The
Raising Of Kingly Priests (08)
“Man as God’s inheritance! Nothing
comes so close! Angels of awesome power, glory, might and extraordinary
intelligence do not come so close; no other beings of God come so close to God.
We have heard of the Cherubims that spread their wings over the mercy seat.
Even these do not come so close to the right hand of majesty on high where our
Forerunner is seated with His Father.” @
www.faithscape.blogspot.com
Reading:
Job 1:
5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that
Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning and offered
burnt offerings according to the number of them all, for Job said, it may be
that my sons have cursed God in their
hearts. Thus did Job continually.
Reading: 1 Samuel:
28 and did I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest to offer upon mine
altar, to burn incense, to wear the ephod…
Reading:
Number 18
20b ….I am thy part and
inheritance among the children of Israel.
Revelation 1:
6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father…
We are continuing with
our meditation on Job as a priest of God in his days. The man was conversant
with the then extant priestly sacrifices of burnt offerings before the
specialised Mosaic law and sacrifices. In this part, we shall be looking into
the priest as God’s special inheritance and as the one that burn incense before
the Lord. And this a revelation on the priest
of God.
The priest has God as his
inheritance; God has the priest as His inheritance. That is an awesome reality
of the life of the priest. Several times in the Old Testament in the Law, God
kept emphasising to the emerging nation that He was the inheritance of the
priest and that he, the priest, did not have any inheritance nor should he have
any other than Him. Speaking concerning the priests, God said, I am their inheritance. There is nothing compared to being God’s
inheritance and there is nothing that can be compared to possessing God as
inheritance. The believers in Christ have been actually called to inherit God.
Man as God’s inheritance!
Nothing comes so close! Angels of awesome power, glory, might and extraordinary
intelligence do not come so close; no other beings of God come so close to God.
We have heard of the Cherubims that spread their wings over the mercy seat.
Even these do not come so close to the right hand of majesty on high where our Forerunner
is seated with His Father. Even heaven does not come so close; that privilege
is man’s as represented in Christ right now. And hath made us kings and priests unto his Father. This speaks of
the over-comers in Him. He that overcometh
will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and I am set down with my Father in his throne.…
This is pointing out the fact that after God, then man. …even him whom He has chosen will He cause to come near unto Him. Hallelujah,
God, then man – this takes place not tomorrow but TODAY.
The Excellence of Christ
This brings us immediately to
the issue of Christ’s inheritance since we are joint-heirs with Him. Being made so much better than the angels,
as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. God is
raising His king-priests, the highest calling a man can receive from the
Godhead; quite above the callings to the offices of apostles, prophets… Nothing
comes come close in values to being called as God’s priests and kings. My! He
raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifted up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory... Priest is the prince of God; prince is son of
God.
Christ is Son; He is the High
Priest of God. This is an inheritance into which he came. By this, He obtained
a more excellent name than the angels. We are to also obtain as he obtained; in
reality, He has obtained for us a more excellent name. How did He obtain? He
had it given to him. He was the rightful owner; it was reserved for and given
to him by God from the foundation of the world. Christ also achieved this name
through personal involvement. And God also hath highly exalted Him and given
him a name above all names that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow….
all tongues… This is so clear. He was also burn into greatness. We are born again into the greatness and the
more excellent name of Christ; it is entrusted to us and we are to achieve it.
This is a mystery. …who for the joy that was set before him, endured
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. That is achieving greatness. And
so shall we in coming to the zenith of this call into the kingly priesthood.
God cherishes priests and will pull all the disciplines in the book to make
one; He will allow what His wisdom sees as enhancing the growth of a priest no
matter how unpleasant.
The history of the church shows
that the persecutions of the early days produced great priests of the highest
order, not the bless-me-and-butter-my-bread mass-produced saints of the present
day. On the individual levels, it has been observed that God gets His people
involved in their salvation through some divine processing which may be hard on
the individuals. But they always come out triumphant, becoming better and
achieving closer walk with God. Ye have
forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son,
despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.
The call of the priest is to
offer sacrifices upon the altar of the Lord. I chose him to be my priest to offer upon mine altar,… This is the
one who has become the inheritance of God. Paul prayed a priestly prayer for
the believers through the Holy Ghost: That
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. The eyes of your
understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his
calling, and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, ...
God certainly has a glorious inheritance in His saints which is continually
being unveiled each passing day. What a great responsibility the priest has as
an inheritance of God and as one that maintains his altar. At the altar, he
tampers and tinkers with the life of God. That thing called the altar of God
vibrates with divine life and it is the place of the rights of God. This is the
place where the enemy of God comes to a judicial dead-end; the venue where no
one can contend with the Lord of the whole earth. And that is what the priests
and the church are to God since it is in them and her that the Lord has
actually found His temple, His dwelling and rest place. This is the
ministration at the altar of God.
Christ as Incense Before God.
I chose him to be my priest,
to offer upon mine altar, to burn incense,….
The believer is coming to the
stature of priest to maintain the altar of the Father for he is set apart for
this purpose and he is the inheritance of God. He burns incense that is a sweet
savour to the Lord. Now Christ is God’s love revealed. He shrank not back from
the death of the cross. For his father and the sake of man he willingly became
the azazel, the sin offering, the burnt offering, the peace offering and the
meal offering. This total self-offer of Christ is what particularly constitutes
‘sweet smell’ before the Father.
