Ministering Unto The Lord
The Privilege Of Our Priesthood - Part 1

by Rev. Wayne Monbleau

"He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father" (Revelation 1:6).

I call ministering unto the Lord the best kept secret of the Christian faith. Scripture says we've been made a kingdom of priests, yet we hustle and bustle and go right by it, so sure God must be saying to do other things.

As Christians, we know we are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16) and have the very presence of God within us. As believers, we would readily agree that we need to minister the Gospel to humanity. Well, if we have the presence of God within and we're ministering the Gospel to humanity, then, many may think, what else could we possibly need?

Did you know that there was no greater privilege God would give to people under the Old Covenant than to allow them to be a minister to Him in the Inner Court? And what was granted to a very select group of individuals in the Old Covenant, has been granted freely to every single New Covenant believer in our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. You and I were made priests unto God, new creations in Jesus' name, at the very same moment we became born again Christians!

In my own life, God has shown me that, more than anything else, my ministry to Him personally, in worship, in time spent in stillness before Him, in quality time with and for my Savior alone, comes first. There's a very clear line of demarcation between that which ministers to man, and that which ministers to God. And there is something that happens to us when we regularly, purely minister unto God. It's part of the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.

I believe our highest, purest, most crystallized form of being a believer is our priesthood to the Lord! We submit to God's will and heart's desire when we set aside time to regularly minister to Him. This ties directly into our honestly beholding Him; into our being able to perceive what He's doing in our lives; into our hearing His voice. Ministering purely unto God, solely unto God, is the richest thing God can bless His children with, and the richest thing we, as His children, can bless God with.

I pray that through this study of some of my favorite New Testament scriptures, the Lord will inspire you to see that ministering unto the Lord is our eternal identity, our testimony to this world, and our authentic call to service. May He bless us to understand the pre-eminent value and awesome privilege of our priesthood unto Him.

Our Eternal Identity

In the book of Revelation, chapter 1, beginning partway through verse 4, the opening blessing reveals God's opinion on the subject of our priesthood.

"Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His Blood, and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen."

Your priesthood is part of your salvation! It's as much a part of your salvation as your having been made a child of God. It was birthed in you at the moment of your new birth. In the same way that He loves us and released us from our sins by His Blood, He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father. It's all part of the same work of God.

Is it important for us as Christians to know we belong to God? Is it good for us to know and relate to our new selves in Christ? Do we understand that the more we grow in the awareness of these things the more sure-footed we will be as believers? Of course, the answer to each of these questions is a resounding "yes." Well, in the very same breath, it's just as equally important as believers for us to realize and relate to the fact that we have been made ministers to the Lord. This is God's heart's desire.

"Well, Wayne, how do I minister unto the Lord?" First and foremost, it really is a matter of being. It is who you are. You have been made into somebody special. There's an anointing. There's an office. There's a mantle. There's a robe. There's a vision. There's a place for you as a priest unto God that's been waiting for you all of your Christian life. You will experience your priesthood in eternity. The book of Revelation shows us that. But it would be so much better for each of us, and for the body of Christ, to experience this now. We will see this as we continue on in this study. But, first, in Revelation, we see that our priesthood is a matter of our identity.

Revelation chapter 5 is very similar to what I shared with you from chapter one, yet this time in a different context. This is of the Lamb of God. Revelation 5:8 says, "The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, 'Worthy are You to take the book and break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God.'"

"You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God." Again, this is a matter of identity. One day in eternity we'll be functioning in our full glory as a kingdom of priests. Ever since God began humanity, He has looked to walk in fellowship with humanity. And the goal seems to be not only to know Him, but to be part of this priesthood unto Him. But, how can we know this is important for now? How does our priesthood relate to our service to God now?

Our Testimony

1 Peter 2:4 explains it this way. "Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones," meaning us as individual believers, "are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood." This is what church is supposed to be: a spiritual house to develop a holy priesthood. But do we understand what the implication of our priesthood is? It's something specific. Let's go on with what Peter says.

"You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture." Now, Peter goes into the Old Testament. "Behold, I lay in Zion a choice stone, a precious corner stone, and he who believes in Him will not be disappointed."

This speaks of Christ, our precious corner stone. He is the corner stone of our faith. "This precious value, then, is for you who believe." Then Peter returns to our priesthood, saying, "But you are," and then again, quoting from the Old Testament, "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession." And this Peter declares, is why: "So that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy" (vs 4-10).

You see, our Christian testimony in the world is not our opinion about things. What makes us truly different and separate from the world is our reflection of the presence of God. According to The Holy Spirit's wisdom, Peter wrote that we are to be built up as a spiritual house for our holy priesthood because what specifically happens in that is we are then able to proclaim the excellencies of Him.

