Scripture Reading: Exo. 19:6a; Rev. 1:5-6; 5:9-10; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Acts 13:1-4a
Ⅰ
"You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests"—Exo. 19:6a:
A
God chose the Israelites to be a kingdom of priests; He wanted the whole nation to be priests, and His salvation was to obtain a kingdom of priests—vv. 4-6.
B
What is depicted in the Old Testament is merely a picture; in the New Testament we have the reality—1 Pet. 2:5, 9:
１
God's intention toward the church today is for everyone to be a priest; we are a kingdom of priests—Rev. 5:9-10.
２
The Lord Jesus, the Priest, brought us into the priesthood through His redemption, and the whole church should now be the priest-hood—1:5-6.
Ⅱ
A priest is a person who is absolutely for God, who is fully pos-sessed by God, and who lives and has his being wholly for God; in every respect and in every way, his unique interest is God—1 Pet. 2:5, 9:
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—vv. 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.
Ⅲ
A priest is one who receives God, who is filled, saturated, and per-meated with God, and who has God flowing out of him so that he might be a living expression of God—1 Pet. 2:5, 9:
A
A priest serves God, but this does not mean that he works for God or does something for God; to serve God is 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 Him as everything—Luke 24:49; Eph. 5:18.
２
As we are saturated, permeated, and possessed by God, spontaneously He will flow out of us, and we will be built up with others in this flow 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.
Ⅳ
A priest is a person who contacts God in the mingling with God and who is absolutely and thoroughly mingled with God—1 Cor. 6:17; John 14:20:
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.
C
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.
D
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 mingled spirit is both the Spirit of the Lord and our spirit— 2 Cor. 3:17; 1 Cor. 6:17.
２
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.
３
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 in-dwelling 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 a person who ministers to the Lord—Acts 13:1-4a:
A
Some were set apart first for the Lord and then for the work—v. 2.
B
All our work for the Lord must issue from the priestly service of min-istering to the Lord; this is the unique principle for the work of the New Testament—vv. 2-3.
C
The work of the Holy Spirit can be revealed only at a time of ministering to the Lord; only then will the Spirit send some out—v. 4a.