KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES
studies in end-time revelation
THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD
Part 23
THE CLEANSING AND SANCTIFICATION
OF THE PRIESTHOOD
"And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them, to minister unto Me in the priest's office...Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water. And thou shalt take the garments, and thou shalt put them upon Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him; and thou shalt anoint them, and consecrate them and sanctify them. that they may minister unto Me in the priest's office" (Ex. 29:1,4,5; 28:41).
The setting apart of the priests for the service of God involved a great deal of ritual which typifies the preparation of the Royal Priesthood in this hour at the end of the age. There were some basic principles which are of sublime importance. The ceremonies of washing, cleansing, investiture, anointing and offering the special sacrifices were performed to show the inward dealing, qualification, development and processing of the spiritual priesthood in the Kingdom of God. The first step in the process involved bringing the priests to the door of the Tabernacle for the ceremonial washing away of all that was unclean. We do not have here types of how a sinner can be cleansed from sin so as to be found amongst the people of God as forgiven and justified. We are reading of how PRIESTS are hallowed, sanctified and consecrated to the priestly ministry.
The first step is cleansing and sanctification. To sanctify means TO SET APART or TO SEPARATE. The word is applied to people, places and things as Sinai among the mountains; the Sabbath among the days of the week; the Temple among all buildings; the city of Jerusalem among the cities of Palestine; the Priesthood among Israel; and Israel among the nations of the earth. For example, the Lord Jesus in Mat. 23:17
19 shows us that gold, if used for the Temple, as a gift, when placed on the altar, becomes "sanctified" or holy. All the gold in this world is for human use and is therefore common; however, if a portion is separated and placed in the Temple for God's use, it becomes sanctified. Again, if an ox or a sheep are among the herd, they are for human use and are common. When chosen and placed upon the altar, however, they become an offering unto God, being separated unto holiness. It is altogether a matter of whether they are for human use or whether they are separated and belong to God. Before they are separated, they are common; after they are separated, they become holy. Simply speaking, holiness means all that pertains to God, and all that is of God, unto God, and for God!
That which is taken out of its surroundings, by Gods command, and is set aside or separated as His own possession and for His service that is holy. This does not mean separation from sin only, but from all that is in the world, even from what may be permissible. Thus God sanctified the seventh day. The other days were not unclean, for God saw all that He had made and "beheld that it was very good." But that day alone was holy, which God had taken possession of by His own special act. In the same way God had separated Israel from other nations, and in Israel had separated the priests, to be holy unto Him. This separation unto SANCTIFICATION is always God's own work, and so the electing grace of God is often closely connected with SANCTIFICATION. "Ye shall be holy unto Me...I have separated you...that ye should be Mine" (Lev. 20:26). "The man whom the Lord shall choose shall be holy" (Num. 16:7). "Thou art an holy people unto the Lord, the Lord thy God bath chosen thee" (Dent. 7:6). God cannot take part with other lords. He must be the sole possessor, and ruler, of those to whom He reveals and imparts HIS HOLINESS.
But beyond this there is a deeper thought. Why were people, places and things set apart? Was it not because GOD WAS THERE? He came down in might and glory on Sinai; therefore they needed to set bounds around its base. He chase to rest on the seventh day from all His work; therefore it was hallowed and sanctified. He selected Israel to be His peculiar people, and the house of Aaron to be His priests; therefore they were isolated from all other. He appeared to Moses in the bush, glowing with the light of the Shekinah; therefore the spot was holy ground, and the shepherd needed to bare his feet. In other words, it is the presence of God that makes holy. There is only one Being in all the universe who is intrinsically holy. Holiness is the attribute of His nature, and of His nature only. He is by nature, wisdom, power and being set apart from all beside. So we can never be holy apart from God; but when God enters the spirit of man, He brings the quality of holiness with Him. Thus the presence of God in Man IS HOLINESS.
