they launch out past what others have already
determined to be safe. So they have a bland, tasteless, fearful realm of teaching. And
they produce fruit like unto themselves. God help the body of Christ! And He is. There is
a ministry, qualified to feed God's people, because they have the ability to discern
between good and evil, the precious and the vile, truth and error. And they are not afraid
to speak what the Holy Spirit is revealing. Glory to God!" - end quote. And never
forget, dear reader, that the greatest lack of discernment in this great hour is not the
lack of being able to discern the errors that present themselves among God's people, but
the inability to discern the TRUTH! The land is literally filled with a great crop of
flat-nosed priests today who serve up to God's people a garbled mess of foolishness about
getting "raptured" away before tribulation, the sin of Adam being stronger than
the redemption of Christ, spending eternity in heaven playing harps, who they think the
antichrist is going to be, etc. etc. Oh God! give us priests with keen noses!
Beloved soul, you may be
asking, "How can I learn to discern?" The answer is very simple. When the
spiritual scent has been exercised through obedience and communion with the Lord, and
through dwelling in His presence, to discern the odors of HIS OILS and detect HIS
FRAGRANCE afar off, we shall need no other training to prepare us to be quick of scent in
discerning evil and the approach of the adversary. Our spiritual scent is not trained, but
destroyed, by going about and smelling all the evil odors of the flesh and the enemy; for
evil odors appear like pure air to the one who smells them too continuously. When the dead
flies of folly have caused an evil odor in our oils, and we live in the stench of the
flesh (or fleshly religion) until we are accustomed to it, all spiritual discernment is
destroyed. If we would discern the enemy afar off, we must dwell in the holy atmosphere of
our Father, we must abide in close touch with our Beloved, we must ever smell the perfumes
of His graces and attributes and breathe the pure atmosphere of His presence. As we smell
only HIS OILS AND PERFUMES and have them upon us, we shall discern the least approach of
any odor other than His; and this will be a preparation for keen discernment. The presence
of God! Ah, abiding there intimately and continuously is where we learn to distinguish
between the scents!
The least sound of the flesh
is like a harsh clatter upon our spiritual ears if we are dwelling in the stillness of His
presence. If we have been seeking Him with our whole hearts, closing our ears to the world
and to the flesh, we become still enough to hear His voice whenever He speaks; and we
detect the voice of the enemy instantly because it is harsh and rasping. When we have His
fragrance upon us, the approach of flesh is like a vile odor within a sanctuary. Child of
God, have you been asking God to give you discernment? The first step that you must take,
is to be able to discern yourself; for God cannot trust you to discern others until you
can discern yourself. That which prepares you for all discernment, is to draw so near to
God that you will see yourself first of all, then see everybody and everything from His
viewpoint. You must dwell in His presence and smell His odors until you will instantly
detect any strange odor that comes near your life. You must be in such submission to Him,
that you will discern the least uprising within yourself, or any temptation thereto when
it is afar off. You must become so quiet as to your own self-effort and fleshly
activities, that your life is like still waters; and any strange sound will alarm and
arouse you to prayer and watching. No less important is the need to come apart from the
false odors of the harlot, the strange scents of religious Babylon, man-made creeds,
fleshly methods, empty ceremonies, soulish excitement, and fanciful distortions for none
can learn discernment in the harlot's house.
Ray Prinzing penned these
inspired words of edification: "'And God said unto Solomon, Lo! I have done according
to thy word, - lo! I have given unto thee a wise and understanding heart, so that like
thee hath been none before thee, and after thee shall rise up none like thee' (I Kings
3:12, Rotherham). This prayer of Solomon which God so graciously answered, is truly
becoming the prayer of His people in these days. With such confusion everywhere, teachings
that sound true according to the letter of the Word, and yet not witnessing to the Spirit
within us, we find ourselves crying out for the ability to be able to discern and to know
the way wherein we should go.
"But these, as natural
brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they
understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption... sporting themselves
with their own deceivings while they feast with you...for when they speak great swelling
words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness,
those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise them
liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of
the same is he brought into bondage' (II Pet. 2:12-13, 18-19).
"There are so many
things stated in this passage, which the discerning heart is able to see in many of the
religious hucksters of our time. But one phrase especially catches our attention:
'sporting themselves with their own deceivings.' 'Sporting' is the Greek verb ENTRUPHAO -
to live in luxury, to revel in. They deem it their right to live a luxurious life off the
money they get from those whom they lead astray into false doctrine. Their hearts are
trained in covetousness, lust, greed, and their doctrines are for prosperity so that they
might ensnare others - alluring them through the lusts of the flesh also. Like ostriches,
with our heads in the sand, we have refused to acknowledge the open, flagrant
manifestations of the flesh, and then allowed the Spirit to work in us a separation from
such a system.
"For those who are
quickened by the Spirit, there is a quick discernment of that which rules BY FEAR, and
which is not of God. Since this is so common we need not amplify it at length - they
prophesy troubles upon you if you do not give to their work, or attend their many services
every time the door opens, and how the blood of the heathen is upon your hands if you do
not support their program to save them. Surely God's elect are coming to know that is NOT
OF HIM. It is so contrary to the truth HE is causing them to KNOW by the Spirit, that
truth is causing them to discern the utter bondage of man's kingdom building program"
- end quote.
I well remember sitting on
the platform at a large Charismatic meeting in
Oh! what need there is for
spiritual discernment! How our "noses" need to be healed! There is no area where
discernment is more needed in this hour than in the spirit realm. This brings us to the
territory even of familiar spirits. In many of the "deliverance ministries"
which I have been privileged to witness in previous moves of the Spirit, there has been
that true working of the gifts of the Spirit, in a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom, a
discerning of spirits, etc. But there has also been, especially in recent times, that
which was a psychic counterfeit, and even the operation of a familiar spirit. On occasions
when a ministry had revealed many things about an individual, and yet there was no true
deliverance nor victory, I asked the Lord, "Why?" And He revealed so clearly
that it was the work of ANOTHER SPIRIT - it was by a familiar spirit, or a
"family" spirit, a spirit which attaches itself to a family or location, having
much knowledge about those persons, and though many secrets were revealed about the
person's life, there would be no true and lasting deliverance, for only to the Son of God
has power been given to make men free and "if the Son therefore shall make you free,
ye shall be free indeed" (Jn. 8:36). It was an important lesson, and taught some much
needed discernment. "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether
they be of God" (I Jn. 4:1).
I would be remiss if I did
not close this thought by sharing these words of a friend: "The Pharisee in men
judges by the APPEARANCE OF THINGS, and that is fleshly judgment, a carnal forming of
opinions. The Christ in men judges righteous judgment. Well, now, what is righteous
judgment? Whatever it IS, we certainly know what it ISN'T! It ISN'T judging by externals.
'For God,' the Scriptures say, 'looks NOT on the outward appearance, but upon the heart'
(I Sam. 16:7). That is, God does not judge the outer manifestation of a man's life. He
judges the man's HEART INTENT, his ATTITUDES, his MOTIVES. If we cannot see that, by what
standard can we judge? If we cannot see the heart, we have no basis upon which to judge.
If we cannot see the intent, the motivation, the inner thought behind the deed, we have
not a shred of information upon which to base our opinions. None whatsoever!
"That's why Jesus said,
'I judge no man.' Then He turned right around and said, 'But if I do judge, My judgment is
true' (Jn. 8:15-16). Did He contradict Himself? No. What He was saying is this: 'I have
flesh and blood on Me the same as you do. That flesh and blood has a mind of its own. If I
allowed Myself, I could do just what you are doing. I could take the Scriptures and run a
sword through men with fleshly accusations. But I refuse to do that. I refuse to allow the
mind of the flesh to have a voice in My opinions of other men. In My flesh, in My
humanness, in My natural thought, I JUDGE
"Jesus formed opinions
about the Pharisees, did He not? On what basis did He form those opinions? By the
RIGHTEOUS JUDGE that was in Him, by the Word of God that was His inner STATE OF
"In the Hebrew, that
word 'quick' means 'smelling.' He possesses, this Christ of God, SMELLING UNDERSTANDING.
He does not use some concrete set of rules and regulations to judge the cases brought
before Him. He 'SMELLS' out the truth. He 'SNIFFS OUT' righteous judgment. That is, He
DISCERNS the spirit of the thing, the attitude behind it, the motivations that lie deep in
the heart of man. The Christ has no concrete, inflexible 'knowledge of good and evil.' He
is not bound by such rules and regulations, nor does He need to be. He can SMELL the good
regardless of the external appearance in which it is carried. He can also SMELL the bad
regardless of the external appearance it may carry. Christ pays no attention whatever to
external evidence. He smells out the condition of a man's heart, the motivation behind his
acts, the secret intents behind his words and from that and that alone does the Spirit of
the Lord make His judgments.
"Would we be like Him?
Would we be conformed to His image? We must learn to do the same. That means we must,
step-by-step, situation-by-situation, dethrone the Pharisee spirit which judges 'by the
appearance of things' and reinstate the Christ Spirit to the throne of judgment that has
been usurped in us by the carnal mind. The apostle encourages us to develop this spirit of
discernment - this spirit of SMELLING UNDERSTANDING - when he tells us that those who use
milk (the letter of the Word) are unskillful - have no real experience, the Greek says -
in the word of righteousness. But 'strong meat' this man of God says, 'belongeth to them
that are of full age' (Heb.5:14.
"Does that mean that
those who use milk do not have the Spirit of Christ? Not at all. It means that they have
not learned all His ways yet, have not matured into Him yet. We are invited in another
passage to GROW UP into Him who is the head (Eph. 4:15). The kind of discernment about
which I speak belongs to those who are of 'full age'. It is a sign of spiritual maturity,
of the heart-righteousness toward which all who believe are pressing in their walk with
God. Those who are of 'full age' did not learn this discernment overnight. The apostle
makes this fact very clear, for he says that these are those who 'by reason of use (Gk:
habit) have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.'
"These mature ones have
been put through spiritual EXERCISES where they were given the opportunity to learn by
experience to smell out, to discern, what is profitable and unprofitable. The Lord shall
make Him - and those who manifest the fullness of His Spirit - of SMELLING understanding.
Jesus discerned what was not immediately apparent to men in the lives and hearts of the
Pharisees. He SMELLED THE STENCH coming from their spirits, seeping around the walls of
their legalistic morality, drifting through the air behind their Scripture-quoting words.
He smelled the aroma of death. That's why He called them graves, tombs, and whited
sepulchers. Something very dead was lying behind the white-washed walls of their religious
lives.
"Did you ever have a
dead rat somewhere in your house? If you have, you know that you did not need to see it to
know that it was there. Just recently, the White House in
"MEN walked over them
unawares, because MEN judge by the external appearance of things. But Jesus didn't walk
over them unawares. He was very much aware. He SMELLED the unrighteousness of their
hearts. After all, He was the Word of God, and the 'word of God is living and powerful,
sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and
spirit...and IS THE DISCERNER OF THE THOUGHTS AND THE INTENTS OF THE HEART!' (Heb. 4:12).
The true Word of God (which according to Rev. 19:10 is the SPIRIT of prophecy) is a
DISCERNER of what is unseen, a manifestor of what is hidden. It can smell evil hiding
behind good; it can smell good hiding behind what MEN count evil. It can smell hidden
meaning behind words that say the opposite of what they mean and it can discern the
purposes of God behind the efforts of men. It does not judge by the appearance of things.
It judges righteous judgment.
"Judge by the letter and
we prove ourselves carnal, immature in the Lord. Smell by the Spirit, and we prove
ourselves in touch with HIS Spirit. If we don't know how to do it, we need to learn. For I
believe that the Judge Himself is at the door, and as we judge, so shall we be judged - by
God, by life, by men. Let us dethrone the false judge and enthrone the true. Self must die
that Christ may live!" - end quote.
Ah, my friend, you can be a
Christian and have a flat nose. You can be a preacher and have a flat nose. You can speak
in tongues and have a flat nose. You can sing in the Spirit and prophesy and have a flat
nose. You can understand end-time truth and have an intellectual conception of deep
Kingdom mysteries and be flat-nosed. But I do not hesitate to tell you that YOU CAN NEVER
BE A PART OF THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD AND HAVE A FLAT NOSE! To fall short in spiritual
discernment as a priest would mean the destruction of the priesthood. Those elect Sons
destined to deliver and restore all creation must KNOW BY THE SPIRIT what they are doing
at all times, perceive what lies in the hearts of men, discern the motivations and intents
behind all things, judge nothing by the outward appearance, but speak, decree, judge, and
rule by the grace, wisdom, and power of the Lord. Without such discernment how oft would
we curse what God has blessed, and bless what God has cursed! We would soon be "taken
in" by every crafty serpent in the garden and God's Kingdom would again fall into
chaos. Not this time! For thousands of years, through the deserts of testing, the hot
furnaces of affliction, and the lush vineyards of His presence and glory God has prepared
a company, a Royal Priesthood, to lead all men back to God. May His grace be multiplied
unto you to make you a PRIEST unto God!.
Chapter
10
QUALIFICATIONS
FOR PRIESTHOOD
(continued)
In the last three articles of
this series I have written concerning the three primary qualifications for priesthood in
the typical Aaronic order of the Old Testament, namely, birth, freedom from blemish, and
maturity. We have seen that the first requirement was that one must be a son of the High
Priest, the offspring of his priestly nature. The second qualification was that every
priest must be without blemish, free from any kind of disease, deformity, or physical
impairment. The regulations about this are laid down in Lev. 21:16-24. "And the Lord
spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their
generations that hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. For
whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame,
or he that hath a flat nose, or anything superfluous. Or a man that is brokenfooted, or
brokenhanded, or crookbacked, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy,
or scabbed, or hath his stones broken; no man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the
priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire...he shall not go
in unto the veil, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane
not My sanctuaries: for I the Lord do sanctify them."
The book of Leviticus deals
with the old Aaronic priesthood of the natural
SUPERFLUOUS THINGS
A blemish is a FLAW IN
CHARACTER. Webster defines blemish as: Any deformity, physical or moral; flaw;
disfigurement; to mar or disfigure. It speaks to us here of a weakness of character or a
spiritual lack. The fourth blemish which the Holy Spirit has signified as disqualifying
one for the priesthood is having in one's body something "superfluous" (Lev.
21:18). The Hebrew word here is SARA meaning "to prolong, i.e. to be deformed by
excess of members." Many translations render SARA simply as "deformed." But
the deformity here is of a particular kind, not merely a misshapen member, but an EXCESS
OF MEMBERS, a greater quantity than is wanted or needed, something over and above what is
necessary. Some such deformity you will see occasionally is a foot with six toes, a hand
with six fingers, or other growths that don't belong on the body at all. Sometimes you
will see a piece of superfluous flesh growing on a person's face, neck, or some other part
of their body, or hair growing where it is unattractive and uncomely. Superfluous things
are things that are not needed. They are things that are not wanted. They serve no
purpose. They add nothing to the body, and are often ugly and grotesque, detracting not
only from the person's appearance, but from his physical agility as well. So it is with
the ministry of the body of Christ! Early in the history of the Church there arose those
who sought to ADD SOMETHING to the life and work of the Holy Spirit in the body of Christ.
God imparted a beautiful ministry of life, light, and power to His body, but these men
ADDED man-made creeds, laws, regulations, traditions, ordinances, rituals, rites,
ceremonies, holy days, holy orders, methods, techniques, organization, offices, human
talent, personality, programs, vestments, education, theology, etc. etc. None of these
things came by the Holy Ghost, and none have anything whatever to do with what God is
doing by His Spirit. They are a deformity. They are things added by man to the divine
order of God in the body of Christ. They are flesh added to the anointing of God. All
these are superfluous flesh, and contribute nothing to the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
They are ugly, unnatural, and grotesque. They are empty and fruitless. Yet men give their
lives and spend their entire ministry promoting these things. And God just keeps
eliminating the deformed ones from His Royal Priesthood!
Originally the New Testament
Church was filled with truth and reality and spiritual power. The book of Acts gives an
account of those glorious days. Unnumbered multitudes of men and women have experienced a
supernatural encounter with God since that wonderful day 1900 years ago when the first one
hundred and twenty disciples were assembled in
But, alas! the Church had
progressed only a few years into the dispensation of the Spirit when THE FLESH began to
rear its ugly head and men began to add THINGS to the pure flow of HIS LIFE. I do not
believe there is any way to explain, imagine, or understand the many ways THE CARNAL MIND
works. Even before the apostles had passed from this life, a spirit and system had set in
among the saints of the Lord and many people were wearing the Babylonish garment. They
were instituting rules and regulations, formulating creeds, observing days, establishing
sacraments and ordinances, elevating human government, becoming disciples of Paul, of
Apollos, of Cephas, and of many others. The babble had begun and a whole multitude of
SUPERFLUOUS THINGS was making its appearance upon the body of Christ.
Before too many years had
passed men began to set themselves up as "lords" (today it is called
"pastor," "shepherd," etc.) over God's people in place of the Holy
Spirit. Instead of conquering by the power of the Spirit and by truth, men began to add in
THEIR ideas and THEIR methods. Soon the glory and power, the presence of God in the
morning time Church began to be eclipsed, degraded and debased by the idolatrous
inventions of carnal minded men. Consequently, man's carnal understanding was put upon the
Scriptures, and the Word of God took on an ugly, distorted, warped, and bizarre
appearance. The powerful, mighty, glorious manifestation of the indwelling Spirit was
corrupted by endless ritual and ceremonial cleansings and outward observances of feasts,
holy days, communions, robes, shrines, cathedrals, holy orders, seminaries, catechisms,
incense, organization, etc. etc. That which had once been beautiful and glorious became
unsightly, illshapen, deformed, uncomely, disfigured, hideous, monstrous, and loathsome.
As these deformed priests ministered among the people of God the Spirit of Christ fled
from their midst and the pure vision and experience of CHRIST LIVING AND REIGNING IN HIS
BODY was lost to them.
And why was the anointing
lost? Because any man who has a blemish - some superfluous thing - IS DISQUALIFIED TO
MINISTER AS A PRIEST OF GOD! The apostle Paul was getting to be a very old man when he
penned these immortal words: "Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If
any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of
the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the Church;
touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. BUT WHAT THINGS WERE GAIN TO
ME, THOSE I COUNTED LOSS FOR CHRIST. Yea doubtless, and I COUNT ALL (these superfluous)
THINGS BUT LOSS for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I
have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win
Christ" (Phil. 3:4-8).
If any man who ever lived had
natural ability and talent, it was certainly the apostle Paul. From a very young man he
had been brought up at the feet of the learned Gamaliel. There was no article of the law
of Moses that he did not know; and when it came to the keeping of the law, he pronounced
himself blameless. He was an Hebrew of the Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin, a strict
Pharisee, having obeyed all the ritual required by the law. In his zeal for what he
positively knew was right he had zealously persecuted and put to death all who he felt
were opposed to God's way. But for all this his soul was an empty void that could not be
satisfied with form and ceremony, for the heart of man is a golden temple not made with
hands, expressly formed for an habitation of Jesus Christ by the Spirit. But these are not
the things on which he depended nor in which he gloried. In fact, he placed the correct
value upon all those fleshly things, counting them but dung, and amputating them all out
of his life, that he might be the image and expression of CHRIST ALONE. Paul was a great
priest, and he was a man without blemish before God. "And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of
power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of
God" (I Cor. 2:4-5). There were no SUPERFLUOUS THINGS in either Paul's life or his
ministry. He allowed God to operate on him and remove from him every superfluous thing
that he might WIN CHRIST. Ah, anything that is ADDED TO Christ, or the anointing, is
superfluous. Some Christian Jews try to add to Christ the value of their Juiciness. Some
talk about being "completed Jews," what ever that is supposed to mean. I do not
hesitate to tell you that there is no such thing! If ANY MAN (Jew or Gentile) be in
Christ, he is A NEW CREATURE, for "there is NEITHER JEW NOR GREEK...for ye are all
ONE in Christ Jesus" who "hath made both ONE, and hath broken down the middle
wall of partition between us...for to make in Himself of twain ONE NEW MAN." There
are neither converted Gentiles nor completed Jews in the body of Christ, there is only the
ONE NEW MAN, AN ENTIRELY NEW CREATION IN CHRIST JESUS. Any other virtue we may seek to add
to that is a superfluous thing which will disqualify us for the priesthood.
How easy it is to be deformed
in our ministry! The carnal mind loves any kind of a "method" or
"technique" by which to enter into some supposed realm of spirituality. The
natural mind ever seeks for a simple "formula," "seven easy steps" to
a new experience in God, some way to claim the blessing and receive the promise apart from
the sovereign power of HIS TRANSFORMING LIFE! A dear brother once said that if the Holy
Spirit were to be withdrawn from the face of the earth, most of all church activity would
continue on without notice anyway. But God is preparing a people whose spirit is so at ONE
with the Spirit of Christ that they are indistinguishable. He is preparing a company of
Sons to stand in the earth and say as Jesus has said, "I can do nothing of Myself,
but as My Father has taught Me, I speak those things and I do always those things that
please Him."
If all the multiplied
SUPERFLUOUS THINGS employed by the churches today WERE SUDDENLY SWEPT AWAY, it would in
all probability CEASE TO FUNCTION! If all the preachers and priests were compelled to lay
aside their robes and their trappings and stand before the people in ordinary street
clothes, they would lose much of their glamour and most of their prestige. If they had to
tear down their altars, their elevated platforms, their statues, lay aside their
professionalism and showmanship, and throw out the candles and the prayer books, their
services would appear very "lack-luster," losing their sense of beauty and
pageantry. If the churches had to drop all their rituals, forms, programs, and ceremonies;
all their confirmations, baptisms, and communion services; all their special singing,
organ music, and altar calls, they would feel as though they had been stripped naked and
could not serve God in any way. All this simply demonstrates the terrible fact that the
faith and dependence of the churches IS NOT IN GOD, but is in the trappings that they have
accumulated to themselves throughout the centuries. The thought that God is perfectly able
and fully willing to run His Church without the aid of anything in the way of man's
contributions, is found abhorrent to the average church member.
For those walking in the
sunlight of HIS GLORY those things hold nothing anymore, for they are to us as a sixth
finger or a third foot, a deformity, superfluous things! Does it really matter to the Holy
Spirit whether the choir has on robes, whether the windows are of stained glass, or
whether the physical body consumes a bit of bread and wine? Ah - there are a few simple
tests by which any saint of God can try a thing whether it be a true part of the ministry
of the body of Christ, or merely some superfluous thing. Anything one practices in his
spiritual life or ministry which can be eliminated WITHOUT AFFECTING OR DIMINISHING THE
POWER AND OPERATION OF THE INDWELLING SPIRIT - is superfluous. Anything one has
participated in or leaned upon which DOES NOT STAND IN THE POWER OF CHRIST - is
superfluous. Anything that LOSES ITS FORMER PRECIOUSNESS once we enter into more intimate
relationship with the Lord - is superfluous.
There are many superfluous
things that present themselves as we press forward into deeper depths in God. Right here I
could name a dozen different doctrines and practices that are added to this end-time move
of the Spirit of God, but which contribute nothing to what God is doing by His Spirit. Oft
times I have been told that this doctrine or that teaching or some other ordinance or
experience is "the key" to entering into the life of sonship. Most of these did
not come by the Holy Ghost, and do not belong in the body of Christ. They are superfluous.
They are a deformity.
Well do I remember the day
when I was instructed that if only I would be re-baptized by a CERTAIN FORMULA, with just
the right words called over me, the Lord would then be more real to me, my spiritual life
would be greatly blessed and my ministry mightily increased. As the years passed, as I
grew in grace and wisdom and in the knowledge of God I did, indeed, experience the Lord in
deeper measures and my life and ministry were blessed beyond my wildest dreams. But as I
look in retrospect I can plainly see that none of this glorious reality came as the result
of a preacher dunking my frame in a tank of water, however correct the formula may have
been, but because that the eternal Father had, by His infinite grace, called and separated
me from my mother's womb to reveal His Son in me.
On another occasion I was
told that if I would be re-baptized yet again for THE CIRCUMCISION OF THE HEART, the
sin-nature would, by that singular act, be completely eradicated from my life. Another
group wanted to baptize me yet a fourth time for the immortality of the body! These, dear
ones, are subtle deceptions which lead men to believe that because they perform some
EXTERNAL CEREMONY they are thus initiated into a new experience or deeper realm in God. It
is amazing to find how many people are daily deceived by this enthusiastic line of
BLESSING BY RITUAL, PERFECTION BY FORMULA!
It has been my spiritual
observation through many years that those apprehended as Sons of God today have been
baptized many different ways, and some not at all, and GOD HAS PAID NO ATTENTION WHATEVER
TO ANY OF IT. If it were very important to Him He would withhold His blessing until the
condition is met. But He doesn't! He just pours out His presence and revelation and glory
upon those He sovereignly chooses irrespective of how they have been baptized, or whether
they have even been baptized at all! The prophets and great men of God I have been
privileged to know through my lifetime, came from many diverse backgrounds, and I testify
that God raised them up by His sovereign hand and used them mightily REGARDLESS OF HOW
THEY WERE OR WERE NOT BAPTIZED. Yet men traverse land and sea proclaiming that if you want
God to open His heavens to you then you must submit to them to be baptized by their pet
formula. I do not hesitate to tell you that all such doctrines are SUPERFLUOUS THINGS and
disqualify one for the priesthood.
A friend has written:
"There is always another program initiated by some man which will claim to get you
into the fullness of God faster if you go his route. But we are reminded of the word of
the Lord through Isaiah, 'Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice
of His servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? LET HIM TRUST IN THE NAME OF
THE LORD, AND STAY UPON HIS GOD. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass
yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye
have kindled. This shall ye have of Mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow' (Isa.
50:10-11) Others will be very busy kindling their fires - and it does seem betimes that
they have more illumination than we, and are DOING so much more than we, and they have
'sparks' flying every where. But the end result of all their efforts, God says, they shall
lie down in sorrow. They shall be forced to confess, 'We have been in pain, we have as it
were brought forth wind, we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth: neither have
the inhabitants of the world fallen' (Isa. 26:18).
"The preacher came along
waving his torch, assuring the people that there was a new baptism which would place them
into the kingdom, or into immortality, etc. and some people have been baptized in water
for so many things the poor souls are practically waterlogged. Yet for all this they
remain unchanged. Then another comes along teaching for a different experience, you must
feel the fire, and they have hot flashes from their sparks going all over the place. (Let
us make it clear, we know that betimes there is a genuine experience from God, be it of
the fire, or whatever, which He witnesses to some in their natural body, but experiences
of various true gifts and graces are not the ultimate, and they are often turned into
perverted doctrines). So the sincere believer who has never felt the fire, nor been
baptized again and again, is caused to feel that he has missed out, and will never see the
fulfillment of the vision. What a gross distortion of the truth! When God has imparted a
vision, even if we are currently walking in darkness and have no light, LET US TRUST IN
THE NAME OF OUR GOD, AND STAY UPON HIM. HE, and never man, is the AUTHOR and the FINISHER
of our faith. HE is the Fulfiller of the vision. We shall be obedient unto Him - and by
virtue of our faithfulness to Him, prove that we are worthy of this calling" - end
quote.
It is a great fact that God
apprehends and separates and blesses and uses men and imparts the revelation of His plans
and purposes to them entirely APART FROM what day they may or may not keep as the sabbath,
how they define the Godhead, whether they call God Yahweh, Jehovah, or Lord, whether they
are of the Anglo-Saxon or some other race, or what they believe about a great number of
doctrines. The Spirit of God has directed me to stay clear from all these superfluous
issues. I do not like deformities. God does not like deformities. If we expend a great
deal of energy on things which the Lord obviously ignores, then we become deformed. Can we
not see that God imparts of His glory to men on all sides of these issues - paying no
attention to them at all! The one group does not have more Christ-likeness or power with
God than the other. While men debate the correct spelling and pronunciation of the name of
God and Jesus Christ, God just goes right on saving souls, answering prayer, healing the
sick, casting out devils, and doing signs and wonders in the name of Jesus Christ! HE
COMPLETELY IGNORES THE DEBATE. While men pride themselves that they have some spiritual
advantage because they pertain to a certain tribe or race, the Holy Spirit faithfully
reaches out into all the nations of the earth, separating a people unto Himself, imparting
the vision of His purposes, transforming into the image of the Son, and forming them into
a Kingdom of Priests praise His name! "Thou hast redeemed us unto our God by Thy
blood out of EVERY KINDRED, AND TONGUE, AND PEOPLE, AND NATION; and hast made us unto our
God KINGS AND PRIESTS: and we shall reign on the earth" (Rev. 5:9-10).
