THE ROYAL PRIESTHOOD

(continued)

In my early ministry there was a question in my mind which recurred again and again. I found it very difficult to understand why the Lord invited and commanded me to pray. Why did we have to pray? God is omniscient - He knows all things. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows what things are going to happen before they do. He is conscious of our needs and problems at all times. Jesus said, "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him" (Mat. 6:8). So I wondered, Why is it necessary for us to acquaint Him of something He already knows? Does God really know what is best for us, or must we try to figure out what is best and then advise God of it? Do we know something about ourselves of which God is not aware, and must be informed? Is it possible that God, having created us, is unable to care for the work of His hands without a request from us? Or can it be that God might overlook something that should be done in our lives, and we are to discover it and tell Him? Is it possible that God may forget something we have requested of Him, so must be reminded again and again? Or does He derive some twisted sense of pleasure from watching us grovel before Him, begging and pleading, before He sardonically bestows His beneficence upon us? Can it be that our judgment concerning ourselves, and the needs about us, is superior to God's judgment, so we must instruct Him in what we think He should do?

Why the ministry of intercession on behalf of men? God is God, so why doesn't He just do what He wants? Why are we even in the picture? Why are the events on earth related to our prayers and intercessions at all? I meditated long upon the words, "God worketh all things after the counsel of His own will." If this be true, then, I mused, I couldn't change the will of God no matter how long or hard I prayed! The Bible says that God answers only those prayers which are "according to His will," so I reasoned, If I can't tell God something He doesn't already know, and if I can't cause Him to change His mind about any matter, then what is the object and the purpose of praying? Again I was reminded of the verse, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your own lusts" (James 4:3). I knew God wasn't going to move contrary to His will just to satisfy my petty desires and wishes - so why pray? I knew prayer worked, because I saw the effects of my prayers in my everyday life. However, I didn't know why God wanted to involve me in the process. What really was the purpose of prayer? These momentous questions puzzled me until the Lord graciously imparted to my troubled spirit the understanding of what true intercession is!

Prayer has been used by untold multitudes of people through long millennium’s as a refuge in time of need and trouble. Prayer has been employed as a means of approaching God to obtain from Him things that men could not find in themselves. Prayer has been a turning to a Being far above us humans, One able to do for us those things that we have not been able to do for ourselves. It lies within the very nature of man to turn to a Higher Power when he faces his own mortality and limitation in time of necessity or emergency. In these instances people turn to God because they do believe that HE IS, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6). This is a basic and simple foundation in the psychical and physical constitution of man. The fact is, however, that most people, including Christians, only pray when there arises a pressing need or crisis. When we are sick, or our child is sick; when someone dear lies at the point of death; when the candle has burned out and hope is gone; when we are engulfed by urgent problems in our home or business; or when we want God's blessing on some cherished project we are about to undertake - then we pray! But when the sun shines resplendent in the heavens with ne'er a cloud upon the horizon, the time men spend in prayer is short indeed!

THE HEAVENLY PATTERN

The true nature of prayer and the exact purpose for intercession cannot be rightly understood apart from the typical ministry of the priesthood within the Tabernacle of Moses. There were three stages by which Moses, the man of God, ascended into the Mount to receive from Him the revelation of the Tabernacle. To the first, he went in company with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and the seventy elders of the children of Israel. "And they saw the God of Israel: and there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in His clearness...they saw God, and did eat and drink" (Ex. 24:10-ll). When this wonderful spiritual feast was ended, the voice of God called Moses up to a higher plane - a further peak. He first bade the elders tarry where they were; and then, accompanied only by Joshua, he rose up, and went into the Mount of God, on which the cloud brooded, covered and bathed in the dazzling brilliance of the glory of the Lord. But on the seventh day, even Joshua was left behind. God called unto Moses out of the cloud. And Moses went up further into the Mount, deeper and yet deeper into the heart of the burning glory. All his senses were awake to the wonderful scenes around him, and entranced; "And Moses was in the Mount forty days and forty nights."

