When I began to serve the Lord, I liked to talk with people about working for the Lord. Now I have no appetite for this because I have seen that it is not a matter of working for the Lord but a matter of being filled with Him, taken over by Him, possessed by Him, and saturated and permeated by and with Him. Serving the Lord is a matter of spending time in the presence of His shekinah glory. Then He will flow Himself out of us, and that flow will be our real work and service. This flow of God out of us is the very thing that we must take care of, for it is uniquely this that fulfills the Lord’s purpose. It is not a matter of working in this or that way; it is not a matter of method, form, or any kind of teaching or gift. Rather, it is a matter of being filled and possessed by the Lord and of being fully, thoroughly, and wholly permeated by and with Him. Then we will become one with Him, and there will be a certain flow out of us all the time. In this flow we are one not only with God but also with all the other members of the Body. In this flow we have our work and service to the Lord, the church life, the Body life, and the building up of the Body. The building up of the Body is not a work, nor is it any kind of organization. It is a corporate life in the flow of God Himself.
Therefore, we all must be filled with God, taken over by Him, possessed by Him, and saturated and permeated with His shekinah glory. Then we will be one with Him, and we will be one with one another in His flow. This is the testimony, the recovery, and the building up of the church. This is also the service, and this must be the preaching of the gospel. All Christian work and service, the building of the church, and the reaching out to others must come forth from this priesthood. God has absolutely no intention in this age for us to do something for Him. His heart’s desire is that we would be fully open to Him and allow Him to fill us. For this we must spend adequate time in His presence, allowing Him take us over, possess us, and even saturate us with Himself. This is the priesthood, and this is the kind of person God planned to have and desires to have today.
The following hymn helps us to realize that for the building of the church, there is a great need today for such a priesthood, for such a group of people who know God in this way.
What a blessing, what a priv’lege!
Called of God a royal priest,
That this glorious, holy office
I should bear, though last and least.
All the building of the Body
On the priesthood doth depend;
Ever praying in the spirit
I this office would attend.
If I keep this royal calling
Under Thine authority,
Priestly duty thus fulfilling,
Then the church will builded be.
Now the church is but the priesthood;
Thus the priesthood formed we need;
When the priests are knit together,
Then the church is built indeed.
Through the church’s degradation,
Saints this office desolate;
Through the weakness of their spirits
Preaching doth predominate.
Most are leaning on the message
And the preaching emphasize,
Yet neglect the priestly praying
And their spirits’ exercise.
Deal with me and make me balanced,
As in preaching, so in prayer;
Leading others oft in praying,
As Thy Word I too declare.
Only serving by our praying
Will our spirits mingled be;
Stressing prayer as much as preaching—
Thus the church is built for Thee.
Hymns, #848