God's Royal Priesthood is not
contaminated by deforming superfluities. There is a little flock, there is a body of
Christ, neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female, and its
members are scattered abroad and almost invisible to the great religious
In other words, GOD IS
SUFFICIENT for the priests He is raising up in the world of men! Because God is
sufficient, because the Christ within is All-in-all, this priesthood is left entirely free
from all encumbrances to pursue the vision God has given it. Let all who treasure the call
to the Royal Priesthood know that CHRIST WITHIN I-S S-U-F-F-I-C-I-E-N-T! All else is
superfluous, a disqualifying deformity. The truth that is set like a diamond in the pages
of God's Word is the absolute and total SUFFICIENCY of the Christ within. To say that the
Christ Himself is not sufficient for our whole life as Sons of the Most High, that the
indwelling Spirit is not enough, that there is something we must do to add to, supplement,
or improve on what HE IS WITHIN US is an insult to God and an affront to our Lord Jesus
Christ. Yet we see men doing this on every hand. The carnal mind is never able to take God
at His word! It continually seeks to initiate some additional actions or services or
qualifications on the natural plane to supplement pure spiritual reality. It is all a
deformity. It is all superfluous.
Men do not need religion.
They need Christ. They do not need to know creeds. They need to KNOW HIM. They do not need
to perform ritual. They need to EXPERIENCE CHRIST. Tradition can do nothing for them but
cause them to walk in blindness, but Christ is the light of men and the light of the
world, and all who follow HIM will not walk in darkness but have the light of life. Can we
not see that this demands a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD WITHOUT BLEMISH, a people not deformed by
anything superfluous, to show forth His glory and His glory alone, until all men can see
Him as He is.
THE BROKEN FOOT
The fifth blemish which
disqualifies one for the priesthood is a broken foot. This speaks to us of a permanent
injury to one's foot, that is, to his WALK in God. The brokenfooted man cannot walk
strong, he cannot walk straight, and is continually up and down in his walk. You can never
tell where he is going spiritually for his foot is broken, and he leaves deceptive looking
tracks.
Bill Britton has said it
well: "I'm not sure what disadvantage this had in the Levitical priesthood, but it
presents a serious problem today. A man has been injured in the ministry, and now he walks
crooked. He no longer can walk with his brethren. He is disqualified for this spiritual
priesthood. I knew of a radio evangelist who traveled over the nation, and seemed to be
doing well. Until one night he arrived home unexpectedly and found his wife with another
man. From that time on he would not walk straight. He took up with women in about every
city he visited. He used deceptive means to get money from his radio listeners. He had
been injured, he had a broken foot, his walk was crooked, and he was of no more use to God
in the ministry.
"The man with a broken
foot has to walk alone. He cannot keep step with others. He has been injured, and he does
not trust anyone else. Everyone else is wrong somewhere, he alone has the true message. He
will not let anyone get close enough to him to hurt him again. He walks alone. And he is
disqualified for the ministry of feeding God's people. Yes, there are many disqualified
still active today, but they will not be in that body of the Melchizedek order which is
without blemish.
"If you don't stand for
something, you'll fall for anything. What does the man with the broken foot stand for? You
don't really know. One foot points in one direction, and the other foot points in another.
His foundation is weak. He may fall at any time. He may fall for a strange doctrine, or a
pretty girl. You never know if he will still be walking in a straight walk this time next
year or not. For his foundation is weak, and his walk is not straight. He has a broken
foot. We have a lot of 'ninety day-wonders' who have read books, listened to tapes, taken
a three month course in how to be a son of God. They go out like a blaze of fire, ready to
turn the world upside down and win nations to God. And some people wonder why their dear
old pastor can't be like that But follow their trail, look at their footprints, and see
how many of them are brokenfooted. When you see a minister who has walked straight for
many years, fought demonic powers and a multitude of temptations, continued on in the
unfolding revelation of God's end-time purposes, and is still standing tall and solid,
then you know he doesn't have a broken foot. He will feed the people good bread" -
end quote.
Oh, how we need stability in
our walk in God! But stability comes only from intimate relationship and vital union with
God. It means a partaking of God's very own nature. This is the nature of the Christ. The
nature of Christ is the nature of the Spirit that indwelt Him - the Spirit of His Father.
Many millenniums ago the prophet Isaiah uttered one of the most wonderful statements of
truth concerning sonship to God, saying, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because He hath anointed me..." (Isa. 61:1). Turning to the prophecy from which this
quotation is made, we read there in the Hebrew, "The Spirit of the Lord JEHOVAH is on
Me, because JEHOVAH hath anointed Me to proclaim good tidings to the humble." It was
the "Spirit of Jehovah" that was upon Jesus the Head, and it is thus the
"Spirit of Jehovah" which is communicated from the Head to the elect members of
His body.
To properly understand what
is meant by THE SPIRIT OF JEHOVAH, we need to understand the meaning of the name. Jehovah
is the modern English form of the ancient Hebrew word "Yahweh." In the King
James Version of our Bible the Hebrew word "Yahweh" is mistranslated
"LORD" in capital letters. The Hebrew word is correctly translated
"Jehovah" in the American Standard Version and in a number of other modern
translations. Some contend that we should use the name in its Hebrew form, but we do not
speak Hebrew here in the
The thing of importance is
not the spelling or pronunciation of the name. God never gave Himself a name because it
sounded nice. God's purpose in a name is its MEANING! I know many people who feel they
mouth all the correct forms of God's name, but they know absolutely nothing about God's
name, for they have never entered into relationship with Him IN HIS NATURE REVEALED BY HIS
NAME. God's name is His nature. The name Jehovah is derived from the Hebrew verb HAVAH
meaning "to be," or "being." This word is almost exactly like the
Hebrew verb CHAYAH meaning "to live," or "life." One can readily see
the connection between BEING and LIFE. Thus Jehovah means THE SELF-EXISTENT ONE or THE
ETERNAL. He is the One who in Himself embodies essential life, permanent existence,
derived from no source outside Himself, and absolutely dependent upon no other person,
thing, or circumstance for its continuance. Any being whose existence is dependent in any
manner upon another, or upon conditions such as food, light, air, etc., or even upon some
cosmic influence, is not SELF-EXISTENT. This quality inhered originally in Jehovah God
alone, as it is written, "The Father hath life IN HIMSELF" (Jn. 5:26). That
means that His existence is not a derived one, nor a sustained one; not derived from
anything nor dependent upon anything, but inherent and eternal within Himself. The verbs
"to be" and "to live" from which the name Jehovah comes denote both
ESSENTIAL LIFE and a STATE OF
Anything that is absolutely
eternal is not only unending, but is also UNCHANGEABLE. Anything that changes in any way
is not eternal, for in the change some characteristic is left behind and a new one
acquired. In every change something ends and something else begins, at least in form. That
which dwells in an eternal state knows NO CHANGE. Change is possible only in that which is
limited, imperfect, or not fully developed. Jehovah declares of Himself, "I am
Jehovah, I CHANGE NOT" (Mat. 3:6), and the inspired apostle says of Him, "with
Whom there is no VARIABLENESS, neither shadow of turning" (James 1:17). God is never
surprised. God has not learned anything this week, nor last year, no- in the last several
trillion years. If God learned one thing today, it would destroy Him. He would no longer
be the omniscient One knowing the end from the beginning, for known unto Him are all His
works from the creation of the world. God does not experiment. God does not become
stronger, mightier, or increase Himself in any way. God is the omnipotent, omniscient, and
eternal One. He CHANGES NOT. He eternally is all that He is without any decrease or
increase or fluctuation whatsoever. Ah, He is the ETERNAL GOD, JEHOVAH - the SELF-EXISTENT
ONE!
It is a great and blessed
fact that Jehovah is the eternal God. Transition, adjustments, change - these words seem
to be constantly with us, until we fain would grasp for something that seems to be stable,
solid, enduring. Much of the inner drive for change is simple evidence that man is not
satisfied, has not found his completeness in Christ, for "beloved, NOW are we the
children of God, and it doth not yet appear WHAT WE SHALL BE: but we know that when HE
shall appear, we SHALL BE LIKE HIM for we shall see HIM AS HE IS" (I Jn. 3:2). Here
is stability - immutability - the quality of His nature remains the same, HE IS THE
ETERNAL! And this is the nature of which we would be a partaker, the fullness of which we
find in Christ, and through union with Him with which we shall BE CHANGED until we become
changeless in the absoluteness of that which He is. He who is eternal cannot be
influenced, affected, moved, changed, altered, damaged or destroyed in any way. He cannot
grow tired or old. The character of God is eternal, changeless, unaffected. The love, joy,
peace, righteousness and power of God do not rise and fall, rise and fall, rise and fall.
Matters not what happens or what men or devils say or do, the love of God, the nature of
God, the purpose of God, and the power of God are stedfast, unmoved, unquenched,
unaffected, without fluctuation. The eternal existence of God is certain for He is the
source of all life. Death cannot touch Him for He is not dependent upon the sustaining
power of another, He is Jehovah, the SELF EXISTENT ONE.
The origin and meaning of the
name Jehovah are especially brought out in relation to
I AM THAT I AM reveals God as
the UNCHANGING One. And while some have shared interesting insights into the original of
this phrase, the fact remains that in this name Jehovah is saying to Moses and the
children of Israel, "What I am, I ALWAYS am. I have never been anything but what I
am. I never will be anything other than what I am. What I WAS - I AM. What I AM - I SHALL
BE. I am what I am unchangeable, irrevocably, and Invariably! Tell the people of
With these lofty thoughts of
God in our minds our hearts respond with joyful accord when Christ in His wisdom shows
that it is God's intention that he who walks in the blessed realm of sonship should be as
constant and unchanging as is God Himself. To His disciples Jesus spoke these incredible
words: "For as the Father HATH LIFE IN HIMSELF; so hath He given to the SON TO HAVE
LIFE IN HIMSELF" (Jn. 5:25-26). LIFE IN HIMSELF! This is self-existent life, a life
not derived from any source, not dependent upon any sustenance, inherent life! Jesus could
stand and declare, "I AM THE LIFE!" No man before Him could say that. But the
firstborn Son of God could say that.
The exceeding great wonder of
all is that not only did Jesus possess the self-existent life of God, but God has made Him
to be "a life giving Spirit." Truly, "He that hath the Son HATH LIFE"
and "this is the record, that God hath given UNTO US ETERNAL LIFE, and this life is
in His Son" (I Jn. 5:11-12). How plain. If the Spirit of Jehovah dwells in us, He
imparts THE POWER TO COMMENCE ETERNAL, SELF-EXISTENT LIFE within us NOW! True, the life we
have received is not truly eternal yet, for we are still BEING CHANGED. But God's life has
been injected into time to be processed and matured within us into that unchangeableness
which He Himself is, and to the degree this has been wrought in us we are enabled now to
know and express THE INNER STABILITY OF THE CHRIST, praise His name!
Jesus is the altogether
lovely One. When He walked this earth in human form He was altogether unlike anyone who
had ever lived before. He was quite different in so many ways - many that perhaps you have
never thought about. For example: Did you ever notice that Jesus never withdrew a word or
modified a statement in His life? Which of us can say the same? He never apologized for
anything He said. Which of us can make the same claim? There was no misstatement, no
half-truth. Why? What He uttered was truth itself because HE WAS THE INCARNATE TRUTH. Did
you ever notice that Jesus never sought advice? Even Moses the lawgiver had his
counselors; and Solomon, the wisest of them all, had those from whom he sought counsel and
advice. But Jesus had none. In fact, He never went to any school of higher learning. That
which He had received of His Father He gave unto us. Occasionally, someone had the
temerity to offer Him advice which was peremptorily refused on every occasion. Yet, does
not the Bible say that in the multitude of counselors there is wisdom? Yes, when one is as
ignorant as we are, so ignorant that we have no earthly cure for our ignorance, then,
indeed, we need counselors. But Jesus is INCARNATE WISDOM. "Behold, a greater than
Solomon is here," He said (Mat. 12:42). Can you imagine that? Solomon? The wisest man
that ever lived? Jesus very calmly said it in such a way that few people even so much as
raised an eyebrow because from Jesus' lips the words seemed absolutely natural.
Jesus never confessed a sin.
This is absolutely astonishing! It is axiomatic in the spiritual realm that the holiest of
men have been those who were most conscious of their sin and guilt. Job was brought to
absolute desperation when God appeared to him. Isaiah abhorred himself when he saw the
living God and said, "I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips" (Isa. 6:5). Peter said, "Depart from me, for I am a
sinful man" (Lk. 5:8). And Paul said, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of
all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am
chief" (I Tim. 1:15). Jesus confessed no sin for one very simple reason: Unlike
anyone of us He had none. Though tempted in all ways such as we are, He was yet without
sin.
Further, Jesus never troubled
to explain any of His frequent ambiguous conduct. When word was brought to Jesus that
Lazarus, His good friend, was sick, what did He do? Did He rush to his side to help him?
No, He remained right where He was for three days, until Lazarus died. Then belatedly, He
appeared and His appearance evoked from the broken heart of Lazarus' sister these
heart-rending words: "Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother would not have
died" (Jn. 11:21). No explanation. No apology. Not a word! "Said I not unto
thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?" (Jn.
11:40). "Lazarus, come forth!" (Jn. 11:43). He just allowed time and the
unfolding plan of God to justify all that He did. Jesus was asleep in the back of a boat
in the midst of a storm with waves breaking over the railings, filling the ship.
"Master carest Thou not that we perish?" No word of explanation, just the
command, "Peace! Be still!" and the waves ceased their raging.
Jesus never asked and never
permitted prayer for Himself. You may recall the time in
Can you imagine Jesus, on the
road to
My spirit rejoices today in
thankfulness to my Father in heaven that many years ago He let me hear a secret from His
own heart, a secret that few in our generation have understood. When He breathed into my
listening heart, my whole being was charged and my entire life and ministry changed, for I
could never be the same after hearing His words: JESUS IS THE PATTERN SON! I was
thunderstruck by these words because they revealed to my spirit that the purpose of God is
not to save us from hell and take us to heaven, but to bring a vast company of Sons into
vital relationship with the Father, conforming each and every one of them into the same
image of that firstborn Son, TO BE LIKE HIM IN EVERY RESPECT. "For whom He did
foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might
be the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29).
LIKE HIM? CONFORMED TO HIS
IMAGE? ARRIVING AT THE MEASURE OF THE STATURE OF THE FULLNESS OF THE CHRIST? A SON OF GOD?
O our Father! be pleased to open the eyes of Thy children that they may see to what a high
and holy calling Thou hast called them in Thy Son. Ah - if Jesus did not change, then
these Sons must come to the place where they do not change. If Jesus never apologized,
because He never spoke or did anything wrong, the Sons must also come to the place where
they do no wrong. If Jesus received all His wisdom and knowledge from the indwelling
Father, the Sons, too, must receive all wisdom and knowledge from the Father within. If
Jesus did not sin, the Sons must not sin. If Jesus never needed to be encouraged, the Sons
must become so triumphant in His life that they do not need to be encouraged. If Jesus did
not need to be prayed for, or ministered unto, the Sons also must so grow up into Him,
needing not to be continually ministered to, but ministering and pouring out HIS LIFE to
those about. If Jesus always had the victory, the Sons, too, must always have the victory.
If Jesus lived every moment by the life of the Father, then the Sons must also live
victoriously by the life of the Father.
The PATTERN SON. How awesome!
LIKE HIM. What a challenge! What were the strong points of this Pattern Son? He did not
have any...not a one! To have a strong point you must have a weak point and Jesus did not
have any weak points. Other men are noted for some one faculty or talent. Moses was the
meekest of all men. Job was the patient one, but Jesus was altogether lovely in every
way...the meekest, most humble, most patient, most loving, most gracious, most courageous,
firmest, wisest, everything. The incomparable symmetry of the perfections of Jesus Christ.
What a balance He had! And this glorious Personage is not something unique in the
universe, He is the PATTERN by which your life and mine is being designed! He is the
firstborn of an entirely new race of men, the SONS OF THE LIVING GOD. He is the High
Priest of our profession, the Head of a great
How can you identify a Son of
God? How can you pick one out of a crowd of Christians? How can God's Royal Priesthood be
known? I will tell you! They HAVE LIFE IN THEMSELVES! Only one who has life in himself,
only one who is the offspring of Jehovah, the self-existent One, can be an overcomer.
There was One who perfectly walked in this realm and OVERCAME ALL THINGS. Upon Him rested
the fullness of the Spirit of Jehovah, the Spirit of SELF-EXISTENT LIFE. He walked like
Jehovah. There was no broken-footedness about Him.
Let me present this glorious
company of overcomers, the priesthood of God, even those who have life in themselves.
These are they who have discovered the river of life flowing from deep within their own
beings, life full, abundant, and triumphant! They are never discouraged by any situation,
nor upset by any circumstance. They are constant - not "up" one day and
"down" the next. You do not find them standing in anybody's prayer line. They
are always encouraging others, but never needing to be encouraged. They pray for others,
but never have prayer requests of their own. They minister to many, but do not stop to be
ministered to. They are not offended by what others say or do. They are not depressed or
burdened. They are not fearful, worried, or confused. They are not upset or angry with
anyone. They don't quit when the going gets rough. They do not tell you how the old devil
has been fighting them, in fact, they don't talk about the devil at all, for he no longer
exists for these victorious ones! They don't talk about their problems. They are not sad,
sorrowful, or downcast – regardless of how dark things seem. The word of Christ
dwells in them richly. They have been given a new song, even praise unto their God! They
walk daily in wisdom and understanding, in confidence and faith, in the conscious
awareness of the Father's plan and will, they always have the victory, are always
positive, always rejoicing in the Lord. They walk tall and strong. They walk straight.
There are no ups and downs in their walk. They are constant. They press forward toward the
goal, rejoicing in expectation of the glory of God. They are not brokenfooted. They are
without blemish, these priests of God! Ah, you can be a Christian and be brokenfooted, you
can even be a Spirit-filled Christian and have a broken foot. You can teach Sunday School,
pass out tracts, win souls, and do many wonderful works and have a broken foot. BUT YOU
CAN NEVER BE A PRIEST WITH A BROKEN FOOT!
How can one minister bring
deliverance to another if he is bound himself? How can one furnish encouragement if he is
himself discouraged? How can one impart joy when he is sad? How can one supply faith when
he is fearful? How can one lift another when he is himself bogged down in the slough of
despondency? How can peace be bestowed by a soul filled with anguish? How can
righteousness be communicated by one with an evil heart? How can victory be given by the
defeated? How can strength be ministered by the weak? Oh! the world so desperately needs
priests! All creation groans for a people who can manifest and demonstrate IN THEIR STATE
OF BEING the life and love and nature and power of God. My reader! as in the presence of
God, who has said unto you, "Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests," and of
Christ Jesus, who gave Himself that you might apprehend this high calling of God, I charge
you that you do not refuse the call of God's messenger, but enroll yourself among those
who accept it: "Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign
over the earth." Only such a priesthood can restore all back into God again,
delivering creation from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the
children of God. Arise, O Sons of God, let us not sell creation short!
Chapter
11
QUALIFICATIONS
FOR PRIESTHOOD
(continued)
"Speak unto Aaron,
saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him
not approach to offer the bread of his God: for whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish,
he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing
superfluous, or a man that is broken-footed, or brokenhanded, or crookbacked, or a dwarf,
or he that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy or scabbed, or hath his stones broken:
no man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the
offerings of the Lord made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the
bread of his God" (Lev. 21:17-21).
THE BROKEN HAND
As we continue our study in
the blemishes which disqualify one for the priesthood, we come next to the one who is
"broken-handed." The hand always represents the outer actions, service, and
ministry. The hand of the Lord is recognized as being His manifest power and His ministry
in the earth. The hand is the servant of the body. The important jobs, and the most menial
tasks are done by the hands. From clipping one's toenails, to flying the most
sophisticated war-plane, to carrying one's sick neighbor a bowl of soup, the hands are the
servants. So the hand speaks to us of ministry, serving. Jesus said that he who would be
great must be the servant of all. When one has a broken hand, the body is in trouble.
One's work will suffer, for much that needs to be done will not get done. The broken hand
will want to be ministered to, rather than ministering. It feels a need to be pampered and
cared for. To be broken-handed means to minister deceitfully, ungraciously,
inconsistently, or not at all. A broken hand will not be able to wield the sword of the
Spirit properly, and there will be no flow of life to those about. The man or woman who
has nothing to share with others, nothing to impart, who cannot or will not serve the
people, is broken-handed. And he is disqualified to offer the bread of God, to feed the
bread of life, to minister as priests of God unto the creation.
Notice the sublime statement
of the prophet Jeremiah: "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose
hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and spreadeth out her
roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and
shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit"
(Jer. 17:7-8). BLESSED is the man, there is no lack, his supply is sufficient, drawing
from that river of divine life, "O wonderful and bountiful supply." But there is
also an effect of being so blessed, he shall never cease from yielding fruit. There is a
constant blessing brought forth from this life that is being ever so blessed by God. Thus,
by this one, shall others be blessed.
"For even the Son of man
came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for
many" (Mk. 10:45). A great fact is here stated concerning the Son of man. The speaker
is our Lord Himself, who in this, as in all matters, left an example for every son of God,
that we should follow in His steps. The incident that gave rise to His words is a sad one.
Two of His disciples, James and John, wanted to be ministered unto by being granted the
chief places in His glory (Mk. 10:35-37). When the others heard it, they were highly
indignant, for they wanted to be ministered unto by having the chief places themselves.
But out of the ferment the Lord brought forth a word concerning the principles of the
"Jesus called them unto
Him" (Mk. 10:42). Notice the tenderness and pathos here. He had been telling the
twelve about Himself - of the awful betrayal, the cruel sufferings and indignity, the
shameful death that awaited Him at
Ah, Christ Himself was the
greatest among them. He said, "I am in the midst of you as he that serveth." He
was the humblest, and, therefore, the greatest, but had He no authority? He had authority
in heaven and on earth! Because He takes the place of deepest humility, does that strip
Him of His kingly authority? No! It intensifies and magnifies it. "And whosoever
would be first among you shall be your servant." "Bondservant" is the
meaning of the word servant in the original Greek. The man who is to be the greatest
amongst God's kings and priests must be the SLAVE of all. The man who will be the
greatest, the "primes," or first, will be the man who is, as it were, the very
bondservant; willing to serve his brethren and all men as if he were their slave with a
deep and true humility: for Christ's sake. Jesus Christ died the death of a slave. Amongst
the Romans, crucifixion was the death reserved for a bondservant. No Roman citizen could
be crucified, but the slaves were punished in that manner. Christ was the greatest, yet He
took the place of the lowest.
The attitude of God's
apprehended ones ought ever to be that of being a servant, A LOVE SLAVE OF JESUS CHRIST.
And nowhere is there a greater example of this, than in our Lord Himself. He who is the
HIGHEST of the order, above all principalities, powers and dominions, also became the most
servant of servants, as He "made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form
of a servant..." (Phil. 2:7). He revealed, as it had never been revealed, the
blessedness of subjection to our true and heavenly LORD, our Master WHO TRULY SERVES
A-L-L. He sends His rain upon the just and upon the unjust and He causes His sun to shine
upon the righteous and the unrighteous. HE IS KIND TO THE UNGRATEFUL AND THE WICKED -
serving, freely giving. And they who are SONS OF THE HIGHEST will be as their Father, and
as The Son who revealed this true nature of the Father. Though He is calling us to become
a
That is why the Christ today
exercises all authority in heaven and on earth. He now takes the highest place. He is the
greatest. He that would rise to be the highest, Must first come down to be the
lowest, And then ascend to be the highest, By keeping down to be the lowest. It is
only when you really keep down to be the lowest that you can be a power. That is something
to learn. A bondslave is one who serves because he loves. "He that loveth not knoweth
not God; for God is love" (I Jn. 4:8). True love always seeks to serve; this is its
invariable characteristic and chief distinction, and thereby may it always be identified.
The one who seeks to be greatest or whose highest ambition is to RULE, is not yet made
perfect in love; indeed he has scarcely the first rudiments of such a character. Self is a
boss; love is a servant. The service of love makes us most like God and especially so when
in love, you remember also that in thus serving the creature you serve the Creator in the
creature.
It is when we come to this
thought of SERVANTS that there arises a great deal of misunderstanding among the Lord's
people. When we speak of servants, some boast that this calling does not apply to them,
for they are no longer servants, but sons. That is true in the spirit in which Paul argues
in Gal. 4:6-7: "And because ye are sons, God bath sent forth the Spirit of His Son
into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore, THOU ART NO MORE A SERVANT, but a son;
and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."
It is far from the truth,
however, to say that there in no sense in which those who are sons are also servants. Paul
is speaking of OUR RELATIONSHIP TO GOD, THE FATHER. Under the Old Testament the people of
God had not received new birth by the Spirit and so were not, by birth, the children of
God. They were a house of servants (Heb. 3:5). Their relationship TO GOD was that of
servants. They were not sons. They were not related to God in sonship. Now, bless His
name, He has redeemed us from the curse of the law that we might receive placement as
sons, and He has breathed into our believing hearts the Spirit of His Son, the Spirit of
sonship, whereby we cry, "Abba, Father!" This has brought a change in our
relationship to God. Unto Him we are no longer servants, but sons. The sons are God's
kings and priests, and as kings and priests we are not only related to God, but also have
a relationship to men. It is here that we must be very clear in our understanding. Unto
GOD I am a son; but unto MEN I am a servant, serving on behalf of God. I cannot be a
servant TO God, for I am a son. And I cannot be a son TO men, so I must approach unto men
in a relationship through which I can minister to them the life of the Son who abides
within me. The only way by which I may minister Christ unto men is as a SERVANT. To
minister means "to serve," and both minister and servant are a number of times
translated from the same Greek word.
Can a son be a servant? Hear
the words of the Pattern Son! "Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto
(served), but to minister (serve), and to give His life a ransom" (Mat. 20:28). Jesus was a Son to His Father, but He came as a
servant unto men. It is the SON who SERVES! The Son is a servant-Son. The very same Jesus of whom the Father witnessed,
"This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," of Him the Father also
witnessed, "Behold My SERVANT, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth;
I have put My Spirit upon Him: He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles" (Isa.
42:1). Matthew 12:15-21 points out clearly that this SERVANT of the Lord is JESUS. The Son
came as a servant-Son. The beloved John understood this great truth, for the same John who
wrote in I Jn. 3:1, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us,
that we should be called THE SONS OF GOD," later stated, "The revelation of
Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His SERVANTS things that must shortly
come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto HIS SERVANT JOHN" (Rev.
1:1). Paul also understood this truth, for the very same Paul who wrote in Gal. 4:7,
"Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son," also said in Ram. 1:1,
"Paul, a SERVANT of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle." Is Jesus a son or a
servant? Was John a son or a servant? Was Paul a son or a servant? And lest we exalt
ourselves above Paul or John or Jesus, we further find the 144,000 in the book of
Revelation, that glorious company of the sons of God who follow the Lamb on Zion's holy
hill, and of this many-membered body of overcoming sons it is written, "Hurt not the
earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the SERVANTS of our God in
their foreheads" (Rev. 7:3). Ah - the sons are the servants! Not servants UNTO GOD,
by any means, but SONS OF GOD who are SERVANTS UNTO MEN, humble ministers of the grace and the mercy and the love of God.
