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There's a theme on my heart. Its also the theme of the camps, about a kingdom of priests. I've not been able to shake it. There's a particular verse in Hebrews, the 3rd chapter,begins with this, "Wherefore holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus". I want us to consider that there's something attached to the reference to "apostle", and that is the reference to "high priest." I think all of us have a high consciousness of the things that are apostolic, but few of us have a high consciousness of the things that are priestly. I think that what is expressed in the heavenly calling of Jesus is also implied for our own heavenly calling and it will not be heavenly, until God shall restore to us, or inspire in us a sense of the priestliness that is joined with apostolic calling. I just want to say from my own point of view, and I am new at this subject, that I just sense in the course of my own travels and modest ministry, that there is a precious little awareness of priestliness to be found among God's people. And though that I myself am Jewish, has not helped in this matter. As a matter of fact, on the few occasions when I've been required to sit in on Sunday school lessons on priestly garments and all of the nomenclature pertaining to priests, I've always found it rather dull. But I'm convinced now that there's an eternal weight of glory in all of these things that pertain to priesthood that God is now beginning to open in my own spirit, so I'm just going to ask the Lord. I've got more material than I could possibly express in one speaking, but that the Lord will just breathe upon us, from the random moving through this material, something of the sense of priestliness that will transfigure us all. And I want to say with absolute authority that priestliness and apostolic calling are inexorably connected. You cannot have the one without the other. And if we have suffered from anything in our generation, it is that. It's the absence of the priestliness that ought to proceed our apostolic walk.
So precious God, great High Priest, of our profession, and our calling, a heavenly calling, come gracious God, in your own heavenliness, Lord. Open the priest of God, the Melchizedek priest and breathe upon us, the spirit of this which we so urgently need. That every aspect of our life, our walk, our talk, our ministry, might be touched by the sense of things that pertain to priesthood. In Jesus holy name, bless this time and make it your own. We'll thank you and praise you for it. Amen.
The eighth chapter of the book of Leviticus describes the consecration of the priests. As you read it, it has a strange and antique ring to it. It's so altogether remote from anything that can be considered modern, that the first temptation is hurriedly to read it by as something that is rightfully buried in antiquity, and has no claim upon our attention. But I want to say that that attitude is completely wrong. Everything that is in this chapter is profoundly relevant for this age. I could almost say more so now, than in the biblical generation in which it was given. It begins with the precious words, "and the Lord said to Moses," and you'll find that that phrase is repeated throughout this chapter, "and the Lord said to Moses," "and the Lord said to Moses," "and the Lord said to Moses,"
Because there's not a requirement in here, an ordinance in here, that could've had its origin in human contemplation. The whole thing beggars the mind. The whole thing is counter to the flesh. The whole thing is a calculated attack upon human sensibility and good taste. It has its origin in the heart of God and completely contradicts all that is human. And for that reason it is all the more valuable. "And the Lord said to Moses. Take Aaron and His sons with him and the garments, symbols of the office and the anointing oil and the bull of the sin offering and the two rams and the basket of unleavened bread and assemble all the congregation at the door at the tent of meeting. Moses did as the Lord commanded him, and the congregation was assembled at the door of the tent of meeting. Moses told the congregation, this is what the Lord has commanded to be done. Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water, he put on Aaron the long under tunic, girded him with the long sash, clothed him with the robe, put the ephod upon him and girded him with the skillfully woven cords attached to the ephod, binding it to him. Moses put upon Aaron the breastplate. He also put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim. and he put the turban or miter on his head and Moses put the holy shining gold plate, the holy diadem, as the Lord commanded him. Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it and consecrated them. He sprinkled some of the oil on the altar seven times and anointed the altar and all of its utensils, and the laver and its space to consecrate them. He poured some of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head and anointed him to consecrate him. And Moses brought Aaron's sons and put under tunics on them and girded them with sashes, wound turbans on them as the Lord commanded Moses. Then he brought the bull of the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the bull of the sin offering. Moses killed it, took the blood, put it on the horns of the altar round about with his finger, and poured the blood at the base of the altar, and purified and consecrated the altar, and made atonement for it. He took all the fat that was on the entrails, and the lobe of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat and Moses burned them on the altar. But the bull, and its hide, its flesh and its dung, he burned with fire outside the camp, as the Lord commanded Moses. He brought the ram for the burnt offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram. Moses killed it, dashed the blood upon the altar round about. He cut the ram into pieces and Moses burned the the head and the pieces and the fat, and he washed the entrails and the legs in water, Moses burned the whole ram on the altar, it was a whole burnt sacrifice for a sweet and satisfying fragrance an offering made by fire to the Lord. And he brought the other ram, the ram of consecration and ordination, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram, and Moses killed it, took some of the blood and put it on the tip of Aaron's right ear, on the thumb of his right hand, and on great toe of his right foot. And he brought Aaron's sons, and Moses put some of the blood on the tip of their right ears, and the thumbs of their right hands and the great toes of their right feet, and Moses dashed the blood upon the altar round about. And he took the fat, the fat tail, all the fat that was on the entrails, the lobe of the liver, the two kidneys, the fat, the right thigh, and out of the basket of unleavened bread that was before the Lord. He took one unleavened cake, the cake of oil and bread, the unleavened wafer and put them on the right side. He put all these in Aaron's hands and his son's hands, and waved them for a wave offering before the Lord. Then Moses took these things from their hands and burned them on the altar with the burnt offering as an ordination offering for a sweet and satisfying fragrance, an offering made by fire to the Lord. Moses took the bread, and waved it for a wave offering before the Lord, for the ram of consecration and ordination it was Moses portion as the lamb commanded him. Moses took some of the anointing oil and the blood which was on the altar and sprinkled it on Aaron and his garments and upon his sons and their garments also. So Moses consecrated Aaron and his garments, and his sons, and his sons garments, and Moses said to Aaron and his sons , boil the flesh at the door of the tent of meeting and there eat it with the bread that is in the basket of consecration and ordination as I commanded, saying Aaron and his sons shall eat it, for what remains of the bread and the flesh you shall burn with fire. You shall not go out of the door of the tent of meeting for seven days, until the days of your consecration and ordination are ended for it will take seven days to to consecrate and ordain you. It has been done this day to the Lord, so the Lord has commanded to do for your atonement, at the door of the tent of meeting you shall remain day and night for seven days, doing what the Lord has charged you to do that you die not, for so I am commanded. So Aaron and his sons did all the things which the Lord commanded by Moses."
