To define what we mean by the word “priesthood,” let us read several verses of Scripture. “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel” (Exo. 19:4-6, italics ours).
“Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ...But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:5, 9).
“To Him Who loves us and has loosed us from our sins by His blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be the glory and the might forever and ever. Amen...And they sing a new song, saying: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for You were slain and did purchase to God by Your blood men out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and made them to our God a kingdom and priests, and they shall reign on the earth... Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection: over these the second death has no authority; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years...And there shall no longer be any curse. And the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His slaves shall serve Him; and they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their forehead” (Rev. 1:5-6; 5:9-10; 20:6; 22:3-4).
The word “priesthood” has two meanings, which are expressed by two different Greek words. The first meaning is the office or ministry of the priest (Heb. 7). The second and more important meaning is a priestly body or a corporate body of priests (1 Pet. 2:5, 9). In the King James Version these two Greek words are translated the same, yet in Greek they are two different words with two different meanings.
In God’s dispensation and economy, the leading ministry is the priesthood. In this universe God has an administration, a divine economy. His economy is the way He arranges or dispenses. Therefore, it is a kind of dispensation. According to the Bible there are three main ministries in God’s divine dispensation: the priesthood, the kingship, and the prophethood. The priesthood is the leading ministry of the three and brings the kingship and prophethood into function. In other words, both the kingship and the prophethood depend upon the leading ministry of the priesthood.
The dictionary tells us that a priest is a person who serves God professionally. Most Christians would tell us that a priest is one who serves God. This is right, but what does it mean to serve God? Today’s Christians would answer that to serve God is to work for God. This answer is wrong! To say that a priest is a person who serves God is right, but to say that to serve God is merely to do something for God, is wrong.
To realize what a priest is, we must first see God’s eternal plan. God is a God of purpose. He has a purpose which He wants to accomplish. According to the revelation of the Scriptures, God has a plan to work Himself into a group of people, that He might be their life, and that they might become His expression. Based upon this plan, God created man.
Man was destined to receive God, to be filled, saturated and permeated with God, and to have God flow out of him that he might be the living expression of God. This is a brief definition of a priest. He must contact God, be filled with God, and be possessed by God completely that he may be built up with others in the flow of the life of God. Then the priesthood will be His living corporate expression.
Christianity’s concept is that if we love the Lord, we must work for Him. This is a natural, religious concept, not the revelation of the Bible. God never intended to call us merely to work for Him. God’s intention is that we must first open ourselves to Him that He may come into us to fill and flood us until He has taken possession of every part of our being. Our whole being must be saturated and permeated with Him. Then we will be one with Him. We will not only be clothed outwardly with Him as power, but permeated inwardly with Him as everything. Then spontaneously, God will flow out of us, and we will be built up with others in this flow of life.
I must repeat that a priest is not one who merely works for God. God has no intention of calling us to do something for Him. His intention is that we answer His call by opening ourselves to Him and saying, “Lord, here I am, not ready to work for You, but ready to be filled and possessed by You, and to be one with You.” Not until we are one with the Lord can we ever work for Him and be a real priest. The main function of a priest is not to work, but to spend time in the presence of the Lord until he is one with Him in the spirit. The priesthood that God plans to have is a corporate man who is saturated and permeated with Himself.