Kings and Priests

"... and both pray and command like Him."

THE MODERN CHURCH has taken a collection of pages written in Hebrew, spoken in Aramaic, translated into Greek, then Latin, then 1600s English and decided we know all that it means. Actually, it’s a miracle it’s all together under one cover, considering the different generations the writers lived and man’s attempts to destroy it. One man, (well, many men, but specifically), William Tyndale decided the people needed it written in their everyday English, and the authorities of England hung him for it. Although, note that he was successful. The church had become a collection of ornate buildings filled with political powers doing obeisance to whoever was on the throne and the Bible was no longer for the people.

The apostle Paul was a well-educated man who said all that he knew was so much dung. What had changed his life was a radical moment on the road to Damascus and the revelation of Jesus Christ given to him over the years which followed it. He told no one for quite some time but spent the years following, studying the Scriptures and abiding in the Spirit. He was decidedly low-key after his conversion. Eventually after several years, he spent some days with Peter to share what had been given to him. That the church, which grew and matured under his care, a mixture of Jewish and Gentile cultures, became over the many years after his death and those of the other apostles, a political machine and not a spiritual one is the effect of man’s thinking on any spiritual process.

It has happened many, many times. What man creates and calls “god” is not God at all, nor of any resemblance. Psychology and educational theology will only twist and convolute the truth stated clearly in the Word, and they are distinctly out-of-touch with the Holy Spirit, who is the Teacher of the church. By “the church,” meaning the people who have been saved through the knowledge of the cross and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and not the buildings the church inhabits.

Go to Israel and in most of the supposed locations of events in the Bible there is a religious structure erected by men. None of them resemble the church of Acts, neither in form nor in structure. The church of Acts had one message – Jesus Christ crucified and raised from death, King over all, and the signs and wonders which followed the preaching of the Word. They had Christ’s commission, which they sought to fulfill. It was men fighting against later government powers that found the truths of the gospel mixed in with rules of law, similar to those which Jesus had come to earth to fulfill. But we cannot work our way into God’s grace. We cannot be “good enough” through our efforts to earn salvation. Yet, that is what men fell back on.

Minister Dutch Sheets in his book “Giant’s Will Fall” gives an interesting truth. The New Covenant makes us both kings and priests in God’s kingdom. These are not badges we wear nor costumes but positions of authority with distinct differences. “Priests request; kings command and decree. Priests pray; kings rule. Priests operate in humility; kings in boldness.” (pg. 74) Then in another place, he says priests represent the needs of the people heavenward, and kings command God’s will downward. (pg. 76) Ephesians 4:10 says of Christ, “He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.” We are representatives of Christ on this earth. People look at us, and they should see Him. We should sound like Him and react like Him and both pray and command like Him.

The church is not a series of buildings on an ever-expanding campus with a religious affiliation and appropriate religious flags. It is a lifestyle, a change of behavior from how we acted when we were in the world and how we act now that we are no longer of the world, and that change of behavior came about when the Spirit of Christ entered us to abide with us forever. He wrote all those pages which were compiled into one cover we call “the Bible.” He inspired men from ancient Hebrew generations to post-Roman generations to write His truths. He has inspired modern linguists to create new translations that fit into modern vernacular. The miracle of the Book comes down to the One who created the miracles that became … well, everything. The miracle is the Resurrection of Jesus. The Holy Spirit took His mutilated dead body, devoid of blood, and brought it back to life.

READ “God as Resurrected – Resurrection 4”.
https://sdwauthor.blogspot.com/2024/03/god-as-resurrected-resurrection-4.html

He is crowned King and has made us His kings. He is the Great High Priest and has made us priests to do the work of the kingdom. It is not a physical kingdom, although it affects physical things. The spiritual created the physical, after all. We are in a spiritual kingdom. Man cannot think themselves into an understanding of it. This is why so many heard Jesus speak and didn’t “get it.” Hearing they could not hear and seeing they could not see and would not, therefore, understand and be saved. To the Pharisees, Jesus was a threat to their political power, such as it was with the Romans. Jesus warned them what they relied on would tear down their temple and those days would be horrifying. This was fulfilled in 70 A.D. They could only see their influence waning because “this man” wouldn’t shut up. So dark was their vision that they discounted healings and miracles as the devil’s works. They stood outside Pilate’s government hall and asked for Jesus’ death, refusing to enter so they wouldn’t be defiled and could go home and celebrate the Passover feast. JESUS WAS THE PASSOVER LAMB. This is true blindness.

Jesus’ physical death accomplished a spiritual purpose that changed the spiritual authority, taking back what the devil had stolen from mankind in the garden. Salvation is a spiritual rebirth that cannot be seen with the physical eye, except in the analogy which Jesus made to Nicodemus. You cannot see the wind, but you can see the effect of the wind. Today, the Holy Spirit’s wind alters everything. The Holy Spirit’s work in resurrecting Christ, in anointing us as kings and priests, altered everything, and we walk forward in the truth of it, bringing the needs of people heavenward and commanding the will of God downward.

For this reason, Jesus came to earth as a man, to bring the kingdom of God to us so that we could enter in, not as mere observers but as participants. We are children of God, saints, “set apart ones,” who walk every day in the strength and glory of the Father. He loved us so much that when we go boldly before His throne, His answer to our requests is YES. For it is in answering prayers that He is glorified. It is in our asking that we show ourselves His. As did Peter and John when the man at the temple gate asked for alms, they said, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk (Acts 3:6).”

“For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:17)

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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com