It's not often that I'll read an entire chapter, but its hard to omit any portion of this. And you know that you come to a certain sense of exhaustion just in the reading of the description. What would it have meant then to actually have been a participant? And to have gone through all of these laborious requirements of God. Of cutting, of sprinkling, of blood, of every kind of foolish thing, of wave offerings, of sitting at the door of the tent of meeting. Its patently absurd, its altogether exhausting, and when the blood and gore is finished, and these besplattered men are waiting at the door at the tent of meeting, its hard to consider that there's anything honorific or appealing about the role of priesthood for man. I think most of us have rather glamorous notions of priesthood. We see ourselves in some kind of lofty image. But I'll tell you that the real image is the one that's described here. These men were so spent, so exhausted, by the requirements of God, who are so doused in blood and gore, and oil, that you can't tell where the sacrifice ends and where the priest begins. They are somehow all become one and truly they are a living sacrifice. And I'll tell you if there's anything left after the length and the demands of this requirement for consecration, God in His wisdom gave one last stipulation, "let them wait 7 days at the door of the tent of the meeting."
Many of us itch to be seen and to do for God. And just in all honesty, guys, there's a terrible human taint in a lot of our speaking and doing. Even our most modest testimonies cannot help but show an egotism shot through and interwoven even the very things that are lauding God. There's a human taint in so much that passes for ministry and witness in this generation. A stench, a certain smell of man that somehow forestalls and keeps from our experience, the fire of God falling as glory.
If i had all kinds of time I would read you the very next chapter, that begins on the eighth day, the day of new beginnings, when again, another succession of offerings was required, in these men that had fulfilled every requirement of God, waiting the measure of the full 7 days. But on the 8th day, the day of new beginnings, God promised them and said to them, "Today the Lord will appear to you. This is the thing that the Lord commanded you to do, and today the glory of the Lord will appear to you." And sure enough, at the end of that eighth day, when the last sacrifice was made, it says in the 22nd verse of that ninth chapter, then Aaron lifted his hands toward the people, and blessed them. and came down from the altar after offering the sin offering, the burnt offering and the peace offering. Moses and Aaron, what a picture this is of prophet and priest, of apostolic ministry, combined with priestly calling, went into the tent of meeting and when they came out they blessed the people. Can I suggest that the people are never going to be truly , authentically, and eternally blessed, until again, Moses and Aaron, go into the tent of the meeting, having fulfilled all the requirements of God, for consecration, for separation, in the copious shedding of blood and sacrifice that cannot be numbered.
Basilea Schlink, in a little booklet that I intend to quote tonight, speaks that so much of our blessing for people is more pious wish than it is fulfillment. Even the phrase, "bless you, brother", is a kind of euphoric beep, it's a kind of a belch, rather than having the authority, the priestly authority of God that will actually confer blessing. I think that we have had an avoidance of blood, and we have resisted sacrifice, and necessary cuttings which make, therefore, our speaking of blessings, mere pious wish rather than actual fulfillment. But I'll tell you that there was a generation that when a priest raised his hands above a people, they were blessed!! And I'm not speaking about titillation of feelings. I'm speaking about a heavenly ministration, brought about by the authority of a man in priestly robes, utterly consecrated unto God, who can invoke for men Godly blessings. We have not seen that kind of ministry, except in fleeting moments. But not in the consistency and volume that our generation requires. Because I can tell you that the opposite of blessing, or the absence of blessing, is curse. And the whole of our world is transfigured, not in the glory of that which was described on the mountain, but something that is to be imagined int he bowels of hell. where men are losing the godly imprint and are becoming so deranged, and so grotesque, and so caricatured, you can hardly distinguish in some instances, one sex from another. It's a fearful and filthy and degraded age, and the function of the priest has been lost, and its absence is written in the whole horror of our generation, for God said that the priests shall teach the people the difference between that which is holy, and that which is profane. They shall teach them to discern that which is common and uncommon. But if there be no priesthood, if there be no discernment, if there be no sense of the sacred, and of the holy, how shall the spirit of it be projected into a godless world, when it's absent even in the ranks of God's people. When so much of our own religious activity is a kind of entertainment, or bland thing. Or technically, and scripturally and spiritually correct thing, but lacks the fragrance of heaven Lacks that sense of priestliness, of one who has come out from the holy place,
who has ministered first unto God,
before he then ministers unto men.
How much of the ministries that come to our microphones, are in a sense full of human braggadocio. They're brash, there's a metallic cling to them, there's a human stink that comes forth with them. It's the scent of men who have not waited in the holy place. And worse than that, men who have no notion that there's such a place for which God calls them to wait.
We desperately need the restoration of the priestly sense of things.
Prophet, priest, and king, is a description of the ministry of Jesus. And I think that that priestly thing needs also to be deep in whatever calling we have, apostolicaly speaking. Where there's going to be a clang, a metallic sound, a brash humanist that goes forth with our speaking and doing, that stops short of the glory of God.
I'm surprised that we're content with so little. I'm surprised that we're content with mere good meetings, and successful camps.
I think that one of the failures of the priestly ministries to be expressed in us is that we have not even so much as a desire for the glory of God. And I think that this must precede everything. An expectation that there can actually be glory of God falling from heaven as fire. Men being brought on their faces, stupefaction, hands clasped over mouths, deep gasps and sobs and rasps, and breaking when the presence of God comes as a priestly ministration to his people. God assembled the whole congregation of the people to watch this consecration. You know why? Because as the priest, so also the people. They're not mere religious hacks, they're not a bunch of functionaries doing their things, paid off by their dollar in the collection plate, and the people can go about their business while the priest does his. There is such a bond of connection, there is such a vital link, that as the priest goes, so also the people.
