THE PRACTICING PRIEST UNTO GOD
The moment a person
receives Christ as Saviour, he is installed into the office of
priest (I Peter 2:5,9), and his primary calling for life is
established. Unless he consistently
fulfills his duty to God, man, and himself through
practicing as a priest, he will fall short
of the mark he could have attained for the glory of God.
The importance of
the primary calling of the believer as a priest unto God can not be
over-emphasized for it is the lifeline of communication of
God’s will for the believer.
This is why our Lord Jesus Christ repeatedly commanded His
disciples, just hours before
His crucifixion, to "abide in Me". He said,
"Without Me ye can do nothing", "Herein is
My Father glorified". It is only through the believer’s
abiding in Christ through continual
communion with Him that he will be able to "bring forth
fruit that remains". This
communication our Lord commands is, in essence, the work of
the priest.
It is through this
beloved activity that Christ becomes our life (Colossians 3:3) and He is
able to live through us (Galatians 2:20), His incarnation
continues and He accomplishes
His will on earth. It is through this same work of the
priest abiding in Christ that we realize our position of being seated in the
heavenlies in Christ (Ephesians 2:6). Our life then is in Christ as
His life is in us (John 15:4,5), so we are physically on
earth but spiritually in heaven in Christ.
He is physically in heaven but spiritually on earth in us.
Our exalted position in Christ is the
basis for all present and future blessings. When God looks
down upon man, He sees him as
either in Christ or in Adam. God sees the born-again
believer as seated in the heavenlies in
Christ. As this is laid hold upon by faith, the believer
recognizes that he has truly been made
free from sin (Romans 6:7) by the Blood of Jesus. This
freedom is the result of the believer’s
death, burial, and resurrection with Christ over two
thousand years ago (Romans 6:1-10).
This is the position from which each believer-priest must
operate and perform his ministry.
The practicing
priest unto God must then realize his priorities:
1. The Lord
2. The brethren
3. The lost
But before he can
minister to the Lord and man, he must first be ministered to by theLord
to prepare him for his continual ministry. Just as the Old
Testament priest had to first offer a
sacrifice for himself for his own sins (Leviticus 9:7,16:6)
before he entered the Holy of Holies;
so too, we must repent and confess our sin, recognizing that
our entrance into the Holiest is by
the Blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19-22). As we offer spiritual
sacrifices (see list) unto the Lord
(I Peter 2:5), our hearts are prepared for entrance into the
Holiest where the priest spends his time in Spirit-led ministry to God (Acts
13:2) and man (James 5:16). The Scripture gives us complete
guidance for the practice of the priest as he ministers to
the brethren and the lost.
(See the following ministry/intercessory charts. These
charts are designed for fulfilling two purposes: 1. Praying according to
Scripture 2. Obeying the Lord’s command
to memorize and meditate on Scripture, thereby supplying us with the ability
through faith to abide in Christ)
MINISTERING
UNTO GOD (Spiritual Sacrifices)
1. Sacrifice of
righteousness (Psalm 4:5, 51:19)
2. Sacrifice of joy
(Psalm 27:6)
3. Sacrifice of a
broken spirit (Psalm 51:17)
4. Sacrifice of
thanksgiving (Psalm 50:14, Hebrews 13:15)
5. Sacrifice of
praise (Hebrews 13:15)
6. Sacrifice of
doing good (Hebrews 13:16)
7. Sacrifice of
communicating (Hebrews 13:16,Philippians 4:18)
8. Sacrifice of
uplifted hands (Psalm 141:2)
9. Sacrifice of
body (Romans 12:1)
10. Sacrifice of
martyrdom (Philippians 2:17, II Timothy 4:6)
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