The human nature must be holy in order to be mingled with the divine nature, which is kingly. As long as we have the divine nature, we have the kingship, for anything divine is kingly. It is easy for us to be kingly if we are holy. If we are willing to be utterly separated unto God without any reservation, we will be kingly. The more we are separated unto God, the more we are holy and kingly.
After staying in the presence of the Lord for a certain time as holy, separated priests, we come out from the Lord’s presence with something divine. We went to the Lord with something human, but we come out of the Lord’s presence with something divine. We come out as the kingly priesthood. We must be holy in order to be kingly. When we come to others, after staying in the presence of the Lord, they sense something divine and kingly in us. This is the kingly priesthood. We now have something of Christ to impart to them. Christ is typified by the bread and wine, which show the One who died for us and gave His body and blood for our enjoyment. The bread and wine typify the redeeming Christ who gave Himself for us.
Before we reach the unbelievers, we must be holy priests in order to be kingly priests. We must first go into the presence of the Lord with all the names of our unbelieving friends and tell the Lord all about their needs. In doing this, we are ministering in the presence of the Lord as holy priests. But many times when we go to the Lord with such a need, the Lord will first point out something in us which has to be dealt with. If we are not willing to meet the Lord’s requirements, we are finished and are discharged from the priesthood. But if we are willing to be dealt with, we will be able to stay in the presence of the Lord as holy priests for our unbelieving friends. After staying in the Lord’s presence again and again for some time, the Lord will guide us to go out of His presence to our friends. Then we will go with the divine nature and the divine kingship. We do not go simply as a human being, but also as a divine being. We go to them as kingly priests, imparting something of God into them. That impartation into them will be the redeeming Christ. This means we bring the bread and wine to our unbelieving friends. Whatever we minister to them will be something of the bread and wine. Then eventually, some of our friends will be saved.
In the ten days before Pentecost, Peter with the hundred and twenty prayed and prayed in the upper room. At that time they were the holy priesthood. For ten days they were fully and absolutely separated unto the Lord. They brought all the needs of man into the Lord’s presence. After ten days, on the day of Pentecost, they came out of the presence of the Lord declaring unto the people what the Lord Jesus had done. Then they were the kingly priesthood. Even the people looked upon them as kings, not as fishermen. As Peter stood there speaking, the people sensed something weighty, something divine, and something heavenly and kingly. He was a kingly priest, imparting Christ as bread and wine to those in need.
When Melchisedec came to meet Abraham, he came out of the presence of God and ministered something of God as the bread and wine to strengthen Abraham. Abraham had been fighting the battle for a long time and was very tired and needy. He needed the bread and wine to sustain him. Therefore, Melchisedec came from God and came with God to minister the bread and wine unto him. This is the kingly priesthood.
We as priests must realize that whenever we go into the presence of the Lord with our needs and the needs of others we are holy priests. This is why we must be separated from so many common things. When we get right with the Lord and are saturated with His glory, we will come out of His presence as royal, kingly priests unto the people. Then we will minister unto them Christ Himself as the redeeming One, typified by the bread and wine. We are separated from the world, and we are saturated with His presence. This is both the holy and royal priesthood.