And if you want to follow the melancholy history of Israel, and melancholy is the least of words to describe it, you need only to follow the history of its priesthood. When it had its zeal when it had a heavenly respect for its calling. When it was a separated class of men unto God. When they revered God and they revered the duties they were given to perform, and they were faithful in the performing of them. Israel was at its Zenith. But when these men began to turn, when they began to be seduced away, when they were attracted to the hellenistic culture that was then sweeping the ancient world, and began to give their children Greek names rather than Hebrew, more fascinated with wrestling matches than with the sacrifices which they now considered to be ungainly and unbecoming and primitive, even as rabbis now presently speak.
I don't know if you've had the experience of confronting a modern rabbi. I've taken whole groups of church people to synagogues and temples on a Friday night for Shabbat services. And then the rabbi has answered our questions afterwards. And invariably there'll always be some saint to ask, "Where are sacrifices presently being performed?" And theta rabbi will titter or laugh, or be embarrassed, and he'll make some wise crack about "in the back room", and then he'll get serious and he'll say, "well, that was primitive Judaism." We have since graduated from those bloody practices, and we have gone on to higher and more progressive forms.
You know what I think? That not only have Jews gone on to higher and more progressive forms, but even the Israel of God is somewhat embarrassed and somewhat offended, by the cutting and the bloodshed that is part and parcel of true priestly ministry and ordination. How'd you like to be washed in the water of the word before men? The humiliation of being naked before others. Before even the first priestly vestment can go on your body? And then one by one the clothing is put on. Each prescribed of God, one layer after another. No wool, for God's priests shall not sweat.
Its probably one of the greatest ironies of modern times, that there's more sweat exuded on Sundays than any other day of the week. More feverishness, more anxiety, more apprehension, more nervousness. More fleshly putting out and producing successful religion, than we could ever know.
But I want you to know that the God who said, "no wool", is the God still. The God who said "my priests shall not sweat," is the God still. And I'll tell you that there's a sense of men so taken from themselves, so wearied in sacrifices, so immersed in blood and gore from fingertips to elbows, that there's not any thing left of them, to perform anything priestly, and that is the heart of the mystery of true priesthood. It's in the power of His everlasting life.
Not in some make shift pumping up of ourselves, of some image that we think priestly ministry ought to be. Its men so innovated, so devastated, so wiped out, so prostrated, so beside themselves, so exhausted, so understanding the holiness of things that are before them, that they don't dare dream to presume to initiate, or to do anything out of their own humanity. It would be a patent contradiction in terms.
These garments, these vestments, were attached to the priests with skillfully woven cords. Its not a quickie take on and take off. It's not a stepping into the phone booth and coming out as superman. It's not something performed only behind the pulpit and then discarded at home. It's something attached to the priests by skillfully woven cords. And they're cords that ascend up to heaven. It's not something that a man has determined for himself to do. It's not a calling that he has chosen because he thinks that its lustrous or appealing. As the Lord commanded Moses, "take now Aaron and his sons."
It just so happened that together they constituted 5. A beautiful picture and type and foreshadowing of the five fold apostolic ministry. But God counted it as one ministry and He counted it as priestly. And this is exactly the sense that is missing from our own apostolic understanding. Many of us come in service to men before we have ever considered turning to God. Many of us come in the clothing of the street.
You know what I'm speaking about. Many of us come stained with sweat, Many of us have not a sense of the necessity for the cleansing of the water of the Word, for the taking off of the things that are spotted and stained. For the coming in to the heavenly garments of priesthood. Which is the high priest himself. And coming before God and being prostrate there, before we should ever consider turning to men.
I have not the time to describe it you can read it for yourself, in Ezekiel 44, how God had a controversy with the priests and the Levites, He could not discard them, because his gifts are without repentance, and His gifts and His callings, but he castigated them to this, that they could only serve him at the gate. They could only serve in the outer courts, and they could only serve the people, and they could only cut up the animals. But only one family out of the whole tribe of Levi, the family of Zadok, meaning righteous, could come before Him, to minister unto Him, in the holy place, and in the inner place.
There's not enough of that kind of ministry. More a sense of men, and what men expect, and the pleasing of men than the sense of those who have waited before God, Not enough of being men who would turn around from their own intentions, because in the holy place, God has breathed yet another theme in their hearts for them to deliver. And the strange thing is, do you know what that obedience oftentimes brings? Reproach from man.
I remember speaking at a great charismatic center on the west coast. I don't know how I got to such a place, I never wanted it. It was a divine arrangement, where we were so opposite in every way. One of these great, giddy, gaudy, great charismatic centers, and if I named it you would know it instantly. And that afternoon in prayer, I had some intention of what I thought to speak that evening, but in prayer, in the holy place, the Lord whispered, a little leaven, leavens the whole lump. And on the basis of no greater knowledge than that, I came armed with that one impulse, to that meeting. and told the people it would not be a message, but an event, which indeed it proved to be. For in the very speaking of it, I was interrupted by the minister, who said, "don't flay the sheep, preach the gospel," and I looked with wonderment, because, as far as I was concerned, I was preaching the word of God. And so I just went on and to finish the message. So in the course of my remarks, without premeditating it, I heard myself saying that in the life of every minister, and every ministry, there comes a moment of truth. And if you'll not face it and deal with it as the issue of truth and pass it over, from that moment on , leaven has been introduced in the lump. Little did I know how biting, and accurate and penetrating my words were, to the actual condition of the fellowship where I was speaking that night.
They were offended, so offended that when I finished, the pastor came to the microphone and said "let us pray for our poor brother. I've always appreciated brother Katz's ministry, but evidently he has some kind of inner conflict, which he is venting in his message. Let's pray for this dear man." And one of his hacks, came and laid his arm around me in a condescending way, and they began to pray for me. And while that was going on , some man got up out of his seat, and crossed the entire auditorium, and came by me and he said, brother I want to tell you that I personally repudiate all that is now taking place. I want to tell you that i witness that every word that came from your mouth was from God. Here's my name, here's my address. Come and minister in my country, Praetoria, South Africa.