In the ancient world all the major religions of the gods of Babylon, Greece and Rome joined pagan worshippers to demons through sexual intercourse with religious (temple) prostitutes and sodomites. History reveals that such vile creatures, because they were in the service of demons, under their will, and actually indwelt by demon deities, were called by the ancients, "holy ones." They were "sanctified" by the will, presence and nature of evil spirits. Christians who had once engaged in those shameful practices before being delivered from the adversary's clutches by faith in the Lord Jesus and the washing of regeneration knew that the practical result of their sanctification was abstinence from fornication (I Thes. 4:4). The indwelling Christ, who of God is made unto us "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and edemption," enables each to "know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the lust of sensuality even as the pagans who know not God." We know that our bodies are the "temple of the Holy Spirit," and that fornication (physical or spiritual) is a formal act of turning ourselves over to the control of an alien power. Uncleanness is actually "HOLINESS UNTO THE DEVIL" separation unto the flesh and the demonic! The calling of the believer, therefore, is to purity of life that he might be wholly sanctified in attitude and action, in body and spirit, even as he is wholly sanctified in his position before the Sanctifier.
Andrew Murray wrote, "God's holiness is often spoken of as though it consisted in His hatred of, and hostility to sin; but this gives no explanation of what holiness actually is. It is a merely negative statement
that God's holiness cannot bear sin. Holiness is that attribute of God because of which He always IS, and WILLS, and DOES what is supremely good; because of which also He desires what is supremely good in His creatures, and bestows it upon them. God is called "The Holy One" in Scripture, not because He punishes sin, but because He is the REDEEMER of His people. It is His holiness, which ever wills what is good for all, that moved Him to redeem sinners. Both the WRATH of God which punishes sin, and LOVE of God which redeems the sinner, spring from the same source His holiness. Holiness is the perfection of God's nature. Holiness in man is a disposition in entire agreement with that of God; which chooses in all things to will as God wills: as it is written: 'as He is holy, so be ye holy' (I Pet. 1:15). Holiness in us is nothing else than ONENESS WITH GOD. The sanctification of God's people is effected by the communication to them of the holiness of God. There is no other way of obtaining SANCTIFICATION, save by the Holy God bestowing what He alone possesses. He alone is the HOLY ONE. He is the Lord who sanctifies"
end quote.
To the superficial observer it might seem that there is little difference between cleansing and sanctification, that the two words mean about the same thing; but the difference is grand and important. Cleansing has to do chiefly with separation FROM something the old life of selfhood which must be removed; while sanctification concerns a separation UNTO something the new life in union with God with its fulfilling of His nature, plan, will and purpose. The distinction between these two things is clearly marked in the Word of God. Paul reminds us that "Christ gave Himself for the church, that He might SANCTIFY it, having CLEANSED it" (Eph. 5:25, R.V.). Having first CLEANSED it, He then SANCTIFIES it. In his letter to the youthful Timothy he wrote, "If a man therefore PURGE himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, SANCTIFIED, and meet for the Master's use" (II Tim. 2:21). Sanctification is a work which succeeds, and surpasses cleansing. This important truth is also strikingly illustrated by the ordinances connected with the consecration of the Priests, the sons of Aaron, compared with that of the Levites. In the case of the Levites, who took a lower position than the Priests in the service of the Sanctuary, no mention is made of SANCTIFICATION; but the word CLEANSING is used five times (Num. 8). In the consecration of the Priests, on the other hand, the term "to SANCTIFY.' is often used; for the Priests stood in a closer relationship to God than the Levites (Ex. 29; Lev. 3).
Sanctification is not merely an effort on the part of Christians to live a better Christian life. In fact, sanctification is not really the effort of man at all; sanctification is the work of God! It is God that sanctifies. Salvation is of God, whether it be justification in the past tense, or sanctification in the present tense, or glorification in the future when the final vestiges of sin and death are overcome, swallowed up into HIS VICTORY. Salvation is wholly of God. The High Calling is wholly of God. The Priesthood is wholly of God. AND IT IS GOD THAT SANCTIFIES. "Ye shall therefore be holy for I AM HOLY" (Lev. 11:45) is a statement of fact, rather than a call to become a "good" person in word and deed. It was because Jehovah had determined to be the God of Israel, and had Himself "set apart" the offspring of Jacob for Himself, and had willed to dwell in their midst in the cloud of the Presence, that the people whom He had delivered from Egyptian bondage were "holy" and "sanctified" unto Him. They were His people because He had called and chosen and delivered them by His own presence and power, and not because of their own good works!
