Zadok
Publications
LETTERS TO AARON
Part 1 This is the first in a series which will appear in the Newsletter each month. Some may be shorter, some longer, but all are right from the heart of a father to his son. Philip, Aaron's father, was a mail carrier for 42 yrs. and wanted to express his heart to his son and ultimately to all his family. Would that all fathers were so schooled in the Spirit and the Word as he is. May all sons have the ability to receive such instruction. May these installments be a blessing. If so, email Philip at ggayle1977@yahoo.com. Aaron, Over the years, we have had many conversations about spiritual things, including worship. My job as your father is to protect you, nurture you, and draw out of you what is in you. This letter is about one of the major things God placed within you when he made you. You have worship shut up in your heart. Zechariah 6:13 is speaking of Jesus, "He shall build the temple of the Lord, and He shall bear the glory, and He shall sit and rule upon his throne, and He shall be a priest upon His throne." We were redeemed to become kings and priests unto our God (Revelation 5:8-9). Although we are called to sit and rule on his Throne with him (Ephesians 2:6), our role as kings is not the subject of this letter. This letter has to do with our place in the Temple as Priests. I have been being prepared to write this letter to you for a long time. About 25 to 30 years ago, in my heart I heard, "Call my people unto me and teach them my covenant." Later, I was reading a book about the Azusa Street revival and the author quoted a verse that I was unfamiliar with. Psalm 50:5, "Gather my saint's together unto me; those that have made covenant with me by sacrifice." I knew that this verse was a confirmation of what I had heard first, but I had no idea then of what I am writing to you about now. Revelation 5: 9-10, speaks of our redemption as being the beginning of a process that finds its end in our taking our place at the throne of God. Speaking of the ministry of Jesus, in Revelation, we read, "Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to our God by thy blood…And hast made us unto our God kings and priests." According to Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15, "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet like unto me…" This prophet that was to come after Moses would deliver the people, bring them into covenant with God, build the tabernacle, and establish the priesthood, just as Moses had done. Anyone claiming to fulfill this prophecy must accomplish these four things to be able to stand beside Moses as this "other prophet." In all of history, Jesus is the only one who can qualify to be called a prophet like unto Moses. Our Lord redeemed us, brought us into covenant with our God, is building the temple, and has made us kings and priests unto our God. The verse, just quoted from Revelation 5, spoke of Jesus accomplishing the first and the last things necessary for him to stand on the same spiritual piece of ground with Moses. Since our Lord Jesus has accomplished all that Moses did, we can rightfully claim that Jesus is the prophet of which Moses spoke. There are two points here, each of which has both legal and practical ramifications. First, both Moses and Jesus were used of God in their day to establish a kingdom of priests. Second, none of the men that established any of the so-called "Great Religions" of the world has ever met the standards giving them the right to claim to be a prophet in the same class with Moses. However, we can claim that what our Lord Jesus has established sets Him above them and all their claims; He is Lord. Add to this, that the plan of redemption required a final step that neither Moses nor Jesus were ordained to carry out. To complete His plan through Moses under the Old Testament, God sent Joshua to divide the land (Joshua 1: 6), and to establish his plan of redemption through the Lord Jesus under the New Testament. The Father then sent the Holy Ghost to divide the gifts of the spirit to the church (1 Corinthians 12: 11). Our promised land is the gifts that the Holy Ghost has given to us individually. There are dramatic differences between the two covenants. Many principals of the scriptures are misinterpreted just by not knowing what our promised land is. I'll explain in this letter the fact that a stream flows out of our promised land of standing before the Lord to minister unto Him. The stream of blessing that flows out of His presence gives a divine dimension to the human effort that is required of us, once we come to whatever is our calling outside the place of worship. In the Old Testament, the people were brought to the mountain of God in an attempt to bring them into their role as a "kingdom of priests" (Exodus 19: 6). When the people were confronted with the presence of God, with the mountain quaking, the lightening, the fire and smoke, the sound of the trumpet _ growing louder and louder, they rejected the offer. Had all of the tribes of Israel accepted this call, it would not have been necessary to have chosen the tribe of Levi to be the priests for the nation (Deuteronomy 10: 9-10). Jesus today is issuing a similar call to the church, and His attempts in this regard have largely been met with