May the Spirit of God
graciously enlighten the eyes of our understanding that we may see the Mighty Son in the
form of a servant! All had been prepared for the last supper, including even the very
water with which to wash the feet of the guests, according to the custom. But in this
upper room there was no servant to do the work. Each one waits for the other: none of the
twelve considers humbling himself to render even this service. Even as they sat at the
table they were full of other, loftier, thoughts - who should be the greatest in the
Kingdom they were expecting (Lk. 22:2627). Suddenly, Jesus arises, lays aside His
garments, girds Himself with a towel, and begins to wash their feet. O wondrous spectacle!
upon which mighty and powerful angels reverently gazed with adoring wonder. Christ, the
Creator and King of the universe; Christ, the Mighty God and Father of the ages, the
movement of whose hand would summon untold legions of angels ready to serve Him, who might
with one word of love have attracted throngs of loyal followers who would have delighted
to do the work, - Christ Jesus takes the servant's place for His own, takes the soiled
feet of carnal and weary men into His own holy hands, and washes them! "If I then,
your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, YE ALSO ought to wash one another's
feet" (Jn. 13:14). No establishing of a ritual here to be performed in Church upon
men who have already thoroughly washed and deodorized their feet! Rather, the establishing
of the law of the Kingdom - he who would be the greatest, let him be the servant of all.
"I am among you as He that serveth" (Lk. 22:27).
In taking the form of a
servant, Jesus proclaims the divine order of the
A servant counts it no
humiliation, and is not ashamed of being counted inferior: it is his place and work to
serve others. The reason why some who call themselves "SONS" so often have no
desire to bless others is that they think of themselves as superior in rank and blessing.
These are broken-handed, and they shall never reign as priests. If, upon our road to
sonship, we first learn to identify with the creation which we are destined to deliver, to
associate with the lowest of men and the humblest of saints in the blessed spirit of a
servant, what a blessing we shall become to the world! Thus is the Royal Priesthood SENT
FORTH INTO ALL THE EARTH. Try, my beloved brethren, above all to understand that it is
only as a son you can truly be a servant, for only the sons possess that life that can
quicken all things. It was as the Son that Christ took the form of a servant. Walk among
men AS SONS OF THE MOST HIGH GOD. A son of God is in the world only to show forth His
Father's glory, and only as a servant can this life be communicated to the creation.
Sons and servants! Kings and
priests! Can you see the parallel between these two? It is the king that reigns and the
priest that serves. But, like the horse and carriage, and love and marriage, YOU CAN'T
HAVE ONE WITHOUT THE OTHER! It is the priests that
reign (Rev. 20:6). "For Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy
blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our
God KINGS and PRIESTS: and we shall reign over the earth" (Rev. 5:9-10).
You will never be a priest
without the servant-nature. The story is told of a farmer who had just sat down to the
table and prayed: "Oh Lord, bless the poor people in this neighborhood, and feed
them." Very soon after, there was a knock at the door and a poor neighbor came in and
asked the farmer for a bushel of potatoes. The farmer began to make all kinds of excuses.
He had fifty bushels of potatoes, and his little boy said, "Papa, there is a chance
to answer your own prayers." That is the servant nature, and the spirit of
priesthood. So many in this hour want to be sons and kings and priests while living in
their own little world, studying the deep revelations given by the Spirit, singing
beautiful end-time choruses, but never having any practical outworking of the
servant-nature in the nitty-gritty of everyday living where the needs of creation are met.
May the Spirit of God make very real to our hearts the great truth that the person who
does not serve is broken-handed. And there are NO BROKEN-HANDED PRIESTS IN THE KINGDOM OF
GOD! "For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to
give His life" (Mk. 10:45). The sons come for the same purpose.
What a blessing there is in
giving! Even on the natural plane it is a part of the makeup of everyone that they feel
good when giving or helping others. But in many people, and even in some who aspire to be
priests of God, this attribute is never developed into becoming a part of their way of
life and so the opposite takes place. However many wonderful people spend their lives in
giving service to others. When analyzed, the servant-nature is the most prized possession
of the human race. What a joy is the restaurant waitress who gives true service. To be a
real nurse requires this above all else. The secretary in an office can be an inspiration
to everyone through her ability to be of help and support in every situation instead of
merely doing just what is required of her. Then there is the teacher who is vitally
concerned for every member of her class. In such as these is the servant-nature revealed
even on the earthly level. Serving those about you will never of itself make you a priest
of God, but YOU CAN NEVER BE A PRIEST WITHOUT THE SERVANT-NATURE! HE makes us kings and
priests! O God! let the hands be healed quickly, cleanse Thy priesthood from the blemish
of broken-handedness and give us the NATURE OF A SERVANT.
THE HUNCHBACK
The seventh blemish which the
Holy Spirit has signified as disqualifying one for the priesthood is the
"crookbacked" as the Authorized Version states it, or "hunchback" as
most modern translations render. This man does not have a strong, straight backbone. He
suffers from a crippling abnormal concave curvature of the spine which reduces height by
forcing the spinal column into a horizontal bulge, as though it were pulled out of place
by a mighty hand. It is no wonder that "backbone" has come to describe anything
that provides primary stability and support. The spine is, in every sense, the backbone of
the body.
Now we are not talking about
physical disfigurements today, we are dealing with the spiritual meaning of these
deformities. And we are all acquainted with Christians and ministries who do not stand
tall and straight in God, who do not take a stand for the truth as God reveals it, and who
cannot get under the load and bear the burden of the Lord. They have no backbone. They are
weak. They are deformed.
As Bill Britton has
written, "They do not have firm principles for which they stand. 'Wishy-washy' is the
term generally used for them. Eph. 4:14 says they are tossed to and fro, and carried about
with every wind of doctrine. Last year they were chasing after some nice-sounding
doctrine, but today they are going in the opposite direction. Next year they may be
changed again, never standing firm for anything. That does not mean that new revelation
will not come. It does not mean that a preacher who drops old tradition for new truth is
spineless or hunchback. I am talking about those who are tossed to and fro, always jumping
back and forth. This principle is also true concerning our moral lives, as well as our doctrine. The preacher who is up today, down
tomorrow, in and out of sin, and always seeking help and deliverance for his weaknesses is
not fit to feed the bread to God's people. Some
have a backbone like jello, always trembling, and ready to bend any way the pressure is
put on. The man who cannot stand against the
pressure when he knows what is right, should not be teaching the people of God how to live
their lives. He is hunchback" -- end
quote.
Every
man who is coming into the priesthood that God has ordained must stand straight and tall
in the Spirit and in the vision God is giving in this hour, fulfilling the beautiful type
in the Song of Solomon wherein it is stated, "This thy stature is like to a palm
tree" (S. of S. 7:7). The palm tree never
grows earthward, but heavenward. No pressure
nor weight, however great or heavy, that is laid upon the palm tree, can bear it down or
hold it near the earth. It will not be bound
down, neither will it grow crooked; but in spite of all opposition, it keeps its face
looking upward, and pursues its heavenward course. This
characteristic of the palm tree brings deep conviction to our hearts as we remember how
the weights of temptations, testings, and tribulation have many times borne us down. How we have grown earthward because of the
attraction of the flesh and the pull of the spirit of this world. How many times we have bowed down beneath the
pressures and powers the enemy has sent against us. We
blush as we recall how the world, the adversary, our friends, our family, and even our
fellow Christians and the religious systems have fastened weights upon us, so that in the
place of growing straight upward in the purposes of our God, we have bent and bowed and
have become crooked or deformed in some way or place.
But
it shall not be thus with God's Royal Priesthood! No
weight of earth, however heavy, shall be able to hold them down. Though the weight of influence and expediency
should cling to those that will make up the Royal Priesthood, though the fear of man and
the desire to please man should strive to impede their way, none of these weights shall be
able to hold down those who have set their faces steadfastly to go all the way with God,
and to become overcomers to the glory of his Name. Though all hell should strive to turn
these palm trees of God downward, it shall not avail; though every foe and every earthly
friend should conspire together, it shall but make the priests of the Most High keep their
faces more constantly and prayerfully fastened upward.
As these look away from all else to Jesus, they grow heavenward! heavenward!
I
testify to you today that every time I have taken my stand in God as His truth has
unfolded within my spirit, I have become stronger in the Word of the Lord and have been
blessed and made a blessing beyond my wildest expectations.
When the Spirit, many years ago, led me out of the Pentecostal denomination
I was raised in and ordained with, the adversary hissed in my ear that there would be no
open doors for ministry outside of the denomination, and that I would starve to death. But I stood firm in my convictions, resigned my
pastorate, and turned in my credentials, to pursue the HEAVENLY VISION. And God opened doors all across the land, increased
our ministry many fold, and led us in paths of blessing, revelation, and glory. Several times, through the years, I have stood at
that same crossroad, constrained by the Spirit to withdraw from former associations in the
gospel in order to FOLLOW ON TO KNOW THE LORD. Each
time the adversary has been there with the sly suggestion that our ministry would collapse
if we didn't stay within the safety of the beaten path.
Each time he lied. And each time
we gained the victory, hallelujah!
When
we have sent out some controversial message on sonship, the end-time purposes of God, the
kingdom of God, the antichrist, the origin of Satan, the reconciliation of all things, or
against the blinding traditions and static creeds of the harlot church system, I have
counted the cost beforehand, preparing myself to lose half of the people on our mailing
list. And I was quite willing for that, if
that was the price for declaring the whole counsel of God to His apprehended ones. But it never happened! We have never lost more than a dozen people from
the mailing list due to controversy. It would
not have greatly surprised me if many hundreds would have forsaken us when we began to
publish "The Saviour of the World" booklets, but although we have mailed out
many thousands
of these to date, only four negative letters have been received, and two of those were
from the same person! The positive response has been astounding, some weeks it has taken
up to three days to answer the mail as many hundreds of letters have poured in to our
office praising God for the truth of reconciliation with comments like, "God revealed
that truth to me many years ago;" "I have always felt it must be that way, and
now it is so clear; " I haven’t seen this before, but my spirit witnesses with
it;" I was opposed to the teaching, but you leave me no choice - praise God, it's
true!" etc. etc. etc. The tide of God's beautiful truth is sweeping like a mighty
ocean, boundless, fathomless, across the land and around the world. And instead of this
ministry diminishing, we are sending out more messages today than ever before! Ah - when
we are 100% sure that our word is based on the solid rock of God's Word, witnessed beyond
any shadow of doubt in the deepest recesses of our spirit by HIS SPIRIT, and confirmed by
many precious brethren who are walking in the Spirit in humility, holiness, wisdom and
revelation, then we must stand tall and strong with backbones like saw logs, proclaiming
the present truth without fear or favor. The man who cannot stand tall and strong in the
battle should not be teaching the people of God how to walk in the Kingdom. He is
hunchback. And no hunchback can minister as a priest of the Lord!
ENTER THE DWARF
A little baby is born and the
relatives and friends gather around in admiring wonder. "Isn't he precious?" "Look at
those tiny little fingers." "Oh, aren't those ears cute?" "Isn't he adorable?"
And they go their way and time passes. A month goes by. The friends stop by to see the
little child who still is very much like he was before. "My, isn't he cute?"
"I think he is going to be a little one, but he is a darling, isn't he?" Three
months go by and he hardly changes at all. "What are you using in the formula, my dear? Perhaps you really
should talk to your pediatrician." Six months go by. Again, virtually no change and
the smiles are gone. There is no more of the "coochie, coochie, coo." Now there
is a sense of sadness. Something is wrong. After a year, two years, it is plain to all
that this is a dwarf child. There have been those who have endured and by the grace of God
have risen above such experiences, which fortunately in the physical world are not too
frequent.
In the spiritual realm,
however, that which I have described happens all too frequently. One of the tragedies is
that many people who are ten or fifteen or twenty years old in the Lord and who have grown
but little beyond a babe, do not even recognize their dwarfish nature. And their pastors
and denominations don't recognize it, either!
In the natural there are many
little people who are very fine men and women, normal in every way except for the size of
their body. But under Old Testament economy they could not have qualified for priesthood
because they could not reach up to the altar's height. Their low stature impeded their
ability to function normally in various of the priestly duties. Near the base of the skull
is the pituitary gland, sometimes called the master gland because it not only sends
messages to bones and other tissues but controls other glands to some extent as well. The
pituitary secretes a growth hormone, without which calcium, phosphorus and other elements
could never unite to form bone. If the pituitary secretes too little growth hormone, it
can produce a dwarf. Today there is a spiritual meaning. We see those who have none of the
other blemishes mentioned. But there is a lack somewhere in their spiritual life. And this
lack prevents them from ever growing up into the full measure of the stature of the Son of
God. These dwarfs have many other fine qualities. They love God, and are sincere and
zealous in their Christian life. They attend Church regularly, and are active in its
various programs. But the faith, wisdom, revelation, victory, love, and power of God never
mature in their lives. They know nothing of deeper revelation and God's ultimate intention
is foreign to them. They fall short of going on to perfection and being conformed to the
image of the Son. They never really get the complete victory over the world, the flesh,
and the devil. Most remain shackled in chains of tradition in some denominational or
religious system.. They may even read articles and books on the deeper truths of sonship and the
There are certain evidences
of whether or not we are growing up into the measure of the stature of the fullness of the
Christ. If we are growing, one of the fruits will be graciousness, the becoming like Him
who is the all-gracious, all-loving God, having an unselfish concern for the needs of
others, and an undying love for all God's creation. If you are judgmental in your spirit,
breathing out fire and damnation against men for whom Christ died; if the teaching of the
reconciliation of all men to God troubles you because you are afraid that somebody might
not get every thing they deserve, then forget about the Royal Priesthood - its not for
you! Another sign is strength. Another is faith. Another one is stability. The active
ingredient in stability is trust. Do you trust God for the things of this life, natural
and spiritual? You can tell by whether or not you fuss and fume and fret and worry and
have anxiety. All of these are big signs that go up and say, "YOU DO NOT TRUST
COD." A true son will trust the Father in A-L-L things! What a wonderful thing it is
to see that you are growing in grace when you thank God for the terrible things that
happen; for the problems, for the setbacks, for the difficult things, in the blessed
knowledge that ALL THINGS DO INDEED ALWAYS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD TO THE SONS OF GOD. Do
you do that? Many people, because they do not really TRUST God, find that their lives are
falling apart because they have not developed those qualities of character, those
beauteous characteristics of the Christ that create the image of God in us. Ah, you can
fall short of this full stature of Christ and still be a Christian. You can come short of
the fullness of God's glory and still speak in tongues, prophesy, testify, and do many
wonderful works. but never forget, precious
friend of mine, that you cannot come up short of the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ and be a priest! Some people are larger than others in their spiritual
development, but it is the deformity of being a dwarf that causes God to set a man aside from the Royal Priesthood.
A BLEMISH IN THE EYE
The word "blemish"
used in connection with the eyes is from the Hebrew CALLUS denoting a disease of the eyes,
namely, cataracts. Cataracts have obscured the vision of more people throughout the ages
than any other affliction of the eye. Beginning as minute
cloudy spots in the lens of the eye, cataracts eventually pervade the whole lens,
turning it a milky yellow white, scattering incoming light and blocking vision. People
with cataracts see the world as if they
were looking through a waterfall, the reason ancient Greeks gave the disease its
name.
The eye is the figure of
knowledge and understanding. The apostle Paul penned these meaningful words: "That
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of
wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: the
EYES OF YOUR UNDERSTANDING being enlightened; that ye may KNOW what is the hope of
His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints" (Eph.
1:17-18). The man with cataracts has eyes to see, but he has something in his eyes which
causes them to lose focus and perspective so that the vision is blurred. A blemish in the
eye bespeaks of an IMPAIRED VISION, some block hindering the viewing of the full truth and
reality of God. The man with a blemish in his eye is disqualified to be a priest as the prophet has said: "My
people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge,
I will also reject thee, that THOU SHALT BE NO
PRIEST TO ME: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God" (Hos. 4:6).
The phrase, "the eyes of
your understanding," reveals that spiritual sight or spiritual understanding is an
ability and faculty of the mind. Without mind there can be no understanding. A man's
understanding corresponds precisely to the condition, development or quality of his mind.
Every created life form possesses mind and the understanding of the creature is limited by
the quality of its mind. Quality of mind is, basically, an inherited characteristic. For
instance, a cat thinks like a cat, knows as a cat, understands as a cat and acts like a
cat because it was BORN a cat - therefore possessing the brain and mind of a cat. Through
the years we have had cats in our home. I have noticed that the cat will come and sit in
the living room while I watch the evening television news. While I am very interested in
the news, the cat has positively no interest all! He couldn't care less what is happening
in Central America, the Middle East or the
Likewise, God is of a
different and higher order of life and nature than are humans. The mind of man functions
on the level of human nature, whereas the mind of God functions on the level of the divine
nature. There is no common ground of knowledge or understanding between the two.
Therefore, the natural man is totally incapable of comprehending that which pertains to
the realm of God. For natural minds to comprehend things spiritual is equally as
impossible as for cats to comprehend things human. And so, until men receive of GOD'S
SPIRIT - the Spirit that KNOWS and UNDERSTANDS on the GOD LEVEL - it is impossible for
them to have any understanding either of God, of His Word, or His ways. With what truth
did Paul write to the Corinthians: "For who could really understand a man's inmost
thoughts except the spirit of man himself? How much less could anyone understand the
thoughts of God except the very Spirit of God? We have now received not the spirit of the
world, but the Spirit of God Himself, so that we can UNDERSTAND something of God's
generosity towards us" (I Cor. 2:11-12, Moffat).
And then after men receive
God, the depth of their knowledge and understanding is wholly in proportion to the measure
of the indwelling Spirit. Of the Pattern Son it is written, "In Him dwelleth ALL THE
FULLNESS of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9). Jesus did not receive the Spirit by
measure as do we (Jn. 3:34). He has A-L-L the fullness of God. And therefore He has all
the discernment and understanding of heaven! But we faltering mortals cannot claim in
fullness what Christ possessed until we stand upon
We will never, in this age,
be fully able to comprehend the boundless power of the mind of man. The natural mind,
though it understands not the things of the Spirit, is capable of astonishing wonders. All
the marvelous inventions of the world have proceeded from the mind of man, yet that
natural mind RECEIVES NOT any of the things of God. As heaven is higher than the earth, so
are God's ways higher than man's, and God's thoughts higher than man's. The man who
receives of God's life is renewed in the SPIRIT OF HIS MIND, that is, he takes on a new
mind originating in the new spirit-life, so that he thinks and acts as an entirely new
creation, a new man, a new kind of creature. If he follows on to know the Lord he will
find that his darkened mind will completely give way to this new creation mind which is
the MIND OF JESUS CHRIST. Paul wrote, "Let this mind be in you which was also in
Christ Jesus." The mind that was in Jesus was the Father's mind. Because He was fully
possessed of His Father's mind, He was able to say, "I and the Father are one."
The mind that was in Christ Jesus is freely offered to every man who believes on His name
that he might be ONE WITH CHRIST and ONE WITH THE FATHER. Let us never forget that in
those glorious ages to come it will be the mind of our heavenly Father that will rule the
universe. The Father has decreed that He will rule the universe by HIM whom He has chosen,
and those sons, the many-membered Son, every one, will be possessed with the Father's
mind. God the Father has given His mind to His Son, Jesus Christ, and He in turn has given
that same mind to us. As the hands and the feet of a healthy body act in harmony with the
head, so every member among the sons of God acts in harmony with the Head, even Jesus,
because ONE MIND DWELLS IN THEM ALL. Hallelujah!
Learn this, O man, and you
will know a great truth: Darkness is IGNORANCE. To be in darkness means to be in
ignorance. To be blind means to be in ignorance. To have the vision obscured and fuzzy
means to be in partial ignorance. To have a blemish in the eye means to have one's
spiritual vision impaired by partial SPIRITUAL IGNORANCE. Ignorance is a condition of the
MIND, in which the mind lacks knowledge and understanding. Paul tells us in Eph. 4:17-18
that men have their "understanding darkened" because of the
"ignorance" that is in them!
True, the light of the Christ
has now shined into our hearts, yet I am confident that none of us have yet, at this
present time, experienced the fullness of that light. When we were first saved just enough
light shone in to reveal Jesus to us as Saviour. We joyfully embraced the glory revealed
in that light, but what a great darkness prevailed even yet in so many areas of our lives!
The pen of inspiration wrote, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto
ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day
dawn, and THE DAY STAR ARISE IN YOUR HEARTS" (II Pet. 1:19). God has shined into our
hearts (II Cor. 4:6) but now the DAY STAR MUST ARISE in our hearts as the brightness of
the noon-time sun, dispelling all darkness and driving away all shadows. But how many of
the Lord's people are satisfied with that initial shining which brings the dawn of their
spiritual experience but never FOLLOW ON to know the full arising of the Sun of
Righteousness who would flood their whole being with the majesty of the glory of the Lord.
All the carnal church systems which hold men in such horrible darkness were built by men
who received just a little light from God, and then out of the overshrouding gloom of
darkness yet untouched in their carnal hearts they proceeded to build upon the foundation
of Christ every kind of grotesque structure of tradition, error, fleshiness, great
towering edifices of hay, wood, and stubble in which the Lord's people grope about as
blind men.
Let us not forget that
UNDERSTANDING is the KEY to everything in God! Faith comes by UNDERSTANDING the will of
God. This is why Paul wrote: "Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit
in malice be ye children, but in UNDERSTANDING be men" (
Faith comes by UNDERSTANDING.
How many of my readers were saved BEFORE you came to UNDERSTAND that you were dead in
trespasses and in sins, but that Jesus died to give you life? Was it not when we came to
UNDERSTAND the Gospel that faith was evoked in our hearts unto salvation? Show me a man
who doesn't UNDERSTAND that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord
and I will show you a man who isn't saved. Show me a man who doesn't UNDERSTAND that God
has provided a glorious baptism in the Holy Spirit and I will show you a man who has not
been filled with the Spirit. Show me a man who doesn't UNDERSTAND that Jesus Christ is the
Great Physician and I will show you a man sitting in the doctor's office with no hope of
recovery beyond the skill of the surgeon's knife. Show me a man who doesn't UNDERSTAND
that saints are supposed to GO ON TO PERFECTION and I will show you a carnal Christian who
is experiencing nothing of the deep processings of God that produce perfection. Show me a
man who doesn't UNDERSTAND that the hope of all creation is the MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS
OF GOD and I will show you a man who is still waiting to be whisked away to some far-off
heaven somewhere to strum a harp but who knows absolutely nothing about the deep and vital
dealings of God which conform men into the image of Jesus Christ. The degree of our faith
is always proportionate to the degree of our UNDERSTANDING. Our spiritual understanding
always corresponds to the amount of LIGHT and TRUTH that has illuminated our hearts by the
Holy Spirit. We will be filled with light (understanding) to the same degree that our new
creation MIND has been developed.
Have you ever prayed that God
would OPEN THE EYES OF YOUR UNDERSTANDING that you might know what is the hope of His
calling and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints? Ah, how
much better this would be than to seek the passing vanities of this present world to the
detriment of your devotion to God; and how much more grand and glorious is the hope of
sonship and the deliverance of all creation in those wonderful ages yet to come, than the
cheap tinsel of tradition's mansion over the hilltop. Walk no longer in the VANITY of your
mind, HAVING THE UNDERSTANDING DARKENED, while alienating yourself from the life of God
through ignorance. Never spend your days seeking the things of this carnal life, for they
make themselves wings and fly away, never to yield any eternal reward.
We are further exhorted: 'Be
not children in understanding; howbeit in malice be ye children, but in UNDERSTANDING be
men" (I Cor. 14:20). I greatly fear that for long centuries the Lord's people have
been men in malice and children in understanding! The pages of church history show that
from time immemorial the church has been a vast feuding ground of malice, envy,
bitterness, strife, full of pettiness, peevishness, whisperings, debate, deceit,
backbiting, and evil speaking: men in malice and children in understanding! "Trust in
the Lord with all shine heart and LEAN NOT UNTO THY OWN UNDERSTANDING," saith the
Lord (Prov. 3:5). Yet how often God's people are found leaning to their own understanding
and generally their own understanding is nothing more than the faulty understanding of
other men whose traditions, interpretations, and deductions the have accepted. Human
understanding is so terribly limited! It is limited because human understanding contains
absolutely nothing of GOD'S UNDERSTANDING and is, therefore, as faulty as is the nature of
man. Just as the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom so THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY
I-S U-N-D-E-R-S-T-A-N-D-I-N-G (Prov. 9:10). Understanding will never be yours by following
the traditions of the dead church systems, for they know nothing of the things of the
Spirit. All their traditions are cataracts in the eyes of the people, disqualifying them
for the priesthood of God.
It has always, from the very
beginning, been Satan's policy to misrepresent the truth, to distort and carnalize the
Word of God, in order to hinder mankind from seeing the beauty and majesty of God's
purpose of the ages. The more absurdities the enemy can get interwoven into man's
doctrines and concepts respecting God, the Church, eternity, the destiny of man, etc. the
better he will succeed in separating men from God. Thus for centuries the great adversary
has been working most successfully and has covered and hidden some of the most precious
and wonderful truths under the most specious and repulsive errors, and the progress of the
saints has been correspondingly slow.
Even in this end-time move of
God there are many preachers who have serious blemishes in their eyes and they confuse a
lot of people with strange and distorted teachings. They think they have divine
revelation, and because they see SOMETHING deeper in God they are hard to convince that
they are in error, and need help. The real truths of sonship, reconciliation, and the
Chapter
12
QUALIFICATIONS
FOR PRIESTHOOD
(continued)
"Speak unto Aaron,
saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations that hath any blemish, let him
not approach to offer the bread of his God: for whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish,
he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing
superfluous, or a man that is broken-footed, or broken-handed, or crookbacked, or a dwarf,
or he that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy or scabbed, or hath his stones broken:
no man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the
offerings of the Lord made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the
bread of his God" (Lev. 21:17-21).
SCURVY
The tenth blemish which the
Holy Spirit has signified as disqualifying one for the priesthood is "scurvy."
Scurvy is a sickness that is caused by not eating an important food element called Vitamin
C. Vitamin C is found in fruits, especially oranges, lemons, and grapefruits, and in
vegetables. Persons who do not eat these foods may get swollen, infected gums, and their
teeth may become loose and even fall out. In children, scurvy may cause the bones to grow
crooked. Scurvy is especially dangerous to babies. It makes them have loose bowels and
fever, and lose weight. It can also cause loss of blood by internal bleeding. Sailors in
olden days often had this problem, not being able to get fresh fruit or vegetables. They
had to eat a lot of canned food and salted meat. After months at sea, fresh fruit,
vegetables, and meat to form a balanced diet was hard to get. Scurvy is quickly cured when
the sick person is given the missing Vitamin C.
Today we see vast multitudes
of Christians who have spiritual scurvy because they are fed a constant diet of canned
sermons and dead letter-of-the-Word salted down meat. Scurvy is the result of an
insufficient, unbalanced diet, the outward manifestation of an inward lack. When men or
women are sick in body or mind, there is always some simple underlying cause for their
illness, and, when that is discovered and the problem corrected, health and life will flow
into the body as waters flow when an obstruction is removed. Most doctors today merely
treat symptoms but remove the cause of the sickness and the body is well. The human body
is the most marvelous mechanism of all God's wonderful creation on earth. The body of man
embodies, as an essential element of its nature, a conservative or healing power, which
is, under all conditions and circumstances of life, in ceaseless, though silent operation,
preserving in a perfect manner the vitality of the organism and withstanding and
neutralizing to a very great extent, all of those powers which operate to weaken and
destroy it. So efficient and powerful are its conservative and reparative powers that it
takes great and long continued abuse of the sound organism to produce serious disease in
it. The normal and regular tendency of the body toward health is a very powerful one, so
powerful indeed, that the great majority of people succeed in maintaining a tolerable
degree of health most of the time in spite of their repeated sins against health and life.
The body is self-correcting and self-healing. Give the body a prolonged rest (fast) and it
will perform a general house cleaning. It will
expel accumulated toxic wastes and morbid matter built up from years of consuming
harmful and destructive foods, chemicals, and other substances. It will free burdened
organs so they can function normally again. The body heals itself when the causes of its
problems are removed. Treat the symptoms and the malady remains.
Countless thousands are at
this minute facing a painful death from lung cancer because they insist on filling
their lungs with tobacco smoke. They need neither medicine nor operation; all they need to
do is discard the unholy cause of their illness. Long centuries ago the glorious Lord gave
His people Israel a set of physical health rules, and with them He also gave a set of
spiritual laws, telling them plainly that, if they observed those things, they would
endure none of the diseases of the Egyptians (Deut. 7:15). So true and faithful was His
word that King David, exulting later in the wonder of God's faithfulness, said, "He
brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among
their tribes" (Ps. 105:37).