As we minister unto the Lord as His holy priesthood, worshipping and pouring out our hearts and love to God, purely for Who He is and what He has done, we can actually see the excellencies of Him. This is what we behold. We behold His excellencies. The more that we behold God's excellencies, the more we are transformed by God's excellencies, and the more we will proclaim God's excellencies to this world. This is the will of God. This is part and parcel of preaching the Good News. It's seeing and proclaiming the excellencies of Him "who has called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light."

Jesus once said, "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:34). In other words, we become what we behold, which means the way we share the Lord may have more to do with what we're actually seeing than, perhaps, even the essential truth of God. Many believers behold this world more than they behold the Presence of God and so the message is slanted more in that direction. God desires a people that will minister to Him because, in doing so, you will see the excellencies of Him, and proclaim the excellencies of Him to this fallen world.

So, as the book of Revelation shares, our priesthood unto the Lord is our eternal identity, part and parcel of our salvation. Peter indicates that our priesthood is part and parcel of our testimony. We need to be lit up with God to be the salt of the earth; the light of the world. Amen? Ministering unto the Lord is how this happens. And what could be better? I can't think of anything that could be better for a believer than spending quality and adoring time with God, and then going forth declaring His excellencies.

Our Authentic Call To Service

Here's another significant passage of scripture relating to the value of our ministering to the Lord. This was quite a pivotal moment in the history of the early church, recorded in the 13th chapter of Acts, involving the apostle Paul and Barnabas being called to their first missionary journey into Galatia. This is really what kicked off the section of Paul's life of his spreading the Gospel to different countries and seeing churches built. No small feat. This also was the onset of a significant portion of the New Testament, through Paul's letters. And how did it start?

Well, before Paul was Paul, Paul was Saul and a persecutor of the church. Saul was gloriously saved (Acts 9), began preaching the Gospel in Damascus and created quite a turmoil. His life became threatened and his disciples had to secretly get him out of the city in a basket. Shortly thereafter, Saul suddenly drops out of the scene, at least in the New Testament picture, for a quite a long time.

Interestingly, this section of scripture was the first recorded portion of Paul's ministry and, you know something? You never hear of the church at Damascus again. The only time Damascus is ever mentioned again in the New Testament is when Paul is recounting when he became born again. Saul definitely had zeal and energy at that time for the Lord, but a lasting work was not established, because Paul had to learn the revelation of his priesthood.

Here's where ministering unto the Lord comes in once again. Years later, Saul reappears. Barnabas went and found Saul and brought him to the church at Antioch. Saul was a changed man now. Here's what made the difference. In Acts, chapter 13:1, scripture says, "Now they were at Antioch in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul." Verse 2 says, "And while they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.'

"While they were ministering unto the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said..."

In the book of Revelation, we see that ministering unto the Lord is our identity. It's part of our salvation. In 1st Peter, we see that the practice of our priesthood is the light of the church that we might proclaim Christ. And in Acts, we see that ministering unto the Lord provides the authentic call for service. So, what part of our walk with Christ has not been touched by ministering unto the Lord at this point? It's our identity. It's the light of God in the church. And it's our call to service.

Take that time to minister to the Lord. Have absolutely serious time. Not a microwave relationship with God, where you pop the Bible open and expect to be a fully formed believer in two minutes. Enter into your identity as a priest unto God, which is just as much for you as your salvation is in Jesus Christ. Then you will see what a highlight this is meant to be for the church. What a change ministering unto the Lord made in Paul's life. Rather than simply declare, "I'm going to go preach the Gospel now," what did Paul do first, which changed everything? He ministered to the Lord... and "The Holy Spirit said."

Can you think of another significant person in the New Testament Who would minister to the Lord, or spend quiet time with God first before ministering to people? Our Savior of course. This was the way Jesus lived His life. Ministering unto the Lord is absolutely consistent with the life of Christ. You can study the Bible and see all the times Jesus was spending alone with God. In Luke 5, people were looking for Jesus to minister, and the Bible says, "But He Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray" (Luke 5:16). In Mark 2, Peter's mother-in-law had been healed by Jesus which then opened up a big, day-long healing service. The next day Jesus left early in the morning. What did He do? He went to be alone with God. Jesus said, "I can only do that which I see My Father doing" (John 5:19).

Ministering unto the Lord is authentic Christianity, and it is so often removed from Christianity. Christianity is the poorer for this loss of our identity as God's holy priesthood. What could substitute for responding to God's invitation to draw near to Him to minister to Him? I can't think of a single thing. There are plenty of things out there that would absorb our time and attention, but nothing will draw us closer to our true identity in Christ than ministering unto the Lord. Nothing brings the light of Christ truer and purer into the church and our testimony to the world than ministering unto the Lord. And there is nothing that could be a higher and holier way to be called into ministry than through ministering unto the Lord.

May the Lord quicken these words to our hearts. In part 2 of "Ministering Unto The Lord - The Privilege of Our Priesthood," I'll share some of my favorite portions from the Old Testament about our priesthood to God. Next time in the Journal.