the same reaction. The presence of God is no less unnerving today than it was then. Consequently, the place that the Body of Christ was redeemed to occupy has few takers... In Hebrews 3 and 4, we read of the Lord's later attempt to bring the people of Israel, not into the priesthood, but into the land he had promised to Abraham. Again they refused. The covenant may have been changed, but human nature had not. Today, we still limit the Holy One of Israel just as they did back then (Psalm 78:41). Hebrews 4: 2 calls their place in the land "rest" and calls this "rest" the gospel that was preached to both Israel under the Old Testament and the Church under the New Testament. How could this rest in the Promised Land be the same gospel that is to be preached to the Church? It is simple. We have to understand the parallel between the ministries of Moses and Joshua and the ministries of Jesus and the Holy Ghost. Redemption under the Old Testament was complete when Joshua began to take the people into the land. Under the New Testament, our redemption is in the process of being completed by the Holy Spirit in His work of bringing us into our place as kings and priests unto our God. This is the gospel. Hebrews 4: 3-5 adds another dimension to our understanding of the rest of God. The gospel says that in creation God rested on the seventh day. Under the New Testament, the gospel has to do with his taking us from being without form and void to walking with Him as new creations. Our rest in the land as kings and priests and our rest in creation as new creatures are divinely set processes. Attempting to fit bits and pieces of the Word of God into our various doctrines has taken us to the point we have obscured the true intent of God. The result is the lack of the glory and presence of God among us. When the Lord rested in the tabernacle, His glory filled the place. When He rested in Jerusalem, after David had dispossessed the Jebusites, and after the Temple was built-- His glory fell there too. When He rested in creation, He had built a place of abundant provision for man and for daily fellowship face to face with man. Our God divinely set forth processes that, if we allow Him to complete His work in us, will have its end in our walking in His glory, His provision, and in His rest. We do not serve a haphazard God. In Genesis 1 and 2, a divine plan was executed to an exacting standard and in a precise order. Once a step in this process was spoken into existence on a particular day of creation, it could never cease to function at its full potential forever. Once "let there be light" was uttered, light had better continue to function. It has to for our existence here on the earth to continue. If this principal is so easy to comprehend when we consider the place of in the light of the creation around us, why do we think we can piece together our own little plan to get us to the pathway the Lord has already mapped for us? Under the New Testament the Lord Jesus has redeemed us, brought us into covenant, built the Temple and established a Kingdom of Priests. Then, after the Lord ascended, the Holy Ghost was sent from the Father to bring us into His rest in His Throne as kings and priests. As I have already said, Moses and Joshua in their ministries were a shadow and direct parallel to the callings of Jesus and the Holy Ghost. All that I have been addressing has a direct bearing on whether you are able to enter into the fullness of worship. Without knowing and functioning in these principles and the remainder of what I will be sharing, you cannot stand in the place you are called. You have worship contained in your heart, and the Lord is the one who placed it there. I question today the many in the Church who say that they don't need to be constantly refreshed in the doctrines that are the foundation upon which everything is to be built. Many of the doctrines of the Church have been cast out, such as redemption, holiness, the New Covenant, the fear and judgment of God. They cast out teaching about the workings within the temple where we stand before the Lord to minister unto Him, the gifts of the Holy Ghost (even objecting to using the name Holy Ghost). These elements are to be constantly and vitally functioning in the Body of Christ, but they have been cast out. Their reasoning is that everything which is left will neatly fit into a particular group's (or ministry's) vision or doctrinal stand. Their defense for picking and choosing can come from ignorance of the word of God or from the arrogance in their thinking that they know better than God. Their reasoning goes like this, "We are beyond that" or "that is not our ministry" or "the world simply won't hear it that way" or some other version of "we don't need that stuff." The people who say such things would never dream of telling God (in reference to the creation), "We don't need that light stuff" or "we don't need that firmament stuff." They know that we would all fall dead if any part of the Lord's creation ceased to function for even a second. The plan of redemption, like the plan of creation, is a divine master plan--unlike a Chinese restaurant menu where you can choose one item from column A and perhaps two from column B. In the case of creation light and the firmament, once