CREATED TO BE KINGS AND PRIESTS

CREATED TO BE KINGS AND PRIESTS



                You will have to forgive me if I sound like I am repeating myself here, but I am going to go over a well- worn subject because the Lord has just taught me something that has put the whole thing together.



                I have mentioned numerous times over the years the triune nature of man. Mankind was created as a threefold being, body, soul and spirit. The tabernacle of Moses makes that very clear with its three sections. The outer court represents our physical body. The Holy Place represents our soul. (Our soul is made up of our natural mind, will and emotions.) And the third compartment, the Holy of Holies is our spirit and we can see from this that when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us He doesn’t live in our body or our mind, but He dwells in our spirit.



                It is when we are born again that the Holy Spirit takes up residence in our spirit. He quickens our spirit and makes it alive and then dwells in that born again spirit.  So I have also explained that our soul serves as a mediator between our body and our spirit… in fact our great duty and privilege in the Christian life is to live by the spirit rather than by the flesh. This is the realm in which our choices are made as to whether we will listen to the lusts of the flesh or if we will obey the voice of the Holy Spirit.



                So this is what I have understood and taught, but yesterday the Lord put it all together in my heart as to why it is this way and why it must be this way. In fact we cannot really understand the plan of salvation without truly understanding the nature of a man. We were created and designed for a specific purpose and it is a purpose that no other being in the universe can fulfill.



                God is Spirit and dwells in a totally spiritual realm, but God embarked on a new adventure and He created a physical universe. But God needed a mediator or in modern terms, an interface between the spiritual realm and the physical realm and so He created a new type of being that would be uniquely designed to operate in both the physical and the spiritual realms.



                So God prepared a physical body into which He breathed His own Spirit and God created a mediator within Adam, a mind or soul, that would mediate within Him between his spirit and his body.  Adam was created as a spirit that dwelt in a body and had a soul that brought the two realms together. Are you with me so far?



                Adam was created in perfect balance.  God dwelt in his spirit and as such the body and soul served the spirit and Jesus was Lord over all. The spirit of man, with the spirit of God dwelling in him is the perfect being that is uniquely designed to partner with God in ruling the physical universe and being a steward over all the physical creation. So it was in this perfect balance of spirit, soul and body with God dwelling in Adam’s spirit that Adam was given dominion.



                This breathes new understanding into Genesis 1:26: “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image according to our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”



                This perfectly balanced human, Adam, was designed to be both a king and a priest. It His flesh He was king over all other flesh and in His spirit he was a priest as he mediated between the physical realm and the spiritual realm carrying out God’s plans and purposes in the earth. In other words, in our triune nature we were created to be kings and priests. And now we can better understand what happened within Adam when he fell.



                When Adam chose another god, the Spirit of God departed from him and he received a different spirit, but it was a spirit that did not have near the authority or power of His God anointed spirit. Adam’s God given spirit became dormant and Adam became a soulish man, ruled by His fleshly mind, will and emotions and subject to the lusts of the flesh. And in this condition mankind devolved rapidly as we see Cain murdering his own brother just outside of the gates of Eden.



                So Jesus came into the earth to restore man’s God filled spirit. Jesus demonstrated this perfectly balanced spirit/man and He demonstrated His authority over the flesh and even over nature and over sickness and every other malady which separation from God has brought. In other words Jesus was demonstrating for us what man was created to be. We were created to be kings and priests and when we are born again that role is restored to us in part.



                I say “in part” because we are now in a fallen world and living in fallen bodies    and we are used to the soulish existence in which our intellect and our flesh want to be the boss and it is only with the help of the indwelling Spirit of God that we are able to walk out of this fallen condition and back into our rightful role as both kings and priests.



                This again is what God was showing us in the tabernacle of Moses. When we come to God we come on the basis of the blood of the Lamb. It is the blood of Jesus on our doorpost that saves us from death and it is in the eating of the whole lamb that we are given strength for the journey, then we are baptized in the Red Sea/the Laver and washed clean. This is justification. We are saved and delivered out of Egypt by the blood of the Lamb and we then enter into His death in the Red Sea and we are born again as we come out of the Red Sea by His resurrection power.



                But this is where many Christians stop.” I’m saved! Hallelujah! Now all I’ve got to do is to wait for the rapture. But that is not the plan of salvation. That is only that which takes place in the outer court. Now we must enter into the Holy Place where our mind is renewed and where our mind is restored as the mediator between flesh and spirit. Jesus said that His Word is both spirit and life. His Word is our guide not only teaching the mind the facts of salvation, but also teaching us how to interface once again with the spirit and to live by the spirit rather than by the flesh, for God is restoring us to our role as kings and priests and we can only be true kings and priests if God is on board and when He has become Lord in us and through us.



                We were never created to operate independently from God for without Him our spirit is too weak to rule over the flesh and the mind. As we walk by faith in Jesus as both our Savior and our Lord, He is restoring in us the authority and dominion that Adam was created to have and it is most certainly a process that requires our humility and willingness, for our natural nature has been defiled in every way and it is only by the ongoing grace of God that we are being restored to kingship and priesthood.