During that time instructions were given Moses concerning the Tabernacle, which was to be erected on the desert floor below. Those instructions are exceedingly detailed and specific. Nothing was left to human fancy or chance. Beginning in the Most Holy Place with the Ark and its Mercy-Seat as the Throne of God, where the High Priest ministered unto the Lord or behalf of the people and received from God the blessing and life for the people, the instructions pass through the Golden Altar of Incense, the Show-Bread Table of shittim wood, the Candlestick with its seven branches, the boards, and curtains, and hangings, and the Brazen Laver, until they end at the great Brazen Altar in the Court of the Tabernacle, where God and the priesthood and the sinners all met. In the vision shown Moses of this Tabernacle with its priesthood it was as though the eternal realities which had dwelt forever in the mind of God had taken visible shape before his vision. The unseen became visible. The eternal took form. The spiritual became material. A pattern was shown him. He trod the isles of the True Tabernacle. He beheld the heavenly things themselves. And it was after this pattern that he was commanded to build. "According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the Tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it" (Ex. 25:9).

Truly there are verities deep and profound here. For we are told that these things were made after the pattern of things in the heavens. Every knop, and tache, and curtain, and vessel, and piece of furniture, and each action and ministration of the priesthood therein, had some heavenly parallel, some spiritual counterpart of which it was the rude and material expression. Through these examples and shadows there is no doubt that the ancient saints caught glimpses of eternal realities. And under the teaching of the same Holy Spirit, as taught Moses of old, we explore the sacred meanings which underlie the ark and the mercy-seat; the altar of incense; the candlestick and the table; the laver and the altar of burnt offering; and the priesthood ministering before all. Each is like a hook in the divine household, to which God has attached a sacred meaning, and which yields up its secret to those who reverently FOLLOW O-N TO K N-O-W THE LORD.

One thing is absolutely certain. The Tabernacle is the meeting place between God and man. It is there that God and man meet and are joined together. Everything in that Tabernacle contributes to that meeting and the ministry of the priesthood effects it.

When the High Priest stands before God, it is man that stands in the presence of God. When the High Priest speaks to God, it is man communing with God on behalf of men. When God speaks to the High Priest, it is God conversing with man on behalf of men. And when the High Priest comes forth from that holy audience with the blessing for the people, he imparts that which he has received on behalf of his fellows by his meeting with God, and in the blessing God and they are joined and co-mingled.

The type has passed, and we know that the Tabernacle built with hands is no more. But what do we see? Men are trying to reproduce it, or to invent a substitute for it. Church buildings, cathedrals and temples are pawned as the meeting place with God! Call these "churches" if you will. THEY ARE NOT CHURCHES. They are mere buildings; and there is nothing sacred or holy about them. We praise God for the privilege of assembling with those of "like precious faith," and rejoice in any gathering of saints that is truly UNTO HIM: but in point of fact it is not in any building made with hands that the priestly ministry is carried on. Ah, how greatly we misconceive our true position! We certainly need not the Tabernacle of Moses, the Temple of Solomon, nor any cathedral or so-called church building or gathering to minister as the Lord's priests; because we are constituted priests of the HEAVENLY TABERNACLE, which no human hand ever reared, and which is the true meeting-place between God and His priesthood, yea, of all who come to God.

"Neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH" (Jn. 4:21-24). It is an indisputable fact that in all of the recorded history of the human race men have been prone to associate their worship of God with places and things, and to attach some special sacredness or power to that place or thing, until the places and things become more important than God Himself. Many precious folk imagine that because they met God in some glorious experience in such and such a building, room, or seat, they will find Him there again. I remember seeing people during the great healing campaigns of the late 1940's and early 1950's, long after the tent was folded, the lights were out, and the trucks had departed, returning to stand in the saw dust at the exact spot where the glory of God had been seen, expecting to meet God in just the same way again.