So, later on I was taken into the office, and I was grilled, by the pastor and by three of his associates. And I tried to determine, what was the fault that they found with me. Was it that the message was unscriptural? No. Was it doctrinally unsound? No. I said what then was the fault? Well., it was just a little too heavy, Art, for this young congregation. They're tender new young believers, and they wouldn't know how to understand such a word, add its likely to offend them. I said, what do you recommend that I do, then? That I should look with my natural eye, and take stock of the audience before me, and then calculate my comment on the basis of what I see? I want you to know brother, that that afternoon on my knees, and in the inner place, the God who is my Lord, said, " A little leaven leavens the whole lump.: And I could not do other than speak the word that he has put in my mouth. So Priestly ministry will often offend men. Priestly ministry will often be understood by men. Priestly ministry will often be bloody. Much cutting, much flaying, much shedding of blood. That not only are you covered with it in the course of your ministration, but you you have splattered others, but I'll tell you that if you're obedient to perform all that God has required in that cutting, you'll find at the end a measure of glory from God.
When the priest can raise His hands above the congregation of God, having come out of the holy place, and the glory of God can fall, as a fire.
Put on the garments of God. Take off the garments spotted and stained with the spirit of the world.
Put on the vestments, put on the breastplate, let them be attached with heavenly cords. to the God who has called you.
Put the little gold diadem upon you forehead, and feel the heft of it as you walk. Your every step will register the weight of that gold shield right on your forehead, with the words inscribed holiness unto God, Would to God every one of us could wear it. Would to God in the realm of spirit we could always sense on our forehead, sense the weight, holiness unto God. Holiness unto God. Holiness unto God. Holiness unto God.
There'd be much less rash ministry, much less humanity interspersed with the things we do. Much less soulishness, much less tears that are profuse and human, more of the things that have their origin in heaven.
Because God is not going to force upon us the things that are heavenly and perfect, so long as we're content and satisfied with something less. I think there'd be more sense of silence, more a disposition to wait on God. Less rush to come to the place of speaking. More the waiting for the corporate mind of God by His spirit to seize us and to unfold the glory of His purpose and any particular convening of HIs sense. Let's feel the heft and the weight of that gold diadem, Holiness unto the Lord.
And then the anointing oil that was sprinkled on the tabernacle, the furniture, the articles, the dumb things that cannot speak. I'm always amazed that if God requires anointing oil on pieces of wood and brass, what then upon flesh and blood, who are made in his image, who are called to serve Him. How dare we presume to ever stand before men without the holy anointing oil. It says in
Exodus, upon men's flesh, it shall not be poured. Halleluia, that's from the chin to the tops of the toes, the flesh of man was covered in the righteousness of God's linen.
Only one place where that oil could run down the head of Aaron and down His beard, It was the head, the only visible thing, and the only thing that can bear the holy anointing oil. Upon man's flesh it shall not be poured.
One of the most sad and melancholy characteristics of modern charismatic culture, has been the increasing amplification of our sound equipment, and the other calisthenics and devices, as substitutes for the increasing absence of the holy anointing oil. It's Holy, and upon man's flesh it shall not be poured.
But when God has His man in His place, in His ministry, called and bound by cords, not doing His thing, you can be sure the holy anointing oil will be upon him.
Seven times, and he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head. And they brought the bull of the offering, and they laid their hands on it, and Moses killed it. There is so much death in priestly service. Such profusion of blood - one animal after another fallen, but the same blood of death is the same blood of sprinkling.
There is no consecration without death.
There's no life except for the blood that comes from it - sprinkled upon the servants of God. A testimony again and again that the priestly ministries of God are not to be worked from human flesh, are not to be the product of human zeal. Are not to be the expression of soulishness, or intensity or well intending men to do for God. Priestly ministry that touches time and eternity is only out of the sacrifice unto death. It is only out of that which is sprinkled of the blood of sacrifice and the resurrection life. The Melchizedek priesthood is in the power of the everlasting life. This priest who had neither father nor mother nor origin or end of days was lived in the life that is eternal, and that's the only kind of priesthood that can be performed today.
You can almost measure the knowledge of true priestliness by the knowledge of resurrection life, for the two are intimately linked together.
You don't learn priesthood, you inherit it. Just as the son of Aaron. And I'll tell you there was only one priestly garment, and it was passed from Aaron to his successors, and every man had to grow into it. It was not cut down to meet the measure of men. So is it also to this day. One garment in which we must grow up into it in the full Melchizedek proportion of the eternal life. To minister out of anything but the resurrection life, is to fall short of priestly ministry. And every one of us who has a discerning ear knows the difference. We've heard good messages, good teaching, good ministry, good testimonies. But there's a difference between that which is good, and that which has power its and its life out of death.
That's why God is calling for priests to stand in the gap, for the wall that is falling down that has not been tempered by the mortar that holds, but has been whitewashed. It appears right, sounds right, looks right, technically, its scripturally sound and true, but its a wall that's going to collapse. Because it has not the mortar that comes from that organic matter that constitutes the stuff that sticks. I don't know too much about mortar what is that stuff that goes into it that is organic - lime - which is the decayed accumulation of organic life of a a millennia ago. Without death there's no wall that will stand. It's just whitewashed. Without death and without the sprinkling of blood there's no priestly ministry, there's just "correct" ministry. Thee's not the fragrance of heaven. There's not the fire of God that falls and brings men on their faces.
So they poured the blood at the base of the altar, and he took the fat that was on the entrails and the lobe of the liver and the two kidneys and their fat and Moses burned them on the altar. But the bull, its hide, and its flesh and its dung he burned outside the camp as the Lord commanded Moses. You know, I think we've got it all wrong, all backwards? I think I think what we're burning and what we're sacrificing to God is what we consider most valuable. The flesh, the hide, and the dung. And what we consider a waste and distasteful, the entrails, the "kiskas" the "guts", that we want to take outside of the camp and destroy.