                But we can have little doubt that this is God’s goal for us. He gave His own life in order to restore us to what He originally created us to be and He told us this saying in Revelation 1:6:



                “John to the seven churches that are in Asia; Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne; and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the FIRST BORN OF THE DEAD and RULER OF THE KINGS OF THE EARTH. To Him WHO LOVED 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 glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen



                Notice that Jesus is the first born from the dead. That means that He is the first of many sons who will reign over the kings of the earth.” Rev 1:4-6 and again in Revelation 5:10 it says: “And Thou hast made them (men and women) to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign on the earth.



                This is to say that we will rule and reign with Christ on the earth for 1000 years. Listen to Rev. 20:4



                “And I saw thrones and they (redeemed men and women) sat on them and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God and those who had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” Where did they reign with Him for 1000 years? On the earth.



                So Christ is going to reign on the earth for 1000 years and we are going to reign with Him and judgment will be given to us. So let’s connect Revelation 2:26, 27 where Jesus says:



                “And he who overcomes and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to Him I will give authority over the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces as I also have received authority from My Father; and I will give him the morning star.”



                In other words, God gave Jesus authority over the nations and Jesus in turn gives that authority to us and the millennial reign becomes our training ground as priests and kings unto our God as man once again assumes the role for which he was created. We were uniquely created to be kings and priests and that is what we will become under Jesus Christ.



                So getting saved is much more than accepting Jesus as the propitiation for our sins and then sitting back to wait for the rapture. But you will quickly recognize that much of Christian evangelism has been based on a two- fold nature of man rather than a three-fold nature. Many Christian teachers and preachers concern themselves only with the soul (mind) and body of mankind. So they aim to save our souls with no other continuing agenda but to attend church until Jesus comes.



                No, we are learning to live by the Spirit with the specific purpose of learning how to be kings and priests with Jesus Christ, and as Jesus told His disciples, we don’t lord it over others. As kings and priests we serve one another and we learn how to become stewards of all that God has given us… stewards over our own bodies and stewards over His church and stewards of this wonderful planet home that He gave to us.



                So Jesus demonstrated what it means to be a king and a priest and knowing that all authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth, He took up a towel and girded Himself with it and washed His disciple’s feet.



                This is why Jesus did not tell us to make member of His body, but disciples. We have much to learn which we can only learn by walking with Jesus, living by His Word and by His Spirit.  We are being restored to the dominion that Adam had before the fall and we are the only beings in this vast universe uniquely designed to be both kings and priests. It is our nature to do what we were created to do, since we are triune beings. We are spirit and we are flesh and in between the two is our soul, which serves as a mediator or interface between our flesh and our spirit, even as Jesus is currently our Mediator between the heavenly realm and the earthly realm.



                But we have been given this ministry too, of reconciling others to God and since we have been born again, we are once again qualified to do this, in spite of the fact that we have much to learn about ruling and reigning, because in God’s realm love gives. Love lays down its life for its friends. Love serves.



                We were created to be kings and priests. We are in training now to be sure, but our destiny is to rule and reign with Christ on His throne, first of all for a 1000 year training period in which earth will be restored and later as we become exhibit A for all eternity… a demonstration of both sin and salvation and ambassadors for Christ who will make sure that sin never rises again. “And of the increase of His government and peace, there will be no end. Isa. 9:7.



                So many Christians become pew warmers with no further objective than to make it to church every time the doors open. We get caught up in an ever repeating cycle of mediocrity in which the church program is our ultimate goal. No… church is for equipping us for service. We don’t realize that we are cramming for a test… that we have much to learn beyond information and doctrine. We need experience and that experience involves learning to live by the Spirit and to walk in the footsteps of Jesus until the works that He did and even greater works shall we do because He has become our High Priest. He is mediating His Spirit to us so that we can learn to live by the Spirit and to bear the fruit of the Spirit. WE are learning to live by the Spirit’s power and authority.



                Jesus is restoring us to the role of kings and priests that we were created to be. How is it then that we as Christians seem to have no other purpose than to survive another day? God help us to raise our sights and to enter into His training program.



                “To him who overcomes I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on His throne.” Rev 3:21



                So much of Christianity today, remains in the soulish realm of the intellect. We relate to God on the basis of our doctrine and our intellectual understanding. We are not engaged in the Spiritual realm at all, nor are we learning how to operate in the Spirit. The Christian life was meant to be supernatural. And in this supernatural realm Jesus said that we can do nothing without Him. We must have Him on board. But most Christians have devolved to the natural and they maintain a level of Christianity that we can handle in the natural. But that is not the Christian life that Jesus died to bring us. He wants us to live by His Spirit. “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” Rom. 8:14.



                Should we not then come to the Lord and ask Him to teach us how to live by His Spirit? If this is our goal and purpose, should we not be seeking to learn how to walk in the spiritual realm? It is only as we seek to walk in the supernatural realm that we begin to see just how much we need Jesus, for apart from Him we can do nothing. We say it, but we don’t really believe it simply because we are requiring nothing more of ourselves than to live in the natural. We have become satisfied with the natural realm and as such we are not learning how to become kings and priests.



                As a king and a priest every cation of your life must be directed and empowered by the indwelling Spirit of Christ. Everything else is just the flesh… acting like a Christian but denying the power thereof. Think about it.