Ministering Unto the Lord | |||||||||||||||||
| What It Isn't | |||||||||||||||||
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What do I do? When someone asks that; there's your problem right off the bat. It's not what you do - it's who you are! It's not birthed out of what you do, it's birthed out of who you are: You are a priest. (Rev 1.6; 1Pe 2.5&9) You are a human being - not a human doing. You are a priest unto God - that's your identity. The activity as a priest comes out of being a priest. The Bible has lots to say about it. Our western minds are so geared towards action. What about the greatest blessing God ever gave believers? Most people don't even take a couple seconds to look at it and according to the scriptures there is nothing greater you can do in this life. It can't hurt you. It can't mislead you. It can only bless you and do good for you. This may be brand new to you and it may be hard to release your old thoughts and embrace new ones. It may take a while to break through. If you have tasted the kindness of the Lord, you will continue to go directly to the Lord for the pure spiritual milk, that by it, you may grow up to salvation. Look this up. You may be surprised! | ||||||||||||||||
| What It Is | |||||||||||||||||
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The best kept secret of the Christian faith - it really is. Every believer has been given this great privilege - to be a priest unto God, a minister to the Lord. It's not like it's hidden, either. It's all over scripture. Rev 1.6: "he has made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father..." 1 Pe 2:9 "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood..." Acts 13:2 "While they were ministering to the Lord..." It may not knock you over, but if you at least look into the Old Testament and see how God thought this was very special. He didn't hand this out to just anybody. It was reserved for those who were most faithful. But now God, by his grace, extends this privilege to everyone. It's what God always wanted ever since he created people. He created people to know him from the least to the uttermost. But all humanity would not listen to him so he took one nation - the nation of Israel. But then he couldn't get all of them so he had to stettle for the family of Levi. Then when all Levi wouldn't do it he was down to one family, the family of Zadok. See this narrowing down: all of humanity, nation of Israel, tribe of Levi, family of Zadok and then as the Old Testament closes the plaintiff cry in the book of Malachi: "O that there would be ONE who would not kindle fire uselessly on my altar". Remember when Moses came down from the mountain the people said to Moses you go listen to God and come back and tell us what he says. God intended to speak to the whole nation of Israel but they were afraid. That's one of the main roadblocks towards a believer's practice of ministering unto the Lord - this incorrect knowledge of God, this fear of God, this seeing God as so big and so awesome and so powerful you can't relate to him. Well, God got over that hurdle through Jesus Christ. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us so that we could understand him and he could understand us. Some of you will have the light bulb go off and say Wow! this is speaking to me. I'm going to find out what this means; I'm going to practice my priesthood - and you will be one blessed person. God's purpose will be fulfilled for all eternity and we will be practicing our priesthood in that time. But why wait till then? | ||||||||||||||||
| Ezekiel and Zadok | |||||||||||||||||
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In God's eyes in the Old Testament the greatest privilege he could give to someone was to give that person the privilege of being a priest in the house of God. In one of Israel's times of apostacy, everyone had fallen away from worshipping God. It had even affected the tribe of Levi. Then there was a returning to God. God spoke through Ezekiel to the sons of Levi and said, "To the sons of Levi who went astray and did not follow me - you will be priests but you'll minister in the outer court". The Temple in Jerusalem was a three compartmented structure. There was an outer court, an inner court and the holy of holies where the actual presence of God dwelt. The outer court was where ministry to humanity took place - mininstering to people. There was one family who had not fallen away - the family of Zadok. "To the sons of Zadok who remained true to me - you will draw near to me, to minister to me". They were given the privilege of being ministers unto the Lord and the instruction was that they were to wear linen. Why? So they wouldn't sweat. And the idea is that as you minister to the Lord you're not to perspire. It's not so much your effort as you're aware of being in the presence of God. It was the greatest reward that God could give to a family at that time. The sons of Levi could still minister but in the outer court to man. Who were the people the closest to the Lord - the family of Zadok. Roll the pages forward, according to the new covenant God sees and has given every single one of us that same gift and privilege that he gave to the sons of Zadok. There is a whole dynamic to our relationship with God that is only realized as we are practicing his presence - it's that gentle compassionate, quiet, warm... that whole side of God is experienced, much like you may in worship. There are those who say that god must be some egotist that he needs so many people to worship him. That is missing the boat by a cosmic mile. Becuase worship is not for him - it's for us. If worship is for us then why does God want to be worshipped? Because it's for our good. When we worship God what are we doing? We are consciously entering into the presence of God. He knows who he is. He's lived for millions of years without our worship, I'm sure he could go on. But he's set things up in a certain way and he invites us to worship him. We're renewed in his presence. It's all for us that we might know him. "That where I am you may be also". Ministering unto him can be like worship also. Worship can be a part of your ministering. There's no ABC - it's what it is for you - it's your own. It's your relationship with God. Nurture it. | ||||||||||||||||
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