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KINGDOM
BIBLE STUDIES
"Teaching
the things concerning the
The
Royal Priesthood
Book
Two
By J.
Table of
Contents
Chapter
Title
Page
17.
The Consecration of the Priesthood
3
18.
The Consecration of the Priesthood (cont.)
15
19.
The Consecration of the Priesthood (cont.)
28
20.
Anointing of the Priesthood
39
21.
Anointing of the Priesthood (cont.)
51
22.
Anointing of the Priesthood (cont.)
63
23.
The Cleansing and Sanctification of the Priesthood
75
24.
The Melchizadek Connection
86
25.
The Melchizadek Connection (cont.)
99
26.
The Melchizadek Connection (cont.)
111
27.
The Melchizadek Connection (cont.)
124
28.
The Melchizadek Connection (cont.)
136
29.
The Melchizadek Connection (cont.)
148
30.
The Melchizadek Connection (cont.)
160
31.
The Priesthood of Mercy
172
33.
Priestly Intercession
(cont.)
197
Chapter
17
THE
CONSECRATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD
We have pointed out in this
series that Aaron and his sons represent Christ and His body, the great High Priest and
the members of the Royal Priesthood. Those elect saints of God who have received the call
to sonship are in the process of being prepared and formed into a kingdom of priests. They
are spiritual priests, they worship in a spiritual temple, they stand at a spiritual
altar, they offer up spiritual sacrifices, they are clad in spiritual vestments, and they
minister in a spiritual ministry. "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a
spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ" (I Pet. 2:5). "By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice
of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name.
But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well
pleased" (Heb. 13:15-16).
If one of the direct
descendants of the house of Aaron were converted to Christ and apprehended to sonship, he
would enter upon an entirely new character and ground of priestly service. And be it
observed, that the passages just quoted present the two great classes of spiritual
sacrifice which the spiritual priest is privileged to offer. There is the sacrifice of
praise to God, and the sacrifice of blessing to man. There is a double stream continually
going forth from the believer who is living in the realization of his priestly place a
stream of worshipful praise ascending to the throne of God, and a stream of active
blessing flowing forth to a needy world. The spiritual priest stands with one hand lifted
up to God in the presentation of the incense of prayer and praise, and the other opened
wide to minister, in an outflow of life and light and love to every form of human need.
The whole creation is in a
sort of universal travail for such a priesthood to arise in the fullness of all that
priesthood means. As we lift up our eyes in this dark hour, before us lies a world filled
with billions of benighted souls bound by chains of evil, wrapped by cords of slavery,
entangled by the ropes of sin, sorrow, disease, despair and death. Everywhere are slaves,
slaves to habit, slaves to poverty, slaves to ignorance, slaves driven by the lash of
want, urged on by the sting of deep physical and spiritual need. Millions of men and women
are in bondage to age old customs and empty religious traditions which were decadent when
Christ was born. Everywhere, world wide, we behold the same clanking chains that chain men
to the power of darkness and the bondage of the devil. Thank God! He is preparing a
priesthood, a company of deliverers, a race of holy sons of the Most High God to step
forth in the fullness of the power and glory of God to break the bands asunder and set
creation free. When this happens, the great problems which plague mankind will disappear.
Poverty will go; sin will go; disease will go; war will go; sorrow and pain will go; death
will go; bondage of every sort will fade away and the
Having considered the
beautiful purpose of God in the Royal Priesthood, and the qualifications for that
priesthood, we now approach the subject of THE CONSECRATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD. We shall
proceed to examine the contents of the twenty-ninth chapter of the book of Exodus. To
consecrate the priests is to hallow them to act as priests unto the Lord. God said to
Moses, "And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to HALLOW them, to
minister unto Me in the priest's office...thou shalt CONSECRATE Aaron and his sons"
(Ex. 29:1, 9). This word, consecrate, is translated from a word with a strange meaning,
literally: to fill the hand. Thus, this consecration means more than just our being
consecrated and dedicated and the giving of ourselves wholly to God. It bespeaks of God
accepting our consecration, receiving us and imparting and inworking into our lives all
that is needed to fulfill the ministry of priesthood. Ah, HE FILLS OUR HANDS, HE places
within our hands that which is necessary to minister as His priests. No priest can appear
before either God or man empty-handed, but there is a definite ability and power of God
given to us that as priests we might have to minister both unto God and to men.
I do not hesitate to tell you
that it is possible to go through forms of consecration to God but never have anything
imparted or inworked within. Learn this, precious friend of mine, and you will know a
great truth: Consecration is what God does, and not what we do! I hear so much today about
"consecration services" where people promise to do something. The preacher
forcefully points out some great need or lack in the world, or in the Church, or in the
believer's life, followed by an "altar call" pressing the people to come to the
front and "consecrate themselves" unto God and this or that work. I have been in
these consecration services and have promised God big things in the past and have never
quite made good. I do not like to think of that as being consecration. It is not what I
promise Him. Moses did not say, "Lord, it has come to our attention that you need a
priesthood down here, so we have appointed a committee and have decided to consecrate
Aaron and his sons to you to be your priests." NO! The whole process was initiated by
God, not man. It was God who said to Moses, "Thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his
sons." And then all that was performed in that marvelous typical service of
consecration REPRESENTS THINGS THAT GOD DOES, NOT what man can do!
True consecration is coming
to God with empty hands, confessing our weakness, and our inability to do anything, then
letting God do the rest. If you read the prayers of Moses, Elijah, David, and Samuel in
the Old Testament, and Paul in the New Testament, you will find that these men never came
to God on the basis of what they were, who they were, or what they promised God they would
do. I have attended altar services for years. I have watched people pray and weep and make
vows to God and then give a testimony about the things they were going to do for God. I
have heard enough promises at these altar services to turn the world upside down for God.
Unfortunately, many of those promises are never kept because God had not required the
people to consecrate to that thing. HE did not initiate the consecration, therefore, He
did not accept it; neither did He fill their hands and equip and empower them to do the
work. It was a one-sided consecration, which, in truth, is no consecration at all. I may
decide that God needs some apostles, so I come to God and say, "Lord, I give myself,
I consecrate myself to you to be your apostle." But if God has not first called me to
be an apostle, all my consecration is in vain. Nothing will happen. I can live on the
altar in constant prayer and fasting and consecration, but the anointing will not come.
The power will not come. The ministry will not develop. God will not accept my
consecration, and He will not fill my hands unless HE has initiated the consecration. Ah,
we must hear a word directly from the throne of God and then come to Him with empty hands
and wait before Him in holy yieldedness until HE FILLS THEM. That is consecration!
The majority of Christian
people, nominal Christians, even including "Spirit-filled,"
"Pentecostal," and "Charismatic" Christians, know little about the
consecration of the Royal Priesthood. Some have consecrated themselves to a sect or a
movement, and have received a sectarian spirit of love for the sect or the movement, etc.
Others have recognized one or more moral principles and have consecrated themselves never
to violate those moralities: these receive the spirit of moralities, a self-satisfied
spirit, a selfish spirit. Others have singled out some virtue, or some good works, which
they worship and whose spirit they receive for instance, love or helping the needy and
they are fully satisfied when they have shown some love and helped some needy. Others
consecrate themselves to a "work" for Jesus and seem satisfied only when they
are in a bustle of exciting activity; it matters little to them what kind the work is, so
long as it is religious and there is plenty of it and they have a prominent place: it is
not so much results they seek as work, and hence they are quite content to "beat the
air," hoping that in the end they will find that they have earned some recognition
from God and a place in heaven. For these to take time to wait in holy stillness before
God and to ascertain the kind of workmen HE SEEKS, and the kind of work HE DESIRES to have
done, would be to them a violation of their covenant of consecration for they consecrated
themselves to work and are satisfied of heart only when they are in a fever of excitement.
Others more wise, but not
truly wise either, consecrate themselves to a particular kind of service, for God and man
the service which THEY think needs them most. If they consecrate to "missionary
work," they receive the spirit of that work and have whatever blessing comes with it,
or if they consecrate to sing in the choir, to be an usher, or to teach Sunday School,
they get the spirit of these works and their blessings. This is in direct
contradistinction to the consecrations which the Spirit works when HE draws us apart UNTO
HIMSELF, out of the world, out of the flesh, out of the soulish, and into the deeper
movings of His Spirit, until we are filled with His life, and ready to minister that life
to all men.
All of these soulish
consecrations, and the spirits or dispositions resulting, have both good and evil
influences. Any of them is far better than a consecration to evil and its spirit of evil.
Any of them is far better even than consecration to self and the spirit of selfishness
accompanying it. Any of them is far better even than an aimless life consecrated to
nothing. But none of these are true consecration, and none of these can compare in any
sense to the consecration set forth in the Scriptures and exemplified in the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Redeemer of the world, the High Priest of our profession. This, the true
consecration, alone brings to the heart the Holy Spirit, the reality and life and power of
God to stand and minister as His priesthood in the earth.
This true, proper
consecration differs from all others. It has but the one shrine at which it bows: it bows
to the Father's will, surrendering self and self-will a living sacrifice on the Lord's
altar, a reasonable service. It makes no stipulations or reservations. The language of the
Chief Priest is that of each member of the Royal Priesthood: "I came not to do My own
will, but the will of Him that sent Me." "Lo I come (as in the volume of the
book it is written of Me) to do THY WILL, O God." Such are made partakers of the
fullness of the Spirit, their hands filled from heaven.
A friend in Christ has
written: "Joshua 24:1-28 tells of how Joshua gathered all the heads of Israel, their
elders, judges, officers, and they presented themselves before the Lord, as Joshua gave
them his final exhortation to CHOOSE YE THIS DAY WHOM YE WILL SERVE. This has been
repeated again and again as people have gathered in Conferences, Conventions, Camp
Meetings, various consecration services, and there in the presence of the Lord been faced
with the challenge of whether or not they would SERVE HIM. This all has its place, and we
praise God for every level of man's personal consecration for service though we often find
an element of 'I WILL' in this service. It is meant FOR the Lord, yes, but it is also done
because I WILL find satisfaction, glory, excitement, etc. in doing these things. It is not
with the intent of being caught in a 'web of semantics', or quibbling over the meaning of
words, but we do see a depth of consecration TO the Lord wherein there is no longer any
consideration of our own will it has been GIVEN OVER to the Lord, and thus ever become one
in Him. HE would then direct us to do a certain thing and immediately we respond because
of no contradiction within of our own will to His. No need to surrender to His will,
because ALREADY WE ARE DELIGHTING THEREIN. Deut. 31:14 gives t o how Moses and Joshua
presented themselves before the Lord, while Joshua received his commission. This was a
very sacred moment, Joshua was GOD'S CHOICE to lead the people into their inheritance. We
read these things with awe and wonderment, could God ever use us in this manner also? And
then, if we are not careful, we present ourselves before the Lord FOR A MINISTRY, we come
seeking a ministry, rather than seeking HIM, His will, and a giving of ourselves TO HIM.
The gifts and callings are OF GOD, He chooses whom He wills, and when His hand is placed
upon your life, you say, 'Yes, Lord.' But we all do well to present ourselves TO Him, not
to crowd in for a ministry, but just to BECOME what He would have us BE, 'Only to be what
He wants me to be, every moment of every day, yielded completely to Jesus' control every
step of this pilgrim way..."'
Many who read these lines
will bear witness to the truth I now write. In the past we have made many
"consecrations" that we really did not mean. We have made many commitments to
the Lord that we really had no power to perform. Actually, God caused us to make such
consecrations and dedications and to not keep them in order to reveal to us that we cannot
of ourselves do these things. Betimes we are caught up in the fervor of a meeting and make
such commitments, but when we are away from the influence of the meeting all the old
desires and weaknesses return. It becomes evident that it was not a true consecration, for
while we promised God, there was no reciprocal action on His part, no impartation of
divine enablement, NO FILLING OF THE HANDS.
Some have consecrated and
reconsecrated, dedicated and rededicated so many times until the dear folk have worn out
the carpet trotting back and forth to and from the altar, without any visible results.
They remind me of the story I read. There was an evangelist who gave effective altar
calls. Every night, when he gave the call, people came forward to receive from God. The
first night one man came forward and prayed, "Jesus, fill me full, fill me
full." That man came forward every night at every altar call and prayed the same
prayer until finally on the last night when he prayed, "Lord, fill me full," the
evangelist said, "Lord, don't do it, he leaks!"
In God's economy there is no
such thing as "reconsecration." You will not find it in the Bible. God knows
nothing about such a thing. Tell me, my brother, my sister, how you can "regive"
something that has already been given? If you are "reconsecrating" your life to
God you but reveal the sad fact that the first "consecration" was NO
CONSECRATION at all you did not give, God did not accept, and your hands were not filled.
No greater sin can be committed by the people of God than the act of devoting a thing to
God, and then taking it back again. Even among men there is no insult more keenly felt
than that someone should make you a present, tell with what joy he devotes it to you, and
then cooly come and take it back again. If a young lady's lover should give her a present,
say a ring, and then come back and say, "I think, Maggie, I would like that ring
back," how quickly she would say, "Oh, yes, take it back, and take yourself off,
too!" There is not a woman with a spark of self-respect but would say that to a man
who wanted back his devoted present. Apply the same thought to God. You devote something
to God. You say you give it to God. Sacredly you vow and dedicate and consecrate it to
God. Then you continue to reserve it for yourself, and again, and again, and again you
re-consecrate it to God, but always reserve it to yourself. That is not consecration at
all. It is a sham. It is a hypocrisy. It is a delusion. And God has nothing to do with it!
THE BASIS OF CONSECRATION
On what basis must the Royal
Priesthood be consecrated to God? On what basis does God require us to consecrate
ourselves unto Him? There must be a basis for whatever we do. For example, when we drive a
new car home and use it for our work and pleasure, it is because we have paid a price and
bought it. This purchasing is the legal basis upon which we drive it. Our God is the One
who is most legal and who acts most logically. All His doings are reasonable and have a
basis. God operates by divine law; He is a God of principle. He cannot demand something
from us without a basis. When God, therefore, demands that the priesthood be consecrated
unto Him, it cannot be without a basis. And what is His basis? It is His purchase. He has
BOUGHT US and He can, therefore, demand that we consecrate ourselves to Him. I Cor. 6:20
says, "For ye are bought with a price: THEREFORE glorify God in your body, and in
your spirit, which are God's." But concerning the Royal Priesthood the Word is even
more specific: "And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book,
and to open the seals thereof: for Thou west slain, and hast REDEEMED (purchased) 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).
Ah, our consecration as priests is based on this
purchase of God. He is making us a kingdom of priests BECAUSE HE PURCHASED US for that
purpose. You walk into a furniture store and you see a great many living room sets on
display. But you cannot have any of them delivered to your house, because you have no
basis for doing so. But if you pay $1800.00 for one beautiful set, then you can demand
that it be delivered to your house and turned over to you. This demanding is based upon
your purchase. And what you do with it is entirely up to you because it belongs to you.
The basis of consecration is exactly the same. God requires our all because He has
purchased and paid for us!
We may further ask, From what
did God buy us? Many people think that God purchased us from the rule of the devil, or
that God purchased us from the captivity of sin, or that He bought us from the world, or
from the power of death. While God's purchase of us does effect deliverance from all those
things, none of them are really what He bought us from! From what, then, has God bought
us? Gal. 4:4-5 holds the key: "But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth
His Son, made of a woman, MADE UNDER THE LAW, to REDEEM them that were UNDER THE LAW, that
we might receive the adoption of sons." So, then, we see from these verses that God
has redeemed us from UNDER THE LAW. If it were not a fact that He has bought us from under
the law then neither could we be delivered from the rule of Satan, from the bondage of
sin, or from the power of death, for "the sting of death is sin; and the strength of
sin IS THE LAW" (I Cor. 15:56).
Why is it that God has
redeemed us from the law? The reason is that when man sinned he fell under God's law which
said, "Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, for in the day that thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:17; 3:3). Falling under this law, man
was imprisoned, shut up, kept, held and retained under sin, Satan and death BY THE LAW.
The fact that we were thus retained by the law of God is altogether righteous and legal.
If God, therefore, wanted to release us from under His righteous law, He must pay the full
price to satisfy the demand of His law. This price is the precious blood shed by His Son
Jesus. "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed (purchased) with corruptible
things, as silver and gold; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot" (I Pet. 1:18-19). Now, praise God, we are redeemed from
under the law, bought out from under the law, released from the rule of the law, delivered
from the authority of the law, so that NOW WE BELONG TO GOD! No longer do we serve rules
and regulations, no more do we serve laws and commandments, now, praise His name! We SERVE
THE LIVING GOD! The right of possession over us has been transferred from the law to the
living God! And it is on the basis of this transfer of right that God can select His
PRIESTHOOD COMPANY and demand that we consecrate ourselves to HIM!
In the world today, people
get married when they feel like it and divorced when they feel like it. They choose a
vocation and work and live and play and come and go as they please. They act according to
their own wills and desires without recognizing any right of ownership, without seeking or
consulting God at all. And it is not much better in the church system where men plan and
organize and build and perform out of carnal reasoning and soulish zeal, consecrating
themselves to whatever work THEY feel ought to be done. "Lord, I WILL do this, I WILL
surrender all, I WILL go, I WILL say..." I WILL is a cover up for the self-life, its
a guard, a fence to protect self. It is evident that when ever we say "I WILL"
that "I" comes first. And how deeply HE must deal with us by the inworking of
His cross, until we are truly surrendered to Him, and the "I will" is turned
into "THY WILL be done." True consecration must sooner or later rest on the
realization of God's right to us, and the wonderful fact that it is not something we do,
but something HE DOES! True consecration, as I have pointed out, is coming to God with
empty hands, confessing our weakness, and our inability to do anything, then letting God
do the rest, trusting HIM to FILL OUR HANDS!
Many, however, find it
difficult to rest in Him, trusting Him to do what He will, and would try to conjure up
some form of self-effort, self-helps, as if by this they could help God finish His work
within them, and they could seize the priesthood. Man would assume the responsibility for
his salvation, become his own perfector, and think that by his own efforts he will hasten
his sonship. So they demand and command, confess this and claim that as if by these
efforts they can work God into a corner, force His hand, and God would have to fulfill His
promises, according to their timing irregardless of His own time purpose. All of this is
futile, priesthood and kingship are not a "do it yourself kit." "For we are
HIS WORKMANSHIP, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10). Therefore we have "come to this
settled and firm persuasion concerning this very thing, namely, that He who began in you a
work which is good will bring it to a successful conclusion right up to the day of Christ
Jesus" (Phil. 1:6, Wuest Expanded). THIS is the spirit of CONSECRATION!
FILLING THE HANDS
This is the hour when it is
no longer enough to just know that we belong to God, or that we have consecrated ourselves
and given ourselves wholly to the Lord. This is the hour when God is calling forth His
elect saints to move into that place where God can impart and inwork into each member
something of Himself that can be ministered both unto God and unto men. The question
follows Has God "filled our hands"? Have we been so consecrated until God has
witnessed that He has accepted us and has committed unto us at least a measure of Himself
that we can minister to others? It begins with God, for He is the First Cause of all
things, the initiator of this ministry, and the sufficiency whereby it is accomplished.
Let us illustrate it this
way. When the children of
This was all true, of course,
as there was no knowledge of these things in their numbers. But, do you know what God told
Moses? He named two men and said He would PUT THE SKILL FOR THIS IN THEIR HANDS. "And
the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the
son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, in
wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to
devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of
stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship. And
I, behold, I have given with him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan: and
in the hearts of all that are wise hearted I HAVE PUT WISDOM, that they may make all that
I have commanded thee" (Ex. 31:16). God said that He would go beyond that. He would
give these men the ability to teach all these things to others. So, after so long a time,
the Tabernacle appeared in the midst of
Ah it was GOD who called
these men, and it was GOD who filled their hands! It was God who imparted to these men the
wisdom, the skill, the ability and the power to accomplish His purpose. Does being a
priest after the Order of Melchizedek seem too high for you? Do you wonder how you can
attain unto such a thing? If you were consecrating yourself to such a calling it would be
hopeless, indeed. But it is GOD HIMSELF who has sent a word unto His people in these last
days, commanding that they should consecrate themselves unto Him to be a kingdom of
priests unto Him and for the creation. Oh, the wonder of it! This priesthood is now
presenting itself before the Lord. This priesthood is even now in preparation. Comprehend
this scene! Taste the promise of eternal glory! God is going to give His elect a set of
blueprints, the plans, the skill, the knowledge, the wisdom, the love and the power to
bring this whole creation of God into the perfection and glory He has decreed for it. GOD
SHALL FILL THE HANDS OF HIS PRIESTS. He is doing it now by the deep dealings and
processings in their lives. This is the LORD'S DOING, and it is marvelous in our eyes!
THE CONSECRATION OF THE
PRIESTHOOD
It is always enlightening to
study the typical rituals and ceremonies of the Old Testament, even though the rites have
become obsolete, the altars deserted, and the dust of priest and devotee has long since
mingled in the sand of the desert, or the green of the field. All were but shadows and
types wonderfully portraying greater and grander realities to be experienced now on the
higher plane of spiritual life. Through these examples and shadows the Holy Spirit has
faithfully established the pattern of the order of the
To consecrate the priests is
to hallow and equip them to act as priests unto the Lord. The consecration of the priests
involved a great deal of ritual which consisted of five chief parts: (1) ceremonial
washing (2) robing (3) anointing (4) the offering of three sacrifices on behalf of the
priests (5) causing them to perform a part of their office, in earnest and in token of the
performance of the whole ministry to be fulfilled from that day forward.
The first three parts we will
explore later in another connection. I am impressed at this time to draw your attention to
the threefold sacrifice connected with the consecration of the priesthood. Each of the
offerings had a separate meaning for the priests. The succession in which the sacrifices
followed each other on this occasion, first the sin offering, then the burnt offering, and
lastly the consecration offering, has its ground in the meaning of each sacrifice. The
priest passed through a spiritual process. He had transgressed the law, and he needed the
deliverance signified by the sin offering. If his offering had been made in truth and
sincerity, he could then offer himself as an accepted person, forsaking all self
interests, dying completely to self, yielding his all forever to God, as a sweet savor, in
the burnt offering. And in consequence he could be quickened, strengthened, equipped, and
empowered by God in the consecration offering. This is, therefore, an offering by degrees.
A little fellow can come rushing down in a service of consecration and he says, "I
give myself to the Lord!" But there are three orders or degrees of consecration, and
he must pass through all three before he is the Lord's! There is the offering of a bullock
as a sin offering; but as the offerings proceed there is the offering of a ram as a burnt
offering and the offering of another ram as an offering of consecration. There is a
wonderful progression here. And ALL who would be consecrated members of the Royal
Priesthood must experientially pass through ALL that is here typified by these three
offerings.
THE SIN OFFERING
"Thou shalt consecrate
Aaron and his sons. And thou shalt cause a bullock to be brought before the tabernacle of
the congregation: and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the
bullock. And thou shalt kill the bullock before the Lord, by the door of the tabernacle of
the congregation. And thou shalt take of the blood of the bullock, and put it upon the
horns of the altar with thy finger, and pour all the blood beside the bottom of the altar.
And thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul that is above the
liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and burn them upon the altar.
But the flesh of the bullock, and his skin, and his dung, shalt thou burn with fire
without the camp: it is a sin offering" (Ex. 29:9-14)
The sin offering speaks of
the death of Christ in terms of forgiveness, cleansing and victory over sin. The bullock
was brought before the door of the tabernacle, where Aaron and his sons laid their hands
upon the head of the beast, thus identifying the animal as theirs and their life with that
of the animal. Always with the sin offering the person who brought the sacrifice had to
lay his hand upon the head of the victim and feel the pulsating life and know the
innocence of that animal when it was compelled to lay down its life for the sake of fallen
man. The whole procedure was arranged so that each time a living creature was killed, its
human offerer should realize exactly what he was doing, and should repent the sins and
selfishness which had created the conditions in the fallen world which could only be met
by the pouring out of the life of another. The innocent died on behalf of the guilty, thus
giving, in type, HIS LIFE to the one who under the judgment of the law was a "dead
man."
After the identification of
the priests with the sacrificial bullock, Moses plunged a knife into its throat. There was
no sound, no scream, no lowing, only a long out sigh as the life blood drained away from
the helpless victim, as, too, with our Lord Jesus Christ, "...He is brought as a lamb
to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His
mouth" (Isa. 53:7). Some of the blood was put upon the horns of the altar, and the
remainder dashed at the base of the altar, thus, the life of the animal and those
identified with it were released unto God. The fat and the inward organs were burned upon
the altar, and thus became a sweet savor unto God; but the flesh the skin and the dung
were taken outside the camp and wholly burned. The New Testament commentary reads:
"For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the
High Priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore JESUS ALSO, that He might
sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate" (Heb. 13:11) Ah,
yes, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself IS OUR SIN OFFERING, but all that He did for us, on our
behalf, must now be appropriated and wrought out in our own experience, to the praise of
HIS glory.
This brings us to a most
important point as I draw this article to a close. There is a beautiful statement in II
Cor. 5:21 wherein Paul states, "For He hath made Him to be SIN for us, who knew no
sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." The popular, but
careless, understanding of this verse is that the Christ was somehow "made sin,"
or actually "became sin" or "sinful," the sins of the whole world
being imputed or imparted to Him as He hung and died upon the cross. For long centuries
Christians have accepted this crude notion that makes Christ A SINNER IN OUR PLACE. I must
speak a word against that. Nothing could be farther from the truth! If Christ was indeed
"made sin" for us, then pray tell me HOW SIN CAN ATONE FOR SIN? How could He die
FOR US if WHAT WE DO and WHAT WE ARE were imputed or imparted unto Him? The very idea is a
contradiction an unmitigated absurdity. It simply cannot be done. SIN ATONES FOR NOTHING.
There is no way under heaven that you can do away with sin by offering up sin! The primary
requirement for the sin offering was that it be "without spot" and "without
blemish" in every respect.
The words "to be"
are not in the original. Literally it is, "He has made Him sin for us..." But
what is meant by this? What is the exact idea that the Holy Spirit intended to convey? It
cannot be that He was literally sin in the abstract, or sin as such. Nor can it mean that
He was a sinner, for it is said in the same statement that "He knew no sin," and
it is everywhere said that He was holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners. Nor
can it mean in any proper sense of the word that He was guilty, for then He deserved to
die, and His death could have no more merit than that of any other guilty being; and if He
were properly guilty, it would make no difference in this respect whether it was by His
own fault or by imputation: a guilty being deserves to be punished; and where there is
deserving of punishment there can be no merit in sufferings. All theories which try to
make our pure, holy, spotless Redeemer to BE SIN, or sinful, or guilty, border on
blasphemy and are abhorrent to all who know and love the truth. It is the cornerstone of
the whole economy of redemption that the sin offering MUST BE PURE and therefore
acceptable to God and efficacious for man. "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not
redeemed by such corruptible things as silver and gold...but with the precious blood of
Christ, as of a lamb WITHOUT BLEMISH AND WITHOUT SPOT" (I Pet. 1:18-19). Not, my
friend, a lamb MADE SIN, but a lamb WITHOUT BLEMISH. "How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself WITHOUT SPOT to God, purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Heb. 9:14). Ah, He did not
offer Himself AS SIN, but WITHOUT SPOT.
But if the declaration that
He was made "sin" does not mean that He became the embodiment of imputed sin or
the personification of sin itself, or sinful, or guilty, then what can it mean? The answer
is simple once the Old Testament terminology relating to the sin offering is understood.
There are many passages in the Old Testament where the word "sin" is used in the
sense of "sin offering," or a sacrifice for sin. Hos. 4:8 says, "They eat
up the sin of My people," a reference to the apostate priests who ate the sin
offerings of the people, an act prohibited by law. These priests did not eat SIN they ate
the SIN OFFERING. Often in the Hebrew language a noun may be omitted and the adjective
used as the noun. For example, in the Tabernacle there was the
The same principle is used
with the terms "sin" and "sin offering". In numerous places in the Old
Testament the single Hebrew word GHATTAHTH is used for either SIN or SIN OFFERING. In such
cases the word for "offering" is not in the original at all, although it appears
in the English versions. A careful study will show conclusively that in the Hebrew
language the single word "sin" was frequently used for "sin offering"
and the context alone determines whether sin as a trespass is meant, or an offering for
sin. With the foregoing facts in mind it should be obvious to every reverent heart that
Paul is not by any means trying to tell us that the pure, spotless, holy, unblemished and
undefiled Lamb of God was MADE IMPURE, UNHOLY, DEFILED AND BLEMISHED SIN for us! The
moment He became sin He would have been disqualified for being our sin-offering! Ah, the
wonderful truth is that He who knew no sin thereby became the perfect, spotless,
unblemished SIN OFFERING for us, that we might be MADE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD IN HIM the
altogether Holy One' I must insist most emphatically that the Christ was never MADE SIN.
He was made a SIN OFFERING. What a difference! What a wonder! How much more logical! And
how much more beautiful and blessed!
Under the law the sin
offering provided only for acts of unconscious transgressions, mistakes, or unavoidable
errors. It applied only to sins done through ignorance, passion, or weakness, in
opposition to those done presumptuously, deliberately, or calculatedly. For sins done
deliberately there was no atonement, but only "a certain looking for of judgment and
fiery indignation." This point is extremely important, beloved, for it reveals the
deep and wonderful work of the sin-offering. Sometimes it seems that we have not sinned.
By the grace of the Lord, we have been kept through the entire day in His presence without
any sins. It is possible. We do not sense that we have sinned, but we have a deeper
feeling. It is quite strange. While we are saying, "Lord, I praise Thee, Thou hast
kept me through the whole day; by Thy Spirit I have not sinned," we have a deeper
feeling that within us is something sinful. We sense that deeply within is something more
sinful than any acts we might have committed. Something that, were it not for His
restraining grace, would sin. It is Sin, capitalized Sin. It is the power of Sin that
dwells in my members. This is the Sin which is dealt with so extensively in Romans 5,6,7
and 8. Sin dwells within me. I am not speaking of sins outward actions. I speak of Sin
capitalized, singular Sin. It is a force. It is a power. It is a nature. I hate it. I hate
to do what I do. It is not I that do it, but Sin which dwells within me. There is an evil,
but powerful living power within my members called Sin. It can drive me; it can defeat me;
it can conquer me; it can cause me to do things I detest. It is a living nature; it is the
nature of the evil one. It is the slithering serpent crawling about in the dust of the
carnal mind, in the passions of my mortal body. Though we have been saved and have peace
with God and one another, Sin can cause us to think and talk and act in ways that are
abhorrent to our regenerated spirit. It is not cold, calculated, hostile, God defying,
deliberate rebellion. No! It is something we have inherently from father Adam we did not
choose it, we can't help it, we were born with it, and we are not to blame! It is in our
blood! For this there is an offering the sin offering. Praise HIS name!
Many centuries ago the
beloved John dwelt in spirit before the open doors of an open heaven as he walked about on
the lonely, barren isle called
1. He loved us.
2. He washed us in His blood.
3. He has made us Kings and Priests.
4. Glory is ascribed to Him for ever for these things.
We know what
"washing" means. We wash our bodies and our clothes to cleanse them from the
least defilement that adheres to them. Now Sin is not merely an act we commit which casts
us under guilt from which we must obtain forgiveness. Sin is a power, a passion, a life in
our members. It is a pollution which cleaves to us. The sinning of Jesus procures more for
us than forgiveness for our actions and pardon to assuage our guilt. It is in the deep,
hidden, inner life of man that the power of HIS LIFE must be experienced. Sin has
penetrated into the soul and body, and every member has become saturated with it. The
blood too must penetrate; as deeply as the power of sin has gone, so deeply must the inner
being be cleansed by the blood. We know that when some article of clothing is washed, the
water with its cleansing power must soak in as deeply as the stain, if it is to be
removed. Even so must the blood of Jesus penetrate to the deepest roots of our being: our
soul, and body, the entire personality must be reached by the cleansing power of HIS
BLOOD. "The blood cleanses from all sin"; where sin has reached, there too the
blood must follow it; where sin ruled, there the blood must rule: the entire heart must be
cleansed by the blood. Every one who would know the power of the blood of Jesus must
remember that "the life of the flesh is in the blood" (Lev. 17:11). We have, in
our very blood, been saturated with nervous temperaments, diseases, lawlessness,
weaknesses inherited from our parents which have been the direct cause of our
transgressions. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and the life of the flesh is in
the blood. Our flesh is wrong and our blood is corrupt, for it is old Adam's flesh and old
Adam's blood. But Jesus came, the firstborn of the new creation of God. He was not 50%
from Adam and 50% from God. He was not 50% from Mary and 50% from His Father. He was not a
half breed, part Adam and part divine. He did not have one drop of Adam's blood in His
veins. There was not one drop of Mary's blood in Him. If one drop of old Adam's blood was
in him, if one gene of Mary was in Him, He was a sinner. The new creation means nothing
until we can see that the man Christ Jesus was AN ENTIRELY NEW CREATION OF GOD, THE SECOND
MAN, THE LAST ADAM, underived in any way from the first Adam, a unique creation of God,
without descent, without earthly father, without earthly mother, as was the first Adam in
the beginning. His blood was not Adam's blood, it was the blood of God. Not just spirit,
but spirit in the manifestation of blood, a very real blood possessed of the life of God.
The blood of Jesus was pure.
It was sinless blood. It was diseaseless blood. It was deathless blood. That is why Jesus
could declare, "No man taketh My life from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have
power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again" (Jn. 10:18). He poured out
His blood, His life. It ran into the earth, even the earth which we are. He did not die
for us, that is, in our place. He did not die so that we would not die. NO! He died for
us, that is, on our behalf. HE GAVE US HIS LIFE THAT WE MIGHT LIVE! This difference is
sublimely important. If He died merely as a substitute, in my place, then He is dead, and
I am alive with my same old Adam life. If He died that I might not die, then old Adam's
life is preserved. But if He died TO GIVE ME HIS LIFE, then OLD ADAM MUST DIE and it is no
longer I that live but Christ who liveth in me! He did not die to keep me from dying. I
must die even though He died. "I am crucified with Christ." "Ye are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in God." "For he that is dead is freed from
sin. Now...we be dead with Christ." Oh, my friend, let me say it again: He did not
die to keep me from dying; He gave me His life that I might live! He did not die merely as
my substitute, He poured out His life that I might eat and drink of it and live.
"Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in
you" (Jn. 6:53).
The power of the blood! What
a mighty power is working within us! HIS BLOOD! Sinless blood. Pure blood. Diseaseless
blood. Deathless blood. Incorruptible blood. Divine blood. Celestial blood. And it is His
Royal Blood that now flows in our veins! Can we not see by this that when this precious
blood has finished its work there will be a complete redemption, spirit, soul and body.
All is cleansed by His pure blood. All is quickened by His incorruptible blood. Sin and
death flee away before His holy and life giving blood. Oh, the wonder of it!
I stand in amazement and
wonder, marveling at such a mighty and glorious work as this. It is the sin offering. It
is the consecration of the priesthood. It is a hallowing of those who minister as the
priests of the Lord. It is the inworking of the power of an incorruptible life, the glory
and strength of the Melchizedekian Order. Of our great High Priest it is written,
"For such an High Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from
sinners, and made higher than the heavens" (Heb. 7: 26). This is not only how He was,
it is how He IS. So, too, must be all who share that glorious priesthood after the Order
of Melchizedek. For this very purpose, for this cleansing, this transformation, God has
called us to the CONSECRATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD, to the mighty inworking in our lives of
the sin offering, to the destruction of sin and death, to the effectual cleansing and
quickening of HIS LIFE. Hallelujah!
Chapter
18
THE
CONSECRATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD
Having considered the
beautiful purpose of God in the Royal Priesthood, and the qualifications for that
priesthood, we now approach the subject of THE CONSECRATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD. We shall
proceed to examine the contents of the twenty ninth chapter of the book of Exodus. To
consecrate the priests is to hallow them to act as priests unto the Lord. God said to
Moses, "And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to HALLOW them, to
minister unto Me in the priest's office...thou shalt CONSECRATE Aaron and his sons"
(Ex. 29:1,9).
It is always enlightening to
study the typical rituals and ceremonies of the Old Testament, even though the rites have
become obsolete, the altars deserted, and the dust of priest and devotee has long since
mingled in the sand of the desert, or the green of the field. All were but shadows and
types wonderfully portraying greater and grander realities to be experienced now on the
higher plane of spiritual life. Through these examples and shadows the Holy Spirit has
faithfully established the pattern of the order of the
To consecrate the priests is
to hallow and equip them to act as priests unto the Lord. The consecration of the priests
involved a great deal of ritual which consisted of five chief parts: (1) ceremonial
washing (2) robing (3) anointing (4) the offering of three sacrifices on behalf of the
priests (5) causing them to perform a part of their office, in earnest and in token of the
performance of the whole ministry to be fulfilled from that day forward.
The first three parts we will
explore later in another connection. I am impressed at this time to draw your attention to
the threefold sacrifice connected with the consecration of the priesthood. Each of the
offerings had a separate meaning for the priests. The succession in which the sacrifices
followed each other on this occasion, first the sin offering, then the burnt offering, and
lastly the consecration offering, has its ground in the meaning of each sacrifice. The
priest passed through a spiritual process. He had transgressed the law, and he needed the
deliverance signified by the sin-offering. If his offering had been made in truth and
sincerity, he could then offer himself as an accepted person, forsaking all
self-interests, dying completely to self, yielding his all forever to God, as a sweet
savor, in the burnt offering. And in consequence he could be quickened, strengthened,
equipped, and empowered by God in the consecration offering. This is, therefore, an
offering by degrees. A little fellow can come rushing down in a service of consecration
and he says, "I give myself to the Lord" But there are three orders or degrees
of consecration, and he must pass through all three before he is the Lord's! There is the
offering of a bullock as a sin offering; but as the offerings proceed there is the
offering of a ram as a burnt offering and the offering of another ram as an offering of
consecration. There is a wonderful progression here. And ALL who would be consecrated
members of the Royal Priesthood must experientially pass through ALL that is here typified
by these three offerings.
THE BURNT OFFERING
In the last Study we dealt
with the first of these offerings, the sin offering. This brings us to the second, the
burnt offering. The Lord commanded Moses, "Thou shalt also take one ram; and Aaron
and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram. And thou shalt slay the ram,
and thou shalt take his blood, and sprinkle it round about upon the altar. And thou shalt
cut the ram in pieces, and wash the inwards of him, and his legs, and put them unto his
pieces, and unto his head. And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar: it is a burnt
offering unto the Lord: it is a sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto the Lord"
(Ex. 29:15-18).
All the offerings speak of
Christ, and all speak of Christ in union with His body; but as we know, God's truth is
many faceted in its beauty, and therefore many types and symbols are required to
adequately portray the whole truth. And even then they are but types and shadows of the
reality which is experienced only on the spiritual plane. What does the term "burnt
offering" mean? What is an offering? The Scripture shows us that whenever a thing is
set apart from its original position and usage and is laid upon God's altar, specifically
for Him, this thing is then an offering. In the Old Testament men offered bullocks and
rams and many other things as offerings. The principle is this: The ram originally lived
in a sheepfold and was used for wool and for breeding. Now it is taken from the sheepfold
and brought to the gate of the Tabernacle. There is a change in its position. Then it is
killed, placed on the altar, and consumed by fire to be a sweet smelling savor unto God.
This is a change in its usage, and in its state of being, too. Thus, this ram becomes an
offering. An offering, therefore, as it relates to the animal sacrifice, is none other
than a thing which is set apart for God and laid on the altar, with a change in position
and a change in usage and in state of being. Once it is offered as a sacrifice, it leaves
the hands of the offerer and can no longer be used for his own advantage and enjoyment.
All the sacrifices on the altar BELONG TO GOD and are for HIS usage and enjoyment. To put
it simply, to be an offering means to be sacrificed to God for HIS USE. In the burnt
offering Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram, thus identifying
with the ram. While they were identified with the ram, a sharp knife severed his carotid
artery, causing the powerful, struggling animal to pump his blood out of his own body.
Then the carcass was cut in pieces, washed, laid upon the altar, and the entire ram was
wholly burned: the flesh, the inward parts, the skin, the fat, the dung, the head, all of
it. Nothing was reserved. No part of it was used for any purpose. None of it was eaten.
Nothing was thrown away. It was consumed upon the altar in totality. The offerer
identified with the animal and said in effect, "Lord God, as I offer this animal to
be wholly given and burned before Thee, reserving nothing unto myself, so do I give myself
to Thee to be Thine, to do Thy will, to fulfill Thy purpose, reserving nothing unto
myself; all that I am, all that I have, I surrender to Thee, Lord, to be Thine, and for
Thy use, and Thine alone." In the burnt offering the offerer surrendered himself
completely in response to a special call from God. He yielded his life and pledged himself
to do what God was asking of him, cost what it might.
The great example of making a
burnt offering is that of Jesus yielding Himself to God, coming in the flesh, perfectly
living out His Father's will on the earth plane, and dying finally upon the cross. And so
the burnt offering would speak of Christ in total obedience to the Father's will, which
eventuates in the sufferings of the cross, and which ascends unto God as a sweet smelling
savor. Ah, HE IS THE EXAMPLE! We see that wondrous life of the Lord Jesus when He walked
on earth. We see Him born as a babe in
This is the kind of
consecration Paul speaks about when he says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by
the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
God, which is your reasonable service" (Rom. 12:1). Before we are consecrated to God
as a living sacrifice, we are like a wild ram living In the mountain wilds; we act
completely by our own will. Only when we become a living sacrifice to God do we cease from
our own activities in order to await God's commands. Once the sacrificial animal in the
Old Testament became a sacrifice, it was killed and then burned completely. We may say
that it was a dead sacrifice. However, in our case, after we consecrate ourselves, we are
still alive; we are a living sacrifice. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I
live" (Gal. 2:20). The difference is that in the past we lived for SELF, but now we
live for God. Before, we sought after our own benefit; now we seek His pleasure. Formerly,
we were interested in our own affairs; now our concern is about the Father's business.
Ah, Jesus was the first
priest to be so fully consecrated to God, but it should not be difficult for us to
understand that in the same way He lived as a burnt offering every member of the Royal
Priesthood must live, too. Not only did Aaron (the High Priest) lay his hands upon the
head of the dying ram, but his sons (the priesthood) laid their hands upon it also. It was
killed and Moses cut the ram into pieces, and washed the inwards and legs in water, and
placed every piece upon the altar WITH THE HEAD, and burnt the head and the pieces and the
fat. Thus, during the Church age, Jesus and His body, the great High Priest and the
members of the Royal Priesthood, are being presented, member by member, before God on the
altar of consecration, yet all are counted TOGETHER as ONE SACRIFICE. The Head was laid on
the altar first, and since then all who are "crucified with Him," as in the
type, are laid with the Head upon the same altar. The burning of the offering on the altar
shows how God accepts the entire sacrifice, as "a sweet smelling savor."
Ray Prinzing has so aptly
written, "The root thought in sacrifice is TABLE-BOND between the worshipper and his
God. In general, sacrifice is an offering made to God with the design of expressing,
securing, or promoting friendly or normal relations with Him, based on the belief that the
worshipper and God are capable of holding personal relations which can become closer, or
more hostile. Thus
"But there is an altar
which goes beyond all this self-indulgence, lays bare the secrets before God, and deals
with the inner spirit of man. Heb. 13:10 says, 'Our altar is one of which the worshipper's
HAVE NO RIGHT TO EAT' (Moffatt translation). Thus implying a realm beyond where we satisfy
ourselves, while we offer our sacrifice. It is totally and completely unto HIM, for His
pleasure alone. To declare, 'Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless
His holy name' (Ps. 103:1). Nothing withheld, no reservations for self, it is all given
over to Him. For His pleasure alone, a table for His delight without our personal
gratification involved. Certainly, once we have given Him our all, He will also bless us
with the fullness of Himself, but our inner motivation, in ministry to the Lord, is that
of total abandonment to Him FOR HIM, without a thought of what shall be received in
return. While we have eaten of Him, partaken of Him, received of Him, now we would give
ourselves to be totally His, for His satisfaction. They who are to be SONS OF THE HIGHEST,
priests of the Most High, are those who come near to Him, to stand before Him, to minister
unto Him" end quote. Glory to God!
BURNING THE SACRIFICE
The Hebrew word translated
"burnt" offering is OLAH and signifies "a step; stairs; ascending, as
'going up' in smoke; to go up." Every shade of meaning of the word denotes
"ascending" unto God and points out alike the mode of the sacrifice and its
meaning.
Our usual thought of fire has
been that it is a purely negative force, working only destruction and loss. But our GOD IS
A CONSUMING FIRE and, I would remind you, the very same God IS CREATOR and IS LIFE and IS
LOVE. A recurring word throughout the Scriptures is, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our
God is ONE LORD" (Deut. 6:4). What does it mean that God is ONE? It means infinitely
more than that God is merely one person, for one in the numerology of Scripture means
UNITY, UNITED, UNFRAGMENTED, UNDIVIDED. It means that every aspect of God's being and
nature is moving in harmony; His justice is not warring against His mercy, His judgment is
not pitted against His grace, His wrath is not striving with His love. Every part of the
plan, purpose, will and nature of God is ONE unified, united, harmonious, in perfect
accord and agreement, all moving toward the same end, the one complementing the other. The
God of love and the God of judgment is the same God and both His love and His judgment are
unified to accomplish the same purpose. This is why the Scriptures declare that God is
both the "Saviour of ALL" and the "Judge of ALL". He is not the
Saviour of some and the Judge of others. The very same God who is the Judge of ALL is also
the Saviour of ALL. He JUDGES ALL and He SAVES ALL! Can we not see by this that His
judgment and His salvation are unified and harmonious, working TOGETHER to effect: the
same end the restoration of all into God. His judgments are thus UNTO SALVATION. There is
no conflict. God is ONE!
"Our God is a consuming
fire" (Heb. 12:29). This relates specifically to the principle of the burnt offering.
In the institution of the Aaronic priestly ceremonies, God sent fire OUT FROM HIMSELF to
consume the first offering (Lev. 9:24) to show His acceptance. This same fire, divine
fire, was to be kept burning continually (Lev. 6:9), so that every burnt offering was
consumed by the very fire of God. That is why it was such an abomination when Nabab and
Abihu, the sons of Aaron, lit a fire by their own hands and offered "strange
fire" before the Lord so that He destroyed them. Thus, it is GOD HIMSELF who consumes
the sacrifice! "And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar: it is a burnt
offering unto the Lord: it is a sweet savor, an offering made by FIRE unto the Lord.'
To consume does not mean to
annihilate, for there is no such thing as annihilation in the absolute sense. It has been
stated, in a scientific writing, that FIRE RESTORES ALL THINGS TO ITS ORIGINAL STATE. When
fire consumes a log in your fireplace it does not destroy any of the elements within the
log, it merely CHANGES THEIR FORM. Combustion is the process by which chemicals combine to
form new chemicals. For example: a tree might be cut down, sawed into fire wood, and
burned. When the wood is burning the heat causes the chemicals of which the wood is
composed to vaporize, mixing with the oxygen in the air to form new chemicals, including
water and the gas carbon dioxide. So what was formerly a tree is no longer identified as
the form of a tree, but the substance thereof is now simply CHANGED into a DIFFERENT FORM
and exists in its new form within the atmosphere as water, carbon dioxide, etc. Thus, to
burn, means to CHANGE. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that fire does not burn
down; it always burns up; it seeks the highest level. And all that it consumes "goes
UP in smoke," to exist in a new form in a higher dimension. Even if you take a pan of
water and place it over a fire, before long the water will take on the property of the
fire and will begin to go UP in steam. To burn means to CHANGE, and the change is always
UPWARD in its motion.
FIRE is the heat and light
that you feel and see when something burns. It takes heat to start a fire, but once the
fire is started it produces heat that keeps the process going. Thus, fire is really HEAT
and LIGHT producing a CHANGE UPWARD! This we rejoice in, and how we desire to be
identified in that energy force which is restoring all into its original state, and
developing it to its highest potential in God's purpose. As one has written, "In the
study of fire itself, we find that fire works through combustion, which is a PROCESS
ACCOMPANIED BY THE EVOLUTION OF LIGHT AND HEAT. Praise God, this easily relates to the
spiritual process whereof we speak. In our present state, subject to the bondage of
vanity, on this grossly material plane, we are moving on a very low vibratory level. But
as the fire of God works in us, it raises us to higher degrees and planes of light, that
we may 'walk in the light, as He is in the light.' Wherein then is the loss? We only lose
our carnal mind, that we might possess HIS MIND, and we exchange the realm of darkness for
the realm of light.
"The most familiar of
all the processes of fire, is when the oxygen of the atmosphere combines with the
combustible material. Oxygen is a beautiful type of the Spirit. Introduce the SPIRIT OF
GOD into any given situation, and He will burn out all the dross and restore back into
pure spirit form again. Now, sometimes we pray for the Lord to hasten His work within us,
but let it be remembered, the more rapid the combustion, the greater the heat! We would
like to be changed into His image, but we don't like all the intense heat of the
tremendous fiery transition. 'Who among us shall dwell with the devouring (consuming)
fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting (age abiding) burning?' (Isa. 33:14). 'For
every one shall be salted (seasoned) with fire' (Mk. 9:49). Or as the Moffatt translation
gives, 'Everyone has to be consecrated by the fire of discipline.' That which has been
thoroughly processed by the fire, need fear the fire no more, for once the dross is gone,
only the form is changed to higher degrees. Solids become fluid, liquids become vapor, and
as we go through the fiery trials, it is only to bring us into a higher SPIRITUALIZED
STATE OF BEING, where we shall redound to the praise and glory of God" end quote.
Now, all the consecration of
the Royal Priesthood is connected with fire, for all three sacrifices were accompanied
with fire, and perfection is promised through fire. O my brother! My sister! I am afraid
there is a great deal of comfortable Christianity that wants to be saved, converted,
delivered, Spirit-filled, blessed, prospered, healed, and continually made happy; but it
is not the Christianity of Christ. Many Christians who love the blessings, the gifts and
the thrills would like to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit without the baptism of
FIRE. But what God has joined cannot be surrendered. "He will baptize you with the
Holy Ghost and FIRE" (Mat. 3:11); there is the promise what will you do with it?
There is only one preposition in the original, not two as in the English, to show the
identity of the two baptisms, or rather that there is but ONE. The Holy Spirit and the
Fire are not two items, they are one, for our God IS a consuming Fire. Wherever the Spirit
descends He brings FIRE in His train. "There appeared unto them cloven tongues like
as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy
Ghost" (Acts 2:3-4). Fire is a symbol of purification and transformation. It consumes
the dross and tin of self, the wood, hay and stubble of ignorance and folly. "The
fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." Everyone shall be salted with
fire, baptized in fire and in the Holy Spirit. Hence the Spirit came upon the disciples in
a fiery form because they needed purification, purging, change and transformation. Those
baptized with this baptism will know not only the glory and blessing and power of God, but
the subduing, melting, abasing, refining, transforming, elevating effects of the SPIRIT'S
FIRE. Therefore, to present our bodies and our lives a living sacrifice unto God, is
offering ourselves as a burnt offering unto Him. Then the fire from heaven can come down
and consume that which we have presented unto Him and set it aflame and make us a fiery
minister of God (Heb. 12:29). Our God is a consuming fire! If we faithfully present
ourselves unto Him upon the altar as a continual sacrifice, God will consume the whole
life and make us an able minister to manifest HIS LIFE unto the world. "He makes His
ministers a flame of fire" (Heb. 1:7).
To be HIS PRIESTS we must be
changed from our carnality and selfhood into HIS DIVINE NATURE. No divine change can be
wrought on God's elect, saving by "passing through the waters and through the
fires" which are appointed for us, waters and fires as real, though not of this
world, as those which moved in the laver of the Tabernacle, or burnt on the altar of old.
Our Lord can no more spare our nature than the ram was spared by Moses. This is that
"spirit of judgment and burning," promised by the prophet, with which the Lord
shall "purify the sons of Levi as gold and silver are purged, that they may offer to
the Lord an offering in righteousness" (Mal. 3:3).
The statement concerning the
burnt offering wherein the Lord says, "It is a sweet savor, an offering made by fire
unto the Lord," is most meaningful. When the rams were killed and offered to God as
burnt offerings, it was first necessary for God to do His thorough work upon them, that
is, to consume (change) them by fire, if they were to be pleasing and acceptable unto Him.
If the sacrifice were not consumed (changed) by fire, it would remain raw and would rot
and become foul smelling and could never be acceptable or pleasing to God. The
consecration of the Royal Priesthood today is just like that. We have heard His voice, we
have responded and have offered ourselves, yet if we do not allow God to work first by
fire, but go out to minister unto Him and work for Him and serve Him, that ministry and
that work and that service will be raw flesh, untempered, corruptible and foul smelling.
It will be the raw flesh of self-effort and soulish zeal, the foul smelling corruption of
dead works and man made promotion and program. How much of that there is upon God's altar
today! It can never be accepted by God, let alone satisfy Him.
The areas where these
sacrifices were offered must have carried many odors: the odors of the animal itself, the
blood, the burning wood, the burning flesh, the smoke from the sacrifice. Surely one could
be almost overcome and overwhelmed by all these odors. Then think of what all this means
in the spiritual sense, for all of them spoke of the change which takes place in our lives
as God works upon us by fire, transforming from carnal to spiritual, from our will to His,
from our mind to the mind of Christ. Ah the transformation is to Him a sweet smelling
odor, a heavenly fragrance, a spiritual aroma! Oh, the wonder of it! A pall of smoke must
have hung over the place like the Shekinah glory over the ark and the mercy seat. This is
significant, for when one does draw nigh unto God through the rent Vail of His flesh, into
the Holy of Holies, then the Shekinah glory of His presence will commune with him from
above the mercy seat of his surrendered, obedient heart. What a transformation! Think of
the precious things which chemistry brings out of refuse of the flavors, scents, and
colors which are every day being extracted from what appears worthless. Who can tell what
may yet be wrought by fire? Fire can free and transform what water cannot touch. ALL
THINGS shall be dissolved (changed) by fire (II Pet. 3:12). And the smoke (expression,
manifestation) of this change is a SWEET SMELLING SAVOR to God! All is spiritualized and
ascends to Him, made acceptable and well pleasing by fire.
When a ram was taken for
sacrifice and offered upon the altar, he was immediately cut off from all his previous
relationships. He was severed from his master, his companions and his sheepfold. After he
was consumed by fire, he even lost his original form and stature. All his choicest parts
were changed to a sweet smelling savor to God, and all his former hopes, dreams,
ambitions, will, purpose, strength and glory were reduced to a heap of ashes. Everything
was cut off, and everything was finished. This was the result of the ram being offered as
a burnt offering to God. Since our consecration as priests involves the outworking of the
burnt offering in our lives, the result must be the same. There must be the giving up of
everything to be burned to ashes by God to the point where all is finished. Today,
wherever we lay ourselves, our ego, our pride, our will, our ambition, our way, our
talents, our works, our strength upon the spiritual altar and sacrifice it through the
consuming fires of God all will be burned to ashes. But we ourselves will be CHANGED,
SPIRITUALIZED, RAISED UP to know God and to minister and work and serve in the high and
heavenly realm of HIS SPIRIT, a sweet fragrance to God. OUR WILL will lie as ashes, but
HIS WILL WROUGHT OUT IN US will be the sweet smelling fragrance of the new life ascending
to the higher plane. If your consecration brings you into the fierce heat of the fiery
trial, and the fires burn on the altar all night, until you feel that everything you are
and have has turned to ashes, there is still only one course of action to take, STAY ON
THE ALTAR, for when the morning comes, He shall say, "Gather My saints together unto
Me; those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice" (Ps. 50:6), and then shall
we be found unto honor and glory and praise before Him, the Royal Priesthood consecrated
unto God.
THE THREE DEATHS OF CHRIST
There was never a time when
it was more necessary than it is now that all who are consecrated as priests should see to
it that we "be dead with Him," and all that we have and are should be offered to
Him upon the altar of burnt offering, that He may change and accept us and make use of us
unto the praise of His glory. Especially is this a matter of concern to those who
understand by the Spirit that very soon all the members of the BODY will be accepted with
the HEAD, a sweet savor to God; and that the work of sacrifice being then finished, the
glorious work of the Royal Priesthood of blessing all nations and restoring all things
will begin.
The popular notion is that
the death of Christ was His cruel death upon the cross of
Paul clearly sets forth the
sacrifice of Christ when he says, "Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that,
though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might
be rich" (II Cor. 8:9). This passage positively teaches the preexistence of Christ
and clearly sets forth His sacrifice. The sacrifice He made did not happen AFTER His
incarnation, but BEFORE. He left the "GLORY that He had with the Father BEFORE THE
WORLD WAS" and His boundless "RICHES in glory" and entered into this fallen
world, being "made in all points like unto His brethren." Ah before ever the
babe appeared in
We cannot believe otherwise
than that Jesus had a physical body, that He entered this world with no previous memory
whatsoever of His previous existence as God. He had no teaching, words, thoughts, powers
or anything else when He was a babe in the manger that other babies do not have. He did
not have any capacities or attributes belonging to essential Deity which are not, or which
may not, by the grace of God and the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit also be
possessed by man. Since "His brethren" are men who have been born of the Father,
begotten sons of God, but are not on this physical plane endowed with omnipotence,
omniscience and omnipresence, we are led to believe that Jesus DID NOT HAVE THESE EITHER.
Jesus plainly said, "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and My
judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath
sent Me" (Jn. 5:30).
The connection which Jesus
had with the Father was retained by FAITH. It was a perfect, complete FAITH CONNECTION.
Jesus was limited to operating solely by faith and to tally dependent upon the Father even
as sons today are so limited. Truly, He DIED TO ALL THAT HE WAS AS ALMIGHTY GOD, He
emptied Himself, that He might become man the Son of God! THAT WAS HIS FIRST DEATH. When
He laid down His preexistent life and entered into the charnel house of this fallen world,
"He made His grave with the wicked," and when He died physically, He was laid in
the tomb of the wealthy Arimathaean and thus made His grave "with the rich." And
all was as a burnt offering unto God.
And now we are prepared to
consider another interesting feature in the life of Christ, one that will further show the
scope of His death and the depth of His consecration upon the altar of burnt sacrifice.
When Jesus left the glory and riches of His preexistent state and "was made
flesh," what sort of a condition did He enter into? Jesus came as the Head of an
entirely new creation. In fact He Himself, though emptied of His deity, WAS A NEW
CREATURE, different from any that had ever been. I want to make it very plain that Jesus
was in no way derived from the first Adam, either by flesh or by blood. If He had even one
drop of the first Adam's blood flowing through His veins, then He Himself NEEDED A
SAVIOUR. Hear now what Paul says of the Christ: "The first man Adam was made a living
soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is
spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man
is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven" (I Cor. 15:45-47).
Jesus was not fifty percent the first Adam and fifty percent the last Adam. He was one
hundred percent the last Adam! He was not fifty percent the first man, and fifty percent
the second man. He was not fifty percent the man of the earth, and fifty percent the Lord
from heaven. The second man IS (100%) THE LORD FROM HEAVEN. To be the last Adam He could
in no way contain any part of the first Adam. To be the man from heaven He must not be a
descendant of the man of the earth. He must be an entirely NEW KIND OF MAN, a special
creation of God, as was the first man in the day when he was created. The first Adam was
truly without father, without mother, without descent he was not derived from the life of
any other man who had ever lived. So the last Adam! Though He was conceived IN the womb of
Mary, He was not OF Mary. He was not formed from a union of the sperm of God with the ovum
of Mary. His genes were not half from Mary and half from His heavenly Father. "That
holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called THE SON OF GOD," declared the
angel to Mary. He was as truly man, as truly flesh as was the first man, but He was also
as truly a UNIQUE CREATION OF GOD as was the first man in Eden. Oh, the mystery of it!
Jesus the Christ was THE WORD MAN, He was NOT old Adam's flesh imbued with God's life. He
is the SECOND MAN, the Man from heaven, the Godman, Head of a new SPECIES OF MEN, a NEW
CREATION of God in the earth, each member of which is a SON OR DAUGHTER OF THE MOST HIGH!
He stood in all the dignity and splendor and wisdom and power and dominion given to man in
the beginning ere sin and limitation and death came upon him. What a man! Sinless man.
Perfect man. Diseaseless man. Unlimited man. Anointed man. Crowned man. Man in the image
of God. Man in blessed fellowship with his Creator. Man the revelation of God to creation.
Deathless man. What a specimen! What a man! This man was THE SON OF GOD.
When Jesus came to earth He
died to all that He was as God to become a man. But when He came to the Jordan He DIED TO
ALL THAT HE WAS AS A MAN to be the Son of God. When He went down into the watery grave of
John's baptism to "fulfill all righteousness," He offered there all the
capabilities, potentials, ambitions, desires, and talents He possessed AS A MAN, laying
all upon the altar, completely surrendered to God, reserving nothing for Himself, a burnt
offering, a sweet smelling savor unto God.
Can we imagine what Jesus
might have accomplished had He elected to use the wisdom and knowledge and power resident
in His PERFECT MANHOOD for His own ends? He could have used His power for wealth and
become the richest man in the world. He could have used His talents for power, usurped the
thrones of the rulers of this world and become Emperor of the mighty
We shall measure and
appreciate the burnt offering of the firstborn Son just in proportion as we realize the
depths to which Jesus descended to redeem us. How fitting and comforting it was of the
Father that when Jesus came to Jordan to be baptized, symbolically and actually burying
there His perfect manhood with all its prerogatives and powers, He should bear witness by
a voice from heaven to His perfect satisfaction and pleasure in Him! "And Jesus, when
He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened
unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him; and
lo, a voice from heaven, saying, This is My Son, the Beloved! (N.V.) in whom I am well
pleased." A sweet smelling savor! Jesus is the true David of whom the Psalms and
other Scriptures speak so often. David means BELOVED; hence the Father says, "This is
My Son, the BELOVED!" My Son because manifesting MY nature, love; the Beloved because
He is the great antitype, the true David, the MAN AFTER GOD'S OWN HEART, doing all His
will, of whom the shepherd king of Israel was only a shadow. And let it be remembered,
too, that in all this Christ was our FORERUNNER, our LEADER, and CAPTAIN. Those who will
follow in His footsteps will also come "in due time" to the "perfect
man", God's beloved because they are surrendered completely to Him to live HIS LIFE
and to do HIS WILL, reserving nothing unto themselves. They, too, shall at last come to
opened heavens, the dovelike Spirit and the approving voice. The way to life and
perfection is through humiliation, suffering, self crucifixion and death by way of the
altar of BURNT OFFERING.
Oh that men today would come
to the altar of burnt offering! The prevailing idea in the churches today is: God is doing
big things. So we must think big...talk big... preach big...act big...initiate bigger and
bigger programs...build bigger and bigger buildings...raise bigger and bigger offerings to
get on bigger and bigger radio and television stations to see greater and greater things
accomplished for God. I do not hesitate to say, however, that in many cases those who seek
to do the "big things" often usurp the power of God and use it for their own
profit, power and fame as they lodge in the most expensive hotels, eat the finest food,
wear the most costly apparel, drive the most luxurious cars, live in the most elegant
homes, own the most lavish beach properties, build multimillion dollar enterprises, gather
multitudes of followers unto themselves and control other men's lives, often with money
extracted from widows and orphans and the poor and meek of the earth. Oh! How God must
lament over His people today as He lamented over
The following words by George
Warnock are pregnant with meaning for all who receive the call to the altar of burnt
offering. "How God longs for those people who will take everything that they have
ever received from God, yes everything: their doctrines, their fellowships, their churches
large or small; their gifts and ministries; their plans and schemes for enlargement; their
programs for world evangelism and world outreach; and lay them all like Isaac on the Altar
of Burnt Offering, on one of the mountains that God would show them. But God hasn't shown
me any such mountain, I hear someone say. Nor will He do so, until you walk with God from
altar to altar...until you fervently desire to do God's will...until you learn HIS WAY and
earnestly desire to walk in HIS WAY...until the will of God becomes to you your highest
prize and your daily bread...and until you are prepared to recognize that as the heavens
are high above the earth, so are God's ways higher than your ways, and God's thoughts
higher than your thoughts.
"When Jesus spoke of
union with the Father, the people said He blasphemed, because He was making Himself equal
with God. But in fact He was NOT. 'My Father is greater than I,' He said; and again, 'I
can of mine own self do nothing...' In this realm God is truly glorified; for in this
realm we must decrease, that HE might increase. In this realm we can do NOTHING, that He
alone might do ALL THINGS. In this realm we have no righteousness of our own, no ministry
of our own, no life of our own. All this we must lay down. All selfish purposes and
ambitions must be laid aside. All talents, gifts, and enablements must be laid on the
Altar of Burnt Offering the Altar of total sacrifice. Remember, Ishmael must be cast out,
but Isaac the Beloved had to be laid on the Altar of Burnt Offering. Henceforth we must
walk only in His Life, in His Truth, in His Righteousness. His purpose in our lives is all
that we pursue, and doing His will becomes our highest prize. Henceforth we must live and
work and minister in TOTAL UNION WITH HIM" end quote.
Ah "If any man will come
after Me," Jesus said, "let him deny himself..." We thought it meant deny
the liquor store, deny the theatre, deny the pool hall, deny the miniskirt, deny
communism, deny Castro and the Antichrist. But ME? Sweet, precious little ME? Deny MYSELF?
We would rather deny the liquor store and the Antichrist than to deny OURSELVES! We all
know how the world naturally attracts us and offers us a place, a position, a name in it.