The work of God within us in cleansing and sanctification does, however, involve an action on our part. If the separation unto the Royal Priesthood is to be of value, something more must take place. The apprehended one must surrender himself willingly, and heartily, to this separation. Sanctification of the priests includes personal consecration to the Lord to fulfill His high and holy purposes. Priestly sanctification can become ours only when it sends down its roots into, and takes Splits abode in the depths of our personal life; in our will, in our love. God sanctifies no man against his will, therefore the personal, hearty, response to God is an indispensable part of sanctification. It is for this reason that the Scriptures not only speak of GOD sanctifying us, but they say often, that WE must sanctify ourselves!
The priesthood of Aaron was brought and SURRENDERED unto the Lord at the door of the Tabernacle. And so it is with those who are the apprehended ones, the redeemed of the Lord, His King Priests of Melchizedek's order. Ah God does not FORCE you to surrender yourself to Him; He says, "My son, GIVE Me shine heart." It is not slave labor that He demands; that would be valueless: A WILLING OFFERING is what He loves. What a balance there is between the sovereignty of God and the yielded up will of man! Man's In this we may see the explanation of Pharoah's prompt and dogged resistance to God's call that he should free Israel. Egypt was then the chief of the nations in wisdom, wealth, power and glory. To the proud sovereign of this haughty people a message comes from a God who claims to be the Lord of heaven and earth, the eternal One, Jehovah. The Egyptians though by that time worshipping many gods, still owned that above all there was the great original Deity. From this overlord of heaven and earth the mandate comes to Pharoah, "Thus saith the Lord, Israel is My son, My FIRSTBORN" (Ex. 4:22). Small wonder if the monarch starts at the words! To him they mean nothing less than that Egypt's supremacy among the nations is to pass to this race of miserable slaves. Imagine, these cursed Israelites the FIRSTBORN SON of the Most High God over the nations! Greater humiliation could not be: it were worse than the national foe, the Hittites, wresting this glory from him in fair fight: and the foolish king will dare anything rather than consent.
God claimed as specially His own all the firstborn males of Israel. These were in the highest sense HIS FIRSTBORN. But then God substituted in their place the tribe of Levi, the priestly tribe, so that this entire tribe became especially His firstborn son. They were to grow up to be educated, disciplined and trained to live and serve the peculiar property of the living God, separated from all others by the very hand of God, hallowed unto Him, sanctified as His ministers on behalf of all to whom He would show His mercy and power. The Levites were in fact the TITHE AND THE OFFERING of the people unto God. Aaron was to "offer the Levites for an OFFERING of the children of Israel" and thus they were "wholly GIVEN" unto the Lord. Ah, if you are a priest, dear one, then YOU MUST BE WHOLLY THE LORD'S. As we look upon the average Christian today
how far is this carried out? Many are ready enough to give unto God an hour a week, or perchance an hour a day, a few spare dollars, and a sentimental kind of religionism, which consists of feelings and emotions and activities; but anything like a practical surrender of themselves to the leadership of the Spirit alone, to follow on to know HIM in His perfections, to know His voice and obey His will as He reveals it, yielding body and soul, all they have, and are, and will be, to the Lord alone, is put on one side as an extravagant idea, not to be entertained by soberminded people, who have to get on in the world. Oh, are you one of these? Are you a servant of religion and tradition, rather than the Lord? YOU ARE ROBBING GOD! "But ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee? IN TITHES AND OFFERINGS" (Mal. 3:8). You are withholding that which belongs to Him. You profess to be the Lord's; then how much of you is His? The priesthood is the tithe and offering of the people unto God. Having received the call to priesthood, do you not belong entirely to Him? Then how can you how dare you refuse Him THE WHOLE of that heart, that life which He has claimed as uniquely His? Let the words, "WHOLLY GIVEN UNTO THE LORD," be henceforward our motto, the stamp and superscription on all we have, and are, and let each day and each hour witness, by God's grace, a renewed, willing, and hearty surrender of ourselves, body, soul, and spirit, unto Him whose we are, and whom we desire to serve as HIS PRIESTHOOD upon the earth. God grant that we may yield it!
Jesus is the firstborn among many brethren, but the entire house of sons is called the "Church of the Firstborn" the body of that firstborn son who is become the Head of the Order of the Firstborn. Jesus was the firstborn and as such received the inheritance of the firstborn. But by His graciousness and love and purpose we share with Him counted as heirs of God and JOINT
HEIRS WITH CHRIST in the inheritance of the firstborn.
