THE RECOVERY OF THE PRIESTHOOD FOR GOD'S BUILDING
Message Two
The Definition of a Priest
Scripture Reading:Exo.19:6; 1 Pet.2:5,9;Rev.1:6;5:10
I. A priest is a person who lives solely for God's interests and serves Him— Exo. 19:6; Rom. 14:7-8; 2 Cor. 5:15:
A. Priests are the most normal and proper persons, those who realize that God's plan is to work Himself into a group of people in order that He might be their life and that they might become His expression—1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6.
B. A normal and proper human being is one who is a priest, one who serves God; if we are not priests serving God in all that we do, we are abnormal—5:10.
II. A priest is one who receives God, who is filled, saturated, and permeated with God, and who has God flowing out of him so that he might be a liv-ing expression of God—1 Pet. 2:5, 9:
A. Although a priest is a person who serves God, this does not mean that he works for God or does something for God; according to the revelation of the Scriptures, to serve God is to contact God, to receive God into us, and to be filled, saturated, and permeated with God—Rom. 1:9; 8:11.
B. God's intention is not to call us merely to work for Him; His intention is that we first open ourselves to Him in order that He may come into us to fill and flood us until He has taken possession of every part of our being—Eph. 3:16-21.
C. Our entire being must be saturated, permeated, and possessed by God—1 Thes. 5:23:
1. If this is our situation, we will be one with God and will not only be clothed outwardly with Him as power but also permeated inwardly with Himself as everything—Luke 24:49; Eph. 5:18.
2. As we are saturated, permeated, and possessed by God, spontaneously He will f low out of us, and we will be built up with others in this f low of life— John 7:38; Eph. 2:21-22.
D. God has no intention of calling us to do something for Him; rather, His intention is that we answer His call by opening ourselves to Him and saying, "Lord, here I am, not ready to work for You but ready to be filled and possessed by You and to be one with You."
E. Not until we are one with the Lord and possessed by Him can we ever work for Him—3:16-21; 1 Cor. 3:9a; 15:58; 2 Cor. 5:20; 6:1.
III. A priest is a person who contacts God in the mingling with God—1 Cor. 6:17:
A. The priest's passing through the Holy Place and into the Holy of Holies is his contact with God, and this contact is not in himself but in a mingling with God; a priest's contact with God is in God—Heb. 10:19.
B. When we as priests contact God, we contact Him not merely objectively but also subjectively; we do not contact God apart from God, but we contact God in God, that is, in the mingling with God—John 15:4-5.
IV. A priest is one who is absolutely and thoroughly mingled with God—14:20:
A. God's purpose is to mingle Himself with us so that He becomes our life, nature, and content, and we become His corporate expression—Eph. 3:16-21; 4:4-6, 16:
1. The mingling of God and man is an intrinsic union of the elements of divinity and humanity to form one organic entity, yet the elements remain distinct in the union—Luke 1:35, footnote 2.
2. The will of God is the mingling of God with man, and the fulfillment of God's purpose depends on the mingling of divinity and humanity—Eph. 1:5, 9; 3:11.
3. The Christian life is the mingling of divinity and humanity; to be a Chris-tian is to be mingled with God, to be a God-man—2 Tim. 3:17:
a. In His economy God mingles Himself with us to become one entity with us—1 Cor. 6:17.
b. We may experience God's organic salvation to such an extent that we and God are completely mingled as one, having one life and one living—John 15:4-5; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21a.
B. If we would serve God as priests, we need to see a vision of the mingled spirit— the divine Spirit mingled with our regenerated human spirit—1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 8:4:
1. The Father is in the Son, the Son is the Spirit, and the Spirit is now mingled with our regenerated spirit—John 14:9-10, 16-18; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17.
2. The focus of God's economy is the mingled spirit, the divine Spirit mingled with the human spirit—Rom. 8:4:
a. The union of these two spirits is the deepest mystery in the Bible.
b. Whatever God intends to do or accomplish is related to the mingled spirit—Eph. 3:9, 5; 1:17; 2:22; 4:23; 5:18; 6:18.
3. The mingled spirit is both the Spirit of the Lord and our spirit—2 Cor. 3:17; 1Cor. 6:17.
4. The mingled spirit is a spirit that is one spirit with God and that is the same as God in His life and nature but not in His Godhead—1 John 5:11; 2 Pet. 1:4:
a. The divine Spirit and the human spirit are mingled as one within us so that we can live the life of a God-man, a life that is God yet man and man yet God—Gal. 2:20; Phil. 1:19-21a.
b. The God-man living is the living of the two spirits, the Spirit of God and the spirit of man, joined and mingled together as one—1 Cor. 6:17.
5. To live in the mingled spirit is to let Christ fill and saturate us until He permeates our whole being and is thereby expressed through us—Eph. 2:22; 3:16-21.
6. In order to live and serve as priests, we need to know that the Lord Jesus today, as the embodiment of the Triune God, is the Spirit indwelling our spirit and is mingled with our spirit as one spirit—2 Cor. 3:17; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17.
V. A priest is one who serves in newness of spirit—Rom. 7:6:
A. Everything that is related to our spirit is new, and everything that comes out of our spirit is new—2 Cor. 5:17.
B. Our regenerated spirit is the source of newness because the Lord, the life of God, and the Holy Spirit are there.
VI. A priest is a person who ministers to the Lord—Acts 13:1-4a:
A. "As they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for Me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them"—v. 2:
1. The work of the church in Antioch began during a time of ministering to the Lord.
2. All our work for the Lord must issue from this priestly service of ministering to the Lord; this is the unique principle for the work of the New Testament.
B. The work of the Holy Spirit can be revealed only at a time of ministering to the Lord—v. 2:
1. If we do not place ministering to the Lord as the top priority, everything will be out of order.
2. Only at a time of ministering to the Lord will the Holy Spirit send some forth.