But even the so called Christian world often holds an attraction to us and offers a hope
of a future in it with certain benefits for OURSELVES. Many folk, after being saved and
filled with the Spirit, have hopes of success among men of becoming such and such a
person, or such and such a ministry, with all the recognition and prestige and glory that
comes with it. There are some who hope to be famous preachers, some to be world wide
evangelists, some to obtain a doctor of divinity, and some to be the leader of the Bible
study or prayer group, or to be recognized as an elder, a preacher, or a prophet.
All these are hopes in which,
if not laid upon the altar and consumed by the holy fires of God, are hidden many elements
which are for the building up of OURSELVES. When we see the prosperity of others, we
become envious. When we see the ministry of others, we covet the same. When we see the
blessing of others, our heart is moved. We want to be a blessing, but at the same time we
enjoy the position, the attention, the power. All this proves that we still have hopes in
OUR future. All these hopes, however, never exist in a consecrated person. A truly
consecrated man is a man who has given up HIS FUTURE. He abandons not only his future in
the world, but also his so called spiritual future. He no longer has hopes for himself in
anything; all his hope is in God. He lives purely and simply in the hand of God. He has no
ministry or program to perpetuate, he is what God wants him to be and does what God wants
him to do. God can change the order at any time and he will change with it. He clings to
nothing, for God Himself is his only hope, his only motivation. Whatever the outcome may
be, he does not know and does not care. He only knows that he is a sacrifice, wholly
belonging to God. The altar is forever the place where he stands, and a heap of ashes is
forever the result. His own will, his own way and his future have been utterly abandoned
and do not enter into consideration at all.
This giving up of the future
is not a reluctant act after something has already happened to wreck your future hopes; it
is a willing surrender before such an event. It is not waiting till you have lost or
failed in your business and then giving up. It is not waiting till you fail to obtain a
Ph.D.degree, and then give up. It is not waiting till you fall flat on your face in the
ministry you desired, and then say, "Thy will, Lord." It is not running out to
do something for God and when it doesn't work out, giving up. When we speak of giving up
the future, of denying ourselves, we mean that when a profitable business opportunity
comes along, when an excellent job awaits you, when a Ph. D. degree is within your grasp,
when some spiritual ministry or opportunity for Christian service opens before you, you
willingly give it all up for the Lord's sake. This is truly called the giving up of the
future. Even if the entire glory of
I do not mean that you must
not own a business, or have a job, or receive a degree, or fulfill a ministry. I mean that
whatever you do you will not do because there is something in it for you. Whatever you do
WILL BE THE LORD'S DOING, not yours. And if He says to you, "Go plow," you will
just as joyfully crawl onto the tractor as you would stand behind the pulpit. And if He
changes your orders and bids you lay down and forsake all that you are doing and all that
you have attained to, you respond without hesitation and without even asking,
"Why?" As one has said, "You mean God told me to start this big Church and
get involved in this extensive outreach, and now I am supposed to drop it all? You mean
God called me into the ministry, and now asks me to lay it down and go to work in a
factory or sawmill, or get involved in some monotonous routine job on an assembly line?
God called me to higher things than that! You mean God called the apostle Paul to the high
and holy calling of apostleship to the Gentiles, and then shut him up in prison to waste
away his days in a prison cell? And so the call of God to higher heights in Him is not
heard because we have not identified with HIS WAYS, and therefore we do not really
appreciate the thoughts and the intents of His heart" end quote.
The wonder, the meaning, the
glory of the burnt offering is beautifully summed up in these words penned by George
Warnock: "Once the story of Joseph was just that, a beautiful story. But now it means
more, because in small measure at least we have been able to identify. He had a
vision...and we have a vision. He would like to see it fulfilled, but he soon learned that
only God Himself can fulfill the vision that He has given. He does not give us the vision
as an incentive to work on, but as a seed of truth to embrace and allow it to fulfill
God's purpose in our lives. We wonder how a Word so sweet can become an experience so
bitter. As Joseph cherished the vision the fulfillment of it became more and more distant
and more and more impossible. Finally he discovers himself in a foreign land, completely
cut off from the family that he saw in the vision a prisoner and a slave rather than a
king and a ruler. To try and figure out what might have gone wrong would only lead to
further frustration, so he simply tries to forget it all. (Eventually when his first son
is born he will call him, 'God has caused me to forget...'). He cannot deny what God
showed him, but he will just lay it aside...or put it in a bottle, seal it, and cast it
upon the waters. And yet, in and through it all, God was consistent" and without any
intermission working out all the intricate details in Joseph's life that would eventuate
in the vision being gloriously fulfilled, only on a much higher and loftier plane than
Joseph ever imagined as a young lad who dreamed the dream. Gone were the thoughts of
greatness. Gone the thought that some day I'm going to be somebody great, and all you boys
are going to have to recognize it. Here was a man of the Way who in walking with God
became a stranger in his own home, a byword among his own brothers, a dreamer whose dreams
soon vanished when he was sold to the Ishmaelites and became a stranger in a foreign land.
And so the vision of greatness was fulfilled in the perfection of God's order; but it was
only fulfilled as Joseph found grace to identify with GOD'S WAY; and in so doing the dream
itself was utterly transformed until it became a transforming experience in Joseph's own
heart; and a vision of mercy, of deliverance, and of compassion for those who had
mistreated him. The man of the Way, whose feet were hurt in fetters of brass, and whose
soul was laid in iron, was recognized for what he was: the elect of God, marked with the
mark of God and destined to become Zaphnathpeaneah...a name which signifies a 'Revealer of
Secrets' to the Hebrews, but to Pharaoh and the Egyptians it meant: 'Saviour of the
World"' end quote.
If our pursuit of sonship and
kingship and priesthood contains any element of desire for a future, for greatness, for a
name, for recognition, for power, for SELF we have not yet come to the altar of burnt
offering, nor have passed through the consuming fire of God. O Father! Draw us to Thy
Tabernacle door. Help us to offer there our offering, ourselves. Thou whose love is a
fire, burn up and destroy all that hinders or refuses the triumph of Thy love. Consume the
sacrifice and convert it into its own heavenly light nature, transform our beings into
flames of love!
Chapter
19
THE
CONSECRATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD
To consecrate the Royal
Priesthood is to hallow and equip each member to act as a priest unto the Lord. The
consecration the ministry committed into the hands of God's priests, and performed by
them, is all UNTO HIM, and not unto the Lord for a moment, a day or a year, but we abide
in His presence continually to serve Him in all that He gives to us. Then Moses took the
wave offering off their hands (the priests did not lay it down), God's acceptance being
shown by fire. Thus, this consecration means more than just our being consecrated and
dedicated and the giving of ourselves wholly to God. It bespeaks of God accepting our
consecration, receiving us and imparting and inworking into our lives all that is needed
to fulfill the ministry of priesthood. Ah, HE FILLS OUR HANDS, places within our hands
that which is necessary to minister as His priests. No priest can appear before either God
or man empty handed, but there is a definite ability and power of God given to us that as
priests we might have to minister both unto God and to men.
This is the hour when it is
no longer enough to just know that we belong to God, or that we have consecrated ourselves
and given ourselves wholly to the Lord. This is the hour when God is calling forth His
elect saints to move into that place where God can impart and inwork into each member
something of Himself that can be ministered both unto God and unto men. The question
follows Has God "filled our hands"? Have we been so consecrated until God has
witnessed that He has accepted us and has committed unto us at least a measure of Himself
that we can minister to others? It begins with God, for He is the First Cause of all
things, the initiator of this ministry, and the sufficiency whereby it is accomplished.
THE BLOOD AND THE OIL
"And thou shalt take the
other ram; and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram. Then
shalt thou kill the ram, and take of his blood, and put it upon the tip of the right ear
of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right
hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar
round about. And thou shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar, and of the anointing
oil, and sprinkle it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon the
garments of his sons with him: and he shall be hallowed, and his garments, and his sons,
and his sons' garments with him" (Ex. 29:19 21).
The bullock of the sin
offering represented the dealing with the power of sin in our lives. The first ram of the
burnt offering bespoke of our complete and total surrender to the Lord and to His will,
reserving nothing to ourselves, becoming a sweet smelling savor to God. The second ram,
the "ram of consecration", showed how God receives our sacrifice and fills our
hands, imparting something of Himself that can be ministered to those about. When the
priests were consecrated to their ministry, Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the
head of the ram of consecration, showing thus that it represented them. And Moses slew it
and took its blood (life) and put it upon each separately, thus revealing that our
consecration is an INDIVIDUAL work. The blood was placed upon the tip of the right ear, on
the thumb of the right hand, and on the big toe of the right foot. Possession was taken of
the entire man for God; all his powers were quickened and sanctified. Our ear is quickened
to listen to, and for, God; by our consecration we are enabled to have "an ear to
hear," and to appreciate the High Calling of God as none but the consecrated can. Our
hand is quickened and sanctified to work by, and for, God. Our foot is quickened and
sanctified to walk with God, and to walk out the revelation of God, so that henceforth we
"walk not as other Gentiles" but "walk in newness of life," "walk
by faith,' "walk in the Spirit," "walk in the light," and even
"as we have received Christ, so walk in Him." In the life of each member of the
Royal Priesthood, the precious blood of Christ, will exercise authority over every power,
to sanctify it for the ministry of the Lord. The priest who was marked by blood on the
ear, hand, and foot, so that all the activities of these members might be sanctified, had
to recognize that he had been separated UNTO GOD, and to His service, and empowered to
fulfill it.
This blood is not a cleansing
from sin. It has nothing to do with sin. The blood that cleanses from sin is the blood of
the sin offering. This is the blood of consecration, the LIFE of God quickening and
sanctifying the ministry of priesthood in the apprehended ones. None but the priests ever
knew the power of the blood of the ram of consecration. And there is a very interesting
order here. The blood was first put upon the ear, hand, and foot, and then some of the
blood was taken from the altar and, with the holy anointing oil, was sprinkled upon the
whole person of the priest. A very close relationship exists between the applying of the
blood and the anointing with the oil. Blood means LIFE, for "the life of the flesh is
in the blood" (Lev. 17:11). The purpose of the blood is to quicken, that we may be
alive unto God in every faculty of our being. The purpose of the oil is to empower
"Ye shall receive POWER, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be
witnesses unto Me" (Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit is POWER from on high the POWER of
Almighty God! Notice how often the word "power" is used in connection with the
Holy Spirit: "...the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the POWER of the Highest
shall overshadow thee..." (Lk. 1:35). "For God hath not given us the spirit of
fear; but of POWER, and of love, and of a sound mind" (II Tim. 1:7). "Now the
God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope,
through the POWER of the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 15:13). "But truly I am full of
POWER by the Spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might" (Micah 3:8).
First we have the applying of
the blood; then God's holy ointment anoints us with God Himself. Therefore, to experience
the anointing we must first have the blood; to experience the empowering of God to do the
work of a priest we must first be quickened unto God in every faculty of the New Creation
Man. When Moses intended to sprinkle the anointing oil upon the priest, the blood must
first be applied. The oil was placed UPON THE BLOOD. It is a great sin against God if we
should apply the ointment before the blood. Because the ointment prefigures the mighty
manifestation of the power of the Holy Spirit through us, it must never be applied to one
who has not been quickened and made thoroughly alive unto God by the blood. God cannot
entrust His power to the carnal man, He cannot commit His power into the hands of flesh;
only the New Creature can receive of the power of God! Therefore, if we wish to experience
the FULLNESS of the anointing of power, we must first experience the fullness of the
quickening of His life. Christians have often had to complain about a lack of power. Oh,
how many who have received the call to sonship still have so little power! I do not
hesitate to tell you that it is because we have not yet been fully QUICKENED UNTO GOD.
There is still so much deadness, dullness, earthiness, blindness, carnality, limitation
and immaturity. Until the blood has completely done its work, the anointing cannot be
fully manifest. The more we apply the blood and allow it to make us alive unto God and His
mind, and will, and purpose, the more we will experience the anointing and know the mighty
working of HIS POWER in and through us. Hallelujah!
THE BLOOD ON THE EAR
I am reminded of the story of
the two old Dutchmen, sitting on a park bench. The night had come and the moon started to
shine. Not far from the bench where they sat, a river flowed, and from the river came the
chorus of the crickets. Pete, the first old gentleman, listened to the crickets and said,
"Crickets sure do sing." John, sitting next to him agreed, saying, "Yep,
they sure know how to sing." Just then he heard the voices of the choir coming from
the nearby church and remarked, "Beautiful music, isn't it?" Pete said,
"Yeah, and to think they do it just by rubbing their legs together!"
Each heard a different music
one was listening to the crickets and one was listening to the choir. What you hear
depends on where you're coming from and what you're tuned in to. When the disciples asked
Jesus why He spoke to the multitudes in parables, He answered by saying, "This is why
I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear,
nor do they understand." He then reminded them of Isaiah's prophecy which said,
"You shall indeed hear, but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never
perceive." It almost seems that Jesus was acting vindictively, but He was not, for He
also explains why those who saw Him failed to understand. "For this nation's heart
has grown gross fat and dull; and their ears heavy and difficult of hearing, and their
eyes THEY have tightly closed, lest they see and perceive with their eyes, and hear and
comprehend the sense with their ears, and grasp and understand with their heart, and turn
and I should heal them" (Mat. 13:15, Amplified). Had they wanted to hear, they could
have, but they chose not to see or understand. Eight times in the book of Revelation the
Lord Jesus says, "He that hath an ear, LET HIM HEAR!"
In our day Bibles can be
bought in the dime store and sermons can be heard any hour of the day or night, but
practically no one, the preachers in particular, is HEARING the Word of God. Many read the
words of the Bible and do not "hear" them. Intellect may grasp what is written
there...but that is not a hearing. Hearing the Word of God will work transformation in a
man. A true hearing of the Word will bring obedience to the Word, the obedience of faith
and things will begin to happen. Taken by the Spirit to the
It is not my purpose here to
explore the present condition of the church system, but when Jesus sent His message to the
wealthy
Never in the history of the
world has there been so much preaching and so much human effort, or so many multimillion
dollar church buildings, crystal cathedrals, Christian amusement parks, concerts, or so
much church membership, or so many programs to convert the world, but Christ, locked out
of their grandiose schemes, STANDS OUTSIDE! The whole church system of our day is built on
the programs and efforts of the flesh rather than the glory of the Holy Spirit. In spite
of all the glib mention of His name, the truth is that Christ is outside the church system
and His Spirit is not in its works. The thundering message of Christ to the Laodicean
church will not even penetrate in to fall upon the already occupied ears of the masses who
assemble there, but will be heard only by individual believers. Notice what He says,
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock: IF ANY hear My voice, and open the door, I
will come IN TO HIM, and will sup with HIM, and HE with Me" (Rev. 3:20). "If ANY
MAN will hear!" "If any man WILL HEAR!"
You meet one that is
religious, awed by the crowds, the buildings, the great meetings, the charismatic
speakers, the beautiful television programs, the music, and the wonderful works supposedly
being done. They feel they are "rich and increased with goods, and have need of
nothing." They can talk much of the milk of the Word, their spiritual gifts and
religious toys. But they know nothing of the present truth of His gathering to Himself a
remnant to bring them into His perfections. They are well versed in the traditional
doctrines about the antichrist and the so called rapture, but they know naught of the
mighty move of God in the earth today preparing a firstfruit company of Kings and Priests
to ascend the throne and reign over the nations. You cannot begin to speak of the deep
mysteries of the Kingdom, or of these divine quickenings which the Holy Spirit of truth
has whispered into your being, for they have no ears to hear them. Were you to declare
them in the churches of our day, there would be a revolution. Their eyes are closed
against the bright vision of that which lies before at the manifestation of the sons of
God and the consummation of God's great plan of the ages. They are dull to the keen edge
of the Spirit's working in this hour. But, blessed be God, there is a people whose ears
have been touched by blood, a holy race of priests who are being quickened to hear the
voice of the High Priest who speaks from the MELCHIZEDEKIAN REALM. Only the priest with
the anointed ear can enter in to receive instructions from that High and Holy Order!
Shortly after becoming king
in
A friend has so aptly
written: "'My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: He goeth
before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice. And a stranger will they
not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers' (Jn. 10:27,
4-5). My sheep hear the Greek word for 'hear' used here is AKOUO and while there is
included in its meaning the thought of 'to give ear' because you discern a sound, it also
includes the meaning of TO HEARKEN, a responsive action to one's hearing. This goes beyond
the outward hearing of the natural ear, when Jesus said, 'My sheep hear My voice!' There
is a LISTENING to hear the sound thereof, a receptivity within, and a responsiveness to
follow in obedience.
"'He goes before His
sheep, and they follow Him, for they KNOW His voice.' Now we have another Greek word for
'know', this one being OIDA, absolute knowledge. Praise God, we are to have absolute
knowledge of His voice without doubts or questionings. The sheep the mature ones, shall
come to a place where they unmistakably know His voice. And they know that they know that
they know! It is a precious walk, a communion that sustains and enriches them day by day.
But as for STRANGERS they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they know not
the voice of strangers.
"And now we have an
allegory, with the shepherd, and the stranger, and there is a sense in which we have them
both within us. The Shepherd is the VOICE OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD, the stranger is the voice
of the carnal mind. I dare say, our spiritual maturity is evidenced by the 'voice' which
we hearken to, and follow. God is SPIRIT, and He contacts us through our spirit. 'There is
a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding' (Job
32:8). It is interesting to watch a gathering of various levels of spiritual growth. When
the Spirit of God is moving deep into the hearts of those who HEAR HIS VOICE, others seem
to withdraw and almost appear bored with the service. Then if another voice begins to
speak appealing to the soulish realm, they suddenly come alive and respond accordingly
with their manifestations. And finally, as another voice simply speaks that it is time for
the 'potluck lunch to be served' there are those who endured all the service thus far, now
they begin to respond. Each has heard a 'voice', whether of The Shepherd, the stranger, or
just the flesh. As for the physical, earth realm, obviously there is a time and place for
its voice and message, HE placed us in this realm for a purpose, to be exercised and
trained thereby. The natural is not 'sinful' until it becomes perverted and out of place.
But there are those, as Paul wrote, 'many walk...whose God is their belly, and whose glory
is in their shame, who mind earthly things' (Phil. 3:18-19). When we hear the physical
voice for a drink of water, some food, some sleep and the needs are met, the voice remains
silent. But when the voice keeps on, LUSTING AFTER MORE, then it has certainly entered
into the realm of the unholy stranger; may God help us to flee from it, and not know it.
"There is something
upsetting about the voice of the stranger, once you have determined before God to follow
only the VOICE OF THE SPIRIT. Yet, uniquely enough, oftentimes you cannot tell others that
the voice being heard IS TO YOU the voice of a stranger for in their response to that
voice they are blessed in some degree and manner. And we would make it clear, we praise
God for ALL that HE is doing on any level, and through whomever, and whatever means He has
purposed to work. However, our personal experience is such that we find more and more the
voice of the 'charismatic move' has become to us the voice of a stranger. The projection
of human personality, even though clothed with its charisma and religiosity, rings shallow
and strange when one has heard the call of God into the depths and heights of the vision
that leads to the realm beyond.
"'The inspiration
(inbreathing) of the Almighty giveth understanding.' How we yearn for more and more of
that DIVINE INBREATHING. For far too long we have relied on the proper atmospheres for our
breath. The singing had to be just right, the praise service, the favorite preacher or
teacher, and when conditions were just right to form that particular atmosphere, we
breathed deeply and enjoyed it. But there is a dimension wherein one does not rely on the
outward atmosphere, for they live by the CHRIST WITHIN, and they hear HIS VOICE, and
become, as Paul so aptly stated it, 'I have come to learn, in the circumstances in which I
am placed, to be independent of these and self-sufficient' (Phil. 4:11, Wuest Expanded).
'...with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early' (Isa. 26:9). 'I commune with mine own
heart: and my spirit made diligent search' (Ps. 77:6)" end quote.
A. B. Simpson was a man of
deep spiritual experience. I quote the following from his article LISTENING. "A score
of years ago a friend placed in my hand a book called TRUE PEACE. It was an old medieval
message and it had but one thought THAT GOD WAS WAITING IN THE DEPTHS OF MY BEING TO TALK
TO ME IF I WOULD ONLY GET STILL ENOUGH TO HEAR HIS VOICE. I thought this would be a very
easy matter and so began to get still. I had no sooner commenced than a perfect
pandemonium of voices reached my ears, a thousand clamoring notes from without and within,
until I could hear nothing but their noise and din. Some were my own voices, my own
questions; some were my very prayers. Others were suggestions of the tempter and the
voices from the world of turmoil. In every direction I was pulled and pushed and greeted
with noisy acclamations and unspeakable unrest. It seemed necessary for me to listen to
some of them and to answer some of them; but God said, 'BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD.'
"Then came the conflict
of thoughts for tomorrow and its duties and cares; but God said, 'BE STILL.' And as I
listened and slowly learned to obey and shut my ears to every sound, I found after a while
that, when other voices ceased, (or I ceased to hear them), there was a still small voice
in the depths of my being that began to speak with an inexpressible tenderness and power
and comfort. As I listened, it became to me the voice of prayer, the voice of wisdom, the
voice of duty, and I did not need to think so hard or pray so hard or trust so hard. That
still, small voice of the Holy Spirit in my heart was God speaking in my secret soul; was
God's answer to all knowledge and all prayer and all blessings, for it was the living God
Himself as my life, my all.
"It is thus that our
spirits drink of the life of the risen Lord and we go forth to life's conflicts and duties
like a flower that has drunk in through the shades of night the cool and crystal drops of
dew. But, as dew never falls on a stormy night, so the dew of His grace never comes to a
restless soul. Oh, the calm! The rest! The peace which comes as we wait in His presence
until we HEAR FROM HIM!" end quote.
Be still! Just now be still!
There comes a presence very mild and sweet;
White are the sandals on His noiseless feet.
It is the Comforter whom Jesus sent
To teach thee what the words He uttered meant
The willing, waiting spirit He doth fill;
If thou would'st hear His message, DEAR SOUL, BE STILL!
THE BLOOD ON THE HAND
The hand is always the symbol
for service, serving, or ministry. Many years ago amidst a great moving of the Spirit of
God the revelation of sonship fell with wonder upon our ears and burst with glory within
our hearts. We sat enraptured for hours, day after day, and were taught by the Spirit
about the Father and His purposes and about that elect company He has called and chosen
and apprehended to be his sons, ordained of God to rule with Him in His Kingdom and
restore all things to God. We learned that these sons would have power unlimited power
over everything. Power over sin, power over sickness, power over the elements, power over
demons, power over all the power of the enemy, power over Satan, and power over death. We
were going to rule and reign in power, and our eyes sparkled like diamonds in the light
and our hearts swelled with joy in expectation of the wonderful position and authority we
would soon have in the Kingdom. We could think and talk of nothing else but the power we
would have, and in our glorying we tried to usurp and demonstrate this power. We were
intoxicated with illusions of grandeur as we pressed our way into the Kingdom and the
exalted position of sitting on the throne with Jesus and ruling the world and the
vastnesses of infinity forever.
It is true the sons are
destined to sit on the throne with the Lord, they are going to rule over the nations, and
they are going to have power beyond our wildest dreams; power to deliver the whole
creation from the bondage of the corruption of the base material realm into the liberty
and glory of the spirit realm. But there was a truth that was withheld from us in the
beginning, and later revealed by the Spirit, the truth that as the Son of man was made a
PRIEST after the order of Melchizedek, and as the Son reigns as a PRIEST upon His throne,
so the sons must also be. It is not the kings who reign, but the priests. It is the fact
of the priest being given ruling authority that makes the priest to also be a king. He is
not a king who becomes a priest, but a priest who is given rule. "Blessed and holy is
he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but
they shall be PRIESTS of God and of Christ, and shall REIGN with Him a thousand
years" (Rev. 20:6). Ah, it is the PRIESTS that reign! A king without a priestly
nature is no king at all merely a despot. We have a dual role to fill in the Kingdom; we
are not only to be kings, we are also to be priests. It is a lofty position to which we
are called, and for which we are being prepared. Sonship, yes. Kings and priests, yes. But
why equipped with such power and glory? TO SERVE! For it is written, "Ye are My
witnesses, saith the Lord, AND MY SERVANT, whom I have chosen" (Isa. 43:10). As kings
we reign, as priests we serve, for the ministry of the priest is that of a servant, and we
REIGN BY SERVING!
Little did we understand in
those early days that the way UP is DOWN. The carnal mind would have us believe that the
way UP is UP. Thus we have pressed our way into ministry, pressed our way into the
Kingdom, "stood on the promises," demanded of God our "rights," and
sought to seize the throne. It is true, children of God, that God wants to take us UP high
into the realms of God UP to the throne but God would have us know that the way UP is
always DOWN! Remember what Jesus said to His disciples when they aspired to greatness in
the Kingdom? "Now an eager contention arose among them, which of them was considered
and reputed to be the greatest. But Jesus said to them, The kings of the Gentiles are
deified by them and exercise lordship, ruling as emperor gods over them; and those in
authority over them are called benefactors and welldoers. But this is not to be so with
you; and on the contrary let him who is the greatest among you become as the youngest, and
he who is the chief and leader as one who SERVES. For which is the greater, he who
reclines at table (the master), or he who serves? Is it not he who reclines at table? BUT
I AM IN YOUR MIDST AS ONE WHO SERVES" (Lk. 22:24-27, Amplified). The one who serves
the people well as a priest is the one who will also reign well as a king. "They
shall be PRIESTS...and they shall REIGN." Though He is calling us to become kings
with authority over all, yet our inner attitude must be that of a servant, that we might
freely minister, loving, touching, doing good, healing, reconciling, restoring with mercy
and love. The problem with many people is that they have never learned to live for
anything other than themselves, or maybe their immediate family, their wife or husband,
their daughter Sue, their son John, those four, no more.
In God's Kingdom kingship
isn't a place of lordship, but is the place of the lowly servant. God brings preparation
into our lives to teach us the attitude of a servant. Pride shows that person has failed
to grasp that rulership is rooted in God and not in ourselves, thus freeing him to serve.
Jesus was the most humble and lowly of all men. He was not a super duper elite country
club Son of God. Phil. 2:6-8 says of Jesus, "Although He existed in the form of God,
He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the
form of a BONDSERVANT, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance
as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a
cross."
Jesus was so secure in who He
was He didn't need to exalt Himself or usurp control over other men's lives. Jn. 13:3-5
makes this very clear: "Jesus, KNOWING that the Father had given all things into His
hands, and that He had come forth from God, and was going back to God, rose from supper,
and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, girded Himself about. Then He poured
water into the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the
towel with which He was girded."
Washing feet was one of the
basest tasks in the culture of Jesus' day. It was a job usually done by a house slave.
Just as we offer a visitor hospitality, so in Jesus' time they customarily washed a
visitor's feet. Washing feet was an undesirable responsibility: the roads were dusty well
enough. But the filth of the road was more than dust. The transportation of that day was
the camel, the donkey, the horse and the mule. It takes little imagination to understand
that the streets and roads were littered with their manure. The traveler's feet would be
covered with this as well as being caked with dust. The washing of feet was assigned to
the lowliest slave because it meant handling the filth of the streets. This job was
thought to be below the dignity of the "good man of the house." Yet it was this
task to which the Lord of Glory stooped! The violent protests of the disciples are quite
easy to understand.
How could Jesus have done
this? How could the Master and the King of the universe wash dung from His disciple's
feet? He could do it because HE WAS SECURE IN WHO HE WAS. He KNEW that the Father had
given all things into His hands. He KNEW that He had come from the Father and that He was
the Son of God and promised Messiah. He KNEW that He was going back to the Father after He
defeated sin, sickness, death, the grave and hell. He didn't have to prove anything to
Himself or to anyone else. His life had already proven who He was to those who had eyes to
see. And He didn't stoop so low to become a tyrant, to rule over this world by force. He
came to heal and bless and deliver, to REIGN BY SERVING! Ah, yes, precious friend of mine,
once we thoroughly KNOW who we are there is no need to proclaim it, no need to sound a
trumpet, no need to wear a badge, to remind people of who we are. Once we KNOW that we are
the sons of God WE ARE FREED TO SERVE. Oh, Father! Apply the blood to our hands, quicken
and sanctify the power of service, anoint with Thy holy oil, fill to the full our hands
that we may have wherewith to bless Thy creation!
THE BLOOD ON THE FOOT
As the hands speak of
service, so the feet speak of walk and conduct. There comes to mind the curious events of
the first chapter of the book of Judges. We read, "After the death of Joshua the
Israelites asked the Lord, Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight
against them? And the Lord said,
In the path of
How strange! Why would they
sever the thumbs and big toes of conquered kings? Because it was a sign of conquest. You
see, in those days the king often led his soldiers into battle. They fought with swords,
spears, and with bows and arrows. The ultimate shame and punishment for a mighty warrior
was for his thumbs and big toes to be cut off, for while his life and being was preserved,
by this one simple procedure he was forever disfitted for fighting. He could serve as a
slave, but never again could he proudly lead his army in battle because the severing of
his thumbs incapacitated his hand from using the bow, or the spear, or the sword; and the
absence of the big toes rendered his gait uncertain; he was unable to run in battle. What
a great man this Adonibezek had been! What desolation he had made among his neighbors: he
had wholly subdued and debilitated the hands and feet of seventy kings, yet now himself a
prisoner and reduced to the extremity of meanness and disgrace.
In the act of consecration of
the priesthood, by anointing these particular members with blood we have a picture which
is the reverse. Instead of being incapacitated by amputation, these priests were to have
each member QUICKENED BY CONSECRATION. The ear was anointed to be sensitive to the voice
of the Spirit and to hear the cries of humanity. The thumb was anointed that it might do
the bidding of God, fight the good fight of faith, and touch and minister to creation's
need. The big toe was anointed that it might walk in the ways of God and WALK OUT the
mind, nature, character, glory and power of God upon the earth. Oh, how God's priests need
to have their walk anointed!
From time to time I meet
these folk who call themselves sons of God. They can discern what God is doing in this
hour, they see beautiful revelation truths. They can thrill your heart with the message
they preach. They understand the deep mysteries of the
The one who preaches and
teaches, but does not partake of what he gives forth; who testifies to one thing and lives
another, has little or no influence when he attempts to share with others the life of
Christ. None judge our relationship with God by our knowledge of the Bible, by our
revelations, experiences or our testimonies. The Christ life must be WALKED OUT in our
lives, and manifested in our daily walk in the home, on our block, at the job, and before
those who see us the most.
In the Song of Solomon the
king says to the Shulamite, "How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's
daughter!" The word for feet is in the Hebrew PAAMAH which means not only feet but
also steps or footsteps. It comes from the word PAAM meaning "to impel or agitate; to
move." Ferrar Fenton translates, "How fine your steps are in your
slippers!" Goodspeed renders, "How beautiful are your steps in sandals, O
rapturous maiden!" Another translation says, "How beautiful your steps have
become in your sandals, O willing daughter!" "Steps" indicate action which
is taking place. It is not a matter of the beauty of her feet, but of her steps, or her
walk. This is the beauty of her action and her move. Praise God, He is beautifying the
steps of His chosen ones as He enables them more and more to walk out in the external
realm the Word that He has planted deep within the inner man. It requires the application
of the blood and the oil the quickening and sanctifying power of HIS LIFE WITHIN, and the
enduement of the Holy Spirit to enable us to BE OUR MESSAGE, our whole life given to
manifest that message, a state of being that proclaims the truth AS WE WALK whether we
ever utter a word or not. We praise God for the preaching and teaching of the Word by
faithful ministries, this is indeed a vital part of the whole, but remember, dear ones,
the blood was not put on the tongue, but on the ear, the hand, and the foot, to teach us
the great truth that we are not to just talk about Him, but to live and give our whole
life unto Him until we are filled and possessed by Him, so that every action, every word,
every deed, every expression, all that WE ARE is a declaration of HIM, manifesting HIM,
revealing HIM.
A thousand, yea, tens of
thousands, a mighty army must be touched by the blood from off the altar of God. A great
I am impressed at this time
to draw your attention to the threefold sacrifice connected with the consecration of the
priesthood. Each of the offerings had a separate meaning for the priests. The succession
in which the sacrifices followed each other on this occasion, first the sin offering, then
the burnt offering, and lastly the consecration offering, has its ground in the meaning of
each sacrifice. The priest passed through a spiritual process. He had transgressed the
law, and he needed the deliverance signified by the sin offering. If his offering had been
made in truth and sincerity, he could then offer himself as an accepted person, forsaking
all self interests, dying completely to self, yielding his all forever to God, as a sweet
savor, in the burning. And in consequence he could be quickened, strengthened, equipped,
and empowered by God in the consecration offering. This is, therefore, an offering by
degrees. There are three orders or degrees of consecration, and the priest must pass
through all three before he is the Lord's and before he is equipped to minister as His
priest. There is the offering of a bullock as a sin offering; but as the offerings proceed
there is the offering of a ram as a burnt offering and the offering of another ram as an
offering of consecration. There 1S a wonderful progression here. And ALL who would be
consecrated members of the Royal Priesthood must experientially pass through ALL that is
here typified by these three offerings.
Chapter
20
THE
ANOINTING OF THE PRIESTHOOD
Rees Howells, the mighty
intercessor of another generation, once stated that "no event in history, even though
prophesied beforehand in the Scriptures, comes to pass unless God finds human channels of
faith and obedience. Prophecies must be believed into manifestation as well as
foretold." As the nations are being prepared everywhere for the appearance of God's
Royal Priesthood, we are now in the place where God is choosing, just as surely as He
chose Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Samuel, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, Daniel, John the Baptist or, finally, the greatest of all, Jesus Christ, the
Redeemer of the world. Just as surely as God chose Martin Luther, John Calvin, John
Wesley, John Alexander Dowie, Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, William Branham, Oral Roberts
and others years and centuries ago to be used by Him specially, we are in a new hour of
Divine Choice; just as surely as God chose Paul and Peter, Andrew and James and John, God
is now again CHOOSING MEN.
Today, God is again choosing
His people, His channel, His instrument. He is choosing the final members of His Royal
Priesthood company. Many are called, but few are chosen. We are not choosing Him, He is
choosing us. God is making choice of those through whom there will come the complete, the
full, the total revelation and manifestation of Jesus Christ, in all of its glory, all of
its wisdom, all of its power, all of its authority, all of its might, and all of its
salvation, so that all flesh can see the salvation of God and all the ends of the earth
the glory of God!
God has been using people in
every generation and in every nation and place to whatever degree He has prepared the
vessel as a revelation of Himself. There has been that unfolding of His purpose, that
flowing of His life, that manifestation of Himself. Great and wonderful beyond description
has been the moving of God from age to age and from generation to generation. God has been
using preachers and people in every denomination everywhere to whatever degree He has
prepared that vessel for that revelation. But there shall come the ultimate, and total,
and complete revelation of Jesus Christ - not a narrow, limited thing, not to get a number
of people saved and blessed and healed and filled with the Spirit and used, but the
Kingdom of God coming with power and with glory, as an expression and a manifestation of
God in its total capacity with no limitations, with all the glory, all the power, all the
might, all the majesty, all the authority, so that nations will be swept into the Kingdom
of God, and the whole creation delivered.
Jesus said: "Go and
declare that the
Who can God use in such a
measure? Who is God preparing to use at such a time? Anyone who has anything to lose or
anything to gain, either reputation, name, friends, money, security, power, place or
position, God cannot use in this full revelation. Oh, He uses them to the full ability
that He can use them in the dimension in which He desires, and they are being prepared for
this and we give God thanks for the "in part" ministry, but this has not been
sufficient. God must have a people, scattered over the earth, through whom the full
revelation of His wisdom will be made manifest, where the full capacity of His strength
can be made perfect and displayed. God is preparing a people through whom there will come
such a revelation of Himself that it will be said: "God is in you of a truth,"
and God will be glorified in them. There will be the recognition by the ditch digger, by
the bag lady, by the Mayor and by the President that GOD IS IN THE MIDST OF HIS PEOPLE.
That people must come to a place of total nothingness, that God may become ALL IN ALL!
It is my conviction that all
who prize the beautiful hope of sonship will agree that the manifestation of the sons of
God, the next great move of God in the earth, must be ONE HUNDRED PERCENT THE WORK OF GOD.
But it cannot be one hundred percent God's work when there is still ninety percent of us,
or eighty, forty, ten, one percent of us. If the expression of God that is coming will be
"Jesus and me", then you will also give the glory to "Jesus and me."
But if it is Jesus alone, I may be the vessel, you may be the vessel, but the
manifestation and the excellency of the power shall be of God and not of us. So much
manifestation has been "God and us." Our drive, our holiness, our spirituality,
our faith, our commitment, our dedication, our prayer, our fasting, our ability, our
wisdom, our strength, has been mingled with SELF. But today the Spirit is saying: "We
have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power, the glory, the
authority and the majesty may be of God" - Christ in us become the totality of
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, power and glory - and not of us. How
can it be of us, when we have become nothing? God shall now be glorified in and through
us, by Jesus Christ. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to enable us to make the ultimate
commitment to be totally nothing, that HIS FULLNESS be found in us.
The Spirit has been poured
out in the denominations for a number of years now, but it cannot last much longer.
Everything is coming to a climax, culminating. The ending of the age is upon us. What more
does God need to tell us? Not that there will not be a fresh opening up of the Word, not
that the spirit of revelation will not increase, but is it not time that that expression
and manifestation of the fullness of God's glory that we have so long looked forward to,
should come? I feel it in my spirit and we are seeking God and praying, crying out
mightily unto Him, and waiting on God until that full manifestation of all that God has
purposed will come. All over the world there are people who are seeking God like this.
Many have been drawn away and separated from all their former involvements and religious
exercises, the church system, and the old ways of doing things, to wait for His NEW
ORDERS. God is making choice among us and among the nations of the world, among the
churches of the world, reaching down in this hour and choosing those whom He has brought
to weakness, predestined for this hour.
Ah, He does not have to use
us. We have heard His call and now present ourselves before Him for His choosing. But let
us leave the choosing to God. And if God is pleased to choose us, we will give Him all the
glory. And if He is pleased to bypass us and choose others, there will be no recrimination
in our spirit. We will say, "Lord, Thou art altogether righteous in all things."
In previous moves of the Spirit God picked me up and used me and He said, "I am not
using you because of anything in yourself, but out of sovereign choice." I saw other
people that were more ready to be used than I was, not used, and I asked God why, and He
answered, "Out of My sovereign purposes I am not using them." That is why I do
not criticize anybody who was not in the previous visitations, or in the word God is
giving us today. I know it was God who kept many people out, who shut them up and hedged
them in to a lesser thing in God, and God brought other people in. God's thoughts are
higher than our thoughts. But He is going to use people. People like you and me. This is
not daydreaming or wishful thinking, neither are we deluded. God is ready to manifest
Himself through all the earth, so let us say: "Lord, let us be among those. We are
available."
TAKE NOT THIS HONOR UNTO
YOURSELF
Under the typical arrangement
of the Old Testament the first divine essential for priesthood was DIVINE APPOINTMENT. The
honor of being priest was not open to man's ambition. No man could take it for himself. No
man could volunteer for the office, or assume it out of his own fancy or self-will. The
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 this work, and no one else could have done so. And so
we read, "And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God,
as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an High Priest; but He that
said unto Him, Thou art My Son, to day have I begotten Thee...Thou art a priest for ever
after the order of Melchizedek" (Heb. 5:4-6).
And what was true of Aaron
was also true of his sons, they also were "taken" or called unto the priesthood.
And what is true of Christ as the High Priest, is also true of His priestly house - they
are called of God. "And we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are THE CALLED ACCORDING TO HIS PURPOSE. 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. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and
whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also
glorified" (Rom. 8:28-30). "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly
calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus" (Heb.
63:1). "THOU...HAST MADE US unto our God kings and priests..." (Rev. 5:9-10).
A brother in Christ has
written: "There is a widespread tradition among Christians that is freighted with
fatal error. How often we have been told that God is looking for VOLUNTEERS for His
service. I wish to inform you that this is one of the biggest lies that ever sprang from
the deceptive mind of Satan. GOD DOES NOT WANT VOLUNTEERS. God ONLY ACCEPTS CONSCRIPTS.
Search the Scripture from cover to cover and you will find without one exception that
every ministry from Genesis to Revelation was CALLED AND CHOSEN of God and conscripted to
do God's bidding, and we may further add, that many of these men were chosen against their
own will and in spite of their own protestations and objections. Did Moses volunteer for
service? Certainly not! He argued that he was not able to speak, that the people would not
listen; but he was conscripted. Did Gideon volunteer for service? No. He was conscripted,
too. Can you not hear Jeremiah saying, 'Ah, Lord God, I cannot speak, for I am a child'
(Jer. 1:6). Did any of the apostles volunteer for service? Not one! They were all
especially called and conscripted by Jesus Himself. Did Saul of Tarsus volunteer for
service when he was on his way to
"Perhaps the greatest
single curse of the centuries has been the presumptions tradition that men and women
should VOLUNTEER for the ministry of the Lord. Nothing could be farther from the truth,
and nothing can be more detrimental to the true work of God than to have the Church
cluttered up with men and women who have themselves chosen the ministry as a vocation.
They are not tried. They are not tested. They have not God's burden upon their hearts.
They have no real love for the flock; and worst of all, they have NO COMMISSION from God.
Therefore, they lack His blessing and anointing. Well did the Holy Ghost say by Jeremiah
the prophet, 'In the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly. I HAVE NOT SENT THESE
PROPHETS, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, YET THEY PROPHESIED. But if they had
stood in My counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, then they should have
turned them from the evil of their doings' (Jer. 23:20-22). If you are thinking of
entering the ministry, FORGET IT and just go right on picking cotton, or whatever your
hand finds to do, until He comes and conscripts you. It will be THIS VOLUNTEER CROWD who
will come at the last, saying, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy
name cast out devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful works.' And it will be to them
that the Lord will say, 'I never knew you; depart from Me ye that work iniquity
(rebellion).' God does not know nor accept the ministry of anybody except those whom He
calls and commissions Himself" - The Page.
To the above counsel I would
add this word of admonition: No one has to strive to make himself one of the priestly
calling, for this calling was determined before the foundation of the world when the
morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. It is not a matter of
trying to press your way into something, but of yielding to the sovereign dealings and the
divine inworkings of the Father and fitting by HIS CHOICE into His glorious scheme. We are
priests by the same oath that made our blessed Forerunner a priest forever after the Order
of Melchizedek. The process has been long the dealings have been severe, the disciplining
has been rigorous, but soon, O soon shall the day for the showing dawn in all its glory
and the Royal Priesthood shall be set in order with the great manifestation of HIS LIFE
flowing in them, through them and out of them!
There are no counterfeits in
this realm, when God manifests reality. When the Royal Priesthood arises to bless the
nations either you will "have it" or you won't "have it". As long as
we remain in the preparatory stage, experiencing the deep INWARD processings of the Lord,
while this condition remains, I say, there is opportunity for men to proclaim themselves,
to jump on the bandwagon, to mouth all the right words, to use the same terminology the
Spirit has inspired among the apprehended ones, and appear as those chosen to priesthood.
These "clouds without water" (Jude 12) "profess themselves to be wise'
(Rom. 1:22), and some even lay claim to already being manifested as the fulfillment of
their message. Carried about by every wind of doctrine, presumptuously claiming that which
they do not possess, they make their boasts, and many are deceived by their "great
swelling words of vanity" (II Pet. 2:18).
But the day of manifestation
approaches! There is a priestly people, a remnant in whom the Spirit of God is working a
transformation. In due time God shall manifest this priesthood and their NEW STATE OF
BEING shall utterly silence all the false claims of carnal men. Conformed to HIS IMAGE,
filled with His Spirit, the embodiment and personification of His wisdom, nature, grace
and power - no man will be able to counterfeit the reality of this new state of being, and
these shall redound to the glory of God. Obviously "no man taketh this honor unto
himself, but he that is called of God." It is an inworking transformation that is
GOD-WROUGHT, for God starts it, God works it out, and God brings it to its conclusion, it
is ALL OF HIM and that is why the flesh cannot duplicate such glorious, divine handiwork.
The vision of priesthood is
not fulfilled through self-effort. Many people try to place themselves in certain
positions, claiming to be this son, that angel, or the other prophet, etc. In this century
"Elijah" has appeared on the scene at least three or four times, I have
personally seen two of these Elijahs, and have a photograph of the third, complete with
his ceremonial robes. The "two witnesses" have manifested on more than one
occasion, I met them, a man and his wife, in
In 1962 I visited a home
where John the Revelator had taken up residence upon his return to earth, and with him was
king David and a few other of the sons of God who had already "by-passed the
grave", they had their glorified bodies and were shortly to take over the world. In
1966 I passed through their area again and it occurred to me to stop and see how the
"kingdom" was progressing. I discovered that the immortal king David had died,
the sons had dispersed, and king David's wife whispered furtively in my ear that the lady
in the other room was "a devil". One sister I know, who previously had a
beautiful ministry, and with whom we had precious fellowship, tried to take the honor to
herself, declared herself a High Priestess, clothed herself in robes and expensive furs
and diamonds, fell into even grosser delusions and became in the end another cheap
religious racketeer. What a contrast to the Christ who glorified not Himself - but
"made Himself of no reputation...He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him..." (Phil.
2:7-9). It was by that direct oath of God that He was exalted and lifted up to fill this
place -for, He that said unto Him, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee, the
same said also unto Him, Thou art a priest forever after the Order of Melchizedek.
As one has written: "In
many of its aspects 'haste' is a mark of immaturity. To those who are now becoming
spiritually mature, there is 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. Yes,
in the making of kings and priests through whom God shall 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" - end quote.
In any ministry, to receive a
divine call is a matter of first importance. If such a calling was necessary for the
carnal priesthood of the old order and if Christ was called of God, how much more should
the ministry of this age and that of the ages to come assure themselves that they are
there because of a divine call. The great apostle Paul said, "For I take no special
pride in the fact that I preach the gospel. I feel compelled to do so; I should be utterly
miserable if I failed to preach it. If I do this work because I choose to do so then I am
entitled to a reward. But if it is no choice of mine, but a sacred responsibility put upon
me, what can I expect in a way of reward?" (I Cor. 9:16-18, Phillips). It becomes
clear, Paul did not volunteer his services of his own free will, so he was not entitled to
any reward as such for preaching. He had no choice, he was conscripted by God and given
the responsibility from above. Let it be known in this day of
Many years ago, when I was but a boy preacher, an
old bishop in the denomination with which I was affiliated gave wise counsel to the young
candidates for ordination, and his words have remained imbedded deep within my spirit
through all these years. He said that entering the ministry can be likened to getting
married. Stay single as long as you can. But when you fall so completely, so totally, so
fiercely, so hopelessly in love until you are PERFECTLY MISERABLE and cannot stand for one
day longer to be apart -then get married! GOD CHOOSES WHOM HE WILLS, AND SO LAYS THE CALL
ON YOU THAT YOU ARE MISERABLE UNTIL YOU GIVE OBEDIENCE. Those who take it upon themselves,
verily they have their reward - they can build reputations, receive the praise of men,
make a name for themselves, gain power and prestige, earn good salaries, and enjoy all the
amenities THIS WORLD has to offer, but it becomes merely an earthly call, and they miss
forever the HEAVENLY CALL.
I do not hesitate to add that
only those who receive the call, who come to realize that they ARE, beyond any shadow of
doubt, apprehended to the Melchizedekian Order, will be FULLY PROCESSED AND POSITIONED AND
BIRTHED INTO THE ORDER OF THE NEW AGE. Many come to this realization through a personal
encounter with the Lord. Each son must receive the call and each must KNOW HIM for
themselves. In order to be a king-priest after the Order of Melchizedek our existence must
spring from our heavenly origin and not from our earthly one. The New Creation Life we
have in Him becomes a super-charged power that lifts us above the law of sin and death
into the power of HIS ENDLESS LIFE.
THE ANOINTING OF THE
PRIESTHOOD
There is a vivid illustration
in the Old Testament of men who sought to grasp the ministry of the priesthood for
themselves. This was the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. These men rose up against
Moses and Aaron along with two hundred and fifty princes of the congregation and protested
their leadership, saying, "Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are
holy, everyone of them, and the Lord is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves
above the congregation of the Lord?" Moses and Aaron were the GOD-APPOINTED
leadership of
There were three entrances
into the Tabernacle in the wilderness, the realm of priestly ministry: the gate into the
After the rebellion of Korah,
Dathan and Abiram, seeing that the people had questioned the authority of Aaron, the Lord
instructed Moses to take a rod for each of the twelve princes of
This brings us to the
anointing of the priesthood. "And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door
of the Tabernacle of the Congregation...then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour
it upon his head, and anoint him. And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate
them, that they may minister unto Me in the priest's office" (Ex. 29:4,7; 30:30).
Under the law, the anointing
was the ceremony by which the priests were installed in their service. They were anointed
to their office with a peculiar ointment, called the "Holy Anointing Oil". Of
old, three classes were anointed with the Holy Anointing Oil -prophets, priests and kings.
With it Moses anointed Aaron and his sons and all the priests who came after them. With it
Samuel anointed Saul to be the leader in
Because of being anointed
with the Holy Anointing Oil, the High Priest was called "the anointed" (Lev.
4:3,5,16; 6:22), the same as later for the anointed kings of
When Jesus was baptized in
THE ANOINTING! We are told in
Judges 9:8-9 that the olive oil is used to honor God and honor man. "One time the
trees went forth to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, Reign over
us. But the olive tree said to them, Should I leave my fatness (oil), by which God and man
are honored, and go to wave over the trees?" If we would honor God or man, we must do
it by the olive oil. This simply means that if we would fulfill the will of God and the
ministry of God, if we would honor God and touch and bless men, we must do it by the Holy
Spirit. We must be a man filled with the Spirit, an olive tree, a son of oil. We can never
minister as the Lord's priest apart from the life of the Holy Spirit. The soundest advise
I can give anyone is: MAKE SURE YOU ARE ANOINTED! You will never stand and speak with
authority in the name of Jesus, or do the works of God, unless you are anointed. Men rant
and rave and stomp and clap and shout and dance and say that that is the anointing. Not
so! The anointing has nothing whatever to do with physical motions or volume. It has to do
with authority by the presence of God in our lives. There is a great difference between
noise and the power of God. We can put on an empty clap, sing an empty song, march the
Let us look even deeper into
what this anointing means. The oil was POURED upon the head of the High Priest. I Jn. 2:27
says, "The anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not
that any man should teach you: but...the same anointing teacheth you all things, and is
truth..." In this passage the anointing in the Greek is not a noun, but a verb
pertaining to a certain kind of motion. It does not bespeak an oil in a motionless state,
inactive, passive, standing still; but an oil IN A STATE OF MOTION AND ACTIVITY. If you
only have the oil in a vessel you do not have "the anointing"; but when the oil
is POURED OUT and APPLIED it then BECOMES "the anointing". In the vessel it is
merely oil; poured out it is anointing and separates and sanctifies and quickens that upon
which it is poured! Thus, in this day of reality, the anointing is not the Holy Spirit,
but the MOVEMENT AND ENERGIZING AND ACTION of the Holy Spirit within us! You say, "I
have the Holy Spirit, therefore I have the anointing." Not so! The Holy Spirit in the
vessel IS NOT THE ANOINTING - only as the Spirit MOVES and ACTS upon, within, and through
you do you have the anointing. The Spirit must not be motionless within us, He must be
active and energizing - speaking, stirring, dealing, quickening, changing, transforming,
acting, manifesting the glory of God in our lives.
When the firstborn Son
received the Holy Spirit at His baptism, from that moment the Spirit MOVED THROUGH HIM,
His whole life became the revelation of His Father as the nature mind, wisdom, will,
words, power and glory of God were manifested through Him, climaxing with His triumphant
resurrection from the dead. And now - a company of "many brethren" are receiving
of that same anointing, so that MANY SONS may be brought to the same glory in which the
Christ now dwells. Yes, beloved, we also are called to be separated ones, anointed ones,
that the name of the Father may be called upon us, creating this bond of union between the
High Priest and the priests, transforming into His image, that as He is, SO ARE WE IN THIS
WORLD. God is ANOINTING - MOVING IN US - to accomplish this divine work, blessed be His
wonderful name!
It would be strange to speak
about the anointing without referring to Ps. 133, which is such a beautiful Psalm.
"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It
is like the precious ointment upon the head, that RAN DOWN upon the beard, even Aaron's
beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments, like the dew of Herman, and like the
dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion; for there the Lord commanded the blessing,
even life forevermore." How wonderful and sure are these words proceeding from the
Psalmist's heart. Obviously, Moses was very generous with the oil as this passage declares
that it ran down his beard and down the full extent of his robe. You will find in studying
the various instances of the anointing of kings and so forth that at such times they
poured the oil from a horn or vial or similar vessel. It is not that the amount of oil
would be so significant, but it is a type of the Spirit or anointing which flows, moves,
enveloping the whole person, quickening every faculty, effecting a total and complete
revelation of HIS LIFE. It is to be observed that the oil was not poured over the entire
body, but upon the head alone. From thence it FLOWED DOWN over the body, covering the
whole. The anointing of the Melchizedek Priesthood was first upon the Head, the great High
Priest, Jesus Christ, and from Him to the members of His body as the Scripture affirms:
"The anointing which ye have received OF (from) HIM abideth in you."
Let the fact be imprinted
indelibly on our minds that the priestly anointing is not to be equated with the anointing
our blessed Lord received when the Spirit descended as a dove upon Him at Jordan and the
Voice from heaven witnessed, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased." Wonderful and glorious as was that anointing, it is not to even be compared
with the glory that the Christ has now received as the great High Priest of the heavens.
Shortly after being anointed with the Holy Spirit Jesus performed His first miracle at
Cana of Galilee when He turned the vessels of pure water into the finest of wine. John
tells us, "This beginning of miracles did Jesus at Cana of Galilee, and manifested
forth HIS GLORY; and His disciples believed on Him" (Jn. 2:1). The glory of Jesus
Christ when He walked on earth was marvelous beyond description, as He went about doing
good, healing all who were oppressed of the devil, casting out devils, controlling the
elements, speaking as never man spake, and raising even the dead to life again. Yet in my
heart I know for certain that the glory of Christ on earth was only a flickering shadow of
that glory He has now as the exalted and glorified High Priest of the Melchizedekian
Order. Marvelous as was His ministry and the glory of it, when He came to the end of that
order He prayed to His Father in heaven, saying, "I have glorified Thee on the earth:
I have finished the work which Thou gayest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me
WITH THINE OWN SELF with the GLORY WHICH I HAD WITH THEE BEFORE THE WORLD WAS" (Jn.
17:4-5).
It should not be difficult in
the least for us to understand that Jesus was not a priest prior to His death,
resurrection and ascension. Jesus was not the High Priest of the Melchizedekian Order at
any time during His thirty-three and a half years on earth. He could not at that time have
been a priest after the Order of Melchizedek because HE WAS NOT YET THE AUTHOR OF ETERNAL
SALVATION. This is made very plain in Heb. 5:9-10. "And having been MADE PERFECT, He
BECAME to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation; BEING DESIGNATED by God
as a High Priest according to the Order of Melchizedek." His designation as High
Priest coincides with His becoming the author of eternal salvation, and it could not be
otherwise, for His priesthood unto salvation is rooted in the accomplishment of His death
and resurrection.
Again, Jesus Christ could not
have been a High Priest after the Order of Melchizedek during His life in the flesh
because HE WAS NOT YET LIVING IN THE POWER OF AN INDESTRUCTIBLE LIFE. "And this
becomes more plainly evident when another Priest arises Who bears the likeness of
Melchizedek, Who has been constituted a Priest, not on the basis of...His physical
ancestry, but on the basis of an endless and indestructible Life. For it is witnessed of
Him, You are a Priest forever after the Order of Melchizedek" (Heb. 7:15-17,
Amplified). It goes without saying that before He died His life was not indestructible! In
Rev. 1:18 Jesus says, "I am...the Living One; I WAS DEAD, and behold, I AM ALIVE
FOREVERMORE." If He is a priest forever (through all ages), then He CANNOT DIE! It
should be clear - He did not begin His Melchizedekian Priesthood until AFTER His death and
resurrection!
Furthermore, Jesus was not a
High Priest of the Melchizedekian Order before His sacrifice at
In addition to all this,
Jesus could not have been a High Priest after the Order of Melchizedek while on earth
because HE WAS NOT YET SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. Notice Ps. 110:1 and 4: "The
Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy
footstool. The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the
Order of Melchizedek." Jesus is not declared a priest after the Order of Melchizedek
until after the invitation to sit at the right hand of God. This divine arrangement is
confirmed by the writer to the Hebrews: "Now of the things we have spoken this is the
sum: We have such an High Priest, WHO IS SET AT 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."
The word "Christ"
means "anointed" and Jesus became the ANOINTED HIGH PRIEST after His ascension
into the celestial realm. He was "Christ" or "the anointed" Son of God
while He walked among men, but I must emphasize most emphatically that He was not then the
ANOINTED HIGH PRIEST, neither was He the ANOINTED KING. The two-fold anointing of
King-Priest was conferred upon Him after His resurrection and ascension into heaven as
Peter shows: "Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath
to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, He would RAISE UP CHRIST
TO SIT UPON HIS THRONE; this Jesus hath God RAISED UP, whereof we all are witnesses. For
David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord,
Sit Thou on My right hand, until I make Thy foes Thy footstool. Therefore let all the
house of
The Royal Priesthood, of
which Christ is the Head, receive their priestly anointing from the High Priest upon the
throne. "Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the
Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this which ye now see and
hear" (Acts 2:33).
Under the Old Covenant Moses
was commissioned by God to anoint the priests. "Moreover the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Take thou also unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and
of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet calamus
two hundred and fifty shekels, and of cassia five hundred shekels...and of oil olive and
bin: and thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of
the apothecary: it shall be a holy anointing oil. And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his
sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto Me in the priest's office"
(Ex. 30:22-25,30). Moses anointed Aaron and his sons. Moses was the mediator of the Old
Covenant (Gal. 3:19). The mediator of the New Covenant is Jesus, so when you read of all
that Moses performed on behalf of the Levitical priests in the books of Exodus and
Leviticus, put Jesus in Moses' place and you will receive understanding of what Jesus is
doing in our lives to bring us to the Melchizedek Priesthood. It was Moses who anointed
the priests of the Old Covenant, and it is Jesus who anoints the priests of the New
Covenant!
In order that we may be
clearer concerning the divine process of the anointing of the Royal Priesthood, we will
now consider three steps of God's work in bringing about this anointing. His first step
was that of the Word becoming flesh. The Word was God (Jn. 1:1), and flesh denotes man;
therefore, when the Word became flesh, it means that God became man and joined Himself
with man (Jn. 1:14). The incarnated Jesus of Nazareth is the first and master product in
this universe of God being mingled with man. When He was born on this earth, God obtained
in this universe a specimen and model of His union with man - the first GOD-MAN. From this
time forth, God intended to mingle Himself with humanity according to and by Jesus Christ,
producing a species of beings which are God manifested in the flesh and man in the image
of God - GOD-MEN.
The second step which
achieved God's purpose was the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The Lord's death
released Him from the flesh, and His resurrection transferred Him into the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus made it possible for Him to have
another form, namely, the Holy Spirit. Before the incarnation, in eternity, He was the
Father ~ Jehovah (Isa. 64:8; 63:16; 9:6). When He was incarnated on this earth and lived
among men, He was the Son (Mat. 1:23; Isa. 9:6). After He passed through death and
resurrection, ascended to heaven, descended to earth again and entered into man, He is the
Spirit (Jn. 14:16-18; II Cor. 3:17). As the Father expressed Himself in the Son through
the incarnation, so the Son expressed Himself as the Spirit through death and resurrection
and ascension. "He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all
heavens, THAT HE MIGHT FILL ALL THINGS" (Eph. 4:10). The Father came unto men as the
Son, and the Son entered into man as the Spirit. This is the God that mingles Himself with
man through the anointing.
The third step which God used
to achieve the anointing was the entering of the Holy Spirit into man. When the Holy
Spirit enters into man, the Son enters into him, and the Father also enters into him.
"Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My
Father will love him, and WE will come unto him, and make OUR abode with him" (Jn.
14:23). Both the Father and the Son enter into us by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, the Holy
Spirit entering into man is the same as Christ entering into man, and the same as God
entering into man. The Bible gives several references concerning this matter.
When God came into us by the
Holy Spirit, He became mingled with us, He in us, and we in Him. However, the work of God
to mingle and unite Himself with man is not an instantaneous process. Since we were
regenerated and the life of God entered into us, our spirit quickened by His Spirit, this
mingling has been going on continuously. The process is ever from glory to glory, from
measure to measure, from experience to experience, until there is that perfect unity,
union, and mingling - so co-mingled that you cannot tell where God ends and we begin, or
where we end and God begins. This is the NEW CREATION - MAN IN THE IMAGE OF GOD, and GOD
INCARNATED IN MAN. Those who, with our blessed Lord, are next to arrive at this wonderful
stature are the sons of God, the firstfruits of His redemption, kings and priests upon HIS
THRONE.
The anointing which we have
received of Him at this present time is not the FULL ANOINTING, merely a foretaste, the
down payment, the pledge and token of greater glory still to come. "And not only the
creation, but we ourselves too, who have and enjoy the FIRSTFRUITS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT - a
foretaste of the blissful things to come - groan inwardly as we wait for the redemption of
our bodies from sensuality and the grave, which will reveal our adoption, our
manifestation as God's sons" (Rom. 8:23, Amplified).
I would not for one moment
minimize this foretaste, this firstfruit of the Holy Spirit which we have received in the
baptism in the Spirit. I would not for one moment depreciate the great outpouring of the
Spirit which began at the turn of the century, in which millions came to Christ and were
transformed. Neither do I belittle in the least the glorious moving of the Holy Spirit
which swept across the land and around the world beginning in 1948. I do not speak in
derogatory terms of the speaking in tongues, prophecy, gifts of healing, laying on of
hands, five-fold ministry and the mighty manifestations that accompanied the restoration
of these gifts and ministries to the body of Christ. I myself have been a glad partaker of
its glory. I would not deny it in life or in death. Since the day the Holy Spirit swept
with indescribable bliss and glory into my life at the altar of a Pentecostal Camp
Meeting, at the tender age of twelve, I have seen hundreds, yea, thousands, receive the
power of the Spirit. Yet in my heart I know for certain that all the glory we have seen is
but a faint shadow of the glory that shall be revealed at the manifestation of the sons of
God, for which all creation has groaned for six thousand years. Then the glory of the Lord
will fill the whole body of the Royal Priesthood in the fullness thus far known only by
our glorious Forerunner and Head. His glory shall flow and flow and fill the earth. Then
shall be fulfilled the words of the Saviour, "The works that I do shall ye do also,
and GREATER WORKS THAN THESE SHALL YE DO." The power of God shall at last conquer the
nations, and sin, and sorrow and death shall be swallowed up in victory. The coming of the
Lord in power and great glory is at hand. The Royal House of King-Priests is about to be
revealed. In that day the lame man shall leap as the hart, and the tongue of the dumb
shall sing. The eyes of the blind shall be opened, the ears of the deaf unstopped. The
desert and the solitary place shall blossom as the rose. Men will learn war no more.
Heaven and earth shall kiss and all things shall be reconciled unto God. It will be the
time of the manifestation of the manifested sons of God when the earth shall be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
Chapter
21
THE
ANOINTING OF THE PRIESTHOOD
(continued)
"And Aaron and his sons
thou shalt bring unto the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation...then shalt thou
take the ANOINTING OIL, and pour it upon his head, and ANOINT HIM. And thou shalt ANOINT
AARON AND HIS SONS, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto Me in the priest's
office" (Ex. 29:4,7; 30:30).
Under the law, the anointing
was the ceremony by which the priests were installed in their service. They were anointed
to their office with a peculiar ointment, called the "Holy Anointing Oil". Of
old, three classes were anointed with the Holy Anointing Oil -prophets, priests and kings.
With it Moses anointed Aaron and his sons and all the priests who came after them. With it
Samuel anointed Saul to be the leader in
Because of being anointed
with the Holy Anointing Oil, the High Priest was called "the anointed" (Lev.
4:3,5,16; 6:22), the same as later for the anointed kings of
If we would honor God or man,
we must do it by the anointing. This simply means that if we would fulfill the will of God
and the ministry of God, if we would minister unto God and touch and bless men, we must do
it by the Holy Spirit. We must be a man filled with the Spirit, an olive tree, a son of
oil. We can never minister as the Lord's priest apart from the life of the Holy Spirit.
The soundest advice I can give anyone desiring the priesthood is: MAKE SURE YOU ARE
ANOINTED! You will never stand and speak with authority in the name of Jesus, or do the
works of God, unless you are anointed. Men rant and rave and stomp and clap and shout and
dance about and say that that is the anointing. Not so! The anointing has nothing whatever
to do with physical motions or volume. It has to do with authority by the presence of God
in our lives. There is a great difference between noise and the power of God. We can put
on a soulish clap, sing an empty song, march the
Moses anointed Aaron and his
sons. Moses was the mediator of the Old Covenant (Gal. 3:19). The mediator of the New
Covenant is Jesus, so when you read of all that Moses performed on behalf of the Levitical
priests in the books of Exodus and Leviticus, put Jesus in Moses' place and you will
receive understanding of what Jesus is doing in our lives to bring us to the Melchizedek
Priesthood. It was Moses who anointed the priests of the Old Covenant, and it is Jesus who
anoints the priests of the New Covenant!