Let us use this illustration. At the performance of an opera, the first part of the evening is given over to the playing of the overture. As we understand it, the overture is made up of, or contains, parts of all the main numbers of the whole opera. The overture is an overall preview, or glimpse of the opera throughout until the end. But following the overture, the action goes back again to the beginning, and the whole opera is performed in its detail unto the finish. Thus the overture presents the plot in portions and points to the end, so that one who has never heard it, will have a view of the action and the climax of it. But, as we pointed out, following the overture the action returns to the beginning and the detail of the whole plot is played out. However, both the overture and the detailed action come to a common end or result.
Let all who read these lines grasp the great truth that THE MANIFESTED SONS OF GOD ARE THE OVERTURE OF GOD'S WHOLE GREAT DRAMA OF SIN AND REDEMPTION. Jesus is the overture for the sons, while the sons are the overture for all creation. The working out of redemption and restoration into the image of God is revealed in THE MAN CHRIST JESUS. He is the first and so far, THE ONLY PERFECTED MAN. This gives us knowledge of two wonderful things. Through Jesus we have the knowledge of the END of God's great drama of sin and redemption
MAN IN THE IMAGE OF GOD! But we also have the knowledge of the dealings and processings by which man is brought to that end. And WE ARE THE OVERTURE, the preview, the firstfruit, the demonstration of all God's creative and redemptive plan, preenting upon the cosmic stage of the universe the final end that God has in mind for His whole vast creation, praise His wonderful name!
OTHERS MAY YOU CANNOT!
So, then, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the cleansing and sanctification of the Aaronic Priesthood is the type of your own separation unto God and the High Calling of sonship. You belong wholly and entirely unto Him who has called you. You are the exclusive property of Him who has chosen you; and being set apart unto Him, neither the world, the flesh, the devil, nor your own desires, plans or ambitions have any longer the slightest claim on you. A priest could never return to the position of an ordinary Israelite. You are one of a "peculiar people," a "royal priesthood," the FIRSTBORN SONS of the Most High (Heb. 12:23). You may, alas! betimes forget your wondrous position, and walk unworthily of Him who has "called you unto His kingdom and glory," but thanks be unto God, the same that said, "I sanctified them for Myself," said also, "Mine THEY SHALL BE. I am Jehovah" (Num. 3:13).
One more and more comes to know what it means to be a priest as he follows on into deeper and deeper measures of His dealings and further separations unto His purposes. As we become ONE WITH GOD the world does not understand what has happened; but they know that a separation has taken place between us and them which is more than bodily separation. Although we are living and moving among them, and they see us at our earthly tasks and daily living, they realize that we have mounted up beyond them and their understanding. In this connection a brother in Christ recently sent out these meaningful words: "Yes, this is an holy calling and it involves much separation, often from our friends, religious realms, and everything and everybody that would hinder the upward climb into the hill of the Lord, that we might stand in His holy place. The flesh will cringe at the 'aloneness' of the walk. The mind will question as to why it must be so. But the spirit within will continue to draw us onward without the camp, bearing His reproach, while we also are loosed from so many hindrances and infirmities. IT IS A DAY OF REVELATION and little did we know what things were hindering our spiritual progress until suddenly we found that God was stripping something from us, and though we wept at the time, and would have retained it if we could, nevertheless being yielded to the will of God, we relinquished our grasp, and found to our amazement that we received a new measure of freedom. Ah, how many things we hold so dear, but they are actually a weight upon us, rather than a help."
Many times, it is most grievous and perplexing to those who do not know the Lord, as well as to those Christians bound in the religious systems, who cannot understand the workings and separating processes of the Spirit of God, to have one who is near and dear to them in the flesh, separated from them in the Spirit. Though the body with its personality, is still in the home, office, or business, it is as though the loved one were not there. In such cases, how often do they who are watching the lives of those who are following hard after the Lord, entreat them that they will return; that they will again be unto them as they were once. When an apprehended one has entered into this experience, he has counted all things but loss, and suffered the loss of all things that he might WIN CHRIST. Truly, HIS DRAWING leaves us no choice but to FOLLOW ON that we might KNOW HIM in all His glorious and eternal reality! As we follow on to know the Lord, earth and friends and religious things fade away in the exceeding brightness of our vision of Christ.
Our eyes are fixed with a steadfast gaze upon Him who has gone before us, opening up the way into that fuller glory which lies BEYOND THE VEIL. Those apprehended to be conformed to the image of the Son of God have been caught away in the Spirit and set in the ranks of the chariots of the Lord, even among the company of the overcomers who shall come forth in the Name of the Lord to rule and reign and conquer and bless until all things have been subjected unto God.
