How do the circumcised, faithful, and qualified persons serve the Lord? First, they have to offer the fat and the blood of the offerings (44:15). The most precious part of the offering is the fat which typifies the precious Person of the Lord Jesus. The blood signifies the redemptive work of Christ, but the fat signifies His Person. The fat we present to God is the precious Person of Christ, and the blood we present to God is the redemptive work of Christ. Please remember that in typology, the fat of all the offerings typifies the precious Person of the Lord Jesus, and the blood typifies the Lord's all-inclusive redemptive work. In all our service to God, we must present the precious Person and the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus to Him.
When the priests came in to minister to the Lord, they were not to wear any woolen garment (44:17). Instead, while they were in the Lord's presence serving Him, they had to wear a linen garment. According to the Bible, linen signifies a living and behavior that is pure, clean, and fine. The linen garment signifies our daily walk, our daily living, in the life-giving Spirit by the life of Christ. The priests were not to wear woolen garments because they would become too warm and would begin to sweat. According to Genesis 3:19, sweat is a sign of God's curse. Because fallen man is under God's curse, he must sweat. Under the curse, man is short of God's blessing. Therefore, man must sweat to produce something; he must exercise his own energy which causes sweating. In the Lord's service there is no need for us to use our own strength. When we use our own strength to endeavor and struggle, it proves that we are not under the Lord's blessing, but rather under the Lord's curse.
In the Lord's recovery, as we serve the Lord, we need to avoid and even escape from any kind of self-energy, self-struggle, and self-endeavor. Do not push anything. If something is from the Lord, surely the Lord will grant His abundant blessing upon it and He will work it out. The Lord Himself will work it out. There is no need for us to push and to endeavor and to struggle and to energize to such an extent that eventually we are fighting. In the church service we all have to be in the life-giving Spirit living by the life of Christ. We should not exercise our natural strength and push anything. On the contrary, many times we need to back off a little and to give in. This means that we give in to the Lord and then we put the Lord on the spot. We can tell the Lord, "Lord, if this burden is something of You, I will stay back, and You have to come in. You have to come forward. I will give in and You have to take up the burden. This will confirm my burden so that I may know it is really of You." There is absolutely no need for us to strive and fight in our service to the Lord.
In addition to this, a priest who would serve the Lord directly in His presence cannot be defiled by any dead person (44:25). Do not go to the dead persons. Do not touch the dead carcasses. Do you realize that some Christians are dead persons? They are dead and stinking. By going to such Christians and listening to them, you will become half-dead. Then a lot of stinking and death will come out of your own mouth. You will have nothing positive to say; you will only speak in a negative way. You will say that the elders are wrong, the co-workers are wrong, the young people are wrong, the old people are wrong, everyone is wrong. Your contact with such a dead person has caused you also to be dead and negative. Whenever you realize that you are with such people, you have to run away; otherwise, you will be defiled by their death. To be defiled by death is more serious than to be defiled by something sinful. If you touch something sinful, you can confess and apply the blood and right away you are cleansed. But when you are defiled by touching a dead person, it will take you at least seven days to be cleansed (Num. 19:11). You will need a period of time to be purified and purged from the stinking of death. I believe that you have had this kind of experience in the past. After talking only a short while with a certain person, you could not pray or function in the meetings for a week. You became half-dead. Be careful about spending time with dead persons. Stay away from them! Do not think that you can help the dead persons. No, rather, their death will spread to you. In some of the churches, a few saints are dead people. They are very alive to movies, to sin, to worldly things, and to negative talk—but they are absolutely dead to the church. As far as the church life goes, they are really dead persons. Unfortunately, they are not yet buried. I hope they will soon be buried. If you would serve the Lord, you must keep yourself undefiled. Always stay away from dead persons.