THE ART OF THE APOTHECARY
"Moreover the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, Take thou also unto thee principle spices, of pure myrrh five hundred
shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of
sweet calamus two hundred and fifty shekels, and of cassia five hundred shekels, after the
shekel of the sanctuary, and of oil olive an bin: and thou shalt make it an oil of holy
ointment, an ointment compound after THE ART OF THE APOTHECARY: it shall be a holy
ANOINTING OIL. And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they
may minister unto Me in the priest's office" (Ex. 30:22-30).
The term
"apothecary" means a druggist, pharmacist or perfumer. The art of compounding
medicines and perfumes traces its origin to the beginning of civilization. The first
apothecaries were busy preparing fragrances for the gods of their various cultures and
often these heathen priests were also the druggists. In addition they acted as physicians,
using their ointments and herbal compounds to heal the sick. The most ancient empire known
to history was the Egyptian Empire. The science of perfumery and medicine is traceable to
the world of the Egyptians. When the tomb of King Tutankhamen was opened, the fragrance of
the incense pervaded the room from the vases buried with the king, though the liquid
contents had evaporated long millenniums before. Like many other customs familiar to the
culture of the West, the art of perfumery and medicine was adopted by us from the East.
The art of compounding unguents and fragrant ointments originated in the Orient where
sweet-scented spices and herbs were extensively used, not only in temple ritual, but in
common every-day life as well. The breast of the Sphinx of Egypt carries an inlaid tablet
depicting a Pharaoh, probably of a dynasty contemporary with the time of Moses, offering
incense and oil. By that time the priests had become the official perfumers and the
formulas were kept a well-guarded secret. The Scriptures describe a number of the
ointments used in the ancient world and most of the ingredients enumerated therein have
been discovered by scientific analysis of mummies and relics found in ancient tombs.
Skilled artisans from the various nations of the East had developed the science of
compounding spices in various ways, sometimes crushing them beneath the wheels of a heavy
cart or chariot, in order to produce the fine fragrant powders.
To be an apothecary was
considered a high honor and was indeed a prestigious occupation. Blending the incenses and
anointing oils and medicines would require materials from the uttermost parts of the
earth. But more than that, it required the rare skill of one highly trained, with unique
apparatus, to prepare the powders and blend the oils so as to obtain just the right
fragrance to please the nostrils of a king, or to be acceptable to the gods; or the
precise formula to heal the sicknesses of the people. The art of the apothecary was not an
easy one. Moses was learned in all the arts of the Egyptians and through his knowledge
others came to know these secrets as well. In the instructions for preparing the Holy
Anointing Oil, however, none of the Egyptian formulas were used. Moses did not employ the
wisdom of
"And the Lord spoke unto
Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the
tribe of
To men like Bezaleel and
Aholiab, and every wise-hearted man in whom the Lord had put wisdom and understanding, was
given the ability to perform all manner of work to build the Tabernacle with all its
furnishings, to make the priest's garments for beauty and glory, to compound the incense
for use on the altars and the anointing oil for the priests. The equipment as well as the
methods and ingredients had to conform to God's standards. A specific rod of the right
shape and weight was to be used to pound the spices into powder. The proportioning of the
various ingredients also had to be exact, both by weight and by measure. The oil they were
to use could not be just any oil at hand; it must be pure olive oil. The formula had to be
followed precisely, and, beside all this, use of the finished product was limited to the
purposes designated by the Lord. Those privileged ones who would be anointed therewith
would be holy, dedicated to the service of the Lord, sacred persons, a people with a
purpose, priests of the Most High God! What a high value God places upon the anointing!
How wonderful it is! Keeping the Holy Anointing Oil sealed up in a container was not in
God's plan. The anointing oil must be POURED PROFUSELY UPON AARON AND HIS SONS! The
fragrance must be spread abroad by the Royal Priesthood! Under the New Covenant the sons
of God are being formed into the heavenly priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek, and
what a thrill it is to be the means of spreading the fragrance of Christ throughout the
world! "But thanks be unto God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and THROUGH
US SPREADS THE FRAGRANCE of...HIM everywhere!" (II Cor. 2:14, RSV).
THE FRAGRANCE OF THE HOLY
OINTMENT
"Ye have an UNCTION from
the Holy One and ye know all things." "The ANOINTING which ye have received of
Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same ANOINTING
teacheth you of all things and is truth and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye
shall abide in Him" (I Jn. 2:20,27).
The meaning of UNCTION (and
its Greek original CHARISMA) is smoothness, oiliness, lubrication. From custom the word
carried with it also the thought of fragrance, perfume. How beautifully and forcefully
this word represents the nature and characteristics of those who come under this
antitypical anointing - holiness, gentleness, patience, goodness, knowledge, wisdom, joy,
peace, kindness, power, - love! What a sweet, pure perfume does this anointing of the Holy
Spirit of God bring with it to all who receive it! However ungainly or coarse or crude or
ignorant the outer man, the earthen vessel, how speedily it partakes of the sweetening and
purifying influence of the treasure of the new heart, the new mind, the new will, the new
spirit, the new man within - anointed with the Holy Spirit and brought into harmony with
the DIVINE NATURE.
As the precious ointment was
lavishly poured upon the head of the priest, it ran down upon his beard and then on to his
garments, even down to the very skirts of the garment. Thus the garment would be laden
with the rich odor of the ointment so that wherever the anointed one went, the fragrance
would follow along with him. God gave perfume a wonderful place in the ministry of the
priesthood! All the perfume in the Holy Anointing Oil pointed to the Spirit of Jesus
Christ. That oil, which could not be put upon human flesh, neither could they make any
like unto it, showed forth the graces and glory of Jesus Christ as the only perfume in
heaven above or in earth beneath. It pointed to Christ as the only One acceptable unto
God. That oil, which was made of aromatic spices beaten small, symbolized the fragrance of
God's firstborn Son, the anointed One, in whom He was always well pleased. He is the
source and fountain of all the fragrance in heaven and upon earth.
It was Mary of Bethany who
sat at the feet of the Lord, and she it was who broke the alabaster box to pour the
fragrant ointment upon His head and feet; and when her ointment was outpoured upon Him,
the whole house and all that was therein basked in the fragrance of the Christ's
anointing. A Penney represented the wages of a day when Jesus was on earth, but Mary
lavished three hundred pennies' worth of ointment upon Him, the labor of a whole year
poured upon His blessed head, first because she loved Him for who she knew Him to be and,
secondly, to anoint Him for the burial her spirit perceived was soon to come. And He said,
"She hath done what she could; she hath anointed My body beforehand for My
burial." Thus it was when the alabaster box of His body, which contained this
precious perfume of heaven's nature, was broken; the oil and fragrance flowed out, filling
heaven and earth. It was when His body was broken, when His flesh was rent, that heaven's
perfume was released to fill the universe of God. He opened up a new and living way into
the
When the High Priest, who,
with the Holy Anointing Oil upon him, had been ministering before God in the
We are commanded to put on
Jesus Christ; and as He becomes our garment, as He clothes us more and more, His anointing
will be more and more perceptible to those about us. How fragrant the priests were! Their
garments and their bodies were perfumed with the costly spices and oil, so that the air
about them was laden with delicate fragrance like the odors of a thousand flowers. Even
the least movement of one whose person was thus perfumed, sent out sweet odors; and he
walked in a cloud of perfumed air. Oh, what God is teaching us! The mystery of it! So
should it be with us! Our walk and carriage, our appearance and manner of speech, our
attitudes and expressions, the least movement in our lives, should be surrounded and
permeated with the precious spiritual perfume of HIS NATURE AND CHARACTER, HIS GLORY AND
POWER, HIS WISDOM, WILL, AND WAYS. Oh, how our hearts long for that, even in our most
common movements and actions, in the nitty-gritty of everyday living, under the pressures
and problems of job, family, and relationships, the Christlife shall be discerned. As we
put Him on, and His garments, and His oils, we are hidden away in this divine priestly
garment, under this holy anointing of His priestly life, and we emit the fragrance of
Christ, praise His name. IT IS THE ANOINTING THAT MAKES US PRIESTS!
THE PRICE OF THE ANOINTING
All who desire to be prepared
for the coming manifestation of the sons of God must realize that such preparation is
costly and expensive. In a day when we have become accustomed to discounts and cut-rate
sales, we must accept the fact that the oil of God IS NOT CHEAP. Some time ago I read an
article about the perfume industry of
You can buy perfume in the 5
& 10 store for a dollar a bottle. But that is a cheap concoction. Real perfume is
something else. You say in
When the Lord explained to
Moses the plans for the Tabernacle, He went into much detail about what was to be involved
in making the special Holy Anointing Oil for use by the priests. Needless to say, this
anointing oil was not in what you would call an affordable price range. In fact, if we
were to calculate in American dollars the cost of mixing such a mixture, we would find it
to be priceless. And this oil was never in danger of being devalued - the price was set
"according to the shekel of the sanctuary." Monetary values fluctuate every day
across the globe, BUT THE PRICE OF GOD'S ANOINTING WILL NEVER CHANGE. What, then, is the
price we must pay for this oil? And where must we go to get it?
The priestly anointing, the
graces and glories of HIS DIVINE NATURE, the wonderful mind of Christ, the superior
wisdom, the incorruptible life, the great spiritual power and all the other equipping that
is necessary to carry out God's purposes in these last days cannot be purchased with
money. There is not a currency on earth that will buy it - nor is there enough gold or
silver locked in the bank vaults or buried beneath the earth. It is a priceless commodity
that can be secured only by the man or woman who is willing to spend all of his or her
life - all his time, his energy, his devotion - in seeking after God. All who treasure the
beautiful hope of sonship must ask themselves these questions: Is seeking God the most
valuable and rewarding thing in all my life? Is my most prized ambition to lay hold on
Him, no matter what energy I must expend in doing so? Can I say with the Psalmist,
"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God. My
soul thirsteth for God, for the living God...my soul followeth hard after Thee" (Ps.
42:1-2; 63:8).
Oh, His presence! Do you
smell it? The rose pickers must go out early in the morning to pick the buds. The dew must
still be on the roses. They get the greatest yield of perfume from roses picked before
sunrise. Furthermore, the higher the altitude in which the roses grow, the greater the
yield of perfume. Ah, beloved, let us arise early with the pickers and go out with them.
Let us rise before the dawn and climb the heights of the
Seeking God is expensive
because He is the most valuable thing in the universe. In the end it will cost you every
thing you have. And all that you are. Oh, that I may KNOW HIM! Not just in a measure, but
in His fullness. Have you counted the cost to so know Him, dear one? The price we might
pay to so know Him by spending hours in prayer, or hours in His Word, or hours lying
prostrate at His blessed feet is nothing compared to the glory that is to be revealed in
us when we are filled with His fullness. It is as we seek Him and tarry long in His
presence that He pours the flask of oil upon our heads in abundance, and all the
character, wisdom, power and glory we need to change our world. It is as we gaze into His
face in the light that the Spirit brings, that His presence comes to rest upon us in
fullest measure, so that all about can see His glory. Is there any price too great to pay
to seek and find the riches of the glory and the power hidden in His presence? Dare we not
spend all that we have to buy this treasure? If we truly want to be prepared for the next
great move of God in the earth - the manifestation of the sons of God - we must put aside
every other interest and every other desire that would try to lure us away from
undistracted devotion to Him.
Ah - it is not the great
things in our lives that cause us to miss the mark the most. When we are faced with
something formidable, we know that it must be overcome; and we draw upon the grace and
power, which are in the Lord, to do this. It is the little things that we do not think
amount to anything which are going to stop us from arriving at the measure of the stature
of the fullness of the Christ. It may be along the lines of habits, words, attitudes,
emotions, old natural ways, which have been with us for years and are at variance with the
priestly nature; and which are so a part of ourselves that we are hardly conscious that
they are there. We must take these little foxes, seize them and hold them fast, and
exercise dominion over them until they are brought to death and eradicated out of our
lives once for all.
The apostle admonishes,
"But now ye also PUT OFF these; anger, wrath, malice, filthy communication out of
your mouth" (Col. 3:8). PUT OFF - meaning lay aside, put away, seize hold of and put
off - these instructions were not written to the ungodly, but to those who are believers,
following on to know the Lord in deeper measures. The more obvious sins were dealt with
long ago, and no one teaches SONS that they must not murder, rape, rob banks, get drunk,
visit massage parlors, bow down to idols, etc. By regeneration and renewing of the Holy
Ghost we have been washed and made partakers of the divine nature and as the inner
Christ-life takes hold of our being there is no inclination to practice these grosser sins
of the flesh. But now, what about the more subtle defilements - little resentments, inner
agitations, ill-feelings, bitterness, criticisms, hurt because people will not receive
your revelation or message, because they disagree with you, shun you, spread false rumors
about you, disappoint you. All these are UNPRIESTLY attributes. Oh, yes! God is making
ready a people for the FULL AND TOTAL AND COMPLETE MANIFESTATION OF HIMSELF, and the
plowshares of the Spirit are probing deeper and deeper, and tearing up and exposing more
and more stones and roots and clods than we ever thought heretofore.
One might soar high on the
sweet wine of revelation and understand all mysteries of how the saints of the Most High
shall take the Kingdom, how they shall conquer death, how they shall judge the world and
angels in that blest age to come, how they shall rule and reign upon His throne and
deliver the groaning creation, and this is all truth, for it is a pure vision which shall
be fulfilled. But I cannot be too forceful in my effort to show you that long before man
is ever to be a participator in such marvelous realities, he will have been thoroughly
dealt with by the hand of God, the self-life being abased before the Lord, every rock of
pride and every root of self-ascendancy purged out, so that our only desire will be to see
the LORD glorified. Before ever we share His throne we will have learned quite well what
the Spirit meant when He inspired the man of wisdom to pen these words: "He that is
slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh
a city" (Prov. 16:32).
Yes, there is a PRICE on the
PRIESTHOOD ANOINTING! If we find that our minds are set on thoughts of pleasure, on
certain selfish ambitions, or on worldly interests, we must be honest and admit that we
have not esteemed and valued God above all else. That should immediately arrest us with
concern, and bring us to repentance. We can then chase away the little foxes, and get on
with our whole-hearted pursuit of God. Jesus told a parable that vividly warns us about
placing value on other things above Himself and His Kingdom: "A certain man was
giving a big dinner, and he invited many; and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say
to those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is ready now.' But they all alike
began to make excuses. The first one said to him, 'I have bought a piece of land and I
need to go out and look at it; please consider me excused.' And another one said, 'I have
bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me excused.' And
another one said, 'I have married a wife and for that reason I cannot come"' (Lk.
14:16-20).
The parable goes on to say
that, because of the guests' excuses, the host became angry and said, "...NONE OF
THOSE MEN WHO WERE INVITED SHALL TASTE OF MY DINNER!" (vs. 24). Will this be the case
when the heavens are opened and the glory of God's Royal Priesthood breaks out upon the
world? Will many saints be excluded from the glory and blessing of that hour because they
placed personal interests and the things of this world above that of seeking and desiring
to KNOW GOD? Notice that two of the three who gave excuses had PURCHASED SOMETHING. They
placed more value on those things than on being in His presence. If we are not diligent to
heed Jesus' warning, the CARES OF THIS LIFE can exclude us from being used by God in the
coming manifestation of His power. THIS IS THE PRICE OF THE PRIESTLY ANOINTINGI
THE INGREDIENTS OF THE
ANOINTING
"Moreover the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, Take thou also unto thee principle spices, of pure myrrh...and of
sweet cinnamon...and of sweet calamus...and of cassia... and of olive oil...and thou shalt
make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it
shall be a holy anointing oil" (Ex. 30:22-25).
The apothecary listens very
carefully to the instructions given by Moses. The formula must not vary. For the Holy Oil
the apothecary begins with five hundred shekels more than two gallons of pure myrrh of the
finest quality obtainable. The myrrh that the Ishmaelite caravan carried down into
The first ingredient in the
anointing is the fragrant but BITTER myrrh. Ah, we thought the anointing was all glory,
billows of joy and power like gigantic ocean waves sweeping through our souls, producing
spiritual exuberance and power to preach like Peter and do exploits like Paul. The failure
to understand this first principle of the anointing must be laid at the door of those
blind leaders of the blind who have foolishly taught God's precious people that, after a
sinner comes to Christ, all will be sunshine and rose from that day forward. Henceforth he
will walk the glory road, asking for anything he wants and receiving it immediately,
forever free from pain and sickness and problems and needs, and should he die at any
moment he will stride right through the pearly gates into his mansion in heaven. Let all
who think that the Christian life is peace, power and plenty, be warned that anyone who
imagines that he can be a victorious son of God without fighting fierce and bloody
battles, is unlearned and ignorant of the ways of God to say the least.
All across the land today,
alas, we hear the radio and television preachers convincing vast multitudes of naive and
gullible babes in Christ that the saints of God should have the best of everything. They
should have instant healing, the most lucrative businesses, the finest homes, the most
prestigious positions, the most expensive cars, the finest clothes and freedom from want
of any kind. Why, they will even bless our billfolds for ten dollars and assure us that,
if we will give them one hundred dollars, we will get one thousand in return. Then, wonder
of wonders, after these highly favored saints have lived their lives in ease and luxury,
they will fly away to heaven at last with nothing to do and all eternity to do it in. And
if the great and terrible tribulation should come while they are still on earth, they will
be immediately evacuated by way of rapture to spend seven years sitting on a cloud with
Jesus eating pork chops or some other such foolishness. Let all who teach these fairy
tales and preposterous absurdities hear the voice of the eternal Spirit of Truth ringing
clear above all other voices, saying, "In the world ye SHALL HAVE TRIBULATION: but be
of good cheer; I have overcome the world." I hear Him warn His beloved saints in
these awesome words, "Yea, and A-L-L that live godly in Christ Jesus SHALL SUFFER
PERSECUTION." To all who would reign with Him upon His throne He says, "IF WE
SUFFER, we shall also reign with Him." To those who seek the glory and power of the
One well-known television
preacher was recently bombarding the air waves with the tearful complaint that he was
being "persecuted" by the press. And what was the cause of his persecution? Why
bless your heart, the press had discovered that while pleading a financial emergency and
making impassioned appeals on his show for millions of dollars to keep his work from
collapsing, he was, at the same time, secretly purchasing an elaborate beach house in
California and Rolls Royce and Mercedes automobiles for his personal use at a cost of
almost a half million dollars, not to mention the expensive furs and diamonds accumulated
by his Jezebel wife. Persecution indeed! I am making no mistake when I tell you that this
man was not being persecuted for righteousness' sake, nor for the
The shallow Christians and
the hireling ministry of the apostate church system know absolutely nothing about the
divine principle of the refining, purifying fires of suffering. As long as men's eyes are
blinded to the great and glorious purposes of God for His sons in the ages to come, they
will always remain ignorant of the supernal blessings of their sufferings with Christ. If
Christians are deluded by the popular but erroneous notion that they have been saved to
escape this old sin-cursed world and spend eternity shouting and dancing up and down
Hallelujah Boulevard to the rapturous music of harps and the fluttering of angel's wings,
then indeed there would be little purpose in suffering during this present time at all,
for even if saints were no worse off for their suffering, they would be no better either.
But when the Father through His matchless grace reveals to the child of God that it is His
Master Plan for the ages to come to effect a universal reconciliation, restitution and
restoration through the agency of a royal race of kings and priests who through trial,
suffering, and fierce tribulation have come to the image of Jesus Christ, to reign and
work with Him in the plenitude of His wisdom, the fullness of His understanding, the
perfection of His holiness, the infiniteness of His love, the beauty of His justice and
the omnipotence of His power, every son having the mind of God, discerning all things,
knowing all things and having the perfect nature, character and ability to carry out the
intricate and infinite will of God, then all our tribulation is freighted with vital
significance. Among that perfect, omnipotent Royal Priesthood there will be no carnal
minds, no fleshly actions, no selfish desires, no self-serving, no weakness, no
limitation, no flaws of character, no mistakes, no dissensions, no disobedience; but with
justice and wisdom and righteousness and love and power shall they rule the nations, and
ultimately the vastnesses of the unbounded heavens until all things everywhere are subdued
unto Christ and Christ shall present a perfect Kingdom to the Father.
Now since such glories are in
store for the Royal Priesthood, can any man longer question why our all-wise heavenly
Father should take such pains to bring His sons to perfection? None knows better than He
exactly what is needed to transform His sons from corrupt and carnal creatures of the dust
to beings of divine understanding and heavenly glory. I have often said that I have strong
confidence in the ability of my heavenly Father to bring me to perfection and maturity as
a son of God. My Father is a great son-raiser. He was a colossal success with His
firstborn! Anyone who can raise a son like Jesus Christ knows exactly what He is doing and
can surely handle you and me, my precious brother and sister. "...we see Jesus, who
was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and
honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man. 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...wherefore God also hath
highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under
the earth" (Heb. 2:9-10; Phil. 2:9-10).
Beholding the glory of Jesus
Christ we can understand why the Lord takes such infinite care to bring all His sons to
perfection. Would you dare to imagine that any of the presidents, prime ministers,
senators or members of the parliaments of this present world system would be found fit
candidates to straighten out the mess this world is in, bringing an end to crime, poverty,
ignorance, fear, deceit, greed, war, broken homes and hearts, sickness, pain and death,
restoring all into God again? Ah - the ages to come will be given into the hands of God's
choicest sons - saints fully developed, perfected through suffering, matured through
trial, proven through testing, far beyond the reach of corruption and decay, far above the
realm of greed and selfishness, or any such thing.
One of the fundamental laws
of creation is that an OPPOSING FORCE is necessary for growth, and to produce strength,
stamina, and endurance. Any living thing that grows up without any opposition is weak and
powerless. God's NEW CREATION must be strong and powerful, and any thing that desires to
be strong, or anyone, must wrestle with a force that is contrary to them. Any man who
wants to develop muscular power to be strong, must spend weeks and months and years in
vigorous training doing heavy exercises, lifting heavy weights, using the opposing force
of gravity to develop his strength. A man who wants to be a great wrestler, doesn't just
wrestle when he is in the ring. At his training center he has his wrestling partners with
whom he wrestles by the hour. If he didn't do this he would be weak and powerless in the
ring.
A boxer has his punching bags
and sparring partners, with whom he spends hours every day. Those opposing forces are
indispensable to develop strength. A plant that grows in a greenhouse sheltered from the
winds and rains, pampered day after day, may grow large, but is inherently weak, and if
suddenly exposed to the elements will wither and die. But a plant that is constantly
exposed to the fierce winds and pounding rains, burning heat and chilling cold, is strong
and not easily destroyed.
So it is with us as human
beings. One who grows up in a sheltered environment, who is pampered all his life, grows
up a weak, spineless individual. ADVERSITY builds strength of character. If we were never
exposed to trials and tribulation, we would grow up weak indeed! The more we are exposed
to ADVERSE circumstances, the more we have to wrestle with our environment, the more we
are CHALLENGED by the world around us, the stronger we become. Those pitiful Christians
who want to be raptured away before the big bad Antichrist shows up know nothing of this.
And I prophesy that they will be among the first to collapse when real trouble comes.
Saints, IF WE WOULD BE THE SONS OF THE MOST HIGH we must be STRONG in the Lord and in the
power of His might! Our Father wants us to be strong, so He has wisely given us wrestling
partners to wrestle with, so we will become strong. There are opposing forces (thank God
for them!) that we must constantly battle against. Some of these adverse things are the
principalities and powers in the heavenlies. "For we wrestle not against flesh and
blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of
this world, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12). Could a
beast-government, a mark of the beast, or an Antichrist be any more of a fierce foe than
these? The prosperity and blessing folk are always talking about a POSITIVE message, the
power of POSITIVE thinking, or POSITIVE faith, or possibility thinking, or some such idea.
Haven't they heard that to have even enough power in a battery to run an automobile you
must have BOTH A POSITIVE AND A NEGATIVE? Positive without negative produces no power at
all! There is a great and magnificent future ahead for the sons of God, and a great work
our Father has for us to do in the ages to come, and He is preparing us and making us
ready for the high and holy place He has for us. Can we not see that ALL THE OPPOSING
FORCES WE NOW ENCOUNTER are working together for our good - to develop the strength,
character, wisdom, and power we must acquire? Through the valley of death into the realm
of life and joy is God's way to sonship, and the secret of "glorying in
tribulation" is to UNDERSTAND the eternal purpose of trial and the grand and glorious
end.
Oh - blessed myrrh! Beautiful
anointing! The time will come when the sweet fragrance of the Spirit of Christ will be
everywhere in the reconciled universe. No selfishness left, no hatred, no variance, no
warring, no emulation, no back-biting, no SIN! Every one and everything in the universe of
bliss will come under the anointing. What pleasure for God! What peace and love and unity
throughout the whole vast scene pervaded by the perfume of the holy anointing!
We should direct our thoughts
to yet another consideration. The fragrance of the Holy Anointing Oil improved with age.
The nature of the oil didn't improve, but the fragrance did. As we surrender our all to
the Lord, submitting to His dealing hand, absorbing into our lives all the choicest
elements of His sanctifying grace, when our product has aged, fully ripened, matured and
carefully blended, it is an ointment fit for the head of a priest of the Most High God.
Myrrh has the word
"pure" attached to it in the formula for the oil. The word here rendered
"pure," is literally, "free-flowing," a term which is explained by the
fact that the best myrrh is said to flow out spontaneously, or freely from the bark, while
that of inferior quality oozes out only when the bark is marked with deep incisions. Pure
or free-flowing myrrh means that when bitter, cutting experiences come your way, in spite
of all the pain and pressure you are flowing freely, emitting the fragrance of Jesus.
Myrrh is bitterness, the bitterness of suffering and death, but it speaks just as
eloquently of the spontaneous flow of HIS LIFE. Can you still flow even though you pass
through the valley of the shadow of death? Can you still flow when all hell breaks loose,
your whole world is turned upside down, and naught but tragedy, sorrow and bitterness
stalk your path? If you can, then YOU'RE ANOINTED. Anointed with HIS grace and glory!
Anointed with the fragrance of HIS life!
Once the myrrh is gathered
only as it is crushed and pierced, does its fragrance go forth; and it is not easy to
yield to the crushing and the piercing process. This, truly, is bitter, though it yields
fragrance in the peaceable fruits of righteousness. As we meet Him in this hidden place,
He reveals to us that the slain Lamb must have a slain body; and we hear His voice calling
us to join that redeemed company who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. We hear Him
calling us to be willing to suffer the loss of all things that we may know Him, and the
power of His resurrection, and become conformed to His death. Herein lies the folly of
those who preach temporal blessings and financial prosperity and "something GOOD is
going to happen to you" all the time. They want the OLIVE OIL (holy Spirit) without
the MYRRH! They seek the CROWN without the CROSS! They want to REIGN without first having
been perfected through suffering. They have a PARTIAL ANOINTING that may do in the
shallows of the Charismatic move, but it will never in a million years produce the ROYAL
PRIESTHOOD.
Chapter
22
THE
ANOINTING OF THE PRIESTHOOD
(continued)
"Moreover the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, Take thou also unto thee principle spices, of pure myrrh five hundred
shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of
sweet calamus two hundred and fifty shekels, and of cassia five hundred shekels, after the
shekel of the sanctuary, and of oil olive an bin: and thou shalt make it an oil of holy
ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it shall be a holy
ANOINTING OIL. And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they
may minister unto Me in the priest's office" (Ex. 30:22-30).
Under Old Testament economy,
the anointing was the ceremony by which the priests were installed in their service. They
were anointed to their office with a peculiar ointment, called the "Holy Anointing
Oil". Of old, three classes were anointed with the Holy anointing Oil - prophets,
priests and kings. With it Moses anointed Aaron and his sons and all the priests who came
after them. Because of being anointed with the Holy Anointing Oil, the High Priest was
called "the anointed" (Lev. 4:3,5,16; 6:22), the same as later for the anointed
kings of
The oil used in the Holy
Anointing Oil could not be just any oil; it must be pure olive oil. The formula had to be
followed precisely, and, beside all this, use of the finished product was limited to the
purposes designated by the Lord. Those privileged ones who would be anointed therewith
would be holy, dedicated to the service of the Lord, sacred persons, a people with a
purpose, priests of the Most High God! What a high value God places on the anointing! How
wonderful it is! Keeping the Holy Anointing Oil sealed up in a container was not in God's
plan. The anointing oil must be POURED PROFUSELY UPON AARON AND HIS SONS! The fragrance
must be spread abroad by the Royal Priesthood! Under the New Covenant the sons of God are
being formed into the heavenly priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek, and what a
thrill it is to be the means of spreading the fragrance of Christ throughout the world!
"But thanks be unto God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and THROUGH US
SPREADS THE FRAGRANCE of...HIM everywhere!" (II Cor. 2:14)
THE INGREDIENTS OF THE
ANOINTING
The Holy Anointing Oil was
the final product of the perfumer. The spices of which the anointing oil was made, are
called "principle," standing at the head of the most esteemed perfumes. The oil
was to be skillfully mingled with them; a holy ointment; an ointment compound after the
art of the apothecary; a holy anointing oil. The fragrance of the spices was to be evenly
diffused through the whole bin of olive oil, so that no one perfume took precedence above
another; but the oil sent forth the fragrance of all alike. As kings and priests, we too,
are to be anointed with the Holy Anointing Oil to be able to serve the Lord acceptably.
When we enter into His presence we are perfumed with ointment blended together with the
ingredients of HIS ATTRIBUTES that have been inworked into our lives. These are the
qualities that are acceptable to God of which myrrh, sweet calamus, cinnamon, cassia and
olive oil speak, gathered through months and years of walking with the Lord.
This surpassingly precious
perfume presents to us the unmeasured and unmeasurable perfections of Christ inwrought in
our lives. So mixed and mingled are these that the attributes and graces that dwell in the
Christ, the beauties and excellencies that are concentrated in His adorable Person, and
fulfilled now in the elect members of His body, are without limit. Naught save the
infinite mind of our Father could scan the infinite perfections of the Royal Priesthood
filled with all the fullness of Christ; and as the ages roll along their course toward the
ultimate consummation of God's wonderful purpose, those glorious perfections will ever be
unfolding themselves in the view of the whole creation from the lowest hell unto the
highest heaven. Ever and anon, as some fresh beam of light shall burst forth from that
corporate Son of divine glory, the courts of heaven above, and the wide fields of creation
beneath, shall resound with thrilling Alleluias to Him who was, who is, and who ever shall
be beautiful in His appearing, wonderful in all His ways, marvelous in His salvation - the
glorious Creator, Redeemer and King of all!
THE MYRRH
The apothecary listened very
carefully to the instructions given by Moses. The formula must not vary. For the Holy Oil
the apothecary began with five hundred shekels more than two gallons - of pure myrrh of
the finest quality obtainable. Myrrh is not only fragrant, but it is bitter; the
bitterness is an emblem of suffering. Ah - we thought the anointing was all glory, billows
of joy and power like gigantic ocean waves sweeping through our souls, bringing spiritual
ecstasy and power to preach like Peter and do exploits like Paul. Fragrant and bitter -
you will never be anointed unless you know some bitterness. The "faith" crowd,
the "word" crowd, the "prosperity" crowd who want only the blessings
will never be anointed priests of the Lord. The fragrant and bitter myrrh sets forth our
death; through participation with Him in the bitterness of partaking with Him in His
bitterness we put on the fragrance of His life and attributes.
Myrrh is ever the symbol for
death. Closely connected with Christ's life, death and burial, are the precious oils and
costly, fragrant spices. He alone received gifts of fragrant oil and spices. The
anointings He received at the hands of the women who loved Him with a surpassing love,
appeared to have been more precious to Him than all else that was done for Him while He
was on earth. The odor of the costly spikenard, with which Mary of Bethany anointed Him,
filled the whole house; and no doubt, remained upon Him until He lay in the tomb; for the
perfume of those rare and precious oils was most penetrating, and lingered for years. As
He was led away to the judgment hall, the fragrance of this oil, which had been poured
upon Him unto His burial, sent forth from His person clouds like incense. I wonder if that
odor reminded the priests of the continual incense. How blind they were that they did not
perceive that He who stood before them was the Heavenly Incense of God!
Sons of God, how is it with
you and me? Do we have the fragrance of the anointing upon us when we stand in man's
judgment hall? Does this unearthly perfume linger upon us when we are ridiculed and
persecuted? When God brings to us a cross upon which we may put away some unworthy thing,
does our perfume go forth, or do we repine? When we take up our cross and go up to the
place of death, have we been anointed for the burial? Does this anointing go forth in a
cloud of perfume that hides the cross and our suffering from all who behold us? After the
death of Jesus, the women, who had loved and followed Him on earth, brought one hundred
pounds of myrrh and aloes to the tomb. With what grief did they take that precious body
and wind about it the white linen cloths! With what untold tenderness did they lay it way
in the bed of fragrant spices! Identified with HIS DEATH! Ah, this is what it means to be
the anointed priest of God.
In the Song of Solomon the
King, beautiful type of God's corporate Son, Head and body, exclaims, "Until the day
break, and the shadows flee away, I will get me up to the mountain of myrrh, and to the
hill of frankincense" (S. of S. 4:6). The "
It is not enough to make an
occasional trip up to the cross, for death must become a mountain to us, we must go there
to stay until the day breaks and the shadows all flee away. It bespeaks a STATE OF
The more one abides in the
light, the more one recognizes darkness. The more perfect one is, the more conscious one
becomes of imperfections. So likewise, the more mature a saint becomes, the more he will
sense his immaturity. The more alive unto God a believer becomes, the more aware he will
be of death that remains. The further one walks onward in God, the greater seems to be the
need for cleansing, purging, and purifying. The more he receives praise of the Lord, the
more he feels the sky of spiritual life has not yet come into fullest glow. Many who have
come forth from the dank tombs of religion to follow on to know the Lord, feel as if they
are wandering in somewhat of a wilderness. What then are these to do?. Before the perfect
light of the fullness of sonship to God can dawn and all shadows flee away, we must go to
the
SWEET CINNAMON
Cinnamon for the Holy Oil had
to be the choicest that the merchants could offer. Only the superior product from faraway
There is a beautiful mystery
here, however. The sweetness of the sweet cinnamon came from the bark of a small evergreen
which had flowers with a disagreeable odor. Sweetness - in the midst of disagreeableness!
Sweetness in the presence of unpleasantness, distastefulness, offensiveness and nastiness!
The question follows - Can you stay sweet in the midst of trouble, affliction, adversity,
pain, frustration, persecution and suffering? Suffering is the dealings and processings of
God whereby sons are brought to perfection. "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. Though He were a Son, yet learned He
obedience through the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the
author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him" (Heb. 2:10; 5:8-9).
Ah, to be sweet IN THE
PROCESS! God told Ezekiel to breathe upon the dry bones that they might live, but I've met
some people who have halitosis in the spirit. Bad breath! Dog breath. Swamp breath. Dragon
mouth. God sent something their way custom-designed to help them, and they reacted instead
of acting; rather than yielding under the dealing hand of God and responding in meekness,
they became upset and angry, pouted and sat under a miff-bush. Perhaps you say' "You
don't know what a place I am in, what people are doing to me, my husband is unsaved, and I
have all these problems and trials." No wonder! With the kind of Lord you're
demonstrating, I don't blame your husband one bit! Oh - for sweetness in the midst of
distastefulness and disagreeableness. It is my conviction that the sweet cinnamon is the
Holy Spirit of Love of which Paul so eloquently writes, saying, "Love endures long
and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy; is not
boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited -
arrogant and inflated with pride; it is not rude, and does not act unbecomingly. Love does
not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy
or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it - pays no attention to
a suffered wrong. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when
right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever
ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are faceless under all circumstances
and it endures everything without weakening" (ICor. 13:4-7, Amplified).
SWEET CALAMUS
Sweet Calamus was an easy
ingredient to find for the Holy Oil. It came from ginger grass that grew in abundance in
Calamus is from a Hebrew word
meaning TO STAND UPRIGHT. It is translated "stalk" in Gen. 41:5,22; as
"branch" (of the candlestick) in Ex. 25:31-36; as "reed" in I Kings
14: 15; as "balance" in Isa. 46:6; and as "a measuring rod" in Eze.
40:3. This reed scents the air while it is growing and when it is cut down, dried, and
powdered, it is used as an ingredient in one of the richest perfumes. Standing upright
speaks of righteousness. There is a beauty, a fragrance about a life which is lived out in
the righteousness of God! Many highly acclaimed ministries have gone down the tubes during
the last thirty years because they sought the POWER of the
You ask, "How can such
things be?" I will tell you! Men have asked for and have graciously received an
anointing of Kingdom power, and have gone forth to do exploits in His name. But in the
great majority of cases they neither asked for, nor sought for, nor did they receive, the
corresponding righteousness of the Kingdom. To possess power without righteousness is a
blueprint for tragedy. It means that men will do the works of God, but cannot live the
life of God. They possess power without character. Such will honor God for a season with
their mighty works, but just as surely as the pig will return to his wallowing, and the
dog to his vomit, just that certain is it that these will ultimately bring shame and
reproach upon the name of the Lord by their unrighteous conduct.
But those whom God anoints as
members of the Royal Priesthood are anointed with the exhilarating fragrance of sweet
calamus - that which STANDS UPRIGHT in the righteousness of God. These priests 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! These
son-priests are anointed with calamus and exude the precious fragrance of the purity and
holiness of the nature of God. Praise His name!
CASSIA
The perfumer required five
hundred shekels of cassia. This was a very popular product of merchants from Tyrus (Eze.
27:19). The oriental women and men would perfume their garments with cassia, so that the
air about them was laden with the delicate fragrance. Like cinnamon, it came from the bark
of a tree, a tropical evergreen tree which grew in abundance in many areas of the then
known world. Long incisions were made in the tree trunk or branches. As the bark dried it
would peel off from the tree and roll itself into tubes of varying lengths and diameters.
Huge bundles of these tubes were piled upon the backs of the camels in every caravan that
passed through the
Cassia grows at high
altitudes and has purple flowers, typifying royalty or the kingly nature. How significant,
therefore, that the perfume of this plant was worn upon the GARMENTS! A person's position
or state of being can often be told by his clothing. A white uniform indicates a nurse,
the blue uniform identifies the policeman on his beat, the black robe identifies the judge
in the court room, filthy or torn garments are a sign of poverty, and royal robes are a
sign of royal estate. The first occurrence of the word robe in the Bible is in Ex. 28:4
and 31. "And these are the garments which they shall make; a breastplate, and an
ephod, and a ROBE, and a broidered coat, and a mitre, and a girdle: and they shall make
holy garments for Aaron thy brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto Me in the
priest's office...and thou shalt make the ROBE OF THE EPHOD all of blue." The Hebrew
word is subsequently translated "robe" in I Sam. 24:4, I Chron. 15:27, Job
29:14, and Eze. 26:16, in which cases it specifies a garment worn by a prince or a king.
From all these uses of the word it can be seen that the robe of the ephod was a garment of
special dignity - A ROBE OF OFFICE - which gave a KINGLY CHARACTER to the High Priest. No
material was specified for the High Priest's robe, but the color only, blue. It was the
work of a weaver, Bazaleel and Aholiab having been filled with wisdom of heart to execute
the fabric. This robe embodied the color of the heavens; it was all of blue. All the
priests, the sons of Aaron, wore white linen garments, representing the manifested
righteousness of God. The High Priest also wore the white linen garment when he entered
into the
There is an interesting
passage in Isa. 61:10. "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful
in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with
a ROBE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments..." A message
is filling my heart today and with it there is an unspeakable longing that the heart of
every saint of God be turned to seek earnestly to be covered completely with the robe of
righteousness of the Son of God. I speak the truth when I tell you that there is a great
difference between a garment and a robe. The garment of salvation is that which the Lord
has already purchased for us and is freely bestowed as we turn to Him in faith as Saviour;
but the robe of righteousness is set before us to be diligently sought after and seized as
a prize.
The priestly robe is a
garment of POSITION, DIGNITY, HONOR AND SPLENDOR. It identifies the priest and reveals the
one with the priestly nature. Jesus Christ is vested with this robe and its glory, and so
we read of Him: "Being designated and recognized and saluted by God as High Priest
after the Order of Melchizedek" (Heb. 5:10, Amplified). The dazzling glory of this
great truth is that the Melchizedekian Priesthood is the priesthood of THE KING OF
RIGHTEOUSNESS. King of Righteousness - means HIS RULERSHIP in our lives, as His will
replaces our will, His thoughts replace our thoughts, His ways replace our ways, His
nature replaces our nature, and HIS LIFE becomes the sphere of all our living and moving
and being, filling up our life with His dominion, His throne established in us, where He
rules and reigns in righteousness within His temple, which temple we are.
The robe of righteousness is
worn by the King of righteousness, Head and body. It is uniquely the garment of the
Melchizedekian Order. It is the garment of the Royal Priesthood. It bespeaks the kingly
nature which is also priestly, and the priestly nature which is likewise kingly. How
appropriate, then, that this garment is anointed with cassia! Cassia is from a Hebrew word
meaning "to stoop, bend, or bow low." It bears the purple blossoms of royalty
and kingship, but stoops ever so low to touch the earth. Phil. 2:6-8 says of Jesus:
"Although He existed in the form of God, He did not regard equality with God a thing
to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a BOND-SERVANT, and was made in the
likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." Jesus was the most humble of
all men. He was no super-duper, elite, holier-than -thou, country club Son of God! He came
from the heart of God and STOOPED SO LOW that He touched the lowest hell with the grace
and redeeming power of the Father.
As I have pointed out earlier
in this series, we have a dual roll to fill in the Kingdom; we are not only to be kings,
we are also to be priests. We are not only to bear purple blossoms, but we are to perfume
the garments of priesthood. It is a lofty position to which we are called, and for which
we are being prepared. Sonship, yes. Kings and priests, yes. But why equipped with such
power and glory? TO SERVE! For it is written, "Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord,
and MY SERVANT, whom I have chosen" (Isa. 43:10). As kings we reign, as priests we
serve, and we REIGN BY SERVING! The one who serves the people well as a priest is the one
who will also reign well as a king. "They shall be PRIESTS...and they shall
REIGN." Though we are called to become His kings with authority over all, yet our
inner attitude must be that of a servant, that we might freely minister, loving, touching,
doing good, healing, reconciling, restoring with mercy and love. Not only must we stand in
the regal splendor of the purple blossoms of kingly authority, but we must be willing to
be cut down and ground into powder to become the FRAGRANCE OF PRIESTLY BLESSING.
As I have studied and
meditated upon this, I have received a new vision and apprehension of all there is in Him,
hence all there is for us. We are commanded to put on Jesus Christ; and as He becomes our
garment, as He clothes us more and more, His perfumes will be more and more perceptible to
those about us. We hardly realize how ill-smelling our own attributes are, and how many
flies have gotten into the oil which the great Perfumer has commenced to put within us,
until we have drawn close enough to Him to discern the fragrance of His pure oils. It is
when we smell the goodly fragrance of His humility, that we begin to detect the offensive
odor of our pride. It is when the sweetness of His purity and holiness, His submission to
God's will, His love and longsuffering, breaks in upon us, that we smell the vile odors of
our flesh, our stiffneckedness and willfulness, our lack of love and our shortsuffering.
It is when we smell the perfume of His patience and forgiveness toward us, that we get the
real offensive odor of our impatience and unforgiving spirit toward one another. It is
always the odor of His attributes that we need the most, which smells the sweetest, and
which we desire the most ardently; those that are the opposite of our weak places. If we
are beset with pride, no attribute of Jesus appears so beautiful as His humility. We think
it is the loveliest and most desirable because we need it the most. And so it is with
every other need in our lives.
THE OLIVE OIL
One by one the various
ingredients, each with its special fragrance, were brought together. All were now ready to
be blended with pure olive oil that had been carefully kept in jars sealed with beeswax.
The oil was obtained from the best of the fully ripened olives that had been beaten (Ex.
27:20-21), then strained through a finely woven basket and allowed to settle until the oil
could be decanted off in absolutely pure form to be stored in earthen containers. Oil was
used in food and in ointments, but its primary use was for illumination and thus was
considered to be a type of the Holy Spirit. The same olive oil, pure and beaten, that gave
light to the lamp in the
Just as the oil was needed to
light the lamp, so we need the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds in the Word of God.
Without the Spirit our minds are carnal and dead, and the Word does not shine. One writer
tells us that to light the lamp means to cause the lamp to rise up. This is quite
significant, for many times when we read the written Word the words rise up and give light
to the understanding!
How does the Word give
illumination to the mind and heart? It is only by the Spirit, the oil. And the oil today
is in our spirit. Whenever we come apart to read or study the Word, we must exercise our
spirit. Then, in our spirit the pure olive oil will supply an energy, effecting an
internal combustion that will cause the Word to rise up and give us light. This is inward
light, inner illumination which springs from the depth of the spirit, giving enlightenment
to the mind. When we read the Word by exercising only our mentality and natural reasoning
and understanding, it does not give light. The carnal mind is a great and horrible
darkness. Reading the Word by exercising our carnal mentality will lead to every kind of
law, bondage, tradition, ritual, ceremony, static creed, and all the external forms of the
Babylonian religious systems. But if we exercise our spirit to contact the Word,
immediately we sense that inner action of divine enlightenment and spiritual perception
rising up within from our spirit. In that instant we are enabled to see beyond the literal
statements of the dead letter of the outer form of the Word and the Word becomes the
living Word within us by the Spirit. It is through the indwelling Spirit as the pure olive
oil that we have the light. The Word will be enlightened in a spiritual dimension and will
give us LIGHT!
Ah, it is the beaten and pure
olive oil that gives the light. Is not the Holy Spirit pure? The Holy Spirit is most
certainly pure, but our spirit is not so pure! You say, "But in my regenerated spirit
I am pure; it is my soul which is still mixed and defiled." What, then, does Paul
mean when he exhorts the saints in Corinth, "Having therefore these promises, dearly
beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all FILTHINESS OF THE FLESH A-N-D S-P-I-R-I-T,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (II Cor. 7:1). The spirit realm is not a pure
realm, for there are foul and wicked spirits as well as holy and righteous spirits, both
in the heavenlies and the earthlies. Although our spirit has been quickened, made alive
unto God, there is still a PROCESS OF PERFECTION in the area of our spirit in order to
PERFECT HOLINESS in the fear of God. The Bible speaks of those among God's people who have
a sad spirit, a hasty spirit, a wounded spirit, a haughty spirit, an erring spirit, etc.
And we all know what unspeakable havoc has at times been wrought by immature spirits -
babes in Christ - spiritual childishness! The Church systems are today filled and
overflowing with these! Yes, precious friend of mine, our spirit has to be beaten and
purified, as with the pure olive oil. This is the work of the cross. In typology, Christ
is the olive. When He was beaten and pressed on the cross, the pure oil, that is, the Holy
Spirit poured out of Him. "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 an High Priest after the Order of
Melchizedek" (Heb. 5:8-10).
It is the same with every
member of the Royal Priesthood. You and I need to be purified; we need to be beaten and
pressed. Many times when we read a passage of Scripture our understanding is unfruitful,
it speaks nothing to us, there is simply no light. There is no light until one day God
places His hand of dealing upon us and so orders our circumstances that we are brought
under a certain kind of pressure. Under this pressure we turn to the same Word and
suddenly it gives the light. We need to be purified, and we must be beaten and pressed.
How we need the pressures, the trials and the testings! Oh, we must have the dealing hand
of God! Under pressure and bruising we turn to the Lord in a deeper, more intense way, and
the Spirit moves mightily on our behalf to guide, comfort, encourage, rebuke, teach,
correct, counsel, reveal, instruct, develop, strengthen and perfect. In all this the
Spirit operates and we are enlightened; the lamp is lit for us under its enlightening.
Under this enlightening, we will have the utterance to express something which issues out
of Christ as the sweet incense unto God. There will come the expression of His grace and
glory and power in our walk. Then not only will we be blessed, but God will be satisfied,
and men will be touched by God. THIS IS THE PRIESTLY ANOINTING.
UPON NO FLESH
"Upon man's FLESH shall
it not be poured, neither shall ye make any other like it, after the composition of it: it
is holy, and it shall be holy unto you" (Ex. 30:32).
This Holy Anointing Oil was
not to be poured upon man's flesh. It was poured on Aaron's HEAD after the mitre and holy
crown had been placed on him. Although the Aaronic priesthood was in reality a priesthood
in the flesh, for Aaron was "taken from among men," yet there is a mysterious
intimation of another priesthood given in this precept, which was not to be in the flesh,
but in the reality of the Spirit and after the power of an endless life. Flesh, human
flesh, is sinful and corrupt beyond explanation. There can be no congeniality between it
and the graces of the Holy Spirit. The flesh must ever war against the Spirit and the
Spirit against the flesh, they cannot agree together. And as the Word of God says,
"Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in
you" (Rom. 8:9). In the flesh there dwelleth no good thing. No one therefore can have
the Holy Spirit, unless he be born of the Spirit, a new creature in Christ Jesus. It is
only as connected with the New Man, as being part of the New Creation, that we can know
anything of the nature and power of the Holy Ghost.
The holy anointing cannot be
connected with man or man's works in the flesh. It is the Spirit of another Man, the last
Adam, the High Priest of the Melchizedekian Order, the Man at God's right hand. It is not
given to add something to man after the flesh to improve him, but on the ground that that
man is entirely set aside. It is not given to bless or to quicken or to increase or to
glorify or to sanctify or to make holy the actions or works of men after the flesh. God
will not, and cannot, ANOINT FLESH! It is so easy to miss this point! We see in the Bible
that before the apostle Paul was converted, he served God with zeal. "I am verily a
man which am a Jew, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers,
and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day" (Acts 22:3). At that time, though
within him he had not received the life of God, he could serve God outwardly by his own
soulish excitement and fleshly strength in a very zealous manner. This shows us that
zealously serving God is WHOLLY UNRELATED TO THE ANOINTING. Feverish religious activity
does not indicate one iota the call of God or the condition of a person's spiritual life.
Oh, brethren! how we need to watch this. All that is not of the Spirit IS OF THE FLESH.
I can tell you of a truth
that most of the "power" in the modern "revival meeting" is nothing at
all but soul power - flesh! Have you not noticed yourself that in many revival meetings
and church services a kind of atmosphere is first created to make the people feel warm and
excited? A chorus is repeated again and again to warm up the audience. The people are
urged to "get into the spirit" of the-meeting. Some stirring testimonies are
given. Special music is sung. When the atmosphere is thoroughly heated up, the preacher
will then stand up and preach. He has various strategies ready to stimulate and maneuver
the people. If he does his job skillfully he can anticipate a large "altar
call". These are methods and tactics, but they are not the power of the Holy Spirit!
Many preachers today think they have power; but they are merely employing psychological
soul power to influence people. Many have become self-made experts on the use of
psychology in manipulating people.
A brother shared the
following experience which is so familiar to many who read these lines. "I remember
visiting a Church which allowed the visiting ministries to take up their own offerings. On
this particular occasion a servant of God and his wife were conducting the special
meetings. There was no denying that the hand of God was resting upon the brother. He was
quiet, deep and had a heavily anointed prophetic ministry. However, his wife's anointing
was somewhat different. Very different. She was loud-voiced and boisterous. The worship,
praise, singing, prayers and prophecy seemed to be anointed, during her ministry. Then
suddenly she announced, 'Now we are going to take up the offering.' Apparently she noticed
the look on the faces of the people. Perhaps they resented this intrusion into the worship
of the Lord. She then said, 'You say, Why are we doing this in the midst of the anointing?
Well, we can turn that on any time we want to.' Need I say more? This is a favorite trick.
Get the people 'high' on the Lord, or all worked up with the leader's self-anointing, and
then while the tide is high make a plea for money. God in the past has allowed man to go
on in his own way. The days are coming however, when He will no longer tolerate those who
try to manipulate His Spirit for their own profit. Sooner for some, and later for others,
but they will be judged severely" - end quote. Such practices are abomination to God
because He has commanded that His Holy Anointing Oil not be "poured upon MAN'S
FLESH."
Then there is a solemn
warning against compounding any oil like unto the Holy Anointing Oil. No imitation was to
be made of it, "neither shall ye make any other like it, after the composition of it:
it is holy, and it shall be holy unto you. Whosoever compoundeth any like it, shall be cut
off from his people" (Ex. 30:32-33). I am afraid there is a great deal which is
simply an imitation of the Spirit of Christ - man in the flesh restrained and cultivated,
and led to adopt manners and deportment which look very like the fruit of the Spirit of
Christ. There are all kinds of imitations of the heavenly perfumes and precious attributes
of Christ; but all that anybody puts on which are imitation of the real Christ, will never
look nor smell like Him. We may put on the human humility but it is no more like the
humility of Jesus Christ than anything else that is human is like God. We may put on
longsuffering unto stoicism, but it is no more like the longsuffering of Christ than any
human attribute is like an attribute of God. We may put on human sweetness and
attractiveness, which may seem fragrant to those who cannot discern the difference; but
none of these are any more like the fragrance of Christ than the odor of ill-smelling
weeds is like the pure fragrance of the lily of the valley.
The finest fruits that ever
grew in nature's fields, in their highest state of cultivation - the most amiable traits
which the natural man can exhibit - must be utterly disowned in the sanctuary of God.
There must be no counterfeit in the Spirit's work; all must be of the Spirit - wholly,
really of the Spirit. Moreover, that which is of the Spirit must not be attributed to man.
What a great danger there is among even God's elect saints, of assuming to be guided by
and acting under the power and direction of the Holy Spirit, when they are only indulging
their own self-will or self-conceit. How glibly we hear the statement repeated again and
again, "The LORD told me...GOD said to me... The SPIRIT said..." this and that
and the other. And it is remarkable how often the Lord changes His mind. Many times
brethren tell me how the Lord has told them to do this or that, or to go here or there,
and before the week is past the Lord has revised His plans and has now directed them in
another path. Nonsense! We should not profess to be prompted or led by the Lord, my
brethren, unless we have indeed received a clear and true and settled word from Him.
Methinks that a lot of folk think they have a hot-line to heaven, and don't know that
someone else has tapped in on their line!
Some time ago I was in a
meeting where the saints have an "open pulpit" with liberty for each member of
the body to move in ministry as moved by the Spirit. A young and zealous Pentecostal
evangelist was present, and, taking advantage of the open pulpit, got up and ministered
his highly emotion message, at the conclusion of which he pressed the people to come
forward for him to minister to their needs. One dear sister, with a physical condition,
went forward and presented herself to the young evangelist, whereupon he immediately
motioned for one of the brothers to come and stand behind her. He proceeded to pray for
her, shaking his finger sharply in her face three times, shouting each time, "In
JESUS' name!" Then he forcefully slapped her on the forehead, jerking her body
backward, whereupon she at once "fell out" under the "power". She lay
on the floor for a couple minutes, then arose and returned to her seat. I saw at once what
was happening! This was not the Spirit nor the power of God in operation! It was pure
mesmerism, a psychologically induced experience. It came from human exercise, not an
enduement of power from God. It was an IMITATION of the Holy Anointing Oil!
As soon as the next person
went forward to be ministered to, I stood and quickly walked to the front to help
minister. When the evangelist shook his finger in this brother's face and jolted him
backward with a slap on the forehead, I had already placed my hand on the small of his
back, gently exerting enough pressure to stabilize him. I continued this procedure through
the rest of the personal ministry and, needless to say, NO ONE ELSE FELL! If the Holy
Spirit would have been knocking those people down there would not have been enough
strength in my body to keep them from falling! I have witnessed this fleshly technique,
with variations, time and time again in Pentecostal and Charismatic meetings. It is a very
old trick. You see, most Spirit-filled Christians DESIRE supernatural experiences. This is
natural, and not necessarily to be despised. However, when you know that people are
actually WANTING and LONGING to experience the sensational, in this case "falling
under the power," the first step in making them fall by the use of hypnotic
suggestion is to CALL SOMEONE UP TO STAND BEHIND THEM while you pray for them. This gives
the people the sense that if they should fall, someone is there to catch them and break
the fall. Furthermore, by deliberately positioning the person behind them you have now
psychologically SUGGESTED to their mind that they WILL FALL, so that they are either
consciously or subconsciously, EXPECTING to fall! All that is needed at this point is the
INCENTIVE to fall. The young evangelist supplied the incentive when he shook his finger in
her face, repeatedly shouting, "in JESUS' name!" and then slapping her on the
forehead, shoving her backward - and she reacted exactly as she had been CONDITIONED to
react - she FELL! We had a word of wisdom in the old-time Pentecostal movement and it is
still just as true today as it was then. We said that if someone fell prostrate under the
power of God he would NOT get hurt; and if he fell, but not under the power of God, then
HE OUGHT TO GET HURT. Its very simple, beloved; remove the carpet and don't supply anyone
to catch them, and you will soon learn how many are anointed, and how many have MIXED
THEIR OWN OIL!
How we praise God today for
the Royal Priesthood which HE is preparing in the earth, whom HE is teaching HIS precepts
and HIS ways; purging, processing and refining, perfecting and anointing, to exhibit the
precious effects of His grace and glory. May my reader experience the power of this
anointing! May he know the value of having "an unction from the Holy One," and
of being "sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." Nothing is of any value in
the divine estimation save that which connects itself immediately with the great High
Priest of the heavens, and whosoever is so connected can receive the Holy Anointing.
Chapter 23
THE
CLEANSING AND SANCTIFICATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD
"And this is the thing
that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them, to minister unto Me in the priest's
office...Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation, and shalt wash them with water. And thou shalt take the garments, and thou
shalt put them upon Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him; and thou shalt anoint them,
and consecrate them and sanctify them, that they may minister unto Me in the priest's
office" (Ex. 29:1,4,5; 28:41).
The setting apart of the
priests for the service of God involved a great deal of ritual which typifies the
preparation of the Royal Priesthood in this hour at the end of the age. There were some
basic principles which are of sublime importance. The ceremonies of washing, cleansing,
investiture, anointing and offering the special sacrifices were performed to show the
inward dealing, qualification, development and processing of the spiritual priesthood in
the Kingdom of God. The first step in the process involved bringing the priests to the
door of the Tabernacle for the ceremonial washing away of all that was unclean. We do not
have here types of how a sinner can be cleansed from sin so as to be found amongst the
people of God as forgiven and justified. We are reading of how PRIESTS are hallowed,
sanctified and consecrated to the priestly ministry.
The first step is cleansing
and sanctification. To sanctify means TO SET APART or TO SEPARATE. The word is applied to
people, places and things as Sinai among the mountains; the Sabbath among the days of the
week; the Temple among all buildings; the city of Jerusalem among the cities of Palestine;
the Priesthood among Israel; and Israel among the nations of the earth. For example, the
Lord Jesus in Mat. 23:17-19 shows us that gold, if used for the
That which is taken out of
its surroundings, by Gods command, and is set aside or separated as His own possession and
for His service that is holy. This does not mean separation from sin only, but from all
that is in the world, even from what may be permissible. Thus God sanctified the seventh
day. The other days were not unclean, for God saw all that He had made and "beheld
that it was very good." But that day alone was holy, which God had taken possession
of by His own special act. In the same way God had separated
But beyond this there is a
deeper thought. Why were people, places and things set apart? Was it not because GOD WAS
THERE? He came down in might and glory on Sinai; therefore they needed to set bounds
around its base. He chose to rest on the seventh day from all His work; therefore it was
hallowed and sanctified. He selected
In the ancient world all the
major religions of the gods of
Andrew Murray wrote,
"God's holiness is often spoken of as though it consisted in His hatred of, and
hostility to sin; but this gives no explanation of what holiness actually is. It is a
merely negative statement that God's holiness cannot bear sin. Holiness is that attribute
of God because of which He always IS, and WILLS, and DOES what is supremely good; because
of which also He desires what is supremely good in His creatures, and bestows it upon
them. God is called "The Holy One" in Scripture, not because He punishes sin,
but because He is the REDEEMER of His people. It is His holiness, which ever wills what is
good for all, that moved Him to redeem sinners. Both the WRATH of God which punishes sin,
and LOVE of God which redeems the sinner, spring from the same source His holiness.
Holiness is the perfection of God's nature. Holiness in man is a disposition in entire
agreement with that of God; which chooses in all things to will as God wills: as it is
written: 'as He is holy, so be ye holy' (I Pet. 1:15). Holiness in us is nothing else than
ONENESS WITH GOD. The sanctification of God's people is effected by the communication to
them of the holiness of God. There is no other way of obtaining SANCTIFICATION, save by
the Holy God bestowing what He alone possesses. He alone is the HOLY ONE. He is the Lord
who sanctifies" end quote.
To the superficial observer
it might seem that there is little difference between cleansing and sanctification, that
the two words mean about the same thing; but the difference is grand and important.
Cleansing has to do chiefly with separation FROM something the old life of selfhood which
must be removed; while sanctification concerns a separation UNTO something the new life in
union with God with its fulfilling of His nature, plan, will and purpose. The distinction
between these two things is clearly marked in the Word of God. Paul reminds us that
"Christ gave Himself for the church, that He might SANCTIFY it, having CLEANSED
it" (Eph. 5:25, R.V.). Having first CLEANSED it, He then SANCTIFIES it. In his letter
to the youthful Timothy he wrote, "If a man therefore PURGE himself from these, he
shall be a vessel unto honour, SANCTIFIED, and meet for the Master's use" (II Tim.
2:21). Sanctification is a work which succeeds, and surpasses cleansing. This important
truth is also strikingly illustrated by the ordinances connected with the consecration of
the Priests, the sons of Aaron, compared with that of the Levites. In the case of the
Levites, who took a lower position than the Priests in the service of the Sanctuary, no
mention is made of SANCTIFICATION; but the word CLEANSING is used five times (Num. 8). In
the consecration of the Priests, on the other hand, the term "to SANCTIFY,” is
often used; for the Priests stood in a closer relationship to God than the Levites (Ex.
29; Lev. 3).
Sanctification is not merely
an effort on the part of Christians to live a better Christian life. In fact,
sanctification is not really the effort of man at all; sanctification is the work of God!
It is God that sanctifies. Salvation is of God, whether it be justification in the past
tense, or sanctification in the present tense, or glorification in the future when the
final vestiges of sin and death are overcome, swallowed up into HIS VICTORY. Salvation is
wholly of God. The High Calling is wholly of God. The Priesthood is wholly of God. AND IT
IS GOD THAT SANCTIFIES. "Ye shall therefore be holy for I AM HOLY" (Lev. 11:45)
is a statement of fact, rather than a call to become a "good" person in word and
deed. It was because Jehovah had determined to be the God of Israel, and had Himself
"set apart" the offspring of Jacob for Himself, and had willed to dwell in their
midst in the cloud of the Presence, that the people whom He had delivered from Egyptian
bondage were "holy" and "sanctified" unto Him. They were His people
because He had called and chosen and delivered them by His own presence and power, and not
because of their own good works!
The work of God within us in
cleansing and sanctification does, however, involve an action on our part. If the
separation unto the Royal Priesthood is to be of value, something more must take place.
The apprehended one must surrender himself willingly, and heartily, to this separation.
Sanctification of the priests includes personal consecration to the Lord to fulfill His
high and holy purposes. Priestly sanctification can become ours only when it sends down
its roots into, and takes abode in the depths of our personal life; in our will, in our
love. God sanctifies no man against his will, therefore the personal, hearty, response to
God is an indispensable part of sanctification. It is for this reason that the Scriptures
not only speak of GOD sanctifying us, but they say often, that WE must sanctify ourselves!
The priesthood of Aaron was
brought and SURRENDERED unto the Lord at the door of the Tabernacle. And so it is with
those who are the apprehended ones, the redeemed of the Lord, His King Priests of
Melchizedek's order. Ah God does not FORCE you to surrender yourself to Him; He says,
"My son, GIVE Me thine heart." It is not slave labor that He demands; that would
be valueless: A WILLING OFFERING is what He loves. What a balance there is between the
sovereignty of God and the yielded up will of man! In this we may see the explanation of
Pharaoh’s prompt and dogged resistance to God's call that he should free Israel.
God claimed as specially His
own all the firstborn males of
Jesus is the firstborn among
many brethren, but the entire house of sons is called the "Church of the
Firstborn" the body of that firstborn son who is become the Head of the Order of the
Firstborn. Jesus was the firstborn and as such received the inheritance of the firstborn.
But by His graciousness and love and purpose we share with Him, counted as heirs of God
and JOINT HEIRS WITH CHRIST, in the inheritance of the firstborn.
Let us use this illustration.
At the performance of an opera, the first part of the evening is given over to the playing
of the overture. As we understand it, the overture is made up of, or contains, parts of
all the main numbers of the whole opera. The overture is an overall preview, or glimpse of
the opera throughout until the end. But following the overture, the action goes back again
to the beginning, and the whole opera is performed in its detail unto the finish. Thus the
overture presents the plot in portions and points to the end, so that one who has never
heard it, will have a view of the action and the climax of it. But, as we pointed out,
following the overture the action returns to the beginning and the detail of the whole
plot is played out. However, both the overture and the detailed action come to a common
end or result.
Let all who read these lines
grasp the great truth that THE MANIFESTED SONS OF GOD ARE THE OVERTURE OF GOD'S WHOLE
GREAT DRAMA OF SIN AND REDEMPTION. Jesus is the overture for the sons, while the sons are
the overture for all creation. The working out of redemption and restoration into the
image of God is revealed in THE MAN CHRIST JESUS. He is the first and so far, THE ONLY
PERFECTED MAN. This gives us knowledge of two wonderful things. Through Jesus we have the
knowledge of the END of God's great drama of sin and redemption
MAN IN THE IMAGE OF GOD! But
we also have the knowledge of the dealings and processings by which man is brought to that
end. And WE ARE THE OVERTURE, the preview, the firstfruit, the demonstration of all God's
creative and redemptive plan, presenting upon the cosmic stage of the universe the final
end that God has in mind for His whole vast creation, praise His wonderful name!