May I tell you that God's way is not man's way? May I tell you that was displeasing and distasteful to us is God's sweet savor? He's not interested in the outer hide, he's not interested in the inner flesh, he counts that with the dung. But what is on the inside, in that inner man, that which has been worked by God in the hidden place, this is the sweet smelling savor to God. And how many priests are there that can lay it on the altar and that have it who have waited before God, and have received and welcomed the dealings of God, in the inner place, and in the entrails that they have wherewith to lay before God as a sweet smelling savor, a sacrifice, a burnt offering made by fire.
I'll tell you guys its the fire that makes it, and many of us have not the entrails and we have not the fire either. Its the dung that we're laying and the flesh and the outer thing, and its not to God a sweet smelling savor, and it's not going to bring from heaven an answer by fire, that is glory.
A priest is one who if anything has experienced the inner dealings of God. He knows God in the hidden place and God has dealt with him in ways that cannot be explained to men that are scandalous, and that men look upon as reproach. That you cannot explain but have only to suffer. They're humiliations, things that God has wrought in you, in the stillness and in the quiet, if you've allowed God to bring you to such a place.
If anything is characteristic of this generation, it's that we have little disposition for quiet. We're the generation that has grown up with the transistors glued to our ears. Our kids are of product of a generation that they cannot do their homework except that there's a radio going or a tv. Silence intimidates us. There's not enough waiting on God in silence in the hidden places that we might have wherewith to lay on the altar of God. An offering made by fire to the Lord.
What shall we say of this foolish practice of this touching the right ear with blood? And the thumb of the right hand and of the right foot?
I've enjoyed the discussion of Abraham, although the word priest was never used in connection with him, unquestionably he was. Long before these practices were prescribed of God it was evident, spiritually speaking, that the blood of consecration was evident on the ear of Abram. How else then should he have risen early and saddled his ass? When God called him to that which boggles all human understanding. "Abram, take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest and make of him a burnt offering in the mount that I will show you." So he rose early in the morning and saddled his ass. God had a consecrated ear upon which the blood of sacrifice and consecration was touched. Does he have your right ear?
How much of your doing and going and being is the result of what men whisper? The expectations of men. The tune and the dance and the tempo of the world. Does God really have that ear? That call you to acts of obedience to contradict what you know and understand from God?
This writer said, " that It is quite clear that in the governing faculty of every life is the ear. Not necessarily the outward organ, but that by which we listen to suggestions. The suggestions may arise from our own temperament and makeup. our own natural inclinations, the pull and draw of our constitution, deep seated ambitions, inclinations and interest. To listen to these is to have our lives governed by our own interests."
And probably the greatest mishmash that is to be found in present Christianity is the mixture of men who have well meaning intentions to do for God but also to do for themselves, at the same time. Wanting somehow to insinuate and to tie and relate the two together. It shall never never work. The right ear as the right hand is the place of honor and power as far as the hearing and speaking are concerned. Does God have your ear? Can he stop you midway in your own course? You have the intention of doing or speaking one thing or another? But by a still small voice,and a whisper, an intimation, a suggestion from God, your whole course was redirected? And your obedience to it, for what is the purpose of hearing if you are not going to obey?
It will require your Isaac being brought to the mount of sacrifice. Loss, or reproach, or things that cannot be explained. Does God have your ear? Are you consecrated? This is the secret: an ear alive only unto Him and dead to everything that comes from any quarter other than the Lord Himself. And I know that we who are called to this final generation are going to be called to such unconventional behavior, we're going to be called to such acts of obedience, that not only will the world not understand, but even our compatriots, our colleagues in the faith, will be bewildered, and offended. Does God have your ear? Is the blood of consecration upon it? And in hearing do you obey?
The blood was also on the right thumb, which is a picture of priestly service unto God. And a lot of priestly service is dull, it's monotonous, it's routine, its not anything at all that complements the flesh - will you yet do it? Will you yet be obedient to do the things that God requires, though it contradicts your own temperament and disposition?
What if God should call you to an act of divine severity, will you obey Him? Your temperament is to be conciliatory and to make nice. Yours is to brush over and to hope that the outcome will be good. Yours is to look the other way. You don't want to be misunderstood and to be looked upon as a harsh disciplinarian, or a man who is unfeeling, or unloving. And you know that if you do this, that is exactly how the way are going to be perceived. Will you yet do it? Will you be the instrument for the divine severity of God, as well as His Divine grace. Is the blood on your thumb as well as it is on your ear? Will you be ruthless if God should call you to ruthlessness? Will you be an instrument for His judgment, if God shall call you to pronounce judgment? Until God has a hold of us in every act, no matter how much it contradicts what is our own natural disposition, He has not yet the priest.
The blood on the toe suggests that the Lord must have the direction of our lives. And we are to be controlled alone by the Lord's interests. And we are not always bidden to go. Sometimes the going is a relief. It is staying that is difficult.
How many of us have considered that? How much of our going is more of an opportunity for us to be relieved from the pressures of unpleasant situations where we are, and we'll clothe it and cloak it in the name of service unto God, when it is only providing for us psychic relief, and copout. Until you're prepared to stay in the tedious and demanding situations of God, the blood of consecration is not upon your toe. Our going has been rendered dead to all but the Lord, and our staying also. Our life has been poured out, it has been let go. It has been taken away, that is the life which is of ourselves, and for ourselves, so that our life has come up to another level. A priest has no life unto himself. He has no inheritance for Himself, he has no possession for Himself. He has nothing in the world that he's going to acquire. He's not going to retire with benefits. God is his inheritance, and his possession. He's ungainly, he's separated, he's strange, he hears another tempo, and another beat. He's God's. The blood is on the ear, and on the thumb, and on the toe. He is consecrated unto the Lord, and he cannot do other. When we seek our own ends, our own works, our own glory, we've yet to come to the priestly place.
Jesus is a beautiful picture of one who only served the interests of His father, was alive only to those interests, and never considered his own. If we are the Lord's we must be governed by the Lord's interests, and brush aside all the writhing suggesting of looking after ourselves. The only question is, what does the Father say about this?