Intercession is rooted in worship. If we will take very special heed to what our Lord spoke to the benighted woman at the well, we will understand that the true worshippers SHALL - not ought to, they S-H-A-L-L - worship the Father in spirit and in truth, or in reality, for that is what truth is. God is spirit. The Holy Ghost is spirit. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. God makes His angels spirits. Spirit denotes that which is vital and expressive in our state of being. The true worshippers shall worship the Father OUT OF THE STATE OF THEIR BEING, not by words they have learned, nor by ceremonies performed by rote, nor by an anointing coming upon them. "Thou desires" truth in the inward parts." There must be a reality and obedience to the working of God.

The woman said to Jesus, "Our Fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye (Jews) say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." You Jews say that the temple in Jerusalem is the place to worship. We say: This mountain is our holy place. The concept of the carnal mind is: You can only worship God if you are in the right, holy circumstance, not for example in your car driving down the road, or while washing dishes, or on the job. Jesus said: God is not a place, a building or a mountain; God is SPIRIT. You cannot confine God to a temple or a time. God does not move exclusively on Sunday morning at twenty minutes after eleven, following three choruses and two minutes of singing in the Spirit. His Spirit is everywhere, all the time. They that worship God must do so in a state of being: in spirit and in truth. The great apostle Paul declared, "I am poured out like an oblation." Like incense, his whole life was an offering to God.

I was greatly blessed many years ago by the following words written by George Hawtin: "There is a place in God where saints may dwell ten thousand times more real than any natural realm. There is a true temple, NOT MADE WITH HANDS, eternal in the heavens. It is the mystical temple, which is HIS BODY. There is a church which is THE TRUE CHURCH. Its happy saints dwell in the realm of the Spirit, and, because they do, they continually worship God IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH. I anticipate that many will ask, 'How do we worship God in Spirit?' But this you will not discover until the hour comes when you learn that neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, nor in the church system, nor in the denomination, nor in the mass, nor in the ordinances, nor in any such thing do men worship the Father. When you have departed from all these things and broken these idols from off your neck and cast their image from before you, then you will see no man but Jesus only, and then only will you understand what it means to worship in spirit and in truth. When this wisdom is sweet to your soul, then like the woman of Samaria you will drop that jug with which you for so long a time drew natural water from a natural well, and you will run off as she to unashamedly declare, 'Is not this the Christ?"'

May God help all who have received the call to sonship to realize that we do not have to go to Jerusalem or to a mountain, or be at a special time or place to worship God, or use special words or a certain form, or go through the religious exercises the whole church world goes through every Sunday morning, but that we worship God at all times and in all places because our whole life IS WORSHIP. May God do a work in us and cause us to be true worshippers, that whether we are in the desert, or in the mountain, or in Jerusalem, or at home, whether by voice, or by offering up, or whatever we are doing, reality be in us, so that whatever we do, we are doing it out of that reality. Strange, isn't it, that most "gifts of the Spirit" only work after three choruses or at the close of the sermon! Let us ask God to help us not to be PROFESSIONAL WORSHIPPERS, but to be TRUE WORSHIPPERS of the Father.

When we meet with a company of the elect, we are not to think of them as the whole of those with whom we worship and minister. The true priest is one of a great festal throng, which is comprising the spiritual temple built of the living stones of redeemed and transformed men and women. As priests in the HEAVENLY SANCTUARY, the TRUE TABERNACLE, we are but part of a great and universal congregation consisting of all the elect saints who have gone before, and those now living, gathered out of all ages, and throughout the vast universe of God. The preacher, the prisoner, the traveler, the mother, the king - all meet there IN THE SPIRIT REALM, and worship and minister from thence. All are priests, and yonder is the great High Priest of our profession, who has pressed through the heavens and ever lives to make intercession. He is "a minister of the true Tabernacle." And such are we! He has raised us up and made us sit together with Him in these heavenly places, and He has made us to be a kingdom of priests. Ah, it is not "in church" on Sunday morning that we know the power of this priesthood; it is IN THE SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH, in reality wrought within, every moment and everywhere and in every situation and circumstance as we live and walk in HIS REALM.

