In the church life we must all be holy priests in our private lives and kingly priests in the meetings. Day by day we must be in the presence of the Lord to bring our needs and all the brothers’ and unbelievers’ needs to Him. Every day we must spend time in the Lord’s presence as holy priests. Then when we come to the meetings, we will impart something of Christ to the needy ones. In this way, we will function in the church as the holy and royal priests.
The holy and royal priesthood is what the Lord needs today. But look at today’s Christianity. Nearly all the believers would not be separated unto God as holy priests. And when they “go to church,” they have nothing of Christ to impart as kingly priests. They just look to a prophet. Everybody sits quietly in the pew. They are not priests; they are laymen, sitting and waiting for a “good” message. This is the poor situation in today’s Christianity.
There will never be a proper building up of the church until the priesthood is recovered. Every one of us must learn the lesson of being a holy priest in our private life. We must be wholly separated unto the Lord in everything in order to bring ourselves and others into the Lord’s presence. Then when we come to the meetings, we will spontaneously be the kingly priests to bring forth something of Christ as the bread and the wine to many tired and needy ones. This will bring in the building of the church. Then the prophets will be “jobless”; they will have nothing to do. This is the only way for the church to be built up.
The Lord Jesus builds His church not as a prophet, but as Priest and King. Zechariah, chapter six, clearly tells us that Christ, the Branch, will build the temple as the Priest and King, not as the Prophet. The tabernacle, Solomon’s temple, and the recovered temple were all built up by the priesthood and kingship.
The principle is the same today for the building up of the church. We may need a prophet to come and encourage us when we are disappointed, just as Haggai the prophet came to encourage Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the governor. But the direct building of the church does not depend upon prophets. Rather, it depends upon the priesthood and the kingship. We all must learn to be priests and kings, that is, to be the holy priesthood and kingly priesthood. We must be burdened to cry to the Lord until we see in every locality brothers and sisters functioning as holy priests in the presence of the Lord and as kingly priests unto the people.
The building of the church does not come by any kind of teaching. It comes by the two orders of the living priesthood. We must pray specifically unto the Lord that in our city, and in every place, a group of believers will be raised up to function as living priests according to the order of Aaron and according to the order of Melchisedec.