OTHERS MAY, YOU CANNOT!
So, then, dear brothers and
sisters in Christ, in the cleansing and sanctification of the Aaronic Priesthood is the
type of your own separation unto God and the High Calling of sonship. You belong wholly
and entirely unto Him who has called you. You are the exclusive property of Him who has
chosen you; and being set apart unto Him, neither the world, the flesh, the devil, nor
your own desires, plans or ambitions have any longer the slightest claim on you. A priest
could never return to the position of an ordinary Israelite. You are one of a
"peculiar people," a "royal priesthood," the FIRSTBORN SONS of the
Most High (Heb. 12:23). You may, alas! betimes forget your wondrous position, and walk
unworthily of Him who has "called you unto His kingdom and glory," but thanks be
unto God, the same that said, "I sanctified them for Myself," said also,
"Mine THEY SHALL BE. I am Jehovah" (Num. 3:13).
One more and more comes to
know what it means to be a priest as he follows on into deeper and deeper measures of His
dealings and further separations unto His purposes. As we become ONE WITH GOD the world
does not understand what has happened; but they know that a separation has taken place
between us and them which is more than bodily separation. Although we are living and
moving among them, and they see us at our earthly tasks and daily living, they realize
that we have mounted up beyond them and their understanding. In this connection a brother
in Christ recently sent out these meaningful words: "Yes, this is a holy calling and
it involves much separation, often from our friends, religious realms, and everything and
everybody that would hinder the upward climb into the hill of the Lord, that we might
stand in His holy place. The flesh will cringe at the 'aloneness' of the walk. The mind
will question as to why it must be so. But the spirit within will continue to draw us
onward without the camp, bearing His reproach, while we also are loosed from so many
hindrances and infirmities. IT IS A DAY OF REVELATION and little did we know what things
were hindering our spiritual progress until suddenly we found that God was stripping
something from us, and though we wept at the time, and would have retained it if we could,
nevertheless being yielded to the will of God, we relinquished our grasp, and found to our
amazement that we received a new measure of freedom. Ah, how many things we hold so dear,
but they are actually a weight upon us, rather than a help."
Many times, it is most
grievous and perplexing to those who do not know the Lord, as well as to those Christians
bound in the religious systems, who cannot understand the workings and separating
processes of the Spirit of God, to have one who is near and dear to them in the flesh,
separated from them in the Spirit. Though the body with its personality, is still in the
home, office, or business, it is as though the loved one were not there. In such cases,
how often do they who are watching the lives of those who are following hard after the
Lord, entreat them that they will return; that they will again be unto them as they were
once. When an apprehended one has entered into this experience, he has counted all things
but loss, and suffered the loss of all things that he might WIN CHRIST. Truly, HIS DRAWING
leaves us no choice but to FOLLOW ON that we might KNOW HIM in all His glorious and
eternal reality! As we follow on to know the Lord, earth and friends and religious things
fade away in the exceeding brightness of our vision of Christ.
Our eyes are fixed with a
steadfast gaze upon Him who has gone before us, opening up the way into that fuller glory
which lies BEYOND THE VEIL. Those apprehended to be conformed to the image of the Son of
God have been caught away in the Spirit and set in the ranks of the chariots of the Lord,
even among the company of the overcomers who shall come forth in the Name of the Lord to
rule and reign and conquer and bless until all things have been subjected unto God.
"I am the true vine, and
My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and
every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit"
(Jn. 15:1-2). Every branch that BEARETH FRUIT He PURGES it! The purpose of purging, or
pruning, is to effect a concentration of the life. When all the branches of the vine are
permitted to grow unrestricted there is a resulting debilitating or weakening of the life.
The nourishment and vitality of the vine are sapped by all the multitudinous branches,
shoots and tendrils, and utilized to keep them alive and bearing abundance of foliage
rather than being channeled into producing fruit. Thus, when the excess branches and
shoots are cut away, the life becomes more concentrated and stronger in those remaining,
and the clusters of grapes become more rich and full. In like manner it is necessary that
our natural tendencies and actions and desires must be cut away, that the virtues of our
Lord be wrought and manifested in us.
It has been my experience,
moreover, that God not only prunes away the sins and works of the flesh, but a great deal
of religiousness and RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES AND THOSE INVOLVED THEREIN as well. There was a
time when we made the circuit, speaking for the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship and
various Churches in the Pentecostal and Charismatic circles. Our desire was pure to share
the present truth of sonship and the deeper life of the Christ within, to inspire and
bless and challenge any and all possible. Here and there we found an elect few who had
ears to hear, but for the most part it became evident that we were "spinning our
wheels." Then, one day it dawned on me! Our word was not producing fruit in those
places. Oh, they were delighted to have Bro. Eby come by and share his testimony, even
minister a revelatory word, and prophesy over some people, momentarily satiating the
intense craving in a few hearts for a richer diet of spiritual fare. But after I left,
nothing changed. There was no fruit. There was no heightened vision, no going ON in God.
These merely took the word we ministered, diluted it with their own shallow church
program, and used it to further their own kingdom. Ah, they enjoyed drawing life from us
so long as it didn't require them to bear Kingdom fruit. As long as our ministry could be
"used" to increase their branches and put on many beautiful leaves the manifestation of life without fruit we were
welcome in their midst. But what they were doing was "sapping" the life out of
us to enhance and embellish and strengthen their own babylonish system! Suddenly the voice
of the Spirit thundered authoritatively in my ear, "Enough!" And the celestial
husbandman did a work of pruning. He pruned from my life a RELIGIOUS REALM that will draw
life but will not bear fruit of that life. God does, indeed, prune people from us!
"Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He TAKETH AWAY: and every branch that
beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." The doom of the
unfruitful is: They are TAKEN AWAY. There are multitudes today who loudly profess to be in
Christ who yet do not bear fruit of the Christ life. Though they are branches, God will
cut off their life supply that they may be seen to be dry ones.
Those called to this High
Calling are being separated from all that binds them to a lower order that they may enter
into Evilness. Many people find it a lot easier to be "one" with the Babylonian
religious systems, where the crowds are, then to become separated and go out BEYOND,
leading the way for others to follow. How I rejoice that God is now calling a people,
sanctified priests separated ones to a realm BEYOND the norm of religious activity, beyond
the programs and promotions, beyond the sensationalism and hand clapping, beyond the
revivals and crowd assemblings, into the new and seemingly strange paths of HIS LEADING.
The prunings are not easy, friends and loved ones and brethren do not readily understand,
especially the preachers and organizations who try to hold you within their pews and
coffers. True, many of these programs are being used by the Lord on some level, in spite
of the methods and techniques and fleshliness, to enrich many lives with salvation,
healings, infilling of the Spirit, etc. etc. We praise God for His blessing on every plane
where He chooses to work, but when the call comes, FOLLOW ME, wait upon ME in deep
separation and holy brokenness for the greater glory soon to be revealed, those
"sanctified to be priests" come aside to make ready for the next great move of
the Spirit!
The message is clear there
are things that others can do, but which you cannot do, when you are cleansed and
sanctified as the Lord's priest. Religion today has become big business. It is one of the
biggest and most lucrative businesses in the whole world. More than one preacher,
supposing that gain is godliness, has become a millionaire over the past couple decades,
not because he was anointed by God, but because he was a TERRIFIC PROMOTER. Through clever
speech and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive they have beguiled
innocent people, pretending that they were the great power of God. By craftiness they
obtain the names of tens of thousands of the Lord's precious people to whom they monthly
send their high-pressure pleas for financial help to further grandiose programs which are
not the plan of God at all, but merely the product of an imaginative, scheming, grasping
and greedy mind. Untold millions of dollars have been extracted from innocent, humble
saints to build huge cathedrals, church buildings, office complexes, world headquarters,
refuges for the time of tribulation, and to support radio and television and missionary
programs which are more of a curse than a blessing. Recently David Wilkerson was asked,
"What do you think about American religious broadcasting, especially Christian
television?" His reply: "They should shut it down. Turn off all the cameras.
Release all these men from the pressures we have put them under. They should be stripped
of their heroic robes, all of their glamour, and be taken outside from all the lights.
Then they should go back to the 'mountain' and be broken before God. Let God bring them
back, as He chooses, in a purified form. It's all become flesh, absolute flesh" end
quote. Some months ago I received in the mail a computerized letter from one of the
prominent religious racketeers which read as follows:
Dear J. Preston,
READ THIS LETTER
CAREFULLY...for the past few days the Lord has been speaking to me about you; TODAY He
directed me to write this letter to you. Even as you read this I know that God is going to
touch you in a special way...READ ON!
The Lord spoke to me that
RIGHT NOW you are carrying a great burden...I saw you in the Spirit with your head bowed
down as if you were weeping. As I saw this VISION I heard you pray: "LORD, I WANT TO
BE FREE!" The Lord showed me that Satan has come against you even in the last month
trying to TIE YOU UP WITH THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE! Have you felt the devil trying to DEFEAT
you? Trying to ROB YOU of your JOY and PEACE? Well, J. Preston, YOU ARE ABOUT TO RECEIVE
GODS TOTAL VICTORY! As the Lord was dealing with me about writing this to you He spoke
this to me: "David, I want you to CONSECRATE 7 DAYS unto Me; during this time I want
you to pray for J. Preston to receive TOTAL FREEDOM and LIBERTY of My Spirit. As you pray
I shall destroy the YOKE OF BONDAGE that the enemy has brought against J. Preston! Obey Me
David, and I shall manifest My POWER in a great ways saith the Lord!" I don't have to
tell you how happy I was when the Lord spoke this to me for YOU!
I want you to write your 7
MOST IMPORTANT PRAYER REQUESTS on the prayer sheet that I've sent along with this letter;
let me know how: Satan has attacked you,; even during the past month, trying to BURDEN YOU
DOWN with the problems of this life. As you write your PRAYER REQUESTS I want to THANK GOD
IN ADVANCE for your FREEDOM and
After you've written your
prayer requests, put your prayer sheet in the return envelope and get it-ready for the
mail. As you do this I want you to take a - STEP OF FAITH...the Lord spoke this to me:
"David, challenge J. Preston to give unto my kingdom so that I will open the WINDOWS
OF HEAVEN...have I not said in My Word that no man can please Me without FAITH? Speak unto
J. Preston to give a DOUBLE PORTION FAITH OFFERING of $14.00 as a STEP OF FAITH...I am not
slack concerning My Promises, saith God! J. Preston, I want you to obey what the Lord has
spoken. If you will take this STEP OF FAITH to help spread the Gospel by radio and T.V.
you will be using your KEY OF FAITH to unlock the RICHES of God's Kingdom...OBEY THE
SPIRIT! end quote.
I took the prayer request
sheet and penned across it the following note: YOU LIED! You did NOT see a vision of me. I
am NOT all tied up and burdened down with the problems of life, and the old devil hasn't
been on my case for many years. I am walking in the faith, peace, joy and triumph of the
Christ. Please do NOT send me any more of your garbage. Take my name off of your mailing
list!
All are not as blatantly
perverse as this man, but, woe to them! for their plunder is conducted in the name of the
Lord and they have made our Father's house a den of thieves. Many preachers are of the
opinion that God cannot meet their needs apart from professional money raising letters and
high pressure techniques. I do not hesitate to tell you that the very first sign of a
ministry VOID OF FAITH is that they must regularly tell you about their needs and
constantly urge you to give to them. If they have such mighty faith that heals the sick
and raises the dead, why, then, can they not believe GOD for their finances? It is my
conviction that one of the first marks of sonship will be seen in a man's life in the area
of finances. The
On a day when the money was
all gone, the bills were piling up, and he was thousands of miles from home, a man of
faith looked up and said with total belief, "God's work, done in God's way will never
lack God's supply." And you know, the great missionary, Hudson Taylor, was right! Not
only was this a Kingdom principle then in far away China, it is a principle of the Kingdom
HERE AND NOW. Sons are not about their own business, we are about OUR FATHER'S business.
And since it is HIS business, it is up to Him to finance it. If He is not financing it,
then it obviously is not His business, but somebody else's. Ah God indeed uses PEOPLE in
the supply, but HE moves upon those who know HIS voice to give according to HIS direction,
not according to how much we can squeeze out of them with a high powered newsletter.
During the past decade untold hundreds of thousands of articles and booklets have been
sent out from this office FREE OF CHARGE all around the world. Though the expenses each
month are large and increase every week, yet no bill has gone unpaid. For this we are most
grateful to God and thankful to all the dear ones who have, under the Holy Spirit's
prompting, helped us spread the good tidings that prepare the hearts of God's elect for
the glory that shall be revealed. As you probably know, we never solicit anyone for
support. NEVER in fifteen years of publishing the Kingdom Bible Studies have we had to
send out any letter or go to any meeting and ASK or BEG FOR MONEY. The fact that without
begging or even asking, HE SUPPLIES, is an indication to our hearts that it is indeed HIS
WORK, not ours! In this way, by our gracious Father miraculously moving upon the hearts of
His obedient people, His work is sustained week by week and month by month. I never cease
to be awed by the fact that the Holy Spirit moves upon precious folk we have never seen
nor met, to send amounts small and large to meet every need as it arises. To GOD be the
glory! We have observed through the years that the Father rarely sends surpluses of
finances, but supplies day by day all that is needed as we look steadfastly unto HIM as
our source. That is the way of the Kingdom! And should there be a lack, you, precious
friend, will never be told about it. Father will hear about it in our prayer closet, a
confidential message for His ears alone. We can say to the glory of God that the
principles of His Kingdom work, really work. Others may trumpet abroad their needs, and
employ methods and techniques to evoke a response from their hearers and readers but
PRIESTS cannot. Indeed, others may but WE
CANNOT!
I am sure that many who read
these lines can make an infinite number of personal applications of this principle in your
lives. Oft times we see fellow Christians doing things, going places, living in a certain
manner, and they appear to be getting by with it, God seems to be blessing and prospering
them. So we cry out God, if they can do it, why can't we? The answer rings loud and clear,
others may, but you cannot because you are God's chosen to be the manifestation of HIMSELF
in the earth, not to follow the pack, but to SET THE STANDARD and LEAD THE WAY into the
Kingdom realm of God. The members of the Royal Priesthood are not selected to be
followers, just part of the crowd, these are chosen to be the light of the world! So,
others may but YOU CANNOT!
THE WASHING AT THE LAVER
"And Aaron and his sons
thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt WASH THEM
WITH WATER" (Ex. 29:4). This is the only time when Aaron and his sons were washed by
another with water. Other washings they had constantly to observe, such as washing their
hands and feet, but on this occasion they were washed all thorough and complete cleansing,
praise God. This cleansing took place at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation
not at the gate of the
The washing with water is one
of the figures for cleansing or sanctification and relates to the priesthood. Therefore
this washing has nothing to do with salvation. An unregenerated man would never be called
to the High Calling of priesthood. It is good always to remember that the washing which
brings cleansing from sin is in the blood, not in water, water being a type of the Word
and the Spirit of God. "Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto
you" (Jn. 15:3), and "Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He
might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word" (Eph. 5:25-26).
Anyone who treasures the beautiful hope of sonship should become immersed into the Word of
God for his cleansing and sanctification. When we truly realize that we are sanctified by
GOD'S WORD OF TRUTH, then we will endeavor to rid ourselves of all of
The Laver speaks, as I have
pointed out, of the Word of God, the anointed, revealed Word, used by God in the power of
the Spirit upon His elect for their sanctification. It is interesting to note that there
are NO MEASUREMENTS given for the Laver. We are not told that it was so high, or so large
in circumference. This is very significant. You may ask, Why? The Altar had measurements,
the Tabernacle itself had measurements, and almost all things associated therewith. Each
of these bespeak a certain accomplishment of God measured and wrought out in our life. But
when we come to the Laver, we have to do with the work of the Word of God upon His people,
therefore the UNMEASURED Laver is as eloquent as the measured Altar. Where, if I may so
put it, where is the child of God who has measured that Laver? Where is the one who can
say, "I know the depths of the Word of God, and the claims and demands and power and
the inward working of the Word of God, and have fully experienced them?" No, dear
friends, the very omission of measurements in connection with the Laver, would rebuke any
such thought as any saint of God saying, "I have done all that has been commanded me
to do; I have done all that ever shall be commanded me to do; the Word has completely done
its work; I am perfectly sanctified." When anyone claims that he knows it all or has
experienced it all I see a man who would measure the Laver, and a man who has deceived
himself, that he has the presumption to say that he has perfectly met the measure of that
Laver. I have met a few self-deluded ones who have claimed to have met the measure of the
Laver, purporting to be mature, perfect, reigning sons of God. Some have even claimed to
have their glorified body. But none have been able to demonstrate the wisdom, love, glory
or power to back up their boasts. We cannot know the depth or the height or the length or
the breadth of God's dealings and purging and transformations except as they are revealed
by the Spirit. Nor can any man know the utter and total depravity and deceitfulness of his
own carnal mind and evil heart except as it is uncovered by the Word of truth and the
Spirit of revelation. How often we have thought that we had almost attained, were nearly
perfected, were on the very brink of total victory, only to have the Spirit plumb the
depths and lay before our astonished eyes some undisciplined attribute of flesh, some
hidden root of bitterness, some latent lust, some lurking fear, some masked pride, some
cloaked unbelief, some concealed Babylonish garment of which we were completely unaware!
And so the Laver is unmeasured, for the processing of the Word of truth is an ongoing work
in our lives carrying us daily from faith to faith, from experience to experience, as we
are "constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing
splendor and from one degree of glory to another" (II Cor. 3:18, Amplified).
The Laver was made of brass,
and how suggestive it is that there were women whose contributions to the Tabernacle were
their mirrors brazen plates of polished brass and these mirrors were used in the making of
the Laver. The Epistle of James speaks of a mirror (James 1:23-24), of the man that comes
to the Word of God and just reads it and goes away and forgets he says, "He is like
unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass, for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his
way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." Has it ever struck you
how telling that is? There are some of us who have been looking at our faces for nearly
half a century, and we cannot remember them, while memory recalls those of hosts of our
friends. I don't know how it is with you, but if I had the gift of an artist I could not
paint my own face from memory, nor even make a respectable attempt at it, yet I could
paint the faces of my friends. This is just like God's Word and our hearts. We go to that
Word of God, we get a faithful portrayal of what we are, and have been humbled thereby,
but it soon passes away. Alas! how many look into this Word and forget what manner of men
they are. The Word of God is like a mirror, and to see ourselves aright, we need to stay
before it continually.
In the splendid
Chapter
24
THE
MELCHIZEDEK CONNECTION
One of the most intriguing
descriptions of the unique character of the High Priesthood of Jesus is found in Heb. 7:17
wherein it is stated, "Thou art a priest forever after the order of
Melchizedek." This one grand statement shows that Jesus is not like any of the other
priests who the people of
The whole place Melchizedek
occupies in sacred history is one of the most remarkable proofs of the inspiration and the
unity of Scripture, as written under the direct supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit.
In the Book of Genesis all we know of him is told in three short, very simple verses. A
thousand years later we find a Psalm with just one single verse, in which God Himself is
introduced, swearing to His Son that He is to be a High Priest after the Order of
Melchizedek. Another thousand years pass, and that single verse becomes the seed of the
wondrous exposition, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, of the whole work of redemption in
Christ Jesus. All its most remarkable characteristics are found enveloped in this wondrous
type. The more we study it the more we exclaim: THIS IS THE LORD'S DOING; IT IS MARVELOUS
IN OUR EYES.
In Genesis, chapter fourteen,
we have one of the most intriguing stories in the Bible, that of Abram's encounter with
Melchizedek, king of
When Abram heard of Lot's
capture, he rallied his forces to pursue
That mysterious historic
figure Melchizedek - who was he? Some things are certain. He was not a Hebrew. He was not
an Israelite. He was not a Levite. He was not a Jew. Certain questions suggest themselves.
How was it that a man like Melchizedek could become king of a city in a land settled by
idolatrous descendants of
Such questions as these do
not seem to be answered by the usual interpretation that Melchizedek was simply a local
chieftain who was chosen, because of his dramatic appearance in the Genesis narrative at
this point, to be a type of Christ. Ah, but he is more than that! The Levitical priests
were "after the order of Aaron." Aaron was thus not a mere type, he represented
an ORDER OF PRIESTHOOD. The mystery is intensified when we find the Holy Spirit, almost a
millennium later, through king David, speaking of "my Lord' (Hebrew ADONAI) as
"a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek" (Ps. 110:1,4). Melchizedek was
not alone as a non-Levitical; there was an "order" of Melchizedek, and this
Order was an ages-enduring Order!
There have been a few other
interpretations, which are even more unrealistic. One idea is that Melchizedek was an
"unfallen Adam" from some other planet, sent to this planet to observe the
progress of God's work of redemption for the fallen race of our Adam. Another is that
Melchizedek was actually an angel, or possibly a specially created being of some kind.
Comment upon such ideas hardly seems necessary, but there have actually been serious
advocates of each of these views. Others have assumed that Melchizedek was actually the
patriarch Shem, still alive during Abram's day. Assuming there are no gaps in the
genealogies of Genesis 11, Shem would have lived until thirty-five years after Abram's
death, so that this would be possible. The prevalent hypothesis among the Jews has been
that Melchizedek was none other than Shem, the son of Noah. The Rabbinical writers allude
to this on numerous occasions. This view, widely accepted by both Evangelical and
Pentecostal authorities, and embraced by some "sonship" brethren as well, does
not have a shred of historical or biblical evidence to support it. It is, without doubt,
just another of the many religious traditions unspiritual theologians accept and purport
without any established foundation. Furthermore, it appears to be of those
"traditions of the elders" and "Jewish fables" of which both Jesus and
Paul warned us to beware!
There are several reasons why
I cannot accept Shem as being Melchizedek. First of all, no sufficient reason can be given
why Moses, who had in the first thirteen chapters of Genesis spoken of Shem under his own
proper name, should here veil his identity under a different one. Second, it is
inconsistent with what we know of Shem that he should be said to be by the apostle
"without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days,
nor end of life," since his genealogy is clearly given in the Scriptures, and the
line of his progenitors can be traced right back to Adam. The strangest thing of all that
could be said about Shem would be that he had "no end of days," when the
Scripture states plainly that he lived to be exactly six hundred years old! (Gen. 11:
10-11). Third, it is in the highest degree improbable that he should be a reigning king in
the land of Canaan, which was in the possession of his brother's son; nor is it easy to
perceive how Abram could be said to "sojourn there as in a strange land," if his
distinguished ancestor Shem were at that time a prominent and powerful figure there.
Fourth, on this theory the priesthood of Melchizedek, i.e. of Shem, would not be of a
different order than Levi's; directly contrary to the assertion of the apostle in Heb.
7:6, and to the whole thrust of his argument. For if Melchizedek were Shem, Levi was at
that time in HIS loins as well as in the loins of Abram, from which it follows, that while
he paid tithes in the loins of one of his ancestors he received them in another, that is,
paid them to himself - which is absurd! And finally, as I said before, there is not a
shred of historical or biblical evidence to indicate that Shem was Melchizedek, or a
priest, for that matter, or even a spiritual man!
The fact is that Shem passed
through the flood and stepped into the new age riding on Noah's coat-tail! Nowhere does
the Scripture reveal Shem as a man of faith or righteousness. Read the great
"honor-roll" of faith in Hebrews 11 - Shem's name does not appear! Ah, but his
father Noah's name is there. "By faith NOAH, being warned of God of things not seen
as yet, prepared an ark TO THE SAVING OF HIS HOUSE by the which HE condemned the world and
became heir of the RIGHTEOUSNESS which is by faith" (Heb. 11:7). Shem's faith had
nothing whatever to do with the building of the ark or with deliverance from the flood
waters. Interesting, too, that Melchizedek's name means "King of Righteousness"
(Heb. 7:2), and the only two men in Shem's era who are spoken of as being
"righteous" were Noah and Abraham. Righteousness is nowhere attributed to Shem,
but Abraham was a righteous man and Melchizedek was the "King of Righteousness".
Shem fades quietly from the biblical record, with no special works ascribed to him, nor is
he used as a type of Christ or any spiritual grace anywhere in the New Testament.
THE GREATNESS OF MELCHIZEDEK
"Now consider HOW GREAT
THIS MAN WAS, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. And
verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a
commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren,
though they come out of the loins of Abraham: but he whose descent is not counted from
them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises. And without all
contradiction THE LESS IS BLESSED OF THE BETTER. And here men that die receive tithes; but
there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. And as I may so say, Levi
also, who received tithes, paid tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his
father, when Melchizedek met him" (Heb. 7:4-10).
NOW CONSIDER HOW GREAT THIS
MAN WAS. Have you ever considered how great Melchizedek really was? Concerning no other
man are we told, CONSIDER HOW GREAT THIS MAN WAS! For it is not the custom of the Holy
Spirit to set forth the greatness of man - but the contrary. Man is less than nothing, and
vanity. Yet Melchizedek is pronounced "great"; Abram recognized his greatness;
we are told to "consider" it. Melchizedek did not bless just anyone, but he
blessed him that had the PROMISES. How great were the promises given to Abraham! These
included so many facets of life and truth and glory, and Abraham believed what was spoken
to him and walked accordingly. It was promised that through his seed all the families of
the earth would be blessed. It was through his seed that the great family of sons was to
come that would arise as saviors upon
NOW CONSIDER HOW GREAT THIS
MAN WAS. If we rightly apprehend the greatness of Melchizedek, it will help us to
understand the greatness of Christ, our High Priest, and the realm to which the sons of
God are called. The Hebrews gloried in Abraham, as the father of the chosen people; in
Aaron, who as High Priest was the representative of God and His worship; and in the law as
given from heaven, in token of God's covenant with His people. In all these respects the
superiority of Melchizedek is proved. He is greater than Abraham (Heb. 7:4-10), greater
than Aaron (Heb. 7:11-14), and greater than the law (Heb. 7: 11-19). Melchizedek is
greater than Abraham; of this a double proof is given. Abraham gives tithes to
Melchizedek; Melchizedek blessed Abraham. According to the law the priests received tithes
from their brethren, but here a stranger receives them from the father of the whole
people! The Levitical priests received tithes from the people. But, so to speak, Levi,
from whom they were all descended, paid tithes to Melchizedek while he was in the loins of
his progenitor Abraham. In this way the Levitical priesthood paid tribute to the
priesthood of Melchizedek, and recognized its superiority. All was so ordered of God as a
hidden prophecy, to be unfolded in due time, of the greatness of Christ our High Priest
and the glory of the heavenly calling unto which the sons of God are called. If you can
comprehend something of that ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK which lies beyond the veil, and the
majesty of the Christ who reigns from that realm, and the glory of the manifested sons of
God, then CONSIDER HOW GREAT THIS MAN WAS !
There is a second proof of
his greatness; Melchizedek blessed Abraham. BUT WITHOUT ANY DISPUTE THE LESS IS BLESSED OF
THE BETTER. Abraham had already been blessed of God Himself (Gen. 12:2). He here accepts a
blessing from Melchizedek, acknowledging his own inferiority, unconsciously subordinating
himself and the whole priesthood that was to come from him, to this PRIEST OF THE MOST
HIGH GOD. Thus, the Levitical priesthood never would have come into existence, and it
never would have been in operation, it never would have amounted to anything, IF THE
MELCHIZEDEK PRIESTHOOD HAD NOT BEEN BROUGHT IN BEFORE. In other words, it was the ministry
of Melchizedek that BLESSED THE LEVITICAL PRIESTHOOD in Abraham, bringing the Levitical
priesthood into operation. The only reason the Levitical priesthood could minister and
function, was because the Melchizedek priesthood was first on a higher plane ministering
the things of God, beginning with Abraham. The Levitical priesthood, and the Tabernacle in
which they served, were but the "shadow of heavenly things," the earthly
representation of that higher MELCHIZEDEKIAN PRIESTHOOD THAT MINISTERS FROM THE JERUSALEM
WHICH IS A-B-O-V-E - from a HIGHER REALM!
HE LIVES!
"For this Melchizedek,
king of Salem, priest of the Most High God...first being by interpretation King of
righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; without father,
without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but
made like unto the Son of God; ABIDETH A PRIEST CONTINUALLY.. and here men that die
receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that H-E
L-I-V-E-T-H" (Heb. 7:1-3,8).
There are eight distinct
features about Melchizedek recorded here. (1) King of righteousness (2) king of peace (3)
without father or mother (4) without descent (5) having neither beginning of days nor end
of life (6) made like unto the Son of God (7) abideth a priest continually (8) he liveth.
We shall consider all of these wonderful statements in due time, but I would now draw your
attention to the terms "without father, without mother, without descent." The
biblical account of Melchizedek appears to leave him as a very mysterious person, yet
there are keys in the Scriptures that shed precious light upon him. One of these keys is
to be found in the phrase - WITHOUT DESCENT. A casual consideration of this phrase could
leave one under the impression that he had no descent, no genealogy, no father, no mother,
and no posterity - at least, no recorded one - which is what many Bible teachers have
proclaimed. The orthodox teaching has been that the Holy Spirit simply "omitted"
Melchizedek's genealogy from the biblical record so that he would "appear" as
being without father, without mother, and without descent, indicating thereby a different
type of priesthood from the Levitical, in which genealogy was of prime importance - no man
might exercise priestly functions who was not of the lineage of Aaron. But beyond all the
theorizing of theologians and explanations of men there has to be illumination of the
Spirit to give us true understanding. If we are of this Melchizedek Priesthood, then there
has to be light that we might know our calling and be able to enter into our position for
this time leading into the Kingdom.
The words WITHOUT DESCENT are
from the single Greek word AGENEALOGETOS. In the Greek language the letter A or ALPHA
placed before a word negates that word or makes it a negative or just the opposite of the
original. The same Greek word minus the A or ALPHA (GENEALOGETOS) is used in Heb. 7:6
referring to Melchizedek, "But he whose DESCENT is not counted from them (Levi)
received tithes from Abraham." There it infers that he did have a DESCENT, but it was
not reckoned from Levi. It should be clear to all that have eyes to see that Melchizedek
did, without doubt, have a DESCENT. Thus the two quotations seem to be contradictory -
seem to be, but really are not. As I have pointed out the A or ALPHA in the original of
the phrase WITHOUT DESCENT makes the word DESCENT a negative - NO DESCENT. But there
cannot be a negation of a thing unless that thing exists to negate. For example, you
cannot use the negative term "uncircumcised" unless there is in the world the
fact of circumcision. It is only in having the reality of descent that it could be
prefixed by the ALPHA and made a negative. Thus it is with all those elect saints who are
apprehended to the Order of Melchizedek, their descent or genealogy becomes prefixed with
the ALPHA. He who IS the ALPHA and the Omega prefixes, preempts, negates, abrogates,
annuls, rescinds, revokes, neutralizes and cancels out their natural genealogy! It does
not do away with it, mind you, but it does LIFT THEIR DESCENT INTO A HIGHER REALM...
The Greek for WITHOUT FATHER
is APATOR; PATOR means FATHER, but here it is prefixed with the A or ALPHA. The Alpha
before father makes it un-fathered or father-less. Now this Melchizedek was unfathered,
unmothered, and undescended so far as THIS WORLD was concerned. Search how we may, I think
we must conclude that there is really only one man who ever lived on earth who fits that
description naturally, and he is the FIRST MAN ADAM. But this Melchizedek was more than
that - much, much more! Adam sinned, but this Melchizedek was King of Righteousness and
King of Peace, he was made like unto the Son of God, and he abides a priest continually.
Adam died, but of Melchizedek it is witnessed that HE LIVETH.
Check your Old Testament and
you will see that practically every Israelite ever mentioned, from the least to the
greatest, is given a genealogy. Every time someone's name is mentioned it is stated that
he was the son of so and so, the son of so and so, the son of so and so, and soon you tire
of reading it. But you see for Melchizedek, no genealogy is presented for him. The apostle
explains to us that purpose in the New Testament. He shows that Melchizedek ORIGINATED
FROM A REALM in which he had neither earthly father, nor earthly mother, nor beginning of
days, nor end of life, but is made like unto the Son of God and abides a priest
continually, or perpetually. Now since Jesus Christ is a priest after the Order of
Melchizedek, and the Scriptures reveal that you and I are IN HIM, we need to meditate upon
and imbibe deeply of this truth. We're IN HIM! And He is the priest after the Order of
Melchizedek.
Therefore, Jesus, as He now
is in the heavenlies, ascended into the glory of the Father, has no father or mother, for
He is ETERNAL, timeless, changeless, unborn, underived, without beginning of days, without
end of life, and He is a King-Priest over all. Now when He was here on earth, He had an
earthly mother. But now, praise God, He is exalted to a realm where He is over Mary, and
she is not over Him anymore. She is not the mother of what He now is. Nothing of His
present position, power, glory, nature, ministry or being was birthed out of her. What
Jesus is today as High Priest after the order of Melchizedek never laid in
Now let's bring this thing
down to you and me. We are in Him. He and Melchizedek are not the only ones that have
neither father nor mother, nor beginning nor end of days, because you and I don't have an
earthly father nor mother anymore. For we've had a supernatural birthing from above. And
we've been conceived by the Holy Ghost, not in the womb of an earthly mother, but in the
womb of the Jerusalem which is above, which is the mother of us all (Gal. 4:26); and from
that realm we have no beginning of days, being chosen in Him from BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF
THE WORLD, and no end of life, for death is now swallowed up into HIS VICTORY. Like
Melchizedek and like Jesus, we also have neither father nor mother. The Word says that He
is eternal, and the Bible says we are in Him, and the Scriptures declare that we have
received of His life and as He is, so are we in this world. Therefore, we have neither
beginning nor end of days either, but we abide as priests forever after the Order of
Melchizedek. It remains, however, that the fullness of this Melchizedekian Priesthood is
yet to be manifested in the Royal Priesthood.
To those who can receive it
the following words of the apostle will give help and light, but let us not try to evade
their true meaning just to make them acceptable to our old theology. Let us rather change
our theology to suit the clear teaching of the Word of the Lord. Introducing his
explanation of the priesthood of Melchizedek, the apostle said, "And here men that
die receive tithes; but there he (Melchizedek) receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed
that HE LIVETH" (Heb. 7:8). Before beginning this article I checked this passage in
all the Bible Commentaries I have in my study, and almost without exception they
contradicted this plain, simple statement of truth. The Scripture testifies that
Melchizedek is STILL ALIVE. "...of whom it is witnessed that HE LIVETH."
"Ah," the commentators said, "it doesn't mean that he is still living, it
means that he did live and there is no record of his death. Therefore Melchizedek is
presented to us simply in the power of life, and not in death, in order to be a type of
Christ." To which I say, "Babylonish rubbish!"
The usual interpretation the
carnal-minded preachers put upon these amazing statements about Melchizedek is that they
cannot possibly be literally true, that they refer to the fact that Melchizedek appears
suddenly on the scene, and then disappears again as suddenly. There is no genealogy
listed, no record of his parents or children, no record of birth or death. The theologians
are quite sure that he was a very natural man, but that God merely hid his identity from
us to make him a "type" of a higher realm. This is no doubt the naturalistic
interpretation. But one who believes in verbal inspiration cannot help wondering why, in
this cave, the HOLY Spirit did not say that Melchizedek was "without a RECORD of
father or mother, or of genealogy, or of birth or death." Could He not foresee that
stating it in the way He did, leaving out the simple word "record," or some
equivalent, would easily and naturally lead readers to a misunderstanding of Melchizedek's
true nature? Instead of this, however, He seemed to aggravate the misunderstanding by
saying, literally, that Melchizedek was "made like unto the Son of God" and that
he "REMAINS a priest continually" (Heb. 7:3).
The Amplified Bible says it
so well, "Furthermore, here in the Levitical priesthood tithes are received by men
who are subject to death; while there in the case of Melchizedek, they are received by one
of whom it is testified that he LIVES PERPETUALLY." And with this all Bible
translations agree. The Greek is very condensed: ...being attested that HE LIVETH. The
word "liveth" is in the Greek an active verb in the present tense, indicative
mood. It can mean nothing else than that MELCHIZEDEK LIVES. Under the Mosaic law , dying
men, men who were not only liable to death, mortal, but men who were actually seen to die
from generation to generation, enjoyed the rights of priests. For such an order there is
not only the contingency but the fact of succession. But Melchizedek is one to whom
witness is borne that HE LIVETH.
How awesome, then, the words!
"For this Melchizedek...without father, without mother, without descent, having
neither beginning of days, nor end of life...ABIDETH A PRIEST CONTINUALLY." The word
ABIDETH is in the present tense. No matter how you look at it this shows that Melchizedek
continues as a priest. Melchizedek is still a priest and is ministering with the kingly
authority. Consider how great this man is! The patriarch, a revered father, Abraham
recognized the greatness of Melchizedek and gave him the tenth of all his spoils -
consider how great this man was! He came from a different realm than the one Abraham was
acquainted with. Abraham lived in a natural realm, and through faith he experienced divine
intervention into his natural realm on several occasions. The most notable example of this
being the quickening of his body and the barrenness of Sarah's womb to conceive and bring
forth that child of promise, Isaac. Abraham immediately recognized Melchizedek when
returning from his great victory. Abraham was certainly thanking and praising the Lord and
he was in enough spiritual frame of mind to recognize certain divine attributes and
qualities about Melchizedek which he knew from previous experiences with God. That is why
Abraham received Melchizedek's blessing, and why he in turn gave a tenth of all the spoils
to him.
THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE
Many of those who read these
lines have pondered the events that transpired in the Garden of Eden in that dim and
distant past. Little by little fragments of truth have opened up, but the grand sum and
total of it is not yet unfolded before us. In that Garden which the Lord God planted there
were all manner of trees that were good for food, and Adam and Eve were to freely partake
thereof with one exception - the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now we know that
eating a piece of fruit in itself was not the sin, but rather that tree represented
something, and that fruit represented a reality.
At the beginning of man's
existence on earth we are shown Adam in a relationship with THREE KINDS OF TREES. To
understand God's plan, we must be completely clear about these three kinds of trees and
what they represent. The three types of trees are set forth in Gen. 2:8-9,16-17. "And
the Lord God planted a Garden eastward in
There is a clear distinction
made between a GROVE composed of "every tree that is good for food" on the one
hand, and the two trees which were in "the midst of the Garden" on the other
hand - the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Thus, ALL THE
TREES OF THE GARDEN (the grove) are distinct from either the tree of life or the tree of
knowledge. The tree of life was not of the same nature as "all the trees of the
Garden" and the tree of knowledge, likewise, was not the same as those trees. After
God formed man He placed him before these three kinds of trees, and man's whole life was
pictured as a matter of feasting upon one tree or the other. How man would live and walk
depended entirely upon his relationship with these three kinds of trees. God told man
plainly, "You may freely eat of ALL THE TREES OF THE GARDEN." He also said,
"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it."
There is an enlightening
passage of Scripture in Ezekiel chapter thirty-one. This chapter is addressed to Pharaoh
and his host but then continues on about the Assyrian. Listen to these words:
"Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in
I have quoted but a portion
of this chapter, but enough to show that in the symbolism of Scripture trees, even those
in the Garden of Eden, represent people. Under the figure of "all the trees of the
Garden" the Egyptian was there! The Assyrian was there! And in the midst, the Tree of
Life was there! The wonderful Tree of Life in
This was the glory of the
Tree of Life in
Hebrews 7:11-15 tells us that
we cannot be perfected by the Levitical priesthood. In the order of Aaron there was a
continual succession of priests, one dying and another taking his place. One by one they
grew old and died: the eye, often filmed with tears, was closed; the heart stood still;
the hands crossed meekly on the breast. Aaron died on Hor, and all his successors in
mystic procession followed him. The office remained, but the occupants passed. That
characterized the whole system; it bore the mark of change and weakness and death. It
could not effect anything that was really abiding and permanent, much less anything that
was eternal. The whole inner life of the worshipper was what the system was, subject to
change and decay. Therefore another order of priesthood must arise. Jesus is the High
Priest of this new order. Therefore, since the priesthood is changed, there is also of
necessity a change of law. The Levitical priesthood was raised up for a time, by a
commandment. It was part of the ministration of the law, of the Old Covenant. But the
Melchizedek Order goes beyond just a commandment, it is by the OATH of the ever-living
God. "And inasmuch as not without an oath He was made priest: for those priests
(Levitical) were made without an oath; but this with an oath by Him that said unto Him,
the Lord swore and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the Order of
Melchizedek" (Heb. 7:19-20). The Melchizedek Order is of the New Testament, that full
arrangement of God's new order, and it is not the fulfilling of a law, but the OUTFLOW OF
A LIFE.
The glorious statement is
made that another priest arises after the similitude of Melchizedek who is made
"after the power of an endless life." In the RSV translation it says He has
become a priest "not according to a legal requirement concerning bodily descent but
by the power of an indestructible life." The Phillips translation reads, "From
the power of indestructible life within." And the New English Bible states, "The
new priest who arises is one like Melchizedek, owing His priesthood not to a system of
earthbound rules but to the power of a life that cannot be destroyed." And the
Amplified Bible renders, "He has been constituted a Priest, not on the basis of a
bodily legal requirement - an externally imposed command concerning His physical ancestry
- but on the basis of the power of an endless and indestructible Life." Praise God
for life that cannot be destroyed!
This brings us to what is
implied by the word "endless". This is the Greek word AKATALUTOS which means
INDISSOLUBLE. As we have already seen, it was in the power of that INDISSOLUBLE LIFE that
Jesus was constituted a priest after the Order of Melchizedek. On earth He was not a
priest. On earth His life was dissoluble, or He could not have died. Now His life has
become "indissoluble"; and now He cannot die. The mystery of the Melchizedekian
Priesthood, which the Hebrews were not able to receive (Heb. 5:10-14), is the mystery of
the RESURRECTION LIFE. He Himself is the Eternal One, who abideth Priest forever. His
priesthood is unchangeable; the life, in the power of which He ministers, is a life that
abides unchangeable too. His priesthood is an everlasting one, ever living, ever active.
What a contrast to all the Levitical priests, on whose graves this epitaph may ever be
inscribed, "Not suffered to continue by reason of death." How different is our
High Priest, after the Order of Melchizedek! Death tried to master Him; but He could not
be holden of it. "He continueth ever." "He ever liveth." "He is a
priest forever." WHEREFORE HE ALSO IS ABLE TO SAVE COMPLETELY THEM THAT DRAW NEAR
UNTO GOD BY HIM. It is by virtue of HIS EVER LIVING that He is able to start the work of
redemption and also bring it to its completeness. Because He is of an endless life, He can
bring all that He ministers unto into this same endless life.
Praise God, the Melchizedek
Priesthood BRINGS PERFECTION. Jesus lives in the Spirit as High Priest in the power of an
endless life. And Christ dwells within us in the power of an endless life. Each work He
does within us He is able to do in the power of an endless life. He works it within us AS
A LIFE, as our own life, so that it is our very nature to radiate the glory of God. His
priesthood acts as an inner life within us, lifting us up, not in thought, but in spirit
and in truth, into a vital experiencing of God. He breathes His own life into us. And He
works it in the power of an endless life, an indissoluble life, that must triumph over all
the powers of sin and death.
What a glorious path is
marked out for us! WE ARE A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD. The High Priest has run on before and
entered the veil into the Holiest of All. And we are running also and are entering that
veil. Something marvelous, amazing and stupendous is about to happen, beloved, as we press
on into God. God shall surely and truly usher us into the fullness of the Order of
Melchizedek. Through His flesh we too shall enter the unseen and eternal realm of God and
learn of its mystery. Having entered this realm, we shall deliver creation from the
bondage of corruption. Therefore I say that the great Melchizedekian Priesthood Ministry
will be functioning to the full when the priests have fully put on immortality and
incorruption (I Cor. 15:53). This will be the great manifestation of the sons of God that
all creation "groaneth and travaileth in pain" for (Rom. 8:18-25).
The Lord seeks to bring His
overcoming remnant into THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE. It is greater than Pentecostal
power. Greater than power to speak in tongues, prophesy, heal the sick, cast out devils,
and do signs and wonders. It is greater than witnessing power, and even greater than power
to raise the dead. Soon, very soon, those powers will no longer be needed because the
manifested sons of God shall arise in the power of the Melchizedekian Priesthood to
deliver creation from the bondage of corruption. A world is coming where there is no
limited measure of the Spirit, no "in part" manifestation of the
"gift" realm. There will be no need to heal the sick, cast out devils, multiply
bread and fish, or raise the dead - it is an eternal realm where everlasting life will
flow fully and freely to all creation. Death is not the grave or the coffin. DEATH IS THIS
WHOLE REALM IN WHICH WE HAVE EXISTED EVER SINCE THE TRANSGRESSION IN
We can only speculate what it
will be like to be in the full power and glory of eternal life. God is moving to bring His
holy remnant into the power of an indissoluble life, even now. There will be a full and
complete severing from the earth realm, from the carnal mind, from the death realm and all
its claims. God wants a free, heavenly, celestial people, a body of sons totally detached
from all that is earthly, limited, and temporal. It is possible to move into a
resurrection realm that places us beyond time, beyond the thinking and power of the world,
beyond the bondage of health, security, and death itself. Is that not the greatest power
God can give to mankind - to make him an eternal SPIRITUAL BEING in the very glory of God?
But note, precious friend of
mine, I did not say that God would make us SPIRITS -but SPIRITUAL BEINGS. In the vast
storehouse of truth embraced by the holy Scriptures no part nor phase thereof is in any
way more outstanding or clear than the truth that man was designed by his Creator to
possess a body. Man is not designed to have his spirit flit about through eternity without
a body. The apostle Paul echoes the sense of revulsion found in the heart of every man at
the thought of being found "naked" or disembodied. Speaking of the earthly
residence of the tabernacle of flesh, he writes, "For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon
with our house which is from heaven: if so be that being clothed we shall not be found
naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, not for that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now He that hath wrought
us FOR THIS SELFSAME THING is God..." (II Cor. 5:1-5)
In the passage quoted above
Paul makes it perfectly clear that he does not want to be unclothed, or put off this clay
body by reason of death, but rather he wants to BE CLOTHED UPON with that house not made
with hands, even the heavenly body, the house that is eternal in the heavens. From whence
does this body come? How is it that it is in the heavens and yet belongs to us?
It should not be difficult in
the least for us to understand the contrast between the two bodies spoken of in I Cor.
15:39-50. "All flesh is not the same flesh...there are also CELESTIAL BODIES and
BODIES TERRESTRIAL: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the
terrestrial is another...there is a NATURAL BODY, and there is a SPIRITUAL BODY. And so it
is written, the FIRST MAN ADAM was made a living soul; the LAST ADAM was made a quickening
spirit. The FIRST MAN is of the earth, earthy: the SECOND MAN is the Lord from heaven. As
is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they
also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear
the image of the heavenly. Now this I say brethren, that FLESH AND BLOOD CANNOT INHERIT
THE KINGDOM OF GOD; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption."
The contrast between these
two bodies - the FIRST of flesh, the SECOND of spirit -is almost too much for our weak and
earthbound minds to comprehend. The natural mind and natural understanding cannot grasp
it. The Holy Spirit declares that "as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall
ALSO bear the image of the heavenly." There are some who do not believe that Jesus
Christ in His glory at the right hand of the Father now possesses a BODY. But let us pause
and meditate briefly upon the words of Paul in Phil. 3:20-21: "For our conversation
is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall
CHANGE OUR VILE BODY, that it may be fashioned like unto HIS GLORIOUS BODY, according to
the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself." The words
"HIS GLORIOUS BODY" are more correctly translated "THE BODY OF HIS
GLORY." If HE is fashioning US to have a BODY LIKE UNTO H-I-S B-O-D-Y OF GLORY, then
HE MUST HAVE A B-O-D-Y, yes, a BODY OF GLORY! Christ is not only the Spirit of glory, or a
glorious Spirit, but He has a BODY OF GLORY. And He is changing us and making us...not
merely spirits...but redeemed beings, new creation men in spirit, soul, and body.
Hearken now to these
meaningful words: "There is a NATURAL BODY and there is a SPIRITUAL BODY." It is
plain to see that our present bodies are "natural bodies." The "spiritual
body" supersedes the "natural body" and is called in the Greek a
"spirit body," while the "natural body" is called in Greek a
"soul-body." By SPIRIT-BODY we are not to understand some sort of ghost-like
structure that has no substance. Every "force" in the universe must have a
"motor," that is a machine adapted to its use. The motive force of the natural
body is the SOUL, and the motive force of the spirit body is the SPIRIT. The First Adam
was made a LIVING SOUL; the Last Adam was made a QUICKENING SPIRIT. From this we see that
the motive force of the soul-body IS THE SOUL and the motive force I of the spirit-body IS
THE SPIRIT. The natural body and the spiritual body belong to two entirely different
kingdoms. The first is of Adam, the second is of the Lord from heaven. The first is from
earth, the second is from heaven. The first is terrestrial, the second is celestial. The
first is temporal, the second is eternal. The first is visible, the second is invisible.
The first is the body in which the dying Levitical priesthood ministered, the second is
the body in which the incorruptible MELCHIZEDEK PRIESTHOOD ministers! Glory!
There is another body, thank
God! formed of the incorruptible life of the resurrected and glorified Christ of God and
this marvelous body is from heaven even as my present body is of earth. I do not hesitate
to declare to you that as a man PUTS ON CHRIST he puts on not only the spirit of Christ
but also the RESURRECTION BODY of Christ, and this body IS OUR HOUSE FROM HEAVEN. Even as
our earth-body has come from the FIRST MAN ADAM, and IS ADAM'S BODY, so our celestial-body
comes from the SECOND MAN ADAM, and IS THE BODY OF CHRIST'S RESURRECTION. As the pure and
holy life of the Son of God is formed within us God shall also give us bodies worthy of
such divine life, bodies capable of expressing all the wisdom and nature and power of that
blessed realm beyond sin and death, yea, beyond time and space and matter!
Now, if all our life is of
this earthy realm - soulish - we need a body to manifest on that level. But the more our
life is lifted up into the SPIRIT, and we have our manner of behavior directed and
controlled by the Spirit of God, the more it will necessitate that we begin to be clothed
upon with our house (body) which is from heaven, that we might possess a body in harmony
with our heavenly life. So, while it means the denying and crucifixion of the flesh, there
is a "knowing in yourselves that we have in heaven a better and an enduring
substance...an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away,
reserved in heaven (the Spirit-realm) for you, who are kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time" (Heb. 10:34; I Pet.
1:4-5). Rather than clinging to this frail and vile body, this flesh man, the more our
life is taken from the earth, and lifted up into the heavenlies, the more we find our
satisfaction in CHRIST ALONE, and the things of earth become strangely dim in the light of
HIS SURPASSING GLORY.
Glorious beyond description
is the fact that here and now, even as I pen these words, in the inner realm of our
spirit-being there is being constructed an incorruptible life, a BUILDING OF GOD, an house
not made with hands, a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not of this creation, eternal
in the heavens. Not a mansion in the sky, not a cabin in the corner, not a white nightgown
and wings with which to flit about on golden streets, as the churches so ignorantly
portray, but a new life, a new nature, a new garment, a new tabernacle, a new body, a body
of life and light and glory and power, a body of CELESTIAL FLESH, a body of incorruption,
a body of immortality raised up and constructed by the mighty working of THE INDWELLING
POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION!
Ah - when this work has been
fully completed we will know the fullness of that glorious realm where abides and
ministers the PRIESTHOOD AFTER THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK. The Most High shall dwell in and
manifest the fullness of Himself through this Melchizedekian Order and everlasting life
will flow fully and freely to all creation until all has been lifted into the sphere of
HIS ENDLESS LIFE!
Chapter
25
THE
MELCHIZEDEK CONNECTION
(continued)
One of the most intriguing
descriptions of the unique character of the High Priesthood of Jesus is found in Heb. 7:17
wherein it is stated, "Thou art a priest forever after the order of
Melchizedek." This one grand statement shows that Jesus is not like any of the other
priests who the people of
In the book of Genesis all we
know of him is told in three short, very simple verses, wherein is related the story of
Abram’s encounter with Melchizedek, king of
That mysterious historic
figure Melchizedek - who was he? The biblical account of Melchizedek appears to leave him
as a very mystical person, yet there are keys in the Scriptures that shed precious light
upon him. Many of these keys are contained within a few short verses in Hebrews, chapter
eight. "For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God...first
being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which
is, King of peace; without father, without mother, without descent, having neither
beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest
continually...and here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom
it is witnessed that he liveth" (Heb. 7:1-3,8).
The usual interpretation the
carnal-minded preachers put upon these amazing statements about Melchizedek is that they
cannot possibly be literally true. There are eight distinct features about Melchizedek
recorded here. (1) King of righteousness (2) king of peace (3) without father or mother
(4) without descent (5) having neither beginning of days nor end of life (6) made like
unto the Son of God (7) abideth a priest continually (8) he liveth. I was astounded when I
read the various Commentaries I have in my library to discover that with one voice they
categorically denied the truth of practically all the above statements. They said that
Melchizedek DID have a father and mother, but that they were merely left unrecorded. They
stated that Melchizedek DID have a descent, but it was simply omitted from the Scriptures.
They argued that he DID have a beginning of days and an end of life, but God hid it from
us. They were quite sure that Melchizedek was not really made like unto the Son of God,
but that he was actually a very natural man who, because he appeared suddenly on the scene
and then disappeared again as suddenly, serves as a "type" of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And they were absolutely positive that he does NOT abide a priest continually, nor
does he now live. This is without doubt the naturalistic interpretation. I hope that none
of you who call yourselves sons of God are guilty of adopting that interpretation. And if
you are, that you will repent of it at once!
The amazing fact is that not
one of these characteristics can be attributed to any mortal son of Adam. Meditate deeply
upon these and you will see! Ah, my brother, my sister, consider how great this man
Melchizedek was! He came from a different realm than the one Abraham was acquainted with.
Abraham lived in a natural realm, and through faith he experienced divine intervention
into a natural realm on several occasions, the most notable example of this being the
quickening of his body and the barrenness of Sarah’s womb to conceive and bring forth
that child of promise, Isaac. Abraham immediately recognized Melchizedek when returning
from his great victory. Abraham was certainly thanking and praising the Lord and he was in
enough spiritual frame of mind to recognize certain divine attributes and qualities about
Melchizedek which he knew from previous experiences with God. That is why Abraham received
Melchizedek's blessing, and why he in turn gave a tenth of all the spoils to him.
THE LOGOS
In this study we shall
examine the Melchizedek Connection in detail. At times it may appear that we have gone far
afield from our subject, but if my reader will follow through to the conclusion I believe
he will see the wonderful harmony between all the parts.
The Gospel of John opens with
the statement, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God" (Jn. 1:1). The imagery is foreign to us. We hardly know what to make of
it. But the Greek word LOGOS, or WORD in English, was common in New Testament days. John
introduces the word with these three tremendous statements: (1) In the beginning was the
Word (2) and the Word was with God (3) and the Word was God. This Word is presented as One
"in the beginning." Note the contrast between "IN the beginning" and
the expression "FROM the beginning," which is common in John’s writings.
Satan was a murderer "FROM the beginning," but the Logos was "IN the
beginning." This beginning antedates the very first words in the Bible, "In the
beginning God created the heavens and the earth," for of this One it is stated,
"The same was (already) in the beginning with God" (Jn. 1:2).
That beginning - when God
created the heavens and the earth - can be dated, although I do not believe that anyone
can date it accurately - it is nonsense to say that it is 4004 B.C., as Ussher’s
dating has it. It probably goes back billions and billions of years. You see, you and I
are dealing with the God of eternity who framed the ages of time. When you go back to
creation He is already there, and that is exactly the way this is used - "in the
beginning WAS the Word." Notice it is not IS the Word; it was not in the beginning
that the Word started out or was begotten. WAS is known as a curative imperfect, meaning
continued action. It means that the Word was in the beginning. What beginning? Just as far
back as you want to go. The Bible says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth." Does that begin God? No, just keep on going back billions and trillions
and "squillions" of years as man reckons time. I can think back to billions of
years back of creation, maybe you can go back beyond that, but let’s put down a point
there, billions of years back of creation. The LOGOS already was; He comes out of eternity
to meet us. He did not begin. "In the beginning was the Word" - He was already
there when the beginning was. "Well," somebody says, "there has to be a
beginning somewhere." All right, wherever you begin, He is there to meet you, He is
already past tense. "In the beginning was the Word" - five words in the original
language, and there is not a man on topside of this earth who can put a date on it or
understand it or fathom it. This first tremendous statement starts us off in space, you
see!
Like all other names, THE
LOGOS has its own meaning - a meaning which does a not appear in the English translation,
"the Word". LOGOS carries with it the idea of a WORD SPOKEN, speech, eloquence,
reason, thought and concept. It refers not only to the Word that is spoken, manifested,
but also to the purpose, thought, intent and will of God behind that which is expressed.
"For the Word of God is quick, and powerful" (Heb. 4:12). The Word of God is
quick. That doesn’t mean fast; rather the Word is LIVING! You see, a Word is the
expression of a thought, a purpose, an intent, a will. In order to have a thought, you
need a Thinker. The Father is a great Thinker. The Father thought, and then the Father
spoke. And from the bosom of the Father, the Word came forth and that Word was LIVING and
POWERFUL. That Word was, in fact, the LIVING CREATIVE ENERGY OF GOD. It was by God’s
Word that all things were done, for THE WORD flowed forth from the eternal wisdom by which
God declared the purposes of His infinite mind. The Word flowed forth from divine
omnipotence by which He brought all the starry heavens into existence. Consider the
divisions of matter: energy, motion, phenomena. ENERGY: "In the beginning was the
WORD, and the WORD was with God, and the WORD was God" - that’s energy! How did
this universe come into existence? God SPOKE! "And God SAID (the WORD), Let there
be...and there was..."
Every rational person has to
confront this problem of how this universe began. That is the reason evolution has been
popular - it offers to the natural man an explanation for the origin of the universe. You
must have an explanation for it, if you do any thinking at all. Where did it come from?
Well, here is the answer, "In the beginning was the Word." God spoke. That is
the first thing that happened. When God speaks, when the Word speaks, energy is translated
into matter. What is atomic fission? It is matter translated back into energy - poof! it
disappears. Creation began with energy. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with
God, the Word was God. The plane and purposes of God for the ages of the ages were
conceived and spoken forth in an omnipotent decree by THE WORD, the LIVING, POWERFUL,
SPEAKING, CREATIVE WORD that was with God in the beginning.
Creation having been brought
forth, the Word then stood in unique relationship between God and His creation. LOGOS
means not only the inward thought and purpose of God, but the utterance, expression or
manifestation of that thought. The eminent Greek scholar, Dr. M. R. Vincent, comments on
this word, "Logos therefore signifies both the OUTWARD FORM by which the inward
thought is expressed, and the INWARD THOUGHT itself. The idea is of God, who is in His own
nature hidden, revealing Himself in creation." Another Greek scholar, Kenneth Wuest,
says, "Greek philosophers, in attempting to understand the relationship between God
and the universe, spoke of an unknown mediator between God and the universe, naming this
mediator, ‘Logos.’ John tells them that this mediator unknown to them is now our
Lord, and he uses the same name ‘Logos.’ Our Lord is the Logos of God in the
sense that He is the total concept of God, Deity speaking through the Son of God, not in
parts of speech as in a sentence composed of words, but in the human life of a divine
Person. The definite article appears before ‘Word.’ He is not merely a concept
of God among many others, for the heathen have many concepts of God. He is THE concept of
God, the only true one, the unique one. He was in existence when things started to come
into being through the creative act of God. He existed before all created things.
Therefore, He is uncreated, and therefore eternal in His being, and therefore God" -
end quote.
So we conclude that the
"Word" was the visible expression of the invisible God - in other words, the
invisible God embodied in visible form that could be seen, touched, handled, understood
and comprehended on the earth plane. The Bible declares that "God is a Spirit"
(Jn. 4:24) and since God is a Spirit, He is invisible and unknowable unless He chooses to
manifest Himself in some form visible to man. God told Moses, "Thou canst not see My
face: for there shall no man see Me, and live" (Ex. 33:20). "No man hath seen
God at any time" (Jn. 1:18; I Jn. 4:12). Not only has no man ever seen God, but no
man can see God (I Tim. 6:16). Several times the Bible describes God as invisible (Col.
1:15; I Tim. 1:17; Heb. 11:27). Although man can see God when He appears in various forms,
no man can see directly the invisible Spirit of God. The physical eyes of man have never
beheld a spirit; all he sees is the form that spirit manifests itself in. Since God is an
invisible Spirit and is omnipresent, He does not have a body as we know it. Every time God
wanted to talk personally to someone or manifest Himself, He had to borrow, as it were, a
body to manifest Himself in. All through the Old Testament God revealed Himself and dealt
with man on man’s level through the use of what theology calls THEOPHANIES. A
THEOPHANY is a visible manifestation of God, and we usually think of it as temporary in
nature. As we have seen, God is invisible to man. To make Himself visible, to communicate
Himself of the material plane, He manifested Himself in a physical form. Even though no
one can see the Spirit of God, he can see a representation of God. The LOGOS, or the
Christ, is God revealed. It is God in His Self-revealings. The Logos is God expressed, God
uttering Himself, God’s means of Self-disclosure.
God often appeared to men
through the manifestation of "the angel (messenger; word) of the Lord" (Jud.
6:2O; II Sam. 24:16; I Kings 19:5-7). The angel of the Lord appeared to Hagar, spoke as
though he were God, and was called God by her (Gen. 16:7-13). The Bible says that the
angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush, but then says God Himself talked
to Moses out of the bush (Ex. 3; Acts 7:30-38). The angel of the Lord appeared to
God appeared to Abraham as a
smoking furnace and burning lamp, and as a man (Gen. 15:1,17; 18:1-33). In this last
instance, God and two angels appeared in the form of three men (Gen. 18:2) and ate food
provided by Abraham. The two angels left to go to
When God brought
History tells us that at the
time of the exodus from
Here we enter into the realm
of the supernatural. Jehovah Himself appears now as a visible pillar of cloud, a
conspicuous object that could be seen not only by the marshaled host but by strong nations
afar off. THE LORD HIMSELF did for the Israelites by supernatural means that which armies
were obliged to do for themselves by natural agents. The ancient Persians and Greeks
carried a sacred fire in silver altars before their armies as signals in their marches. By
this sign then of the pillar of cloud and fire, the Lord showed HIMSELF as their leader
and general (Ex. 15:3,6). As the Lord now undertakes the miraculous guidance of the chosen
nation, He manifests His presence by a majestic pillar of cloud, reaching from earth to
sky. By night He appears as a bright fire, setting the whole heavens ablaze. He shielded
the people from the heat of the sun by day, and became their light by night. In it the
Lord Himself was present as the leader and protector of His people; and from it He spoke
to Moses, and on one grand occasion to the assembled people themselves. He who thus
manifests His presence to His people is also called "the angel of God" (Ex.
14:19). And God gave them this ocular demonstration of His presence and power and this
manifestation was THE WORD - God speaking, God revealed, God in manifestation!
God further manifested
Himself in the sight of all
The Logos, or Word, was not a
separate person or a separate god any more than a man’s word is a separate person
from him. Thus the Logos, the expression, manifestation and revelation of God appeared in
many forms. The burning lamp, the burning bush, the earthquake, the fire, the tempest, the
angel, the cloud, the pillar of fire, the form of a man - each had its ministry, all in
turn served the one grand purpose; like the ray which is broken into many prismatic hues,
each revealed something of the nature, power, wisdom, purpose, will and glory of God. We
find that in the phrase "and the Word was with God..." that this word
"with" the Greek PROS meaning TOWARD. All that the manifestation of the Word of
God was, all that He said, all that He showed, all that He did, was pointing TOWARD THE
FATHER. Hence He is rightly called THE WORD OF GOD. So the WORD revealed God, led Him
forth into view and caused men to turn toward Him, to understand Him, to know Him.
THE WORD MADE FLESH
The apostle Paul frequently
spoke of the vast mysteries of God and, in speaking of them, he left no shadow of doubt
that naught but the revelation of the Lord could unfold those eternal mysteries. One of
the grandest of those mysteries is set forth by the apostle John in these wonderful words:
"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth" (Jn. 1:14).
Concerning Jesus Christ, whom the Scripture discloses as "the Word MADE FLESH,"
it is written, "Who is the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15; II Cor. 4:4);
"the EXPRESS image of His person" - R.V., "the VERY image of His
substance" (Heb. 1:3). And we note that this word "person" is actually the
Greek word HUPOSTASIS meaning THE SUBSTANCE, or the substratum, what lies under. All the
character and inner nature of the Divine was expressed through our Lord Jesus Christ. All
the motive, the purpose, the intent of God towards His creation was revealed to us through
Jesus Christ, "to wit, that GOD was IN Christ, reconciling the world unto
Himself" (II Cor. 5:19). The SEED of our new creation life is this same LOGOS, and
thus through our union with Christ we are to be "as He is."
God no longer needs to
"borrow" or produce a "body" in which to express and reveal Himself,
no more does He send the burning bush, or the fire, or the cloud, or the angel or the form
of a man. For the first time Jehovah has a permanent, eternal body in which to walk and
talk with mankind - THE CHRIST, Head and body, the house of sons. In the Old Testament
manifestations the revelation of Himself was in fragments. No one manifestation could
speak all truth, each was but one or two syllables in the mighty sentences of God’s
speech. At the best the view caught of God was partial and limited. But in Jesus there is
nothing of this piece-meal revelation. "In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the
Godhead bodily." He has revealed the Father. Whosoever hath seen Him hath seen God;
and to hear His words and behold His glory is to get the full-orbed revelation of the
infinite.
