Ken:
I do think that the teaching priest is one of the faculties of God moving and speaking, but it’s coming through the family. It’s coming through the body. In other words, not one person will be the person who does it, but many will speak this word, and it’ll be by the Lord just moving on all of us and individually giving emphasis to what is being said.
That is really happening in this day.
Debbie:
We all minister one to another. We all teach some different aspect that the Lord’s given us. The Holy Spirit gives us a word, and we bring it to each other. Different ones pick up on different parts. That’s where the body flows together and ministers, and is able to create the flow of the family, of the body of Christ.
Ron:
I believe there is a greater purity in the company that God’s raising up rather than individuals. This is what God’s doing. He’s raising up a company, and it’s gonna be a righteous, pure company before the Lord.
Ken:
Devastation has done its work in all of us. We know the Lord has allowed the devastation to bring us down to the level where we can humble our hearts before Him and say, “Lord, You’re everything.”
Yeah, I’m just an instrument in Your hands. When you have that revelation of what God has created you into being, there no longer is any pride or arrogance about that. You can’t have it, because you’ve been absolutely annihilated from all of that stuff.
Ron:
How many people in their walk are really trying to make sure that God’s getting what He wants, and they’re not trying to get from God?
Mike:
Yeah. What does He want? He wants us, as His sons, to walk pleasing in His sight.
Debbie:
He wants worshipers. He wants those that love Him with all their heart.
Ken:
He wants us to be His sons walking in the earth just like His Son walked in the earth. And that’s a high goal, and yet He’s given us the ability to move into that—
Ken:
And that, I think, is where we’re at right now—where there’s no one that’s above another, but we’re all equal. It’s level at the foot of the cross, and the devastation is a prelude to the priesthood.
Ron:
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service,” or better translated, which is your mode of worship.
You offer yourself a sacrifice to God, holy and acceptable unto Him. That is the way of worshiping God.
Mike:
“You are a chosen race.” This means a whole generation of life. One has to be born by God into this. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood—kings and priests. It’s close to the idea, but Revelation 1:6, as we quoted from the Williams translation, says, “A kingdom of priests stand before God.”
Don’t be afraid to be called a priest of God, because the priesthood is not so much an individual thing as it is a spiritual state that God is bringing forth for the kingdom. God is saying to the priesthood today, “Now My will is fulfilled. That which I revealed in Exodus 19, that which I have had in My heart from the foundation of the world—I will have a holy priesthood who will belong to Me.”
Ron:
The whole motivation of walking with God changes right there, because when you’re walking with God out of a selfishness of whatever it is—whether it’s the gifts, or a ministry, or just you want to have a relationship with the Lord—and that’s all good. It’s not bad. It’s a beginning. It’s a starting place.
It’s okay, but God’s trying to bring us to the place where we realize that this is not about us. It’s about what He’s going to get and what He’s creating. And the point is, it says it right here—He’s creating a people for His own possession, and He’s the only one that has the right to do that.
Ken:
“For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” That’s an interesting scripture, but in essence, it’s a prescription to coming into this level of priests, because you’re not living unto yourself. You’re dying to yourself and reaching into this level of priesthood to become those who are truly ministering to the Lord.
Mike:
“Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings of the earth—to Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood, and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
Ken:
He made us to become kings and priests.
Our role in this whole scenario is submitting our hearts to Him and giving over all of our ambitions, all of our drives, everything that we’ve ever searched for or wanted in this world, to Him—to His kingdom. And I don’t think human beings come to that very easily.
I think it’s something that has to be a part of the devastation that God brings. It brings us to the end of ourselves. Do we recognize that without Him, we’re nothing? Doing His will is more important than any other thing that we could ever do in this world—whether we’re never even recognized, whether no one ever says how great we are or what we’ve done, or any of that.
It’s not about that. It’s about His purpose. It’s about His will.
Ron:
Only God can bring you there through the devastation and His dealings on you, and that’s what it says—He is creating these things. The thing that we do out of that is submit our hearts.
Ken:
How can a whole family come to that conclusion? How can all of the people that are a part of the family, the body of Christ, come to that place?
That’s what God’s doing. He’s doing the work. He’s the potter. We’re the clay. And whatever He’s making—whatever He is choosing to make us in this whole scenario—is what He wants. And if we’re submissive to that, then we come out of it being those priests, the royal priesthood of God, standing before Him, giving Him what He wants day and night.