As one has written,
"When our minds grasp the significant fact that two million, five hundred thousand
men, women, and children wandered in that burning wilderness for forty years without a
doctor, a hospital, an ambulance, a stretcher, a pharmacy, an aspirin, or even a crutch,
then we can better understand how meaningful is obedience and faithfulness to God's
command, and necessary it is to discover the root of all our trouble and remove it out of
the way as a man would dig up and remove from his pathway a stumbling stone that often had
hurt his feet and distressed him by many a fall" - end quote.
It is not my purpose here to
deal with physical diseases or divine healing, but if by God's grace He will open our eyes
to see that all sickness and disease is the result of either an inward lack or abuse, then
we shall see the path of life and our spiritual health and growth in Christ, our progress
in wisdom and understanding, in grace and glory and in righteousness and power will be
multiplied exceedingly. And now I will venture to say that stagnation and spiritual
disease have overtaken millions of Christians because, whether they realize it or not,
they have been fed a steady diet of JUNK FOOD! Their spiritual gums are swollen, their
spiritual teeth are falling out, their spiritual bones have grown crooked so that they are
deformed and dwarfed in spiritual stature, they are weak and pale and dizzy and itchy
because their spiritual diet is unbalanced and insufficient. They have scurvy. AND NO MAN
WITH SCURVY CAN MINISTER AS A PRIEST OF THE MOST HIGH GOD. He is disqualified.
In the Churches today you
hear the constant drum-beat that Christians are saved to go to a blissful heaven and,
failing that, men are doomed to the torment of a blistering hell. One would think, from
all the preaching, that the two primary themes running through the Word of God are heaven
and hell. Not so! You will have to tear the Bible all to pieces and re-write literally
thousands of passages if you say that the great themes of God's blessed Book are heaven
and hell. The truth is that God is not primarily concerned with where we are going, but He
is vitally and eternally concerned about WHAT WE ARE BECOMING. Man does not need to be
saved mainly because he is going to hell; he needs to be saved because of his awful,
hopeless CONDITION. It is man's STATE OF BEING that is wrong, he is DEAD, the Scripture
says; a Christless death in which he is dead to God, dead to Christ, dead to virtue, dead
to truth, dead to purity, dead to righteousness, dead to peace, dead to joy, dead to
reality, dead to promise, dead to hope. DEAD! He abides in this death throughout all the
decades, centuries, or millenniums of his existence until Christ comes into his heart,
making him alive, and beginning the long and tedious process of growing him up into the
image of Him who created him.
If saving men from hell is
God's primary concern then we must make the Bible say that, if that is what God meant. We
must make the Bible say, "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree
of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely be
HEADED STRAIGHT FOR HELL" (Gen. 2:16-17). We must correct the Word of God so that it
says, "The soul that sinneth, it shall surely be TORMENTED IN HELL" (Eze. 18:4).
Jn. 3:16 must be made to correctly read, "For God so loved the world, that He gave
His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not GO TO HELL, but GO TO
HEAVEN." If going to hell is the main concern for the sinner then Rom. 5:12 must be
made to say, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and hell by sin;
and so the torment of hell passed upon all men, for that all have sinned."
On the other hand, if some
far-off heaven of golden streets and magnificent mansions is the goal and reward of the
Christian life, then we must re-write the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. We must make
the Bible say, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what
we shall be: but we know that when He shall appear, we shall GO WITH HIM TO HEAVEN"
(I Jn. 3:2). But is that what it says? Nay! "We know that when He shall appear, we
shall BE LIKE HIM!" It is not talking about going to a place, it bespeaks of a
CONDITION or STATE OF
What purpose would there be
if the heaven men preach is naught but a resting place, a celestial Disney-World of
thrills and shouting and strumming harps, of swimming in celestial waters and lazing about
in a palace with nothing to do and all eternity to do it in; and what purpose if the hell
they declare is but a place of torment where unbelievers have nothing to do but scream and
blaspheme and suffer excruciating torments eternally? To me it is no great wonder that
Christians become spiritually weak, anemic, diseased, and apathetic, and the world is full
of backsliders and unbelievers on such a pitiful diet as that!
Scurvy! It comes from an
unbalanced and insufficient diet, a lack of something vital to health and well-being. A
preacher who has no balanced diet for the saints he feeds disqualifies himself from
feeding the bread of God, from serving as a priest. And any saint who eats that unbalanced
diet is disqualified for the Royal Priesthood. He will never in a million years share in
the Melchizedekian Priesthood. How we praise God for the tremendous revelation coming
forth in these last days, how our hearts are enraptured by the wonderful truths now being
revealed by the Holy Ghost! How bountifully the table has been spread with His presence,
with divers gifts of the Holy Spirit, with truth and revelation, with the gracious
unfolding and unveiling of the deep mysteries of the
But the practice of trying to
come up with some profound revelation EVERY TIME one ministers, instead of giving some
good solid balanced teaching ALONG WITH deep truth, can also cause the people to have
spiritual scurvy. Such a one is disqualified to minister the bread of God. I have been in
meetings where all the ministers were competing to see how far each one could top the
far-out revelation of the one preceding him. True ministry will provide a balanced diet.
Good foundational teaching and inspirational preaching should not prevent the people from
hearing new truths and eating liberal portions of the strong meat of the Word. Many
preachers and teachers shy away from strong revelation teaching for fear of "not
having good balance." But these are among the most UNBALANCED and end up with their
own particular brand of scurvy, causing multitudes of hungry saints to be weak and sickly
from being fed their weak, watered-down, over-cooked, warmed-over, half-spoiled, so-called
"balanced message." UGH! What more can I say?
Lest there be many who would
imagine me to be cynical, we will leave the negative way of looking at things while
together we go to explore the ineffable glory of the feast now prepared for the sons of
God. And this feast, being the last, the feast of tabernacles will bring perfection and
will give strength to the laborers to go forth and accomplish great and mighty things for
the Master. As we leave this feast in great strength, those who will be in control of this
planet from that time forth will be abiding in the fullness of Resurrection Life and will
be free from the curse. It is impossible to corrupt one who is incorruptible by nature. So
apostasy and shame shall have had its day and never shall it raise its ugly head in God's
perfected body anymore! These mighty sons of God, the king-priests of the Most High,
terrible as an army with banners, shall march forth with one purpose only, that the Father
may be glorified, revealed, and manifested to creation in all His glorious fullness,
bringing a life-flow unto all the peoples of the earth, reconciling all into God, bringing
an end to sin, sickness, sorrow and death throughout all realms for evermore, praise HIS
wonderful name!
If you would be free from
scurvy, if you would be a priest after the order of Melchizedek, if you would offer the
eternal, living bread of God to benighted creation, then take the shoes from off your
feet, bow low in humility and holy brokenness before the High Priest of your profession;
come, and hear His tender voice entreating, "If ANY MAN hear My voice and open the
door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with Me" (Rev. 3:20). Precious
Lord! how oft have we heard Thee knocking at the doors of our hearts; not only when we
were sinners, but after we had tasted and knew that the Lord was good, and had proved
Thine infinite love. How often have we heard Thy tender voice beseeching us to open to
Thee that Thou mightest sup with us, that we might sit at Thy table and sup with Thee. How
often have we chosen the flesh pots of our own desires, and the companionship of others;
when, if we had hearkened and opened unto Thee, we might have sat at Thy table and feasted
with Thee!
"Thou preparest a table
before me in the presence of mine enemies...my cup runneth over, " sang the sweet
singer of Israel, and it is only when we hasten forward toward the sound of His voice,
casting all else aside in our eager desire for Him and Him alone, that our souls are
thrilled with unimaginable prospect, our spirits lay hold of the eternal promises and
joyfully we strip off every weight that with patience, endurance, and faithfulness we may
run the race that is set before us. Jesus Christ, the eldest and tallest brother in our
family, is the author and finisher of that faith which turns our eyes to the "Mt.
Everest" of our hope, which hope "we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure
and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for
us entered, even Jesus, made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek"
(Heb. 6:19-20).
The man who will pause long
enough from his activity to become gripped by the force and eternal significance of these
ten words: YE SHALL BE UNTO ME A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS, will find a table spread before him,
and will see the Captain of his salvation sitting at His table; he will find himself
sitting with Him in sweet fellowship and communion, partaking of the rich wisdom and
knowledge and glory and power which grace His table. Why don't you take off the rest of
the hour, or perhaps the rest of the day, just to let the Holy Spirit fill your mind with
the wonderful significance and the everlasting importance of what it means to be a PRIEST
of God? He does not come to sit with you at your table, but He invites you to come to HIS
table: He invites you to listen to HIS voice and follow and obey it until you find the
table of continual communion and close fellowship where are spread the delectable bounties
which will make you strong and whole and tall in the priesthood of God. He sets before you
hidden manna; He has spread a table of heavenly bread which will give you vibrant health
and supernatural strength to overcome all things and be conformed into the image of the
Son. He opens fountains of living water; He brings the soul to rest beside cool, still
streams; your cup will overflow with bounteous rivers of His lovingkindness and
grace.
There is one point we must
not overlook if we would find this table of hidden manna, if we would feed upon the bread
of life and drink deeply of the water of life, if we would be strengthened by doing the
will of God. In order to enter into this
close relation to the Lord and all it brings, we
must sit at the KING'S table, as the Shulamite says in the Song of Solomon. Only
when HE IS KING of our lives can we enter into these privileges and experiences. Only when
He is enthroned within in His kingly and priestly nature,
can we qualify for the heavenly calling. We cannot be king of our own lives, or
make some preacher, or so-called shepherd, or harlot church system king over us, and expect He will reveal to us His secrets, or take us into His confidence, or share with us His throne.
If Christ were sitting upon the throne of our lives continually, we would be sitting at
His table continually! There is no scurvy among those who sit with Him at HIS table. Those
who eat from His table get the right balanced diet and are able to serve at His altar. All who eat from MAN'S TABLE
get scurvy and are disqualified for the
priesthood.
Did you ever meditate upon
it, and ask God that you might apprehend and enter into the real meaning and experience of
desiring and feeding upon the eternal, living bread of God? To feed upon the bread of God
is to so partake of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, to so die to self and sin
and the world as He died, to so live in triumphant life as He lives, and to so yield to
the will of God in all things, that His Word will become flesh in you, you are the
embodiment and expression of Himself. That is what the King means when He says, "I
have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have
drunk my wine with my milk; eat, O friends; drink, yea drink abundantly, O beloved"
(S. of S. 5:1). It is as though He said, "I have eaten it all for you, I have
gathered my myrrh and my spice, I have eaten honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine
with my milk. I have come and offered myself as a sweet savor before the Father in your
behalf. I have become a man like unto you, I have died to sin in the flesh, I have lived by the life of the Father
on the earth plane, I have fulfilled all His will
and all His word, I have received the incorruptible glory of the Father, I have
eaten to the full of all this, that you also might eat and drink to the full of that which
I have prepared for you. Now, O friends, eat! Eat! Drink abundantly. Eat and drink of me.
Do not eat only a little of the bread of life; do not feed upon Me only now and then; do
not pass over any little morsel on My table, do not shirk from the cross and yield to it
only occasionally and reluctantly. Do not be satisfied with only a taste of that which I
have done for you. Drink to the full, until rivers of living water flow out from your
innermost being to all around."
Through our union with Him,
He would have us partake of His death and resurrection, until all the movements of our own desires and
our own selves shall forever be silenced. He would have us drink of that cup which He has
mixed with mercy, until the perfect will and
working of God is fully accomplished in our lives unto transformation into His
image. He would have our lives filled with
all the life and light and glory which He Himself is, and which He now offers to us as we sit at His table
with Him. Then He would pour it all out through us as His priests!
SCABS AND OPEN SORES
This is one of the most
important items, though it sounds horrible. The New International Version calls it
"running or festering sores." There is an obstinate and unsightly affection of
the skin which older writers called "lepra" but which is today called
"psoriasis." Chronic in nature, it is characterized by inflamed patches,
reddish, slightly thickened and elevated, and somewhat wrinkled, and covered with silvery
scales. The most frequent location is on the scalp at the margin of the hair, on the arms
near the elbows, and on the legs near the knees. On the back, chest, or abdomen, patches
the size of a saucer or dinner plate may be located. Eruptions may cover much of the body,
accompanied by fierce itching. While medical science claims there is no "cure"
for psoriasis, it has been demonstrated that it disappears quickly when correct living
practices are observed. One doctor who has treated hundreds of cases states, "We have
found psoriasis to respond to dietetic treatment in all cases." In some, complete
recovery can be effected in four to six weeks. The
disease can be conquered when the sufferer learns how to live so as not to cause the
disease's condition. Unburden the body of the vast cesspool of toxins created by improper living and it will,
through its own healing power, restore itself to health and vitality. If the body no
longer has to oppose, counteract and neutralize the effects of alcohol, tea, coffee,
tobacco, and other drugs, of overeating, wrong eating, bad food, impure water, foul air,
greasy condiments, rich spices, fear, worry, anxiety, jealousy, self-pity and other
destructive emotions, overwork, lack of sleep, and other impairing influences - if it is
released from this daily task, what wonders of healing it can accomplish!
The message is clear - the
"scabs and open sores" which disqualified a member of the Aaronic order for
serving in the priesthood represents an INWARD UNCLEANNESS which erupts in OUTWARD
PURULENCE. It bespeaks the inward uncleanness of impure thoughts, motives, and desires
which erupt into the outward purulence of a life disgraced by unholy actions. Many
well-known ministers have gone down the tubes during the last thirty years because the
righteousness of the
There are men who profess to
be sons of God who have this problem. They have a good knowledge of truth, eloquent delivery, and power
to move audiences and influence people, but their lives are oozing with festering pus that
stinks to all who come near. Such a one should not feed the bread of God! You would not
want a waiter in a restaurant to serve you a meal with his body covered with running
sores. How much more important for those king-priests who are to feed the eternal, living
bread of God to creation! I can assure you, beloved, that the Royal Priesthood will be
made up of men and women who have not scabs or running sores!
Ah, the problem has been that
throughout long ages men have sought the POWER of the
Let us now take heed to the
exhortation of Jesus in Mat. 6:33. "But seek ye first the
Let us look first of all at
imputed righteousness. Paul talks about this in Rom. 4:3, "What saith the Scripture?
Abraham believed God and it was counted (or imputed) unto him for righteousness." In
bookkeeping, we have what are called debits and credits. If you have cash revenue come in,
you may debit the bank and credit sales. You debit the bank. What does that mean? You
deposit money in the bank. It is "imputed" to your checking account. Almost
everyone understands that when you deposit money in the bank, you are debiting your bank
account, you are imputing money to your bank account. When you get your bank statement, it
might show that you have $743.25 in the bank. That is counted to you, it is imputed to
you, though no actual money may have been involved, it may have been a check you
deposited. It is debited to you because a deposit to your account took place.
The Bible says of Abraham
that when he BELIEVED GOD, it was counted (or debited, imputed) to him for righteousness.
He got a great big deposit to his account - righteousness! What kind of righteousness was
it? It was imputed righteousness. It was righteousness imputed to his account so that he
came to right standing before God by doing one thing. And that one thing was what?
BELIEVING! Abraham believed God, and it was counted (imputed) to him, for
righteousness.
Salvation begins with imputed
righteousness. Most Christians, however, stop right there and never
Why does he say, "ADD TO
YOUR FAITH?" Peter is telling us that once we have believed, we are at the point of
beginning in righteousness. We must have imputed righteousness, but we must add to that
what the Bible describes in Romans 8 as FULFILLED righteousness or EXPRESSED
righteousness. The righteousness that is imputed to us as a free gift must now find
EXPRESSION or FULFILLMENT in our lives. "The law of the spirit of life in Christ
Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in
that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, condemned (or judged) sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the
law might be FULFILLED (or EXPRESSED) in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit" (Rom. 8:2-4).
As Charles Wesley so
beautifully wrote, "He breaks the power of cancelled sin, He sets the prisoner free.
His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood avails for me." When He breaks the
power of cancelled sin, then we have IMPARTED righteousness, expressed righteousness,
experiential righteousness, fulfilled righteousness. All that God is in His righteousness
begins to come forth in our life.
I thank God today that there
is a righteousness, a divine righteousness which God can impart to men, and which can
exalt a man to the image and likeness of God. In no other way can men ever be exalted or
lifted up out of the depths of sin, self, sorrow, and death. So I gladly and thankfully
this day record this truth that the righteousness of which I speak is the righteousness of
God, which by faith we may possess; not only a righteousness imputed, in which we trust,
but a righteousness IMPARTED, INWORKED INTO THE NATURE. All very good is this talk about
imputed righteousness, but I cannot - will not -settle for a righteousness that is only
imputed. If it is not imparted, it is not a POWER WITHIN US at all. I thank God for the
Word of the Master Himself who told us that this
Those precious elect ones
whom God has chosen in Christ He has sanctified by His Spirit. Sanctification is too great
a truth to more than mention here, but sanctification is the work of setting aside holy
things for holy uses. It is the Holy Spirit who changes our lives. It is the Spirit who
separates us from the world and who separates the world from us. It is the Spirit who
reveals our carnal nature. It is the Spirit who deals with that carnal nature and
establishes within us the power of the divine nature.
There is something deep
within me that tells me that the
We see a terrible lack of
things being right, or in divine order, in the world and in the Church. There is a divine
order for creation, for life on this earth. There is a proper order for animal life,
vegetable life, and human life. But all things are out of order, in terrible chaos. The
curse must be lifted, every enemy put under our feet. Divine order for the universe must
be restored. All creation is groaning and crying for release from the curse of sin and
decay and death. And everything hinges on that body of Sons that are to be manifested in a
perfect state of divine order. They will have the mind of Christ. They will have overcome
all things and conquered every enemy. They will possess the total inworking of the
righteousness of Jesus Christ. They will have all power in heaven and in earth. They will
have the power of creation, the power to reproduce themselves in others, even as our
precious Lord now has and is creating in us. And this shall be done until all the world
and every creature has been rebirthed into the image of God.
Today we see an imperfect
Church, living an imperfect life, receiving an imperfect seed from an imperfect ministry,
and bringing forth imperfect children who are all their life time subject to carnality,
sin, limitation, sorrow and death, as well as rebukes, chastisements and scourgings to bring them into
sonship. Of course we know that the true Word of God is perfect, but if the preachers were
preaching that perfect Word, their children would be perfect. And this shall be done, for
the Christ shall yet present unto Himself a people without spot or wrinkle, having no
blemish. Then when a perfect company of sons puts a perfect and pure seed (or Word) into a perfect Church, the world
will be evangelized completely with converts that
are birthed out of darkness right into the likeness and life of God. That which God
is bringing forth for the next age will be perfect, it will be sinless, deathless, and
gloriously victorious! There will be no running or festering sores or ugly scabs on the
sons of God! They will not go out with power to heal the sick, cast out devils, and do
signs and wonders, but with no power to be honest, pure and holy. You won't have to worry
about them swindling you out of your money, or seducing your wife, or being caught in some
homosexual act, or lying, cheating, deceiving, or swelling up with pride and pompousness
like a frog, or building another tower of Babel around their ministry. God won't do it
that way this time! You can have imperfect apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors,
teachers, and Christians, but you can't have IMPERFECT MANIFESTED SONS OF GOD! If God were
to give unlimited power into the hands of men with imperfect lives and corrupt hearts they
would become the most despicable race of devils and tyrants the world has ever known. They
would wreck the
BROKEN STONES
The twelfth and final blemish
which the Holy Spirit has signified as disqualifying one for the priesthood is
"broken stones." The Hebrew word here for "stones" is ESHEK, meaning
testicles. It is the reproductive glands in a man's body. Bill Britton has written
such a pungent and pointed word on this that I would be remiss if I failed to share it
with my readers. He says, "A man with broken stones cannot produce life. He can be a
husband, but he cannot be a father. What has this got to do with the ministry of the
Levitical priesthood? God used it as a type of ministry today who preaches sermons, but
does not give life. God help us, there are so many in the ministry like that today. They
are educated, they are eloquent, they are convincing, but they do not have the ability to
produce the life of God in those who hear them. Their ministry is polished, but dead.
Their sermons are interesting and well preached, but lifeless. People listen to them, and
continue in their old carnal ways, for there is no life-changing power in their words.
Their stones are broken, and they are disqualified to
feed the bread of God to His people.
"We have had preachers
come by and preach for us, only to discover that they had stirred our imagination, fed our
intellect, painted pretty gospel pictures with their eloquent words, but produced no new
life in us. Sons of God are being birthed in the image of Jesus Christ. It is because a
word of life is being planted in the hearts of dedicated and hungry saints. Thank God,
there IS a ministry of life in the land, and God is sending them forth with the Holy Ghost
anointing. They may shout their message in a loud voice, or they may quietly teach the
word in a modulated tone. But they have life to give. And lives are changed, and the image
of Christ is appearing in His people.
"Circumstances have
nothing to do with this. Jesus could sit on a well in the middle of the day talking to a
much married woman, but there was so much life in His words that the entire city was
shaken with revival. They could put Paul in prison, his feet fast in the stocks, but
before the night was over the jailer and his family had been birthed into the
There is a dimension of the
revelation of Jesus Christ that transcends the speaking of words, the writing of books,
and the preaching of sermons. The revelation of Jesus Christ is the need of the hour. Only
a present intervention of the divine Mind, only a present revelation of the spirit of
wisdom will be able to meet the need. If God does not give a special ministration and the
spirit of wisdom and power to meet the need of the world and all creation, it will not be
met. There are no buttons to press that can solve the complex and frightening problems
that exist in the world today. The further we move in God the more helpless and totally
empty we become, for our nothingness is magnified in the light of HIS GLORY.
The hour for the unveiling of
God's Royal Priesthood is at hand. May God grant to each of His apprehended ones the
understanding that from this time on God is not interested in what He has done for you.
From now on it must be "When Christ who is our life shall appear..." If there is
a mind in us, it must be the mind of Christ, not our religious mind that has been
cultivated through the years until it is religious and devoted and full of the Bible and
stayed on God. From now on it must not be your mind stayed on God, it must be HIS MIND IN
YOU. What we have witnessed to for years was a work of God, His salvation in us, His peace
in us, His victory in us, how we had become a product of the work of God; but God's
purpose is not that we shall be a testimony of the work of God, but that there shall come
a revelation of a Person, that the revelation will be Christ. It will not be a revelation
of the work of God, but the revelation of the Person of God in us.
God is talking to His sons
about PERSONIFICATION, EMBODIMENT, MANIFESTATION AND REVELATION. All who are pressing
forward into sonship are going to embody Christ as you have been embodying the works of
Christ. Christians represent the work of God: Saved from this, having received that,
experiencing the other, and changed into something else; but it is still "ME."
What you see is a marvelous expression of the handiwork of God. But God intends that the
hour should come when there shall be a revelation of GOD HIMSELF: "He is our
life." Not: We have life because He has wrought life in us, but "Christ who IS
OUR LIFE shall appear, then shall we appear with Him in glory." "He is our
peace;" our peace then becomes not a witness to a work, but the witness of a Person.
He is our righteousness, our wisdom, our redemption, our sanctification; all that He is to
us then becomes not a witness to a work or an experience, but the witness of a
Person.
Are you willing, precious
friend of mine, to have nothing but the Person? Are you willing to lay aside the work and
forget the experience to have the Person? The hoary headed old prophet, Simeon, took up
the baby Jesus in his arms and declared: "Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation."
The salvation he saw was not in an experience, it was in the baby. There are thousands of
people living in
The Lord is our salvation,
and that means that we do not gamble, steal, get drunk and so on, we are forgiven and
changed. That is what salvation has been to us up till now. But Simeon said: "Mine
eyes have seen Thy salvation." And all he saw was a baby! He saw a Person. Ah, if it
were not for a Person there would not have been the cross and the suffering and the death
and the resurrection and the glory. But what many of us have done is, we began with a
Person when first we met the Lord, and ended up with His acts. God's order is: You begin
with a Person, then His deeds are accomplished, and ultimately the Person can be formed in
you. When all is finished, you are not left with the works of God, you are left with the
Lord Himself. Christ shall become in us our life, and when Christ appears AS OUR LIFE then
we also appear with Him in glory.
What the Spirit is saying is
that God must have a people in whom the Lord is BECOMING rather than DOING. That is what
the manifestation of the sons of God is, that is what the revelation of Jesus Christ is,
and there will never be a revelation of Jesus Christ if all I can talk about and
demonstrate is of what He has done. His works are not Him - HE IS A PERSON. Paul said,
"It pleased God to reveal His Son in me," not, "It pleased God to reveal
some of the works of His Son in me and give me some great experiences." And when he
prayed, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth till Christ be formed in
you," Paul did not mean that they should receive a little more cleansing with the
blood, a little greater anointing in the gifts, die a little more death and so on. There
came an hour when Paul knew that the works of the Lord would not be sufficient, but that
the Lord Himself had to be put on in all fullness, so that instead of having a work of
patience, the Lord Himself would be the patience.
The
Bible says, "The Lord is my strength." It does not
refer to some strength the Lord has dished out to you, but, the Lord Himself has become
your strength; not a work, but a Person. THAT IS SONSHIP AS A COMPLETED FACT. The
revelation now is the revelation of a Person, our witness is unto Him because the Person
has become in us. It looks as if you are turning your back on these wonderful works of
God, but you needed them to bring you where you are in God. Now you are "forgetting
those things which are behind." From now on, what Christ is, becomes the expression.
If at this hour we still need God to DO for us rather than for the Christ to BECOME in us,
then we are not ready for the manifestation of the sons of God. When God sends forth His
sons, He sends them forth as those in whom Christ is so fully formed that it is not a
matter of needing God to do anything anymore, but that Christ has BECOME in them, praise
HIS name!
It is vastly more important
to reveal the life of the Son of God in meeting creation's need, than to be witnessing to
people about salvation. We have become so conditioned to the notion that we aren't doing
anything for God unless we are able to get out and witness and skillfully use the
Scriptures. That is all good, and there is a place for it, but that is not the
manifestation of the sons of God. When you are truly helping people you are becoming a
LIVING WORD to them which says, "God cares for you!" That is simply Christ
living His life through you. We become a Word that is alive to them, not a dead, printed
word, or a testimony, but the living manifestation of the Christ. There is something we
can do, and it is more important and powerful than witnessing, quoting scriptures, or
teaching. Instead of witnessing about God, we BECOME the witness - the embodiment of what
Jesus Christ really is.
May Christ be so fully
revealed to all of us is my earnest prayer and my deepest desire, that in these coming
days there will not be any longer a cry in our spirit, "O God, do something more for
me for that leaves me with myself on my hands. The secret of Jesus was that for three and
a half years He did not have to be more consecrated, He did not have to be more dedicated,
He did not have to be more victorious, He did not need another experience, or another
blessing, all He had to do was let the Father live out through Him. And may it be so in
the days ahead that it will be Christ fully formed in us, Christ living out in all the
glory of God, in all the fullness of all His life and love and power and victory -
HIMSELF.
"Blessed Father! let it
be so in us. Let Christ be fully formed in me and in all who read these lines, and in all
the body of Christ. Lord, let the work of doing for us come to an end, until it shall be
Christ formed in us. Lord, cause Jesus Christ to become in us our peace, our joy, our
life, our victory, our power, that from this moment on there shall only be the expression
of Himself; not a witness of His work, but the revelation of His own Person and Being and
Nature. O God, let that divine Nature, that divine Person of the Son of God be fully
manifested in us, that the creation that is groaning for the unveiling of Jesus Christ
will see Him unveiled in His body, unveiled in His Church, unveiled in His ministry,
unveiled in His King-Priests, that every eye shall see Him and all the kindreds of the
earth shall wail because of Him. Do this, we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen." There are no broken stones among those in whom HIS LIFE is manifested!