THE "WORD" WAS
M-A-D-E F-L-E-S-H! The language of God is His Word. God and His Word are inseparable. The
same eternal Word that spoke the worlds into existence became flesh and dwelt among us.
The Father spoke and from the bosom of the Father the Word came forth and was made flesh
and tabernacled among men. GOD was manifest in the FLESH (I Tim 3:16). .The Speech of God
became the Son of God in human form. Here comes God out of eternity, He comes to
Man in his present state of
carnality is completely incapable of understanding the things of God. In his rebellious
pride he vainly imagines that his puny mind can comprehend the most spiritual things.
Because of man’s inability to comprehend even the simplest things of God, the Lord
has confined Himself to merely stating facts. Seldom, if ever, does He offer an
explanation. If we believe those facts, building on their foundation, we will come to the
truth in the end, but if we ignore them, creating a foundation of our own, we will end in
a quagmire of confusion as the present world and the professing church has undoubtedly
done. The Word of God abounds with basic facts that need no explanation. "In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in
the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing
made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the Word was
made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth" (Jn. I:1-4,14). No explanation is made. Each
statement is a fact and is the truth. They are to be believed and not pried into, for God,
who cannot lie, has said they are so.
Surely these are simple
truths that even a child can understand. The Word was made flesh. The Word made flesh was
the only begotten of the Father. The Word made flesh was the Son of God. But note well -
the eternal Word was not the Son - the Word MADE FLESH was the Son! The Word has now
become the Son and the Son is now the Word. There is no truth in all the Scriptures more
clearly set forth, and greater emphasized, than that Jesus was the SON of God. God Himself
dispatched the mighty
It seems, from the writings
of the apostles, that it is very important that we believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
Not that He was GOD THE SON, but that He was GOD’S SON. After Jesus had opened the
eyes of the man who was born blind, and the Jews and the Pharisees had cast Him out of the
synagogue, Jesus found him on the street and said to him, "Dost thou believe on the
Son of God?" And he answered and said, "Who is He Lord, that I might believe on
Him?" And Jesus said to him, "Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh
with thee." And he said, "Lord, I believe," and worshipped Him (Jn.
9:35-39). After John had faithfully recorded many things about Jesus in his Gospel, toward
the end he penned these challenging words, "And many other signs truly did Jesus in
the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written
that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, THE SON OF GOD, and that believing ye
might have life through His name" (Jn. 20:31).
Many who read these lines
will say, "I have always believed that Jesus is the Son of God!" But how can we
believe that He is God’s Son, and at the same time believe the many man-made
doctrines and babylonish traditions we have been taught about Him? For instance, if you
are one of those who refers to Jesus as "the Second Person of the Godhead - GOD THE
SON," how can you then believe that He is God’s Son? You can’t believe that
He is GOD THE SON and at the same time believe that He is GOD’S SON. The one belies
the other. Every good Trinitarian believes that GOD THE SON was eternal, omnipresent,
omniscient, omnipotent and immutable. In layman’s language this means that the
"Second Person of the Godhead" was almighty, all-knowing, everywhere present at
the same time, without beginning, uncreated, co-eternal and equal in every way with the
Father.
Now there is no doubt in my
mind that the Bible teaches, and very clearly, that Jesus is God’s Son. But search
how you may, you will never anywhere, in all the pages of God’s blessed Book, find
the expression GOD THE SON. John 3:16 and numerous other passages call Jesus the
"only begotten Son of God." John, when introducing Jesus to us as the Logos made
flesh, said this, "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His
glory, the glory as of the ONLY BEGOTTEN of the Father, full of grace and truth" (Jn.
1:14). And again, "No man hath seen God at any time; the ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, which is
in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him" (vs. 18). This should be sufficient
to establish the great truth that Jesus is a BEGOTTEN Son of God. He was, at one time, the
ONLY begotten Son. He is no longer God’s ONLY begotten Son, for God has had many sons
of different orders, and now has also many "begotten" sons of whom Jesus is the
"FIRSTBORN among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29). "Whosoever believeth that
Jesus is the Christ is born (begotten) of God: and every one that loveth Him that begat,
loveth him also who is begotten of Him" (I Jn. 5:1).
Many saints, however, use the
unscriptural phrase "eternal Son" in speaking of Jesus. They say that the
"eternal Son of God" came down to earth. This raises a most important question -
Did Jesus, as part of the Godhead, exist from eternity as God’s only begotten Son? Do
the Scriptures teach this? Or is it just another time-honored tradition that we have
always ASSUMED must be taught or supported somewhere in the Bible? What does
"begotten" mean? The word "begotten" is a form of the verb
"beget", which means "to procreate, to father, to sire." We find this
word many times in the Bible, especially in the genealogies, as in Genesis, chapter five.
"And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness,
after his image, and called his name Seth. And the days of Adam after he had BEGOTTEN Seth
were eight hundred years, and he begat sons and daughters." Adam, the earthly father
of the human race, had a begotten son born in his image and likeness. Seth was exactly
like his father Adam. Our heavenly Father, the Father of spirits (Heb. 12:9), also had a
begotten Son in His image and after His likeness, the One who is the express image of His
Person.
If Jesus was first of all
God’s ONLY BEGOTTEN Son, then when was He born the Son of God? BEGOTTEN indicates a
definite point in time - the point at which conception takes place. By definition, the
begetter (father) always must come before the begotten (offspring). There must be a time
when the begetter exists and the begotten is not yet in existence, and there must be a
point in time when the act of begetting occurs. Otherwise the word "begotten"
has no meaning. So, the very words "begotten" and "Son" each
contradict the word "eternal" as applied to the Son of God. ETERNAL sonship is
alien to all the holy Scriptures. To be His begotten Son there had to be a time when He
was born of God. The Son of God had to have a beginning, else He could not BE the SON -
the offspring of God. God fathered...begat...yea, sired Jesus Christ!
The Sonship - or the role of
the Son - began with the child conceived in the womb of Mary. The Scriptures make this
perfectly clear. Gal. 4:4 says, "But when the fullness of time was come, God sent
forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law." The Son came forth in the
fullness of time - not in eternity past. The Son was made of a woman not begotten
eternally. The Son was made under the law - not before the law. The term
"begotten" refers to the conception of Jesus described in Mat. 1:18-20 and Lk.
1:35. The Son of God was begotten when the Spirit of God miraculously caused conception to
take place in the womb of Mary. This is evident from the very meaning of the word
"begotten" and also from Lk. 1:35, which explains, "The Holy Spirit shall
come upon you and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you; for that reason the
holy thing which is BEGOTTEN shall be called the Son of God." The message is clear -
the Holy Ghost would overshadow Mary and she would conceive - therefore her child would be
the Son of God. We should notice the future tense in this verse: the child to be born
SHALL BE CALLED the Son of God.
Hebrews 1:5-6 also reveals
that the begetting of the Son occurred at a specific point in time and that the Son had a
beginning in time: "For unto which of the angels said He at any time, Thou art My
Son, THIS DAY have I begotten Thee? And again, I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be
to Me a Son? And again, WHEN HE BRINGETH IN THE FIRST BEGOTTEN INTO THE WORLD, He saith,
And let all the angels of God worship Him." The following points can be deducted from
these verses: the Son was begotten on a specific day in time; there was a time when the
Son did not exist; God prophesied about the Son’s future existence ("will
be"); and God brought the Son into the world sometime after the creation of the
angels (messengers) for they were commanded to worship Him on the day when He was brought
forth.
Other verses of Scripture
emphasize that the Son was begotten on a certain day in time - "this day" (Ps.
2:7; Acts 13:33). All the Old Testament verses that mention the Son were clearly
prophetic, looking forward to the day when the Son of God would be begotten (Ps. 2:7,12;
Isa. 7:14; 9:6 etc.). From all of these verses, it is easy to see that the Son of God is
not eternal, but was begotten by God almost 2OOO years ago. Now, as I stated earlier, God
has had many sons of various orders, but I am speaking here of a unique and transcendent
sonship - BEGOTTEN SONS. Jesus Christ was God and He was the Son of God. But He was NOT
"God the Son" or an "eternal Son." The Son of God was begotten on the
day when the Father gave Him conception in the womb of a virgin and brought Him into the
world!
BACK TO THE WORD
This brings us back to the
Logos, the Word. The clear and unmistakable testimony of Scripture is that "In the
beginning was the Word." In the beginning the Word already was. He comes out of
eternity to meet us. He was already there when the beginning was. But nowhere do we find
the Scripture that says, "In the beginning was the SON, and the SON was with
God..." You see, precious friend of mine, the eternal WORD was MADE FLESH and BECAME
THE SON, the Son of God full of grace and truth, in whom now dwells all the fullness of
the Godhead BODILY. Jesus was the Word, and the Word existed as long as God existed, but
the Son was that eternal Word made flesh, made a man, yea, a God-man, dwelling among us,
resurrected, ascended, coming again in His many-membered body, Emmanuel, God with us
forevermore! The Christ is the Word of God and the words that He speaks are Spirit and
they are Life. As the WORD Jesus could say, "Before Abraham was, I AM" (Jn.
8:58). But as the SON He receives the witness of the Father, "Thou art My Son, THIS
DAY have I begotten Thee." The Word became the Son and the Son IS the Word. "And
I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him...and His name is
called THE WORD OF GOD" (Rev. 19:11-13).
MELCHIZEDEK - THE WORD!
The Word, prior to His
manifestation as Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was unbegotten, and therefore changed His
form from time to time, from the burning lamp to the burning bush, to the pillar of fire,
to the pillar of cloud, to the angel of Jehovah, to the form of a man, etc. Some time ago
while reading an article by a sister in Christ I was struck with this thought which I
could not escape. Of Melchizedek it is written that he was "without father." The
thought was this: "No heavenly Father, either!" As the writer pointed out, this
seemed like sacrilege and heresy at the time, but as I have pondered this statement it has
become crystal clear to me that the WORD (Logos) of God was truly UNBEGOTTEN - it was the
SON who was begotten!
The only being who appears
through the pages of the Old Testament that perfectly meets the distinct features of the
man Melchizedek is this One called THE WORD. Truly, He was without father or mother,
without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, being made
"like" unto the Son of God by virtue of the fact that He was the visible
embodiment and manifestation of the invisible God, demonstrating how the SONS of God would
serve Him in this High Priestly Order; and in that connecting "go-between" role
He qualified as the true heavenly priest, touching God from one realm and man from the
other; and of what other One can it be testified that "he liveth"? Of
Melchizedek it is witnessed that HE LIVETH! And of the Word of God we are told,
"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the WORD OF GOD,
which LIVETH and ABIDETH FOREVER" (I Pet. 1:23). Again, "For the WORD of God IS
ALIVE and full of power..." (Heb. 4:12, KJV & Amplified).
Who was Melchizedek? I’m
sure you know by now that it is my conviction that he was a THEOPHANY, that He was THE
LOGOS, THE WORD - an Old Testament manifestation of God on the plane of the material
world. He was God come forth on the human level to communicate to man, a visible One
connecting the invisible world to the visible world, and the visible to the invisible, God
touching man and man touching God, the realm of the eternal heavenly and celestial
Priesthood - THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK! He is both God and man, King and Priest. Abraham
did not have the priesthood of Levi, but he had a higher, greater. He had the audible
voice of God, the visible representation of His Person. That was Melchizedek, which was in
the beginning, an eternal priesthood, with no beginning and no ending. Melchizedek has
always been. He is the WORD OF GOD - eternal, divine! This is our message.
A further proof of this great
truth can be found in the very meaning of the word "order". "Thou art a
priest for ever after the ORDER of Melchizedek" (Ps. 110:4). This word
"order" is of utmost importance regarding the Melchizedek Priesthood. It is
DIBRA in Hebrew which is the feminine form of DABAR which means: arrangement; to arrange
words in order; a word; to speak; commune; declare; pronounce; be spokesman; decree; an
oracle. The whole thought that underlies the various meanings of this word is ORDERLY
ARRANGEMENT - nothing haphazard, nothing by chance, nothing hit or miss, everything in
proper place. Yet with it all there is that predominate thought of WORDS, DECREES,
SPOKESMAN and ORACLE. This Melchizedek Order is not by chance, not by man’s
development but rather the expression of the LIVING WORD, the revelation of the Most High
by the Spirit and according to His perfect timing. The ORDER of Melchizedek is THE
PRIESTHOOD OF THE W-O-R-D!
All of the elect sons of God
who are called to the Melchizedekian Priesthood are the extension and projection of THE
WORD. The word LOGOS is used in connection with our birth as sons in I Pet. 1:23,
"Being born again by the WORD of God." To be born of the Word means that we are
children of the Word, we shall speak and emanate and personify the nature, power, wisdom,
truth and glory of God unto creation. This is the name of the Christ because it is WHAT HE
IS, and as He is, so are we in this world. Ah, beloved, GOD IS PRODUCING A W-O-R-D
C-O-M-P-A-N-Y and He will set them in order as the full and complete revelation of Himself
- the Melchizedekian Priesthood. It is not just a word that this company speaks - it is
WHAT HE IS. And when we BECOME the manifestation of the Most High in the earth we BECOME
the Logos, because it is from this Word that we are born. Those of this Order shall indeed
be recognized by the pure Word that flows from them, the reality of speaking as the Oracle
of God, but beyond that, they shall BE that Word, they shall BE that Oracle, they shall BE
the decree of the Almighty. It is not enough to speak for the living reality of what is
spoken must emanate from the STATE OF BEING, so that the individual IS that thing whether
that individual utters a word or not.
LIKE THE SON - AFTER THE
ORDER
There is a beautiful truth
that lies buried just beneath the surface in the contrast between Melchizedek and Jesus
Christ. It is said of Melchizedek that he was MADE "LIKE UNTO the Son of God,"
whereas it is stated of Jesus Christ that He was MADE "a priest for ever AFTER THE
ORDER of Melchizedek" (Heb. 7:3,17). I would draw your attention to the fact that
both men were "MADE" - Melchizedek being MADE "like unto" the Son and
the Son being MADE "after the Order" of Melchizedek. On the one hand,
Melchizedek was made like unto the Son while, on the other hand, the Son was made after
the order of Melchizedek. Oh, the mystery of it! An objection has been put forth that it
would be redundant to say that Melchizedek was made LIKE UNTO the Son of God, if actually
He WAS the Son of God. But it answers the question when we see that Melchizedek was NOT
the Son - He was THE WORD - the Word which long centuries afterward was begotten of the
Father, made flesh, and came into the world as THE SON OF GOD.
There is something very
interesting in the book of Daniel about this. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were
thrown into the burning fiery furnace, because of the king’s anger, as the king stood
in front of the furnace and looked into the open door, suddenly he started with disbelief;
he was filled with wonder at what he saw, and he said to the nobles around him, "Did
we not cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?" And they answered the king,
"True, O king." He answered and said, "Lo, I see four men loose, walking in
the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the form of the fourth is
‘LIKE’ the SON OF GOD." Ah - King Nebuchadnezzar did not say that the form
of the fourth was like God, or that the form of the fourth was the Son of God. He used
exactly the same term that the writer of Hebrews used to explain that Melchizedek was made
"like unto" the Son of God. The word "like" is from the Hebrew word
DEMAH meaning "to resemble by comparison."
I do not doubt for one moment
that the great king Nebuchadnezzar was moved upon by the Spirit of God and that, unbeknown
to himself, he spoke by the Spirit of prophecy, and that the fourth man walking in the
fiery furnace was none other than the Logos, the Word - Melchizedek, if you please - that
One made "LIKE UNTO the Son of God"! This great One prefigured and pointed to
the ABIDING SON who was to come as Head and High Priest of an everlasting Priesthood, from
the incorruptible celestial realm, after the Order of Melchizedek. All this, and secrets
of grace, even more profound, are revealed yet hidden in what is recorded of Melchizedek.
After the ORDER of
Melchizedek! At a later date I hope to write in greater depth concerning this wonderful
ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK. But in bringing this article to a close I wish to share the
following description of the ministry of King Jesus and His many brethren "after the
Order of Melchizedek."
OLD TESTAMENT MANIFESTATIONS
OF THE WORD
1. He appeared as King of
Peace to – Abraham
2. He appeared as Friend of Mankind to – Abraham
3. He appeared as Power with God and Man to – Jacob
4. He appeared as Deliverer and Covenant Maker to – Moses
5. He appeared as Captain of the Lord’s Host to – Joshua
6. He appeared as Liberator to – Gideon
7. He appeared as God’s Strength in Man to – Manoah
8. He appeared as Controller of World Events to – Ezekiel
9. He appeared as Deliverer from Death to – Nebuchadnezzar
1O. He appeared as Revealer of Future Events to – Daniel
THE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK (Heb. 7:1-28)
1. This ministry is that of a
KING-PRIEST
2. This ministry is UNLIMITED
3. This ministry has the SOURCE of an ENDLESS LIFE
4. This ministry is EVERLASTING - THROUGH ALL AGES
5. This ministry is UNCHANGEABLE
6. This ministry is UNIVERSAL - to ALL MEN
7. This ministry springs from
8. This ministry BRINGS PERFECTION
9. This ministry WILL NOT FAIL - IT IS BY AN OATH
1O. This ministry PUTS AWAY THE CURSE OF THE LAW (sin, sickness, poverty and death)
Part
26
THE
MELCHIZEDEK CONNECTION
(continued)
There is, undoubtedly, no
greater mystery in all of holy writ than that which surrounds the ministry of the
Melchizedek priesthood. So great are its depths that the inspired apostle, in introducing
this wonderful subject, could only say that of Melchizedek there were "many things to
say and hard to be uttered" (Heb. 5:11). It was in connection with this topic that
the apostle offered the keen observation that "strong meat belongeth to them that are
of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both
good and evil" (Heb. 5:14). And he was speaking specifically of the magnitude of the
Melchizedek priesthood when he urged the believers to leave the elementary principles of
the doctrine of Christ and "go on to perfection" (Heb. 6:1).
The apostle's failure to
elucidate the "many things" that were "hard to be understood" has, no
doubt, challenged multiplied thousands of sincere students of the Word of God. Studious
researching of the Scriptures, however, could never have unfolded the mysteries of the
Order of Melchizedek whose secrets were hermetically sealed in the celestial realm, until
the time appointed of the Father for the full revelation of this priesthood. Only as the
hour for the manifestation of the sons of God has approached has God begun to lift the
veil, there to reveal to our wondering hearts the glories contained in the mystery of the
Melchizedekian Order. I do not hesitate to tell you that the magnitude of this priesthood
shall, in these last days at the end of the age, descend upon the sons and daughters of
the Most High as they are raised up into His resurrection life and are clothed upon with
the fullness of His power and glory. The opening of these precious things of God to the
many hearts that wait before Him in this hour all the more confirms that the time has
arrived for the establishing of a people in the Order of Melchizedek, and that it is,
indeed, time for God to move through His anointed King-Priests to bring all kindreds and
all peoples and all nations into the peace and righteousness and glory of the Kingdom of
God. What a wonderful hour to walk with God!
THE KING OF
"For this Melchizedek,
king of Salem, priest of the Most High God...first being by interpretation King of
righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace" (Heb.
7:1-2). Here is something mysterious and majestic. Where was this
In Galatians, chapter four,
the apostle Paul makes it abundantly clear that there ARE two Jerusalems. "For it is
written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But
he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; by he of the freewoman was by
promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the
mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is mount Sinai in
Arabia, and answereth to
Paul has been here drawing a
comparison or a contrast between Hagar and Sarah, the children of the bondwoman and the
children of the freewoman, which allegorically represent two covenants and the two
Jerusalems. He states that there is a
Let all who read these lines
understand that Melchizedek was not King of Salem in the sense of the earthly
How clear the Scripture is
about this! "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 the true tabernacle, which
THE LORD PITCHED, and not man. For every High Priest is ordained to offer gifts and
sacrifices...who serve unto the example of HEAVENLY THINGS, as Moses was admonished of God
when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith He, that thou make all things
according to the PATTERN (the original) showed to thee in the mount. And almost all things
are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was
therefore necessary that the representations of things in the heavens should be purified
with these (blood of bulls and goats); but THE HEAVENLY THINGS THEMSELVES WITH BETTER
SACRIFICES THAN THESE. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands,
which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God for us" (Heb. 8:1-5; 9:22-24).
Everything that is seen in
the earth regarding the purpose and plan of God had its origin in the heavenlies. The
arrangement and structure of the Tabernacle and all its furnishings and ceremonies and
priestly ministrations were to be made according to the "pattern" shown Moses in
the Mount. Therefore there had to be a heavenly reality from which the earthly was made.
The
All of
Abraham, being touched and
blessed from that heavenly realm, clearly understood these wonderful things, for it is
written of him, "By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as a stranger...FOR HE
LOOKED FOR A CITY WHICH HATH FOUNDATIONS, WHOSE BUILDER AND MAKER IS GOD" (Heb.
11:9-lO). He not only went out of
And of those elect saints who
share Abraham's longing it is written, "For they that say such things declare plainly
that they seek a country...they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly: wherefore
God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city. For here
we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come" (Heb. 11:14,16; 13:14). Of the
present, earthly, natural realms, it can truly be said, as one has written, "'we have
here no continuing city' - 'for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things
which are not seen are age-abiding' (II Cor. 4:18). Thus Abraham's testimony was such that
he was not looking for a permanent dwelling place on a material earth realm, for he sought
for that BETTER, that is, that HEAVENLY realm which endures. His testimony was not so much
a verbal one, as a life which he lived, while he sojourned in the land of promise, a
natural inheritance which God declared would be his, and his seed after him. He was as a
stranger to this earth realm, for HE BELONGED TO ANOTHER, he belonged to the heavenly
realm" - end quote.
Such a confession as
Abraham's is clear indication that he had not found on the physical, earthly plane the
dwelling place or state of being which could provide permanent satisfaction, "for
they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country."
"Country" is from the Greek word PATRIS meaning literally
"father-land." The term connotes a true homeland FROM WHICH ONE HAS SPRUNG and
where he really belongs. What Abraham really looked to was a BETTER COUNTRY, a heavenly
one, for in Melchizedek he caught a glimpse of the world from which he had come and by the
Spirit he saw that realm to which he must return. And like Abraham, until the Kingdom of
Heaven in its power, as it came down from the throne of God in heaven, becomes our one
desire, and until we leave all and sell all for this pearl of great price, our faith
cannot stand in the power of God, or overcome sin and death and the world. Oh, Father! may
it be our one desire to live as those who are PARTAKERS OF A HEAVENLY CALLING, yea,
PARTAKERS OF A CELESTIAL PRIESTHOOD, as those who are pilgrims and strangers in this
present state of being, pressing forward into the perfections and glories of God.
"Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of
As one has so aptly written,
"If you join your spirit to any part of the spirit of the world, you will have here
NO CONTINUING CITY - for all that is in the world is temporal. Over and over again you
will find your city demolished, and you have to flee to another city to sojourn for a
while. But once we are JOINED TO THE LORD, and freely give ourselves wholly to His
sovereign control, His Lordship, we begin to find an enduring substance, an inner control
that abides - a foundation that is sure. Is it any wonder that we can no longer be
satisfied with that which the world possesses? Ah, we have here, in this present realm, no
continuing city, but WE SEEK (require) ONE TO COME. And because of this desire for a
better, that is, A HEAVENLY: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called our God: and He is
preparing for us a city - which hath foundations, substance of pure reality. 'There is a
river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of
THE "ORDER" OF
MELCHIZEDEK
The word "order" in
the phrase "order of Melchizedek" is something like the word "order"
we use when we speak of certain worldly religious orders, such as the Franciscans or the
Dominicans, or the orders of various secret societies or lodges. The Bible says that Jesus
is a priest after the "Melchizedekian" Order. And that was a startling statement
when it was made. It was startling because the people who heard it first, knew of only one
order of priests. Those were the Levitical priests of
God is a God of order, and
not of confusion. Truth has an order for all things that God made by Jesus Christ, who
upholds all things by His word and power. So, with His word and power He keeps all things
in their places, and in their order, and in their times, and in their seasons; the summer
and the winter, the night and the day, the sun, moon, and the stars, all things are kept
in order by the word of God and His power; and the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness
thereof. "The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent," speaking of the Christ,
"thou art a priest for ever, after the Order of Melchizedek" (Ps. 110:4). And
Christ is not called after the order of Aaron (Heb. 7:11-22). Here you may see,
Melchizedek the priest was not made WITHOUT AN ORDER, and Aaron's priesthood was made by
an order of God, according to his rod's budding in the Tabernacle. And Christ was not a
priest made without an order, but is after the order of Melchizedek; and His royal
priesthood, who offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God, are in His spiritual
order, and in the order of the Spirit of God.
It is significant that the
very first time the word "priest" appears in the Scriptures, is in Gen. 14:18,
referring to Melchizedek, "priest of the Most High God." And the last time the
word "priest" is used, is in Rev. 2O:6, concerning the overcoming saints of God
who have part in the first resurrection, and who cannot die anymore; of them it is said,
"they shall be priests of God and of Christ." You start with the Melchizedekian
Order, and you end with the same order, for it is AN ABIDING PRIESTHOOD. In the interim
other priesthood orders might arise and disappear, but this ONE carries right on through
into the FIRST RESURRECTION COMPANY, out from among the dead, as His SONS become partakers
of "the power of an endless life." The Melchizedek order of priests is not yet
complete, for Jesus, as a forerunner into that Order, must be joined by those who are to
follow after to make up the entire Melchizedek Order. There are many others among the
Lord's remnant who are to be joined to Christ in this Melchizedek ministry, and until that
Melchizedek Order is completed, the remainder of God's redemptive and restorative plan of
the ages cannot be fulfilled. This is the truth the writer to the Hebrews proclaimed when
he wrote, "Wherefore, holy brethren, PARTAKERS OF THE HEAVENLY CALLING, consider the
Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus...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. 3:1; 6:19-2O).I would draw your attention to the fact of the
use of the indefinite article concerning Christ and the priesthood. Before pointing out
the particular statements made about Christ as High Priest it will be helpful for me to
explain the difference between the use of the definite article and the indefinite article.
The words "the," "a," and "an" in grammar are called
ARTICLES. The word "the" is the DEFINITE article. When we say, for example,
"THE book is on THE table," we are pointing out a particular book on a
particular table - something DEFINITE. The words "a" and "an" are
called INDEFINITE articles. When we say, "I have A book," we know that an item
with the characteristics of "book" is present, but no specific or particular
book is indicated - it is something INDEFINITE. Thus, the definite article (the) always
IDENTIFIES a person, place or thing, but the indefinite article (a, an) QUALIFIES a
person, place or thing.
This is most interesting and
enlightening in view of the fact that throughout the book of Hebrews the INDEFINITE
article is everywhere used in relation to the priesthood of Christ! Notice the following
quote from Hebrews: "_ merciful and faithful High Priest ...we have A great High
Priest...for we have not AN High Priest which cannot be touched... He made not Himself to
be AN High Priest...Thou art A High Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek...made
of God AN High Priest...such AN High Priest became us...we have such AN High Priest who is
set on the right hand of the Majesty on high...but Christ being come AN High Priest...we
have A High Priest over the house of God..." Nowhere in the entire New Testament is
Jesus called THE priest or THE High Priest. This is most significant! In striking contrast
we observe that the DEFINITE article is on every occasion used in reference to the High
Priests of the Aaronic order - they are always called, each in his turn, T-H-E HIGH
PRIEST. Consider the following quotes from the New Testament: "Then assembled the
people unto the palace of THE High Priest, who was called Caiphas...and they led Jesus
away to Caiphas THE High Priest...and THE High Priest arose...and THE High Priest
answered...then THE High Priest rent his clothes...and one drew a sword, and smote the
servant of THE High Priest...and Annas THE High Priest asked, By what power have ye done
this...and Annanias THE High Priest descended with the elders..." The fact is that in
Aaron's order there could BE only one High Priest, so the one man filling that office was
invariably called T-H-E HIGH PRIEST!
The above quotations from
Hebrews, therefore, are not speaking of our Lord and High Priest in the sense of
identifying Him but rather of qualifying Him. His identity is established and sure, but
what is being presented is the QUALITY OF THAT PRIESTHOOD. He is not presented to us as
the one and only High Priest of the Melchizedekian Order; it is the NATURE of that
priesthood that is unfolded. Furthermore, the fact that the indefinite article is used
means that He is not the only priest, or High Priest, in this priest hood, but is ONE -
the emphasis is on His particular place, position, function and ministry, but with many
other priests also entering in beyond the veil into the Most Holy Place to minister as
partakers of this heavenly calling after the very same Order. The words "AN High
Priest" indicate that the Melchizedekian Order IS AN ORDER OF HIGH PRIESTS or a HIGH
PRIESTHOOD. Our Lord could not be "A High Priest" of this Order unless this
Order IS that of High Priesthood.
Melchizedek is a priesthood
of ORDER! Jesus Christ was made a priest forever, after the ORDER of Melchizedek. In like
manner, in the resurrection, every man comes up in his OWN ORDER. "But now is Christ
risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For as in Adam all
die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But EVERY MAN IN HIS OWN O-R-D-E-R: Christ
the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming. Then cometh the end...all
things subdued...God all in all" (I Cor. 15:2O, 22-24,28). Now what does this mean?
The Greek word translated "order" is TAGMA and means a "group," or
"rank," or "band," or "company." TAGMA actually comes from a
root word meaning to appoint, determine, or set in array, as used in Acts 13:38, "and
as many as were ORDAINED (set in array) to eternal life believed." The thought is of
soldiers marching in bands, companies, regiments or battalions. As in times of war the
country calls age groups and forms them into companies of men, so in like manner the
Spirit of God calls to resurrection and life every man in his own time, order, and rank.
Man holds no power to hasten that order even for an hour; neither has he power to delay
it.
But above all it means a
SETTING in a particular place in the life of God. A NEW ORDER HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED and
with it A NEW AND HIGHER ORDER OF PRIESTHOOD, "Who is made, not after the law of a
carnal commandment, but AFTER THE POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE" (Heb. 7:16). The new
order is as new and different as is life and death. No doubt there were many endeavoring
to continue the old order of "the law of a carnal commandment," however, that
old order has been replaced with THE NEW ORDER OF LIFE. The old order spoke of death and
imperfection, while the new order speaks of LIFE AND PERFECTION. The Melchizedek order of
priests are to be blessed with the oath given "after the power of an endless
life." All who will attain to that calling will be without infirmities, weaknesses of
the flesh, and the carnality of the sinful nature. The old law made men High Priests which
have infirmity (feebleness of body or mind, frailties of the flesh); but "the word of
the oath (or the promise of the new order), WHICH WAS SINCE THE LAW, make the Son, WHO IS
CONSECRATED (or perfected) FOR EVERMORE" (Heb. 7:28). All who attain to this Order
shall become what Christ is! Since Melchizedek (Christ) IS the resurrection and the life,
and since, as we have seen, the resurrection is an ORDER - or ORDERLY ARRANGEMENT -to
resist God's order is to deny the resurrection and to resist the very life of God.
The resurrection -
incorruptible life - is NOT AN EVENT, nor a TIME ELEMENT, but is, rather, a MAN! Jesus
said to Martha, "I A-M the resurrection and I A-M the life!" Martha looked to a
day, and little did she realize that the Resurrection had just walked into town. The
resurrection, then, is a MAN. The Son, a HIGH PRIEST after the Order of Melchizedek, IS
the RESURRECTION! And the HIGH PRIESTHOOD is an ORDER! The RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE is an
ORDER! As we lay hold upon our inheritance in Christ, apprehending that for which we have
been apprehended, pressing on into the fullness of God, being conformed into His image; as
we move into our ORDER, as the bones begin to shake and come together, EVERY MAN IN HIS
OWN PLACE, we move into Melchizedek, and as we move into Melchizedek, we move into LIFE
and RIGHTEOUSNESS and PEACE and POWER, praise His wonderful name!” For He is our
peace, 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" (Eph. 2:14-15). "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" (Eph. 4:13). God is
making a new man, a perfect man. There is going to be a new man after a new order. This
new man is a new creation in the Christ. That's God's purpose for calling us, for birthing
us, for filling us with His Spirit, for dealing and changing and transforming us from
glory to glory into His own image and likeness. And here is what this new many-membered
man is for: A NEW MAN FOR A NEW AGE. Through our many years in the pews of
There isn't going to be an
end of the world. You might as well stop packing your suitcase and testing your wings and
praying God to kill you and take you to heaven. We have far too many Christians in the
world today with dying faith, but they don't have any LIVING FAITH. They're always wanting
to die, and go off to heaven to be with the Lord. That is, until they get chest pains or a
stomach ache, then they rush down to the hospital and spend their very last dime to keep
from flying away out there to be with the Lord! It gets rather ridiculous. They talk about
going away to heaven to be with the Lord, they sing about going to heaven, they preach
about going to heaven, they shout about going to heaven, they clap about going to heaven
and then do positively everything they can do to KEEP FROM GOING TO HEAVEN! They go to
every doctor, enter every hospital, swallow every pill, pass through every healing line,
and call the saints far and near to fast and pray - so they won't have to go off to be
with the Lord! Ah, something is wrong, very wrong, somewhere!
God is raising up a people in
this hour with a vision for LIVING, not so they can stick around to see their
great-grandchildren, or go on another cruise, or raise another garden - but because of an
inner consciousness of the mind of Christ that the Spirit of God doesn't want us out there
- He wants us right here bringing in this NEW AGE! There will be no end of this world,
only the end of an age. The end of an age in which Satan in the carnal mind and wicked
heart of man has been ruling over the world, and the bringing in of a new age in which
God's many-membered man is going to be ruler over all this world that God created for the
Sons of God right here.
Someone may say, "But
Brother Eby, you said earlier that we are to seek for a better country, a city which has
foundations, which is not of this earthly realm, even a heavenly." Yes - but WE ARE
that city and the glorious city of God "COMES DOWN from God out of heaven" (Rev.
21:2). The Tabernacle of God is WITH MEN (Rev. 21:3). All nations shall walk in the light
of that City, my friend. The Melchizedek ministry is GOD'S ROYAL PRIESTHOOD manifested in
power upon this earth, out of the realm of the Spirit, out of the City of
The great truth that I would
unfold in this message is this: This NEW MAN is going to be after a NEW ORDER. I want to
drive this point home to every believing heart what new order means. All across the land
today we hear these terms, "old order," "new order," or "divine
order." And many saints don't have the foggiest notion what "order" means!
They hear the words, "new order," or "divine order," and they think
its just a new message coming forth. That's all it means - a new revelation, something for
everyone to preach and sing and shout about. Ah, beloved, if that's all you see in God's
new order, you're going to miss it! An order means a SYSTEM OF THINGS, an ARRANGEMENT.
There always has to be an order, remember that.
Divine order is that order
that God reveals that He is going to put this new man in. This NEW MAN must be after a NEW
ORDER. He will not be after the old Levitical order of Aaron and the Aaronic priesthood,
neither will he be after the old order of the babylonish church systems. You see, a priest
in any age, and in any situation, is only a mediator between God and the rest of His
creation. That's what a priest is. This new man is going to be a priest forever. He's
going to be the mediator through which God meets the rest of His creation forevermore. In
this age there is only one man who has risen from the earth realm to be seated in the
Melchizedekian Order - the man Christ Jesus. So there is now ONE mediator between God and
man, the man Christ Jesus. But in that glorious age and the ages to come all the other
sons, His many brethren, sons of the first resurrection shall be "priests of God and
of Christ." This new many-membered man will not be a priest after the order of Aaron
and the Levitical order of the law. Neither is he going to be a priest after the so-called
democratic and denominational order that we have in the world and in the church system
today. This new man is going to be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
God had a priesthood long
before Moses ever trod the dust of Sinai. Sometimes we don't think He did, we thought the
first priesthood that ever came into being was the Levitical priesthood. But God had a
minister and a mediator long before Moses, God had a priest long before Aaron. And he was
God's minister for that hour, because Abraham paid tithes to him. The apostle reveals in
Hebrews that there are many wonderful truths we ought to know about Melchizedek that we
have not known as yet. He said in effect, "I have many more things to teach you about
Melchizedek, but I can't teach them to you because your ears have become dull of hearing.
And when for the time you ought to have become teachers of others, you've become such as
have need of the milk of the Word again." Hasn't the Holy Spirit ever pricked your
curiosity as to what the apostle wanted to teach those Hebrews about Melchizedek? Well,
Brother, He has mine! You see, if the Spirit wanted to teach Melchizedek truths to the
Hebrew Christians, then it was New Testament truth. For years I knew in my deepest heart
that God had truth for His elect concerning Melchizedek. But He didn't give it to us for
the same reason He couldn't give it to the Hebrews. I do not hesitate to tell you that
most of the Church today, when for the time they have been Christians, some have been
Christians for forty years and should have become teachers of the mystery of Christ, but
the vast majority have become such as need the milk of the Word again. So I waited on God
for that Melchizedek truth that's pertinent to God's purpose for us in this hour. Now let
me give it to you.
THE KING-PRIEST
Never under the Aaronic order
of priesthood, apart from one example, do we find where a king exercised the office or
ministry of a priest. In the Levitical order the offices of king and priest were
separated, there were those who reigned as kings, and there were those who were the Lord's
priests. Kings could not intrude into the priest's office, and priests could not sit on
the throne.
Melchizedek is the sign, the
symbol, the first example of a priest as designated in the Word of God. He was called a
priest of God long centuries before the Old Covenant order was established for the Levites
to be the subsequent priests. Thus, the first or beginning example represents the pattern
or true design of God for what He considers a priesthood. Melchizedek had royal blood in
his veins, he claimed the title of kingship. The very meaning of the name Melchizedek is
"KING of righteousness" and this righteous King was also the Priest of the Most
High God. What was always kept asunder under the Law Covenant, by divine wisdom and
purpose was united in Him who was "made like unto the Son of God." It is the
glory of Christ and His many brethren as KING-PRIESTS that Melchizedek so wondrously
prefigures. A new order has arisen in Jesus Christ. He is a King-Priest. And He has made
us to be Kings and Priests, a
The principal idea attached
to the title "king" is that of authority and rule; to the title
"priest" that of mediation, mercy, ministry and reconciliation, drawing men nigh
unto God, and God nigh unto men. Why is Jesus seated as a priest upon the throne of the
heavens? It is that man may be blessed, and that God may be glorified in man. As priest He
lives only for others, to bring them near to God. He lives as king only that He might
reveal the Kingdom - the power, authority and glory - of God in and through us.
There is a most significant
side-light to this great truth of Christ as King-Priest. Heb. 8:1-2 tells us that "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 true tabernacle." It is interesting to note that under the
Levitical order priests NEVER SAT DOWN. "And every priest STANDETH daily ministering
and offering...the same sacrifices" (Heb. 10:11). All the way through the Old
Testament Israel had the Tabernacle of Moses, the Tabernacle of David, and the
But there is a further truth.
While priests, in the ministrations of their office, did not sit down, kings were always
SEATED upon a throne. "For thus saith the Lord; David shall never want a man to SIT
upon the throne of the house of
And although He is seated as
King-Priest, praise God, He can still STAND as a priest to minister to man's need, as
shown on that awful day when the faithful Stephen was stoned to death. "When they
heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory
of God, and JESUS STANDING on the right hand of God. And he I said, Behold, I see the
heavens opened, and the Son of man STANDING on the right hand of God. And they stoned
Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down,
and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said
this, he fell asleep" (Acts 7:54-6O). Ah - though He sat as heaven's King with all
regal authority and could have, with one sweep of His hand, wiped those miserable
murderers off the face of the earth forever, yet He STOOD AS A PRIEST, looking, extending
His arm of compassion, not alone to His beloved servant Stephen, but still offering grace
to Israel, if they would only hear. And He stands, still! For His arm is not shortened
that it cannot save, and He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by
Him, seeing He EVER LIVETH to make intercession for them. He sits as a King, but He stands
as a Priest!
What a beautiful picture is
here portrayed by the Spirit of God! Melchizedek was King of righteousness and King of
peace. Is that something in the natural realm? Was there a literal place called
Righteousness? A literal place named Peace? Righteousness and peace; these are the
characteristics of the
Partakers with Him in this
heavenly calling, when one actually becomes KING OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, he shares that
dominion, that authority, that power that is derived from holiness, rightness. And when
one actually becomes KING OF PEACE, he shares that unlimited outflow of mercy, of
compassion, that is derived from His infinite love. May God make it real to you, however,
that before one can become king of peace, he must of necessity be king of righteousness,
for without righteousness there is no true peace. And He is bringing forth His order of
RIGHTEOUS SONS, sons of the Highest, who become priests of the Most High.
JESUS IS PRIEST AND KING. The
Lord Jesus is a Priest who is ever merciful and compassionate. He will and does meet the
needs of man, but He is also the King who demands your obedience to His sovereign will. Is
He your Ruler and Governor? The majority of the Church world is only interested in His
being a Priest or the Merciful One who meets the needs of man, saving, healing,
delivering, blessing, answering prayers. The blessed emphasis of the Word of God is His
LORDSHIP! He is to be King and Ruler and Governor over my life and yours. Surely He will
meet your needs, but He will also demand your obedience! We must learn about BOTH
dimensions of the Melchizedek ministry. We cannot project a loving Priest without the firm
discipline of His Kingdom. And we cannot preach the Gospel of the Kingdom without the
mercy and compassion of His Priesthood.
"Unto the Son He saith,
Thy throne, O God, is for ever and for ever. A scepter of RIGHTEOUSNESS is the scepter of
Thy Kingdom" (Heb. 1:8). As you know, we don't live in a monarchy. The
Jesus Christ wants to reveal
Himself not only as King, not only as Priest, but as KING-PRIEST. You've heard the old
testimony: "Jesus is my Saviour, Healer, Sanctifier, Baptizer and thank God - I
rejoice over this more than anything else - He is my COMING King." The vast majority
of Christians today do not want this Man to RULE over them. They do not mind His ruling
over the communists and the devil and the millennium, but they feel they are covered by
the grace of God, they demand all His blessings, and go their way and do what they want to
do. That is why they have kept Him coming - "My COMING King". The Lord wants to
be King NOW. We are told in Colossians that He "has translated us into the Kingdom of
His dear Son." Already it has taken place, already we are in that Kingdom, already
Christ has a Kingdom and is its King. The word "kingdom" comes from two terms,
"king" and "dominion" - king's dominion. It exists wherever the
dominion of Christ rules and holds sway over the hearts of men. Christ is the great King
right now, ruling all things for the well-being of His subjects and bringing to absolute
perfection and completion His plans which He has ordained before the foundation of the
world. He is the King eternal and invincible. He shall yet arise in glory in His NEW MAN
FOR THE NEW AGE and reveal Himself as the great conquering King, and then all shall know
Him. Every tongue shall confess and every knee shall bow and all men will at that time
crown Jesus Christ LORD OF ALL.
The Lord wants to be King
NOW. But He wants to be more than that. We first have to know Him in His kingship, in His
authority, in His rulership, in His government. The Scripture calls Him "a righteous
Governor." 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
within us, just to make us kings. But He is setting up His throne in us - "unto Him
that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us KINGS AND
PRIESTS unto God and His Father" - He is making us kings in order that He may 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 when you
come into kingship - "Ah, when I become a king!"
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. But He is a Priest upon His throne. He is Priest in our
hearts. In this age only the Church knows His wonderful priesthood. But the hour is coming
when the priests of the Order of Melchizedek shall touch all creation. You are only
becoming a priest, my brother, my sister, so He can manifest HIS HIGH PRIESTHOOD through
you. May God make this real to you today! The NEW ORDER for the NEW MAN in the NEW AGE is
not the New Testament Church or fivefold ministry. New Testament Church order is for one
age only - the age we have been in for the past 2OOO years. The Scriptures are clear:
"And He gave some apostles...prophets...evangelists...pastors and teachers; for the
perfecting of the saints...for the edifying of the body of Christ: T-I-L-L we all
come...unto a PERFECT MAN, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ"
(Eph. 4:11-13). The five-fold ministry is given only UNTIL - and the PERFECT MAN, the NEW
MAN FOR THE NEW AGE - is on the other side of that UNTIL! In perfection, in the measure of
the stature of the fullness of Christ, in full sonship, in the Melchizedek Order, in the
KING-PRIEST ministry the five-fold ministry forever passes away. The five-fold ministry is
for the Church age to help us along the way into God's fullness. But in the glorious age
and ages to come there will be no apostles, no prophets, no evangelists, no pastors or
teachers as we know them.- there will only be KING-PRIESTS after the Order of Melchizedek.
The five-fold ministry was never given to save the nations or restore creation back to
God. It was given for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry. In 2OO0
years it has not brought deliverance to the groaning creation. That's why a NEW ORDER must
be brought in. The new order is a people moving in HIS ALMIGHTY POWER mingled with HIS
INFINITE LOVE. And THIS ORDER will get the job done! This is the order of KING-PRIESTS
where mercy and truth are met together. Hallelujah!
Part
27
THE
MELCHIZEDEK CONNECTION
(continued)
No part of the New Testament,
with the possible exception of the book of Revelation, is more difficult for the immature
Christian to understand than the Epistle to the Hebrews. Much of its imagery is drawn from
the Old Testament temple ritualism, with its priesthood, sacrifices and the like. The rest
is rooted in the person and ministry of that ancient mysterious priest, Melchizedek. Thus
we find ourselves simultaneously in two thought worlds which are not ours, and it is easy
to feel that there is nobody to show us around. This Epistle moves in a world of its own.
Its categories of priesthood, of earthly shadows pointing to heavenly realities, of types
and figures, are unique.
The writer to the Hebrews
exhorts in Heb. 5:11 concerning the Order of Melchizedek, "...we have much to say
which is hard to explain, since you have become dull in your spiritual hearing and
sluggish, even slothful in achieving spiritual insight" (Amplified). Then he
continues, "For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one
teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such
as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. Strong meat belongeth to them that are of
full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good
and evil" (Heb. 5:12,14). The message is clear - the truths on the Melchizedek
priesthood are strong meat that only the mature can comprehend. This truth is solid food,
strong meat, and it will take some spiritual stature and stamina to masticate and digest
it until it becomes a very part of the being. We know so little, but He promises to guide
us into ALL TRUTH, and when we ask for bread, He will not give us a stone.
Speaking to those baby
Christians who were still in need of milk, and not yet ready for the strong meat, the
author says in essence: Considering the time you have been believers, you ought to be able
to go beyond the milk of the Word, of the first elementary, rudimentary, fundamental
principles of the doctrine of Christ, into the deeper truths of revelation which are meat
for men of full age. Then follows that stirring challenge, "Therefore leaving the
(elementary) principles of the doctrine of Christ, LET US GO ON TO PERFECTION" (Heb.
6:1). If we do not GO ON to perfection, we will never partake of the strong meat of
Melchizedekian truth, nor experience the out-workings of its reality in us. There are
listed six things which belong to the "first principles" which we are to leave,
that we might go on into deeper dimensions: (1) repentance from dead works (2) faith
toward God (3) doctrine of baptisms (4) the laying on of hands (5) resurrection of the
dead (6) judgment. It is interesting to note that these "milk of the Word"
principles make up the CARDINAL DOCTRINES of most of the Churches today - be they
Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, Fundamentalist, Pentecostal or Charismatic! ALL,
according to Hebrews, major in minors and minor in majors!
We have seen for years that a
repetitious preaching of the "fundamentals" or "basics" of the Gospel
to saints who have already received the Lord as Saviour, Baptizer, Healer, etc., hardly
makes for spiritual growth. To lay over and over again the foundation of repentance,
faith, baptisms, laying on of hands, and the doctrines of resurrection and judgment, never
gets you past the foundation, for nothing is ever built thereon. Praise God for the
foundation, but LET US GO ON TO PERFECTION! People sometimes ask why I don't devote more
time in my writings to the "basics" of the Gospel. The answer is very simple:
God has a whole world full of preachers and Churches dispensing milk. If it is milk you
wish to drink, my brother, my sister, there is a truck load on almost every street corner,
Churches with crate after crate piled high, book stores packed full, and radio and
television stations squirting milk all over the place twenty-four hours a day. Little need
for me to grab a bottle and shove it in someone's mouth. Ah, I will do even that, should I
meet a babe that must have milk. But our writings are directed specifically to those who,
considering the time they have been believers, ought to be able to go beyond the milk
stage, unto the perfecting truths which are meat for men and women of maturity. We must
say earnestly that in view of these words concerning Melchizedek in Heb. 5:11, "Of
whom we have many things to say, and hard to be understood," we need to approach this
subject with deep humility and earnest prayer for light and for wisdom from above. For is
it not true of practically the whole Church, in a sad degree, that we "are become
dull of hearing...such as have need of milk"?
This rich truth of
Melchizedek must drop down from the lofty heights of our intellect and be birthed into our
heart. Then it must move down into our FEET! We must WALK OUT these principles in shoe
leather, or the light that is in us will become darkness. It is not head-knowledge we
want, for the mere gaining of knowledge for the sake of knowledge is but vain philosophy.
There has already been too much rhetoric; we cry for reality! It is with this attitude
that I want to continue sharing the glory of THE MELCHIZEDEK CONNECTION. I want to show
you the very heart and soul of the King-Priest ministry, which is after the Order of
Melchizedek.
THE MOST HIGH GOD
One of the very first truths
revealed in Scripture through Melchizedek is that of GOD MOST HIGH. "And Melchizedek
king of
The title, Most High God, is
EL ELYON, in the Hebrew. EL means "strong," while ELYON means "Most High,
elevated, supreme, lofty." It derives from the root ALAH meaning to ascend, but not
in the sense of the action of one ascending progressively to higher heights, but as ONE
THAT IS PERMANENTLY FIXED IN THE HIGHEST POSITION. Yet it is also fulfilled in Jesus
Christ who truly did descend and has now ASCENDED "far above all principalities, and
power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but
also in that which is to come" (Eph. 1:21). "He is the Head of the body, the
church: Who is the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead; that in all He might have
pre-eminence" (Col. 1:18). And "He shall be great, and shall be called THE SON
OF THE HIGHEST" (Lk. 1:32).
I must point out that EL
ELYON is not a proper name; it is rather a DESCRIPTIVE TITLE. It is a title such as
"King," "President," "Prime Minister," "
A number of precious brethren
have made much of the distinction between JEHOVAH and the MOST HIGH GOD. Some have taught
that the names Jehovah and Most High God reveal different aspects of God's nature, while
others have presented Jehovah and the Most High almost as two different Gods altogether. I
do not like to differ from my brethren whom I love dearly and esteem highly in the Lord,
but I would be remiss if I failed to point out that the simple, unvarnished truth is that
Jehovah IS the Most High God! The Word of God draws absolutely NO DISTINCTION between the
two at all, and this is clearly understandable once we see that "Most High" is
NOT A NAME - its a title! Who is the Most High God? Why, JEHOVAH Himself is God Most High.
The evidence is found right in the great Melchizedekian chapter (Gen. 14) when Abram,
having been blessed by the Most High, exclaims, "I have lifted up my hand unto
JEHOVAH, the MOST HIGH GOD, possessor of heaven and earth" (Gen. 14:22).
In the King James version of
the Bible wherever you see LORD in capital letters, as in the verse just quoted, it really
is in the Hebrew YAHWEH or JEHOVAH. So who is Jehovah? He is the Most High. Who is the
Most High? Why, bless your heart, Jehovah is the Most High. Who is possessor of heaven and
earth? The Most High is possessor of heaven and earth. And in our text, who is possessor
of heaven and earth? JEHOVAH is! You simply cannot differentiate between Jehovah and the
Most High God. Jehovah is His NAME; Most High His TITLE. The name Jehovah reveals His
Person, while the title Most High signifies His exalted position far above all gods.
Listen! In the Psalm, which
speaks perhaps more clearly than any other of God's Kingdom over all nations, the
Psalmist's reason why all should praise Him is, that "JEHOVAH, MOST HIGH, is
terrible: He is a great King over all the earth. He shall subdue the peoples under us, and
the nations under our feet; for God is the King over all the earth; and the princes of the
people are gathered together to be the people of the GOD OF ABRAHAM; for the shields of
the earth belong unto God. He is greatly exalted" (Ps. 47:1-9). All this is ascribed
to "JEHOVAH, MOST HIGH." It cannot be stated with greater clarity than in Ps.
83:18: "That men may know that Thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, A-R-T THE MOST HIGH
over all the earth." And again, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the
MOST HIGH shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of JEHOVAH, He is my
refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust...because thou hast made JEHOVAH,
which is my refuge, E-V-E-N THE MOST HIGH, thy habitation" (Ps. 91:1-2,9). "But
Thou, JEHOVAH, A-R-T MOST HIGH forevermore" (Ps. 92:8). Consider, dear one, it is
precious to note that in Gabriel's mission to Mary concerning the birth of Jesus, he
disclosed, "He shall be great, and shall be called THE SON OF THE HIGHEST," and
"the power of THE HIGHEST shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which
shall be born of thee shall be called THE SON OF GOD" (Lk. 1:32,35). Jesus is the Son
of THE HIGHEST. And whose Son is He? Ps. 2:7 tells us. "I will declare the decree:
JEHOVAH hath said unto Me, Thou art MY SON; this day have I BEGOTTEN THEE." Jesus
Christ is the Son of JEHOVAH, the MOST HIGH GOD! We could pile Scripture upon Scripture
and proof on top of proof, but these few examples should suffice to convince any thinking
heart that JEHOVAH IS THE MOST HIGH GOD. There is no difference.
God's purpose in a name is
its MEANING! I have met a great number of 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 CHAVAH 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. The self-existence of
God is one of the most amazing things. God exists eternally, and that means that He does
not need any outside help or support. 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. This quality
inhered originally in Jehovah God alone, as it is written, "The Father hath life IN
HIMSELF" (Jn. 5:26).
In
Can we not see by this the
harmony between Jehovah, the eternal, the SELF-EXISTENT, the Most High God - and the
priesthood of Melchizedek, the priesthood of the Most High God, which is AFTER THE POWER
OF AN ENDLESS LIFE? If we try to separate between Jehovah and the Most High we at once
destroy the one supreme characteristic of the Order of Melchizedek - THE POWER OF AN
INDISSOLUBLE LIFE! How foolish to say that Aaron's fading priesthood was the priesthood of
Jehovah, but that the priesthood of Melchizedek is not of Jehovah, but of the Most High.
Jesus is the Son of Jehovah who IS the Most High God, and all creation waits with eager
anticipation for the manifestation of the OTHER SONS OF JEHOVAH THE MOST HIGH GOD who
shall deliver all from the bondage of corruption, and into the POWER OF AN ENDLESS LIFE,
glory to God!
SONS OF THE HIGHEST
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, because He was THE SON OF THE HIGHEST.
The word ELYON (Most High,
Highest) always means THE HIGHEST OF A SERIES OR ORDER OF LIKE NATURES. So, while this
word, applied to our Lord, reveals that HE is the HIGHEST, it at the same time reveals
that there are others below Him, endowed by Him with like natures, in the same way related
to Him, SONS OF THE HIGHEST. This is the point referred to in Ps. 82:1-6 which Jesus
quotes and applies to the people of God: "God standeth in the congregation of the
mighty; He judgeth AMONG THE GODS. I have said, YE ARE GODS; and all of you are CHILDREN
OF THE MOST HIGH." What the "Most High" delights in is a life in accordance
with His own. That life is expressed perfectly in the firstborn Son of the Highest, Jesus
the Christ.
The exceeding great wonder of
all is that not only did Jesus possess the self-existent life of His Father Jehovah, 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 RIGHT
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 that this has been
wrought in us we are enabled now to know and express THE INNER STABILITY OF THE CHRIST,
praise His name!
This is the nature Jesus
pointed to when He taught us, "But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend,
hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be THE CHILDREN OF
THE HIGHEST: for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful,
as YOUR FATHER also is merciful" (Lk. 6:35-36). These sons of the Highest are able to
love their enemies, do good, and lend, looking for nothing in return, and show infinite
mercy to the unthankful and to the evil because they walk in the SELF-EXISTENT LIFE of
their Father.
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." 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, ever-abundant, 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-in-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 wide open, waiting for mother to plop a worm
into their mouth.
One of the moat challenging
passages in all of the Word of God is found in Eph. 4:15, "But speaking the truth in
love, may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ." The key
words are: GROW UP I-N-T-O HIM...WHICH IS THE HEAD. Grow up into ...the Head! Who ever
heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen a body grow up into a head? The body grows, and
the head may grow somewhat, but the body remains a body and the head remains a head. But
in the progressive development of the many-membered Christ, the door has been opened for
some members who will GROW UP I-N-T-O T-H-E H-E-A-D. It signifies a transference from one
part of the body to another, from the body proper, up into the head. It means that these
grow up into the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ, sharing ALL that He
is. These are the Sons of the Most High, becoming priests of the Most High God.
The Most High is God in His
highest state, the perfection of His life, the fullness of His power, God upon His throne.
This is the highest level of life and authority that's where Melchizedek was a priest, at
the very throne level of the entire universe. This is the realm where you do not draw life
from others, but you have life in yourself, life for yourself, and life for others. You
are not a receptacle but a source. Jesus unfolded this realm when He proclaimed, "The
Son of man CAME NOT TO BE MINISTERED UNTO, but to minister, and to give His life"
(Mat. 2O:28). Jesus did not come to receive life for HE WAS LIFE. He did not come to
receive life but to GIVE LIFE. He HAD LIFE IN HIMSELF even as the Father had life in
Himself. Within that life was contained every element of victory, righteousness, and power
He could ever need. All the resources of God were within Him. If He needed power the power
was in the life. If He needed encouragement, the encouragement was in the life. If He
needed wisdom the wisdom was in the life. This is a nature and a life that is not
dependent upon anything without, for it is a self-existent life, requiring no sustenance,
not derived from another, not drawing from anything, ALL-SUFFICIENT, ABUNDANT, GLORIOUS
AND UNCHANGING LIFE!
You can always tell when
people are growing up into the Head. They no longer need to BE MINISTERED TO. They aren't
waiting for a healer to come to town and lay hands on them, for they have grown up into
that measure of His fullness where they are now able to appropriate FOR THEMSELVES the
faith of God within to gain the victory over sickness and disease. They have no need for a
prophet to give them a word, to tell them where to go or what to do, to reveal the will of
God for their life, because they have learned to hear HIS VOICE and walk daily in wisdom
and understanding, in the conscious awareness of Father's plan and will. They don't talk
about their problems, or lament about the devil, for the joy of the Lord is their strength
and the peace of God rules in their heart. They don't ring up the elders requesting prayer
for this and that need in their life, for they have discovered the
Some folk hear this word and
suppose that we are "doing away with the gifts." Oh, no! beloved, we are not
doing away with anything. All the wonderful gifts of the Spirit of God remain right where
they have been for two thousand years - in the Church - for all who need them. But I now
write these lines to those elect saints who treasure the beautiful hope of sonship, and I
do not hesitate to tell you that as long as we continue having to BE MINISTERED TO by the
gifts, we will never know the glory of having GROWN UP INTO THE HEAD. In the
"body" realm it is "fitly joined together and compacted by that which every
joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, make the
increase of the body unto the edifying of itself" (Eph 4:16). But in the
"headship" realm it is, "As the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He
given to the Son to have life in Himself" (Jn. 5:25-26). It is the difference between
the "in part" realm and the "fullness of God" realm. Vast multitudes
are content to dwell in the former, but only a few blessed souls dare press their way into
the latter. It is not a question of whether or not we have the gifts, whether or not we
move in the gifts. There is liberty to exercise any gift God has given when we find some
precious soul that needs ministry in that realm. It is, rather, a question of whether W-E
NEED TO BE MINISTERED TO THROUGH THE GIFTS! I find that gifts are still a blessing, and
encouragement, and help from time to time, and praise God for them all, for it is manifest
that we have not yet attained to all the fullness we follow after. But those who shall
stand in the HEADSHIP COMPANY as SONS OF THE HIGHEST, KING-PRIESTS AFTER THE ORDER OF
MELCHIZEDEK, will have the FULLNESS OF LIFE AND GLORY AND WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE AND POWER
I-N T-H-E-M-S-E-L-V-E-S - self-existent ones, the offspring of Jehovah, the Most High God.
These will know and experience and manifest GOD IN THE HIGHEST.
BLESSING THE MOST HIGH GOD
"And Melchizedek king of
The following paragraph was
sent to me by a sister in the Lord and expresses so beautifully an aspect of the
Melchizedek ministry, that I am constrained to share it with you here. "The first
order of this Melchizedek Priesthood is BLESSING. In Gen. 14:19-2O we are given the exact
words of Melchizedek in blessing Abraham. Listen to this: 'And he blessed him, and said,
Blessed be Abram of the Most High God...and BLESSED BE THE MOST HIGH GOD.' The order is
reversed in this blessing, for you would naturally think that Melchizedek would bless the
Most High first and then bless Abram, but not so. The blessing of this great man came on
Abram to begin with. Remember well, a blessing cannot be given in reality until the one
giving it is a Blesser indeed. You will nowhere find an account in the Scriptures of
Melchizedek being anything but a Blesser. He was not a judge, he was not a curser, he was
not vindictive, he did not judge after the sight of his eyes nor the hearing of his ears -
instead he was a king and a priest who lived in the realm of blessing and from there
became a blessing to others. So great was this position that he could reverse the order
from blessing the Most High first, to blessing the man of faith first. We are entering the
time and position where we stand in the Messiah's stead and pour forth blessings upon
those who are in the pathway of faith without ever thinking that we must first bless the
Most High for the blessing upon the individual to be effective. Melchizedek recognized and
knew that Abram was a man of faith walking in all the light that had been given to him;
but now a new blessing was to be forthcoming, that of blessing him in, by and through the
Most High, the El ELYON. Abram up to this point had not had this revelation, but it is
evidenced by the following verses that he immediately took hold of this unfolding of the
Most High and began to use and put it into practice. When the rare blessing is given from
a true Blesser, a new revelation is not hard to accept and enter into with alacrity"
- Redemption Writings.
Then, Melchizedek, secondly,
blessed the Most High God who had given Abram such a great victory. The word in Hebrews 7
used for "bless" is in the Greek EULOGETOS. The English words "eulogy"
and "eulogize" come from this Greek word which is a compound of EU (good) and
LOGOS (I say, a word). The meaning is thus "I say good," "to speak well
of," or better expressed in English as "good word." It should be more
accurately translated simply "eulogized." In other words the blessing is
embodied in the GOOD WORD that proceeds out of the mouth of the Melchizedek Priesthood. It
is not a word of judgment, condemnation, vindictiveness or cursing. It is exactly what it
means - GOOD WORD - and that is BLESSING indeed both toward men and toward the Most High.
One cannot be a Blesser and at the same time be critical, judgmental, condemning, exacting
or harsh. While the preachers in the religious systems may damn to eternal hell all who do
not subscribe to their particular interpretation of God's Word, the Melchizedek Priesthood
will always be characterized by mercy, forgiveness, love, compassion, and BLESSING.
To the Most High goes all the
honor and glory and blessing for the triumphs that ensue in life, even though those
triumphs are gained through hard battle and fierce trials. "And Melchizedek EULOGIZED
the Most High God!" To eulogize is to speak a good word to, to speak well of, to
praise or extol the virtues of. Melchizedek PRAISED the Most High God, he EXTOLLED the
Most High, he BLESSED the Most High. Note, this is not the adoration of the Son of God,
but of the God and Father of the Son. Ah, this is the Spirit of sonship which cries,
"Abbe, Father!" As it is written, "He (Jesus) is not ashamed to call them
brethren, saying, I will declare Thy name unto My brethren, IN THE MIDST OF THE CHURCH
WILL I SING PRAISE UNTO THEE!" (Heb. 2:12). None but the Son can truly eulogize the
Father, the Most High, and THE SON eulogizes Him in and through THE SONS.
The prayer which for
centuries has been known as the LORD'S PRAYER is the PATTERN PRAYER for sons. Jesus has
taught us to pray thus: "Our Father which art in heaven, HALLOWED BE THY NAME."
Here is disclosed the great principle regarding the attitude in which sons approach the
Father. Sons do not rush or push their way into His presence, neither do they come as
beggars, pleading, crying, demanding that God DO for them or GIVE to them. Once the Most
High reveals to us our relationship to Him as sons, He then brings us into intimate
fellowship and vital union with Him as sons. It is not alone on the basis of relationship
to God in sonship that we have the blessed privilege of "asking whatsoever we
will," but our asking is the outgrowth of our fellowship and union with the Father.
The son who rushes up to his Father demanding, "GIVE me, give me, give me... do, do,
do...this and that," may not receive because his ATTITUDE is wrong - selfish and
demanding. His disposition is not proper - he is a SPOILED BRAT! God has a lot of would be
sons who act more like spoiled brats than TRUE SONS! The son who honors, loves,
reverences, obeys, adores, appreciates, thanks and eulogizes his Father, walking in
precious fellowship and union of mind, will and purpose, may surely "ask what he
will" and receive LIBERALLY from the loving heart of the Father. The Psalmist
admonishes: "Serve the Lord with gladness: Come before His presence WITH
SINGING...ENTER into His gates with THANKSGIVING, and into His courts with PRAISE: be
THANKFUL unto Him, and BLESS His name!" (Ps. 1OO:2,4). Sons do not demand...they
WORSHIP' And all their needs are MET IN THE OVERFLOW! The priests of the Most High will be
recognized by the fact that they speak a GOOD WORD, a LIVING WORD both unto men and unto
God. They are BLESSERS, indeed!