I just had a conversation with a Jewish believer in Alaska, and he's being sent to help to shepherd a new work in the east coast of the United States, and he began to give me al the reasons why he's going. His Jewish parents live only a few miles from that location, there are other friends now that he'll be able to see and witness to whom he's not had occasion to witnesses to as a believer, it'll serve this purpose and that purpose. He gave me a list of about a dozen commendable human reasons why he ought to go. But not in one of the twelve was not there a suggestion that God was sending him. How man of us predicate our decisions on the basis of logic? Or we reckon that we will be doing God service? Or that it will serve his interests if we do this or go about that? When God has not said a word about it.
How much of our doing has not been ordered of God at all? And how much of that which He would order we do before the time?
Oh, to come to the priestly place, where we're just covered in the blood of consecration. We have no life unto ourselves. You can't tell where the sacrifice begins and the priest ends. They're all one. He has no life for himself, and if he had anything left, it was burnt out when he waited seven days at the door of the tent of meeting. Have you waited seven days? Is it that we're Americans that we're so adept at producing schools of discipleship that process men in three months and we're ready to send them out to change the world? Where is the waiting? Where is the opportunity to let that human itch so deeply ingrained, so part and parcel of our being, to die out in that final seven days of waiting at the door of the tent of meeting? Until that death has been consummated, God does not yet have a priest whose bloody hands can invoke the blessings of God unto fire, and unto glory.
Oh, I tell you we're missing something by our not heeding the old testament scriptures. We're missing something in our blithe disregarding of what we consider to be the weary details and the nomenclature of Aaronic priesthood. And I'll tell you this guys, that Melchizedek priesthood which is our calling is not less demanding than this, but more.
Maybe we ought to take just a look at some of the phrases in Hebrews that describes that kind of priestly ministry. "Melchizedek, King of righteousness, and King of peace." And it says of him, in the seventh chapter reading from the amplified, and the third verse, "Without record of father or mother or ancestral line, nor with beginning of days or ending of life". You don't come into this by Aaronic succession. You don't come into this because you happen to be a Levite, or your last name is Katz. You come into this, because you have come into the Son, who is the King of righteousness, and the King of priests, of Peace, and the High priest of God.
You are in the Melchizedek priesthood in exact proportion as you are in Him, no more and no less. It has not to do with natural factors, natural choosing, but resembling the Son of God is what its all about. He continues to be a priest without interruption and without successor. It's not a take on and take off, its not a stepping into the phone booth, it's not the convenience of changing garments, it's without change. It's eternal, it's without interruption. It's priestliness, which is written in your life, you're part and parcel of it. You're caught up into the High Priest. You're one with Him, without interruption. You know what that will mean? Everything has got to be sanctified. There's a sense of consecration about the most mundane aspect of our lives. The most ordinary thing becomes Holy. We don't dare approach our bedrooms or our kitchens. The chance conversations - there's no such thing any more as small talk. Everything has somehow become rarified, sanctified, consecrated, having eternal weight of glory the priesthood.. The sense of this, the trailing of clouds of glory, that should be attending the lives of those that are in this King of Righteousness.
The sixteenth verse, speaking of Him who has been consecrated a priest, not on the basis of the bodily legal requirements, an externally imposed command concerning his human ancestry, but on the basis of the power of an endless and indestructible life. I'll tell you if the mere reading of the Aaronic requirements exhausts us, what shall we say of this priesthood? It cannot simply be performed on the basis of human zeal. and well meaning intention. Only on the basis of the power of an endless and an indestructible life. Is that the origins of your burden for a dying world? Is that the origin of your concerns for Israel, for an Indian people, for want in the world?
I'd rather see men wholly insensitive and without burdens, waiting for the burden that comes as the expression of the indestructible life from heaven, than they should fashion for themselves burdens that appear seemly and appropriate. Oh, for the dying world. That kind of burden bursts like a bubble with the first kind of pressure or challenge, or sacrifice, of loss to self interest. But the priestly burdens that inhere and are part of the indestructible life, shall not be in any way affected by gasoline shortages. It shall not be oil, yes, and Israel, no. It shall be Israel yes, even without oil, without warmth, without heat, without the Sunday car. Because the burden comes from the indestructible and the endless life, that is, of the resurrection of the King of righteousness, who is a witness, for it is witnessed of Him, You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. Therefore, it says in the 25th verse, "He is able to save to the uttermost, completely, perfectly, finally, and for all time, and eternity, those who come to God through Him."
Oh, for more of this kind of salvation. Oh, for less of the shabby kind countless tens of thousands who are saved, but not converted. All their lifelong a struggle trying to make it for God, wearisome struggle, grinding it out, in a wearisome, and sweating away, trying to "hang in there", and find a little niche in heaven. Surely they've not been saved by a Melchizedek priest.
Because anyone who comes to God by Him, is saved to the uttermost. We need more of this kind of salvation, and less of the four spiritual laws. Less cheapies, less appealing to the self interest of men, of the benefits that will accrue to them, if they should "accept Jesus".
A priest would gag on such terminology as that. He would double up and clutch his guts, to hear any such expression about "accepting Jesus". or any appeal on the basis to be saved for their filthy egocentric self interests, for there's a contradiction in terms. It is not salvation because if you're not saved from yourself, you're not saved.
And to be saved to yourself, is to be saved to the uttermost.
Oh, for more priests who will save men, on the basis of a power of an indestructible life, and not saccharin sentiment, and little fleshly tears, and sourish appeals.
Oh, guys, take off the spotted garments and put on the righteousness of God. And come into the priestliness that must be coupled with apostolic calling.
He's a Son who's been made perfect forever, it says the end of that chapter, and then the eighth chapter beings, "now the main point of what we have to say this, we have such a high priest. One who is seated at the right hand of the majestic God in heaven. There is something about this priestly calling and the heavenly calling that cannot be separated. For the tabernacle into which the priest entered, and the temple into which the priest entered, and the holy of holies, is only a carnal shadow and type and picture of that place into which the Melchizedek priest is invited. on the basis of the power of an indestructible life. It is very heaven itself, to the throne of God.