Chapter
13
QUALIFICATIONS
FOR PRIESTHOOD
(continued)
There were three primary
qualifications for priesthood in the Old Testament order of Aaron: (1) birth (2) freedom
from blemish (3) maturity. The very first requirement was that one must be a son of the
High Priest; a man might be the brightest and most capable Levite, but if he was not the
offspring of Aaron he was prohibited from serving in the office of the priesthood. The
first qualification for priesthood is birth. You must be the son of the High Priest, the
offspring of HIS priestly nature. Membership in the Royal Priesthood begins with the new
birth. But being born again no more makes one a priest than being born into Aaron's house
made one a priest. Right birth was the first requirement but merely the first step down a
long path of preparation and qualification. One could be the son of the High Priest and
still not be qualified for the priesthood if there were some blemish in him, any kind of
disease, deformity, or physical impairment.
'"Whosoever...hath any
blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God" (Lev. 21:17).
Spiritually, a blemish is a flaw in character. Webster defines blemish as: Any deformity,
physical or moral; flaw; disfigurement; to mar or disfigure. It speaks to us of a weakness
of character. Ah you can be a Christian (Levite) and have some flaws of character. You can
speak in tongues and have such flaws. You can heal the sick and do great signs and wonders
and have such flaws. You can be an elder, an evangelist, or even an apostle and have such
flaws. But I do not hesitate to tell you that you will never be a priest after the order
of Melchizedek with such flaws!
The third qualification for
priesthood was maturity. One might be the son of the High Priest without any disease or
blemish in him at all, still he could not serve as a priest until he became a mature man,
reaching the significant age of thirty. While the Scripture nowhere states the exact age
when a priest entered his ministry, it is revealed that the priest's brethren, the
Levites, began their service at thirty years of age (Num. 4:3). John the Baptist was of
the priestly tribe. His father was a priest (Lk. 1:5). The first born son was to be a
priest. John was the first born. John the Baptist was a priest and was six months older
than Jesus. He began his public ministry six months before Jesus after reaching the age of
thirty. Thirty is everywhere the Biblical age of MATURITY and BEGINNING OF MINISTRY.
Christ was thirty years old at the commencement of His ministry. Joseph, His type, was the
same age. David, also when he began to reign over
"As newborn babes,
desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby" (I Pet. 2:2). Are
not newborn babies delightful? They are so cute. You just like to put your finger under
their chins and go "coochie, coochie, coo." You like to see how strongly they
can hold on to your finger. A baby just brings smiles to everybody's face. People gather
around a crib and they all smile. But if a year later the baby is still lying there on his
back, making bubbles, people do not smile, but think, "He's rather small, isn't
he?" If five years later he is still lying in his crib gurgling, you will notice that
there is not a smile in the house. If we could see the growth of our spirits the way we
can see the growth of bodies, I am sure that in the gathering together of the saints,
there might not be much joy because we would see many people who have never grown at all,
pitiful little retarded, deformed, shriveled up spirits unable to take care of themselves.
It is always sad to see someone like that. It is just as sad to see someone who grows up
physically to be a full-grown adult and yet has never become mature. We say of such a
person, "Oh, he is still immature," and this results in all sorts of problems.
He has problems everywhere with everyone because of his immaturity! In the spiritual
realm, the same thing is true. There is a spiritual immaturity which causes many problems
in the spiritual world. And this is what disqualifies most Christians for the Royal
Priesthood.
You have the birth; you have
the life, but you must have a certain amount of growth and experience; you must be thirty
years of age. A priest must be someone with a matured life. Babies cannot serve at
God’s altar. Babies cannot offer the bread of God. Babies cannot impart God's life.
Babies cannot be handed a sword and marched out to war to deliver creation from the
tyranny of sin, Satan, and death. The world is filled with millions of Christians, but it
seems they are just like children playing with spiritual things; playing church, playing
with the gifts of God, going out to convert the world and sweep nations into the Kingdom
of God, but it is all just pretend, make believe, a great game, while the world becomes
more and more wicked and evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, and mankind rushes
madly onward toward destruction. They are so young, so immature, these would be deliverers
of mankind! They can give you their spiritual pedigree but they have not grown. They have
not much wisdom. They do not know the mind of the Lord. They have no power. They are
immature. To make matters worse, though they are infants, yet in their estimation they are
the greatest! They have great programs and grandiose schemes, and raise millions of
dollars to turn the whole world to God, and know not that all their mighty works are but
sand castles on the beach of creation's need.
Let some carnal, tradition
ridden denominational preacher receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues,
and immediately he will be paraded around the country to give his testimony and many
thousands of well-meaning Christians will sit in rapt attention, clinging fervently to
every word that proceeds out of his mouth, esteeming the man as a veritable fountain head
of spiritual wisdom and knowledge. The understanding needs but little enlightening to see
that such a man, though having received the free gift of God's Holy Spirit, abides still
in the harlot's house and his tradition is as thick as smoke to blind and darken the eyes,
ever hiding from our understanding the glorious fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Such an one, skillfully trained in the wisdom of THIS WORLD, though born again and Spirit
filled, is STILL BUT A BABE IN CHRIST, a mere beginner, a toddler in the Kingdom of God
with little to offer those elect saints who seek to walk with God and learn of Him and,
being thus led, to grow into full sonship to Him. You will never become a son of God,
precious friend of mine, by listening to testimonies and imbibing of the doctrines and
traditions of the religious systems. You will become stunted in your spiritual growth, and
weak and powerless in your spiritual life.
"Till we all come in the
unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a PERFECT MAN, unto the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: that we henceforth be NO MORE CHILDREN,
tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men,
and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in
love, MAY GROW UP INTO HIM in all things, which is the head, even Christ" (Eph.
4:13-15). Allow me to say that this is not merely a teaching. You must pray and search
diligently about this matter. Pray and remember that you must grow to a certain standard.
The standard is the full measure of the maturity of the Christ. The standard can never be
lowered. We must grow up to it. I say GROW UP, not GROW OLD. If you become old, you will
be discharged as were the sons of Levi; you will be retired from spiritual service. You
must only advance; you must never deteriorate.
You must stand in the
priesthood from the age of thirty to the age of fifty (Num. 4:3). You must be full of
experience and wisdom and grace and power, but void of deterioration. Some, indeed, have
not yet grown up, but they are already old. They have worn themselves out playing
religious games. They have burned out in the zeal of the flesh. They are the old young
ones. We must grow to a certain stage of spiritual life to be formed into the priesthood
of God. There are no short cuts. THIS IS THE THIRD QUALIFICATION.
If the message of the new
birth is all we preach, we will NEVER be the priesthood of God. If the baptism in the Holy
Spirit and the gifts are all we preach, we will NEVER deliver the groaning creation. If
purity and holiness are all we preach, we will NOT move this generation. I do not hesitate
to tell you that it will require a deep inworking of "present truth" (II Pet.
1:12) to shake off the shackles of the powers of darkness in this hour! Acts 2:38 is not
enough. We must move beyond the foundational principles and begin to mature (Heb. 6:13).
In Martin Luther's day, justification by faith was dynamite. But this is not 1525. At the
turn of the century, Acts 2:4 was a bombshell. But this is not 1900. In 1948 prophecy,
praise, the laying on of hands and impartation shook the Church world. But this is not
1948. Thank God for every wave of God's tide of restoration that has brought a people to
the edge of His fullness. BUT WE WILL LEARN TO BE KINGS AND PRIESTS UNTO GOD in this day
or we shall be swallowed up and overcome by the birth pangs of a new age. And we will
overcome as did the Pattern Son (Rev. 3:21), by fully submitting to the will of the One
who is within, until we become like Him. Glory!
The wonderful purpose of God
is that of an ongoing, progressive development from birth until spiritual maturity, the
end product of which is a generation of holy, priestly sons. Every minute, hour, and day
should see new dimensions of His life with a new power. Regeneration and maturity are two
different things. There is between them the difference between a baby, a child, and a
full-grown man with a large experience, capacity and intelligence which makes him a strong
power to do God's service.
MARKS OF MATURITY
A lot can be said for little
children especially if it's said by grandparents who have the advantage of being able to
take them when they're lovable and leave them when they're not. Little children are self
centered, but they don't know any better. They are active, wide eyed explorers of ever
expanding horizons. They are entertainers: imitators, actors, and comedians. They are
vulnerable, impressionable, playful, and candid. They express simple, uncluttered
feelings, thoughts, and opinions. Little children are not afraid to ask questions, to ask
for help or to offer it. They know how to laugh. They know how to cry when a good cry
helps to make things better. It is just as true, however, that some dimensions of
childishness lose their appeal if they don't pass with time. The preoccupation with
imaginary friends, the toys, the testing of authority, the attention getting tactics, and
the self centeredness get a little old if they characterize someone who is not acting his
age.
In the book of I Corinthians
the burden of Paul's message was to show how tremendously important it is for us to grow
up in Christ. "But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part
shall be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I
thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things" (I Cor.
13:10 11). Therefore, after briefly stating the "in part" nature of the
"gift realm" he speaks of the coming of that which is "perfect." The
word "perfect" means "complete." The idea of incompleteness is related
to childishness. Just before he emphasized that he had put childish ways behind him, Paul
wrote, "For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect
has come, then that which is in part will be done away." He meant
"perfection" in the sense of "completeness" or "maturity."
He meant that his childish capacities for speech, understanding, and reasoning had given
way to more complete capacities. Can we not see by this that the whole "gift
realm" which is "in part" and so frivolously reveled in this hour is naught
but SPIRITUAL CHILDISHNESS? Ah it is time for the sons of God to GROW UP!
In that light, then, let us
look at the first way of understanding childishness. CHILDREN DON'T REALLY UNDERSTAND
WHAT'S GOING ON. They live in the "in part" realm of gifts and play and
excitement, but have very limited understanding or responsibility. A brother has shared
the following experience which clearly illustrates the point. He says, "We were at
the airport getting ready to take a plane to go back East. We had quite a bit of time to
spend there because we always get there early. So I spent some time walking around. There
was a plane getting ready to leave for the Hawaiian Islands, and I am always interested in
going to the
It is a sad fact that the
vast majority of busy, Church going Christians today have positively NO UNDERSTANDING OF
WHAT THE FATHER IS DOING. While they sing and clap their hands, dance and play with their
gifts, and earnestly talk about the rapture and the far away heaven with golden streets
and mansions, where they will strum harps and shout throughout endless ages, they know
nothing of God's will, nor of His word, nor of His ways, nor of His wonderful plan of the
ages. While they delight in propagating the grievous deception that the Lord wants nothing
but prosperity for His saints, that they should seek and have the best of everything THIS
WORLD has to offer the best homes, the best cars, the best furniture, the best food, the
best jobs, the biggest bank accounts, together with perfect health and complete absence of
sickness, problems, trouble, or tribulation of any kind, bringing God's people into
bondage to the world and its transient and empty glory, thus hindering the development of
many a saint they know nothing of humility, of brokenness, of suffering, of stripping, of
chastisement, of purging, of cleansing, of refining, of processing, and the resultant
transformation and conformation into the image of the Son of God. They know nothing of
sonship! They know nothing of the groaning creation. They know nothing of the Father's
great and wonderful plan in bringing sons to glory and look askance at those mystics who
see God's merciful purpose for the government of the world by saints who KNOW HIS WAYS and
are acquainted with those purposes which were ordained in Christ our Lord before the world
began and before the Spirit of life was breathed into the clay we call Adam. Like the
little boy at the airport, they are having a hallelujah big time with their spiritual
toys, completely oblivious to the great and important issues that really matter in this
dark and momentous hour at the end of the age. One of the sure marks of maturity is the
ability to UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON!
There are certain
evidences of whether or not we are growing up into the maturity of the Christ. Maturity
speaks of one who is fully developed, robust, strong, experienced, mentally adept,
emotionally stable, self sufficient and independent. Children are immature, weak,
underdeveloped, and dependent. As one has written: "'...and ye shall be the children
of the Highest.' First we note this word 'children' from the Greek 'huios' meaning SONS, a
mature one, strong to bear the responsibility and position to which he is appointed. There
are different words used in the Greek text which speak of the whole range of growth and
development from a babe yet unborn, or new born, on through the stages of a young lad
being brought through his teens into young manhood, until one arrives at maturity all
covered simply by the word 'children' in our King James version of the Scriptures. But
there is a GROWING UP into Christ, who is the Head, so that 'when I became a man, I put
away childish things' (I Cor. 13:11). God is indeed bringing forth sons, mature ones,
developed and disciplined, conformed to His image, which shall also give a true expression
of HIS NATURE" end quote.
How many weak and dependent
saints are running around constantly from meeting to meeting, from seminar to seminar,
from preacher to preacher, from prayer group to prayer group, SEEKING LIFE. These dear
souls always need to receive some kind of "blessing." But "blessing"
seekers are still babes. Certainly there is nothing wrong with being a babe if you have
been a babe but for a short time. Babies should grow up fast! You can always spot a babe
in Christ, because his whole world is on the outside. Babies are so weak and helpless. The
baby is often in a mess, has the colic, needs a diaper change, has a pain somewhere, or is
hungry or thirsty, is too hot or too cold, and in all of these situations the one
universally recognized fact about babies is that THEY CANNOT DO ANYTHING ABOUT THEIR
PROBLEMS THEMSELVES! The baby's whole world is on the outside of himself. He is totally
dependent upon what others can and must do for him. Someone else must always be
ministering to his needs. If he gets changed, someone must change him. If he gets fed,
someone must prepare the food and put it in his mouth. If he gets bathed, someone must do
it for him. He cannot take charge of the situation, he cannot solve any of his problems
for himself; they must each be ministered to from without. Thus we see that there are
three basis characteristics that accompany babyhood: (1) The baby has more problems than
most older folk (2) He is totally dependent upon others, unable to do anything for himself
(3) When he has a need he lets it be known until someone comes and meets it. And this
dependency continues in varying degrees through all the years until maturity is reached.
Children are dependent upon their parents for almost everything. The adolescent is
dependent for home, guidance, money, clothes etc. Often the high school graduate is
dependent for money to go to college, plus many of the other amenities of life. WHAT A
PICTURE THIS IS OF THE BABES IN CHRIST!
Baby Christians are
Christians who are continually laden with problems. They are always sick, or discouraged,
or depressed, or offended, or confused, or upset, or worried, or fearful, or hungry, or
thirsty, or in need of something. These are the ones who take up 90% of the elder's time,
strength, and patience in most groups. You must constantly be praying for them,
encouraging them, delivering them, and lifting them up. These you will see answering every
altar call, standing in every prayer line, always sitting in the chair in the center of
the prayer circle, and following after every meeting or ministry where they may receive
yet another "blessing" or "experience." These have the victory when
everything is going smooth, or when they are struck with some ecstatic experience such as
"falling out under the power" or receiving a personal word of prophecy. But as
soon as the "blessing" wanes they are so strengthless that they can't make it
without another spiritual "fix."
What's wrong with these folk?
I will tell you! Their source of life is ON THE OUTSIDE! Being babies, they are not yet
aware that all sufficient, self existent life dwells WITHIN THEM. They are unable to
appropriate the power and triumph of the Christ life for themselves. Their senses have not
been exercised to discern that He that is in them IS GREATER than he that is in the world.
They have not developed to that state of maturity where they know Christ to be the
substance of their life, their all. All sufficient to conquer every enemy and transcend
every problem within and without. And what a tragedy it is that so many preachers and
churches keep their people perpetually on this childish level of existence by restricting
their diet to "milk" and training their babies to continually look to the
"pulpit" to be fed, healed, delivered, taught and blessed, like little birds in
the nest with their beaks open or infants sucking on mother's breast. There was a day
in which Jesus and His disciples had made it to Jacob's well in Sychar and decided to stop
for lunch. Jesus sat in the shade of the well's shelter while His disciples went into the
nearby town for food. Through the shimmering heat haze, a woman with a water pot on her
shoulder approached the well. She came to where Jesus was sitting, and He asked her for a
drink. Her response was brittle with the hatred between the two peoples: "How is it
that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (Jn. 4:9).
Jesus was unruffled, offering her the gift He had come to give to all men: "If you
knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, Give Me a drink, you would have
asked Him, and He would have given you living water" (Jn. 4:10).
You see, Jesus is saying,
"You're the one that needs the water, don't you know that?” She responded by
saying in so many words, "You don't have a water pot. How are you going to get water?
Why, this well is deep, and how are you going to draw from this well? Have you got some
water that doesn't come from this well? Are you greater than our father Jacob?" She's
a little provoked with this Jew that is speaking to her.
Then Jesus tells her a
principle that she understands all too well in the natural. He said, "You've been
drinking this water all your life, and YOU HAVE TO KEEP COMING BACK EVERY DAY. You know
what a wearisome thing it is to walk back and forth through the heat and the dust with
that water pot on your head. I do have some water, and if you drink of the water that I
give you, you'll never thirst again. Take a drink of this water and it will BECOME IN YOU
AS A WELL!
Jesus spoke to this woman of
a truth more wonderful and glorious than the vast majority of Christians have ever
grasped. How many of the Lord's people STILL COME TO THE WELL! How many of us still have
our well, our water, our supply, our source of life, ON THE OUTSIDE! We are still trying
to pray something down from heaven, or work something up in a meeting, or always looking
for some ministry, or some prophet, or some healer, or some experience from which we can
DRAW LIFE! And after all our running to and fro, from well to well, from water pot to
water pot, we're still thirsty! We're still singing, "Fill my cup, Lord!" We're
still conscious of our need! So we keep looking for a well from which to draw to quench
our thirst and meet our need. Some even think it is
Oh, how "need"
orientated are God's children! Some years ago I was in a meeting where a brother expressed
the mentality of the great majority of Christians today. He asked the congregation,
"How many have a need tonight?" Every hand in the building shot up. The brother
continued, "If you don't have a need, then you ought to!" How many of us have
our center in our "needs"? The truth is that if you removed the saint's
"needs" from the average church meeting or prayer group, they wouldn't know how
to conduct the meeting! Most of our meetings are conducted with a basic consciousness that
we need God. Hardly any of our meetings are conducted with the consciousness that WE ARE
FILLED WITH GOD! I don't want anyone to misunderstand me...I am NOT opposed to meetings.
It is precious when the saints come together under the leadership of the Holy Spirit in
singing, praise, worship, exhortation. teaching, and ministry. But most saints need a
change in the direction, in the center of the meetings. Instead of coming as empty buckets
we must come together as FLOWING RIVERS! We must know that we are SONS OF THE MOST HIGH
GOD. If we come together as little children we will say: "We're here tonight because
we need God, we need a refilling, we need a blessing." But if we come as mature ones
in Christ, in the blessed spirit of sonship, we will say: "We're here to express
God!" Oh! What a difference!
Jesus shared with the
Samaritan woman one of the most profound and blessed truths of the ages. He said that He
has water to give you, and if you once drink this water, you can throw away your water
pots, because this water becomes a mighty artesian well WITHIN YOU. As long as the well is
on the outside, as long as our source of life is without, then we have to go to the well
and get water to satisfy our thirst. And any time you have to go to the well to drink you
are going to be thirsty again! And if you stay away from the well very long you will
become famished! Is this not a spiritual thermometer by which one can determine just how
mature he is? So Jesus asked the woman, "How would you like to have the well on the
inside? No more water pots, no more drawing, no more walking back and forth, no more
thirst, no more effort and sweat." Let me ask you, dear reader, What would you think
if you had the well on the INSIDE? This is what this thing of sonship is all about! It is
the well on the inside: "Christ IN YOU the hope of glory." Sonship, maturity,
overcoming, perfection, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. All this is
found in that blessed realm where we know that we do indeed HAVE LIFE IN OURSELVES even as
the Father has life in Himself. This is the well on the inside! And it is high time that
those who are apprehended of God to be His sons STOP GOING TO THE WELL. It is time we
drink until we get the well on the inside!
Let us meditate deeply upon
these challenging words penned by another: "Of Jesus Christ we read, 'though He were
a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect,
HE BECAME THE AUTHOR (source, wellspring) of eternal salvation unto all them that obey
Him; called of God an high priest after the order of Melchizedek' (Heb. 5:8 10). Sonship
by virtue of birth was not enough, a boy as a babe is son of his father, but that does not
make him a 'huios,' a mature son. This requires all the discipline, training, development,
until BEING MADE PERFECT. The process of 'becoming' climaxed in the state of perfection
and maturity. 'The last Adam was made (became) a quickening (life-giving) spirit' (I Cor.
15:45). Being made perfect leads into 'BECAME THE AUTHOR,' or, into becoming LIFE-GIVING.
When 'rivers shall from within him flow, of living water' (Jn. 7:38,
It should be clear to every
thinking heart that once you have the well on the inside, not only do you not need to draw
from a well without, but you BECOME A SOURCE of life for all about. "How can I attain
to such a high and holy calling?" I hear someone asking. Ah little by little and day
by day these precious realities are inworked into our lives as we follow on to know the
Lord, saying "Yes" to His work and faithfully obeying His will as He reveals it.
All the "following after" and "pressing toward" precede the
"apprehending" making it our own. Keep walking forward, my brother, and you will
GROW into His likeness just as naturally as an eating boy in due time becomes a strong
man.
THE PROCESS FOR MATURITY
This is a day of instant
things. In this fast-paced, fast- food society, we are used to having things as we want
them, when we want them. Everything is instant. We can walk into a room and get instant
light, heat, or air conditioning by flipping a switch. We get up in the morning and drink
instant coffee, and eat instant hot cereal, instant soup, instant mashed potatoes, and
instant other things too numerous to name. If it isn't instant, then we turn on the
microwave. All too often we also expect instant results in our spiritual life instant
perfection, instant power, instant maturity, instant sonship! But, dear one in Christ, God
doesn't believe in short cuts! Haste in the high and holy things of the
I am deeply impressed
with the words of George Hawtin in his paper THE PAGE wherein he writes: "God
increases our faith through patience. At first what faith you had was void of patience. It
wanted to see creation leap in response to its impatient demands. The sick must be healed
RIGHT NOW. The world must be converted RIGHT NOW. You must get rid of carnality and become
perfect NOW, of course; but as years went by and things continued much as they were before
you tried to set the world on fire, you began very slowly to see that God is not enthused
about impatient faith; you came to see that faith and patience are inseparable and
methinks someday you will see that patience IS faith. We have heard a great deal about
faith, much of it springing from the desire of the carnal mind. Little indeed have we
heard of patience without which there can be no real and lasting faith.
"Harvests do not come
without patience and waiting. Vainly we have tried to squeeze God into our mold of haste
and hurry. We have cried, wept, and teased like spoiled children in an endeavor to get our
way and hurry God in His program. We have demanded of God and tried to command Him. We
have quoted Scriptures to try to bolster our position but all in vain. To learn faith in
patience is much more important than for us to have our own way about things. In Heb.
10:35-37 the apostle wrote, 'Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great
recompense of reward. For YE HAVE NEED OF PATIENCE that after ye have done the will of
God, ye might receive the promise"' end quote.
Ah, beloved, does it seem
that you shall never overcome the flesh, the world, and the devil, never live the abundant
life, never arrive at perfection or attain unto maturity of sonship? Be encouraged, dear
ones, for our gracious heavenly Father dropped a word into my heart in such a time of
foreboding when progress seemed so slow in my spiritual life that it appeared I was going
backward instead of forward. His voice fell in quickening illumination upon my attentive
ear with this beautiful word of wisdom: 'My son, look back upon your walk, five years, ten
years...how were you then? Have you changed any? Have you grown? Have you gained
victories? Are you not wiser, stronger, more enlightened, experienced, and triumphant, and
do you not know me in a deeper way than you did then? Have you made some progress? Can you
SEE how much different is your life today than it was then? Ah, My son, if all this has
been wrought by My hand in your life through the past few years, can you not now TRUST ME
to finish and perfect that good work which I have begun in you? Do you not know that I am
silently but faithfully working in you even this day to conform you to the image of My
Son?" Sons of God! Do not worry as to whether or not you seem to be making progress.
There is nothing in the world that grows so fast that you can SEE it grow. My fourteen
year old daughter is growing every day of her life, but I cannot SEE her grow. Let God be
the judge of how much or how little you have grown. Your duty and mine is to press
relentlessly onward heedless of circumstances or conditions, but pressing patiently toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
A dear friend of ours in the
city of
So God, omniscient and
omnipotent, has established here upon earth a School for the training of those destined to
be the future rulers of the universe. This School is known as "the body of
Christ." None shall ever rule in the Royal Priesthood who have not graduated from
this School! And what a great Teacher we have! One begins in God's
The promises of God are vast
and varied. Some of them are free and can be attained very easily. That is why so many
people receive them. But if you would be a member of the Royal Priesthood and receive the
power to bless and deliver creation, if you would learn the life and authority and
government of God in preparation to take the Kingdom and reign with Christ, then that is a
different thing altogether. You must become a follower of them who through faith and
patience inherit the promises. It takes patience to attain any worthy goal. It takes
endurance too. No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the
A MATURE PRIESTHOOD
The farmer cannot make the
seed grow, he cannot generate light, this is done only by God. So, when the seed of the
Kingdom is planted in the human heart, if other conditions are right, God will make the
seed grow until that son reaches spiritual maturity. The greatest need in the world today
is spiritually mature sons of God who are qualified to minister as Kings and Priests in
the
I would like you to think a
moment about maturity. Jesus Christ, of course, was the first Son who ever lived who
achieved absolute maturity. He walked as a man should walk. He talked as a man should
talk. His attitude and His approach to life were mature in every sense of the word. He
looked with holy eyes upon the sins of a sinful world, but was not discouraged nor
depressed by it. He wrote over the face of a despairing world, "I am come that they
might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (Jn. 10: 10). To a
world enshrouded in darkness He brought a heart full of heavenly sunbeams, and by the
light that was within Himself rolled back the heavy clouds of despair that hung low over a
world that had lost its way.
Our Lord Jesus Christ is seen
coming in the book of Revelation, riding upon a white horse and the armies which are in
heaven following Him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, which is the
righteousness of saints, and having on His vesture and on His thigh a name written: KING
OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. Many centuries ago the prophet Malachi asked the burning
question, "Who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He
appeareth?" (Mal. 3:2). The aged apostle John admonished, "And now, little
children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be
ashamed before Him at His coming" (I Jn. 2:28). May the Spirit of the living God lay
His finger of inspiration upon us that we may understand that God is preparing a people
today FOR HIMSELF. "This people have I formed FOR MYSELF; they SHALL show forth My
praise" (Isa. 43:21). In Exodus God says, "Ye have seen...how l bare you on
eagles' wings, and brought you UNTO MYSELF. Now, therefore, ye shall be a peculiar
treasure UNTO ME above all people...and ye shall be UNTO ME a kingdom of priests, and an
holy nation" (Ex. 19:46). God's purposes are fulfilled IN HIMSELF. "Ye shall be
witnesses UNTO ME," Jesus said (Acts 1:8). The saints of God are a peculiar people, a
holy nation, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, that we should show forth the
praises, the excellencies, and the virtues of HIM.
To show you how God's
purposes are wrapped up IN HIMSELF and they not only have their beginning in Himself, but
they have their ultimate fulfillment in Himself the Scripture says, "Wherefore He has
highly exalted Jesus." He has exalted Him to His right hand and caused Him to sit at
His right hand, saying, "Sit at My right hand till I make Thy foes Thy
footstool." God has highly exalted Him and given Him THE name, that is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on
earth, and things under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, TO THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER. The Father said, "Sit at My right hand till I
make Thy foes Thy footstool," and the Scripture said, "For He must reign, till
He hath put all enemies under His feet. And when all things shall be subdued UNTO HIM,
then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto HIM that put all things under Him, THAT
GOD MAY BE ALL IN ALL" (I Cor. 15:25,28).
The purpose of God will only
find fulfillment IN HIMSELF. "And, having made peace through the blood of His cross,
by Him to reconcile all things UNTO HIMSELF...whether they be things in earth, or things
in heaven" (Col. 1:20). Jesus said, "I came from the Father and I am come into
the world: again I leave the world, and I am going back" not to heaven as we would
think; He did go to heaven, but heaven is only incidental He said, "I leave the
world, and GO TO THE FATHER" (Jn. 16:28). Ah, my brother, my sister, where are we
going? For generations we have set heaven as our goal "When we all get to heaven,
what a day of rejoicing that will be!" But the Psalmist David declared, "If I
make my bed in hell, THOU ART THERE" (Ps. 139:8). The place is not the matter, it is
the position, IN RELATIONSHIP TO HIMSELF. Jesus called twelve men whom He ordained as
apostles "to be with Him." And then, incidentally, to send them. And to prove
that the sending was only incidental, He sent the twelve and He sent the seventy, who were
not apostles at all, and they did just as much as the twelve. But He chose the twelve to
be WITH HIM. The cry in the heart of God is for a people FOR HIMSELF. Why does God want a
people for Himself? So that He may form Himself, that Christ may be fully formed in their
lives, in order that His nature and His image and His person should be so wrought in them,
that He would be able to APPEAR IN THE MIDST OF THEM, at any time He wants, and in any
form He desires to appear.
