God Says,
"I will Have a Kingdom of Priests"
by Caleb Brundidge
Kingdom of Priests
While
in church recently, the minister said, "Kingdom of Priests." God
began to talk to me about it, and I felt He was saying to me, "I will have
a Kingdom of priests."
After
hearing the words, "I will have a Kingdom of priests," I began to do
a word search in the Bible for "Kingdom of priests." I found the
following verses:
Exodus 19:5-7 (NLT) "Now if you
will obey Me and keep My covenant, you will be My own special treasure from
among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to Me. And you will
be My Kingdom of priests, My holy nation." This is the message you must
give to the people of Israel. So Moses returned from the mountain and called
together the elders of the people and told them everything the Lord had
commanded him.
Revelation 1:5-6 (NLT) He is the faithful
witness to these things, the first to rise from the dead, and the ruler of all
the kings of the world. All glory to Him who loves us and has freed us from our
sins by shedding His Blood for us. He has made us a Kingdom of priests for God
His Father. All glory and power to Him forever and ever! Amen.
Revelation 5:9-10 (NLT) And they sang a new
song with these words: "You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals
and open it. For You were slaughtered, and Your Blood has ransomed people for
God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And You have caused
them to become a Kingdom of priests for our God. And they will reign on the
earth."
These
Scriptures have been in my spirit now for weeks, so I decided to ask God what
He wanted.
A Holy Nation Set Apart
for His Use
I
remember, about three years ago, the Spirit of God began to tell me to make a
clarion call for the lions to come forth (radical dancing warriors of praise).
I began to do that to the best of my ability. I would prophesy to different
people I believed He said were part of the tribe of the Lion of Judah. I would
go into times of intense praise because I knew Judah meant "praise"-actually,
Yadah, which means "to confess." I really tried to make that call as
loud and as often as I could.
But
since I received this word about a Kingdom of priests, I have been on another
level of thinking. When I read Exodus 19:6, I began to get a deeper meaning of
this clarion call: He wants a holy nation set apart for His use. I began to see
Jesus as our High Priest in the things He did here on the earth: like heal the
sick, set the captives free, hang out with the poor and the people most people
would not hang out with, like the Samaritan woman. So my picture of a high
priest would be one who is set apart for God, is intimate with God, and hangs
out on the streets with the poor and untouchables.
I
also see David as one who carried this high priest call to the utmost. He was
one who was passionate for his God and gave Him extravagant worship. He was
sanctified for the use of God, yet still hung out with the people.
As
a Kingdom of priests, I see us sacrificing our lives for the greater call. This
call is to minister to God and His people. The more we sanctify ourselves for
the call to fight for humanity, the more we will see our lives and others'
lives changed into the life of Christ.
Ministers to Represent
Christ to the World
To
rule, you must gather the people together to a greater cause, to go and spread
the King's agenda. That agenda: the Kingdom of Heaven, making disciples of all
men.
Jesus
prayed to the Father in John 17 that we become one, just as He and the Father
are one. To me, that speaks of an intimate relationship between humanity and
the Father. It speaks of worship. In worship, we become one with the object of
our worship. He also asked that we become one with one another. This speaks of
unity within the Body of Christ, even the part of the Body that has not yet
come to the knowledge of Jesus.
Jesus
says here that God the Father loves us just as much as He loves Himself, and He
is the High Priest. Jesus prays for the people who will come to God through our
words; He also prays to "Sanctify them by Your truth." As I read
this, I see us as priests who minister to God through intimate relationship and
then minister to His people through intimate relationship with each other. We
must be the ministers that represent Christ to the world.
Through
us sanctifying our lives, we will draw the world to God. Then we will become a
Kingdom of priests serving God and then His people.
Weekly
Scripture Meditation:
Week
One - John 17:15-19
Week
Two - Psalm 63:1
Week
Three -1 Peter 2:4-8 (NLT)
Week
Four - Exodus 19:5-7 (NLT)
Caleb Brundidge