"I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit" (Jn. 15:1-2). Every branch that BEARETH FRUIT He PURGES it! The purpose of purging, or pruning, is to effect a concentration of the life. When all the branches of the vine are permitted to grow unrestricted there is a resulting debilitating or weakening of the life. The nourishment and vitality of the vine are sapped by all the multitudinous branches, shoots and tendrils, and utilized to keep them alive and bearing abundance of foliage rather than being channelled into producing fruit. Thus, when the excess branches and shoots are cut away, the life becomes more concentrated and stronger in those remaining, and the clusters of grapes become more rich and full. In like manner it is necessary that our natural tendencies and actions and desires must be cut away, that the virtues of our Lord be wrought and manifested in us.
It has been my experience, moreover, that God not only prunes away the sins and works of the flesh, but a great deal of religiousness and RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES AND THOSE INVOLVED THEREIN as well. There was a time when we made the circuit, speaking for the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship and various Churches in the Pentecostal and Charismatic circles. Our desire was pure to share the present truth of sonship and the deeper life of the Christ within, to inspire and bless and challenge any and all possible. Here and there we found an elect few who had ears to hear, but for the most part it became evident that we were "spinning our wheels." Then, one day it dawned on me! Our word was not producing fruit in those places. Oh, they were delighted to have Bro. Eby come by and share his testimony, even minister a revelatory word, and prophesy over some people, momentarily satiating the intense craving in a few hearts for a richer diet of spiritual fare. But after I left, nothing changed. There was no fruit. There was no heightened vision, no going ON in God. These merely took the word we ministered, diluted it with their own shallow church program, and used it to further their own kingdom. Ah, they enjoyed drawing life from us so long as it didn't require them to bear Kingdom fruit. As long as our ministry could be "used" to increase their branches and put on many beautiful leaves
the manifestation of life without fruit we were welcome in their midst. But what they were doing was "sapping" the life out of us to enhance and embellish and strengthen their own babylonish system! Suddenly the voice of the Spirit thundered authoritatively in my ear, "Enough!" And the celestial husbandman did a work of pruning. He pruned from my life a RELIGIOUS REALM that will draw life but will not bear fruit of that life. God does, indeed, prune people from us! "Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He TAKETH AWAY: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." The doom of the unfruitful is: They are TAKEN AWAY. There are multitudes today who loudly profess to be in Christ who yet do not bear fruit of the Christ life. Though they are branches, God will cut off their life supply that they may be seen to be dry ones.
Those called to this High Calling are being separated from all that binds them to a lower order_ that they may enter into ~i; Evilness. Many people find it a lot easier to be "one" with the Babylonian religious systems, where the crowds are, then to become separated and go out BEYOND, leading the way for others to follow. How I rejoice that God is now calling a people
sanctified priests separated ones to a realm BEYOND the norm of religious activity, beyond the programs and promotions, beyond the sensational
ism and hand clapping, beyond the revivals and crowd assemblings, into the new and seemingly strange paths of HIS LEADING. The prunings are not easy, friends and loved ones and brethren do not readily understand, especially the preachers and organizations who try to hold you within their pews and coffers. True, many of these programs are being used by the Lord on some level, in spite of the methods and techniques and fleshliness, to enrich many lives with salvation, healings, infilling of the Spirit, etc. etc. We praise God for His blessing on every plane where He chooses to work, but when the call comes, FOLLOW ME, wait upon ME in deep separation and holy brokenness for the greater glory soon to be revealed, those "sanctified to be priests" come aside to make ready for the next great move of the Spirit!