THE
As we pursue these thoughts
concerning the Most High and the priesthood of the Most High, we are brought to that most
glorious Psalm that has been such an inspiration to so many all through the years - the
ninety-first Psalm. Truly it is a Psalm for the priest of the Order of Melchizedek!
"He that dwelleth in the SECRET PLACE OF THE MOST HIGH shall abide under the shadow
of the Almighty. I will say of Jehovah, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him
will I trust. Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the
noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou
trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror
by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in
darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. Because thou hast made JEHOVAH,
which is my refuge, even the MOST HIGH, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee,
neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For He shall give His angels charge over
thee, to keep thee in all thy ways" (Ps. 91:1-6,9-11).
The Levitical priesthood was
connected with the
The Hebrew word for SECRET
means hidden, concealed, protected, disguised. The Hebrew word for PLACE indicates
standing, spot, locality, condition. Thus this
All the blessings and
provisions of the ninety-first Psalm are qualified by this word: "BECAUSE thou hast
MADE Jehovah, which is my refuge, even the MOST HIGH, thy HABITATION." Again I would
quote the true and eloquent words of another: "The word MADE means literally to PUT
which carries the thought of placing something. It is a word of action, not passivity.
Therefore the thought is of actively placing or making the MOST HIGH our habitation, not
of waiting for Him to sovereignly place us in the habitation. This points up the fact that
we have a part to play in this which is making the choice that the MOST HIGH will be our
dwelling place." Then we come to the word HABITATION which is an interesting word,
for it comes from the root which means COHABITATION or DUTY OF MARRIAGE. From this then
comes the thought of a home which is based upon the union of two people. Therefore it is
plain to be seen that the MOST HIGH is not just to be a refuge or hiding place, but He is
to be a HABITATION where a perfect union takes place, where lives are blended one into
another, where love rules, where cohabiting is a reality. This is where each belongs to
the other, where the interest of the other is predominate, where total blending takes
place.
Now connecting this with the
Order of Melchizedek, it is to be recognized that the Most High blends with this
priesthood, and this priesthood blends with the Most High. There is such a union, such a
oneness, such a completeness that there flows forth the life of the Most High through all
those of this priesthood calling. The nearest way to describe this union is by what little
we know of true marriage, which is a totality of union. This condition then accounts for
what follows: No evil shall befall you, no plague shall come nigh thy dwelling, His angels
shall have charge over you, they uphold you lest you fall. We glowingly repeat these words
because they are so wonderful, but the condition that precedes it is what makes it a
reality - by making the MOST HIGH our HABITATION!!!" - Redemption Writings.
There is a
If we take this place and
there abide, at every step we shall prove that Jehovah, the authority of God's life, the
Most High, is a wall of fire round us and that He is the glory within. Dear children of
the Most High, ABIDE IN HIM! It is alone with our Lord; it is when the strife and opinions
of the human have ceased; it is when earth has receded and Heaven and Eternity have drawn
near enough for us to begin to see the unseen, that the voice of our Lord is heard in our
hearts, and His beauty appears. It is in such separation and communion, that His image
begins to be manifested. God would have us dwell in His presence until it is the
atmosphere we breathe, the breath and source of our lives and joy; until it is so a part
of us that we are hardly conscious of this holy relation with God, unless, through some
carelessness, it is interrupted and we miss it.
O precious
POSSESSOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH
The first revelation of
Abram's God as THE MOST HIGH is in conjunction with Melchizedek meeting Abram as he
returned from a great battle. And on this occasion, he referred to the Most High God as
POSSESSOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH (Gen. 14:19). God MOST HIGH indicates that nothing is
higher, nothing can be higher. Nothing in heaven, and nothing on earth. Out of this
position proceeds everything else. The magnitude of EL ELYON staggers the imagination,
overwhelms the mind, transforms the soul, and enthralls the spirit. And it is from this
station that He is POSSESSOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH. The word translated
"possessor" comes from the Hebrew word QANAH whose root meaning is to erect,
create, procure, and thus TO OWN. Consider, then, Col. 1:16 wherein the apostle explains,
"For it was in Him that all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen
and things unseen, whether thrones, dominions, rulers or authorities; all things were
created and exist through Him and in and for Him" (Amplified). The King James version
says that all things were created BY the Christ, but the Greek says that all things were
created IN HIM. Paul is here Speaking of God as the Creator and as creating all things IN
THE SON.
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, tease 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 those 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, intelligence's, chief ones, in heaven and on earth,
were created by God.
It is not just the fact that
all of these things were created by God that startles us the most, but it goes on to say
that they were created IN THE CHRIST. The King James version of Rom. 11:36 begins,
"For of Him...are all things." This word "of" comes from the Greek
word "ek" literally meaning OUT OF. This clearly places God as the one Source of
all things, and hence the Amplified's beautiful rendering, "For all things originate
with Him and come from Him." Col. 1:16 says, "For it was IN HIM that all things
were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, whether thrones,
dominions, rulers or authorities" (Amplified).Yes, the Most High is the Creator,
Ruler, Owner and Sustainer of all things, He is the Possessor of all, of heaven and earth,
of the Church and the world, of angels and demons. Thus the question of the apostle is
answered, "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). He has said, "All souls are Mine" (Eze. 18:4).
"All lands" should "know," that "it is He that hath made us, and
not we ourselves: we are His people, the sheep of His pasture" (Ps. l00:1,3). And let
all who read these lines know that as surely as the Most High is POSSESSOR OF HEAVEN AND
EARTH, this His rightful claim He never foregoes, though men, or angels, or devils stake a
second claim. The end is as certain as the beginning because the MOST HIGH is the
Possessor of ALL. Can we not see by this that the Priesthood of the Most High is a
Priesthood that shall BLESS ALL IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH? Because we are HIS POSSESSION He
also will recreate us, redeeming and bringing us back into an upright position. His
possession is His right, and all His works are right. I am not willing to concede one
thing to the devil forever. Satan is possessor of NOTHING! My God is Possessor of ALL! All
that He has purposed for His creation is right and just and altogether wonderful, praise
His name.
We read in Isa. 40:22,
"God sitteth upon the CIRCLE of the earth." While the word for
"circle" in the Hebrew denotes the sphericity of the earth, it may also indicate
the CYCLES of nature. These cycles are the continual goings and comings of the seasons,
days, months, years, etc., which were ordained of God in the beginning. Everything in
nature moves in cycles: winter and summer, seedtime and harvest; generation after
generation, all show the might and wisdom of God. Even electricity must have a circuit. A
battery has a positive and a negative to complete the circuit. SO IT IS WITH GOD'S WORK.
In the spiritual realm God is the positive, and Satan is the negative. It is therefore
reasonable to conclude that man, the highest of God's creation, came out of God, was then
lowered into the world of vanity, darkness, and death, but will return to God, thus
completing the cycle, not in part, but in full. Even Jesus came out of God, and descended
into the depths of man's fall, then arose and returned to God.
This "law of
circularity" requires that EVEN AS ALL THINGS BEGAN IN CHRIST, ALL SHALL END IN
CHRIST. "I am ALPHA and OMEGA, the beginning and the end, the first and the
last," saith the Lord (Rev. 22:13). Only the glorious mind of Christ can reveal to
our wondering hearts what that means! Through a glass darkly I can see that He was the
FIRST - "before all things." Can I also believe that HE IS THE LAST? If He is
the BEGINNING, can my feeble mind dare to comprehend what it signifies when He says that
He is also the END? All that existed IN CHRIST before the ages began, shall RETURN INTO
HIM AGAIN that HE may be the FIRST and the LAST, the BEGINNING and the END. All that came
out of Him, lowered into the realm of the negative, completes its circuit and returns once
more to its former estate - IN GOD! The first Adam had power to take ALL with Him into
death, without their knowledge or consent: therefore, the second Adam, the Lord from
heaven, gathers up the same number in His redemptive work and man who came out of God
shall return, that the circle may be unbroken.
But more than that, Paul
assures us in Col. 1:16 & 20 that "...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,
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 in heaven." This
implies that the principalities and powers in the heavenly realms NEEDED RECONCILING and
ARE RECONCILED by the blood of God's Son. This is why the 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, 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.
What a work, what a ministry
lies before us! I declare to you that GOD IS PREPARING A PRIESTHOOD COMPANY after the
Order of Melchizedek, priests of the Most High God, priests of Him who is POSSESSOR OF
HEAVEN AND EARTH. These priests are the completion of Him who is "heir of all
things" and who is "crowned with glory and honor" and is "set over the
works of His (God's) hands." And though God "left nothing that is not subject to
Him," yet "NOW WE SEE NOT YET ALL THINGS subjected unto Him." Sons of the
Highest, His priests, shall join in the marvelous work of setting in array UNDER HIM all
things to His glory and praise. The way into this wonderful priesthood, the hope of
creation, is to be possessed by THE POSSESSOR. Does such a calling seem too high for you?
True, you cannot begin to fulfill such a ministry in this present "in part"
realm, but consider, precious friend of mine, the INFINITE RESOURCES available as a son
and a priest of the Most High God, POSSESSOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH! To grow up into His
fullness is to tap the unlimited sufficiency of the omnipotence and omniscience of God
which is equal to every situation and need. Small wonder, then, that Paul could cry out,
"I can do ALL THINGS through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Phil. 4:13), and
"thanks be unto God, which ALWAYS CAUSETH US TO TRIUMPH in Christ" (II Cor.
2:14). To be united to HIS FULLNESS, filled with the life of the SELF-EXISTENT ONE, is to
have that free flowing of the Spirit which knows no lack. There can be no need so great
that cannot be handled because of inadequate supply. There can be no darkness that cannot
be flooded with His light, no hell that cannot be filled with His holiness, no death that
cannot be swallowed up of His life, no hatred nor strife that cannot be dissolved by His
love, no bondage that cannot be broken by His power. It is difficult for our minds to
grasp the vastness of this realm of the MOST HIGH, and what it will mean to minister out
of THAT REALM. Our halting steps today are but baby steps in this great realm of God, but
this much is sure, "He who has begun a good work in you will continue until the day
of Jesus Christ - developing that good work and perfecting and bringing it to full
completion in you" (Phil. 1:6). And even now, under the pressure and testings of this
present process of change from glory to glory into HIS IMAGE, "God is able to make
ALL GRACE abound toward you; that ye, always having ALL SUFFICIENCY in ALL THINGS, may
abound unto EVERY GOOD WORK" (II Cor. 9:8). Glory to God!
Part
28
THE
MELCHIZEDEK CONNECTION
(continued)
The whole of the book of
Hebrews is a wonderful message and I doubt that it could ever be exhausted. For there is a
continual rising in this letter. The first chapter establishes the fact that the Son is
above all others. In the first chapter of Hebrews, neither the name Jesus, nor the title
Christ is used. It is always the Son. This chapter does not deal with Jesus the Saviour,
nor with Christ as the Anointed One, but it sets forth the glory of the SON ~ the realm of
sonship. God who spoke in the past in divers ways to the fathers, has in the last of these
days SPOKEN BY A SON. Unto which of the angels did God say at any time, "You are My
Son, this day have I begotten you"? We have seen for some time that God would lead us
to the place where we would speak less of the person of a son and of a Father, and speak
more of SONSHIP and FATHERHOOD. Sonship is a relationship that we enter into with the
Father. Fatherhood is a relationship the Father enters into with us.
Any person, prepared of God
to enter into sonship, will enter into that relationship, for God is bringing many sons to
glory or into sonship. So the first chapter of Hebrews establishes the superiority of the
Son over angels. The second chapter establishes the fact that God is leading some of
humanity into the place of sonship. In this second chapter is given a description of man.
God made man a little lower than the angels, crowned him with glory and honor, and placed
him over the works of His hands. Then the author tells us that we do NOT YET see all
things put under the authority of man, BUT WE SEE JESUS. This point is overlooked by a
great many people and it causes them to err. In this second chapter Jesus enters into
humanity, lives out the nature and will of the Father on the earth plane, resurrects from
the dead as a glorious and incorruptible God-man, and is exalted to the throne of the
majesty on high. He finishes what God had begun in the Adam of dust in that dim and misty
past in the opening chapters of Genesis. Jesus becomes the first - and so far the only
individual - to reach perfection or the perfect creation prophesied in these wondrous
words: "Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26).
The author speaks of Christ's
house, whose house WE ARE, in the third chapter. The fourth chapter deals with the
iniquity and perversity of the children of
Then we come to Hebrews
10:38, "Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back my soul shall have
no pleasure in him." Then the whole of the eleventh is an account of the men and
women who, before the coming of the Christ, lived by faith. This chapter has been called
the "Honor Roll of Faith" or the "Hall of Faith". What mighty things
were wrought by faith! Most Christians today would be happy, proud, and honored to have
their names inscribed in this great Honor Roll of Faith. But one name is conspicuously
missing. You won't find the name of Jesus in the whole of chapter eleven. HE is not on the
Honor Roll of Faith! Jesus does not stand in this wonderful Hall of Faith! Why? Because
Hebrews eleven faith is "in part" faith and let us see what it will get you. You
can do two glorious things with this faith: first, you can DIE; and second, you can DIE
WITH NOTHING! Hear it! "These ALL DIED I-N F-A-I-T-H, NOT having received the
promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them,
and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And these all, having
received a good report through faith, RECEIVED NOT THE PROMISE" (Heb. 11:13,39).
Am I spoiling a good message
for you? What does it say in Hebrews eleven? "These all D-I-E-D IN FAITH, NOT HAVING
RECEIVED THE PROMISES." It would be interesting to hear some of our modern
"faith" and "prosperity" preachers preach a faith sermon using this
passage as their text. A couple of intriguing titles would be: HOW TO DIE BY FAITH and HOW
TO GET NOTHING BY FAITH. So if Hebrews eleven is your walk of faith, then get ready to
DIE, and prepare yourself to DIE WITHOUT THE PROMISE! What did those great men do with
Hebrews eleven faith? "These all, having obtained a GOOD REPORT by faith..."
They got a GOOD REPORT CARD! And that is all the average Christian today is interested in.
"Pray for me," they implore, "that I'll hold out to the end." Or they
glowingly report, "My, what a revival we had. Fifty people got saved, a hundred were
filled with the Spirit, a whole lot of folk got healings, and we had four hundred in
Sunday School!" Aha GOOD REPORT CARD!
Vast multitudes of God's
precious people desire nothing more in God than a GOOD REPORT. The forgiveness of sins,
emotional blessings, a few miracles, and the hope of the rapture constitutes the apex of
their hope in God. But a good report is not the promise. Blessings are not the promise.
Healing is not the promise. Even raising the dead is not the promise, for women received
their dead raised to life again in Hebrews eleven, but not one of them received the
promise, so they all died again. If you settle for a "good report," my friend,
you will miss the promise! If you settle for tongues, you will miss the promise. If you
settle for blessings and miracles, you will miss the promise. I do not hesitate to tell
you that there is a company of people across the land and around the world today that is
as radical as I am - they want the PROMISE! All those great heroes of faith did exploits,
but they did not receive the promise. Yes, they were a long way from perfection, they fell
far short of the fullness of God, and were a great distance from the ultimate that God has
prepared for His people. They saw great and mighty things "afar off".
This chapter of Hebrews
brings out clearly the difference between seeing the promises of God, and entering into
them in reality and fullness. There is a tremendous truth here that we must understand, if
we are to know the difference between revelation and reality. Many misguided souls think
because they have a revelation from God and have seen some glorious truth, that they can
now claim to have entered into that realm in experience and reality. They therefore claim
to be "manifested sons," "immortal," "infallible,
"kings," "equal to Jesus," "beyond sonship, into
fatherhood," and other ridiculous claims not supported by their lives or ministries.
These bring great reproach upon the true Kingdom message. Because of these loud and
boastful claims, many sincere, truth-seeking people shy away from any mention of
"sonship," "the manchild company," "the Kingdom message,"
"immortality," "the life message," "Christ in you the hope of
glory," "the Melchizedek Priesthood," and other glorious truths that we all
should be pressing into.
The promises the "good
report" saints had seen afar off involved perfection in spirit, soul, and body,
incorruptible life, the full stature of Jesus Christ, universal dominion, with the full
measure of the wisdom, knowledge, grace, nature, glory, power and life of Almighty God.
And while we must not be presumptuous - assuming we already possess what we have not
experienced - yet the Word of the Lord standeth sure, "God having provided some
BETTER THING for US, that they without us should not be made perfect" (Heb. 11:40).
And according to Hebrews twelve that "better thing" is a BETTER FAITH! Ah, yes,
there is a progression in faith, from one degree and quality of faith to another.
"For in the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, springing from
faith and leading to faith - disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more
faith. As it is written, The man who through faith is just and upright shall live and
shall live by faith" (Rom. 1:17, Amplified).
The faith of Hebrews eleven
is a different kind and quality of faith than the faith of Hebrews twelve. Hebrews eleven
faith is man's faith IN GOD. But Hebrews twelve faith is God's faith IN MAN. What a
difference! With Hebrews eleven faith they "all died, not having received the
promise." But in Hebrews twelve we are admonished, "Let us run with patience the
race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the AUTHOR (source, origin) AND FINISHER OF
O-U-R FAITH" (Heb. 12:1-2). The faith which receives the promise is the faith of
Jesus Christ. Paul declared, "The life which I now live in the flesh I live BY THE
FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD, who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20). HIS
dimension of faith is able to conquer every circumstance and overcome the very last
vestiges of sin and death and obtain the promise. H-E OVERCAME ALL THINGS BY FAITH! He
overcame sin and the devil by faith. He did the perfect will of God by faith. He conquered
death by faith. He arose from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Majesty on
high by faith.
If you will study carefully
the miracles of Jesus in the Gospels you will see that there is an ascending scale of
faith in Jesus' ministry, each miracle greater in faith and power than the ones before.
Consider this order: (1) turning water into wine (2) healing of leprosy, palsy and fever
(3) calming the storm (4) casting out the legion of demons (5) feeding the five thousand
(6) raising Lazarus from the dead (7) the transfiguration (8) the resurrection (9) the
ascension. Can you not discern the gradual increase in glory from miracle to miracle?
Jesus PERFECTED FAITH. By faith HE obtained the PROMISE! And now, praise God! He gives to
us HIS FAITH and perfects it within us. He leads in the way of faith, He walked in it
Himself, He opened it for us, He draws and helps us in it. The Old Testament saints gave
us examples of faith; Jesus is the Leader of OUR FAITH, the faith that enters into
resurrection life, the perfection and fullness of God, the Holiest of All, that better and
perfect thing which God hath provided for us.
Hebrews twelve moves on from
the perfecting faith of Jesus to the glory of Mount Zion, the city of the living God...and
to an innumerable company of messengers; to the general assembly and church of the
firstborn...and to God the judge of all; and to the spirits of just men made perfect; and
to Jesus...and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel
(Heb. 12:22-24). To how great splendor had the Hebrew Christians been accustomed - marble
courts, throngs of white-robed Levites, splendid vestments, the pomp of symbol, ritual and
ceremony, the beauty of choral psalm! And to what a contrast were they reduced - from the
majesty of the temple to meeting in some hall, or home, with the poor, afflicted, and
persecuted members of a despised and hated sect! It was, indeed, a change, and the
inspired writer knew it well; and in these magnificent words, the sublime consummation and
crown of his entire argument, he sets himself to show that, for every single item they had
renounced, they had become possessed of a spiritual counterpart, a reality, an eternal
substance, which was compensation told over a thousand times.
Ah, beloved, called to be
sons of God, the Royal Priesthood of Melchizedek's Order, WE BELONG TO MOUNT ZION.
"Ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire...but
ye are come unto
The patriarchs caught sight
of that city in their pilgrimage, it gleamed before their vision, beckoning them ever
forward, and forbidding their return to the country from which they had come out. And the
seer of
THE PRIESTHOOD OF LIFE
As we follow on to know the
Lord in this new and living way, it is with confidence that the Spirit of the Most High
will direct our steps and open our understanding. We are at the point in history, at the
breaking of the dawn of a new age, when only God can lead us step by step into the NEW
ORDER He has prepared for us. No man but Jesus has trodden this way before. Only HE can
teach us the path of sonship, and direct our steps on the highway to
I desire to speak with
perfect frankness, for I do not wish to be misunderstood. I do not believe that God's
elect today is bound either by the example of Jesus Christ in the flesh, or of the first
twelve apostles, or of the New Testament Church. While Christ has left us an example, that
we should follow in His steps in so far as the principles of sonship are concerned, if you
attempt to bind me to the exact modes of Jesus Christ and to follow in His example in all
things, I will not do it. Jesus the Christ was born in a stable and laid in a manger, was
He not? Am I to go away and have my next baby - my wife will never have any more babies,
but if she had any more babies - am I to go away and hunt for a stable in which our baby
is to be born? Because my Lord Jesus Christ in the days of His flesh had no place to lay
His head, and if in God's infinite mercy He has given me a place to lay my head, am I to
lie in the open air on the mountain top and out in the deserts, just because I want to
follow the example of Jesus?
Because God by His boundless
grace enables me to travel from time to time and speak in homes, halls, conference rooms
and church buildings, am I going to say, "The firstborn Son spoke only on the
mountain sides, and by the lakes; if the people are to hear me, they have to all come to
the mountain." I would have a long way to go to find a mountain in
If you tell me that I am to
follow the example of the apostles, I say No, I will not do any such thing. The apostle
Paul, for instance, went away and shaved his head at Cenchrae for a vow. How undesirable
it would be for me to go away and shave off the little hair that is left on my head just
because I want to follow the example of Paul! The apostle Paul did a number of things I
would not care to do. He rather boasted that he did not have a wife. There is no doubt
that he was a widower, because he would not have been a member of the Rabinnical Council,
and would never have been an official witness at the death of Stephen, consenting to that
death, unless he had been a Rabbi of rank. A member of that Council must needs be a
married man. I agree with some of the Bible scholars, that the apostle Paul was probably a
widower at the time he wrote the epistle in which he writes about a wife. I must confess
that if Sis. Eby should take it into her head to go to heaven any time within the next few
years, it is quite possible that I should choose her successor. And, if I passed to the
other side, she could not do a better thing than to get a better man. The apostle Paul had
some good reasons for not being married. If a man is going to get into jail in every city
and have trouble all the time, it is not a very good thing to carry around with him a
woman in a convict ship and get wrecked on
I am not going to follow in
the footsteps of Peter, because I think we may learn a few things, and keep away from
doing some things that Peter did. I hold, and I teach, and I will teach, that the example
of even Christ Himself is not to be wholly followed. That is to say, we are not to have
enforced poverty because He made Himself poor. We are not to gather around us twelve
disciples because He had twelve disciples. We are not to work at getting ourselves
assassinated because He was hung on a cross by a mob. If we are LED BY THE SPIRIT to offer
ourselves in a martyr's death, gladly will we do so; but we shall not seek it as a means
of following in Jesus' footsteps. We are not to expect to ascend into heaven from the
May I wax bold to add that
there is not even any need to try to duplicate precisely the way the Churches were
structured in the early days, or the way their ministries functioned. The priesthood of
Melchizedek is not concerned with how to do or not do natural things. It is not a
priesthood after the flesh. It is an outflow of life after the Spirit. It does not concern
itself with form; it breathes forth as an essence.
Let me use an example. There
are two ways in the natural to do things. Everything that happens in the universe is
effected by one of these two means. The first way is by external manipulation - the work
of the hands, for instance. A great many things in this world are done and produced by
external manipulation. The seat you may be sitting in as you peruse these lines was built
by a power outside itself, by a machine or by some man's hands. The house you live in, the
car you drive, the clothes you wear, and the hundreds of items you use and contact daily
in your activities were all made by external manipulation. Each has its own design, form,
substance and use, arranged by the wisdom and ingenuity of man. The second method for
producing things is by procreation - the generating power of LIFE. The grass and trees in
your yard, the birds circling overhead, the barking dog, the fish in the waters, the
beasts of the field, the food you eat, and your own being as well - all are PRODUCTS OF
LIFE. None of their beauty, design, form, substance or purpose is the product of man's
hands or any external manipulation. True, man nurtured them so they could grow, but he did
not impart to them their characteristics.
The former are all made by an
outward action, whereas the latter are all produced by an internal power. All things
everywhere exist as a result of one of these two means: (1) external manipulation, outward
action or (2) the power of an indwelling life. And there is a remarkable and significant
difference between the two! You can readily tell which is which. None of those things
produced by external forces has life. Your house is not alive. The furniture is not alive.
The
If we are not in the life of
the Spirit, regardless of what way we use, or how we do things, we are still in deadness.
Many years ago when God was drawing us out of the old order forms and traditions of the
religious systems, we discovered a new way to have a meeting, that is, to arrange the
seats in a circle rather than in one direction. The logic behind this was that in the
church systems the pews all face in one direction toward the elevated platform -
representing MAN'S ORDER - the "show" directed from the platform and watched by
the "spectators" in the audience. The arrangement embodied the division between
the so-called "clergy" and the "laity". On the other hand, the chairs
in a circle represented to us the closeness and unity of the body of Christ - with liberty
for each member to participate in a true "body ministry". But we made a
startling discovery. After we had changed our arrangement of chairs we found that we had
just as much deadness as before! You see, the problem was not with the chairs - it was
with the people! The secret to life does not lie in any EXTERNAL ARRANGEMENT nor in some
physical thing you may do outwardly in the natural. How chairs are arranged neither
promotes nor hinders the work of God by the Spirit. It has been my experience that God
pays no attention at all to how such matters are arranged. However we do it, it is for OUR
CONVENIENCE, and is neither an inducement nor hindrance to the Holy Spirit! The truth is,
I have been in some glorious meetings in conventional church buildings, while I have
attended some very dry meetings with the chairs in a circle. Conversely, I have witnessed
precious and beautiful movings of the Spirit of God when the chairs were in a circle, and
a great number of horribly dead meetings with the pews facing the platform. Ah, it was the
heart condition, the spiritual attitude, the hunger after God and yieldedness to His
Spirit, that made the difference - not the seating arrangement! Oh, how we do get the cart
before the horse! God really does not care one whit about any of those natural things. All
of the things we do apart from the life of the Spirit are of death. But the man or woman
who is of a broken and contrite spirit, God will never refuse, praise His wonderful name!
If we are not walking in the
life of the Spirit, the more directions we have, the more deadness we will have. If we
arrange the seats in one direction, we will have one direction of death. If we arrange the
chairs in four directions, we will have four directions of death. When you are a dead
person, no matter what way you arrange you, you are still dead. When I am living,
regardless of how I am seated, I am still living. It is not a way; it is life. It is not
the method; it is the Spirit. There are too many silly teachings among the saints today,
and all the ways have been tried in the past. It is not the way, but the life, the Spirit,
the priesthood in the Holy of Holies. Forget about the way; get into His presence and let
HIM saturate you. We have to be in the presence of the Lord. We must open ourselves and be
filled with Him. A son is one who possesses God and is possessed by God. Anything else
than this is not sonship.
Some precious brethren will
not like nor receive what I now say, but it is the truth. Rather than trying to "set
in order" the
In the religious systems the
order, the method, the technique, the organization, the creed, the liturgy is
all-important. But in the Melchizedekian Order THE
So, what is the best way to
heal a blind man? No one can tell you - not even Jesus! What is the best way to preach the
Gospel? No one can tell you. What is the best way to hold a meeting? Again, no one can
tell you. If you were to ask me what the right way is, I would have to say that I do not
know. I really do not know what is the right way to do anything. I do not know the right
way to meet humanity's needs, or solve the saint's problems, or bring people into the
present truth. In the Bible you can never find
May the Lord have mercy upon
all who cherish the hope of sonship that we may be delivered from anything other than the
LIFE of this priesthood. We must learn this one lesson that the Melchizedek Priesthood is
known only by the OUTFLOW OF HIS LIFE. Then we will abide in His presence and come out
from the Lord's presence with the bread and wine to minister to creation's needs. The
Order of Melchizedek is not in any way related to so-called
THE END OF THE MELCHIZEDEK
ORDER
I would now draw your
attention to the duration of the Melchizedek priesthood. The Melchizedek priesthood is
after the power of an indissoluble or indestructible life, but does that mean that the
ministry of the Melchizedek Order continues forever? It is stated, "Thou art a priest
FOREVER after the order of Melchizedek" (Heb. 7:17). The average person sees that
word and automatically assumes that it means that the Order of Melchizedek is an ETERNAL
Order. But this is not the case. The Greek word from which FOREVER is translated is AION
from which we get our English word EON. Whenever one speaks of EONS he is not talking
about eternity, rather EONS denote specific spans of TIME.
In late years there has been
much controversy over the meaning of the little Greek word AION. Certain deceivers, to
further their unscrupulous ends and uphold their blasphemous and Romanish doctrine of
eternal damnation, have maintained, contrary to and in spite of all revealed facts, that
it means ETERNAL. And our Authorized Version renders it, together with the adjective
AIONIOS as "age, course, eternal, forever, evermore, for ever and ever, everlasting,
world, beginning of the world, world began, world without end." What a horrible
mixture!
But we need not remain in
darkness, for fortunately the Word of God tells us precisely what this Greek word means.
Too few have taken the time or energy to consider the real meaning of AION. As I have
pointed out it is the word from which we get our English word EON. Many attempts have been
made to prove that eons are eternal. But this is more than a grave error, it is the height
of stupidity, for the divine Author of the blessed Bible has not Himself used them in that
way. AION nowhere means eternal! Its simple meaning is AN AGE. In its plural form it means
AGES. This fact can be unquestionably and incontrovertibly demonstrated from numerous New
Testament passages. A glance at any good concordance proves that the noun AION, or AGE, is
not the synonym of eternity. A study of each case would make a library; so, leaving this
task to the reader, we must content ourselves with adducing a few specimens to demonstrate
the fact. It is usage that determines meanings - THEIR usage, not ours; the meanings that
the holy prophets and apostles gave to their words rather than those that our English
translators may try to give. Let me illustrate.
In Eph. 2:7 we find, "in
the ages (aions) to come." In
In Mk. 1O:3O we find that
there is not only this present aion, which is evil, but also "the world (aion) to
come." In Lk. 2O:35 we find, "but they that shall be accounted worthy to obtain
that world (aion), and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in
marriage." In Heb. 6:5 we find, "and have tasted...the powers of the world
(aion) to come." And in Lk. 1:7O, Jn. 9:32, etc., we find that the aion had a
beginning: "since the world (aion) began."
And now in reviewing the
Scriptures we have just quoted we note that this aion is something which has a king; it
has princes; it is in darkness; it had a beginning; it has an ending; it is evil; it has
wisdom; it has children who marry; it has cares. The aions we find were made by Christ,
simply through His spoken Word, and we also find in Col. 1:26 that the mystery of Christ
in us, the hope of glory, has been hidden from these aions. Now, if AION means ETERNAL, or
FOREVER, consider how ridiculous the Word of God would be! The Holy Spirit would be found
saying, "the mystery which has been hid from eternities;" "the mystery of
Christ which in other eternities was not made known;" "in the eternities to
come;" "ye walked according to the eternities of this world;" "by whom
also He made the eternities;" "the rulers of the darkness of this
eternity;" "now once in the end of the eternities hath He appeared;"
"the harvest is the end of the eternity;" "since eternity began;"
"in the eternities to come," etc. etc. Let the scholars whose business it is
delve into the many intricacies of expression, and worry over the many grammatical
combinations. Suffice it to say here that there have been "aions" in the past,
there is this present "aion," and there are "aions" to come. And these
all combined make up TIME, encompassing the whole of the progressive plan and program of
God for the development of His creation.
Any thinking person should
clearly see that if you translate the word AION which means AN AGE by the words ETERNAL or
FOREVER, which have nothing to do with time, you immediately get the wrong idea. And so it
is with the Melchizedek priesthood. While the King James Bible says, "Thou art a
priest FOREVER after the order of Melchizedek," the Greek form is "eis ton
aiona" which, literally translated is TO THE AGE. The Melchizedek priesthood lasts
for TIME. In this tremendous passage we see the duration of this priesthood - TO THE AGE.
We have no conception yet of the great and vast ages that are still ahead of us. When the
ages have all been completed, then a priesthood will not be needed, but as long as time
lasts, the priesthood is a necessity.
A priesthood "to...THE
AGE!" The true understanding of the Word of God is freighted with far more glorious
meaning and depth of purpose than the shallow traditions of church creeds. While the
Scriptures speak of an age, and the ages, and the ages of the ages, one age proceeding
from, or out of, a previous age until all the ages have run their courses - it also points
to that glorious climatic age of all ages. We read the phrase, "Thy throne, O God, is
for ever and ever" (Heb. 1:8). These words, for ever and ever" come from the
Greek which literally reads TO THE AGE OF THE AGES. This is very familiar terminology in
the Scripture.
Few men have been caught away
by the spirit of inspiration as was the wise king Solomon when he penned the beautiful
Song of Solomon. God dropped one thousand and five songs down into the heart of Solomon,
but of these, only five comprising the Song of Solomon, have been preserved and have found
a place in Holy Scripture. Inspiration named it "The Song of Songs," that is,
the one song which was above and beyond all the songs that have ever come from human heart
and human lips. Just as the "Song of Songs" was chief above them all, just as
the "Holy of holies" was the holiest place of all, just as the "King of
kings" is the greatest King of all, so all through the Scriptures, though obscured by
many translators, we have this remarkable phrase TO THE AGE OF THE AGES. It points to that
age which shall be the most glorious of all, and which finds its type in the year of
Jubilee. This is the Holy Spirit's way of expressing the superlative, and so far as God's
plan of the ages is concerned this AGE OF THE AGES is T-H-E A-G-E PAR EXCELLENCE of them
all. A simple illustration of this is our expression, "a day of days," meaning a
day that comes out of previous days, which crowns them, and embodies not only what they
contained, but the full fruition of all that was elementary in them. Eternity does not
emerge full grown in man's consciousness until this wonderful age is ended. This AGE OF
THE AGES is that glorious climax to His purpose and process of the ages, wherein He
states, "Behold, I make ALL things new" (Rev. 21:5). And when He says,
"A-L-L," it is self-evident that there is nothing remaining in the universe
which shall not be made new, else all is not all. "For He must reign UNTIL He hath
put ALL enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (I
Cor. 15:25-26). When the last enemy is under His feet, destroyed, and there is no more
death in any creature anywhere in all God's great universe, then shall God be A-L-L IN
ALL! The Amplified gives, "Be everything to everyone." Time comes to an end when
the ages end and eternity, with God "All in all," becomes a conscious reality.
Christ is a priest after the
Order of Melchizedek, not forever, as we have erroneously been taught, and not for just
this one age of the Church dispensation, either, but unto THE AGE, that glorious climatic
age of all the ages. It cannot be made plainer than it is in Young's Literal translation
where we read, "And those indeed are many who have become priests, because by death
they are hindered from remaining; and He, because of His remaining - TO THE AGE, hath the
priesthood not transient, whence also He is able to save TO THE VERY END, those coming
through Him unto God - ever living to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:23-25).
Great are the mediatorial and
redemptive glories of God's priesthood! What distinguishes this ministry above all others
is the fact that it carries its wonderful mission to a conclusion. The Melchizedek
priesthood is a priesthood TO A FINALITY. The fact that there will come a day, O glorious
day! when it will no longer be needed, is the highest praise that can be brought to the
Melchizedek priesthood. It will, in due time, have accomplished its mission, and finished
the task God intended it to do. All other ministries retire because of their weakness and
inability to bring aught to perfection. But the Royal Priesthood retires with honors -
having accomplished its glorious mission. Oh, how it drags the Christ's highest honors in
the dust to distort God's Word so that His priesthood is eternal and His reign
everlasting! Christ does not reign forever, my friend, for "He must reign T-I-L-L He
hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For
He (the Father) hath put all things under His (Christ's) feet. But when He saith that all
things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted, which did put all things
under Him. 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). May God forgive the ignorant zeal which seeks to gild the glory of His
crowns with the tarnished tinsel of man's imagination! What He starts He will finish, and
what He commences He will consummate, praise His name!
"But one in a certain
place testified, saying, What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man,
that Thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him
with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands: Thou hast put all
things in subjection under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He
left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him
(man). BUT WE SEE JESUS..." (Heb. 2:6-8).
George Wylie of Canada has so
aptly written, "We do not yet see man crowned with glory and honor, nor do we yet see
all things put in subjection under him; but the writer goes on to say, 'But we see Jesus
crowned with glory and honor.' So far HE is the only man to be crowned with glory and
honor, but there are many sons to follow, who will, in the end, be crowned with glory and
honor. Now it is very noticeable that the writer said nothing about all things being put
under the feet of Jesus here. He just said, 'But we see Jesus crowned with glory and
honor.' Why the omission? We are told in Eph. 1:22, that God HATH put all things under His
feet; and in I Cor. 15:27 he said the same thing, 'For He HATH put all things under His
feet.' This seems certain that God has already done this. Then why did the writer fail to
say so? We know that God raised Christ from the dead, and that He set Him at His own right
hand in the heavens. We see Jesus at the right hand of God, crowned with glory and honor.
He is seated there on His throne with His Father; but let us not forget what David
prophesied, 'The LORD (Jehovah) said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand, U-N-T-I-L I
make Thine enemies Thy footstool.' We see Him there now, sitting at the right hand of God
the Father, crowned with glory and honor, head of all principalities and powers; but He
must reign UNTIL His enemies have been put under Him. Though God has said He HAS put all
things under Him, we do not yet see all things under Him, and this is why we have no
mention of it in this chapter. Though God has ordained it, it has not yet taken place.
This is something yet to be accomplished, even though God says it has already been done.
God has raised His Son, Jesus, to an exalted position above all things. He has made Him
the head of all principalities and powers. He has given Him a name that is above every
name. He has given Him a position that is second to none but God Himself. The only one who
is higher than JESUS is God. So far as position and authority is concerned, Jesus is
higher than all else in the universe, and in this sense all things are put under Him, and
under His feet. But though He has been given the headship over all things, not all things
are in subjection unto Him. Not by any means. There are multitudes of men on earth who are
not in submission to Him. There are still hosts in the heavens who are not in subjection
to Him either, and will not be for ages yet to come. But the Kingdom is going to be given
to the Lord and His Anointed, and He will reign UNTIL He has brought everything in the
universe into subjection unto Himself; for He must reign UNTIL He has brought all His
enemies under His feet; and when this is done, then Jesus will turn the Kingdom over to
the Father, that God may be All in all. Then will be fulfilled the prophecy that, 'Every
knee shall bow, of things in the heavens, and on the earth, and under the earth, and every
tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father' (Phil. 2:1O).
Hallelujah, everything restored to find their one head in Christ. 'And this is in harmony
with God's merciful purpose for the government of the world, when the times are ripe for
it - the purpose He has cherished in His own mind of restoring the whole creation to find
its one head in Christ, yes, things in heaven, and things on earth, to find their one head
in Him' (Eph. 1:9-lO, Weymouth)"- end quote.
One of the main arguments of
the book of Hebrews is that the Aaronic priesthood and sacrificial ritual "brought
nothing to completion". It was a treadmill of repetitive service which could not make
the participants perfect. But Christ's Melchizedek priesthood does and will bring mankind
into perfect harmony with God, however many ages it takes, for He continues to live and
remains a priest unto "THE AGE". He is well able to complete the work and bring
the priestly service to a close. If Christ's priestly intercession is to continue FOREVER,
His priesthood is just as impotent as Aaron's, and will no more obtain its objective than
the Aaronic. Once human estrangement has been replaced by universal reconciliation, no
further priestly mediacy will be needed. Hence Christ, and all who share His priesthood,
are priests after the Order of Melchizedek "eis ton aiona" - to the age. WITH
WHAT ANTICIPATION DO WE AWAIT THAT GLORIOUS AGE! At last, at long last, praise God, the
Royal Priesthood will be able to say with finality, IT IS FINISHED!
The Order of Melchizedek, a
mystery, I dare say,
And yet our God doth apprehend a people for this way.
The former realm must pass away, the Levites, with their law,
A priesthood that was for its day, but not without its flaw.
It was of God, for just a time, until the whole was changed,
And out of
A King of Righteousness is He, such holiness divine,
And now He ministers the same till purity is shine.
And also works a perfect peace, completeness is the score,
The power of an endless life, with GRACE abounding more.
- Ray Prinzing
Part
29
THE
MELCHIZEDEK CONNECTION
(continued)
Our Lord Jesus Christ is a
High Priest forever after the Order of Melchizedek. He is a MINISTER OF THE SANCTUARY, AND
OF THE TRUE TABERNACLE, WHICH THE LORD PITCHED,
The High Priest under the
Levitical system could not enter into the Sanctuary until he had offered a blood offering,
a sacrifice. Therefore, since Jesus is the anti-type of the type, He too "must have
somewhat to offer"; and since He is seen in the heavenly Sanctuary, that is proof
that He did offer a sacrifice which has been accepted by God the Father. And what did He
offer? He offered HIMSELF - "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners"
(Heb. 7:26). Furthermore, "Christ THROUGH HIS OWN BLOOD, entered in once for all into
the
And what does this phrase,
HIS OWN BLOOD, mean? To Moses God said that He gave the blood upon the altar to be an
atonement for the soul, because THE LIFE OF THE FLESH IS IN THE BLOOD (Lev. 17:11). That
is, the blood in the body is the life of the body. Ah the power of any blood is in the
worth of the life. In the blood of Jesus THE POWER OF THE DIVINE LIFE DWELT and worked -
hence its intrinsic value. He was the Son of God by conception but the son of man by
birth. He was a specially prepared body to contain a SPECIALLY PREPARED BLOOD that was to
be THE LIFE of all humanity. This blood was precious from the fact that it was a unique
blood which would do something for all humanity that no other blood could ever do. It was
the Word of God that became flesh, who was made man. It was the life of God that dwelt in
Him. That life gave His blood, every drop of it, an infinite value. The blood of a man is
of more worth than that of a sheep. The blood of a king or a great general is counted of
more value than hundreds of common soldiers. The blood of the Son of God! - it is in vain
the mind seeks for some expression of its value; all we can say is, it is His own blood,
the blood of the Son of God!
The life is in the blood. As
the value of this life, so the value of the blood. In Christ there was the life of God;
infinite as God is the worth and the power of that blood. In Christ there was the life of
man in its perfection; in His humility, and obedience to the Father, and self-sacrifice,
that which made Him unspeakably well-pleasing to the Father. That blood of Jesus, the
blood of God and the blood of man, poured out in death, was a perfect fulfillment of God's
will, and a perfect victory over all the power of the carnal mind, effecting an
everlasting atonement for sin, and putting it forever out of the way, destroying death and
him that had the power of it. Therefore it was that in the blood of the everlasting
covenant Jesus was raised from the dead; that in His blood, as our Head and Surety, He
entered the highest heaven; and THAT PRECIOUS BLOOD IS NOW AND FOREVER AVAILABLE TO US
WITH ALL ITS INCORRUPTIBLE POWER.
Beloved sons and daughters of
God! The blood of Jesus! The blood of the Lamb! Oh, think what it means. God gave it for
your redemption from Adam's race and your transformation into the image and glory of God.
God accepted it when the firstborn of the new creation entered heaven and presented it on
your behalf. God points you to it and asks you to believe in its omnipotent energy, in its
everlasting sufficiency. Ah, this celestial man was injected into a whole world full of
men descended from the earth-man to impart something we had lacked from the day Adam was
driven from
When Adam transgressed, the
LIFE OF GOD, which had been breathed into his nostrils, departed from him and all that was
left was a residue, that mortal something which flowed in the veins of his body. This
blood contains nothing of the life of God, and in its composition and nature is similar to
the blood of the animal kingdom, for when the glorious power of divine life departed from
Adam, he entered into the kingdom of death. Adam was made a LIVING SOUL. From the Greek
the statement reads, "The first man was made a ZOE PSUCHE (living soul). ZOE,
throughout the entire Greek New Testament, is always used in reference to the LIFE OF GOD.
PSUCHE, on the other hand, is used of the natural life of animals and men. Since both
words are used of Adam's life in the beginning, it is clear that he possessed a natural
life imbued, infused, injected, impregnated and permeated with the glorious incorruptible
LIFE OF GOD. This life, ZOE, is the life Jesus promised to give to man when He said,
"I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish," and this, beloved,
is the LIFE THAT DEPARTED FROM ADAM when he transgressed, leaving him ashamed, fearful and
DEAD. The life is in the blood, but our blood, being devoid of eternal (zoe) life, is in
reality dead blood and capable of sustaining only physical life, and that only poorly
until man returns to the dust from whence he came. It is not without significance that,
when the bodies of men are embalmed, the first act is to remove the corruptible blood that
the dead body may be better preserved. Instead of incorruptible and, therefore, deathless
blood, Adam's blood corrupted through sin and became subject to death. To redeem this DEAD
SINNER, life must be again imparted. The only remedy for death is LIFE. This life is in
the blood, and so blood must be furnished which is sinless and incorruptible. Now none of
Adam's race could do this, for "in Adam ALL die." There was only one, yes, ONLY
ONE, who could furnish that blood, the virgin-born Son of God, the man from heaven, the
last Adam, with a human body, but sinless, supernatural blood inseminated by the Holy
Ghost.
Jesus came to bring life to
the world. Here is where His blood differed from the ordinary blood or life of men. His
blood was precious in that it was able to do something for mankind which man's own blood
or life could not do. The natural blood or life of mankind was only for a few years at
most, but the blood of the Christ was the LIFE OF THE AGE So there must somehow be a
discontinuance of the blood of a few years, that the blood or the LIFE OF THE AGES might
be injected into mankind.
Let us notice one thing
further. The red liquid that ran through the veins and arteries of the body of Jesus is
not the blood whose power redeems mankind and all things unto God. There is no biblical
basis for attributing any unusual properties to Christ's body fluids. The term "blood
of Christ" is far more significant than any magical or mystical power falsely
attributed to His physical blood by those who are ignorant of the truth. And here I must
speak a word against one of the popular myths that has been widely circulated among God's
end-time saints. Various teachers have maintained that human blood is in some, mysterious
way "congealed light." Now that term carries with it a certain kind of mystical
aura, and a rather scientific sound. But the truth is that it is neither scientifically
founded, scripturally sound, nor spiritually veracious. Blood is composed of the very same
chemical and mineral substances of which the earth is made. If blood is congealed light,
then your refrigerator, automobile, house, and a bunch of bananas are just as truly
congealed light! Blood is mostly water, but in the blood many substances are dissolved and
in this fluid float specks of matter that do not dissolve. The liquid part of blood
greatly resembles sea water. It contains salt, sodium, potassium, calcium, and other
minerals. The specks of matter that float in the blood are of three kinds: red corpuscles,
white corpuscles and platelets. The liquid part of the blood without these solid
particles, but including the various chemicals in the blood, is called plasma.
The thing of importance about
the precious blood of Jesus is not its physical structure, but the glorious fact that
blood bespeaks L-I-F-E. What Jesus poured out was His life, His holy, pure, undefiled,
divine, heavenly, incorruptible life, the ZOE PSUCHE the life of GOD! He lived and walked
out that glorious life in human form and then poured it out as an offering unto God. And
God took the offering and poured it out, in return, upon mankind! "He...spake of the
resurrection of Christ, that His soul was not left in hell, neither His flesh did see
corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being
by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the
Holy Ghost, HE HATH SHED FORTH THIS, WHICH YE NOW SEE AND HEAR" (Acts 2:31-33).
Ah - the Holy Ghost, the
Spirit of God, the divine and incorruptible life of God as it had been perfected and lived
out in the life of the Son of God - was now shed forth to be received by all men to
transform and lift them up high into the holiness, wisdom and power of God. The precious
blood of Jesus! There is an old Roman Catholic dogma which says that Christ carried His
blood with Him to heaven in a bowl. Without even knowing its source, evangelical
Christianity clings to that ludicrous idea from the Dark Ages by perpetuating a form of
mysticism around the physical blood of our Lord. There is no bowl in the universe that
could have contained what Jesus Christ carried into the heavens! When Christ entered
heaven, He carried not physical blood, which of necessity would be corruptible blood, but
His DIVINE-HUMAN LIFE. He did not transport a bowl of blood or a bucket of blood; He
entered in His resurrection body, with the full power of that divine life He had poured
out on behalf of Adam's doomed race. If He had not poured it out, He would have forever
remained the ONLY perfect man - the only Son of God. But, blessed be His wonderful name!
He shed His precious blood, poured out His quickening Spirit that all may drink thereof
and live!
SPIRITUAL SACRIFICES
Everything about the blood of
Jesus is spiritual. All that His blood effects within us is spiritual. The sacrifice He
offered unto God was spiritual. The mighty work wrought in our lives by the power of His
offering is spiritual. And all the sacrifices of the heavenly realm into which we now are
translated are spiritual sacrifices. The altar upon which the spiritual sacrifices are
offered is Christ Himself, as it is written, "BY HIM therefore let us offer the
SACRIFICE of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to
His name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with SUCH SACRIFICES God is
well pleased" (Heb. 13:15,16). "The SACRIFICES OF GOD are a broken spirit; a
broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise" (Ps. 51:17).
The "sacrifice of
praise" in no way infers that we must consistently and persistently mouth words of
praise and thanksgiving unto God when we in no way "feel" like doing so. That is
the idea that many people have. They feel they must "wring" some praises out of
their dull soulish senses in order to offer a "sacrifice" of praise to God. To
the contrary, the sacrifice of praise must be the very BEST of our powers, like the lamb
without blemish in the Old Testament, painstakingly selected and carefully and reverently
brought to the Tabernacle door. In the awesomeness of His presence and glory we launch
joyously down our tiny rivulet, until we are borne out into the great ocean of praise,
which is ever breaking in music around the person of Jesus. Praise is one of the greatest
acts of which we are capable; and it is the transcendent service of heaven. In that
blessed realm they ask for naught, for they have all and abound; but throughout the cycles
of glory the inhabitants of those bright worlds fill them with praise. And why should not
our earthly tasks be wrought to the same music? We are the priests of creation; it becomes
us to gather up and express the sentiments which are mutely dumb, but which await our
offering at the altar of God. The praise of the Royal Priesthood is not that which is
offered in the assembling of the saints, in which so much is soulish instead of spiritual,
but the daily expression of the priestly spirit, thanksgiving and honor and glory to God
in all things and for all things, in the nitty-gritty of everyday experience and under the
pressures and problems of life. More than words, this sacrifice is an attitude, a
disposition, a STATE OF BEING. It is the outraying of the nature, love, grace and mercy of
God in all and unto all. Ray Prinzing has often stated that the messenger must so become
one with his message until the messenger BECOMES THE MESSAGE. In the same vein, the
praiser must so become one with his praise until the praiser BECOMES THE PRAISE of God in
the earth. This is the greatest of all spiritual sacrifices!
This wonderful High Priest
under which we labor, having no better sacrifice to offer, OFFERED HIMSELF. By the eternal
Spirit He offered Himself. The Spirit settled upon Him in distant ages past to guide His
footsteps to His one earthly goal - the cross. He had been chosen in the ages past to be
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and the Spirit had rested upon Him for
that purpose. He was High Priest, He was sacrifice, He was altar, He was all. And God was
in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. In this we have an entirely new conception
of the Royal Priesthood. Since the ministry of Christ is also our ministry as a royal
kingdom of priests, we are also called to fulfill the ministry of the true priesthood
after the Order of Melchizedek. And our ministry is also threefold: to offer a sacrifice,
to intercede for the people, and to bless them with the final benediction of completed
salvation, even the manifestation of SONSHIP FULFILLED, thus bringing deliverance to the
whole creation. The sacrifice we are to offer is clearly set forth by the apostle, "I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service" (Rom.
12:1). And in sacrificing our bodies unto the Lord as that "LIVING SACRIFICE,"
we continue to walk in the ways of the Lord, which the apostle describes in verse two:
"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
This is indeed our sacrifice in behalf of the people and is described as "YOUR
REASONABLE SERVICE." As HIS LIFE is formed in us, we then have to give to creation.
BREAD AND WINE
The Levitical priesthood was
given to administer the law. That is all that it was for. We read in Heb. 7:11, "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 rise 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." A lot of folk have this thing
turned around. They believe that the priesthood was changed because the law was changed.
But this passage reveals the great truth that THE LAW WAS CHANGED BECAUSE THE PRIESTHOOD
HAD BEEN CHANGED! This is most remarkable.
The Levitical priesthood was
not confirmed and anointed for service until after the law had been given and the
tabernacle set up for the service of the priesthood. God gave Moses the law in the
mountain and at the same time the plans for the tabernacle. In Ex. 4O: 12-15 we find that
after all the tabernacle had been assembled and the furniture placed therein, God said,
"And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation and wash them with water. And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments,
and anoint him, and sanctify him; that he may minister unto Me in the priest's office. And
thou shalt bring his sons and clothe them with coats: and thou shalt anoint them, as thou
didst anoint their father, that they may minister unto Me in the priest's office: for
their anointing shall be an age-lasting priesthood throughout their generations."
After the tabernacle was finished and all the furnishings moved in and placed, THEN the
priesthood was set in order and the priests consecrated for their service. There was no
priesthood until the law was given and a place made for ministering that law. The law was
prepared first and the priesthood followed the law.
May the Spirit of God give
you understanding of the great truth that follows. Long, long before the law was ever
given, A PROMISE WAS GIVEN UNTO A MAN. Heb. 6:13-14 states, "For when God made a
promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He swear by Himself saying,
Surely blessing, I will bless thee, and multiplying, I will multiply thee. And so, after
he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swore by the greater:
AND AN OATH FOR CONFIRMATION IS TO THEM AN END OF ALL STRIFE. Wherein God, willing more
abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it
by an oath." Or, He interposed Himself. God in giving the promise to Abraham not only
swore unto HIMSELF, but the following verse tells us that God gave unto Abraham two
immutable things in which He could not lie. He gave to Abraham His WORD and HIMSELF.
Neither could lie! This put God in the position that not only did a man have His word, but
He Himself had sworn to Himself and He was incapable of lying.
To refresh our minds as what
was in the covenant to Abraham, we turn to Gen. 12:2-3. This man Abraham was to become a
great nation and a commonwealth of nations. God would bless him. God would make his name
great. God would make him to be a blessing to all the ends of the earth. God would bless
them who would bless Abraham. God would curse them that cursed Abraham. And lastly, in
Abraham and his seed would ALL nations and families be blessed. These are remarkable
promises to a man who has no son and in the natural has absolutely NO HOPE of ever having
a son!
But this promise was given to
Abraham by God interposing Himself, swearing by Himself and binding Himself. This promise
MUST COME TO PASS. The blessing of all nations and families of the earth through Abraham
and his seed is A WORLD-WIDE MINISTRY AND AN ALL-INCLUSIVE MINISTRY. The Levitical
priesthood could never minister a marvelous thing such as this. THE LAW DID NOT CONTAIN
SUCH PROMISES. The law did not contain such provisions. Furthermore, the Levitical
priesthood was too narrow-minded to do it. They would not accept the salvation of the
nations or that God had come to bless and restore all. They believed the promises of God
were to the Israelite alone.
So it was necessary for God
to remove BOTH THE LAW AND THE PRIESTHOOD. Before either the law or the Levitical
priesthood was established, God made a promise to Abraham: "That the blessing of
Abraham MIGHT COME ON THE GENTILES (NATIONS) THROUGH JESUS CHRIST: THAT WE MIGHT RECEIVE
THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT THROUGH FAITH" (Gal. 3:14). Jesus was made a curse for us
so that God's promise to Abraham of blessing for ALL THE NATIONS AND FAMILIES OF THE EARTH
might be accomplished. When God made a covenant, there was to be a priesthood to cover and
administer that covenant. To bring this to pass, there was of necessity to be a priesthood
established. At the precise time when God made His covenant with Abraham, we read of a
historic meeting between two men of God in Genesis chapter fourteen. In this chapter
Abraham has gone to war to release
At the same time a strange
and wonderful thing takes place. God brings out His High Priest, king of
Now let us see to whom this
promise was given beside Abraham. "Now to Abraham and His SEED were the promises
made. He saith not, and to SEEDS as of many (the multitude of Israel); BUT AS OF ONE, AND
TO THY SEED WHICH I-S C-H-R-I-S-T... and if ye BE CHRIST'S, THEN are YE ABRAHAM'S SEED,
and heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3:16,19). Thus, the Abrahamic covenant was
made to both Abraham and THE MANY-MEMBERED BODY OF THE CHRIST! It was made on earth and in
heaven. Both earth and heaven heard this word as Abraham, the man of earth, and
Melchizedek, the priest from the celestial realm, met together over bread and wine. It
would make no difference what came afterward - law, grace or anything else, both earth and
heaven had witnessed the giving of the promise and its confirmation. This confirmation was
the sealing of the Abrahamic covenant. Even the heathen round about witnessed it, for the
king of
Have you not wondered why
Melchizedek gave bread and wine to Abraham as he returned from the slaughter of the kings?
I can assure you, precious friend of mine, that it was far more than a mere physical
refreshment! What is so significant about Melchizedek bringing forth bread and wine? Note
well - he could not bring it forth if he did not possess it! Of what, then, does the bread
and wine speak? Since Melchizedek came out from the celestial, incorruptible realm, there
can be no doubt that this was a bread and wine come down from heaven! You well know that
Christ gave the wine to His disciples, along with the bread, and He said that the bread
was His body and the wine was His blood. Thus bread and wine refer to body and blood - the
ELEMENTS THAT CONFIRM THE COVENANT! Therefore the bread of the Lord's body was first
given, and then the blood. It is the cutting or breaking of the body that renders the
blood. And in this way the covenant is confirmed by blood. Some have asserted that
Melchizedek brought forth the "emblems" of sacrifice as the church world today
partakes of bread and wine as emblems of Christ's death. But the meaning goes further than
mere emblems. This was a BLOOD COVENANT between God and Abraham, between God and "the
seed" of Abraham - which seed YOU ARE!
Someone may object, "At
that time God had no blood, not having yet come in the flesh. But I would draw your
attention to a magnificent statement in Rev. 13:8 wherein we read of "the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world." A better rendering would be, "The Lamb that
was put to death from the founding of the cosmos." Now I would like to quote this
from
Ah, Melchizedek WAS HIMSELF
THAT LAMB whose offering was already a glorious and eternal reality in the heavens,
remaining only to cast its shadow upon the earth, on
The new covenant which we as
sons of God enjoy is in truth the extension, fulfillment, or completion of the covenant
that God made with father Abraham. That is why when this new priest appeared the law had
to be changed. The Abrahamic covenant was four hundred and thirty years before the old
covenant of the law was given through Moses to the children of
You see, dear ones, the
principle is this: "EVERY High Priest is appointed to OFFER both gifts and
sacrifices: wherefore it is necessary that this High Priest also HAVE SOMEWHAT TO
OFFER" (Heb. 8:3). Not alone Aaron, not alone Jesus, but MELCHIZEDEK ALSO MUST HAVE
SOMETHING TO O-F-F-E-R! Melchizedek, when he came to Abraham brought sacrifices, and what
did he bring? He brought bread and wine. These were the two sacrifices of the priesthood
of Melchizedek. And the law of first mention teaches us that those are the sacrifices of
THE WHOLE ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK. He came to Abraham with bread and with wine. So,
therefore, the one who follows in the steps of Melchizedek must bring forth the same
offerings - the offerings of bread and wine. What do we see, therefore, in the New
Testament? In the last supper Jesus brought forth bread and wine and said, "This is
My body and My blood of the new covenant." Why? BECAUSE HE IS A PRIEST AFTER THE
ORDER OF MELCHIZEDEK! It is the High Priestly ministry of the Order of Melchizedek to give
bread and wine, the body and the blood, the Word and the Spirit of Jesus Christ! At the
last supper the High Priest was presenting the two offerings of the Melchizedek Priesthood
and He proclaimed, "Now I am going to fulfill these two offerings in My body and in
My blood."
All the members of the
Melchizedek Priesthood will be MINISTERS OF BREAD AND WINE, that is, ministers of the
Living Word and Quickening Spirit of the Most High God. Learn this, my precious brother,
sister, and you will comprehend a great mystery: Melchizedek and Jesus brought forth bread
and wine, and those of that Priesthood will do likewise. They will bring it forth -
because they are possessors thereof.
There is a most enlightening
statement in I Cor. l0:16-17. "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the
communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the
body of Christ? FOR WE BEING MANY ARE ONE BREAD, and one body: for we are all partakers of
that one bread." The key to this verse is the word COMMUNION. The Greek word means
SHARING TOGETHER, PARTICIPATION, PARTNERSHIP. This then indicates that the COMMUNION of
the body and blood of our Lord is more than a mere mental, physical, or emotional sharing.
If body and blood is SUBSTANCE and REAL, then it means a sharing of HIS BODY AND HIS
BLOOD, of His celestial flesh and His heavenly life. It means a flowing of His very BEING
into us and back into Him, circulating back and forth between us. Therefore the COMMUNION
of His body and blood would be the sharing together of His redeemed body and glorified
life, and is this not what creation is waiting for?
And is not this the bread of
which Jesus spoke, "This is the bread which came down from heaven, that a man may eat
thereof and NOT DIE. I am the LIVING BREAD which came down from heaven: if any man eat of
this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is MY FLESH, which I
shall give for the life of the whole world...verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat
the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth My
flesh and drinketh My blood hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
For My flesh is meat indeed and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and
drinketh My blood DWELLETH IN ME AND I IN HIM. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I
live by the Father, so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me. This is that bread
which came down from heaven; not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead; he that
eateth of this bread shall live forever" (Jn. 6:50-58). Our hearts cry out,
"Lord, evermore give us this bread!"
As a friend has so eloquently
expressed, "Oh, that we might SEE THE SON and eat of Him that we might enter into the
promise of everlasting life - the power by which Jesus Christ was made a priest forever
after the Order of Melchizedek. It is this same life, this same power, this same
qualification for priesthood that He offers in these words: 'Labor not for the meat that
perishes but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man
shall GIVE unto you, for Him hath the Father sealed' (Jn. 6:27) 'To him that overcometh,'
the Lord said, 'will I GIVE to eat of the HIDDEN MANNA...' (Rev. 2:16). HIDDEN MANNA -
that LIVING BREAD, that GLORIFIED FLESH, that came down from heaven - this is the GIFT OF
GOD to the overcomer.
"The scene of this
encounter between Melchizedek and the father of our faith is the climax of victory for
Abraham. He had pursued the kings of the dale with only a handful of men, had fought the
battle, and had rescued all that was his from the hand of the enemy. In him, then, is set
forth a perfect picture of the overcomer to whom is promised the hidden manna. The kings,
of course, speak to us of those dominions that rule us - whatever is king, whatever is god
or an enslaver in our lives - whether it be the lusts of the flesh, the pride of life, the
principalities and powers in heavenly places - whatever the overcomer-to-be must wrestle
against to deliver all that pertains to himself from the yoke of bondage. That he fought
'not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord' is clearly manifested in both
the comparative smallness of his army and the words of Melchizedek himself when he said,
'The Most High God...hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand.' Hallelujah! It was only
after Abram had waged warfare in the strength of God's Spirit and was returning victorious
that the glorious king of Salem, Melchizedek, brought forth to Abraham that 'bread and
wine' of which Jesus spoke saying, 'Except ye eat My flesh and drink My blood, you have no
life in you.'
"For Abraham the time
had come:
It has been said that we
become what we eat. Truly, as we eat of Him, we are transformed into what He is. Can we
not now understand the words of the apostle, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is
it not the COMMUNION of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the
COMMUNION of the body of Christ? FOR WE BEING MANY ARE ONE BREAD ...FOR WE ARE ALL
PARTAKERS OF THAT ONE BREAD" (I Cor. 10:16-17). This has nothing whatever to do with
eating crackers and drinking grape juice at church on Sunday morning, for it was the OLD
COVENANT that stood in "meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances
imposed on them UNTIL the time of reformation" (Heb. 9:10). In celebrating and
FULFILLING the Old Testament feast of Passover Jesus said, "I will not drink
henceforth of this fruit of the vine, UNTIL THAT DAY when I drink it NEW (changed, in the
new covenant, spiritually) W-I-T-H Y-O-U IN MY FATHER'S KINGDOM" (Mat. 26:29). The
Amplified Bible says, "I say to you, I shall not drink again of this fruit of the
vine until that day when I drink it with you NEW AND OF SUPERIOR QUALITY in My Father's
Kingdom." And Moffatt translates, "I tell you, after this I will never drink
this produce of the vine, till the day I drink it NEW with you in the REALM OF MY
FATHER." Luke records it thus, "I will not anymore eat thereof, until it be
FULFILLED IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD" (Lk. 22:16). And Paul says, "Who...HATH
translated us INTO THE KINGDOM OF HIS DEAR SON" (Col. 1:13). The Amplified Bible
states, "The Father has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the
dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love."
And remember, beloved, "The Kingdom of God is N-O-T MEAT AND DRINK; but
righteousness, and peace, and joy IN THE HOLY GHOST" (Rom. 14:17).