they were set into motion, they had to continue to operate without the permission or commission of man. (I know this could seem to be my going on and on, but I am laying a foundation upon which you are going to build. I refuse to build things that are not in the divine blueprint. That's the problem today, we come up with our many plans and wonder why our plan does not meet the standard of performance we see set forth in the word of God. No plan that has not passed through the engineering department of heaven, and received the approval of the Father, will stand or prosper. In case we were in doubt about this plan, the Lord presented it again in Romans 12: 1 where we read, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service." This verse, along with 1 Corinthians 6: 16-20, is most often interpreted as having to do with our remaining sexually pure, and this is part of the truth. But what Paul is trying to get across in Romans 12:1 is actually a call from the Lord for us to enter our place as priests unto our God. You will see we are most like the tribe of Levi (as we are both called) and are "to stand before the Lord to minister unto him." Remember Revelation 5:9-10 that says the Lord's purpose in redemption was to make "us kings and priests unto our God?" The verses in Revelation 5 and the one in Romans 12 both point to the same conclusion. Aaron, having worship shut up in your heart by God makes you the perfect candidate to teach these things to others. I am writing this letter to give you more understanding about this subject. The more you know, the more you can teach the people of God, and the further you can take them into their ordained place in worship. Now let me show you what I believe Romans 12:1 is saying. There are direct parallels between the call of the tribe of Levi and that of the Church. First, in Numbers 8:5-22, we read about the tribe of Levi being offered to Aaron, the high priest, as a waive offering (a living sacrifice). We are urged to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to our High Priest, the Lord Jesus, in Romans 12:1. Second, Deuteronomy 18:6-7 states, "And if a Levite come from any of thy gates out of all Israel where he sojourned and come with all the desire of his mind unto the place which the Lord shall choose; then shall he minister in the name of the Lord, as all his brethren the Levites do, which stand there before the Lord." In Romans 12: 1, Paul uses the word "beseech" in appealing to us to become living sacrifices. Again we read in Deuteronomy 18, "And if a Levite comes with all the desire of his mind...then he shall minister…" The service of an individual Levite was, with the possible exception of the high priest, voluntary. And the word "beseech," used by the Apostle Paul in Romans 12: 1, carries the same sense of our service being voluntary. The word "beseech" in the Greek meaning is "to come along side." The Greek word translated "comforter" in the New Testament means "to come along side to help." Both words are from the same Greek root words! Paul, here, is coming up beside us as a father would, in an attempt to convince his sons of what is the very best path for them to take. In Romans 12: 1, neither Paul, nor the Spirit of God, is issuing a command. They are putting forth "a call" for us to choose the highest and best (which is to take our place in the priesthood). Earlier in this letter, I explained we have been redeemed by the blood of the Lord to stand in the tabernacle as kings and priests. The place we are called to is the Lord's turf; it is set up and operated as He has preordained, and we are to function there at His pleasure and under His lordship. Whether we individually choose to "come with all the desire of our mind" to stand before the Lord, or not, is a decision the throne of God has left to each of us. Some try to command others to take a place predetermined by man that will aid the "vision" or cause us to fit into some doctrinal bent. And if we aren't willing to fit into the system, then we will be denied access into their inner sanctum or ostracized. I have personally occupied places (in another man's ministry) that were not my calling. The leader of the ministry was my brother in Christ. If he had a need, then to me, the Lord had a need. Because I willingly sowed into his ministry, I will reap what was planted in his ground. (What I am speaking about is our divinely ordained place in the unseen tabernacle.) It is one thing to help another man do what he was called to do and quite another for someone to demand you fit into some mould-- that may have little or nothing to do with why the Lord has placed you together. Romans 12: 1, in the King James Version, speaks of our "reasonable service" which is correctly interpreted in some translations as "our priestly service." To this point, it can be concluded that we are like the tribe of Levi, a royal priesthood, and that we, like them, have the individual choice of whether we present ourselves as living sacrifices to the Lord or not. There is usually a marked difference between our ministry to the Lord as priests (in the unseen tabernacle) and our calling and vocation outside the place of worship. Whatever the spiritual gifting and bent we might exercise in the "seen realm" can and will