The message is clear there are things that others can do, but which you cannot do, when you are cleansed and sanctified as the Lord's priest. Religion today has become big business. It is one of the biggest and most lucrative businesses in the whole world. More than one preacher, supposing that gain is godliness, has become a millionaire over the past couple decades, not because he was anointed by God, but because he was a TERRIFIC PROMOTER. Through clever speech and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive they have beguiled innocent people, pretending that they were the great power of God. By craftiness they obtain the names of tens of thousands of the Lord's precious people to whom they monthly send their highpressure pleas for financial help to further grandiose programs which are not the plan of God at all, but merely the product of an imaginative, scheming, grasping and greedy mind. Untold millions of dollars have been extracted from innocent, humble saints to build huge cathedrals, church buildings, office complexes, world headquarters, refuges for the time of tribulation, and to support radio and television and missionary programs which are more of a curse than a blessing. Recently David Wilkerson was asked, "What do you think about American religious broadcasting, especially Christian television?" His reply: "They should shut it down. Turn off all the cameras. Release all these men from the pressures we have put them them under. They should be stripped of their heroic robes, all of their glamor, and be taken outside from all the lights. Then they should go back to the 'mountain' and be broken before God. Let God bring them back, as He chooses, in a purified form. It's all become flesh, absolute flesh"
end quote.
Some months ago I received in the mail a computerized letter from one of the prominent religious racketeers which read as follows:
Dear J. Preston,
READ THIS LETTER CAREFULLY...for the past few days the Lord has been speaking to me about you; TODAY He directed me to write this letter to you. Even as you read this I know that God is going to touch you in a special way...READ ON!
The Lord spoke to me that RIGHT NOW you are carrying a great burden...I saw you in the Spirit with your head bowed down as if you were weeping. As I saw this VISION I heard you pray: "LORD, I WANT TO BE FREE!" The Lord showed me that Satan has come against you even in the last month trying to TIE YOU UP WITH THE PROBLEMS OF LIFE! Have you felt the devil trying to DEFEAT you? Trying to ROB YOU of your JOY and PEACE? Well, J. Preston, YOU ARE ABOUT TO RECEIVE GODS TOTAL VICTORY! As the Lord was dealing with me about writing this to you He spoke this to me: "David, I want you to CONSECRATE 7 DAYS unto Me; during this time I want you to pray for J. Preston to receive TOTAL FREEDOM and LIBERTY of My Spirit. As you pray I shall destroy the YOKE OF BONDAGE that the enemy has brought against J. Preston! Obey Me David, and I shall manifest My POWER in a great ways saith the Lord!" I don't have to tell you how happy I was when the Lord spoke this to me for YOU!
I want you to write your 7 MOST IMPORTANT PRAYER REQUESTS on the prayer sheet that I've sent along with this letter; let me know how: Satan has attacked you,; even during the past month, trying to BURDEN YOU DOWN with the problems of this life. As you write your PRAYER REQUESTS I want to THANK GOD IN ADVANCE for your FREEDOM and LIBERTY!
After you've written your prayer requests, put your prayer sheet in the return envelope and get it-ready for the mail. As you do this I want you to take a - STEP OF FAITH...the Lord spoke this to me: "David, challenge J. Preston to give unto my kingdom so that I will open the WINDOWS OF HEAVEN...have I not said in My Word that no man can please Me without FAITH? Speak unto J. Preston to give a DOUBLE PORTION FAITH OFFERING of $14.00 as a STEP OF FAITH...I am not slack concerning My Promises, saith God! J. Preston, I want you to obey what the Lord has spoken. If you will take this STEP OF FAITH to help spread the Gospel by radio and T.V. you will be using your KEY OF FAITH to unlock the RICHES of God's Kingdom...OBEY THE SPIRIT!
end quote.
I took the prayer request sheet and penned across it the following note: YOU LIED! You did NOT see a vision of me. I am NOT all tied up and burdened down with the problems of life, and the old devil hasn't been on my case for many years. I am walking in the faith, peace, joy and triumph of the Christ. Please do NOT send me any more of your garbage. Take my name off of your mailing list!
All are not as blatantly perverse as this man, but, woe to them! for their plunder is conducted in the name of the Lord and they have made our Father's house a den of thieves. Many preachers are of the opinion that God cannot meet their needs apart from professional money raising letters and high pressure techniques. I do not hesitate to tell you that the very first sign of a ministry VOID OF FAITH is that they must regularly tell you about their needs and constantly urge you to give to them. If they have such mighty faith that heals the sick and raises the dead, why, then, can they not believe GOD for their finances? It is my conviction that one of the first marks of sonship will be seen in a man's life in the area of finances. The Kingdom of God is a Kingdom that functions by Divine Order. The principles or laws of the Kingdom Order are set forth in the Sermon on the Mount. The greatest man of faith and power ever to grace this earth laid down the house law for the sons of God respecting finance. He said, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and ALL THESE THINGS SHALL BE ADDED UNTO YOU. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret SHALL REWARD THEE OPENLY" (Mat. 6:33,6).