That the bread and wine of
this NEW COVENANT COMMUNION are not physical, natural bread and wine is clear from Paul's
teaching in I Cor. lO:16-17, "The cup of blessing which WE BLESS, is it not the
COMMUNION OF THE BLOOD OF CHRIST? The bread which WE BREAK, is it not the COMMUNION OF THE
BODY OF CHRIST? For WE being many ARE (the) ONE BREAD...for we are all partakers of THAT
ONE BREAD." Jesus said, "I AM the bread that is come down from heaven." As
we partake of HIM, not Him in a wafer, but Him in spirit and in truth, by the power of the
Holy Ghost, we eat of that bread and become that one bread. As HE IS BROKEN among us, as
His life is shared, and His Word communicated from member to member, we are partakers of
that one bread. The cup most churches bless is the cup of grape juice or wine from the
local supermarket. The bread which the vast majority of preachers bless is the bread from
the bakery. But the cup which WE BLESS I-S the communion of THE BLOOD OF CHRIST, and the
bread which WE BLESS I-S the communion of THE BODY OF CHRIST, and WE ARE that bread, and
HIS LIFE WITHIN I-S that blood, praise His name! We do not bless the cup of the old
covenant, which stood in meats and drinks; we bless the cup of the new covenant which is
NEW IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
Here is the most scriptural
Communion Service in the universe: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man
hear My voice, and open the door, I WILL COME INTO HIM, AND WILL SUP WITH HIM, AND HE WITH
ME" (Rev. 3:2O). It is my deep conviction that it is utterly impossible to eat or
drink Christ with my physical mouth, therefore, I MUST eat and drink of Him in the same
spirit in which He spoke when He said to the Samaritan woman, "I have water to drink,
which if a man drink of it, he will never thirst again." And she wondered how He
could draw such water without a bucket! And today after two thousand years the churches
are no further along in their spiritual understanding than was this poor ignorant woman of
For centuries now Christians
have been "taking communion" believing they were eating the flesh and drinking
the blood of Christ. They were seeing the type, but missing the anti-type. The Scripture
testifies, "And the WORD was MADE FLESH and dwelt among us, and we beheld HIS glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth" (Jn. 1:14).
The eternal, living, incorruptible WORD OF GOD was MADE FLESH in the Person of Jesus
Christ. The flesh of Christ is not the human body of Jesus, nor is it crackers or holy
wafers; the flesh of Christ is the BREAD OF GOD, the TREE OF LIFE, the LIVING WORD OF GOD
that came down from heaven, of which if a man partake HE SHALL LIVE FOREVER.
Jesus Christ is the Word of
God. Just as the Word was made flesh, so His flesh IS THE WORD. The bread is His body. Not
the body of
It is interesting to note
that the statement of Jesus wherein He says, "I will not drink henceforth of this
fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's
Kingdom," is repeated in Mk. 14:25 and Lk. 22:18. With three references to it, it
must be very important. Three is the number of REVELATION, so there must be a deep truth
to be unfolded. The unusual word in this verse is FRUIT, which in the original is not the
word commonly used for fruit. It is the Greek word GENNEMA meaning literally GENERATION.
Our Lord would no longer drink of that generation of which He was a part, of the natural,
He would no longer partake of those things on the carnal plane, the earth realm, but the
greater and more glorious DAY was dawning when He would drink the wine NEW WITH US in the
Realm of His Father - the SPIRIT REALM. In other words, there is a drinking together of
HIS GENERATION which is a NEW drinking, a NEW wine, a NEW dimension of life, a NEW spirit,
a NEW blood, IN THE KINGDOM! It is a sharing of His blood and ours, a drinking together
anew. We are already in that Kingdom, praise God, and so do we eat and drink, and it is
now time for those of the Melchizedek Priesthood to bring forth bread and wine! All
creation is hungering and thirsting for REALITY, and the voice of Jesus comes upon the
wings of the Spirit saying, "Give ye them to eat."
What does it mean to you, my
brother, when Jesus says, "I will not drink henceforth of this FRUIT OF THE VINE,
until the day I drink it NEW W-I-T-H Y-O-U in My Father's Kingdom"? The fruit, of
course, is His life, the vine refers to Christ, whereas the branches refer to us. "I
am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth
forth much fruit" (Jn. 15:5). It is the branches that bring forth the fruit of the
vine. In Judges 9:13 the vine is pictured as speaking, asking, "Should I leave my new
wine, which cheereth God and man, and go to be promoted over the trees?" In one sense
these words depict the sacrificing Christ who has sacrificed everything of Himself. But
this is not the main point. The primary significance is that out of His sacrifice He
produced something to cheer both God and man - NEW WINE.
Have you had such an
experience of Christ? Betimes under the Lord's sovereign dealings we are put into a
particular situation in which we must sacrifice ourselves to make others happy and the
Lord happy. When in this situation we are brought to draw upon the Lord, it is then that
we experience Him as the wine-producing vine; and as branches we become the producer of
something out of our union with Him that gives cheer to God and cheer to others. Out of
this experience we become in a practical way the branches; we become the producer of that
which cheers and blesses both God and man. Ah, there are infinite resources IN HIM to meet
every need of sorrowing humanity. Christ is so rich! He is the one who produces glory for
God and glory for man. We are experiencing Christ as the great wine-producer. This is the
mark of the priests after the Order of Melchizedek - they bring forth bread and wine! And
God is blessed, and man is refreshed, for through these sons all the nations and families
of the earth SHALL BE BLESSED. The Levitical priesthood calling was to minister unto man
"that he might offer both gifts and sacrifices." The Levitical priesthood,
however, offered up DEAD things in order to please God and bless man. But the Melchizedek
Order brings forth the LIVING BREAD of the Word of God and the NEW WINE of the
incorruptible life of God.
What must be done to the
grapes to make them wine? They must be pressed. To please God and bless men we must be
pressed. We rejoice to learn that Christ is the vine and we the branches bearing the
exquisite fruit of His glorious nature and victorious life. Our ransomed souls shout,
Hallelujah! Glory to God! But do not say Hallelujah too quickly, precious one, for
immediately following the maturity of the vintage comes the pressing. The grapes must be
pressed that there come the OUTFLOW of His life to bless God and quicken man. You, too,
must be pressed! The more you drink the wine of Christ, the more you will realize that you
must be pressed. You must be broken in order to produce something in the house of the Lord
that will flow out in blessing to God and creation.
There is a deep spiritual
meaning here, and that is the description of the process through which the precious
manifestation of HIS LIFE WITHIN is brought forth. It is through many hard things, through
much bruising and bringing down, that this costly wine of His nature is made and perfected
for our God. If we would offer the vintage of this eternal fruit, we must pass through HIS
PROCESSINGS which alone can bring forth the outflow of Himself. The life giving fountain
of the precious blood of Christ was wondrously opened in the agony of the cross, and so
shall it be with all those blessed souls who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes. There
will be the pressure and bruising that come from the people about us. There will be the
purifying pressure that Father's hand brings as He chastens and brings us low. It is the
trampling and crushing that presses out life itself which brings forth the sweet wine of
the grape. When wine is made from any fruit, it requires large quantities of the fruit to
make a small quantity of juice. So it is with the wine of the grape. All the fiber and
hard particles must be removed, so that only the pure juice remains, symbolizing the
purity of His life that is unmixed with any fleshly attitude or action; or with any pride
because of the work that the Spirit has wrought upon us; or with any other adulteration.
Melchizedek and Jesus brought
forth bread and wine, and those of that Priesthood will do likewise. The Melchizadek
ministry is not one of judgment and condemnation, but one of grace, mercy, compassion,
light, love and life. Sunday after Sunday in the pulpits and on radio and television we
hear the preachers ranting and raving about doom, destruction, judgment and damnation.
Seems the preachers are of the twisted opinion that men will not turn to Christ unless
they are hung over the flames of hell, or moved by some hair-raising, spine-tingling story
that it is someone's "last chance" and unless they get right with God something
awful is going to happen to them, perchance before they can get home! They will freely
cast billions into some form of eternal torment and everlasting separation from God, while
they hopefully will have a few go to heaven - to that beautiful "Isle of
Somewhere." Too often the Sunday night evangelistic sermon concerns threatening world
events portending imminent catastrophe, with dire predictions about what the Russians are
going to do, or the Illuminate, or our own government, or the Antichrist, or someone else.
I do not hesitate to tell you that all such preaching is a soulish attempt to SCARE people
into the
Thank God! He is raising up a
priesthood - a company of SAVIOURS - and these shall bring forth bread and wine. A table
shall be set, laden with the rich bounties of His grace and glory. How different is this
glorious priesthood from the ministries of
Why cannot men cease their
ignorant prattlings and learn once and for all that "God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto Himself, NOT IMPUTING THEIR TRESPASSES UNTO THEM" (II Cor. 2:9). It is
high time for all men to learn that Jesus Christ is "the Saviour of THE
W-O-R-L-D" (Jn. 4:42), not its destroyer. And it is high time for all men to learn
that He arose victor over every foe, that He came to redeem the whole world, and will
accomplish all that He purposed to do. "The Lord of the W-H-O-L-E E-A-R-T-H shall He
be called" (Isa. 54:5; Mic. 4:13; Zech. 4:14). It is time for all men to begin to
believe the Word of God and to cease from following their own shameful delusions.
"And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, WILL DRAW A-L-L M-E-N unto Me" (Jn.
12:32). How creation groans for these deliverers - the manifested sons of God! We would
minister HIS LIFE, bread and wine, from the celestial realm, that all may be refreshed,
healed, quickened and transformed. God will grant it. May God hasten it!
Part
30
THE
MELCHIZEDEK CONNECTION
(continued)
"For this Melchizedek,
king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter
of the kings, and BLESSED HIM; to whom also Abraham GAVE A TENTH PART OF ALL; first being
by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is King
of peace" (Heb. 7:1-2).
All scriptural truth is great
and precious. No costly gem of earth can compare its value to the precious worth of truth.
From the vast storehouse of truth contained within the holy scriptures there shines forth
with dazzling brilliance two wonderful revelatory actions in the brief passage quoted
above. First, there is the blessing and second, the tithe. How these two have been
reversed in our thinking! It has been inscribed in endless volumes, preached on
innumerable radio and television programs, and shouted from the pulpits everywhere that
the tithing comes first and the blessing comes second. Of course, the scripture quoted
most often in support of that teaching is Mal. 3:8-10 wherein God said to Old Testament
The Bible does indeed teach
that God blesses us as we give to Him. There are laws at work that God has built into the
universe: that God will not be placed into the debt of any man; that no one can outgive
God; that he that sows, reaps. Those laws in the spiritual world, as in the physical
world, are based upon faith. It is an act of faith in the law of the harvest which a
farmer exercises every spring when he takes perfectly good corn that could be made into
perfectly good bread to feed his family, and throws it away into the dirt. He does that
because he knows that he is not throwing it away; he is sowing it and he will reap a
harvest. The Bible repeatedly makes reference to these laws, that in obedience to God we
will be blessed.
When we come to the
Melchizedek Priesthood, however, the order is reversed. Notice with intense consideration
the inspired words of Moses, "For this Melchizedek...priest of the Most High
God...met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and BLESSED HIM; to whom also
Abraham GAVE A TENTH PART OF ALL." Can we not see by this that the blessing precedes
the tithing in the Order of Melchizedek? The law of tithing had not been given to Abraham
or his seed when Abraham met Melchizedek, for there was not as yet an Israel of God in the
world. The priesthood of Aaron would not be established until hundreds of years thence.
Abraham had absolutely no comprehension of the God who would envelop Himself in a thick
cloud amidst the thunderings and lightnings of the fiery
As the heavens are higher
than the earth, so is the Melchizedek priesthood higher than the priesthood of Aaron. The
Aaronic priesthood administered the LAW, whereas the priesthood of Melchizedek ministered
BLESSING. You will nowhere find an account in the scriptures of Melchizedek being anything
but a Blesser. He blessed Abraham and he blessed the Most High God. Let it be understood,
a blessing cannot be given in reality until the one giving it is a Blesser indeed.
Melchizedek had nothing whatever to do with the law - he was not a judge, he was not a
magistrate, he was not a curser, he was not a destroyer - instead he was a king and a
priest who lived in the realm of blessing and from thence became a blessing to those he
ministered to. There is a cosmic law that declares that one must be blessed before he can
be a Blesser. Consider what Heb. 7:6-7 says, "But he whose descent is not counted
from them (Levi)...blessed him that had the promises. And without all contradiction the
less is blessed of the better."
Melchizedek did not bless
just anyone, but he blessed him that had the PROMISES. How great were the promises given
to Abraham! There were seven great and wonderful promises given to Abraham, enumerated in
Gen. 12:2-3. The first was, "I will make of thee a great nation." The second
was, "I will bless thee." The third was, "I will make thy name great."
The word name carries with it the idea of honor, authority, and the character of the
individual. God was saying to Abraham that he would make his honor to be great; his
authority was to be great and even his character great. I will make thy name to be great.
The fourth promise was, "Thou shalt be a blessing." The fifth was, "And I
will bless them that bless thee." The sixth, "I will curse him that curseth
thee." Then the seventh was, "In thee shall ALL FAMILIES OF THE EARTH BE
BLESSED." Not the families of
God promised Abraham that He
would bless him. And when Melchizedek came out of the celestial realm that day, HE BLESSED
ABRAHAM. Then the Lord said, "Thou shalt BE a blessing...in thee shall ALL families
of the earth BE BLESSED." Ah - he was blessed...TO BE A BLESSING! With reverence and
godly respect I now tell you that you, dear reader of these lines, are included in these
wonderful promises. "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith
not, And to seeds as to many; BUT AS OF ONE, and to thy seed, WHICH IS CHRIST" (Gal.
3:16). God made this covenant, even this promise, with TWO PEOPLE only. With Abraham and
with His own Son, Jesus the Christ. With Abraham and his singular seed - WHICH IS CHRIST.
God not only made this covenant with a man, Abraham, but He made it with HIS OWN SON. God
had a witness in earth and a witness in heaven that He had made a covenant that through
Abraham and His Son, would every nation and family be blessed and it was confirmed with an
oath so that it could never fail.
"And if ye be Christ's,
THEN ARE YE ABRAHAM'S SEED AND HEIRS ACCORDING TO THE PROMISE" (Gal. 3:29). Can we
comprehend this? We today, now, are heirs according to that marvelous promise God gave to
Abraham and the Christ. We are heirs of every one of those seven conditions that God gave
to Abraham. We can take them all individually and apply them to ourselves and to the whole
body of the Christ. To Abraham God promised a seed which would come to bless the whole
earth, a seed through whom each and every person ever to see the light of day would be
blessed and delivered. We see that seed begin in the preparation of a nation chosen and
separated unto Himself. Long centuries afterward we behold Jesus of Nazareth, anointed
with the Holy Ghost and with power, walking the length and breadth of that favored nation
showing forth among its people the wondrous glory of His Father. God's holy word declares
Him to be the direct seed of Abraham according to the flesh, but the Son of God with
power. Truly He was the promised seed, the seed of Abraham and the anointed Son of God,
"thy seed which is Christ." To Paul the revelation was given to reveal how we,
the redeemed of this age, are MEMBERS IN PARTICULAR OF CHRIST, so that we are the CHRIST
BODY as Jesus is the CHRIST HEAD, that the Head and body together, indwelt by one Spirit,
are ONE CHRIST, the temple of the Lord and the habitation of God. "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 I-S C-H-R-I-S-T" (I Cor. 12:12). It is through this corporate,
many-membered Christ that the promises to Abraham and his seed shall be gloriously
fulfilled and all families and nations of the earth shall be blessed.
"Even as Abraham
believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they
which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen (nations) through faith, PREACHED BEFORE THE GOSPEL
UNTO ABRAHAM, saying, IN THEE SHALL ALL NATIONS BE BLESSED" (Gal. 3:6-8). In this
passage we see that God one day did some preaching. The almighty God with infinite care
and wisdom laid the plans for the magnificent work He would do through Abraham and his
seed. Then He told Abraham to attend a preaching service He was going to hold. Abraham was
the congregation. It makes no difference where the service was to be held. God was the
preacher and it would have been very wonderful to have been in the service. As God began
to preach, He brought forth the Gospel or the GOOD NEWS and it was this: ALL NATIONS were
to be blessed in Abraham.
All the nations of earth are
to be blessed. Certainly they have all been kissed by God's wonderful sunshine and have
drunk of the refreshing rain from heaven, but that is not what God is here speaking of. He
is pointing to a great manifestation of God that has not occurred - a time when God will
speak to all, reveal Himself to all, deliver all and bless all. A great and mighty move of
God shall come in the earth that few men have even dreamed of when the younger sons of
God, the CHRIST BODY, in union with their glorious Head are manifested in the fullness of
the wisdom, glory and power of God, at which time the whole creation will be lifted from
the bondage and night of corruption into the glorious freedom of the children of God (Rom.
8:18-23). What an exceeding great responsibility is laid upon us in the promises to
Abraham which we share!
Notice how many times the
words "bless," "blessed," and "blessing" occur in God's
promises to Abraham. Small wonder that when Melchizedek came he BLESSED him that had the
promises! And he was blessed to be a blessing. He was blessed to become a Blesser. And so
are we. "SO THEN they which be of faith ARE BLESSED with faithful Abraham" (Gal.
3:7). It isn't alone Abraham who is blessed, but we also who are of faith are blessed with
him. THE VERY SAME BLESSING WITH WHICH MELCHIZEDEK BLESSED ABRAHAM HAS NOW COME UPON US.
Oh! the wonder of it. That blessing is that God through us who ARE BLESSED W-I-L-L B-L-E-S-S
ALL FAMILIES AND NATIONS OF THE EARTH. No matter who we are, great or small, if we are of
faith, we are blessed with faithful Abraham - blessed TO BE A BLESSING. How wonderful are
these things! They are far beyond our expression or the ability of the most eloquent to
describe!
A millennium after God
blessed Abraham to make him a blessing the word of the Lord came to the remnant of
Abraham's seed proclaiming, "And it shall come to pass, that as ye were a curse among
the heathen, O house of Judah, and house of Israel; so will I save you, and YE SHALL BE A
BLESSING: fear not, but let your hands be strong" (Zech. 8:13). Let us notice this
statement: "Ye shall be a blessing." How important punctuation is! Should
someone put a question mark behind this statement it would read, "Ye shall be a
blessing?" And looking at ourselves, none of us are very important people in this
present world system, we're just common, ordinary, mostly uneducated people; laborers,
plumbers, farmers, electricians, mill workers, office workers, housewives, barbers,
mechanics, etc. The great ones of this world would look askance at us and incredulously
query, "YE shall be a blessing?" But we know from the Lord Almighty that as we
follow on to know the Lord we SHALL be a blessing, indeed. So we put an exclamation mark
at the end of the sentence, not a question mark. "Y-E SHALL BE A BLESSING!" I am
sure that all of the Lord's elect, those who press forward toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, cherish the Precious Promise that we are
called to be a part of that seed which shall bless all the families and nations of the
earth. As we daily view the desperate needs about us, of friends and family, of the
sinful, sorrowing, needy, sick and dying, oh! how we WANT to be a blessing! To be a
blessing - what a promise that is! What hope is contained therein But you don't just walk
up to a person and announce, "I'm your Blesser." We need to first BECOME. We
must BE. To BE bespeaks a state of being. God is teaching us, preparing us, training us to
BE Blessers indeed.
This preparation takes place
here, now, in our daily walk with God. We need training, we must acquire certain skills,
and betimes the preparation brings suffering, so that we might be merciful high priests.
If anyone could have been a Blesser without any training it would have been our Lord Jesus
Christ. But we find that "though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience through the
things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He became the author of eternal
salvation unto all that obey Him; called of God an High Priest after the Order of
Melchizedek. 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" (Heb. 5:8-10; 2:10). Ah, it does not stand to reason that an untrained,
uninstructed, undeveloped, untested, immature people will be used by God to bless and lift
and transform all the families and nations of the earth.
Out of the crucible of crisis
and the furnace of affliction God is raising up in the earth a BLESSING COMPANY. These
have received a word from the Lord as did the prophet of old, "God is not a man, that
He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He not said, and shall
He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good? Behold, I HAVE RECEIVED
COMMANDMENT TO BLESS: and He hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it' (Num. 23:19-2O). As
one has written, "There is a principle which becomes one of the foundational workings
in our process of BECOMING, as found in the verse, 'Judge not, and ye shall not be judged:
condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. Give, and
it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running
over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it
shall be measured to you again' (Lk. 6:37-38). Giving - and receiving again according to
how we have given. This is a principle which covers a vast area, far more than just
sharing of our finances, but in all our giving expressions - projected attitudes towards
others, feelings towards others, words spoken towards others, etc. so that we are reminded
again, 'blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.' 'Bless those who persecute
you - who are cruel in their attitude toward you; bless and do not curse them' (Rom.
12:14, Amplified). God has His servants for every task, and will place a sword in the hand
of the slayer, and those who shall purge the earth of its corruption. Justice will be
established in the earth, and righteousness shall be the foundation of His kingdom. They
will 'execute the judgments written,' with 'vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments
upon the people' (Ps. 149:7,9). But the Lord will also have those vessels of mercy, which
intercede with the prayer, 'O Lord...in wrath remember mercy' (Hab. 3:2), for they would
BLESS the nations" - Gospel Echoes.
The Order of Melchizedek is
an ORDER OF BLESSERS, no cursings, no negation to be uttered, no vindictiveness, no
judgment, but there is a ministry of blessing. This is far more than a doctrine to be
received or a formula of words to repeat, this is an expression of love and compassion
that flows from our spirit toward others until all the families and nations of the earth
have been touched and healed and quickened by His all-conquering love.
I must mention again the
principle of the Melchizedek Priesthood and the seed of Abraham in respect to blessing.
Melchizedek blessed Abraham. God had said to Abraham, "I will bless thee...and thou
shalt be a blessing...in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." First
Abraham was blessed, and then he could become a blessing. Blessed to BE A BLESSING. Oh!
may God somehow burn this truth indelibly into our hearts. But there is also the realm
wherein men bless in order to be blessed, giving and receiving again according to how they
have given. "Give, and it shall BE GIVEN UNTO YOU." "Blessed are the
merciful, for THEY SHALL OBTAIN MERCY." "Not rendering evil for evil, or railing
for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are "hereunto called, that ye
should INHERIT A BLESSING." This is all true, but when the Holy Spirit begins to
reveal the higher Order of Melchizedek within your spirit, my brother, a vast transforming
change commences to take place in your understanding. Gone forever is the desire to give
in order to receive, to be merciful so that in some future time you might receive mercy,
or to bless with a view to being blessed. Henceforth we begin to see things as God sees
them and from this high and holy vista our purified desire becomes only to BE BLESSED that
we may BE A BLESSING. In the Order of Melchizedek ALL THINGS ARE REVERSED. Truly there is
a changing, a reversing of all things in the New Order which is being birthed in the sons
of God. Our old ideas, teachings, conceptions, doctrines, methods, and desires are being
upset and overthrown, and our old theology acquired in the religious systems of
A work of transformation is
taking place in the mind. God is not dealing in this hour with the outward manifestation,
but He is probing deep into our being, to change the attitudes, thoughts and desires of
mind and heart. Thank God, He is stripping away the masquerades, purging and purifying,
that we might be conformed to His image, changed into His mind, a partaker of His nature.
We are challenged with our own development unto spiritual maturity, and therefore we have
received a commandment to bless - not that we might receive anything in return - for we
cannot truly bless another until it proceeds unselfishly and unmixed out of a pure heart -
a genuine desire that they be blessed. Oh for that purity of spirit, that complete
deliverance from the "seed-faith" mentality being peddled by the money-hungry
preachers of this evil day that continually urges the people to GIVE in order to GET and
to BLESS with the motive of BEING BLESSED a hundred-fold in return. May the blazing heat
of God's holy fire so transform our minds and hearts until every action can be thoroughly
WITHOUT GUILE, no ulterior motive for whatever this might turn to our own welfare again.
I do not hesitate to tell you
that giving to receive again, planting with a vision to reaping a harvest, is a true
principle in God - but it is the law of a plane beneath the Order of Melchizedek. Increase
is the law of the realm of limitation, of want, the in-part reaching forth to acquire
more. But the priesthood of Melchizedek is of the realm of the unlimited, of His fullness,
of an endless or indissoluble life. The priests of this order minister not from a sense of
THEIR NEED, but out of the consciousness of HIS FULLNESS. This transformation of mind and
attitude must take place in every son of God. These sons shall not do the will of their
heavenly Father in the childish hope that He will REWARD them for it; but such lift up
their voices in one accord with the blessed firstborn Son, saying, "Lo, I come: in
the volume of the book it is written of me, I D-E-L-I-G-H-T
TO DO THY WILL, O my God: yea, Thy law is written within my heart" (Ps. 40.7-8).
TAKING TITHES OR RECEIVING
TITHES
Immediately upon receiving
the blessing Abraham gave tithes of all to Melchizedek. This is the first mention of
tithes in the scriptures. Only on one other occasion is tithing mentioned before the law
of tithing was given to
There is a striking and
important contrast between the tithing systems of the two priesthood orders revealed in
Heb. 7:5-6. "Verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the
priesthood, have a commandment to TAKE TITHES of the people according to the law, that is,
of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham: but he whose descent is
not counted from them RECEIVED TITHES of Abraham..." Let us notice the comparison
between the two systems - the Levitical priesthood was commanded by the law to TAKE TITHES
(Num. 18:26) from the people; but Melchizedek, not operating under law, having no
commandment to take anything, asked for nothing, demanded nothing, took nothing, but
graciously RECEIVED the tithes freely given to him by Abraham. And what a vast difference!
We are in that time when all
who treasure the beautiful hope of sonship must recognize the difference between the two
divergent priesthoods whose principles of operation are still in use in the earth today.
There is that ministry in vogue today that literally TAKES tithes, DEMANDS tithes of the
people and they feel they have a right to do so. One of the prime requirements for
membership in the religious systems is your pledge to PAY TITHES into their organization.
Christians are taught by the churches to PAY A TITHE; this is one of the cardinal tenets
of faith. From the very beginning the new convert is instructed that if he doesn't tithe
he is robbing God, he is told that to be saved is to tithe, and not to tithe is to
backslide; for it is obvious that "if a man rob God" (by not giving to the
preacher), he surely is a sinner of the first magnitude. The tithe is such an important
item to the modern evangelist that it often takes an hour to "lift" the
"offering" as by fair means or foul, he TAKES tithes of the Lord's precious
people.
If the tithes cannot be
extracted through the use of law, pressure, or fear tactics, many so-called ministries
have stooped to the most humiliating and disgraceful fraudulence and hocus-pocus trickery
to bleed the poor people who attend their extravaganzas. Some months ago a classic example
of these crude methods came across my desk. There was this preacher who had a very
ingenious idea on "stewardship Sunday." He had all the pews rigged with
electrical wires. While asking the congregation how many would tithe, he pushed a button
which sent current throughout so that all of those who were to tithe would leap to their
feet. The whole congregation, of course, jumped up!
There is no shortage of men
and women seeking gold and glory. The land is overflowing with them, those seeking their
own gain and each staking his own claim. Within the past couple years, two of the most
famous international television pulpiteers have been exposed and their vast financial
holdings have been publicized. They have millions of dollars invested in their personal
homes and property while they beg and plead for money from the widows and the poor. They
live sumptuously while those who support their grandiose programs are living as paupers.
Where are those who are true harvesters of souls rather than those who gather (harvest)
money? Where are those who are building God's kingdom rather than their own? Where are
those who truly feed the sheep? Where are those who are not lifted up with pride? Where
are those who are not puffed up with their own importance? Where are those who do not
exalt themselves? Where is the preacher who doesn't seek to ingratiate himself to the one
with the expensive clothes and the luxury automobile? Where is the weeping before the
altar? Where are those who refrain from using the world's methods to conduct God's
business? Where are those who do not charge for the Gospel? Where are those who do not
have a ministry for sale? Where are those who have not taken unto themselves the gold and
the glory? Where are those who are not displaying their flesh in their man-made
promotions? Where are those of a broken and contrite spirit? Where are those with the
meekness and purity of the Lamb? Where are those who have not brought the spirit of this
world into their midst? Where are those who do not put their picture on every page of
their magazine and their name on everything they do? Where is the simple message of the
Where will those stand in the
day of judgment who put a price on God's glorious blood bought Gospel? I have in my hand
the account of one healing preacher who wrote thus: "When God impelled me to set a
price on my instruction in healing, I could think of no financial equivalent for an
impartation of a knowledge of that Divine power which heals; but I was led to name $300.00
as the price for each pupil in one course of lessons." I tell you, preacher, God had
no hand in your mercenary fee, and you are a liar. It is a lie to tell me or any one that
the great God and Father in heaven told you to charge in money for what, if you were
really His servant, is God's free gift, Divine healing. When Jesus sent forth His
disciples, He said, "Preach the gospel, heal the sick, FREELY you have received,
FREELY GIVE," and He never took that back, never! Where did you get your revelation
from, preacher, to charge $300.00 for twenty lessons on healing? Considering the
multitudes that followed Jesus and the apostles, think how wealthy they could have become
had the Father given them such instructions!
Religion today is BIG
BUSINESS. Some of the best known "born again"
Have today's ministers never
read the wondrous invitation penned by the faithful seer of
I have never in my life made
a bargain for any spiritual service I rendered. I never received a salary, excepting for
one six month period when I was among brethren who did not understand the principles of
the Kingdom, and then I did not ask or bargain for anything, I accepted what they were
accustomed to give until I could expound to them more perfectly the way of the Lord. Then
I told the brethren to cut off the salary and let me receive only the free-will offerings
that the saints would be led of the Lord to hand to us, and it was done. In years past we
served as ministry to several churches, traveled as an evangelist, took our family to
three foreign countries, living and laboring for a total of six years on the mission
fields, and for the past ten years have devoted our full time to writing and publishing
the message of the Kingdom of God, sending out from this office FREE OF CHARGE untold
hundreds of thousands of articles and booklets all around the world. Never have we sent
out any letter or gone to any meeting asking or begging for money for either ourselves or
the work. Never in all these years have we gone hungry, or naked, or been foreclosed upon,
or been stranded in any city or place, and though the expenses each month are large and
increase every week, yet no bill has gone unpaid.
Many years ago I was
inspired, encouraged and instructed by the testimony of that great man of prayer, George
Muller. George Muller was the man of faith from the orphanages in
"When I first began to
allow God to deal with me, relying on Him, taking Him at His word, and set out fifty years
ago simply relying on Him for myself, family, taxes, traveling expenses and every other
need, I rested on the simple promises I found in the sixth chapter of Matthew. I believed
the Word, I rested on it and practiced it. I took God at His word. A stranger, a foreigner
in England, I knew seven languages and might have used them perhaps as a means of
remunerative employment, but I had consecrated myself to labor for the Lord, I put my
reliance in the Lord who had promised, and He has acted according to His Word. I've lacked
nothing - nothing. I have had my trials and difficulties, and my purse empty, but my
receipts have aggregated. I have received thousands and thousands of dollars, while the
work has gone on these fifty-one years. Then, with regard to my pastoral work; for the
past fifty-one years I have had great difficulties, great trials and perplexities. There
will always be difficulties, always trials. But God has sustained me out of them, and the
work has gone on.
"Now, this is not, as
some have said, because I am a man of great mental power, or endowed with energy, and
perseverance - these are not the reasons. It is because I have confided in God; because I
have sought God, and He has cared for the Institution, which, under His direction, has one
hundred schools, with masters and mistresses, and other departments of which I have told
you before. I do not carry the burden. And now in my sixty-seventh year, I have physical
strength and mental vigor for as much work as when I was a young man in the university,
studying and preparing Latin orations. I am just as vigorous as at that time. How comes
this? Because in the last half-century of labor I've been able with the simplicity of a
child, to rely upon God. I have had my trials, but I have laid hold upon God, and so it
has come to pass that I have been sustained. It is not only permission, but positive
command that He gives, to cast our burdens upon Him. Oh, let us do it! My beloved brothers
and sisters in Christ, Cast thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee. Day by day
I do it. This morning sixty matters in connection with the church here, I brought before
the Lord, and thus it is, day by day I do it, and year by year; ten years, thirty years,
forty years" - end quote.
I can add to this my own
testimony. I have trusted God, but I have worked hard, harder many times than I would have
worked if I had continued my business career. And we have never charged for a book, or
article, or sermon, or tape, or service or any other thing we have shared with the saints.
And our Father has graciously supplied every need - day by day. This is God's way, the
principle of the
Let me ask all who charge for
their ministries, books, magazines or tapes: If Christ sent you to do the work, why did He
not supply its needs without you charging or begging? Why would the Lord not lay the need
of His work on the hearts of the faithful if the work is of Him? Has His Word not told us
that the Lord will supply all our need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus?
(Phil. 4:19). If the Lord sent you to preach, to pray, to distribute literature or tapes,
would He not supply your need as He did for His disciples? (Lk. 22:35). If He will not
supply your need would you not be justified in closing your doors and folding up the
ministry? I certainly believe so. Oh ye of little faith! That is the root of the matter.
If God is going to apprehend me to do a work and then leave me to my own resources, to
sell the Gospel, to put a price on the incorruptible Word of omnipotent God, to beg and
plead with men to accomplish it, then there is undoubtedly something very wrong somewhere.
Woe unto them that make the house of the Lord a place of merchandise! "Oh," they
excuse themselves, "you can never accomplish anything for God that way. If you do not
remind, coax, stimulate, inspire, entice, and prod the people to give, they will not give.
If you do not impress upon them the urgency of the need and pass the offering plate before
their noses, the supply will dry up. You cannot do any great work without asking for
money; it is simply impossible." God's people should never be deceived by these
self-appointed promoters of God's work. They are merely men without faith, with no
comprehension of the power of the
Why should it be thought a
thing impossible that God who heals the sick, raises the dead, and sustains the vast
universe of hundreds of billions of stars and planets and suns and moons should supply the
needs of His own work miraculously in response to His servant's faith? It is so great a
thing that if we did not have the assurance that we have a faithful God who is able to do
it, we should simply say the thing is impossible. We should say that with the Indian
Chief, who said, in the early days of this country, when Brainerd, the missionary, took
the Gospel to him and told him its requirements, "The thing is impossible; it cannot
be done." "Yes," said Brainerd, "it can be done. You can be delivered
from all your sins, and you can be meek, and humble, and lowly, and yet brave. You can
cease to do evil." "I cannot," said the Chief; "it is impossible. The
thing cannot be done." Walking up and down and to and fro in exceeding trouble of
mind, at last the Chief stopped, and, looking at Brainerd, said, "It can be done,
Missionary, if the Great Spirit will give me a new heart." "That is just
it," said Brainerd. "The Great Spirit will give you a new heart. If you will ask
God for Jesus' sake, the Great Spirit, the Holy Spirit, will come and give you a new
heart." "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within
me." "Then," said the Chief, "let us ask Him"; and that was how
he first began to pray. He asked the Great Spirit for a new heart, and he got it that day.
Oh! if only God's ministers
would get a new heart and learn this great principle of the
All who by law, by coercion,
or by fear TAKE tithes from God's people live still under the Old Testament Levitical
order, their unanointed eyes sealed in blindness from that higher, more glorious Order of
Melchizedek. Do we mean by this that in the Order of Melchizedek the principle of tithing
and giving is done away? No way! Tithing was not merely a part of the Mosaic legislation.
It predated Moses by many centuries. Jacob gave tithes hundreds of years before God
thundered His law from
Ray Prinzing has so aptly
written on this point: "How many are TAKING tithes today, by fair means or foul, and
they feel they have a right to do so; but others are simply receiving them as God supplies
their needs through faithful givers. This arising Melchizedek kind of people are trusting
in the Most High God, who possesses heaven and earth, and they just believe in Him to
provide, therefore instead of TAKING they are content with RECEIVING what He supplies.
This is not with condemnation for those who pass an offering plate, nor for praise to
those who simply have a box where contributions might be given but rather a probing into
our hearts to see whether we have a desire to TAKE or just receive as God gives. One may
refrain from outwardly taking, while inwardly wishing they could lift from the people some
of these large offerings which others do - WHAT IS THE MOTIVATION OF OUR INWARD DESIRE? Do
we know what spirit we are of? At least I liked the honesty of a preacher who once said,
'This is a faith work - faith in all you people to give,' and so he promptly proceeded to
make his appeal. But if our faith is in the MOST HIGH GOD, then there need be no appeal to
men, but just a committal to Him who is able to 'make all grace abound toward you, that
ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work,' as we
read in II Cor. 9:8. This same principle works from the other side, do we have to be asked
to give, or do we know the grace of giving as unto our Lord?" - end quote. To which I
would add - those of the Melchizedek Order are BLESSERS primarily, then when people out of
their own sanctified spirits GIVE without manipulation of their tithes and offerings,
those of the Melchizedek spirit RECEIVE it with praise and thanksgiving unto God. What a
difference between the TAKING and RECEIVING of tithes! There is NO LAW here, the entire
issue is raised up into the dimension of SPIRIT.
Our dear friend and precious
brother, Elwin Roach, publisher of THE PATHFINDER paper, penned the following words of
practical and godly admonition. "I have heard people say that since tithing is of the
law, and they don't want to be bound by the law, they only give when the Lord 'tells them
to give,' not realizing that to give only because they are TOLD to do so is evidence that
they are STILL UNDER THE LAW. It matters not who is telling us to give: the written Word,
pastors of the churches, or the Holy Spirit Himself, if we are compelled to give in any
way other than LOVE, we are giving according to the law. Is there any difference between
the Spirit that told Moses to have
As I have pointed out, we
know that under the law
Another has written, "If
we compare the ministry of Jesus with that of modern preachers, we will see that the
preacher of today is truly of another spirit and not of the Spirit of Christ. Jesus told
His disciples, 'The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of
man hath not where to lay His head' (Mat. 8:20). Having made this statement, Jesus did not
follow it with an appeal for the people's money. He simply trusted that all His material
needs would be met. Basically, God's people are givers. Those who believe the Gospel and
are in harmony with all its precepts, are givers. The Lord's precious people will give out
of an overflowing heart, and the Lord knew this. Therefore, He did not need to ask for
anything. All He needed in this life was supplied Him by those who believed His message.
It is always encouraging to see the Lord's people give as unto the Lord, even if they do
give to a man who is mis-using the funds. He will be severely judged of the Lord, while
those who give out of an overflowing heart of love will be blessed abundantly" - Paul
Mueller in THE LIVING WORD.
Part
31
THE
PRIESTHOOD OF MERCY
"But ye shall be NAMED
the priests of the Lord: men shall call you the ministers of our God...for as the earth
bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring
forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness to spring forth before all nations"
(Isa. 61:6,11).
Perhaps you have heard the
question, "What's in a name?" A name is more than a moniker, more than a simple
badge or means of identification, something by which we address people specifically and
individually. In Biblical usage there is MUCH in a name. True, the names we give our
children in this modern day usually have little or no significance. We often name our
children after some favorite aunt, uncle or grandparent, or choose a name because we like
its sound or association. But in Bible times names were chosen with great care and were
frequently given by prophetic utterance or under divine inspiration so that the names
actually revealed the NATURE, CHARACTER, ATTRIBUTES and DESTINY of the person, and thus
carried a message to all who spoke or used that name.
In a very real sense the
"name" of a being is regarded as being a real part of the person. In a certain
sense there can be no separation whatsoever between a man's name and what he is as a
person. If you think about it, we, who live in this "modern" world, make the
same kind of connection for we say that a man's name is what he makes it to be by what he
does and says. Some are said to have a "name for honesty," while others are
declared to have a "bad name." In such instances the "name" and
character are one and the same. In the Old Testament the innermost being of a man is
expressed in his name. This is why Esau declares of his conniving brother, "Is he not
rightly named Jacob? (Supplanter) For he has supplanted me these two times" (Gen.
27:36). Abram, which means "father," had his name changed to
"Abraham," meaning "father of many nations," for such he was to become
in very fact. His wife also was given a change of name from Sarai, which means
"contentious," to "Sarah," meaning "Princess," for, said the
Lord, "I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall
be of her."
There is the feeling that
one's name actually possesses a certain power over its bearer because it cannot be
separated from the essence of his personality. In the name of Nabal, the husband of
Abigail, is found the expression of his essential character. Seeking to excuse him she
says, "As his name is, so is he! Nabal (Fool) is his name, and folly is with
him" (II Sam. 25:25). This same principle is to be seen in the life of the patriarch
Jacob. After wrestling with the Angel of the Lord he underwent a change of attitude and
alteration of character which was accompanied by a change of name. Having seen the
"face" or presence of God he was no longer the same man that he had been before
his encounter with the Lord. Since "name" and character are absolutely
identified there had to be a change in Jacob's appellation. The Angel of the Lord,
therefore, said, "Thy name shall no more be called Jacob, but
The name of the Son of God is
Jesus. That is His complete name. That is His correct name. That is His full name. The
name of the eternal Word of God who stepped across the stars to the planet earth to be
born in the little
Biblical names were almost
invariably given to project, to convey some major aspect of the individual who would bear
that name. Since He would be the Salvation of Jehovah unto His people, call Him Saviour.
Some of you are saying, "Now hold the fort, Eby, isn't His first name Lord and His
last name Christ?" NO! Neither Lord nor Christ is a name. It is very important that
we understand that. Christ is not a name. Christ is a position. Christ is an office.
Christ is a title, as also is Lord. Christ is a description of an individual who holds a
particular office. If I were to say to you, "What is the name of the man who holds
the highest office in the
The inspired prophet summed
up in one bold statement what it means to be a priest of God. "Ye shall be NAMED the
priests of the Lord: men shall call you the ministers of our God" (Isa. 61:6). There
is marvelous significance in that one word "named." Named! You shall be
N-A-M-E-D the priests of the Lord. This passage forcefully reveals the great truth that
all who would be priests of God MUST UNDERGO A CHANGE OF NATURE, to become priests by
name, by nature, so that priesthood is not merely a title given to them but a nature lived
out through them. If our spiritual minds can grasp the fact, to be NAMED the priests of
the Lord means to be NATURED the priests of the Lord, to so be imbued with the priestly
nature until we BECOME A PRIEST in our very state of being.
Jesus, when teaching His
disciples in Mat. 5:38-48, said these words, "Ye have heard that it hath been said,
An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." In other words, give back to people
exactly what you receive from them! This is the way of the human nature. If someone blacks
your eye, then blacken his in return. This is the way the human nature desires to do. In a
Sunday School class the teacher had been teaching on the principles in the Sermon on the
Mount, and she inquired of little Johnny, "Johnny, what would you do if Tommy slapped
you on the right cheek?" He answered, "Teacher, I would turn the other
one." And then as an afterthought he said, "But boy, if he hit that one, I would
beat the stuffing out of him!" This little fellow was just being true to his human
nature. Jesus went on to say, "But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but
whosoever shall smite you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man
will sue you at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And
whosoever shall compel you to go with him a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that
asketh you, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn him not away. Ye have heard that
it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you,
Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for
them that despitefully use you and persecute you."
Ah, to act thus is contrary
to human nature. The human nature wants to retaliate in the way it has been treated. If
someone loves us and is gracious to us, we seek to requite their love and kindness; but if
they strike us, we want to strike back. If they curse us we return the same to them. Jesus
said, "It is easy to love those who love us, the publicans and sinners do that."
But to love those who hate you and despitefully use you, that is something else! To be
able from the heart, by nature to do these things that Jesus teaches us here is evidence
of the possession of the divine nature. Not to so act as one under law or compulsion; but
to so love and forgive and bless because it is within our nature to do this - then we are
getting somewhere in God! It requires a change of nature. It is not natural to be a
priest, it is not according to the human nature to respond to the shortcomings, insults,
injuries, sins and wretchedness of men with understanding, compassion, mercy and
redemption.
Jesus continued, "That
ye may be the sons of your Father which is in heaven; for He maketh His sun to rise on the
evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." You see, God
makes no difference; He is not a respecter of persons. He treats the evil man exactly the
same as He treats the good. He sends His rain on the just man and on the unjust alike. He
will treat the rebellious the same way as He treats the obedient. This is OUR FATHER! And
we are His sons, those who share His nature, who think as He thinks and act as He acts.
This is what it means to be named - NATURED - the priests of the Lord! Let us note in
passing, the Authorized version says, "that ye may be the children of your Father in
heaven." The Greek word here is "huios" meaning "sons," mature
sons, not little children. Mature sons are NATURED priests!
MERCIFUL PRIESTS
Why did the eternal Word of
God become a man? Why did He have to? What humiliation and sacrifice He endured when He
stripped Himself of His glory, and took upon Himself the likeness of sinful flesh! George
Wylie relates the following experience from his eventful life which beautifully expresses
the purpose of Christ in descending into the estate of man. "Years ago, when I was
still at home on the farm, we had a manure pile in the field; the former owners had been
cleaning out the barn and piling the manure there for years. There was a colony of snakes
living in this manure pile, and on a sunny day one could see several of them lying on the
sunny south side sunning themselves. One day I was emptying a load of manure on the north
side, and I sneaked up over the pile to get a look at the snakes. There were several lying
there; and as I stood observing them, the Lord seemed to say to me, How would you like to
become one of those creatures and live among them in this manure pile? I shuddered at the
thought. I just couldn't comprehend how terrible it would be. To lower myself to that
extent was unthinkable. Then the Lord said to me, 'For my Son to leave His home in the
glory above, to become a man in the likeness of sinful flesh, for your sake and your
salvation, was much worse than that.' I have never forgotten that experience. It made me
appreciate much more the sacrifice He made for me" - end quote.
The writer to the Hebrews put
it this way: "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He
also Himself likewise took part of the same. For verily He took not on Him the nature of
angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. 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.
2:14-18). When the Word of God consented to be made flesh, to strip Himself of the glory
He had before, and become a man, a human being, to live among the vileness of the sinful,
rebellious and dying, to be touched by the same infirmities, weaknesses and feelings that
touch us, to suffer being tempted in all points like as we are, to learn obedience by that
suffering, to be rejected and suffer the agony of false accusation and the humiliation of
ridicule, the pain of the stripes received from the Roman lashes and the suffering of the
cross itself; why did He submit to all this? The stock answer to this is that He had to
become a man in order to purchase our redemption. This is true. This is part of the reason
He became a man, but only part of it; there is much more to the reason He became a man,
much more. Not for one moment would I detract from His great love for us in the sacrifice
He made for our salvation. Such love, such wondrous love! Words fail to express the wonder
of all that was transacted at
The saintliness that cannot
romp and laugh with little children, and looks askance on the sins and sorrows and
tragedies in the world around, and shuts itself up in cloistered seclusion, is not the
spirit of our great High Priest, who watched the children playing in the market places,
and called them to His arms, and mingled freely at the dinner tables of the rich and
famous and sinful. No; the saintliness that becomes a son of God must find its home in the
ordinary homes and haunts of men.
THE NATURE OF MERCY
How many people excel in so
many virtues, and live in a state of holiness so far as their conduct is concerned, and
yet spoil it all with an unmerciful disposition. It has been said that there are only two
kinds of sin: There are the sins of the body and the sins of the disposition. Christians
have come to condemn the sins of the body as far worse. But listen to this, O sons of God:
No form of vice, not worldliness, not greed of gold, not drunkenness, not adultery itself,
does more to shut God up from men than unmercifulness. For embittering life, for breaking
up communities, for destroying the most sacred relationships, for devastating homes, for
withering up men and women, for taking the bloom of childhood, in short, for sheer
gratuitous misery-producing power, lack of love and unmercifulness take the lead.
The sins of the body and the
sins of the disposition are characterized by the Prodigal Son and by his Older Brother.
But, ultimately, which was worse? And how many prodigal sons are kept out of the
Let all men know that God is
a GOD OF MERCY! "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in
mercy. He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger for ever. He hath not
dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities" (Ps.
l03:8-l0). "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. For the Lord is good;
His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations" (Ps. l00:1,5).
"Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful" (Lk. 6:36).
"Blessed are the merciful..." (Mat. 5:7). SONS OF THE HIGHEST will be merciful
even as their Father! Webster defines mercy as: Benevolence, mildness, or tenderness of
heart; a disposition that tempers justice and leads to the infliction of a lighter
punishment than law or justice will warrant; clemency; an act or exercise of benevolence
or favor; a blessing; compassion or pity, or the power to display either. Someone has
written that "Mercy is forbearance from inflicting harm under provocation. It is
compassionate treatment of an offender or adversary. It is the disposition to exercise
compassion and forgiveness. In fact, mercy is compassion so great as to enable one to
forbear punishing even when justice demands it. Many would sacrifice upon the altars of
justice every offender without the slightest thought of mercy. But Jesus declared, 'Go ye
and learn what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."'
These are qualities and
attributes of OUR FATHER. Our Father is MERCIFUL - and it therefore follows that His sons
will be merciful as they manifest the nature of their Father. For long centuries
Christendom has endeavored to make men sin-conscious, devil-conscious and hell-conscious.
It reminds me of a story I read once of a little boy who went with his mother to the toy
department of a store. A big sign read, "Children are not allowed to play with the
toys or on the toys." Ignoring the sign, the little boy climbed on the hobby horse
and started rocking back and forth. His mother said, "Come on, you've got to get
down, you cannot play on that horse." He pushed her away and held on to the neck of
the horse, even though she scolded and tugged at him. Finally, the clerk approached and
said, "Sorry, but the sign says, 'No Children Allowed on the Toys.' But if your
mother wants to buy it..." The boy ignored him so the clerk called the Assistant
Manager who grabbed the boy's arm and repeated, "Sonny, you're not allowed to play on
that horse unless you buy it." The boy pushed him away, so the Assistant Manager
called the Manager. He also gave the youngster a lecture, explaining in very rational
terms, "Sonny, if everybody came and played on these toys they would soon be broken
and we could not sell them, we'd lose all our money. Now its time to get off the
horse." The little boy hung on tighter. Frustrated, the store manager called the
staff Psychologist, who proceeded to go through all the various behavior modification
techniques and strategies to get the boy off the horse. But the kid wouldn't budge.
Finally, a tough, burly old man, who had been watching the entire scene, approached the
frustrated motivators and said, "Let me talk to him." He went over and whispered
something in the boy's ear. Immediately the boy jumped off the horse and said, "Okay,
momma, lets go home." Surprised, the mother asked, "What did that man say to
you?" The youngster replied, "He told me, 'You get off the horse or I'll break
every bone in your body!"
The Church has used the same
technique to bring men to Christ and who can say that fear of judgment, hell and damnation
has not motivated men to turn from sin to the Lord? Such tactics do indeed bear results,
but the message of judgment must ever be counterbalanced with the demonstration of mercy.
"Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each
other" (Ps. 35:10). I remember some of those hell, fire and brimstone sermons that
used to make straight hair curl, trying to scare people into heaven. I heard some
preachers say, "God takes all the sins that He is holding in reserve against you and
holds them over your head to keep you going straight!" Then they would thunder on,
"You're going to have to face every sin because they are all written down in your
book and held in reserve. On the day of judgment, God is going to take a big screen and
projector and show all your sins to the world, including your family and friends. Then you
will be cast into the flames of eternal hell, kicking and screaming and writhing forever
without mercy." People really squirmed when they heard a message like that, and it
seemingly moved some people toward God, but praise God, it isn't true!
Demonstrations of mercy, such
as the world has never known, are now upon our horizon, ready to be manifested at our
Father's appointed time. Concurrent with the darkness that covers the earth, and gross
darkness spread as a veil over the people, is the LIGHT OF HIS GLORY which shall arise
upon His own, a message of MERCY and HOPE. God is forming a merciful priesthood to
minister unto all nations. God has prepared a divine show for all the earth. It is a light
arising in the darkness and over the darkness. It is a theatrical of MERCY in a world of
wrath and violence.
THE GOD OF MERCY
When Moses went up into the
mount to receive the tables of the law, before ever that law was fully given to Israel,
already there was a proclamation of the mercy of the Lord that would far supersede the law
they were about to receive. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of
stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the
first tables, which thou brakest. And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning
unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount. And he hewed
two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went
up unto mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of
stone. And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the
NAME of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord
God, MERCIFUL AND GRACIOUS, LONGSUFFERING, AND ABUNDANT IN GOODNESS AND TRUTH, KEEPING
MERCY FOR THOUSANDS, FORGIVING INIQUITY AND TRANSGRESSION AND SIN, and that will by no
means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon
the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. And Moses made
haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped" (Ex. 34:1-8).
Here was a startlingly new
view of a Supreme Monarch on the earth, a King who forgives law-breaking, and trespass,
and evil, to anyone who seeks that forgiveness. He will not clear the guilty as long as
they remain guilty before Him, there would be a full accounting of iniquity, but even the
penalty inflicted has limitations - "unto the third and fourth generations" -
and then the correction ends and the Lord in wrath remembers mercy. But they need not
remain guilty before Him, for even His law provides a way to His mercy. In that moment
when the guilty are willing to meet God on the grounds of the mercy proffered for their
forgiveness, they come to know Him, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving
iniquity and transgression and sin - and that was under the law! The Old Covenant was a
supreme wonder on the earth, in the world of that time, exactly on that account: MERCY
OFFERED TO ALL. There was not any other nation in whose law was revealed such a LORD and
such a GOD, and the extent of His mercy was marked out by the sweet Psalmist of Israel who
proclaimed, "The mercy of the Lord endureth for ever." What a revelation! There
never was any law in any other nation like it, for that very reason: MERCY OFFERED TO ALL.
"And it came to pass, as
Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with
Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto His disciples, Why
eateth your master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, He said unto
them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. BUT GO YE AND LEARN
WHAT THIS MEANETH! I WILL HAVE MERCY, and not sacrifice; for I am not come to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Mat. 9:10-13). Jesus was quoting to them from
Hosea 6:6 wherein the scripture wording is, "I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and
the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." The Old Testament life and worship
was built around sacrifices. The sacrifices meant this: That in the worshipper was the
knowledge that all life belongs to the Creator. The worshipper came with the offering of
the blood of an unblemished animal because God's own Word said to do so. The offerer came
with the acknowledgment: "All life is Thine. I am a sinner and deserve to die. But
Thou hast given me the right to offer this animal, in faith, on my behalf. And I
acknowledge that my life belongs to Thee." That was the FAITH of the sacrifices, and
sacrifice was the great central feature from the time that God sent the first family of
man out of His Paradise.
Yet, here, we have Jesus
saying, "Go and learn what this meaneth, I will have mercy, AND NOT SACRIFICE."
In Hosea the word is, "I desired mercy and not sacrifice." The word
"desired" and the word "will" mean the same thing when God is speaking
of Himself. In English we use the phrase "will have" as the equivalent of the
term "desired." The clear intention of Jesus in quoting the passage, is to place
before those heckling Pharisees a statement regarding the WILL of God - the WILL which He
had come to do. They had asked, "WHY! does He eat with sinners? WHY does He do
it?" And in His answer Jesus stated for all time what the direct WILL OF GOD is,
between Himself and His creatures, and also for His people one with another. It is best to
drop the English word "have" and use the straight equivalent of the Old
Testament word "desired." Thus stated it is, "I WILL mercy, and not
sacrifice." The word "desired" and the word "will" tell us what
God wants us to know: I WILL mercy. If you will accept that as a seed into your heart, it
will grow up, by doing it, into a glorious knowledge of THE SWEET WILL OF GOD.
Here is something so vital,
so revolutionary, so wonderful that you cannot afford to have any controversy about it, or
any doubt in your mind. "GO and LEARN what this meaneth, I WILL MERCY and not
sacrifice, for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." They
had wanted to know, "Why?" And Jesus in His divine answer tells them: It is
because GOD'S W-I-L-L IS M-E-R-C-Y - and I am come to DO HIS WILL. So there you have it,
precious friend of mine. Are you willing to know the meaning of this word, "I WILL
MERCY"? Let me ask you a question. Deep within your innermost being, does your heart
and mind give assent? Does your spirit bear witness, "Yes, that is the will of
God!" If you are willing to face that point; and are willing to say that HIS WILL IS
MERCY, then dear one, you can go out of the place where you are today knowing more about
the Kingdom of God than you ever dreamed that you could know. No matter how impotent your
life may have been; regardless how spoiled things have been for you; you can go forth as
an expression of the WILL OF GOD. For if you will humble your mind and your will, before
the revelation of the Word of God, you can move into a manifestation of the
Ah, even as
priests-in-preparation, we are still in the learning process, learning to have mercy,
learning to love unconditionally and infinitely and bless. How? By being subjected to all
these situations wherein we ourselves need mercy, where we must obtain grace to help in
time of need. In some areas we are so intolerant - because we have never been tested on
that point, do not know what our own weakness would be in that area. But "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 ABOUT WITH
INFIRMITY" (Heb. 5:1-2). As one has written, "He who is the Father of mercies
shall also bring forth His SONS OF MERCY through whom He shall manifest His compassion and
love for all mankind. It is because we are returning to our Father, receiving of His
mercies, we are also learning to have mercy upon others. As we receive, so shall we
give."
HIS MERCIFUL ONES
My earnest prayer to God is
that all His dear sons shall learn this one grand truth: "Judge not, that ye be not
judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye
mete, it shall be measured to you again" (Mat. 7:1-2). Note the words: Shall be
judged - shall be measured. There are two kinds of judgment. One is of condemnation; the
other is of mercy. The one is according to appearance and accusation of evil; the other is
righteous judgment and according to truth and mercy. Jesus commands to "Judge not
according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment." He warns against the judgment
which arises from faultfinding and condemning. The warning is this: You will be judged
WITH your own judgment, and you will be measured with, or in, YOUR OWN MEASURE. The
measure which you use for others is the very same measure which will be used for you -
until you learn!
This is so serious a matter
that it would seem as though all Christians would be overwhelmingly concerned over these
words. But quite the contrary appears to be the fact. How quickly and easily these words
are forgotten by many! The reason is that the human heart is a judgment seat, before which
everyone passes who is seen or thought of. All day long we are sitting as Judge in the
court of our unseen heart. Unseen, that is, to men. Judging others - ceaselessly all day.
Day by day, night by night. We are judging, judging, measuring every one and every thing.
We do not always need full and sufficient evidence because we love ourselves, and in that
self-love we think that we know. We judge by whims, and feelings, and imaginations; by our
own self-made standards, by what we like and don't like. We are the center. Our judgment
is according to what people do or do not do in our favor - and for our benefit and glory -
and for our satisfaction. We judge by appearance. And so wicked men judged Jesus, and
drove Him to death - the guiltless One. Why? Because they did not know nor understand one
small thing which is the true knowledge of God. What was that? MERCY - "I will
mercy." And you and I will do the same until that beautiful day when the glories of
the Melchizedekian Priesthood are unfolded before our wondering eyes and we see and know
and understand once and for all the sublime fact that we have been apprehended and are now
being prepared by the master hands of our omnipotent Father to be VESSELS OF MERCY, yea, a
MERCIFUL PRIESTHOOD unto the whole world.
How precious this inworking
of His grace whereby we are being transformed to become HIS
M-E-R-C-I-F-UL ONES, How long we have Walked With God without
learning what it means to "Have mercy," to become a vessel or channel through
whom His mercy is poured forth. There has been far too much fight in us, a demand for
justice according to what we perceived to be justice. "And that He might make known
the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory,
even us, whom He hath called..." (
A royal priesthood! Merciful
priests! The priestly heart is above all things a sympathetic, compassionate heart, in
which the love of Christ constrains us to express His goodness unto men. A priestly heart!
O Spirit of God! write upon my heart, with indelible letters, the merciful nature of my
High Priest. It is my deep conviction that it is more important to manifest the nature of
the Christ in meeting a person's need, than in witnessing to people about the "plan
of salvation." Christians have become so conditioned to the idea that they aren't
"doing anything for God" unless they get out and witness and skillfully use the
sword of the Word of God. But, my precious brother, sister, when you are merciful and help
people in their desperate need, you BECOME A LIVING WORD to them which says, "I care
and God cares for you!" That doesn't mean that we exalt ourselves as Jesus; it simply
means that Jesus is living His life through us. We become a Word that is alive to them,
not a dead, printed word, or a religious word, but a Living Word. This is a life to be
lived, and it is more important than witnessing, quoting scripture, preaching or teaching.
Instead of witnessing, we BECOME THE WITNESS of what our Father is REALLY LIKE.
There is no need to be
skilled in the wisdom and ways of this world, no special talent is needed, no training, no
education, wealth, power, or attainment in order to BE A VESSEL OF MERCY. Any saint of God
can be a merciful priest any day, because there are people who need help every day! When
we care for them, we are bringing the heart of God to them in the place of their need. Our
Father cares for every soul that has ever seen the light of day upon this planet. The way
that He has chosen to reveal that He cares is through His MERCIFUL PRIESTHOOD. That is why
it is important for us to know what God is like. Do not glory in wealth, or wisdom, or
might, or the things of this world, my friend, but glory in this, that you know God, that
He is a God of justice and a God that is filled with kindness and tender mercies that
endure forever.
It is the property of God to
always have mercy. His mercy is above the heavens. It is from everlasting to everlasting.
He has provided a way that the banished may always return. There can be no limits to God's
mercy. Men have limits to their mercy, but our God has none. The mercy of God is not only
mercy, but it is tender mercy. It is mercy of the utmost tenderness and love. It is mercy
which reaches to all. Christ Himself manifested that mercy. It is mercy without any alloy,
pure, and without any keeping back. It is mercy without any remembrance of the
transgression. It is the blotting of it out. It is the casting of it into the deep sea of
eternal forgetfulness. It extends through all time and into eternity. Those who would be
priests of the Most High must exercise His mercy. When you exercise mercy it must be in
great tenderness; not grudgingly, not by force, but because you desire to do it. Gentle
and heavenly mercy is of God. When God speaks of mercy, He uses a figure which is of
sublime 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. Matters not where are
the heavens of His justice and wrath; His mercy is higher than all! 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 sons there is no brighter gem. He sets a crown
of forgiveness and tender mercy upon our brows. When we are merciful and kind and
compassionate, we are most like God. Those who are merciful to their fellow men shall
obtain mercy without measure.
I am not excusing sin. I am
not watering sin down. Every unconfessed and unrepented sin shall receive a just
recompense of reward. But the King-Priest ministry after the Order of Melchizedek has been
sent to DELIVER, and not condemn the world! Blessed are these peacemakers. It takes a real
man to stand between two warring spirits and swallow up the death and hell in both without
being contaminated. We have been invited to participate in this MORE EXCELLENT MINISTRY of
forgiveness and blessing.
If you are a priest there is
something about you which is not ordinary; you have distinct and distinguishing
characteristics. You are equipped with Christ, filled with Christ and clothed with Christ.
Whatever you handle, you will handle with Christ; whatever you do, you will do with
Christ. You will manifest Christ. There are many ministries for priests to perform.
Preachers can only preach, singers can only sing, witnessers can only witness; but priests
can touch all men with the mercy and love of God right where they are.
THE MERCY SEAT
Exodus chapter twenty-five
gives the description and instruction concerning the Tabernacle of Moses, the Ark of the
Covenant and the Mercy Seat which was to be over it. The commandment of the Lord to Moses
was to take an offering from all whose hearts willingly offered, and construct a
Tabernacle - a Tent-of-meeting. It was to be the LORD'S TENT in the midst of the great
encampment of the tents of
The Tent-of-meeting consisted
of two parts: The Holy Place and the
The covering of the Ark of
the Covenant was the place of the judgment-of-mercy for forgiveness of sin. It was the
Judgment Throne of the Invisible One,
The Mercy Seat is an absolute
picture of Jesus Christ. There is no wood in it at all. It speaks of God and all that is
the nature of God as revealed in Christ. The word for Mercy Seat in the Greek language is
HILASTERION. In the New Testament there are only four verses that use this word, as
follows: "And over it the Cherubims of glory shadowing the MERCY SEAT" (Heb.
9:5). "Whom God hath set forth to be a PROPITIATION through faith in His blood, to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past" (Rom. 3:25).
"God...sent His Son to be the PROPITIATION for our sins" (I Jn. 4:10). "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).
From these four verses you
will see that the Greek word HILASTERION has been translated both as MERCY SEAT and also
PROPITIATION. Christ, we are told, is the propitiation for our sins. This word is also
Mercy Seat. As a brother in the Lord has pointed out, "There is a principle to be
found in spiritual truth and experience which can be briefly stated this way: THE HIGHEST
ORDER OF ANY THING IS TO BECOME THAT VERY THING. Thus, in relationship to our Lord,
whatever it was that was spoken of, be it a door, a way, a shepherd, etc. every symbol and
type was personified in Him, as He declared, 'I AM THE WAY' - 'I AM THE DOOR' - 'I AM THE
GOOD SHEPHERD.' 'If you look for the fulfillment and consummation thereof, look to Me, for
I AM"'- end quote. So - Jesus Christ BECAME OUR MERCY SEAT and now, blessed be God!
we have a faithful and MERCIFUL HIGH PRIEST who is also the seat, the center, the origin
of EVERLASTING AND INFINITE MERCY.
Yes, Christ is our Mercy
Seat, He is our propitiation. The word propitiate means to appease, to sooth, to cause to
be favorably disposed, to conciliate. Now this leads to a point of immense importance. We
often hear it said that "the death of Christ was necessary in order TO RECONCILE GOD
TO MAN." This is a pious stupidity, arising from inattention to the language of the
Holy Spirit, and indeed to the plain meaning of the word "reconcile." God never
changed - never stepped out of His normal and true position. He abideth faithful. There
was, and could be, no derangement, no confusion, no alienation so far as He was concerned,
for He was infinite and unchanging Love from the beginning; and hence there could be no
need of RECONCILING HIM TO US. In fact, it was exactly the contrary. Man had gone astray;
he was the enemy, and needed to be reconciled. Wherefore then, as might be expected, the
Scriptures never speak of reconciling God to man. There is no such expression to be found
within the covers of the New Testament! "God was in Christ RECONCILING T-H-E
W-O-R-L-D UNTO HIMSELF, not imputing their trespasses unto them." And again,
"All things are of God, who hath reconciled US to Himself by Jesus Christ" (II
Cor. 5:18-19). In a word, it is God, in His infinite mercy and grace, through the cross of
Christ, bringing us back to Himself.