I trust and pray that the eyes of our understanding may be enlightened to the fact that we are mere learners in the great school of priesthood. God has been using His people everywhere to whatever degree He has prepared the vessel for that revelation of the Christ. There has come a beautiful unfolding of His purpose, the outflow of His life and the manifestation of Himself. But there shall yet come the ultimate, and total, and complete revelation of Jesus Christ - not a narrow, limited thing, not to get a number of people saved and filled with the Spirit, and healed and blessed and used - but the Kingdom of God coming with power and with glory, as an expression and a manifestation of God in His total capacity with no limitations, with all the power, with all the glory, all the might, all the majesty, all the authority, so that nations will be swept into the Kingdom of God, creation delivered, and the last enemy, even death, destroyed from off the face of the earth forevermore. What bright and glorious prospects loom before the vision of God's Royal Priesthood!

WORKERS TOGETHER WITH GOD

It has been said that an intercessor is God's strategist - he sees what God is after, and goes along with Him. The men of the Bible always understood their specific commission. So must we. In the preceding article on this subject I pointed out that in order to understand intercession we must go back to the creation of man. Jesus said, "The Father hath given Him (the Son) AUTHORITY...because He is the SON OF MAN" (Jn. 5:26,27). One might think it should have read, "because He is the SON OF GOD," but it doesn't say that. The awesome and universal authority of the Son is rooted in the fact that He is the SON OF MAN. Man in God's image is God's government in the Kingdom of God. Creation was originally established with a degree of splendor suitable to the dignity of Adam as its appointed ruler.

It was after the vastnesses of the heavens and the earth had come forth from the creative hands of Omnipotence that the Creator proclaimed the awesome fiat: "Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness: and let them have DOMINION" (Gen. 1:26). You see, the dominion of the Kingdom was given to man. Man was ordained by God to rule not only the earth, but the universe with its billions of galaxies. David mentions this in the eighth Psalm. "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than God (Heb.), and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put ALL THINGS under his feet."

Now that phrase, "under his feet," is a Hebrew term which means that man was to have authority over all of God's creation. He was to rule it all, govern it all, be head of it all. God made man for that intent and purpose. When God gave the world and all things into the power of man, made in His image, who should rule it as a viceroy under Him, it was His plan that man should do nothing but with God and through God, and God Himself would do all His work in the universe through man. Can we not see by this that Adam was appointed God's KING-PRIEST on behalf of all creation? Now for Jesus to have anything to do with this dominion He had to become a man, for the dominion was given to man, and in order for Him to receive the Kingdom, He had to be a man; it was necessary, in fact, for Him to come as the second man, the last Adam. As the eternal Word of God He could have nothing to do with this dominion, though it was through Him that all these things were made. But become a man He did, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and as man He has qualified to receive the Kingdom and be the ruling Head of it, the King of Glory.

When sin entered the world, Adam's power was proved to be a terrible reality, for through him the earth, with the whole race of man, and all things, was brought under the curse of sin and death. When he fell his kingdom fell with him. When he came under the dominion of sin and death he took all that he ruled with him. But, blessed be God! when creation's new rulers, the second man, the last Adam, Christ the Head and His glorified body of sons of God, are manifested, their Kingdom will be elevated again with them. As they are forever free from sin and sickness and sorrow and limitation and fear and death - then will their realm be. This means that IN CHRIST we have been restored as beloved and royal sons and daughters in the family of God. Once again, we have been given the power and authority to carry out our Father's will - to establish His Kingdom here on earth. We now have that authority and privilege. God's royal purpose for this world will be fulfilled through the body of Christ. He is the heavenly Head, but we are the earthly members that make up that body. God has purposed to work out His will on earth through you and me, beloved. Without Him we cannot; without us He will not! We are God's KING-PRIESTS appointed to bless and restore all things into God!