On a day when the money was all gone, the bills were piling up, and he was thousands of miles from home, a man of faith looked up and said with total belief, "God's work, done in God's way will never lack God's supply." And you know, the great missionary, Hudson Taylor, was right! Not only was this a Kingdom principle then in far away China it is a principle of the Kingdom HERE AND NOW. Sons are not about their own business
we are about OUR FATHER'S business. And since it is HIS business, it is up to Him to finance it. If He is not financing it, then it obviously is not His business, but somebody else's. Ah God indeed uses PEOPLE in the supply, but HE moves upon those who know HIS voice to give according to HIS direction, not according to how much we can squeeze out of them with a high powered newsletter. During the past decade untold hundreds of thousands of articles and booklets have been sent out from this office FREE OF CHARGE all around the world. Though the expenses each month are large and increase every week, yet no bill has gone unpaid. For this we are most grateful to God and thankful to all the dear ones who have, under the Holy Spirit's prompting, helped us spread the good tidings that pre
pare the hearts of God's elect for the glory that shall be revealed. As you probably know, we never solicit anyone for support. NEVER in fifteen years of publishing the Kingdom Bible Studies have we had to send out any letter or go to any meeting and ASK or BEG FOR MONEY. The fact that without begging or even asking HE SUPPLIES is an indication to our hearts that it is indeed HIS WORK, not ours! In this way, by our gracious Father miraculously moving upon the hearts of His obedient people, His work is sustained week by week and month by month. I never cease to be awed by the fact that the Holy Spirit moves upon precious folk we have never seen nor met, to send amounts small and large to meet every need as it arises. To GOD be the glory! We have observed through the years that the Father rarely sends surpluses of finances, but supplies day by day all that is needed as we look steadfastly unto HIM as our source. That is the way of the Kingdom! And should there be a lack you, precious friend, will never be told about it. Father will hear about it in our prayer closet, a confidential message for His ears alone. We can say to the glory of God that the principles of His Kingdom work really work. Others may trumpet abroad their needs, and employ methods and techniques to evoke a response from their hearers and readers but PRIESTS cannot. Indeed, others may
but WE CANNOT!
I am sure that many who read these lines can make an infinite number of personal applications of this principle in your lives. Oft times we see fellow Christians doing things, going places, living in a certain manner, and they appear to be getting by with it, God seems to be blessing and prospering them. So we cry out God, if they can do it, why can't we? The answer rings loud and clear others may, but you cannot because you are God's chosen to be the manifestation of HIMSELF in the earth, not to follow the pack, but to SET THE STANDARD and LEAD THE WAY into the Kingdom realm of God. The members of the Royal Priesthood are not selected to be followers, just part of the crowd, these are chosen to be the light of the world! So, others may but YOU CANNOT!
THE WASHING AT THE LAVER
"And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt WASH THEM WITH WATER" (Ex. 29:4). This is the only time when Aaron and his sons were washed by another with water. Other washings they had constantly to ob. serve, such as washing their hands and feet, but on this occasion they were washed all thorough and complete cleansing, praise God. This cleansing took place at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation not at the gate of the Outer Court, but before the entrance into the Holy Place. The Tabernacle of the Congregation would better be translated "the tent of meeting". It is called the tent of meeting, because it was the appointed place of meeting with God on the part of the High Priest, and also on that of every stated assembly of the people on solemn occasions. "At the door of the tent" means in the area between the Brazen Laver and the door of the Tabernacle. At the time when this direction was carried into execution the Laver had been constructed and placed between the Brazen Altar and the door of the Tabernacle.
The washing with water is one of the figures for cleansing or sanctification and relates to the priesthood. Therefore this washing has nothing to do with salvation. An unregenerated man would never be called to the High Calling of priesthood. It is good always to remember that the washing which brings cleansing from sin is in the blood, not in water, water being a type of the Word and the Spirit of God. "Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you" (Jn. 15:3), and "Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word" (Eph. 5:25-26). Anyone who treasures the beautiful hope of sonship should become immersed into the Word of God for his cleansing and sanctification. When we truly realize that we are sanctified by GOD'S WORD OF TRUTH, then we will endeavor to rid ourselves of all of Babylon's error, and seek the Lord for His truth by which we are made clean. There is vital cleansing, purifying power in the Word of God anointed by the Holy Spirit within. The truth by which we are cleansed is not the Word of Scripture, not the dead letter, but the Word of God quickened by the Spirit, revealed as truth to our hearts and imparted to us as THE LIVING CHRIST. HE IS THE TRUTH and it is vitally important that we receive ALL TRUTH at this significant time of the end of the age.