Have you been there? How do you dare presume to minister to men, if you've not been there first?
Waiting on the Lord, is wholly unknown by modern saints. Andrew Murray writes, "Wait on the Lord, wait for the spirit. In great quietness set your soul still, silent unto God, and give the holy spirit time." Excuse me but I've not adjusted, and I don't believe that I ever will adjust to the modern tempo of evangelical life that requires us to fly into cities on planes, and be met in the airport, and be whisked to a motel, and wash our face, and put on a tie, and come to a service, and sit on a platform, and be called up within minutes, and be expected to speak. What do you think we are, professionals or something?
My God, you'll give an athlete more opportunity to warm up than you'll give a man of God to catch the mind of the Lord for that people in that place and at that hour. You've more respect for athletic performance than for priestly service. You want it now, and you're getting what you're paying for. Cheap, shallow, unheavenly service, scripturally sound, good, but the people leave as they came. Unchanged, they have not been brought to that new place. The aura of heavenliness, and the fragrance that is about the throne, has not been breathed upon them.
For the man has not been allowed to wait on God in silence, in the heavenly place.
In great quietness set your soul still, silent unto God, and give the Holy Spirit time, to quicken in you the assurance that God will grant to work mightily. We are a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifice. The slaying of the the sacrifice was an essential part of the service. In each sacrifice that you bring there must be the slaying and the surrender and the sacrifice of self and its power to the death.
No more ox, oxen, and ram and bullocks.
But us, every single time, death to the fleshly thing that has an opportunity to well up, that human thing that wants to perform, the human thing that wants the cheapest and easiest way out, to use last week's message needs to be brought as spiritual sacrifice, and hacked before God, and let the blood shoot out, in that holy place. That all the powers of self be brought to death. That what comes forth must be from the power of an indestructible life. Ministry from heaven.
I'll tell you when one such minister comes , I'm always happy for him. We're intimidated, because we thought we had it altogether. We applauded our apostolic callings, we saw ourselves as well meaning and industrious elders. We were able to quote the scripture. We had a grasp of doctrine. We knew how to council men, and then comes a visitor from heaven, and we're devastated.
He brings a fragrance, and an aura and a spirit that challenges us to the root. All of a sudden we feel cheap and earthly, Something about us heavy, and human and tainted. We recognize that so much of what we've been saying and doing, though we have not seen it till that moment, was human, all too human. And therefore the result of it could not exceed the origin of it.
Oh, for more heavenly invasion. Oh, for more of the fragrance of heaven. Oh, for those who will come to minister to men, only after they have first ministered to God, in the holy place, stretched out prostrate and dead before Him, waiting that seven days at the tent, at the door of the tent of meeting for everything that's human and vain and selfish and earthly. to be utterly burnt out and dissipated. So that whatever comes forth, is His life.
"Teach us," he writes, "who draw near to Thee to wait, to sacrifice our own wisdom and our own will in the holy fear of the workings of our own nature, may we fear and learn to lie very low before Thee. That Thy Spirit may work with power. Teach us that as the life of self is laid before Thee, day by day, the holy life that flows from under the throne, will rise in power, and our worship be in Spirit and in truth."
Do you distrust yourself? Do you distrust your cleverness? Do you despise your eloquence? Are you shamed by your ability? Are you fearful that it would be these things that be expressed before men?
Have you given God the appropriate time to assure that all these earthly things, however commendable and impressive, will die out as sacrifice before him in the holy place. That the ministry that will come forth to men will have its origin in heaven and at the throne.?
Denying ourself, our wisdom, our strength, in confident expectation of what he will do. I wish I had time. I would just ask if you could obtain a copy of this, keep it under your pillow. Read it day and night. The greatest embarrassment of it is that it was written by a woman, Basilea Schlink. A German woman has got to tell us about the royal priesthood. There's so much I could quote from cover to cover. She talks about those who have the authority to bless. Many devout people can say, "The Lord bless thee", but tone feels hose words express only a nice, pious wish, and that there is no power behind it. That is the one who speaks these words of blessing does not have the authority to move the arm of God in blessing. His prayer does not penetrate to the throne of God. He has not been there!
And hence nothing of the redemptive power of Jesus descends upon the other, nor does the peace of God come into the heart, through the pronouncement of blessing. How we need a priesthood in this generation, that can bless men. Because their hands are dipped in blood. They have submitted to all that the Lord has required through Moses. They are consecrated through and through, men lost unto God, whose ear, whose thumb, whose foot, whose life, whose body, whose attention, whose thought, whose future, whose speaking is all established in heaven. For such men to raise blood stained hands with the gore dripping from their fingernails to their elbows, over the people of God, will bring the fire of God as glory. Men who will come themselves to be daily purified. Men who recognize that the first sacrifice is for themselves. For the iniquity of themselves, even as priests. Who recognize the disposition of their own hearts, that even the most lofty speaking has an element of corruption. The disposition of their hearts. The things that we are required to seeing these days, our competitiveness, jealousies, and covetousness. All these things require first a sacrifice for ourselves, before we minister before God and to men.
She writes, "only those that are sent from the throne of God to serve mankind, only those who live in the presence of God can serve others as priests".
My prayer tonight was that the spirit of priesthood, of priestliness would be breathed upon this people.
This is not something that lends itself to teaching, it defies analysis it can't be laid out neatly. It needs to be breathed upon you, or splattered about you, or be sprinkled upon you. The sense of what it means, of a life hidden before the throne. Those who live in the presence of God, who can bring before men something of the heavenly fragrance. The separation from the world that can only be established there. I'll tell you that you'll be haunted til your last day on earth by the temptations of the world, until you have found that place, that priestly place in heaven before the throne. consecrated before God and prostrate, waiting on Him. It is the final doing away with the power of the seductive strength of the world. Being in his presence in the tranquility of the sanctuary of God. Where the priest lives hidden in his holy presence. Where the glory of His confidence streams upon them, can they be prepared to carry the brightness out into the dark world.
