In this universe God has an administration, in which is His divine economy. The Greek word for economy means “household law,” implying a plan, an administration, an arrangement, for distributing, or dispensing, the household supply to the members of a family. The base of this word is of the same origin as that for pasture in John 10:9, implying a distribution of the pasture to the flock. God’s economy is His household economy, His household administration (Eph. 1:10; 3:9; 1 Tim. 1:4), which is to dispense Himself in Christ into His chosen people that He may have a house to express Himself, which house is the church (3:15), the Body of Christ. In God’s economy, in this divine household administration, there are three main ministries: the priesthood, the kingship, and the prophethood. The priesthood is the first and leading ministry in God’s economy.
In the New Testament three Greek words are used in relation to the priesthood. The first word refers to the priestly office, as in Hebrews 7:12; the second refers to the priestly service, as in Hebrews 7:5; and the third refers to the assembly of priests, a priesthood, a body of priests who serve in a corporate way, as in 1 Peter 2:5 and 9. According to the natural human concept, a priest is a professional person, a person whose profession is to serve God. Most Christians consider a priest to be someone who serves God. Although this is correct, it is necessary to explain what it means to serve God. The common concept among Christians is that to serve God is to work for God. However, this is not an accurate concept. Although it is right to say that a priest is a person who serves God, it is wrong to consider that to serve God is merely to do something for God or to work for God.
In order to know what it means to be a priest, we must first discover God’s eternal intention, that is, God’s desire in eternity past and His intention for eternity future. God is a God of purpose. Just as we human beings are purposeful and always do things with a purpose, God, who is much greater than we are, is a God of purpose who has an intention to accomplish.
The Scriptures reveal that before the ages, in eternity past before the foundation of the world, God had a good pleasure, a heart’s desire (Eph. 1:9). According to His good pleasure, He made a purpose, an intention, to gain His heart’s desire, and He also made a plan to accomplish His purpose (3:11). In this plan He determined to work Himself into a group of people so that He might be their life and they might be His expression (1:5). Based on this divine determination, God created man. Man was destined to receive God, to be filled with God, to be saturated and permeated with God, and even to flow God out, so that he might be the living expression of God (Gen. 1:26; 2:8-10; John 7:37-39; Eph. 3:19; 1:22-23).
Although a priest is a person who serves God, this does not mean that he works for God and does something for God. According to the revelation of the Scriptures, to serve God is to receive God into us, to contact God, and to be filled with God, saturated with God, and permeated with God. Furthermore, to serve God is to flow God out and, in this flow of God, to be built up with others as a corporate expression of God. This is the proper meaning of serving God and of being a priest. A priest is simply a person who is filled with God, one with God, taken over by God, and even possessed by God in a full way and built up with others in the flow of the life of God to be a living, corporate expression of God on earth today. This built-up corporate entity is the priesthood.
In Christianity there is the concept that if we love God and fear Him, we must work for Him. According to this concept we must consecrate ourselves to the Lord so that we may be His servants who do His will, serving Him by working for Him. But this is actually a natural, religious concept, not a revelation from the heavens. God has no intention whatsoever of calling us simply to work for Him or to do something for Him. Rather, God’s intention is for us to open ourselves to Him. We should not do anything for God but should open ourselves to Him so that He may come into us, fill us, and even flood us. In this way God will saturate us, permeate us, take us over, and take possession of every part of our being. When our whole being is taken over by Him, possessed by Him, and saturated and permeated with Him, we will be one with Him. Indeed, we will be full of Him, not only by being outwardly clothed with Him as power but also by being inwardly permeated with Him as everything to us. We will be God-men, persons full of God, and spontaneously God will flow Himself out of us. Moreover, in this flow of God, which is the flow of life, we will be built up with others.
People who are swept away in a flood can never be independent. They are carried along in the one flow of the flood waters. If we are all on dry land, it will be very easy for us to be independent and individualistic. But if a flood comes and sweeps us away in its current, we will all lose our independence and individualism. We will all be “one” in the flood, for we will be carried along in one direction. It will not matter whether or not we agree to go in the direction of the flood. We will have no choice but to go in the same direction. We may disagree with one another, but we will have no way to disagree with the flood. Likewise, when we are one with God and are in the flow of God, we will be one with one another and will be built up together in this one flow. The final picture in the Bible shows a river of water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb and flowing through the whole city of New Jerusalem (Rev. 22:1-2). The whole city is in the one flow. This is a picture of the priesthood.
I must repeat that to be a priest is not merely to work for God. We must forget about this kind of concept. When I was young, I considered that a servant of the Lord was a priest who served the Lord full time, and I thought that a servant of the Lord should endeavor, struggle, and strive to do something for the Lord. One day the Lord opened my eyes to see that my concept was wrong. God has no intention to call us to do something for Him. His unique intention is for us to answer His call by opening ourselves to Him and telling Him, “Lord, here I am. I am ready not to do something for You or to work for You but to be filled and even be taken over by You so that I may be fully possessed by You and with You. I am ready to be one with You.” Until we are one with the Lord, we can do nothing for Him; we can neither work for Him nor be a genuine priest.
Furthermore, we must see that the main work and conduct of the priests is not to offer sacrifices but to spend time in the presence of the Lord to be filled, saturated, and permeated by and with the Lord until they are one with Him in the spirit. Before spending time with the Lord and being saturated with Him, they can never be adequate priests. A priest is not a person who does something for God but a person who is filled with God. This is a priest, and this is the man God planned to have. God planned to have a corporate man who would not be engaged in doing something for Him but who would be filled with Him. If we have this light, we will realize that every man should be a priest, one who receives God and opens himself to God to be filled with God and to be saturated, permeated, and possessed wholly, fully, and thoroughly by and with God.