What was the secret of the
ministry, and the wisdom, and the power, and the glory of Jesus Christ? The secret was
that God could manifest HIMSELF and say anything, and do anything, and be anything through
Jesus Christ that He desired to say, do, or be. He could not do that through the prophets.
No matter how glorious the prophets were, even John the Baptist John the Baptist had the
Spirit before he was born into the world, while Jesus had to wait until He was thirty to
be anointed with the Spirit; John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Ghost from his
mother's womb but the Father could not reveal Himself in and through John the Baptist in
the fullest measure and in the most complete way that He would desire to do. John was the
greatest of all the prophets born of women, but Jesus said, "The least in this
Kingdom is greater than John." Why? I will tell you. Because John was not a SON! John
was not even a potential son.
John was only a prophet. I
could name you one of the sons in the Old Testament: Moses. However, the Bible says,
"Moses was a SERVANT in the house" (Heb. 3:5). Think of that! Moses was not a
son, only a servant in Father's house. Well, I could name you another man: Abraham. But
Abraham was only a FRIEND of God (James 2:23). A friend! Not a son. Do you realize what
has happened in the New Creation? Has your heart grasped the glorious and eternal
significance of the words spoken by our Lord on that dark night before His death, when He
raised the cup and said, "This is my blood of the New Covenant"? At that
wonderful moment something new came in and the old forever passed way. The old was
wonderful in its day, but in this New Covenant: "Their sins and their iniquities I
will remember no more, and I will write the law of Mine own Being, the law of My own
nature, the law of My own disposition IN THEIR MINDS AND IN THEIR HEARTS, and they will
not teach one another saying: Know the Lord, for they will all know Me, from the very
least unto the greatest of them" (Heb. 8:10-11). Why? Because we have been born, not
of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but there has been a birth
of God. His seed has come into us, we have been born of the Spirit of God, God is having a
people in whom is the Spirit of His Son, so that there is a relationship with the Father
and a forming and a revelation of the Father's character and mind and will. For what
reason? So that GOD CAN APPEAR IN THE MIDST OF HIS SONS, AND GOD CAN APPEAR THROUGH HIS
SONS AT ANY TIME AND IN ANY MANNER HE DESIRES. "When He shall come to be glorified IN
HIS SAINTS, and to be admired IN ALL THEM THAT BELIEVE in that day" (I Thes.
1:10).
The revelation of Jesus
Christ is the appearing of Jesus Christ, and the appearing of Jesus Christ is the coming
of Jesus Christ. "Who shall abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He
appeareth?" Ah, Jesus Christ has come as Saviour and has appeared in saving power in
the midst of all the saved ones. He has come as Baptizer with the Holy Spirit and has
appeared in the glory of the anointing in the midst of all the Spirit filled ones. He has
come as Healer and has appeared in miracle working wonder in the midst of all the healed
ones. But now He must come as LORD, as KING, as PRIEST, as the SON OF GOD.
The world will never know Him
as King of kings until there are kings among whom He can stand and reveal Himself as King
of the kings. The world will never know Him as Lord, until there are lords among whom He
can stand and reveal Himself as Lord of lords. The world will never know Him as High
Priest until there are priests among whom He can stand and reveal Himself as the great
High Priest of their profession. Why is God bringing many sons to glory? That in the midst
of all Jesus Christ might appear as the preeminent One, THE SON among the sons. As long as
we remain children, He cannot appear as the Son in the midst of children. How are you
going to have a Son that is preeminent among a group of babies? That is no preeminence at
all, that gives Him no eminence whatsoever, it gives Him no honor. You cannot say,
"He is the first begotten, the firstborn among many babies!" But as God brings
us into maturity, and brings many sons to glory, He appears as the preeminent One, as the
first born among MANY BRETHREN. Why does God want us to grow up into the fullness of
sonship? So that the Son of God can be revealed in all His glory, wisdom, virtue, and
power in and through the sons. Why does God want us to be priests, maturing in the
priestly nature and ministry? So that He can appear in the midst as the Great High Priest
of the heavens to bless and redeem and restore all of creation into God.
As long as we remain down on
some spiritual plane below this high calling, even though He is greater than we, He has to
condescend and limit His manifestation in and through us to the level we are on. He
appears in the midst of WHAT WE ARE IN HIM. He comes as El Shaddai, the breasted one,
bearing the milk of the Word in the midst of all the babes in Christ. But as the Church of
the First born rises into the heavenlies to occupy the place God has ordained for it, in
the place of glory, then Christ can be revealed in greater glory, in greater majesty, and
in greater might.
Do we love HIS APPEARING? Do
we want God to make us a people FOR HIMSELF, so that in whatever form He desires to
appear, He can appear in the midst? Whenever He appears, we must be like Him on the level
in which He appears. The Scripture says, "We know that when He shall appear, we shall
be like Him" (I Jn. 3:2). It says, "We shall be," but it also means:
"We must be." If we are not like Him, He cannot appear in that form. He can only
appear in the form in which He has been formed in us, because we are HIS BODY and whenever
He manifests Himself, He is to manifest Himself in the form of the body, in whatever form
the body is.
Oh! Beloved saints of God,
let us yield ourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may grow us up into mature
priests. We can never be priests of the Most High until we reach maturity. The world will
never behold the priesthood, nor be touched by the healing hand of our Great High Priest,
until there stands a royal race of mature priests in the midst of the earth. All creation
stands on tiptoe to see the glorious sight of God's Royal Priesthood arising with mercy
and power. Let us not sell creation short!
Chapter 14
The
Progression of the Priesthood
Deep
down in the heart of men there is a strong and instinctive demand for a priest, to be a
mediator, to lay one hand on man, and the other on God, and going between both to bring
the two together into unification. A priest or priesthood infers that there is a reason
why such has been called into play. It denotes that there is an estrangement between God
and His creatures and the priest ministers to bridge that gulf and bring about peace and
contentment. The ministry of the priest is an intermediate or go between ministry. He
reaches out with one hand and takes hold of God; he reaches out with the other hand and
takes hold of humanity; and brings the two together by virtue of his priestly
ministration.
It
seems that many people envision God as like the politicians, they just go from day to day
reacting to each crisis and improvise as they go along. When a difficult or dangerous
situation rears its ugly head they come up with some stopgap measure and hope it works,
and then when it doesn't, they try something else. Believe me, precious friend of mine,
God doesn't operate in that manner! Long before there was a world or any man, God almighty
and all wise, planned every detail of the whole creation from start to finish. The
omniscient and omnipotent God has known the end from the beginning, He established His
plan and His program from the beginning, He ordained precise measures for its development,
He set it on a time schedule, and He is seeing to it that His program is carried out. Can
we not see by this that the priesthood of God was not an afterthought, not some hastily
concocted plan to remedy an unforeseen and unfortunate situation, but it was part of His
great and wonderful purpose from the beginning?
Priesthood
and the shedding of the blood of a sacrifice for sin are inseparable. Dear friend, it is
well that we should go back to
I
now invite you to meditate deeply upon my words. Redemption is not an afterthought Of God
by which He hopes to salvage a few of the broken and shattered pieces of His creation.
Redemption is PART OF THE PLAN OF CREATION. If the fall of man is part of the plan of God,
then the redemption of the fallen creation must also be a part of the same plan that
issued forth from the fathomless depths of His omniscient mind. If Peter was speaking the
truth when he wrote of God's Lamb, "Who verily was FOREORDAINED BEFORE THE FOUNDATION
OF THE WORLD, but was manifest in these last times for you" (I Pet. 1:20), then the
fall of man must certainly be a part of the plan of the Creator. For what possible purpose
was the blessed redemptive Lamb foreordained BEFORE the world began if redemption itself
was not already in the mind and plan of God? It is clear that the plan of redemption was
prepared in its fullness before the voice of God ever commanded, "Let there be!"
It was not completed just in case man should fall, but because the fall of man and his
redemption from sin was part of the process by which he would come into God's image and
live in the eternal realm as a creature of experience and knowledge, completely redeemed,
completely purified, completely perfected, and completely incapable of sin forevermore.
Creation and redemption walk hand in hand through all the pilgrim journey from
THE PROGRESSION OF THE
PRIESTHOOD
From
the day that that first sorrowing pair was driven from
This
great truth is set forth beautifully by the inspired writer of the book of Hebrews wherein
he says, "For every High Priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things
pertaining to God, THAT HE MAY OFFER BOTH GIFTS AND SACRIFICES FOR SINS...for every High
Priest is ordained to OFFER GIFTS AND SACRIFICES: wherefore it is of necessity that this
man HAVE SOMEWHAT ALSO TO OFFER...but Christ being come an High Priest of good things to
come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not
of this building (creation); neither by the blood of goats and calves, but BY HIS OWN
BLOOD HE ENTERED IN ONCE INTO THE HOLY PLACE, having obtained eternal redemption for
us" (Heb. 5:1; 8:3; 9:11,12). If there were no sins against the living God, there
would be no need of a priest. The perfect man Adam in the Garden of Eden needed no priest,
for he was created sinless. Jesus Christ, "the last Adam," was born into a race
of sinners, but He needed no priest, for He had a virgin birth through Mary and His life
was direct from God. He was born sinless and grew up sinless and remained sinless down to
His sacrificial death. Because of His sinlessness He could offer the perfect sacrifice and
become the forerunner and High Priest of the heavenly order.
There
will come an unbelievable transformation to your understanding of God's redemptive plan of
the ages when the revelation of this truth dawns upon your heart teaching you that THE
PRIESTHOOD IS PROGRESSIVE. Its development can be noticed throughout the Scriptures. There
is a beautiful progression from that day when in the beginning every individual man was
his own priest and offered his own sacrifices, as did Adam, Cain, Abel, Noah, Abram, and
others, to a larger priesthood whereby a man became a priest for his family, as did the
patriarch Job, onward to a priesthood for an entire nation of people, as was the Levitical
Priesthood, to that which is personified in Christ, who is the priesthood for the Church
gathered out of all nations, and ultimately shared by those who become ONE IN HIM as
members of the Royal Priesthood destined to reign over the earth and all nations,
reconciling the world and restoring all of creation back into God again. So perhaps we had
best begin at the beginning!
A PRIESTHOOD FOR A MAN
"And
Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord
had respect unto Abel and to his offering" (Gen. 4:4). The worship of God under the
dispensation of conscience and under the patriarchal dispensation was of the simplest
kind. An altar was erected where Abel, Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, or any of the patriarchs
offered the sacrificial lamb. Man could not initiate his salvation. The substitutionary
sacrifices were God's gift to man, foreshadowing the day when the power of man's sin and
death would be fully broken and dealt with by the greater power of God's own life. From
the first promise of the Deliverer, man was given the sacrifice a place, a time to come
and claim in type and by faith God as his salvation. The first recorded coming and
receiving of salvation was that of the son of Adam called Abel. The first order of the
priesthood was that of an INDIVIDUAL PRIESTHOOD in which there was a single sacrifice
offered, one lamb given for one man. Each man was his own priest, making his own sacrifice
to God, approaching and officiating before God on his own behalf one sacrifice FOR one
man, and BY one man. That was the first worship acceptable to God, when Abel offered the
firstfruits of his flock, a lamb, and when shortly afterwards his own blood was mingled
with the sacrifice, because his brother murdered him there.
A PRIESTHOOD FOR A FAMILY
In
the book of Exodus we find the head of the family officiating as priest on behalf of all
who were in his house. "Speak ye unto all the congregation of
Job
was one of the greatest priests of this order. Scarcely any doubt exists that the book of
Job, a divine drama, existed long before Moses was born, and that probably Moses himself,
or some great Hebrew poetic genius, put it into its present sublime form. This wonderful
book records: "There was a man in the
I
would point out that in this second order of priesthood the principle remains the same,
but there has been an EXPANDING OF THE COVERAGE. In the first order it was one sacrifice
for one man by one priest, whereas in the second it is one sacrifice by one priest FOR A
WHOLE FAMILY. Now the priestly ministry has intensified, there is an enlargement of its
scope and an increase in its coverage, so that one priest is so much more effective,
ministering on behalf of, and bringing blessing to, not himself alone, but to ALL THAT ARE
IN HIS HOUSE!
A PRIESTHOOD FOR A NATION
The
third step in the progressive unfolding and development of the priesthood designated one
tribe as separated from the twelve tribes for holy service, and from this one man and his
posterity was to be chosen to be the priesthood on behalf of THE NATION. His name was
Aaron. He was assisted by his sons because of the magnitude of his ministry. Until the law
was given at Sinai, each man was a priest over his own household. But now there is an
entirely new arrangement, the priesthood itself being numerically altered, and the scope
of its ministry extended to embrace the entire nation of
Caiaphas,
being High Priest the year in which Jesus was crucified, said to the chief priests and
Pharisees, "Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us, that
ONE MAN should die for the people, and that the WHOLE NATION perish not. And this spake he
not of himself: but being High Priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for
THAT NATION; and not for that nation only, but that also He should gather together in one
the children of God that were scattered abroad" (Jn. 11:49-52). As one has written:
"Interesting to observe that there is a Spirit that accompanies the office, not
dependent upon the man filling the office. So Caiaphas, being the High Priest that year,
was anointed by the Spirit to prophesy concerning the death of Jesus, that it should be
ONE MAN for a WHOLE NATION, which was the nation of Israel, and not limiting it to those
gathered in the geographical boundaries of the nation, but for all those children of God,
the Israelites which were scattered abroad throughout all the nations" end quote.
For
sixteen centuries the priestly system of Aaron prevailed, like ivy, entwining itself
around the oak of the national life. And it was a more intense and effective priesthood
than the orders which preceded it. Its scope was increased. Its coverage was expanded. Its
ministry was enlarged. Instead of one sacrifice for one man by one priest, or one
sacrifice by one priest for a family, it was now one sacrifice by one priesthood for an
ENTIRE NATION! Every reader should notice especially that with each CHANGE in the order of
the priesthood there is an enlargement, an increase, an expansion of its scope of
ministry, blessing greater and greater numbers of people being included under its
coverage. From the days of Abel to the time of Aaron the coverage of the priesthood saw an
increase from ONE MAN to more than TWO MILLION PEOPLE!
A PRIESTHOOD FOR THE CHURCH
This
brings us to the fourth stage in the progressive unfolding of the priesthood. "If
therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, what further need was there that
another priest should arise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be called after the
order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also
of the law. For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which
no man gave attendance at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of
If
the priesthood is changed, the writer to the Hebrews states, there is also the need to
change the law under which the former priesthood operated. Or we could reverse the
statement, if the law is changed, then there needs to be the changing of the priesthood
also, to bring forth those who are able to minister the life of the new order. Each
priesthood has its own order of laws, the Levitical priesthood was under the ministration
of condemnation and death. The Melchizedek priesthood is of the law of the spirit of life.
We are now in a time of transition, the Melchizedek order of priesthood is executed only
by the HIGH PRIEST AND FORERUNNER of that order, Jesus Christ, for He has entered within
the veil. We have no earthly priest performing our services, but we have a HEAVENLY the
glorious firstborn Son of God and Captain of our salvation. He is the High Priest of OUR
PROFESSION, ministering on OUR BEHALF, as we press forward to apprehend the fullness of
that Melchizedekian Order. There is no filling of this Melchizedek priesthood position
without the total and complete maturity of HIS LIFE bringing FULL REDEMPTION AND
CONFORMATION TO THE LIKENESS OF JESUS CHRIST. Presently we are in the process of
preparation, following in the steps of Christ, "Who in the days of His flesh, when He
had offered up prayers and duplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was
able to save Him from (out of) death, and was heard in that He feared; though He were a
Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; and being made perfect; He
became the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him. Called of God a High
Priest after the order of Melchizedek" (Heb. 5:710).
While
our High Priest ministers this eternal salvation unto us we are possessed of a hope
"which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which
entereth into that within the veil; whither the FORERUNNER is FOR US entered, even Jesus,
made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek" (Heb. 6:19,20). While
manifested on this earth plane, Jesus Christ left us His personal example that we might
follow in His footsteps. It is a way that leads BEYOND THE VEIL into the glories of the
Father. It was necessary that He tread all the course that we might be able to follow all
the way into His divine fullness. HE IS THE WAY unto the Father, and by our union with Him
we find it is first a way of humiliation before it becomes a way of exaltation. Thus we
humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, assured that in due time HE will lift us
up, and we shall live in His sight.
As
we have pointed out earlier in this series, a FORERUNNER is one who goes ahead of others.
He goes ahead as a sample of those who are to follow. Jesus is our FORERUNNER, which
clearly indicates that others are expected to follow on into the same realms of glory.
Christ, a priest forever after the Order of Melchizedek, is our FORERUNNER, He went first,
and where He went, we are to go. The Forerunner blazed the trail all the way, and we
rejoice in this fact, but then He also came back, by HIS SPIRIT, to escort us all the way
into the glory beyond the veil, the glory of a PRIESTHOOD AFTER THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK.
Full well He knows the route, for He has travelled it all the way through to victory, and
now is able to guide us down the same path into the glorious victory which He obtained. It
is HIS daily enabling that gives us strength to carry on until the consummation is
reached.
The
Aaronic priesthood continued until the death, resurrection and ascension of the Christ in
the days of Caiaphas, the High Priest. Then it ended, for the Christ passed within the
veil of the heavenlies and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty of high as the Great
High Priest and took upon Himself the ministry of intercession for the whole
"For
Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and
tongue, and people, and nation" (Rev. 5:9). "For by one Spirit are we ALL
baptized into ONE BODY, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and
have been able to drink into one Spirit" (I Cor. 12:13). "For ye are ALL the
children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. For as many of you as have been baptized into
Christ have put on Christ. There is NEITHER JEW NOR GREEK, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female: for ye are ALL ONE in Christ Jesus. And if ye be
Christ's, THEN are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Gal.
3:26,29). "For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed.
For there is NO DIFFERENCE BE TWEEN THE JEW AND THE GREEK: for the same Lord over ALL is
rich unto ALL that call upon Him" (Rom. 10:11,12). "For ye are dead, and your
life is hid with Christ in God...where there is NEITHER GREEK NOR JEW, circumcision nor
uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is ALL, and IN ALL"
(Col. 3:3,11).
It
is a great fact that Jesus came into the world to save sinners ALL sinners. "I exhort
therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of
thanks, be made for all men...for...God will have ALL MEN to be saved...for there is one
God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom
for ALL, to be testified in due time" (I Tim. 2:1,3,6). Christ Jesus died for the
sins of all sinners; He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but
"also for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD" (I Jn. 2:2). It is also a great fact that
He died to redeem all that Adam lost, "He planned for the maturity of the times and
the climax of the ages to unify ALL THINGS and head them up and consummate them IN CHRIST,
both things in heaven and things on earth" (Eph. 1:10, Amplified).
There
are those who teach and preach that Christ is NOW the High Priest for all peoples, but
that is not true. Throughout this Church age He is the High Priest of His redeemed, blood
washed, Spirit begotten elect ONLY. "For it became Him, for whom are all things, and
by whom are all things, in bringing MANY SONS unto glory, to make the captain of THEIR
salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He that sanctifieth and they who are
sanctified are all OF ONE: for which cause He is not ashamed to call THEM BRETHREN...
wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto HIS BRETHREN, that He might
be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God" (Heb.
2:10,11,17).
Where
we clearly see that Christ is the great High Priest for "the brethren" those who
are sons of God, sanctified, made one in Him, and partakers of the heavenly calling. He is
great High Priest to all who are covered by the blood and who are living stones in the
House of God. "Having therefore, BRETHREN, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the
blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He bath consecrated FOR US, through the
veil...and having an High Priest OVER THE HOUSE OF GOD; let US draw near" (Heb.
10:19,22)
The
High Priestly intercession of the Christ is a dual ministry, as is all priestly ministry,
both Godward and usward: In its Godward aspect we hear His own words: "I pray NOT for
the world" (Jn. 17:9). There is no need of making any mistake about it. With all the
grace we may attribute to Him it is an outstanding fact. Christ does not now pray for the
world, for those who are not His. This is what He says: "I pray not for the world,
but FOR THEM WHICH THOU HAST GIVEN ME" (Jn. 17:9). What a mark of separation from the
world and separation unto Himself there is in that statement and the fact of it! True,
there is a ministry which touches the world through the body of Christ, but the High
Priestly ministry of Jesus is uniquely on behalf of the Church which is His body. The
world shall yet be blessed through a people who are PERFECTED IN HIM, as Jesus said,
"That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also
may be one in us: THAT THEY MAY BELIEVE THAT THOU HAST SENT ME" (Jn. 17:21). When the
Lord turns His hand to save the world it will be a glorious day indeed! But the work of
God today is with US the firstfruits of His redemption, His kings and priests for the ages
yet to come.
What
an amazing fact it is, that He who is the Master of heaven and earth prays for US and
prays in heaven on the throne of the Highest. It is not that He is praying for just the
things we wish, nor even such as we dream we need, but the fact that He is praying for us
is beyond definition of all it demonstrates of interest in, of grace, and care and divine
purpose for us. There is a priesthood yet to arise to rule over the earth and reign over
the nations, but the Christ is now High Priest on behalf of those who have received of HIS
LIFE. It should not be necessary to enlarge on this thought. Nothing could be more
reasonable and just than the fact that Christ is a Son and High Priest over His own house,
"whose house YE ARE" (Heb. 3:6).
Notice
the pronouns in the following verses: "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the
heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of OUR profession" (Heb.3:1).
"Which hope WE have as an anchor of the soul, and which entereth into that within the
veil; whither the forerunner is for US entered, even Jesus..." (Heb. 6:19-20).
"Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: WE have such a High Priest,
who is set on the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens" (Heb. 8:1). "For
Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands...but into heaven itself, NOW
to appear in the presence of God for US" (Heb. 9:24). Ah, all is now for US, not for
the world! "Seeing then that WE have a great High Priest, that is passed into the
heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let US hold fast OUR profession. For WE have not an High
Priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of OUR infirmities; but was in all points
tempted like as WE are, yet without sin. Let US therefore come boldly unto the throne of
grace, that WE may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb.
4:14,16).
"Wherefore
He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever
liveth to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25). Just what does it mean to
"save to the uttermost"? This phrase is given by Phillips as "He can save
fully and completely." Young's Literal, "He is able to save to the very
end." Amplified, "He is able to save to the uttermost completely, perfectly,
finally, and for all time and eternity." As one has pointed out, "The Greek
words used here are most interesting, 'eis to panteles,' or INTO THE ALWAYS. It is only
used twice in the New Testament, here, and one other time, which, while being in the
negative sense, we shall examine anyway, for it helps to bear out the strength and meaning
of the word.
"'And,
behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed
together, and could IN NO WISE lift up.' IN NO WISE could she lift up, it was a complete
bondage, not a single avenue of escape, nor a moment of respite. Always it was ‘bowed
down,' to the uttermost, always. UNTIL Jesus came and brought liberation, and then the
negative had to give way to the positive, and it was His salvation which was then to the
uttermost. Praise God, what is to man an unchangeable situation, and as far as the natural
is concerned will remain that way always, such a state is not impossible to God. The only
permanent, and unchangeable state which is truly eternal, is HIS SALVATION. All sin and
evil shall end, but His life and righteousness shall continue always.” end quote.
The
Greek points out that He is able to save COMPLETELY. He is able to save ALL THE WAY, even
unto the valley of the shadow of death. He is able to save altogether, NOTHING LACKING
complete salvation with no flaw, complete as only a holy and omniscient and omnipotent God
knows completeness and perfection. This "salvation to the uttermost" is a
complete salvation of spirit, soul, and body reserved for those who "come unto God
(the Father) by Him" those who follow all the way into the Holiest, within the veil,
to know HIM in all His glorious and eternal reality. "The
uttermost" is the strongest and the extremist word in all the world. There cannot be
anything beyond the uttermost. The uttermost is situated on the very extremes" rim,
on the very outmost edge, and on the very highest pinnacle of all existing things. It is
the limit, the boundary, the completeness, the perfection, the fullness, the summit, the
apex and the ultimate of all realities. All change absolutely ends, all growth stops, and
all development comes to its everlasting limit, when it comes to its uttermost. Beyond the
uttermost, sheer nothingness or absolute infiniteness exist. We may labor the thought, and
we may repeat and multiply the word, till we are wearied; but after we have done all, we
must always end with this, that the uttermost is just the uttermost; and beyond the
uttermost, neither the experience of man can pass, nor the imagination of man can picture.
Now,
as there is something that is the very uttermost in the world of time, and as there is
something that is the very uttermost in the world of space, so there is something that the
very uttermost in the world of sin and in the world of salvation. It is not given to any
mortal man to know when the uttermost moment of time is to come. "Of that day, and
that hour, knoweth no man: no, not the angels which are in heaven: neither the Son, but
the Father." And as for the uttermost point of space, some men of science are so
perplexed with it as to think that space must be absolutely infinite, like its Creator. And, on the negative side, no more does any man
know what is the uttermost limit of sin and death and misery. Who is the uttermost of all
sinners? Who can tell? But that there is such a sinner somewhere, still sinning on earth,
or saved in heaven, or suffering in hell; and that God knows that sinner, and knows all
about him, all that is quite certain. There is something in that sinner's case, there has
been something in that sinner's career, that conclusively stamps him as the very uttermost
of all sinners everywhere to be found. In God's sight, and in God's judgment, there is
some sinner somewhere, who bears the title: TO THE UTTERMOST. In Paul's day he was
convinced that he was himself that man! "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I AM
CHIEF" (I Tim. 1:15). The Amplified says, "of whom I am foremost," and
Phillips renders, "I was the WORST OF THEM ALL."
With
the release of the mystery of iniquity into the Adamic race, the wickedness of man became
great in the earth, "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually" (Gen. 6:5), and God used a restraining work to hold the upsurge of evil
in check, restraining it according to HIS purpose. The race of Cain was a filthy, sensual
polygamistic race; they were hateful and violent and they were murderers. They were
ignorant and rebellious and would not learn of God. They were boastful and vile in the
extreme, and would have nothing to do with the God who made them. They were the offspring
of a murderer who slew his brother. God knew exactly where their "uttermost" of
wickedness lay, He allowed it to go a certain course for a certain length of time, knowing
full well just how far HE could allow man to express these evil inclinations, and just
where to draw the line. They were so bad that God could not wait for them to die, and
another generation to arise, but in order to reestablish some order on earth He had to
sweep all of them off the earth into hell. At the appropriate moment the spirits of these
wicked men were put in prison as society today puts a criminal in prison; the flood swept
them away into hell and hell restrained the antedeluvians from committing more wrath upon
earth. Their limit, the extremity and fullness of their transgression had been reached.
They had sinned to their "uttermost."
On
the positive side, however, there is a "to the uttermost" SALVATION which leads
to perfection, unto complete and full redemption into the image of God. Not just a
salvation "from" sin and death, but an apprehension unto the
"uttermost" the very fullness of HIS LIFE, the very plenitude of HIS WISDOM, the
very maturity of HIS NATURE, the very perfection of HIS CHARACTER, the very summit of HIS
POWER, the very apex of HIS MAJESTY AND GLORY! In this "salvation to the
uttermost" there is no aspect of man that is left unchanged, no part of man that is
left untransformed, no remaining vestiges of the carnal mind or of sin or death that are
left undealt with, no measure of HIS LIFE that is unappropriated it is victory all the
way, and forever, TO THE UTTERMOST! All the lack, and all that now troubles you, dear one,
shall be taken care of in the glorious and abundant provision of this SALVATION TO THE
UTTERMOST. Praise His name!