It was true that when one of the sisters from this fellowship came to visit the Ben Israel family, she said, "you're not yet radiant." And she said it all. It was true. We're not yet radiant. But I'll tell you that we're desiring to be. And we're submitting to every process of God, of breaking, of grinding, of pulverizing, of being separated, of being stretched out, of waiting on God in wretchedness, and silence, that the radiance might come. That something of the transcendent glory of heaven can begin to flood our faces. And we shall not be satisfied until we shall have it.
God is wanting a kingdom of priests, in the earth. A whole race of men and women who are radiant and transcendent beings.
Because they have waited in the presence of Him who is light. Just let me conclude with some sober thoughts that she expresses.
"Yes," she says, "it is of the utmost seriousness to live in the presence of God, where no darkness is tolerated". The calling to priesthood is most grave. This isn't for amateurs. This isn't for cheap thrill seekers. This isn't for those who want to be quickly processed into ministry and do do do for God.
For men who have a disposition to wait, for those who love the heft and the feel of the golden diadem, that every step brings the sense of holiness unto God, holiness unto God. Willing to wait for it.
Do we have any idea what it means to fail, here she writes, to stand before men and not be able to help them? Because there is no power to absolve and to bless?"
For us to become mere religious functionaries, or glib charismatics, unctuous practitioners, who have not the power and the authority to bless and to absolve in a priestly way, a dying generation. How will we be able someday to stand therefore before the living God when he requires our brothers blood at our hands?
And we failed Him because we did not live in God's sanctuary, and forgot to be cleansed from our former sins.
I'm so foolish as to desire that anyone that meets us in the world, shall go away scratching their head or stroking their chin wondering, was it man or angel? That every encounter with God's people shall be an encounter with God. That every coming forth of God's minister shall be the Word made Flesh, and an event, and not just mere teaching or mere preaching.
That the radiance of heaven shall be so effusive, so flooding, the voice, the face, the manner, of these priestly ministers, that the world must be confronted and be left without excuse for spurning the Kingdom of which they are the priests and the representatives.
Instead we resemble more the world. Cheap, glib, quick, sharp, our church is so much entertainment, quickie things, playing games with holy things, discipleship, submission to authority, glib cute kinds of practices, not the sense of priestly responsibility. Not the solemnity, not the sense of heaven, not the awesomeness, the fear of God, let alone we can project into men, and teach them the difference between that which is holy, and that which is profane. We don't know it ourselves.
She writes, "how can men be priests if they can endure nothing, and suffer immeasurably if they cannot gratify their appetite, or when they are not loved or honored?"
Does that get you to become unglued? If you're not patted on the back and applauded, if you're not properly esteemed and acknowledged? You come undone?
Priests are indifferent to the applause of men, as well as to their reproaches. They hear only from God, and I'll tell you God is often a long time in vindicating his priests, a long time. The heavens are often silenced when you render obedience to God, and bear the shame of it. It may go months before God lets you to know that you were a faithful servant. Can you stand it? Will you crack up? Are you living in the present spirit of the world, the now generation? Gratified now, immediate gratification, now, and you cannot bear the suspense and the tension of waiting?
In spite of their knowledge Jesus as Savior, they have not yet entered their priestly calling, they remain bound to this world, dependent upon people, dependent upon circumstances, dependent on their own nature.
How could they when they're so susceptible to sin themselves, be capable of helping others, of freeing others. How can they be witnesses to redemption when they themselves are still tied tightly to Satan''stoke, and even still cling to it. That's why royal priests stand majestically independent of all people, condition, circumstance, and material things of this world. Have you come to that place?
You have no inheritance in the world. You're not looking for it, and you're not expecting it. You're altogether indifferent to cars, to clothing, to money, to rewards, to success, to security, or any such thing. You wear what you have, you eat what's put before you, you drive any accommodation that's given. You fly, it doesn't matter where you get out, one airport, or another, its all the same. Majestically independent of all people, conditions, circumstances and material people of the world. Jesus has become their one in all, their inheritance. And now they go through the pains of judgment in kingly majesty. They're able to live in primitive conditions.
Truly a royal priesthood, personally free and independent of everything that is in the world, yet always willing to give oneself. Able with royal authority to loosen the fetters of others, in prayer. The priestly person rests in the strength of the sanctuary. Jesus is sufficient for them. Privations and troubles of all kinds which have always been a part of the priestly life of devotion and sacrifice, only serve to unite him more intimately with his Lord. And let Jesus nature become more powerful in him. Today a perishing world cries for such messengers that come to us from the presence of the living God. They have received power from Him. They reflect the glory of His countenance, They are truly royal priests.
I just want to conclude with this verse in the 8th chapter of Hebrews, the fourth verse, if then He was still living on earth, He would not be a priest at all." That's the long and the short of it.
If he were living on earth he would not be a priest at all.
There's no where to live on earth, to have your tempo meted out by the drummers of this world, or to be responsive to the religious dictates of this world, or the expectations of men, and to be a Melchizedek priest who could loose the fetters of men, and bring blessings by the stretching forth of their hands.
If he were still living on earth he would not be a priest at all.
Where are you living? Children this is a call, to the high calling, the heavenly calling, to be not only apostles, but priests, To catch our life, our substance, our energy, our direction, our thought, our message, our burden - in the Holy place. Prostrate before him, suspicious of anything that emanates and rises up from our own natural life, which is brought again and again and again to the place of sacrifice, of cutting and of blood. When the fire of God fell on that eighth day, hallelujah. When the people saw the glory of God fall as fire, they fell on their faces, before Him.
I'm sick of seeing men persuaded to accept Jesus for the benefits that will accrue to him. Where is the fear of God that men should know, for the day of the wrath of the lamb shall soon be upon them. Who is going to save them from that day?
Who's going to stand in the gap? Who's going to call them to warning? Who are the intercessors whose hearts are breaking for the burden? Who are the men who are so flinty faced before God that can speak whatever foolishness He puts in their mouths, and men dare not titter or mock, for the priestly authority of God is upon their declarations.
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Priests unto Him
By Art Katz