The Laver speaks, as I have pointed out, of the Word of God, the anointed, revealed Word, used by God in the power of the Spirit upon His elect for their sanctification. It is interesting to note that there are NO MEASUREMENTS given for the Laver. We are not told that it was so high, or so large in circumference. This is very significant. You may ask, Why? The Altar had measurements, the Tabernacle itself had measurements, and al most all things associated therewith. Each of these bespeak a certain accomplishment of God measured and wrought out in our life. But when we come to the Laver, we have to do with the work of the Word of God upon His people, therefore the UNMEASURED Laver is as eloquent as the measured Altar. Where if I may so put it where is the child of God who has measured that Laver? Where is the one who can say, "I know the depths of the Word of God, and the claims and demands and power and the inward working of the Word of God, and have fully experienced them?" No, dear friends, the very omission of measurements in connection with the Laver, would rebuke any such thought as any saint of God saying, "I have done all that has been commanded me to do; I have done all that ever shall be commanded me to do; the Word has completely done its work; I am perfectly sanctified." When anyone claims that he knows it all or has experienced it all I see a man who would measure the Laver, and a man who has deceived himself, that he has the presumption to say that he has perfectly met the measure of that Laver. I have met a few self-deluded ones who have claimed to have met the measure of the Laver, purporting to be mature, perfect, reigning sons of God. Some have even claimed to have their glorified body. But none have been able to demonstrate the wisdom, love, glory or power to back up their boasts. We cannot know the depth or the height or the length or the breadth of God's dealings and purging and transformations except as they are revealed by the Spirit. Nor can any man know the utter and total depravity and deceitfulness of his own carnal mind and evil heart except as it is uncovered by the Word of truth and the Spirit of revelation. How often we have thought that we had almost attained, were nearly perfected, were on the very brink of total victory, only to have the Spirit plumb the depths and lay before our astonished eyes some undisciplined attribute of flesh, some hidden root of bitterness, some latent lust, some lurking fear, some masked pride, some cloaked unbelief, some concealed Babylonish garment of which we were completely unaware! And so the Laver is unmeasured, for the processing of the Word of truth is an ongoing work in our lives carrying us daily from faith to faith, from experience to experience, as we are "constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another" (II OCR. 3:18, Amplified).
The Laver was made of brass, and how suggestive it is that there were women whose contributions to the Tabernacle were their mirrors
brazen plates of polished brass and these mirrors were used in the making of the Laver. The Epistle of James speaks of a mirror (James 1:23-24), of the man that comes to the Word of God and just reads it and goes away and forgets he says, "He is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass, for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." Has it ever struck you how telling that is? There are some of us who have been looking at our faces for nearly half a century, and we cannot remember them, while memory recalls those of hosts of our friends. I don't know how it is with you, but if I had the gift of an artist I could not paint my own face from memory, nor even make a respectable attempt at it, yet I could paint the faces of my friends. This is just like God's Word and our hearts. We go to that Word of God, we get a faithful portrayal of what we are, and have been humbled thereby, but it soon passes away. Alas! how many look into this Word and forget what manner of men they are. The Word of God is like a mirror, and to see ourselves aright, we need to stay before it continually.
In the splendid Temple built by Solomon the Brazen Sea took the place of the Laver (II Chron. 4:1-5). In Rev. 4:6 we read of a "sea of glass like unto crystal" before the Throne. It is not, as in the Temple, a sea of water, for there is no defilement to cleanse, but it is a sea of glass, to reveal perfection, the perfection of Christ's work IN as well as UPON His glorified people. This great sea of the sons of God is calm and serene, tranquil and quiet
the bestial spirit and nature have been fully dealt with and these abide in the peace and joy and righteousness and power of the Kingdom of God for
evermore. THIS IS THE PRIESTHOOD THAT HAS BEEN PERFECTLY CLEANSED AND SANCTIFIED!
J. Preston Eby
P.O. Box 371240
El Paso TX 79937-1240
All writings are distributed on a free-will basis.
(Brother Eby does not have e-mail service)
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