Captain
James Cook was a famous English explorer who lived about two hundred years ago. His
adventurous life began when he joined the British navy at the age of 27. He surveyed the
St. Lawrence Channel and the coasts of
Ah
in the spiritual realm just such a desire is arising within a company, those destined to
become God's Kingdom of Priests in the earth, the desire not merely to press on in God
into heights and depths not discovered by those great ones who have blessed this earth
with God's grace and glory and wisdom and power, but indeed to GO AS FAR AS IT IS POSSIBLE
FOR A MAN TO GO IN GOD! What a vision! We are well acquainted with the "in part"
realm, as God anoints men with the Holy Ghost and with power, and their gifts increase and
their ministries expand and many are blessed. But then they die, and while others might
try to carry on their vision, it is never the same again, the movement crystallizes around
the memory of the "part" the ministry possessed, and while they try to
perpetuate it, it finally stagnates and dies. For one thing, every generation needs a NEW
VISION and not a carryover of the old, but in this end of the age God is birthing a SON
COMPANY, a Royal Priesthood, who desire not merely to rebuild and restore the work of God
of yesteryear, be it New Testament Church Order, fivefold ministry, gifts of the Spirit,
or whatever; but we are possessed of a heart to become identified with Jesus Christ behind
the veil, in His Melchizedekian Priesthood, after the power of an endless life, to know
God not just in a measure, but in His fullness, and receiving that ministry which can
proceed through the ages until a full victory is consummated and God is ALL IN ALL.
This
"uttermost" salvation can never be understood apart from our great High Priest
who has secured it and who now ministers it unto us. Paul's letter to the Hebrew believers
sets forth the divine truth concerning our great High Priest. In this epistle the Lord's
priesthood is the main subject, and it is very significant that at the immediate outset of
the epistle the Holy Spirit draws our attention to the dignity of the Person who is now
our great High Priest. "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son.
Whom (His Son) He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds; Who
being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person, and upholding all
things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the
right hand of the Majesty on high; being made so much better than the angels, as He hath
by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they" (Heb. 1:14).
The
Son by whom God has spoken is the brightness of God's glory, the express image of God's
Person. He is the One who at all times is upholding all things by the word of His power.
He Himself purged our sins, and is now seated in the higher heavenlies at the right hand
of God. He was made so much better than the angels, He has obtained a more excellent name
than they, and at His name every knee in heaven, in earth, and under the earth, shall
finally bow to the glory of God. THIS is our great High Priest! This Person, our great
High Priest, is GOD yet He is man! Very God, very man. Therefore, when angels, Moses,
Joshua, Aaron, Isaiah, David, or Solomon are compared with Him they fade into
insignificance and disappear like the fog in early morning when the sun breaks through.
They are lost in His high, surpassing, eternal glory. Most of us think of the WORK of the
Lord Jesus Christ as our High Priest and truly, it is profitable to study and learn all we
can about His office, which He does for us as our great High Priest; but the first thing
the Holy Spirit would have us recognize is HIS PERSON, the Person of Him who, as our High
Priest, is now standing before God on our behalf. His qualifications, His ability and
power to EXECUTE the office of our great High Priest depend entirely upon the character of
His Person. Who WAS He? Who IS He NOW?
There
is nothing ordinary about our Christ. Everything about Him is superlative. His perfection
is far beyond all question. Our Christ is the most powerful among the powerful, the
mightiest among the holy and the holiest among the mighty. With His nail pierced hands He
has lifted empires off their hinges. With the same nail pierced hands He has lifted
prodigals out of the hog pen. Our superlative Christ has turned the stream of time into
new channels. HE MAKETH ALL THINGS NEW! Whatsoever He touches, whatsoever touches HIM,
becomes new. Our Christ governs the ages of the ages, and when we LOOK UNTO HIM we are
changed from glory to glory into the very same image. The LOVE of Christ is unknowable
(Eph. 3:19). The RICHES of Christ are unsearchable (Eph. 3:8). The JOY of our Christ is
unspeakable (I Pet. 1:8). The WAYS of our Christ are untrackable (Rom. 11:33). The GRACE
of Christ is inexhaustible (II Cor. 9:8). The PEACE given by our Christ is unfathomable
(Phil. 4:7). The POWER of the Christ is unlimited (Mat. 28:18). CHRIST HIMSELF is
unsurpassable: "Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like Thee,
glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" (Ex. 15:11).
Ah,
He is unsurpassable, but He says, "The glory which Thou gayest Me I HAVE GIVEN THEM;
I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may
know that Thou hast sent Me, and HAST LOVED THEM, AS Thou hast loved Me" (Jn.
17:22-23). Rev. 3:14 tells us that Jesus is the "beginning of the creation of
God." Which creation? Adam's creation? OF COURSE NOT! "If any man be in Christ,
he is a NEW CREATION" (II Cor. 5:17). Moffatt's translation says, "There is a
NEW CREATION whenever a man comes to be in Christ." And the New English Bible is very
enlightening: "When anyone is united to Christ, there is a NEW HEAVENS and a NEW
EARTH." A new creation! How? By coming INTO CHRIST. For He is the beginning of this
new creation. Before He came, there was the realm of Deity, the angelic sphere, the
demonic world, and the world of Adam's fallen race. Adam was a living soul, of the earth,
earthy. But Christ came to establish something new, and to those that received Him, to
them gave He the privilege to enter into this NEW CREATION WORLD.
None
of Adam's race will ever enter this new world. "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the
The
glory and extent of such a salvation rests in the ability of our great High Priest. A
changing priesthood is sure to have its limitations, but an UNCHANGEABLE priesthood can
proceed to minister until fullness is reached in every part. "The Lord sware and will
not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek: by so much better
was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. And they truly were many priests, because
they were not suffered to continue by reason of death: but this man, because He continueth
ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. WHEREFORE HE IS ABLE TO SAVE THEM TO THE UTTERMOST
that come unto God by Him, seeing He EVER LIVETH to make intercession for them" (Heb.
7:21,25).
As
someone has written, "Herein is another seal of our total redemption! Because HE EVER
LIVETH. Being our Forerunner, it was essential that HE COMPLETE ALL THE JOURNEY INTO
VICTORY, else He could not bring us through to the same goal. The contrast in Hebrews 7,
is that the Levitical priesthood could never finish the job because they did not live long
enough. Always the priest would die, and another would have to take his place. But Christ
having conquered death, ever liveth, and whatever work He begins in us, He is able to
bring to a successful conclusion, regardless of how much time is involved, because He
lives on and on, bless His name. He is Lord, both of the dead and the living, and He can
make intercession. The Greek for 'intercession' means TO CONVERSE WITH, HAVE DEALINGS
WITH, TO MEET WITH for us, until He has saved us to the uttermost, to the full" end
quote.
Ah,
beloved, does it seem that you shall never overcome the flesh, the world, and the devil,
never live the abundant life, never arrive at perfection or come into the image of God's
Son? Be encouraged, dear ones, for we have a great High Priest who can SAVE TO THE
UTTERMOST because HE EVER LIVETH to make intercession for us, there is never a single
moment in which His priestly action, His watchful care of us, His loving sympathy and
succour, His working in us in the power of our endless life, is not in full operation.
Therefore HE CAN SAVE TO THE UTTERMOST, COMPLETELY, there is no bondage that He cannot
break, no fear that He cannot calm, no sickness that He cannot heal, no pain that He can
not alleviate, no sorrow that He cannot assuage, no trait of Adam's nature that He cannot
slay, no death that He cannot conquer, no victory that He cannot gain. Glory to God! My
earnest prayer is that God shall make this a living hope in the hearts of all who read
these lines.
Salvation
to the UTTERMOST! Someone said that the highest purpose of God in the salvation of the
believer is to bring forth in him the fullest manifestation of Christ in every aspect of
his character. To which Ray Prinzing adds these pertinent words: "Is that your
desire? That God might bring forth in you the very fullest manifestation of Himself? There
are times when our mind staggers under the impact of such a realm in God, but we say this,
'while presently I cannot grasp it all, whatever God means by it, that's what I desire.'
Surely we would not limit our salvation to the scope of what the natural, finite mind can
comprehend. Rather, we desire that which is above and beyond all that we can ask or think
even that which is purposed in the heart of God. Christ didn't and couldn't procure a
partial, an ineffective and unproductive salvation for men at
The
great Italian sculptor, Benvenuto Cellini, told of receiving a vast block of marble with
one flaw. Because of this flaw, no artist would submit a design except one. In the public
How
precious is this thought, we are not BECOMING because we are so capable, wise, strong, or
deserving. Ah, we have nothing but the barrenness, the weakness, the unprofitableness, the
unworthiness and nothingness of a vessel all flawed and scarred and marred by sin and
selfhood, that's all we have to offer Him, but it becomes the arena for the operation of
God's quickening, vivifying power. HE is able to bring forth a new life, glorious
salvation unto the uttermost, praise His name. A full salvation and exaltation unto the
celestials. Indeed to the UTTERMOST. The progress summarized is, therefore:
A
priesthood for a man
A priesthood for a family
A priesthood for a nation
A priesthood for the Church.
But
that is not all, for there shall yet be revealed in the progressive unfolding of
redemption's plan:
A
PRIESTHOOD FOR THE NATIONS and
A PRIESTHOOD FOR CREATION
This
priesthood is NOW IN PREPARATION. When our great High Priest has completed His work within
us, He will PLACE US as His King Priests into His Kingdom Authority, and the world shall
know that a NEW ORDER has begun. While we shall yet reign with Him as priests over
creation, we rejoice that He now reigns over us by His Spirit to bring forth His FULL
SALVATION. "And unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without
sin unto salvation" (Heb. 9:28). Only when His priestly work is fulfilled IN US will
we be qualified as priests of the Melchizedekian Order to bring deliverance and life to
ALL CREATION.
Chapter 15
THE
EXPANDING PRIESTHOOD
There
will come an unbelievable transformation to your understanding of God's redemptive plan of
the ages when the revelation dawns upon your seeking hearts, teaching you that THE
PRIESTHOOD IS PROGRESSIVE. Its development can be noticed throughout the Scriptures. There
is a beautiful progression from that day when in the beginning every individual man was
his own priest and offered his own sacrifices, as did Adam, Cain, Abel, Noah, Abram, and
others, to a larger priesthood whereby a man became a priest for his family, as did the
patriarch Job, onward to a priesthood for an entire nation of people, as was the Levitical
Priesthood, to that which is embodied in Christ, who is the priesthood for the Church
gathered out of all nations, and ultimately shared by those who become ONE IN HIM as
members of the Royal Priesthood destined to reign over the earth and all nations,
reconciling the world and restoring all creation back into God again. So perhaps we had
best begin at the beginning!
The
first order of the priesthood was that of an INDIVIDUAL PRIESTHOOD in which there was a
single sacrifice offered, one lamb given for one man. Each man was his own priest, making
his own sacrifice to God, approaching and officiating before God on his own behalf, one
sacrifice FOR one man, and BY one man. That was the first worship acceptable to God, when
Abel offered the firstfruits of his flock, a lamb, and when shortly thereafter his own
blood was mingled with the sacrifice, because his brother murdered him there.
In
the book of Exodus we find the head of the family officiating as a priest on behalf of all
who were in his house. "Speak ye unto all the congregation of
I
would point out that in this second order of priesthood the principle remains the same,
but there has been an EXPANDING OF THE COVERAGE. In the first order it was one sacrifice
for one man by one priest, whereas in the second it is one sacrifice by one priest FOR A
WHOLE FAMILY. Now the priestly ministry has intensified, there is an enlargement of its
scope and an increase in its coverage, so that one priest is so much more effective,
ministering on behalf of, and bringing blessing to, not himself alone, but to ALL THAT ARE
IN HIS HOUSE!
The
third step in the progressive unfolding and development of the priesthood designated one
tribe as separated from the twelve tribes for holy service, and from this one man and his
posterity was to be chosen to be the priesthood on behalf of THE NATION. His name was
Aaron. He was assisted by his sons because of the magnitude of his ministry. Until the law
was given at Sinai, each man was a priest over his own household. But now there is an
entirely new arrangement, the priesthood itself being numerically altered, and the scope
of its ministry extended to embrace the entire nation of
This
brings us to the fourth stage in the progressive unfolding of the priesthood. The Aaronic
priesthood continued until the death, resurrection and ascension of the Christ in the days
of Caiaphas, the High Priest. Then it ended, for the Christ passed within the veil of the
heavenlies and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high as the Great High Priest
and took upon Himself the ministry of intercession for the whole
A PRIESTHOOD FOR THE NATIONS
In
the program of God's redeeming purposes, given in Acts 15:14-18, James tells us that the
work of God among the nations in this dispensation is "to take OUT OF THEM a people
for His name." This, dear reader, is the direct work of the Gospel in this age, and
with this program the history of the past nineteen hundred years is in the fullest and
most striking harmony. This is precisely what has happened. In every generation God has
been "taking out" a people. This is the very meaning of the word
“church" the "called out". God is not calling all people now, nor is
He now converting the nations. He is taking out a people FOR HIS NAME that is, a people to
bear the name of Christ, the inChristed that in ages yet to come these elect saints shall
rule the world and gather all things in earth and heaven into our wonderful Lord and
Saviour (Eph. 1:10).
As
one has written: "During the centuries of the Church age many wonderful revivals have
taken place. Multitudes of mankind have wept in repentance and contrition at the feet of
the Saviour and, being begotten of Him, they rose to walk in newness of life, justified by
faith in His blood, but up to the present hour all we have seen has been the gathering of
the elect, the sonship company, who at the end of the age stand complete in Christ as His
body of King Priests for the blessing of all nations and peoples. While these multitudes
were being gathered into the fold, unnumbered millions, yea, even billions, have walked in
outer darkness living and dying without even once hearing the message of salvation or ever
knowing that the true God existed or that He so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
But was that not to be expected? Most certainly it was, for had God intended to enlighten
the heathen in this age, His omnipotent power could have done so ten thousand times over,
opening their blind eyes and transforming their hearts in a moment of time."
After
more than nineteen centuries of the preaching of the Gospel, the body of Christ is yet
"a little flock" in comparison with the great world that still "lieth in
the evil one" (I Jn. 5:19). "The god of this world" (age) still holds sway
over the vast proportion of human hearts and lives. For more than nineteen centuries we
have had the Gospel of the grace of God in Europe, and still the vast mass of the men of
Truly
the problems which are confronting the nations today seem almost overwhelming in their
immensity and complexity. We have economic stagnation, runaway inflation, racial tension,
immorality, pollution, drugs, rebellion, crime, revolution, atheism, war armed, bristling
and aggressive, with enough atomic and hydrogen bombs stockpiled to blow this planet and
twenty more like it into oblivion. Since 1945 Communism has gobbled up five hundred square
miles of this earth's territory every single day and continues to grow at an alarming
rate. We have problems that are baffling and overwhelming. Certainly every thinking person
must ask himself the question: What in the world can we do?
The
Apostle Paul faced similar problems at the beginning of the Church age. The Roman world
was pregnant with difficulties; the Pax Romana was weakening; the barbarians were
clamoring at the gates of
They
were dark also in the heart of Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee and the son of a Pharisee. He
came in religious zeal breathing threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the
Lord. He was a man who was filled with indignity, and hostility and bitterness. If he
found any Christians, men or women, he sought to bind them and bring them to
In
that moment Saul saw a vision that was to change his entire life. Everything was changed
in the brilliance of that light. His world was turned upside down, rather, right side up!
His right, he discovered, was wrong; his faith was unbelief; his earnestness was treason;
his truth was error; his zeal was rebellion. Everything suddenly turned topsy turvy and he
realized that this Jesus, whose name just a moment before had been an epithet, an object
of derision, of laughter, of scorn, of hatred, now suddenly was the Lord of Glory, the All
Holy One, the Altogether Lovely One, the Creator and Redeemer of the world! In that moment
Saul was changed from the persecutor to a disciple. He fell to the ground a sinner, and
rose a saint; he fell to the ground a sighted man who was blind, and rose a blind man who
could see. He saw the greatest sight in all the world. He saw his God for who He really
is. In that moment Saul bowed low before the God of grace and power; he was brought to
submission to Jesus Christ. And through Paul's life and ministry the Church was
established throughout the far-flung Empire and the course of history was forever altered.
Skeptics down through the centuries have tried to explain that conversion and the dramatic
events it precipitated. But, precious friend of mine, there is no explanation other than
the SUPERNATURAL SOVEREIGN WORK OF GOD. That is our God. And I do not hesitate to tell
you, beloved, that God is getting ready to move again! All over the world in this
particular moment in history, the Spirit of God is speaking to His apprehended ones
concerning the imminent manifestation of the sons of God The trumpet has sounded, the
appointed time has come. Elect saints in every nation have heard the voice of the
prophets, foretelling of this most awesome intervention of God's power that is about to
sweep the earth and shake all nations.
We
are now living in the most momentous hours anyone could possibly imagine. In fact it is
beyond the power of human imagination to see and understand the greatness of the things
that are happening all about us and to fully comprehend what God is beginning to do in His
people. There is an AWAKENING among the elect of the Lord that transcends human knowledge.
As at a certain time of the year God puts it into the minds of salmon to leave the
vastnesses of the sea and start their long journey back to the river in which they were
hatched, so He is putting into the hearts of a chosen people the desire to ready
themselves for the sonship. He has prepared for them from the foundation of the world. He
is putting in their minds and hearts the very nature and spirit of priesthood, in
preparation for their role as the deliverers and shepherds of the nations.
Many
years ago I was assailed by a strong temptation to pessimism. The fact that for more than
nineteen hundred years only a few in each generation had turned to Christ became a
terrible burden to me. The thought that this same progress might continue for centuries or
milleniums to come became heartbreaking and intolerable, and I cried out mightily to God.
This Study, and my ministry on its theme for many years, forms the answer to my prayer.
Now the future is radiant for me because I see a brighter day coming for the Church and
for this sincursed world. The history of the past is not to be indefinitely prolonged. We
are not to have interminable ages in the future in which a "few" only will be
saved and the masses lost. I say on the authority of the Word of God and the revelation
unfolded within the hearts of many thousands of God's elect in this hour that the next
great event on the calendar of God's program of the ages is the MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS
OF GOD the unveiling of God's Kingdom of Priests before all nations!
Great
were the glories seen by men like Noah, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, David and Soloman. Glorious
were the manifestations of God's power that swept the Judean hills when our Lord spoke as
never man spoke and healed, and cast out devils, and even raised the dead to life again.
Sublime beyond explanation were the holy visitations at Pentecost and in the years that
followed as multitudes, both of men and women, were brought to the feet of Jesus Christ,
and by the hands of the apostles God wrought mighty miracles and special signs and wonders
until the world was literally turned upside down with the glory of the heavenly
visitation. It would have been wonderful to have dwelt there then and to have rejoiced
with them for all the wonderful works of God. Marvelous beyond description were the works
of God as He birthed His infant Church! Blessed as were all those things and marvelous as
were the results, yet more glorious still is the hope pulsating within the breast of all
creation as "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now,
for the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF
GOD Because the creation itself ALSO shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the children of God" (Rom. 8:19, 21,22). As J. B.
Phillips so beautifully renders, "The whole creation is on tip toe to see the
wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own."
The
supernal glories that lie like the towering
It
is through saved INDIVIDUALS that God now reaches and saves INDIVIDUALS out of all
nations, but it will be a glorious enlargement of the work of Christ when He reaches and
saves THE NATIONS through A NATION that He has saved and formed into a royal kingdom of
priests. "But YE are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, AN HOLY NATION, a
peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of
darkness into His marvelous light" (I Pet. 2:9). My prayer to God is that the eyes of
God's elect may be opened wide to see that as there has been a priesthood for the Church,
even our Lord Jesus Christ, so there is a priesthood, gathered out of all nations, and
ordained for the nations, to bring the living nations of earth with their teeming billions
of inhabitants into the life and light and liberty of the Kingdom of God.
The
glorious vision beheld by the beloved John while caught up in spirit into the realm of
God's throne fills my mind and heart, and makes me an optimist in the midst of apostasy
and darkness. His vision caught a glimpse of things far beyond the law with its bondage
and far beyond the Church age in which we live. John saw these wonders and lifted his pen
and wrote in ecstacy these immortal words: "And he that overcometh, and keepeth My
works unto the end, to him will I give POWER OVER THE NATIONS: and he shall RULE THEM with
a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I
received of My Father" (Rev. 2:26-27). Again, "To him that overcometh will I
grant to SIT WITH ME IN MY THRONE, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father
in His throne" (Rev. 3:21). And then with transfixed eyes John beheld in wonder as
the four living creatures (kings) and the twenty four elders (priests) fell down before
the Lamb and sung a new song, saying, "Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open
the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of
every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God KINGS AND
PRIESTS: AND WE SHALL REIGN OVER THE EARTH" (Rev. 5:9-10). Yes, and, glory be to God,
many thousands of souls now living and waiting are taking up the glad refrain, for they
know by revelation from the throne, that God's Royal Priesthood shall indeed reign over
the earth and over all nations and that the inhabitants of the earth shall not much longer
endure the misrule and treachery of ages past. The six milleniums of human injustice will
be ended, and that forever. The Lord with His inChristed saints will reign over the
nations of earth. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon
the throne of David to order and establish it with justice and judgment from this time
forth, even unto the age. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
The
concern of the Lord Jesus has been toward the nations ever since He came the first time.
Probably the most powerful and far-reaching word ever spoken is recorded in the second
Psalm. It is God's Word to His Anointed Son when He promised Him His inheritance: THIS
EARTH. The sweet singer of
Consider
what Jesus told His disciples to do among the nations: "Jesus approached and breaking
the silence said to them, All authority, all power to rule, in heaven and on earth has
been given to Me. Go then and MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL THE NATIONS, baptizing them into the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Mat. 28:18-19, Amplified
Bible). But that is not quite what the Greek text says. In the Greek He did not say,
"make disciples OF;" there is no substantive in the command except nations. The
Greek English Interlinear reads: "Going forth disciple you ALL THE NATIONS." The
command includes a far larger enterprise that that of bringing individual souls to
Himself, or establishing the Church in every place. It is a command to influence all the
nations toward His will and His ways, yea, to subdue and subject them UNTO HIM.
The
Greek word for nation is ETHNOS and occurs in the Greek New Testament a total of 164
times. We derive our word "ethnic" from this word. It doesn't mean
"country" (a political boundary) like we do when we think of a nation, but means
a race, a tribe, or a group of people who share the same culture, language, and geography.
There are over 220 nations with governments in the world today, but there are many more
nations as God reckons nations (ethnos). The sons of God are to rule not just over the 220
countries, but over the SIXTEEN THOUSAND NATIONS (ethnic groups) of the world!
My
prayer is that the Holy Spirit will open the eyes of our understanding that we might see
the truth as the Psalmist saw it when he said, "Say unto God, How terrible art Thou
in Thy works! THROUGH THE GREATNESS OF THY POWER SHALL THINE ENEMIES SUBMIT THEMSELVES
UNTO THEE. ALL THE EARTH SHALL WORSHIP THEE, and shall sing unto Thee; they shall sing
unto Thy name. Selah. HE RULETH BY HIS POWER FOREVER; His eyes behold THE NATIONS: let not
the rebellious exalt themselves" (Ps. 66:17). David expressed this truth in a prayer
for Solomon, which is prophetic of the reign of Christ, in that magnificent Psalm 72:
"Yea, ALL KINGS shall fall down before Him: ALL NATIONS shall serve Him ...ALL
NATIONS shall call Him blessed." It is further written, "ALL NATIONS whom Thou
hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord; and shall glorify Thy name"
(Ps. 86:9). Please notice, precious friend of mine, that it is not the Church, not merely
men OUT OF all nations that shall serve the Lord; but ALL THE NATIONS THEMSELVES shall
submit unto Him. What a promise! What a day! It has never been since the foundation of the
world. Today, all nations do not serve Him and sing unto Him and praise and glorify His
name.
Psalm
67 is a prophecy foretelling the future joy of mankind when they behold the blessings of
the
"In
thee and in thy seed shall ALL THE FAMILIES (the 16,000 "ethnos") OF THE EARTH
BE BLESSED," is the covenant made with Abraham in that long ago. Since God has
promised to bless all mankind, we can rest assured that they will be blessed! This design
of our omnipotent Father to bless mankind with peace, happiness, and LIFE is the great
theme song of the entire Bible. Its first faint notes are heard in promises recorded in
the early chapters of Genesis, and it reaches its grand crescendo in the closing chapters
of Revelation, where we are given the assurance that "there shall be no more
death," and where we are told of God's wonderful provision for the "healing of
THE NATIONS" (Rev. 21:4; 22:12).
Can
you not see what a vital, transforming difference is made to your understanding when you
see God's purpose behind the Church, His purpose extending to all nations and peoples. God
would much rather see the faces of all peoples lifted up to Him, praising Him, and the
hands of all races and tribes lifted up to Him in worship, than to go about eternally
destroying all the people. Jesus said that He did not come to condemn THE WORLD, but that
THE WORLD through Him might be saved. As surely as you live, and as surely as God lives,
the words of the prophets shall be fulfilled: "Arise, O God, judge the earth: for
Thou shalt INHERIT ALL NATIONS" (Ps. 82:8). "ALL NATIONS whom Thou hast made
shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord; and shall glorify Thy name" (Ps. 86:9).
"And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain (kingdom) of the
Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above
the hills; and ALL NATIONS shall flow into it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye,
and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He
will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of
I
do not think it necessary here to multiply Scripture to prove that God intends to subdue
and save all the nations and fill the whole earth with His glory until all men see the
salvation of the Lord which He has prepared before the face of all people. While it has
not been God's intention to save the nations during this Church age, He has, nevertheless,
given abundant proof of His ability to do so. Church history is replete with examples of
how the Spirit of God has moved in sundry places with such mighty power that whole nations
and entire societies have been transformed by His grace. It should be abundantly evident
that God has given us these unique examples as SPECIMENS of what He can do when He sets
His hand to conquer a people for His Kingdom. As I have read of the marvelous dealings of
God with peoples and nations in the past I am deeply moved, and how my spirit rejoices in
all these things! They teach me, first of all, that God CAN SAVE NATIONS and they further
reveal that when His instrument is prepared, He WILL DELIVER ALL THE NATIONS. How our
hearts should be encouraged by these things! If God has ever, anywhere, saved A NATION,
then He is abundantly able to save ALL NATIONS. Let us bear these thoughts in mind as I
share with you some of the beautiful examples of God's glory revealed on the national
plane.
I
think the life of St. Patrick will come as a great surprise and astonishment to many, when
we consider St. Patrick, the Roman Catholic patron saint of
One
who has studied the life of St. Patrick wrote: "St. Patrick was born a long time ago
in the year 389 AD And most scholars agree that he was born on the west coast of what was
then Roman Britain, just south of
"One
day Patricius, or Patrick, tells us about playing with two other boys on the beach and
spending the afternoon in the breakers as they swept up onto the long crescent beach and
climbing over the rocks there at Bannavem, where he lived. Afterwards, sitting in the
mouth of a cave, planning an escapade for the morrow, all of a sudden, they saw a band of
freebooters and pirates coming around the headland. They sprang to their feet to flee in
the opposite direction, and as Patrick says, they rushed incontinently into the arms of
the other half of the pirate group. They were bound and dragged on board their ship with
several hundred other young men and women, and taken away to
"In the midst of his dreadful solitude, he
lifted up his eyes to that God and wondered how he might find Him. And he remembered the
stories he had so often heard about the Son whom God had sent into this world, Jesus, who
had come in a far away corner of the
"Patrick,
in truth, became a saint. Not canonized by any Church, but made a saint by God, sanctified
and set aside by the Holy Spirit. His heart was transformed and he became a new creature
in Christ Jesus. By faith in the Redeemer, this young man in the depths and darkness of
the forests of
"After
six years he had a dream one night. In that dream he had a vision and a voice said, 'Lo,
thy ship is ready!' The next morning he fled his captors and staggered two hundred miles
through the dense
"So
he confronted the Druid kings and priests and he overwhelmed them with the power of the
Gospel. And so mighty was his missionary endeavor that he crossed
"The
Encyclopedia Britannica declares that Patrick himself baptized one hundred and twenty
thousand persons. That is incredible, when we realize that the population of all of
"He
established over three hundred Churches and yet, the Church that he established was very
different from the Roman Church of the Middle Ages. In fact, it was not until the year
1167 that Henry II sent five thousand iron clad Papal soldiers to
Ah,
yes, when God has prepared His vessel He is perfectly capable of converting an ENTIRE
NATION to Himself. In the light of this truth how awesome is the prospect of a great
many-membered body of matured, perfected, overcoming, incorruptible SONS OF GOD being
given authority and power over ALL NATIONS AND TRIBES AND PEOPLES in the coming age! The
Scriptures contain marvelous promises for the nations and when He is ready to reveal
Himself to them, and has His instrument prepared, we shall witness a move and
manifestation of God that shall shake the whole earth under the explosion of the power of
God. Glory to God!