If the Christ, who is our
Mercy Seat, the origin of all love and grace and life, had turned away from us, we would
have at once been everlastingly finished. I do not hesitate to tell you that God is not
dismantling His Mercy Seat, He is not taking His Spirit out of the earth, the day of grace
is not, as the preachers so ridiculously proclaim, about to end; indeed, it is barely
beginning! Therefore, though we have but tasted of His mercies, through vast ages yet
unborn He will continue to unfold the riches of His grace, manifesting it through His
vessels of mercy, until the fullness thereof is revealed, and God becomes, finally,
ALL-IN-ALL.
It would be amiss to conclude
this article without pointing out that ultimately, becoming ONE IN CHRIST, we shall also
fulfill this same ministry. Growing up INTO HIM who is the Head, coming unto the measure
of the stature of the FULLNESS OF CHRIST, partakers of the heavenly calling of HIS
PRIESTHOOD, Kings and Priests reigning WITH HIM upon His throne - all bespeak the same
truth - we are destined to BECOME HIS MERCY SEAT. This beautiful truth is stated so
simply, yet graphically, in Ps. 103:4, "Who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and
tender mercies." In the Hebrew "lovingkindness" is HHESED; "tender
mercies" is RAHHAMIM, which is equivalent in power to our English word
"compassions." This is the God of all grace placing a crown upon those who rule
with Him. This is the God of love placing upon your head the insignia of anointing as one
of His King-Priests. What IS this crown, this kingly, priestly anointing, this power and
authority to rule? HHESED and RAHHAMIN - LOVINGKINDNESS and TENDER MERCIES! Or it can be
stated as: mercy and compassions.
Think of it! God's Crown,
God's Ruling Authority and Power! Crowned with MERCY! Ruling by MERCY! This is truth of
unfathomed depth. What kind of a crown do you have in mind when you think of "wearing
a crown" in the
This is oft times difficult
for those priests-to-be who have come out of the church system with a heavy hangover of
condemnation and charging every man with guilt and shame. It was a sin to do this, it was
a sin to do that, and we were so sin-conscious that we were not able to kindle any
consciousness of the awesome power of HIS ABOUNDING MERCY.
This truth might well be
illustrated by the children's story of the sun and the wind in the little make-believe
story, the sun and the wind discussed which of them was the strongest. The wind said he
could prove that he was the strongest by blowing the coat off a man who walked on the road
below. So the sun slipped behind a cloud and Mr. Wind started blowing until the man
thought a tornado had come up. But the harder the wind blew, the tighter hold the old man
took on his coat. Finally the wind saw that he could not blow the man's coat off, so he
gave up in defeat. Then it was the sun's turn to try. The sun came out from behind the
clouds and smiled kindly on the old man. Presently the warm loving rays of the sun caused
the man to pull off his coat. The sun had proved that the power of love and light and
kindness is stronger than fury and force!
How we have ranted and raved
and stormed at men about their sins and judgment! But it has been well said that
"There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer; No disease that enough
love will not heal; No door that enough love will not open; No gulf that enough love will
not bridge; No wall that enough love will not throw down; No sin that enough love will not
redeem. It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the problem, how hopeless the
outlook, how muddled the tangles, how great the mistake - a sufficient realization of love
will dissolve it all - if only you could love enough you would be the happiest and most
powerful being in the world."
Ah - perhaps now we can
understand something of the divine wisdom that, when it purposes to save a world gone
awry, says, "FOR GOD S-O L-O-V-E-D THE WORLD, that He gave His only begotten
Son..." Then to the bearers of that love He bids, "LOVE your enemies... And God
in Christ has enough love to go around, praise His wonderful name!
Part
32
PRIESTLY
INTERCESSION
"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). "I exhort therefore, that, first of
all, supplications, prayers, INTERCESSIONS, and giving of thanks be made for all men...for
this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who will have all men to be
saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth" (I Tim. 2:1,3-4).
There was a time in my life
when I found it very difficult to understand why the Lord invited and commanded me to
pray. Why did we have to pray? Why the ministry of intercession on behalf of men? God is
God, so why doesn't He just do what He wants? Why are we even in the picture? Why are the
events on earth related to our prayers and intercessions at all? I knew prayer worked,
because I saw the effects of my prayers in my everyday life. However, I didn't know why
God wanted to involve me in the process. What really was the purpose of prayer?
It all goes back to the
creation of man. Jesus said, "The Father hath given Him (the Son) AUTHORITY...because
He is the SON OF MAN" (Jn. 5:26,27). One might think it should have read,
"because He is the SON OF GOD," but it doesn't say that. The awesome and
universal authority of the Son is rooted in the fact that He is the SON OF MAN. Why was it
necessary for Jesus to be the "Son of man" to have authority on earth? That man
should bear the image of God and have dominion over all things is the first announcement
of God's intention regarding man and the first announcement of His purpose, and locked up
in that wonderful declaration is a universe of meaning that does not reach the eye and
that the mind has never understood.
Man in the image of God is
God's government in the
"What is man...Thou hast
made him a little lower than God." In case you have a problem with the way I have
quoted this scripture, I must point out that the King James version says that man was made
"a little lower than the angels." But this is not correct.
The word translated
"angels" in the Authorized version, is the Hebrew word ELOHIM which is the
Hebrew word for God, the very same word used in Gen. 1:1 where we read, "In the
beginning GOD created..." So God made man just a little lower than Himself, or lower
than Himself for a little while, but higher than all the rest of the creation, even the
angels, for as Paul said, "Know ye not that YE shall judge angels?"
"Thou hast put ALL
THINGS under his (man's) feet." Now that phrase, "under his feet" is a
Hebrew term which means that he was to have authority over all of His creation. He was to
rule it all, govern it all, be head of it all. God made man for that intent and purpose.
In the New Testament, the idea is taken still further: "But one in a certain place
testified, saying, What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that Thou
visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than God; Thou crownest him with glory and
honour, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands: Thou hast put ALL THINGS in
subjection under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left NOTHING
that is NOT put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him" (Heb.
2:6-8). There is holy wonder to these words that is almost beyond our understanding.
Nothing has been left outside of the dominion of man.
Now for Jesus to have
anything to do with this dominion He had to become a man, for the dominion was given to
man, and in order for Him to receive the Kingdom, He had to be a man, it was necessary, in
fact, for Him to come as the second man, the last Adam. As the eternal Word of God He
could have nothing to do with this dominion, though it was through Him that all these
things were made. But become a man He did, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and
as man He has qualified to receive the Kingdom and be the ruling head of it, the King of
Glory. The man in God's image and likeness has a divine and royal destiny to exercise
dominion and authority in this world and throughout the unbounded heavens He is to be the
Head of all. All that happens in the cosmos must take place through man. God created all
things and then man in His image and likeness, as the connecting link between God and His
creation, that through man in His image and likeness the invisible God might be seen and
known and touched by the visible creation. The face of God would be revealed for all
creation to behold, in the face of man. The likeness of God would be made known to the
entire universe in and by man. The glory, love, grace, wisdom, knowledge and power of God
would be exercised toward every creature and world and order throughout the vastness of
infinity through the man in the image and likeness of God!
When God gave the world and
all things into the power of man, made in His image, who should rule it as a viceroy under
Him, it was His plan that Adam should do nothing but with God and through God, and God
Himself would do all His work in the universe through Adam. Can we not see by this that
Adam was appointed God's KING-PRIEST on behalf of all creation? When sin entered the
world, Adam's power was proved to be a terrible reality, for through him the earth, with
the whole race of man, and all things, was brought under the curse of sin and death. When
he fell his kingdom fell with him. When he came under the dominion of sin and death he
took all that he ruled with him. But when creation's new rulers, the second man, the last
Adam, Christ the Head and His glorified body of sons of God, are manifested, their Kingdom
will be elevated again with them. As they are forever free from sin and sickness and
sorrow and limitation and fear and death; then will their realm be.
This means that IN CHRIST we
have been restored as beloved and royal sons and daughters in the family of God. Once
again, we have been given the power and authority to carry out our Father's will - to
establish His Kingdom here on earth. We now have that authority and privilege. God's royal
purpose for this world will be fulfilled through the body of the Christ. He is the
heavenly Head, but we are the earthly members that make up that body. God has purposed to
work out His will on earth through you and me. Without Him we cannot; without us He will
not! We are God's KING-PRIESTS appointed to bless and restore all things into God!
THE PRIESTLY MINISTRY
It is a fact of present truth
that the Lord is calling out a remnant of His people to become priests after the Order of
Melchizedek, to share in the ministry of Christ, and that all the Lord's people should
become a kingdom of priests. The Old Testament priesthood is a marvelous type and example
of the ministry of the Melchizedek priests, and that example is being made reality in our
lives as the hour of fulfillment approaches. As one has written, "The ministry of the
priest began as he offered a sacrifice for himself and then for the sins of the people.
The priest then offered the sacrifice upon the altar within the
"Having offered the
sacrifice to the Lord for the sins of the people, and having ministered to the Lord for
the people in intercession, the priest then came out to the people to pronounce upon them
the benediction or blessing of sins forgiven and their atonement completed. Thus the
three-fold ministry of the priest was SACRIFICE, INTERCESSION, AND BENEDICTION. Christ
fully demonstrated the three-fold ministry of priesthood, for He became our sacrifice for
sins (Heb. 9:9-15). As verse fifteen shows, the true priest is a 'mediator,' standing
between God and the people as a 'go-between,' interceding for the people. Christ as our
High Priest completely fulfills His priestly office by interceding for the people:
'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. 7:25). When the High Priest of the Old
Testament completed his ministry of sacrifice and intercession in the Most Holy Place, he
then came out to the people and blessed them, or gave them the final benediction (Lev.
9:22). In like manner, we expectantly look for the appearing of Christ our great High
Priest to come out of His heavenly sanctuary with the final benediction for His people.
This truth is also set forth in the book of Hebrews, 'So Christ was once offered to bear
the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without
sin unto salvation' (Heb. 9:28). Thus Christ as our High Priest fully demonstrates the
three-fold ministry of the true priest in sacrifice, intercession, and benediction" -
The Living Word.
Christ Himself has become the
sacrifice. Behold the Lamb of God) which taketh away the sin of the world! "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. 9:12) And for all who share
His priesthood there are two thoughts: "he shall stand before My face to
minister" and "he shall go out to bless the people." This is what Christ
does: He intercedes and He imparts the blessing. And that is the double work every priest
has to do: to ask and bring the blessing down from above, and then go out and dispense it.
From of old God had among His
people intercessors to whose voice He listened and gave deliverance. On one occasion it
was strangely said of God, "He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was
no intercessor" (Isa. 59:16). Here we read of a time of trouble when He sought for an
intercessor, but in vain. And He wondered! Think of what that means - the amazement of God
that there should be none who loved the people enough or who had sufficient faith in His
power to deliver, to intercede, on their behalf. If there had been an intercessor He would
have given deliverance; without an intercessor His judgment came down (Isa. 64:7; Eze.
22:30,31). But when it was said of God that He wondered that there was no intercessor,
there followed the words: "Therefore His arm brought salvation unto Him. The Redeemer
shall come to Sion" (Isa. 59:16,20). God Himself would provide the true intercessor,
in Christ His Son, of whom it had already been said, "He bare the sin of many, and
made intercession for the transgressors" (Isa. 53:12). And now, "He ever liveth
to make intercession for us." Christ, as Head, is intercessor in heaven; we, as
members of His body, are partners and participators with Him on earth. Because there was
no intercessor, God has Himself raised up His INTERCESSOR COMPANY to bring deliverance!
There are two aspects of
intercession set forth in the Word of God: that which is Godward; and that which is
manward. We shall consider them both. Mighty things have been wrought through the ages by
the power of prevailing, intercessory prayer. Daniel was a man mightily used of God and
the king of
Elijah was a man of prayer
and intercession and wrought wonderful things thereby. We are inclined to think of these
great men as beyond the ordinary; that there was something special about them or that they
had a particular mandate from God. Such is not the case. They were no different than us.
The Holy Spirit was exceedingly careful to point out that "Elijah was a man subject
to like passions as we are, and he prayed..." (James 5:17). He had the same
frailties, the same weaknesses, the same limitations as any man. What made him unique
among men was that he prayed, and "he PRAYED EARNESTLY that it might not rain; and it
rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he PRAYED AGAIN,
and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit" (James 5:17,18).
Truly, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man AVAILETH MUCH" (James
5:16).
In the 1500's a man by the
name of John Knox went into a garden in
All the great revivals of
past centuries were products of prevailing prayer and intercession. On the night of the
outbreak of the Pentecostal outpouring at the turn of the century the minutes which were
bearing a world relentlessly onward to the close of its l9th century flew swiftly by. It
was a momentous evening. With a feeling tinged with fear, people everywhere were alertly
watching the passing of the year 1899 as it fled on swift feet into the eternal past. It
was New Year's Eve - 9:30! 10:00! 10:30! Silently the last few hours of the century moved
majestically onward to its grand conclusion. It was an evening full of portent.
Within their homes, family
groups sat here and there, amusing themselves quietly. In other places merriment ran high.
Tinkling music and dancing feet set the pace, as great throngs of people swept carelessly
on through the night in light-hearted gaiety and unrestrained revelry. But in the city of
How was one to know when he
had been baptized with the Holy Spirit? Was there no sign? Could so important a
manifestation of the presence of God take place and one scarcely know it? Would there not
be the same supernatural manifestations as accompanied the receiving of the Spirit in the
Jessie Penn-Lewis has
recorded the history of the great revival that swept through the country of
In the Rhondda Valley, where
afterwards the Spirit of God swept with great power, there were some who for years had
been praying for a revival which should "sweep over the whole world." We do not
wonder that such souls were taken into the secrets of God, the Holy Spirit saying to one
of them just three days before the valley was moved by the mighty tide of Life, "Get
thee up...there is the sound of abundance of rain!" We find in Monmouthshire the hand
of the Lord upon two sisters, one an invalid, who were burdened over the prevalence of
sin, and the increase of crime in the county, one sister saying, tearfully, "I cannot
sleep day nor night because my dear Lord is despised and set at naught." Another
child of God - a retiring, timid lady - bemoaning the deadness of the churches, said,
"I shall die unless God exerts His power, and sends a revival!"
At the very same time in a
district in Glamorganshire, four young men, only eighteen years of age, were found on a
mountain-side holding a prayer meeting, and pleading with God for a revival in their
church, which was in a cold and formal state. It transpired that these young men had held
their prayer meeting on the mountain every night for a month. But they continued to pray
on the mountain-side for two whole months, and, to the astonishment of the church, people
joined them, and prayed with them, who never visited any place of worship! The meetings
attended only by four at the first now increased to scores, and all testified to the power
of God in a special manner.
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 come 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. 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. Soon all the churches were crowded, the valleys and
the mountains ringing with the high praises of God. The spirit of gladness and praise
filled all hearts, as thousands rejoiced in the marvelous works of God. The mighty tidal
wave swept hither and thither - men knew not how or why. The Spirit of God found His own
channels. There was no forcing, no urging, not even any inviting by "altar
calls," yet nearly 100,000 people had been converted within a brief time, and the
numbers grew. Visitors from all parts of
Midway through the twentieth
century, again there was to be a mighty cry unto God for a fresh and deeper manifestation
of His glory. Bands of saints across the land and around the world prayed and interceded
for more of God. When God responded this time the glory erupted in a
This wonderful move of God
brought the restoration of the truths of the body of Christ the five-fold ministry,
prophecy with the laying on of hands, spiritual praise and worship and the revelation of
God's purpose to prepare a people for the manifestation of the sons of God, through which
ministry the Kingdom of God shall triumph in every realm, the glory of God shall cover the
earth as the waters cover the sea, and creation shall be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God. The effect of the move of God
that began in
When Solomon first dedicated
the temple in
This company of the sons of
God is called to be priests after the Order of Melchizedek to intercede for all mankind,
so that they may eventually join the Lord in that grand benediction, the final blessing of
CREATION'S DELIVERANCE. The Psalmist pictures this corporate Christ as a COMPANY OF
MEDIATORS, standing between mankind and the bounties of heaven, when he says, "I will
set His hand also in the sea, and His right hand in the rivers" (Ps. 89:25). The
message is clear - the hands of the body of Christ are placed with the left hand in the
great spa of mankind, and the right hand in the abundant, refreshing, healing and
quickening waters of the river of divine life (Eze. 47:1-9), ready to channel the abundant
resources of God from His river of life into the great sea of mankind, thereby blessing
all mankind in a glorious manifestation of the life of God. The course of nations will be
determined in the house of God by the prayers and ministry of God's Royal Priesthood. The
temple today is a building of UNION WITH CHRIST wherein He will reveal Himself through His
apprehended ones, and where their actions on behalf of nations will alter the course of
history and bring the righteous reign and total triumph of His Kingdom on earth.
Hallelujah!
THE HOLY SPIRIT'S
INTERCESSION
We miss so much vital truth
by our careless scanning of the Bible. Time and again we read a passage and attach to it
superficial meanings arising out of the shallowness of the natural mind, or time-honored
traditions we have heard parroted a thousand times by the venerable doctors of religion.
Seldom do Christians take the time or make the effort to search out the deeper meaning by
the help of that blessed Holy Spirit who has been sent by the Father to guide us into all
truth. What a world of misunderstanding there has been regarding one of the most precious
and momentous statements ever to proceed from the inspired pen of the apostle Paul! After
setting forth by revelation the awe-inspiring truth of the manifestation of the sons of
God, he continues with the following exhortation: "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit
itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that
searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh
intercession for the saints according to the will of God" (Rom. 8:26,27).
There is no doubt whatever in
my mind that these are among the most misunderstood and misinterpreted passages in all of
God's holy Book. Generally, among Spirit-filled people, it is taught that the Holy Spirit
will pray through us in other tongues, praying for our own or other's needs, when we lack
the necessary understanding to pray as we ought. But this is a fallacy. I do not mean that
it is a fallacy that the Holy Spirit will cause us to intercede in prayer either in our
native tongue or in an unknown language, for I know experientially that He does, and it is
a beautiful experience. But this is not the truth the apostle is conveying here. The
intent of this passage is to show that the Holy Spirit will make intercession, NOT FOR OUR
PERSONAL NEEDS, but for the deliverance of the WHOLE CREATION!
The word "likewise"
in verse twenty-six is a conjunctive adverb which joins the subject of true intercessory
prayer with the subject preceding it. What is the subject preceding it? Verse nineteen
states that all creation is eagerly expecting and waiting for the manifestation of the
sons of God. Verse twenty-one says that the creation itself shall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption and brought into the glorious liberty already known by the sons of
God. Verse twenty-two reveals that the whole creation is groaning and travailing in
birth-pangs for deliverance. Verse twenty-three declares that not the creation only, but
we ourselves who have received the firstfruits of the Spirit do groan within ourselves for
the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our bodies from the tyranny of decay. Verses
twenty-four and twenty-five speak of the fact that we all wait and groan and travail in
hope. And then the inspired apostle follows these sublime statements with these
significant words: "LIKEWISE the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not
what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with
GROANINGS WHICH CANNOT BE UTTERED." Therefore, intercessory prayer, that is, the
intercession of the Spirit through the sons of God, is a prayer for the deliverance of the
whole creation and the manifestation of the sons of God! The prayer which the Holy Spirit
would prey through all the elect is that prayer which corresponds to the groans and
travail of every created thing. Many of us spend most of our prayer time praying for our
own needs, rather than allowing the Holy Spirit to pray through us with groanings which
cannot be uttered, even the groanings of the whole creation.
It is evident that with so
much pettiness and self-centeredness in our praying, WE DO NOT KNOW WHAT WE SHOULD PRAY
FOR AS WE OUGHT. I dare say, not one Christian in a million truly knows what he should be
praying for! As Paul Mueller has pointed out in one of his writings, "It must be
remembered that the one, supreme subject of Romans eight is the maturing of the sons of
God, as well as their ultimate manifestation and the deliverance of the creation. The
subject of intercession in verses twenty-six and twenty-seven is not given at that point
to begin a new thought, but rather to continue the same thought, expressing the
responsibility of the Lord's elect to yield to that spirit of intercession. The fact is
that verse twenty-nine continues the same original subject of the entire chapter, the
predestination of the sons of God to be conformed to the image of Christ. There is no
other subject of Romans eight! Therefore, let the mind of the Spirit guide you to true,
effectual intercession. Let the Holy Spirit make intercession FOR YOU ACCORDING TO THE
WILL OF GOD" - end quote.
When it is asserted that the
Holy Spirit makes intercession "FOR the saints according to the will of God,"
this is construed by many to mean that the Holy Spirit prays FOR US to the end that God
will bless us and meet our needs, or the needs of those about us. But there is another
meaning more consistent with the subject of the chapter. If you were to say, "I am
going to the hospital to pray for Sis. Jones," and I were to respond with, "I
will go FOR you," - what would I mean? Obviously, my intention would be to make the
visit to the hospital IN YOUR PLACE, and pray for Sis. Jones IN YOUR STEAD. In like
manner, if the whole creation is groaning and travailing for the manifestation of the sons
of God and the deliverance of creation from corruption that will come through them, and if
we ourselves are groaning within ourselves for this very same manifestation and
deliverance, surely it follows that the Holy Spirit too, is making intercession FOR us
with that kind of groanings that cannot be uttered, such intercession is IN OUR PLACE,
that is, the Spirit is interceding IN OUR STEAD, lifting the whole cry and groan and
travail of both creation and ourselves into that higher dimension of SPIRIT. On the plane
of SPIRIT the groanings are not able even to be uttered, for they are in some marvelous
way the groanings of SPIRIT rather than the cry of the physical or psychical realms. He
that searches the hearts knows what is the MIND of the Spirit, that is, there is
communication on the plane of MIND, in that wonderful realm where mind communes with mind
and spirit communes with spirit, beyond utterance. Thus the deepest desire and longing of
the physical universe, the saints on earth, and the spirit realm are ONE - for the life of
God to be ministered to all creation through sons in His image, His KING-PRIEST COMPANY.
To this end creation groans, and we groan, audibly, and the blessed Holy Spirit groans on
our behalf and in our stead with those unutterable groanings of the divine mind, for we
know not how to pray for this glorious deliverance as we ought. Blessed be His wonderful
name!
THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST
As I have studied the Word of
God many things have become evident, one of which is that while intercession GODWARD is a
true principle and a precious and powerful ministry, the Scriptures further reveal that
the primary thrust of the intercession of the Christ is not Godward at all, but MANWARD,
an intercession that is TO US-WARD, to bring us to God, to draw us to the Father, to work
in us, that we might yield ourselves unto Him, to love and serve Him with all of our
heart.
The real truth about the
intercession of the Christ has been clouded by the corrupted theology of man. I am sure
that you, as I, have heard preachers try to describe His ministry of intercession. It goes
something like this. Satan, our enemy and the accuser of the brethren, stands before the
Father up in heaven accusing us day and night. Satan tells God about all our failings; he
enumerates to God every sin we commit in thought, word, or deed. He is constantly,
unceasingly, relentlessly and unmercifully accusing us of every shortcoming and weakness.
The Father, on the other hand, is portrayed as greatly offended and incensed by our sins,
and exceedingly wrath with sinners, a vindictive punisher, somehow obligated by His
superior sense of justice to be the avenger of every little thing we do wrong. Many
parents have unwittingly darkened the hearts of their little children with threats of the
certain vengeance of this God who is a constant terror over the life. "Now don't you
do that because GOD will punish you!" And even much stronger things are told to
little children. God becomes a mean, harsh, vindictive old man up in the sky with beady
little piercing eyes possessing wonderful X ray vision which can penetrate into the
deepest recesses of mind and heart, and the thickest darkness of night, scrutinizing every
thought and action. This God, moreover, is waiting, lurking about everywhere, with a
punishing whip of large dimensions!
Enter the Son. You know as
well as I do that the church system has always taught that this God of exacting justice
and wrath must be appeased, soothed, turned aside from His vengeance, and that this feat
can only be accomplished by the intercession of the compassionate SON, our wonderful Lord
and elder brother, standing opposite Satan, before the throne of the Father, as our
Advocate, our Lawyer, pleading our cause, beseeching God to be kind to us, not to punish
us, and begging for our lives on the ground that He paid the price for the forgiveness of
our sins. According to this hypothesis the anger of God can only be appeased by looking
upon the bloody sweat and cruel, ugly death of His Son, as He stands there interceding for
us.
I do not hesitate to tell you
that such teaching is utter rubbish and the brashest sort of nonsense. It springs from the
Romish tradition that likens God the Father to a fearful and offended despot, spoiling for
the blood of the offenders, and it makes Christ to be the One who pleads with God on
behalf of the victim until the Father is consoled and placated. And if it weren't for our
Advocate, Jesus, God would listen to the devil's accusations and really lay it on to us.
We could even lose our salvation because of Satan's accusations, if it weren't that the
merciful Jesus is there to prevent God from casting us into hell, by presenting His blood
on our behalf. Such is a gross caricature of the truth. More than that, it is a stupid
absurdity and a horrible blasphemy. Praise God, the Spirit is unfolding truth in
ever-increasing dimensions of glory which magnify God's glorious nature of love and mercy,
His wisdom and power, His goodness and the prudence of all His plans and purposes.
It is my conviction that not
even Satan is senseless enough to believe that he could approach OUR FATHER and convince
Him to condemn us because of our failures. Nowhere does the scripture state that Satan
accuses the saints to God. What it does say is that "the accuser of our brethren is
cast down, which ACCUSED T-H-E-M B-E-F-O-R-E OUR GOD day and night" (Rev. 12:10). It
is one thing for someone to accuse you BEFORE, that is, in the presence of, or in front of
another person, and another thing altogether for that person to accuse you TO the other
one. It should be abundantly evident that Satan does not accuse us TO God, he merely
accuses us BEFORE God. It is not the almighty and omniscient God, my brother, my sister,
whom Satan wishes to convince of your unworthiness; it is YOU! Satan has no misconceptions
about his ability to persuade God of your weakness and worthlessness, but if he can
influence YOU to believe that you are unworthy, that you are a failure, that it is
impossible for you to attain to the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, or that God does
not love you, leaving you condemned and hopeless - he is thereby able to rob you of all
your confidence, hope, faith, joy, peace and victory.
Don't think for one moment,
beloved, that this scene is set in some far-off heaven somewhere! Satan is not standing in
a red devil suit before the throne of God somewhere beyond the milky way - ah, he lurks,
rather, in the corruption and unbelief of our own carnal minds, slithering about in the
lowest realms of man's earthiness. The reason why so many saints fail when it comes to the
temptations and condemnations of the devil is that they don't really want to resist Satan.
You see, Satan never comes as some hideous monster with horns, a forked tail and a
pitchfork. He doesn't blare at you through a loudspeaker. HE COMES IN YOUR OWN DESIRES! HE
SPEAKS IN YOUR OWN THOUGHTS! HE MANIFESTS IN YOUR OWN EMOTIONS! "For from WITHIN, out
of the HEART OF MEN, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication’s, murders,
thefts, covetousness, an evil eye, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, blasphemy, pride,
foolishness: ALL THESE EVIL THINGS COME FROM WITHIN AND DEFILE THE MAN" (Mk.
7:21-23). The battle rages in the MIND, the DESIRES, the EMOTIONS and the WILL,
whisperings out of the dust realm, enticements and accusations that shout at you FROM
WITHIN. And God is there, too! The indwelling Spirit of God likewise speaks from within,
out of the spiritual mind, the voice of inspiration, the spirit of revelation, the still
small voice of the Father from within His temple of clay, gently and graciously assuring,
"I love you, my child, you are Mine; I have called you, I have made you My very own
son and I am your Father; I am with you, I will uphold you; you can make it, yea, you will
make it, for I am faithful and will complete the good work I have begun in you and will
present you faultless before My throne." And there - before God in His temple -
within - rises the other voice, the voice of the carnal mind, the voice of the flesh - the
Accuser! And it is there in the imaginations of the mind that Satan the Accuser must be
cast down, and every high thing that exalts itself against the God within.
Satan may accuse us, but God
will never condemn. Is God for us, or against us? Is He on our side, or isn't He?
"What shall we say to all this? If God be for us, who CAN BE against us? Who can be
our foe, if God is on our side? He who did not withhold or spare even His own Son but gave
Him up for us all, will He not also with Him freely and graciously give us all things? Who
shall bring any charge against God's elect when it is God who justifies? Who shall come
forward and accuse or impeach those whom God has chosen. Will God, who acquits us? Who is
there to condemn us" (Rom. 8:31-34, Amplified)? That wonderful Father! That gracious
Redeemer! The most loving of all Beings! Oh, how I love Him! He turned my heart back again
and restored me into His life. God, the Father, sent Jesus - the very fullness of His own
heart - sent Him into the world to die on
What then does it mean, that
Jesus makes intercession for us? Jesus is our mediator, our intercessor and our advocate;
He stands between God and us, but just what is He doing when He does this? Is He pleading
with the Father to be merciful to us and forgive us? No a thousand times no! The Greek
word is ENTUCHANO meaning "to meet with, to converse with, to entreat." The
question is just this: With whom does the Christ meet, with whom does He converse, and
whom does He entreat? God, or man? God so loved the world that He gave His Son for us.
Does the Father of love have to be entreated? Listen! "To wit, that God was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, NOT IMPUTING THEIR TRESPASSES UNTO THEM... now
then we are ambassadors FOR CHRIST, as though GOD DID B-E-S-E-E-C-H Y-O-U by us: we pray
(beg, petition, beseech, intercede) YOU in Christ's stead, BE YE reconciled to God"
(II Cor. 5:19-20).
Therefore, we find that HIS
INTERCESSION IS TO US-WARD, to meet with us, to converse with us, to entreat us, to
petition us, to reveal the Father's heart of love and His will to us, to intercede with
us, to bring us back to the Father, that WE might be reconciled TO GOD, working in us,
that we might know Him in all His glorious and eternal reality. All this attention of
Christ is DIRECTED TOWARDS US. God does not have to be interceded with for us, it was God
who sent the Christ to us, to meet with us, to woo us, and unfold the glories of the
This beautiful truth cannot
be expounded more simply or powerfully than it has been by Bro. George Wylie of
"This is the ministry of
a priest; to go into the Holy of Holies, into the presence of God, receive of His grace
and then minister the same unto those who need it. I think of the ministry of intercession
my dear departed wife had. When the Spirit would put some needy soul on her heart, she
would pray; she would get something from God for them, sometimes in the form of a poem;
then she would sit down and write to them ministering to them the thing God had given her
for them. She didn't just pray for them, and hope God would do something for them. She got
from God and gave to them, and many people have told me how her letters were such a
blessing to them. She would minister comfort, strength, confidence, faith and life to
them. She would lift them out of discouragement and despondency, lift up the fallen hands,
strengthen the feeble knees, put new confidence and faith in God in their hearts, and help
them to rejoice and praise God. THIS IS INTERCESSION. Any one can pray, but the
intercessor does more than that, he receives and gives.
"Thank God, the way into
the Holiest of all is open to us, so, 'Having therefore boldness to enter into the Holiest
by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through
the veil...and having an High Priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith' (Heb. 10:19-22). When the Lord died on the cross, the
veil that hung before the entrance to the Holy of Holies, separating us from the presence
of God, was rent from the top to the bottom, signifying that the way into the presence of
God was now open, so that we as the priests of God can enter into His presence. Under the
old order only the High Priest could go into the Holy of Holies, and that only once a
year, but now every priest can enter into His presence, and in spirit abide there, but we
can also go in and out, at will, to receive grace from God to minister to others.
"Any ministry should be
preceded by time spent in the presence of God, in the Holiest of all, at the throne of
grace, receiving from God of the riches of His grace, so we will have something to
minister of God. If we have not spent time with Him and received from Him, then all we
minister is something from ourselves, and not something that is of God. This is why so
much ministry is ineffective, it is not something from God, but something of self" -
end quote. Oh, how we need INTERCESSORS in this hour, not those who weep and wail before
God for His salvation, but those who ENTER IN to a place in God to receive of Him that
they may in turn ENTREAT MEN TO BE RECONCILED TO GOD and have wherewith to meet the need
of all who turn to Him. THIS IS PRIESTLY INTERCESSION!
"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. 7:25). Our great High Priest has a ministry of
intercession so potent and so powerful that it can save us to the uttermost a complete and
full salvation, spirit, soul and body. "To the uttermost." "To" is
from the Greek preposition EIS meaning "into." EIS in the Greek language has a
goal, thus making "into" or "unto" acceptable renderings. UNTO the
uttermost - completely, entirely, all the way into the image and likeness of God! HE will
intercede FOR US, on our behalf, communicating the life of God to us until we have
experienced the very "uttermost" salvation.
An intercessor is one who
stands between, who stands in the gap and makes up the hedge. He is not so much a minister
of words as of actions - and of BEING. No man or woman can be an intercessor and be
self-centered or selfish, or carnal, or keep his own opinion, or tell God only what he
feels disposed to pray for, or have his own feelings, or be telling the world how he feels
about it, imputing their sins unto them, or have his own will, or be praying for God to do
things in people's lives that he, with limited vision and understanding, wishes to see
done.
I passed by a church building
once and saw its schedule of services posted outside. Wednesday night was announced -
"7:30 - Intercession." I know what they mean, but intercession cannot be locked
into an hour or two on Wednesday night! It is a life lived for others. A prayer may be
SAID, but an intercession must be LIVED, for it is Christ living for the need of creation
in and as you. All who truly minister of His life are intercessors. With them it is not an
exercise, not a hobby, not some religious duty, not a means of making a living, but a flow
of His life from within. Intercessors do not merely pray for men to be blessed; they are
committed to making it happen. They cannot simply pray and walk away, believing that
somehow, somewhere, sometime, God in His great mercy will do whatever has to be done. They
are committed to finishing the task. God! give us PRIESTLY INTERCESSORS!
Part
33
PRIESTLY
INTERCESSION
(continued)
In my early ministry there
was a question in my mind which recurred again and again. I found it very difficult to
understand why the Lord invited and commanded me to pray. Why did we have to pray? God is
omniscient - He knows all things. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows what
things are going to happen before they do. He is conscious of our needs and problems at
all times. Jesus said, "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye
ask Him" (Mat. 6:8). So I wondered, Why is it necessary for us to acquaint Him of
something He already knows? Does God really know what is best for us, or must we try to
figure out what is best and then advise God of it? Do we know something about ourselves of
which God is not aware, and must be informed? Is it possible that God, having created us,
is unable to care for the work of His hands without a request from us? Or can it be that
God might overlook something that should be done in our lives, and we are to discover it
and tell Him? Is it possible that God may forget something we have requested of Him, so
must be reminded again and again? Or does He derive some twisted sense of pleasure from
watching us grovel before Him, begging and pleading, before He sardonically bestows His
beneficence upon us? Can it be that our judgment concerning ourselves, and the needs about
us, is superior to God's judgment, so we must instruct Him in what we think He should do?
Why the ministry of
intercession on behalf of men? God is God, so why doesn't He just do what He wants? Why
are we even in the picture? Why are the events on earth related to our prayers and
intercessions at all? I meditated long upon the words, "God worketh all things after
the counsel of His own will." If this be true, then, I mused, I couldn't change the
will of God no matter how long or hard I prayed! The Bible says that God answers only
those prayers which are "according to His will," so I reasoned, If I can't tell
God something He doesn't already know, and if I can't cause Him to change His mind about
any matter, then what is the object and the purpose of praying? Again I was reminded of
the verse, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it
upon your own lusts" (James 4:3). I knew God wasn't going to move contrary to His
will just to satisfy my petty desires and wishes - so why pray? I knew prayer worked,
because I saw the effects of my prayers in my everyday life. However, I didn't know why
God wanted to involve me in the process. What really was the purpose of prayer? These
momentous questions puzzled me until the Lord graciously imparted to my troubled spirit
the understanding of what true intercession is!
Prayer has been used by
untold multitudes of people through long millennium’s as a refuge in time of need and
trouble. Prayer has been employed as a means of approaching God to obtain from Him things
that men could not find in themselves. Prayer has been a turning to a Being far above us
humans, One able to do for us those things that we have not been able to do for ourselves.
It lies within the very nature of man to turn to a Higher Power when he faces his own
mortality and limitation in time of necessity or emergency. In these instances people turn
to God because they do believe that HE IS, and that He is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6). This is a basic and simple foundation in the psychical
and physical constitution of man. The fact is, however, that most people, including
Christians, only pray when there arises a pressing need or crisis. When we are sick, or
our child is sick; when someone dear lies at the point of death; when the candle has
burned out and hope is gone; when we are engulfed by urgent problems in our home or
business; or when we want God's blessing on some cherished project we are about to
undertake - then we pray! But when the sun shines resplendent in the heavens with ne'er a
cloud upon the horizon, the time men spend in prayer is short indeed!
THE HEAVENLY PATTERN
The true nature of prayer and
the exact purpose for intercession cannot be rightly understood apart from the typical
ministry of the priesthood within the Tabernacle of Moses. There were three stages by
which Moses, the man of God, ascended into the Mount to receive from Him the revelation of
the Tabernacle. To the first, he went in company with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and the
seventy elders of the children of
During that time instructions
were given Moses concerning the Tabernacle, which was to be erected on the desert floor
below. Those instructions are exceedingly detailed and specific. Nothing was left to human
fancy or chance. Beginning in the Most Holy Place with the Ark and its Mercy-Seat as the
Throne of God, where the High Priest ministered unto the Lord on behalf of the people and
received from God the blessing and life for the people, the instructions pass through the
Golden Altar of Incense, the Show-Bread Table of shittim wood, the Candlestick with its
seven branches, the boards, and curtains, and hangings, and the Brazen Laver, until they
end at the great Brazen Altar in the Court of the Tabernacle, where God and the priesthood
and the sinners all met. In the vision shown Moses of this Tabernacle with its priesthood
it was as though the eternal realities which had dwelt forever in the mind of God had
taken visible shape before his vision. The unseen became visible. The eternal took form.
The spiritual became material. A pattern was shown him. He trod the isles of the True
Tabernacle. He beheld the heavenly things themselves. And it was after this pattern that
he was commanded to build. "According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of
the Tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make
it" (Ex. 25:9).
Truly there are verities deep
and profound here. For we are told that these things were made after the pattern of things
in the heavens. Every knop, and tache, and curtain, and vessel, and piece of furniture,
and each action and ministration of the priesthood therein, had some heavenly parallel,
some spiritual counterpart of which it was the rude and material expression. Through these
examples and shadows there is no doubt that the ancient saints caught glimpses of eternal
realities. And under the teaching of the same Holy Spirit, as taught Moses of old, we
explore the sacred meanings which underlie the ark and the mercy-seat; the altar of
incense; the candlestick and the table; the laver and the altar of burnt offering; and the
priesthood ministering before all. Each is like a hook in the divine household, to which
God has attached a sacred meaning, and which yields up its secret to those who reverently
FOLLOW O-N TO K N-O-W THE LORD.
One thing is absolutely
certain. The Tabernacle is the meeting place between God and man. It is there that God and
man meet and are joined together. Everything in that Tabernacle contributes to that
meeting and the ministry of the priesthood effects it.
When the High Priest stands
before God, it is man that stands in the presence of God. When the High Priest speaks to
God, it is man communing with God on behalf of men. When God speaks to the High Priest, it
is God conversing with man on behalf of men. And when the High Priest comes forth from
that holy audience with the blessing for the people, he imparts that which he has received
on behalf of his fellows by his meeting with God, and in the blessing God and they are
joined and co-mingled.
The type has passed, and we
know that the Tabernacle built with hands is no more. But what do we see? Men are trying
to reproduce it, or to invent a substitute for it. Church buildings, cathedrals and
temples are pawned as the meeting place with God! Call these "churches" if you
will. THEY ARE NOT CHURCHES. They are mere buildings; and there is nothing sacred or holy
about them. We praise God for the privilege of assembling with those of "like
precious faith," and rejoice in any gathering of saints that is truly UNTO HIM: but
in point of fact it is not in any building made with hands that the priestly ministry is
carried on. Ah, how greatly we misconceive our true position! We certainly need not the
Tabernacle of Moses, the Temple of Solomon, nor any cathedral or so-called church building
or gathering to minister as the Lord's priests; because we are constituted priests of the
HEAVENLY TABERNACLE, which no human hand ever reared, and which is the true meeting-place
between God and His priesthood, yea, of all who come to God.
"Neither in this
mountain, nor yet at
Intercession is rooted in
worship. If we will take very special heed to what our Lord spoke to the benighted woman
at the well, we will understand that the true worshippers SHALL - not ought to, they
S-H-A-L-L - worship the Father in spirit and in truth, or in reality, for that is what
truth is. God is spirit. The Holy Ghost is spirit. He that is joined to the Lord is one
spirit. God makes His angels spirits. Spirit denotes that which is vital and expressive in
our state of being. The true worshippers shall worship the Father OUT OF THE STATE OF
THEIR BEING, not by words they have learned, nor by ceremonies performed by rote, nor by
an anointing coming upon them. "Thou desirest truth in the inward parts." There
must be a reality and obedience to the working of God.
The woman said to Jesus,
"Our Fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye (Jews) say, that in
I was greatly blessed many
years ago by the following words written by George Hawtin: "There is a place in God
where saints may dwell ten thousand times more real than any natural realm. There is a
true temple, NOT MADE WITH HANDS, eternal in the heavens. It is the mystical temple, which
is HIS BODY. There is a church which is THE TRUE CHURCH. Its happy saints dwell in the
realm of the Spirit, and, because they do, they continually worship God IN SPIRIT AND IN
TRUTH. I anticipate that many will ask, 'How do we worship God in Spirit?' But this you
will not discover until the hour comes when you learn that neither in this mountain, nor
in
May God help all who have
received the call to sonship to realize that we do not have to go to Jerusalem or to a
mountain, or be at a special time or place to worship God, or use special words or a
certain form, or go through the religious exercises the whole church world goes through
every Sunday morning, but that we worship God at all times and in all places because our
whole life IS WORSHIP. May God do a work in us and cause us to be true worshippers, that
whether we are in the desert, or in the mountain, or in
When we meet with a company
of the elect, we are not to think of them as the whole of those with whom we worship and
minister. The true priest is one of a great festal throng, which is comprising the
spiritual temple built of the living stones of redeemed and transformed men and women. As
priests in the HEAVENLY SANCTUARY, the TRUE TABERNACLE, we are but part of a great and
universal congregation consisting of all the elect saints who have gone before, and those
now living, gathered out of all ages, and throughout the vast universe of God. The
preacher, the prisoner, the traveler, the mother, the king - all meet there IN THE SPIRIT
REALM, and worship and minister from thence. All are priests, and yonder is the great High
Priest of our profession, who has pressed through the heavens and ever lives to make
intercession. He is "a minister of the true Tabernacle." And such are we! He has
raised us up and made us sit together with Him in these heavenly places, and He has made
us to be a kingdom of priests. Ah, it is not "in church" on Sunday morning that
we know the power of this priesthood; it is IN THE SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH, in reality wrought
within, every moment and everywhere and in every situation and circumstance as we live and
walk in HIS REALM.
I trust and pray that the
eyes of our understanding may be enlightened to the fact that we are mere learners in the
great school of priesthood. God has been using His people everywhere to whatever degree He
has prepared the vessel for that revelation of the Christ. There has come a beautiful
unfolding of His purpose, the outflow of His life and the manifestation of Himself. But
there shall yet come the ultimate, and total, and complete revelation of Jesus Christ -
not a narrow, limited thing, not to get a number of people saved and filled with the
Spirit, and healed and blessed and used - but the Kingdom of God coming with power and
with glory, as an expression and a manifestation of God in His total capacity with no
limitations, with all the power, with all the glory, all the might, all the majesty, all
the authority, so that nations will be swept into the Kingdom of God, creation delivered,
and the last enemy, even death, destroyed from off the face of the earth forevermore. What
bright and glorious prospects loom before the vision of God's Royal Priesthood!
WORKERS TOGETHER WITH GOD
It has been said that an
intercessor is God's strategist - he sees what God is after, and goes along with Him. The
men of the Bible always understood their specific commission. So must we. In the preceding
article on this subject I pointed out that in order to understand intercession we must go
back to the creation of man. Jesus said, "The Father hath given Him (the Son)
AUTHORITY...because He is the SON OF MAN" (Jn. 5:26,27). One might think it should
have read, "because He is the SON OF GOD," but it doesn't say that. The awesome
and universal authority of the Son is rooted in the fact that He is the SON OF MAN. Man in
God's image is God's government in the
It was after the vastnesses
of the heavens and the earth had come forth from the creative hands of Omnipotence that
the Creator proclaimed the awesome fiat: "Let us make man in our image, and after our
likeness: and let them have DOMINION" (Gen. 1:26). You see, the dominion of the
Kingdom was given to man. Man was ordained by God to rule not only the earth, but the
universe with its billions of galaxies. David mentions this in the eighth Psalm.
"When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which
Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that
Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than God (Heb.), and hast crowned
him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands;
Thou hast put ALL THINGS under his feet."
Now that phrase, "under
his feet," is a Hebrew term which means that man was to have authority over all of
God's creation. He was to rule it all, govern it all, be head of it all. God made man for
that intent and purpose. When God gave the world and all things into the power of man,
made in His image, who should rule it as a viceroy under Him, it was His plan that man
should do nothing but with God and through God, and God Himself would do all His work in
the universe through man. Can we not see by this that Adam was appointed God's KING-PRIEST
on behalf of all creation? Now for Jesus to have anything to do with this dominion He had
to become a man, for the dominion was given to man, and in order for Him to receive the
Kingdom, He had to be a man; it was necessary, in fact, for Him to come as the second man,
the last Adam. As the eternal Word of God He could have nothing to do with this dominion,
though it was through Him that all these things were made. But become a man He did, the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and as man He has qualified to receive the Kingdom
and be the ruling Head of it, the King of Glory.
When sin entered the world,
Adam's power was proved to be a terrible reality, for through him the earth, with the
whole race of man, and all things, was brought under the curse of sin and death. When he
fell his kingdom fell with him. When he came under the dominion of sin and death he took
all that he ruled with him. But, blessed be God! when creation's new rulers, the second
man, the last Adam, Christ the Head and His glorified body of sons of God, are manifested,
their Kingdom will be elevated again with them. As they are forever free from sin and
sickness and sorrow and limitation and fear and death - then will their realm be. This
means that IN CHRIST we have been restored as beloved and royal sons and daughters in the
family of God. Once again, we have been given the power and authority to carry out our
Father's will - to establish His Kingdom here on earth. We now have that authority and
privilege. God's royal purpose for this world will be fulfilled through the body of
Christ. He is the heavenly Head, but we are the earthly members that make up that body.
God has purposed to work out His will on earth through you and me, beloved. Without Him we
cannot; without us He will not! We are God's KING-PRIESTS appointed to bless and restore
all things into God!
The above explains why
intercession is necessary. God honors the dominion which He has given to us as elect
members of His government on earth. HE EVER REMAINS THE SOURCE OF ALL THINGS, but He
respects the position and the authority and the responsibility committed to us as His sons
and viceroys under Him. All that happens on earth must happen through man, the redeemed
man, conformed to the image of God. The Royal Priesthood of the sons of God is the
connecting link between the Creator and His creation, that through them He may be seen,
touched, and known. The glory, love, grace, wisdom, knowledge and power of God must be
exercised toward every creature everywhere through the priesthood company, the firstfruits
of His redemption. Therefore, He waits for us to come before Him in prayer, in holy
fellowship, communing with Him about the affairs of the Kingdom, before we rush out into
the confusion and sorrows and need of the earthly arena. Intercession is prayer and praise
and command that flows out of relationship and fellowship with our heavenly Father. From
our conversations with God, we find out His will. It is there in those blessed seasons
sitting at His feet, that we come to know what He wants and learn of His ways.
Intercession is asking or inviting God to do what we discover He wants to do on earth and,
in turn, speaking or decreeing that it be done. In this way, we become "laborers
together with God" (I Cor. 3:19).
When we invite God into our
realm of dominion (the earth) through intercession based on a knowledge of what He
desires, and then decree that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven, this is the
power of the Kingdom of God in operation. Oh, that men would understand this one great
truth! God will not work on our earth without us becoming a partner who will work with Him
that His will might be done through us. Since the establishment of His Kingdom on earth
through His redeemed and regenerated body, He will not force His way into our world and
violate the dominion which He has given to man. The elect of God have a responsibility and
authority in this world that God will not assume as His own prerogative - a dominion which
He will not usurp. He cannot and will not violate this kingdom and this dominion, under
the whole heaven, which is given to the people of the saints of the Most High!
You recall that Jesus said in
Jn. 5:27, "The Father has given the Son authority... because He is the Son of
MAN." However, in verse thirty Jesus says, "I can of my own self do
nothing." Authority is given Him, BECAUSE He is the Son of man, yet by Himself He can
do nothing! Jesus then goes on to say, "I judge only as the voice (of the Father)
comes to me and my judgment is just, for I seek (consult) not my own will, but the will of
Him who sent me." He always refers and submits to the will of the Father. The Father,
however, depends on Him to be the one through whom His will shall be done here on earth.
The Father would not in any way by-pass the willing work of His Son. In a sense, they
choose to be dependent upon one another. The Son had been sent to do a work here on earth.
The Father did not and would not work without Him. Nor would the Son do anything apart
from the revealed will of the Father.
It is this unique and special
relationship between the Father and the firstborn Son that becomes the pattern for all the
younger sons of God who are growing up into His likeness. Jesus communed with His Father
until He saw what the Father was doing and wanted done. As the Son of man, He then had the
right and the responsibility to ask or invite - and in a sense decree - that the Father
work out His will on earth. The Father then had a right to manifest His power and glory
through His Son to bring His will to pass. This is the government of God through the Royal
Priesthood! Intercession, therefore, involves knowing God and His will, decreeing His will
upon earth, and doing whatever He empowers us to do to make it a glorious reality. This
world first of all, and then the vast universe beyond, is our God-given realm of
responsibility and authority. And intercession is the first principle in the science of
ruling it!
Precious indeed is the
promise given in I Jn. 5:14, "If we ask anything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, He heareth
us...and we know that we have the petitions that we desired from Him.” If we ask
anything - no exceptions - no limit to God's confidence in His sons! And why? Because He
trusts them to ask right things "according to His will." He is guiding them,
even in what they ask, if they are truly sons after His own heart; so God sets no limit to
His power. If anyone is doing God's will let him ask anything. It is God's will that he
ask anything. Let him put His promise to the test.
Notice here what the true
basis of sonship prayer is. The prayer that is answered is the prayer after God's will.
And the reason for this is plain. What is God's will is cosmic purpose. I don't present to
understand the depth of it, but when Jesus was going away He said, "Hitherto have ye
asked nothing in My name, from now on you will ask the Father in My name, and whatever you
ask the Father I will do it." Ah, we have missed the importance of prayer in the
redemptive and reconstructive and restorational purposes of God! Our prayers ARE
important. It is the law of the Kingdom. You'll find yourself praying, you'll find
yourself desiring to pray, and that's the Holy Spirit urging you to do what is necessary
to enable things to happen the way they are supposed to happen. In the economy of the
Kingdom there is a relationship between the decrees of God and the response of God's
people! God created all things by a Word. God SAID, "Let there be...and it was
so." Not God wished, or God thought, but God SAID. That's a CREATIVE WORD! Prayer is
a participation in the creative Word of God, speaking the new creation into existence.
It's a mystery I don't fully understand, but there are times when I have to pray, there
are times when the altar of my soul is full of clouds of holy incense as I send up to God
petitions, as I decree a Word, not for myself, but for others, and when I can't articulate
them in English I send them up in an unknown tongue. And there is that deep inner
consciousness that somehow I am participating in a great tableau and drama of history. How
narrow our prayers sometimes can be. We pray so often for ourselves: me and my wife, my
son John, we three, no more. How broad our intercession should be! When we come before the
throne of God whose Kingdom we represent, there must be a catholicity, a universality,
about our prayers. We are the PRIESTHOOD for all creation!
TRUE WORSHIPPERS
There are four stages in
intercession; first, to sit at the Lord's feet until we discover His will; second, to
yield unto Him that His will may be fulfilled in and through us; third, to decree the
thing creatively and proclaim it among men; fourth, to be committed to make it happen, to
finish the task, and bring God's Kingdom to pass on earth.
To sit at His feet means to
be a worshipper. It is much more than drawing nigh to God with our mouth and pouring forth
beautiful expressions of praise or impassioned petitions. "The hour cometh, and now
is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the
Father seeketh such to worship Him" (Jn. 4:23). The emphasis in this passage is not
on worship, but on TRUE WORSHIPPERS. I do not hesitate to tell you that much of the
so-called spiritual worship in this hour is in fact idolatrous, for many have made an idol
of worship, they worship the beauty and glory of worship, rather than WORSHIPPING THE
FATHER. But TRUE WORSHIPPERS are true worshippers because they worship the FATHER in
spirit and in truth, or in reality. What we do is not of prime importance. What we ARE is
the thing that matters, for out of a state of being comes our doing. The Holy Spirit cried
through the prophet, "This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth and honoureth
Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me. But in vain do they worship
Me..." (Mat. 5:8,9).
It is not sufficient to
worship God as an act. If you are not a true worshipper, your worship is vanity, matters
not one whit how beautiful or spiritual it may sound; it is not in spirit and in truth,
because it is not proceeding out of a state of being. "Well did Esaias prophesy of
you, hypocrites" (Mat. 15:7). A hypocrite cannot worship God, it takes a worshipper
to worship God. God is looking for those who have become true worshippers. "This
people shall be unto Me for a praise, a name, and a glory." The man born blind whom
Jesus healed, with wisdom and understanding declared, "If any man be a worshipper of
God, and doeth His will, him He heareth" (Jn. 9:31). He did not say, "If any man
worships God." Anyone can go through a form of worship. And so he said: If he BE A
WORSHIPPER. God heareth not sinners, but if any man BE A WORSHIPPER OF GOD AND DOETH HIS
WILL, He heareth him. Multitudes of people daily worship God, but God neither sees nor
hears them.
Abraham is the classic
example of a true worshipper. There arrived for the faithful patriarch that most solemn of
days in which the voice of the Almighty fell upon his listening ear, commanding,
"Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land
of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will
tell thee of" (Gen. 22:2). Though this command filled Abraham's heart with pain, yet
he would not be as surprised to receive it as a father would in our day; for such
offerings were very common among all those people in the land where Abraham lived.
Abraham, being strong in faith, never for one moment doubted or disobeyed God's word. He
knew that Isaac was the child whom God had promised, and that God had promised, too, that
Isaac should have children, and that those coming from Isaac should be a great nation and
a company of nations. He did not see how God could fulfill His promise with regard to
Isaac, if Isaac should be slain as an offering: unless, indeed, God should raise him up
from the dead afterward, a thought which Abraham's unwavering faith did not discount. But
Abraham undertook at once to obey God's command. He took two young men with him and an ass
laden with wood for the fire; and he went toward the mountain in the north, Isaac his son
walking by his side. For two days they journeyed, sleeping under the trees at night in the
open country. And on the third day, Abraham saw the mountain far away. As they drew near
to the mountain, Abraham said to the young men, "Abide ye here with the ass; and I
and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you" (Gen. 22:5).
Ah! he did not say, "I
and the lad will go yonder and offer up a sacrifice," but "we will go yonder and
WORSHIP." So great was his faith in God's promise that Abraham declared, "and WE
will come again to you." For Abraham believed that in some way God would bring back
Isaac to life. He took the wood from the ass and placed it on Isaac, and the two walked up
the mountain together. As they were walking, Isaac said, "Father, here is the wood,
but where is the lamb for the offering?" And Abraham replied, "My son, God will
provide Himself a lamb." And they came to the place on the top of the mountain. There
Abraham built an altar of stones and earth heaped up, and on it he placed the wood. Then
he tied the hands and the feet of Isaac, and laid him on the wood on the altar. And
Abraham lifted up his hand, holding a knife to kill his son. A moment longer, and Isaac
would be slain by his own father's hand. But just at that moment the angel of the Lord out
of heaven called to Abraham, and said, "Abraham! Abraham!" And Abraham answered,
"Here I am Lord." Then the angel of the Lord said, "Do not lay your hand
upon your son. Now I know that you love God more than you love your only son, since you
are ready to give up your son, your only son, to God."
The message is clear -
Abraham WORSHIPPED GOD in the offering up of Isaac. Abraham was a true worshipper! When
called on to offer up his son, he did it as an act of worship. If Abraham had not been a
true worshipper, he might have offered up Isaac, but it would not have been an act of
worship to God. It might have been a sacrifice, but because Abraham was a true worshipper,
his offering up of Isaac became an act of true worship in the presence of God.
Worship is from the Hebrew
word SHAHAH meaning "to bow down, to prostrate," and from the Greek PROSKYNEO
meaning "to prostrate, do obeisance to." Worship is the honor, reverence, and
homage paid to superior beings and powers, and to God. It is not words at all, but an
attitude, a state of being, a reverent and submissive bending to God's will. It is not
what you are doing that matters most, but your state of being when doing it. You can pray
for something and it can be just a selfish, proud, egotistical thing. Or it can be an act
of worship to God. It is worship when it is GOD'S WILL you seek, that His kingdom might be
brought to pass on earth.
When David brought the ark to
When Job, that mighty man of
the East, received the evil tidings that his sons and daughters were dead, and all his
possessions lost, "Then Job arose and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell
down upon the ground, and WORSHIPPED" (Job 1:20). If Job had been a complainer, he
would have complained. If Job had been a backbiter, he would have backbitten. If he was
rebellious, he would have rebelled. But Job was a worshipper, therefore he worshipped. He
was a man, perfect and upright, one that feared God and hated evil. That was the testimony
of his state of being, which was a state of worship. We may be very congenial and lovable
people, with an aura of spirituality surrounding our every action, when you catch us in
the right mood and under the proper circumstances; but when things start to happen as they
did to Job, then whatever your state of being is, it will come out! Job fell on his face,
and what he was, was manifested: he was a worshipper, so he worshipped God. Ah, what would
have been our first expression had we been in Job's place? May God make us true
worshippers! Anyone can draw nigh with their mouth and praise God, but it is vanity, a
religious pretense if it is not proceeding from a state of being. God wants worship in
spirit and in truth, which comes out of a state of being: true worshippers worshipping the
Father!
If there is no complete
committal to God, then the offering up of our possessions to God will not be worship.
"Though I give my body to be burnt," says Paul, "If it is not an expression
of my state of being as a worshipper, filled with divine love, it profits me
nothing." God wants what comes out of us to be an expression of what He is doing and
of what He has wrought in us. True worship is an expression of our relationship with God,
where everything within us is done for the glory and praise and honor of God. That is why
it made no difference to God whether Jesus did carpentry work for a number of years, or
healed the sick for three and a half years. Jesus was a worshipper. He came only to do the
will of His Father whether that meant working or waiting, or winning or losing, or living
or dying. The Father said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I AM well pleased,"
when all He had done was carpentry work for almost thirty years! Can we not see by this
that it is only in the spirit of worship that one can sit at the feet of the Father and
receive from His great mind and heart the instruction and counsel of His will. May God
make us such TRUE WORSHIPPERS that our walk will be worship!
There have ever been those
who seek, as did Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, to offer strange fire - strange
worship - before the Lord. The fire of the Tabernacle had been kindled by God Himself, out
of the burning heat of His glory-cloud. That divine fire was kept ever burning - God's
very own fire - and was drawn forth to light the candlestick and the golden altar of
incense. The fire was God's fire, and it characterized the entire ministry of the
priesthood as they ministered that which had come directly from the Lord. You recall that
Nadab and Abihu took "either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put
incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, WHICH HE COMMANDED THEM
NOT" (Lev. 10:1).
This strange fire is first
that which God has not commanded. Rather than worship, then, as it purported to be, it was
REBELLION in disguise, because it was not the result of an obedience to the Word of God,
but was that which came "by the will of man." Ah, how often have we witnessed
the offering of strange fire before the Lord! Throughout long centuries the church systems
have accumulated a great variety of traditions, creeds, ordinances, methods, institutions
and programs, all of which are but poor products of the carnal minds of unspiritual men.
The apostle Peter gives a remarkable clue that unmistakably identifies a ministry which
offers strange fire before the Lord. "But there were false prophets also among the
people, even as there shall be false teachers among you... and many shall follow their
pernicious ways...and THROUGH COVETOUSNESS SHALL THEY WITH FEIGNED WORDS MAKE MERCHANDISE
OF YOU: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth
not" (II Pet. 2:1-3).
THEIR need of YOUR money is
the object of every meeting they hold, every magazine they publish, and every letter they
write. They need money for this, money for that, money for their crusades, money for their
broadcast, money for missions, money for the destitute, money for buildings, money for
Bible schools, money for grandiose programs to save the nation and schemes to evangelize
the world. They will send you a book for your money, they will send you a tape for your
money, they will send you some gold-colored trinket for your money, they will pray for you
for your money and with a thousand other crafty schemes they MAKE MERCHANDISE of the
gullible people who blindly follow them.
This strange fire was an
adulterous and perverted worship, for the word translated "strange" in the King
James version comes from the Hebrew root word ZUWR meaning "to turn aside,"
hence, to be foreign, strange or profane. There were two brothers, Cain and Abel. What was
the difference between them? Abel worshipped God in the offering of a lamb, the prescribed
method by which man may come to God. From the foundation of the world there was the
revelation of the Lamb slain at the portals of
It is a remarkable fact that
Adam was named because he was formed of the dust of the ground. Man himself is ground, for
it is written, "The first man Adam was of the earth, earthy" (I Cor. 15:47).
Cain, then, in bringing of the fruit of the ground was bringing the fruit of HIS OWN
GROUND, the produce of the flesh, the product of his own thinking and understanding and
imagination. Like the religion of this evil day, he offered the good works and zealous
programs of his own invention, presenting them to be blessed by God upon HIS ALTAR, and in
so doing, he offered "strange fire" - perverted worship - unto the Lord and was,
for his sin, driven out from the presence of the Lord. Cain was offering some excellent
and beautiful fruit of his fleshly abilities and talents, but there was not a spirit of
worship in him, for he brought not what God required. He was not a true worshipper. He
passed through all the forms, but the moment he was rejected he killed his brother. He
killed because he was a murderer. He killed because he was not a worshipper, he would not
bow to be God's viceroy, but presumed to act as a god in his own right. God wants people
who are worshippers, who will prostrate themselves before His majesty, and learn of Him,
drinking deeply from the unlimited fountain of eternal life and wisdom and power and
glory.
Once we have drunk abundantly
of the precious mind of our Father in heaven, and have been instructed by His wise
counsel, we are then prepared to reign over the earth. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
pattern and example. Once when He walked upon this planet there came to Him a Roman
centurion whose servant was sick. "And when Jesus was coming to Capernaum, there came
unto Him a centurion, beseeching Him, and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of
the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The
centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof:
but SPEAK THE WORD only, and my servant shall be healed." Jesus spoke the word and
the servant was healed in the self-same moment. The Lord was not near the place, but a
miracle took place. How did this happen? When He spoke His Word was creative and His
Spirit went forth and did the work. God speaks, His Spirit goes forth and things are
created. Christ speaks, His Spirit goes forth and people are healed, the dead are raised,
the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the dumb speak and the deaf hear.
The Lord speaks, and mighty empires rise and fall. Have you not noticed, precious friend
of mine, that the Lord never did any great works without speaking? To the man with the
withered arm He said, "Stretch out your hand." To the paralytic He said,
"Arise, take up your bed and walk." To the dead He commanded, "Come
forth!" He spoke the Word and marvelous things happened. This is how the
Reflecting in one of his
writings on the exploits of George Muller, whom we have mentioned earlier in this article,
George Hawtin once wrote: "For many years I read of the marvelous faith of George
Muller. How I coveted a similar faith by which mountains and obstacles could be removed!
Well, the truth is that mountain moving faith is very simple. There is nothing to it at
all - nothing except complete harmony with the will of God and the purpose of the Lord.
Elijah himself could not have done what Muller did simply because God had not asked him to
do it. And George Muller could not have called down fire on the altar simply because God
did not ask him to do it or lead him into a circumstance where such an act was necessary.
A lifetime of experience has taught me that there is ONLY ONE element necessary to real
faith, and that one element is THE WILL OF GOD. Therefore harmony with the divine mind is
the secret of faith and it is this harmony and submission to God's purpose in us that must
be the single thought and the compelling spirit that controls all our fasting and all our
prayer.
"How often have you
heard Christians dreamily say, 'I wish the Lord would send us a revival.' 'I wish the Lord
would save my husband.' 'I wish the Lord would heal my body. 'I wish the Lord would send
us a good rain,' or some such thing. Then they will make request in the congregation
desiring people to pray that these wishes of theirs, which they call 'prayer requests,'
will be answered. Then when such requests go unanswered for years we wonder why the Lord
did not hear us. Why should He hear us when the request is born, NOT OF HIS SPIRIT, but OF
THE NATURAL MIND? There is far too much rushing into God's presence with out boots on, far
too much lifting up of unholy hands, far too much stepping where angels fear to tread, and
far too little preparation of the heart in waiting for the Spirit of God to put the
YEARNINGS OF THE ALMIGHTY in the spirit and on the lips of man" - end quote. This is
beyond any chance of contradiction the CENTRAL TRUTH in intercession. Learn, O man of God,
to fellowship with Christ, rejoicing in the Holy Spirit communing with the Father,
becoming one with Him in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, walking in His will and
doing His bidding, and you will then be qualified to enter upon that precious ministry of
priestly intercession as a PRIEST OF THE MOST HIGH GOD. (The end of the Priesthood series)
- end of series
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