All of us who are called to follow Jesus are called to the office of the priest. It doesn’t matter whether we are male or female, young or old, we are called to the priesthood.

Every error in the history of the Body of Christ has somehow been related to our pushing our priesthood off on someone else or to our willingness to let another man take our priesthood from us.

Priesthood? Who wants to be a priest? We picture sissified men in funny skirts tiptoeing around in some gloomy cathedral fussing over some religious dishes and pans.

But when the Spirit says of the Messiah in Psalm 110,

Or when the Spirit tells us

He’s not talking about little men in funny robes, but about the most awesome responsibility that can ever be placed in human hands.

The first glimpse we have of this priesthood comes long before Aaron was ever born. Abraham is coming back from the Battle of the Kings and is met by a mysterious man who seems to walk out of nowhere. His name is Melchizedek, "King of Righteousness", and he is king over the city of Salem, (Shalom, Peace). He has neither beginning of days nor end of life. Melchizedek blesses Abraham and serves him bread and wine. Without being asked, Abraham gives Melchizedek one-tenth of all he has.

Two thousand years later, in the same city over which Melchizedek was king, (Salem, now called Jerusalem), Jeshua gathers His disciples in an upper room, blesses them, gives them bread and wine. Jesus then goes out and offers His own body and blood to atone for their sins, and as He dies, His departing Spirit tears the veil of the Temple from top to bottom, opening the way back to God.

Neither Melchizedek nor Jesus, (if you can separate them at all), was ever an official priest in the Aaronic line, but as we look at them we can see what a priest really is:

A priest is two things:

Granted, those who claim to be priests have not always attended to these functions and have at times allowed their priesthood to degenerate into a thing of the flesh.

The best contrast between the death-dealing priesthood of flesh and the life-giving priesthood of Spirit can be seen in a certain episode in the lives of two brothers who were called of God, and we shall see them both in the Kingdom. But there was a day when Aaron descended into the kind of priesthood we all need to avoid like the plague...and when Moses rose into a burning expression of the priesthood to which every disciple has been called.

Meanwhile, on Sinai, Moses has been absorbed in waiting on the Lord, consumed with awe and worship. Then God tells Moses about the apostasy going on below and says, "Out of my way! I will consume them and make of you, Moses, a great nation."

And Moses, to God’s extreme delight, you can be sure, begins his work as a priest.....

"No, Lord! Have mercy on your people,

Lord! Remember your promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!"

And God yields to Moses and sends him down to the people with power to cut the cancer from the body of Israel.

Notice that Aaron had all the outward trappings of a priest. He was considered a priest by men. But Aaron was not coming in before God on behalf of men. Nor was he going out before men on behalf of God. In this instance he was a priest of flesh, and he ministered death.

Moses, on the other hand, did not have the outward trappings of a priest, but he was a priest. He was going in before God on behalf of the people....he took his time and did it right, and when he came out to the people, God was with him, shining in his very face.

It is essential for us to keep in mind that we have been brought together as we are now only for a season. Soon many of us, if not all of us, will be scattered to other parts of the city, the land, the earth. And those of us who fail to make the most of the opportunity we now have will regret it.

is to learn to function as priests of Messiah’s God.

We are here to learn two things:

First, we are to learn to come into the presence of God daily....

It might seem that Moses’ finest hour was when he led the people of Israel through the Red Sea. But for all the miracles that were wrought by Moses’ hand, all the fearful and wonderful things that happened at his command before the eyes of Israel,

No ministry that you and I will ever perform among men will be one whit better than the ministry we first perform alone before the eye of the living God.

That son or daughter you’re worried about. You pray some and fret much. Now come before God like a priest after the order of Melchizedek....in the line of Jeshua the slain and risen Lamb. Minister to that loved one...or that enemy before God. Are you a priest before God to your child

                                                    your mate your friend your enemy?

Second, we need to learn to go out from the Holy of Holies and bring God with us wherever we go.

We don’t leave God behind in our prayer room. He goes with us into the supermarket, the school,

the shop, foundry, office, store, and when we engage in the routine relationships of daily life,

we are there as priests. We are there to bless

Every human being your eye sees is to be illumined by the God light

Some of us seem to be looking forward to the day when we can "really begin to minister." As if a change in our circumstances will make it possible.  A different job.

                                                      A different place.

May we remember that he never sends us forth as anything less than priests in His priesthood,

                                                                                                     priests to His God and Father,

that the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, the hungry and thirsty for righteousness may be blessed in His name,

through us.