bleed over into and even obscure our heavenly calling as priests. Before we know it, the urgent business our natural eyes see can easily trump our heavenly call. This is just the nature of the world we live in. Also, leaders of particular groups or movements emphasize what they perceive to be the most important need or focus for the Church. Although the thrust envisioned may be valid, it is presented as fiat (in most of the Churches these sorts of things are put forth as the only option there is, thus affording no way for the average Christian to ever get a clear vision of his or her calling). Also in my experience, it is hard enough to find your priestly vocation, much less hear God calling us to "come up hither" into the place where we are to minister unto God. Our priestly call may well differ from our vocation. Our vocation is our call to minister for the benefit of man. But our call to the priesthood is to "bless the Lord," to "stand before the Lord to minister unto him." (Too often we have the Church picking and choosing what they want to do, or do not prefer to do and then what they have chosen or determined to be the best course of action for the whole of the body of Christ.) As a father, I know that all five of you are different. I have taken my pattern from Adam. Every tree in the garden already had in it what it what it was supposed to be. Adam was not put into the garden to choose what type crop he wanted. He was placed there to protect and nurture what the Almighty had already chosen to plant there. Only in that kind of atmosphere will the gifts and callings the Holy Ghost has chosen to place in each of us ever come to their fullness. Finally, Deuteronomy 10:8 completes the picture the apostle Paul was painting in Romans 12:1. Paul spoke of our "reasonable service." In Deuteronomy 10: 8, the reasonable service of the Levites was laid out (and by extension, our reasonable service is laid out)." The Lord separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister unto Him and to "bless in His name." In Deuteronomy 10, we are told exactly what the ministry of the Levites was. In just the same way the tribe of Levi officiated as priests under the Old Testament (Covenant), so we are to function as priests under the New Testament (Covenant). If their calling was, "To stand before the Lord to minister unto him, and to bless in his name," so is ours. Our calling is not some empty thing without any benefits. There is "the blessing" that comes from simply standing in God's presence. When we leave the tabernacle, we don't leave that "blessing" there. It has pervaded our being as we ministered to the Lord. And I believe that the "blessing" and "the empowerment" that we bring with us, after those times, has a lot to do with Matthew 6: 33, where the Lord said, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." To be a kingdom of priests, who stand before the Lord to minister unto Him and to seek first the kingdom of God, we must embody the same principals. There is a "blessing" that comes only from standing before the Lord to minister unto him. It is the only thing that can "empower" us to "bless in His name" once we come out of the tabernacle and into the world. And it is the only thing that can consistently cause all things to be added unto us. Eleven, of the tribe of Israel, were given the land. But the tribe of Levi was given the priesthood. I have proven that of all the tribes of Israel, we are most like Levi. In Deuteronomy 28: 8 we read, "and He shall bless thee in the land that the Lord thy God giveth the." The land, for the other eleven tribes, was a piece of physical real estate. But for the tribe of Levi (and for us), the land is our place in the ministry of worship. And He said He would bless us there. The trouble is that where we have been seeking the blessing of Abraham is no where to be found in the framework of religion. Let us consider that the purpose of the Father in sending Jesus to redeem us with His blood was to bring us into His Presence. His desire is for us to sit and rule upon His throne and sit as priests on His throne with him (Ephesians 2: 6 and Zechariah 6: 13). But the Lord has placed a double edged sword in our hands. One edge of the sword is a place of unfathomable power, authority, council and blessing which is available only to those who answer His call to become "living sacrifices." The other edge of the sword is where we were granted a free will. Every choice has its consequences. If we choose to stand before the Lord to minister unto Him, the benefits that come with that choice can not be comprehended by the mind of man. At this point, we have entered a realm where He is manifestly Lord. Our choice has placed us under the authority and rule of another. So this sword cuts like this. If we chose His tabernacle, we have ceded control to Him because the place we have chosen is in His kingdom, and there He is Lord. If we reject Him, as He comes alongside to persuade us to take our place in the tabernacle, then we have also rejected the place of blessing He is offering. As God's heirs, each of His children has been provided a seat in His throne as kings and priests. But He does not command any of His children to walk in His courts; He has left that choice to each of us! |