Only priests can see the face of
God; others may delight in the things He gives, though. How does the priest
approach the presence of God? Easy, isn’t it? The sixteenth chapter of
Leveticus, the 12th and the 13th verses types this out
for us. ….and his hand full of sweet
incense beaten small, and bring it within the veil. And he shall put the
incense upon the fire before the Lord,… the 8th chapter of
Revelation, the third verse echoes this scene: And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer;
and there was given unto him much incense that he should offer it with the
prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And
the smoke of the incense which came with
the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.
Christ is the sweet incense
and savour before the Lord. His righteous character has a special appeal to
God, the Father; his total giving of self to His Father for reconciliation for
man is an everlasting memorial to the Father. Which is why He is typed out as
the cloud or, the smoke of incense that gives potency and judgment to the
prayers of the saints. Thus the more of Christ that is worked and done in us,
the more of sweet incense shall we become. Our two up-lifted hands being full
of incense before the throne speak of our work whether spiritual or otherwise
that must be full of Christ and revealing Him; the value we place on the God’s
end-product in us. God wants our hands full of the sweet-savour Christ. How do
we get there? Certainly, not by the work of righteousness we have done but
according to His mercy… He is the one who gives us an instruction and turns
right round to help us obey and carry it out. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you
without fault with exceeding joy… He
called us to a holy calling and He also keeps us holy by preventing us from
falling and without fault. But let us examine one thing in this working of the
loving Father to work into us the character of His Son.
The Incense and The Coals of Fire.
The incense remains in the
censer, cold without any smoke to give out as long as there are no coals of
fire. In the presence of the fire, reaction is set off and there comes the
sweet savour unto the Lord on the throne. Says Peter, The trial of your faith being much more precious than gold that
perisheth though it be tried with fire might be found unto praised and honour
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. The church filled with Christ-cloned individuals through the trying of
their faith is the peak of sweetness to God; it is the fullness of Christ, the
church. The processing into this fullness requires the dealing of the cross; it
goes with bitter attacks from the kingdom of darkness; it includes forever
dying to the flesh, to the self-life.
Eureka – here is the ‘Why’ of life
The priests are a chosen race – though
scattered in all nations of the earth, though do wear different colours of
skin, though may be differently endowed and gifted and have varying degrees of
intelligence or different levels of wealth or poverty – God’s chosen race, that
is what they are. Though due to some myopic considerations as culture, history
technological and economical considerations, some may forget that in Christ
Jesus, there is neither Jew nor Greek and so may still find it difficult not to
discriminate against one another. That has not obviated the truth that God is
so gloriously rich because of His inheritance in His chosen priests. As a
chosen race, they are peculiar people. This is the ultimate reason for being.
I am increasingly discovering
the reason for existence. This search has preoccupied me for more than four
decades. Why is the existence of man? Nobody could tell me; no books in any
library could show me the truth. Even the preaching of great men of God never
did reveal. Miracles, signs and wonders and technological wizardry never
answered me. Great wealth did not help either. Going to heaven, apart from
helping me to escape hell, did not settle my quest. I had been disgusted with
the injustice of the races of the earth against one another; I had been put off
by the so-called Christian nations oppressing and suppressing the weaker
nations… O, how I searched. Now I know. My race does not matter; my nation does
not matter, nor my gender, nor my pedigree, nor my economical advantage or
disadvantage, nor my achievement or lack of it. What matter is being part of a
glorious chosen generation of royal priesthood – a peculiar people given the
amazing grace to enrich God as His inheritance. This is the why of life; for
this purpose was I born; for this reason came I into the world. The hope of
inheriting God keeps me on my spiritual toes and I do not toy with this journey
– this everyday growth into His likeness.
“…and his two hands full of
incense…” Lord, shall we not be wholly full of you, God’s own savourable sweet incense! O that our work may be that
which is Holy Spirit inspired no matter how prosaic or trite, no matter how
seemly “unsuccessful.” Help us Father that our hands, which mean what we handle
in for and by your name will be utterly full of Jesus Christ, the sweet savour
of the Father. If any man build on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones,
wood, hay and stubble… Every man’s work shall be made manifest… It shall be
revealed by fire… and fire shall try every man’s work of what sort is it. There
is incense and there is incense… the heavenly incense that is Christ, needling
sweetly the divine olfactory may we turn out to be. And let the coals of your
fire fall on us at your own decided moment to set us on fire of incense, to set
off more of Christ in us. Kindle it now, Father. By this fire, let your church
remain pure, holy and consecrated to you. Get your church ready for this
baptism of fire and bring her to that glorious end-point prepaid for by Christ.
And of the rest did no man join himself
to them: but the people magnified them. This was the testimony recorded for the
first church of Christ; such are we and may we also come to this testimony. Help
us to come to ourselves as you continue to bring your church to the path you
designed for her, the path of the kingly priests. Thank you, Father.
Revelation 3: 21
Hebrew 1: 4
1 Samuel 2: 8
Hebrew 12: 6
Hebrew 12: 4
Ephesians 1: 17 -
18
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