In
the 1500's a man by the name of John Knox went into a garden in
Mary
Queen of Scots said that she feared the face of John Knox more than ten thousand ships. It
was because he was not afraid. He would come into her castle at a time when she was trying
and condemning as heretics people all over
In
Knox's day all of
Jessie
Penn Lewis has recorded the history of the great revival that swept through the country of
Wales in 1902-1905. In an hour of great apostasy and degeneracy many hundreds of people
began to fervently pray for God to move in that land. After many months the windows of
heaven were opened and the Holy Spirit swept as an overflowing stream over a huge
gathering of five thousand men and women, many of them came from distant parts of the
earth to seek the power of the Holy Ghost. The presence of the Spirit in the meetings was
like the "wind" moving upon the people. The meetings would be closed two or
three times but others would cry for mercy or break out in joyful thanksgiving. Strong men
and women wept under the power of God. The young people flocked to the services, prayers
flowing spontaneously from their lips like water from the spring. There was no forcing, no
urging, not even any inviting, spontaneity characterized the proceedings from beginning to
end. Soon all the Churches were crowded, the valleys and the mountains ringing with the
high praises of God. The people sang without books, and often would be heard a sweet
warbling voice like a nightingale's trill breaking out into a hymn while the people bowed
in prayer. Souls were sung to Christ, and exulted over in song when won. The spirit of
gladness and praise filled all hearts, as thousands rejoiced in the marvelous works of
God.
The
revival was characterized by a profound spirit of repentance, which is the first principle
of the
Far
and wide the influences spread, affecting all classes. Political meetings had to be
postponed, and Members of Parliament were out taking part in "revival meetings".
Football teams were disbanded because all the men had been converted, and would rather be
out "about the Father's business." From one district a Theatrical Company folded
up, as there was no hope of audiences, for all the "world" was praying.
The
mighty tidal wave swept hither and thither, men knew not how or why. The Spirit of God
found His own channels; and many districts had extraordinary manifestations of the power
of God. Lists of converts were sent to the newspapers, the number reaching nearly 100,000
by the end of March, 1905. Many of the young people were thrust out by the Lord to share
in the service, and the numbers grew. Visitors from all parts of
INDIANS
It
is amazing to see a brutal people in
These
great exploits were all wrought by men of like passions as we are, but sublime beyond
imagination will be the glory that shall be revealed among ALL NATIONS when the glorified
sons of God arise to take the reins of the government of the world. We have had a glimpse
of what it is like for an individual to be filled with God's glory and power. A man or
woman like that can, as Jesus did, shake a city or even a nation. But what if the entire
body of THE HOUSE OF SONS is filled with the glory? What will happen to this earth when
the sons of God are filled with the fullness of which we, in this Church age, have
received merely the "firstfruits"?
Ah,
beloved saint of God, the sons of God shall arise and soar to victory all over this
planet. There will be no need for a "pretribulation escape rapture". The reason
some people still hope for a rapture to take us out of the world alive, is that they
simply do not have a vision of this glorious body of Christ full of HIS life and power and
victory! Every hamlet, every village, every city, every province, every nation will feel
the impact of the resurrection life of Jesus Christ. The knowledge of His glory will cover
the earth as the waters cover the sea. This victory of Christ on earth will be repeated
over and over again until every enemy is put under our feet. All creation shall know the
Christ of God, to the glory of God the Father! Hallelujah!
In
closing this article I would remind my reader that in this wonderful PRIESTHOOD FOR THE
NATIONS there is once more an EXPANDING OF THE COVERAGE OF THE PRIESTHOOD. In the first
order it was one sacrifice for one man by one priest, whereas in the second it was one
sacrifice by one priest for a whole family. In the third order it was one sacrifice by one
priesthood for an entire nation, while in the fourth order it is one sacrifice by one
priest for the whole
Chapter 16
THE
EXPANDING PRIESTHOOD
(continued)
It
is through saved INDIVIDUALS that God now reaches and saves INDIVIDUALS out of all
nations, but it will be a glorious enlargement of the work of Christ when He reaches and
saves THE NATIONS through A NATION that He has saved and formed into a royal kingdom of
priests. "But YE are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, AN HOLY NATION, a
peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of
darkness into His marvelous light" (I Pet. 2:9). My prayer to God is that the eyes of
God's elect may be opened wide to see that as there has been a priesthood for the Church,
our Lord Jesus Christ, so is there a priesthood, gathered out of all nations, and ordained
for the nations, to bring the living nations on earth with their teeming billions of
inhabitants into the life and light and liberty of the Kingdom of God.
The
glorious vision beheld by the beloved John while caught up in Spirit into the realm of
God's throne fills my mind and heart, and makes me an optimist in the midst of apostasy
and darkness. His vision caught a glimpse of things far beyond the law with its bondage
and far beyond the Church age in which we live. John saw these wonders and lifted his pen
and in ecstacy wrote these immortal words: "And he that overcometh, and keepeth My
works unto the end, to him will I give POWER OVER THE NATIONS: and he shall RULE THEM with
a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I
received of My Father" (Rev. 2:26,27). Again, "To him that overcometh will I
grant to SIT WITH ME IN MY THRONE, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father
in His throne" (Rev. 3:21). And then with transfixed eyes John beheld in astonishment
as the four living creatures (kings) and the twenty-four elders (priests) fell down before
the Lamb and sung a new song, saying, "Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open
the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of
every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God KINGS AND
PRIESTS: AND WE SHALL REIGN ON THE EARTH" (Rev. 5:9-10). Yes, and glory be to God!
many thousands of souls now living and waiting are taking up the glad refrain, for they
know by revelation from the throne, that God's Royal Priesthood shall indeed reign over
the earth and over all nations, and that the inhabitants of earth shall not much longer
endure the misrule and treachery of ages past. The six milleniums of human injustice will
be ended, and that forever. The Lord with His inChristed saints will reign with power over
the nations of earth. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end,
upon the throne of David to order and establish it with justice and judgment from this
time forward, even unto the age. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
GOD'S PROGRAM FOR THE AGES
Have
you ever wondered why Christ came? Ask the average Christian, and the most common answers
are: to save us, to redeem His people, to give us eternal life, or to take us to heaven.
But few will remember God's purpose in sending His Son that the government might be upon
His shoulders (Isa. 9:6) and that Christ should rule and reign over the affairs of men and
nations (Isa.9:7) until all nations serve and worship Him (Ps. 86:9). This national
message of the Bible is one of the most neglected themes of the religious systems. It is
possible erroneously to limit God and His program of redemption to narrow personal and
individualistic interpretation. In the light of such a profound array of scriptures as
those we have just considered, I am at a complete loss to understand how anyone who knows
God at all could fail to grasp the living hope that a radiant age of splendor, in which
Christ and His glorious body shall rule and reign and subdue all enemies and all nations
and all things unto God, is coming. A careful study of the Scriptures reveals an outline
of the progressive expansion of the priesthood; its headings are:
1.
In Genesis we have the Priesthood for the Individual.
2. In Exodus and Job we have the Priesthood for the Household.
3. In Exodus and Leviticus the Priesthood for the Nation.
4. In Hebrews the Priesthood for the Church.
5. In Revelation the Priesthood for the Nation.
6. In
"Simeon
hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles (nations), to take out of them a
people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After
this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down;
and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: that the residue of men
might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles (nations), upon whom My name is called,
saith the Lord, who doeth all these things" (Acts 15:14,17). We have here the
sequence of events as to how God shall carry out His program of reconciliation and
redemption. Peter has declared before the Council at
This
is the blessed ministry of God's Royal Priesthood in its ever increasing and widening
circles, reaching out until God shall be ALL IN ALL. How we need to stay in line with
God's priorities! The entire Church age has been set aside, not in the vain and deceptive
hope of the conversion of the world, but for the distinct purpose of "calling out a
people for His name." When this people, HIS NAME COMPANY, is brought forth they will
stand in the earth as the manifestation of the restored TABERNACLE OF DAVID.
THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID
"In
that day will I raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches
thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: that
they may possess...ALL THE HEATHEN (Heb., nations), which are called by My name, saith the
Lord that doeth this" Amos 9.11-12). "After this I will return, and will build
again the Tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins
thereof, and I will set it up" (Acts 15:16). "And the Lord will create upon
every dwelling place of
David
became king of
At
this time the city of
After
the fortress on
Now
that the land was free, David thought that the time had come to bring the holy Ark of the
Lord out from its hiding place, where it had remained all through the rule of Samuel and
the reign of Saul. Though God had given great and glorious victories on the battlefield,
yet
The
presence of God this Ark of the Covenant had to be restored! The glory of God this Ark of
the Covenant had to be restored! The power of God this Ark of the Covenant had to be
restored! The people of
David,
by bringing back the Ark of the Covenant, restored the POWER OF GOD'S PRESENCE AND GLORY
to
The
Outer Court of Moses Tabernacle was pitched at
When
the
David
was king over natural
Priests
after the order of Melchizedek. They are the fullness and completeness of Him who
everywhere fills the universe with Himself. These are the 144,000 who stand with the Lamb
upon the heavenly
This
is why David said of
In
the Tabernacle of David pitched on
There
is a wonderful prophecy found in Isa. 60:1-22 which shows that it is out of His ZION
PEOPLE that God shall shine in the perfection of beauty, and this shining shall result in
the salvation and restoration of all the nations of earth. "Arise, shine, for thy
light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness
shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee,
and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And THE GENTILES (NATIONS) SHALL COME TO THY LIGHT,
AND KINGS TO THE BRIGHTNESS OF THY RISING. Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all
they gather themselves together, they come to thee: the abundance of the sea (unconverted
masses of the nations) shall be converted unto thee, the forces (powers) of the Gentiles
(nations) SHALL COME UNTO THEE...and they shall call THEE, THE CITY OF THE LORD, THE ZION
OF THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL." THIS is the Tabernacle that God has promised to restore!
How wonderful it is!
James,
speaking under the inspiration of the Spirit, quotes from the book of the prophet Amos. He
speaks of the restoration of the Tabernacle of David, the building up of a glorious
habitation for the Spirit of God, to bring a mighty harvest of souls to Christ. Under the
unction of the Holy Spirit, James, together with all of the Old Testament prophets, looks
down the corridors of time to an age when there will be a complete restoration of the
Tabernacle of David as a dwelling place of God's presence "...that the RESIDUE
(remainder) of men might seek after the Lord, and ALL THE GENTILES (NATIONS) upon whom My
name is called, saith the Lord" (Acts 15:17). This is really what the restoration of
the Tabernacle of David is all about. Not the pitching of a tent on a hill in a faraway
land. But the manifestation of the fullness of the power and presence and glory of God in
His people before the face of all the nations. Not for our own benefit or blessing or
glory, but for the blessing of ALL THE NATIONS of the world.
"In
that day I will raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen...behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him
that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall
melt" (Amos 9:11,13). As a physical phenomenon, the plowman overtaking the reaper is
an impossibility. No natural seed grows that quickly, but there is a seed, which when
watered sufficiently by the rain from heaven, will. That seed is "the Word of the
Kingdom", the Word of the living God (Mat. 13:19). Thus the prophet is speaking of
the sowing of the Word of the Kingdom, and an ingathering of souls, and the fruit of
righteousness among all nations. And this is exactly how James uses this prophecy in Acts
15:16. Not only is a quick harvest foretold, but MANY HARVESTS, one upon another, until
the Kingdom of God is filled and running over with multitudes of men who are in turn
filled and running over with the fruit of the Spirit of God!
In
the same way, no one has seen a mountain dropping sweet wine. In the Bible, mountains
often speak of the strong kingdoms of men. In the restoration of David's Tabernacle, God
will turn these into "sweet wine" into glorious victory filled and overflowing
with the joy and revelation of God. Likewise, the melting hills speak of even the lesser
institutions of man being flattened out by the power of the Lord, subdued unto the Christ
The hills that were dry and barren shall be moistened with grace and shall melt with the
fatness and mellowness of His Spirit. Ah, these are SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS, all the peoples
of the earth shall have the bread of life to quicken their hearts, and the wine of divine
revelation to make them glad meat indeed and drink indeed all the benefit that comes to
the souls of men from the Word and the Spirit of God. The Amplified Bible interprets these
promises as spiritual blessings, adding to verse thirteen, "that is, everything
heretofore barren and unfruitful shall overflow with spiritual blessing." Bless HIS
name!
Today's
spiritual signposts point to the fact that God is doing, as He promised, "a NEW
THING." There is coming, in this generation, a manifestation of God in His sons, an
unveiling, a shining forth of His incorruptible life and power, and a harvest of souls and
nations turning to God such as has never been experienced before in all history. This is
the promise of David's Tabernacle. This is the hope of the manifestation of the sons of
God. This vital truth unlocks the key to the house of David (Isa. 22:22; Rev. 3:7).
GOD'S MAN FOR THIS HOUR
We
have often been accused of preaching a "futuristic message," and we most humbly
bow our head and acknowledge that it is true. As one has said, "We believe in A LIFE
THAT IS LIVED IN THE NOW, but only with respect to how it relates to that which is yet to
be revealed." And we can say that the vision grows steadily brighter, the overcoming
of today pointing to the reigning of tomorrow. "And he that OVERCOMETH...to him will
I give POWER OVER THE NATIONS: and he shall RULE (shepherd) THEM with a rod of iron; as
the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers" (Rev. 2:26-27). So we keep
examining our priorities, to make sure that we shall be prepared to receive at His
appointed time. We have been blessed TO BE A BLESSING, and we have glimpsed a glory which
is incomparable to anything else. "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed" (Rom.
8:18).
The
"glory that shall be revealed" has nothing in common with the past moves and
revivals as we have known them. Evangelistic Crusades, Missionary Societies, Pentecostal
Outpourings, Latter Rain Revival, Healing and Deliverance Campaigns, Charismatic Renewals,
etc., as they have been labeled, have all been used, in the measure they were of God, to
separate a people unto Himself, to lead them into a process of becoming and apprehending
HIS FULLNESS. But that which lies before us, the manifestation of the sons of God, the
priesthood for the nations, the Tabernacle of David restored, the glory that SHALL BE
revealed, far transcends anything God has ever done in past generations and ages, and
signals the beginning of the RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS, spoken of by the mouth of all His
holy prophets since the world began.
We
have come to a period of the world, and to a condition, for which there are no precedents.
There are no instructions left for guidance in the details of the restoration of all
things, beginning with the deliverance of the nations and their entrance into the
Priests
over the nations. He left that for the Holy Spirit to teach to that elect company of
overcomers who should be the heirs of the
History
faithfully records that when an age destroys itself by sin, national degeneracy or social
corruption, when moral debauchery and social disease gnaw away the vitals of spiritual
life, God creates and raises up from the midst a thundering voice and a mighty deliverer
for that age. When
So
it has always been in the annals of divine history. So it is today. No age in the history
of the world matches in crisis and tragedy, in the debacle of nations, in moral
degeneracy, in the stamping out of individual liberty and freedom, in the germs of
complete destruction of civilization, if not life itself, as the age in which we live. On
any moral chart, on any graph of religious decline, on any diagram of wickedness and
treachery, THIS AGE IS THE HOUR HORRENDOUS. A hundred million of the world's population
yearly, over the past forty years, have lost the last threads of individual freedom and
bowed to godless communist tyranny. Moral lights are going out. Pulpits, established to
herald the
When
God has selected His man, He has ground that man and polished him through the cauldron of
human need and suffering. And when the divine process was completed, the schooling
finished, His lapidary stones for hewing character burnished His man to a bright hue. God
freed His man from the crippling chains of tradition, from timeworn dogma and creed, from
stifling religiosity, and armed him with multifold weapons of spiritual power and might.
Then He lifted him forth to captain the forces of right, a thundering voice of prophetic
power and delivering force. In the darkest hours of human night there has always been the
lighted torch in the hand of GOD'S MAN. So it is today. God is even now preparing a Voice,
a Challenger of the forces of evil, a Vessel of honor and power and mercy and blessing, a
Man to blow a trumpet which will rally the armies of the Lord, stampede the fortresses of
the enemy, invade the gates of hell, break to shivers the oppressors of the nations, and
inaugurate a blessed age of glory and peace and righteousness for ALL MANKIND. The hour
demands it. The measures of bygone generations will not suffice for this day. The very
existence of the planet is at stake. And God has a Man. THIS MAN IS A MANY MEMBERED MAN,
THE SONS OF THE LIVING GOD!
We
think that we have seen some wonderful moves of God, and we have, but we haven't even
scratched the surface, we haven't seen anything yet that faintly resembles the Glorious
things God will do in the momentous days that lie before us. With all its multiplied
missionary programs, the Church has not yet even started on world evangelization. God is
laying a groundwork and processing, preparing, equipping, and empowering His people for
the coming invasion of all the world. He must do something unprecedented for us first, so
that we will be ready. We don't have all that we need for this great work, but God is
quickening us for it. We still put too much dependence in money, methods, and materials,
but God is challenging us to move out of that and into HIS REALM.
Methinks
HIS REALM will be something like this. The word came to Phillip the evangelist in
Can
we believe that when God wants any of His sons in any place, HE will put them there? God,
omnipotent in power, need pay no attention to iron or bamboo curtains. He need not take
into consideration national borders or immigration or passport offices. We are talking
about the miracle working power of God and a level of resurrection life to be manifested
when the sons of the Most High are manifested as King-Priests after the order of
Melchizedek. We really know little of the Melchizedek Order, but God is teaching. We are
not yet equipped, but God is working! We have yet to see a pure, unadulterated moving of
the Spirit with everyone in total subjection to the mind and will of God, but we are going
to. It must come in this hour.
We
have not yet witnessed the magnitude of ministry that shall be revealed through the Royal
Priesthood. At times God has raised up mighty men and, as it were, pulled apart but a
little the veil, giving a glimpse of the force of a ministry filled with the fullness of
His power, the harbinger of greater things to come. Such a man was Charles Finney, an
attorney, who upon being apprehended of the Lord left his vocation, waited upon and then
followed the Lord. When he entered into a town often all the taverns, theatres, pool halls
and houses of prostitution would close, not because of some law, nor out of respect for
religious gatherings, but because there was no longer any need for them, there weren't any
customers, the whole town had turned to God! One man wrote of Finney, "No one has
ever approached the gigantic stature of the mighty Charles Finney, who alone, without an
evangelistic society, without a radio or television program, without a computer, without
10,000 partners TO APPEAL TO or a business manager, WON TWO AND A HALF MILLION SOULS TO
CHRIST. A hundred like Finney WOULD WIN THE ENTIRE AMERICAN NATION." And do I have
some good news for you! God is going to turn 144,000 incorruptible sons of God, with a
thousand times more power than Charles Finney, loose on this sin cursed earth!
The
following words by George Warnock have proved an inspiration and blessing to my heart.
"We believe we are living in the day of the opening of the seventh seal, and swiftly
approaching the hour of the blowing of the seventh trumpet. I do not question that the
book of Revelation is for the whole Church age, otherwise why would God have admonished
His people to READ it and to be BLESSED by reading it, if it was not for them? But the
seven thunders seemed to have special significance for the end time, because John was not
permitted to reveal what was said. It would not have had vital meaning to the people of
his times as it would in the time of the end, when the mystery of God is to be finished.
"God
has been faithful in this past decade or two in bringing forth ENDTIME TRUTH. Is end-time
truth different from other truth? Not really. But there must be a particular phase of
ministry and truth revealed in the day and the hour when the 'mystery of God is to be
finished.' And the time is here when God would say to the end-time people who have
embraced end-time truth: GO TAKE THE LITTLE BOOK AND EAT IT. This message will not bring
forth that Living Word for the nations of the earth until WE EAT THE BOOK. True, it will
be 'bitter' as you digest it, but it is only in the EATING of the Word that God would
bring forth in this hour: that clear, sanctified, pure and holy Word that proceedeth
directly from the throne of God. The bitterness that we shall know in the digesting of the
truth will take away and remove any vainglorious desire to display our knowledge in the
eyes of men. The bitterness of the Word working within us will purge away all thoughts of
grandeur and of greatness, and leave us DUMB (like Ezekiel of old), until the hour when
God shall open our mouths; and then we shall be enabled to speak that clear, infallible
Word direct from God's own heart.
"After
the bitterness had taken hold of John, God said, 'Thou must prophesy again before many
peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.' Oh, what a pure Word will come forth in
that day! A pure word to all nations! Here is a people who have EATEN THE BOOK, and
knowing the bitterness of the Cross in their lives they will have become merciful and
faithful priests to men of every color, tribe and nation. The bitter herbs of the Passover
meal...the bitter hyssop of a broken and contrite spirit...will have completely removed
all bitterness from their lives; and they will show forth the mercy and the compassion of
Jesus from their lives. They will not be entertainers. They will not be supported in their
task with 'ministries' of 'mime' and 'puppets' and 'rock musicians' that go about today in
the name of Christ making merchandise of holy things. These people have known and have
eaten the bitter herbs, like Joseph in an Egyptian prison, like Moses in the Midian
desert, like David in the wilderness of Judaea, like Jeremiah in the mire of the
dungeon...and now they stand before the peoples of the earth with a clear, living Word
from the mouth of God.
"God
is saying to His people: I have been faithful in giving you of the Water of Life and of
the Bread of Life. You have tasted of My Word and have found it to be sweeter than honey
and the honeycomb. And now I say unto you, Go, take the little book and eat it, otherwise
it will not profit you. Fear not to swallow it and digest it. For only then will it become
a part of your being. And only then will you be able to bring forth that living Word of
Life to the nations of the earth" end quote.
THE PRIESTHOOD FOR THE
UNIVERSE
After
the living nations on earth have been gathered under the unfurled banner of tile
"For
by Him were ALL THINGS created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and
invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; ALL THINGS
were created by Him and for Him: and He is before ALL THINGS, and by Him ALL THINGS
consist. And, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to RECONCILE ALL
THINGS unto Himself, by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things it heaven.
And YOU that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet NOW
HATH HE RECONCILED" (Col. 1:16-17, 20,21).
I
must emphasize that God is the Creator of ALL THINGS. Notice the things that the inspired
apostle includes in creation. ALL things in the heavens, or all things that are in and
constitute the RULING ELEMENT "the heavens do rule" (Dan. 4:26). ALL the things
on earth, or all things that are in or constitute those elements which are ruled, or under
authority. ALL things that are visible, or that are discernable to the physical senses,
ALL that the eyes can see, ALL that the ears can hear, ALL that we can touch, feel, taste
or smell has been created by God. ALL things that are invisible were created by our God
ALL the wisdom, ALL the knowledge, yea, even that which has not yet been tapped or
conceived of by the mind of man
GOD
CREATED. ALL of the myriad machines and devices that shall yet come out of the mind of
man, were created by God. ALL of the vast forces and powers and universal laws that
science has not yet discovered, were created by God. ALL the thrones, and the glory and
the power of them who occupy them, were created by God. ALL the dominions or lordships,
the mastery and the supremacy, were created by God. ALL the principalities and powers,
angels, intelligences, chief ones, in heaven and in earth, were created by God. And it is
not just the fact that all of these were created by God that startles us the most, but it
goes on to say that BY THE BLOOD OF HIS CROSS ALL THESE THINGS ARE RECONCILED TO GOD IN
HEAVEN AND IN EARTH. This implies that the principalities and powers in the heavenly
realms NEEDED RECONCILING and ARE RECONCILED by the blood of God's Son. Is this not why
the blessed Redeemer was both a HEAVENLY BEING and an EARTHLY BEING? He was the Word from
heaven made flesh upon earth, heaven and earth blended into one, very God and very man, so
that the Son could say, "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down
from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven" (Jn 3:13). Praise God, even the
principalities and powers IN THE HEAVENS are included in the glorious reconciliation and
peace secured by the blood of His cross, the Man who was from heaven, born on earth,
reconciling both realms into one IN HIMSELF. Glory!
"By
Him to reconcile PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS IN HEAVEN and on earth" (Col. 1:16,20).
These are the words that stopped me in my tracks one fair day. "What is there IN
HEAVEN that NEEDS TO BE RECONCILED?" I queried. The thought had never crossed my
mind. I had always assumed that all was at peace and that never a cloud had darkened any
brow in heaven! Discord in heaven? Perish the thought! Sin in heaven? Impossible! Negative
forces in heaven? It couldn't be! Wickedness in heaven? No way! "But," I
thought, "not only does it plainly state that the Christ will reconcile things in
heaven, but it furthermore states that among the things to be reconciled are
PRINCIPALITIES AND POWERS. Principalities in heaven! Principalities in heaven that are
hostile to God! Principalities in heaven that MUST BE RECONCILED, and that by the blood of
God's heavenly Son. Powers in heaven! Powers in heaven that are hostile to God! Powers in
heaven that MUST BE RECONCILED!
It
is not just the scope of "things on earth" being reconciled that startles us the
most, for it goes on to say, "and things in heaven." One day the words struck me
with such incredible force, here I faced anew one of the old, well known verses of the
Bible, and when the profound truth of it broke in wonder and glory within my consciousness
I had a completely new Bible, and an increasingly wonderful God. For the first time in my
life I saw what God had created in the beginning according to Col. 1:16. And the scope of
things created is the full scope of the things reconciled! I discovered at least sixteen
different items or groups of items CREATED AND RECONCILED in that one short passage:
1.
All things in heaven
2. All things in earth
3. Visible things
4. Invisible things
5. Visible things in heaven
6. Visible things in earth
7. Invisible things in heaven
8. Invisible things in earth
9. Thrones in heaven
10. Thrones on earth
11. Dominions in heaven
12. Dominions on earth
13. Principalities in heaven
14. Principalities on earth
15. Powers in heaven
16. Powers on earth
And
all this is to be reconciled BY THE BLOOD OF GOD'S SON! The blood and the priesthood are
inseparable. The priesthood without the blood would be impotent, having no power, and the
blood without the priesthood would be limited and ineffectual, lacking implementation. The
blood is the power, while the priesthood is the instrument. What a mighty power! And what
a glorious instrument! The Royal Priesthood is God's greatest FOREIGN MISSIONARY. Their
parish will be not only the earth, but the heavens also. God is going to make Himself
known through us to the myriad hosts of the heavens. Our bliss will be to bestow the boon
of God's favor and redemptive power throughout the bounds of stellar space. Out of the
magnificence of God's grace and glory we will gladden the hearts of all His creatures in
worlds we have never seen.
Can
we not see by this how it is that the Royal Priesthood, which shall be the instrument of
God to effect this universal reconciliation, is itself BOTH EARTHLY AND HEAVENLY, composed
of men of earth who have been born from above, made ONE IN HIM, raised up and made to sit
AMONG THE CELESTIALS IN JESUS CHRIST? It is plain to anyone with eyes to see that all
creation groans in a sort of universal travail, waiting for the MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS
OF GOD. And in the words of J. B. Phillips who so beautifully translates "And the
hope is that in the end the whole of created life will be rescued from the tyranny of
change and decay, and have its share in the magnificent liberty which can only belong to
the children of God!" (Rom. 8:21).
The
end of all this great historic process of creation and redemption is the glory and
dominion of the Christ. The thrones and dominions of Europe, the governments and
presidencies of the New World, the tyrannies of Russia and Asia, the petty chieftaincies
of Africa, the principalities and powers of the Heavens He is the Creator, the Lord, the
Master, the Redeemer and the Arbiter of all. In the end, only HIS WILL is done, and HIS
PURPOSES wrought out. We cannot desire a wiser, more powerful or more illustrious governor
than the One who sits in the heavens and upon the circle of the earth, who inhabits the
ages, yet dwells with him who is of a humble and contrite heart. His glorious power is
exercised, not to exalt the proud, but to abase them and to exalt the humble and the meek.
To these the
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