The above explains why intercession is necessary. God honors the dominion which He has given to us as elect members of His government on earth. HE EVER REMAINS THE SOURCE OF ALL THINGS, but He respects the position and the authority and the responsibility committed to us as His sons and viceroys under Him. All that happens on earth must happen through man, the redeemed man, conformed to the image of God. The Royal Priesthood of the sons of God is the connecting link between the Creator and His creation, that through them He may be seen, touched, and known. The glory, love, grace, wisdom, knowledge and power of God must be exercised toward every creature everywhere through the priesthood company, the firstfruits of His redemption. Therefore, He waits for us to come before Him in prayer, in holy fellowship, communing with Him about the affairs of the Kingdom, before we rush out into the confusion and sorrows and need of the earthly arena. Intercession is prayer and praise and command that flows out of relationship and fellowship with our heavenly Father. From our conversations with God, we find out His will. It is there in those blessed seasons sitting at His feet, that we come to know what He wants and learn of His ways. Intercession is asking or inviting God to do what we discover He wants to do on earth and, in turn, speaking or decreeing that it be done. In this way, we become "laborers together with God" (I Cor. 3:19).

When we invite God into our realm of dominion (the earth) through intercession based on a knowledge of what He desires, and then decree that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven, this is the power of the Kingdom of God in operation. Oh, that men would understand this one great truth! God will not work on our earth without us becoming a partner who will work with Him that His will might be done through us. Since the establishment of His Kingdom on earth through His redeemed and regenerated body, He will not force His way into our world and violate the dominion which He has given to man. The elect of God have a responsibility and authority in this world that God will not assume as His own prerogative - a dominion which He will not usurp. He cannot and will not violate this kingdom and this dominion, under the whole heaven, which is given to the people of the saints of the Most High!

You recall that Jesus said in Jn. 5:27, "The Father has given the Son authority... because He is the Son of MAN." However, in verse thirty Jesus says, "I can of my own self do nothing." Authority is given Him, BECAUSE He is the Son of man, yet by Himself He can do nothing! Jesus then goes on to say, "I judge only as the voice (of the Father) comes to me and my judgment is just, for I seek (consult) not my own will, but the will of Him who sent me." He always refers and submits to the will of the Father. The Father, however, depends on Him to be the one through whom His will shall be done here on earth. The Father would not in any way by-pass the willing work of His Son. In a sense, they choose to be dependent upon one another. The Son had been sent to do a work here on earth. The Father did not and would not work without Him. Nor would the Son do anything apart from the revealed will of the Father.

It is this unique and special relationship between the Father and the firstborn Son that becomes the pattern for all the younger sons of God who are growing up into His likeness. Jesus communed with His Father until He saw what the Father was doing and wanted done. As the Son of man, He then had the right and the responsibility to ask or invite - and in a sense decree - that the Father work out His will on earth. The Father then had a right to manifest His power and glory through His Son to bring His will to pass. This is the government of God through the Royal Priesthood! Intercession, therefore, involves knowing God and His will, decreeing His will upon earth, and doing whatever He empowers us to do to make it a glorious reality. This world first of all, and then the vast universe beyond, is our God-given realm of responsibility and authority. And intercession is the first principle in the science of ruling it!

Precious indeed is the promise given in I Jn. 5:14, "If we ask anything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, He heareth us...and we know that we have the petitions that we desired from Him.' If we ask anything - no exceptions - no limit to God's confidence in His sons! And why? Because He trusts them to ask right things "according to His will." He is guiding them, even in what they ask, if they are truly sons after His own heart; so God sets no limit to His power. If anyone is doing God's will let him ask anything. It is God's will that he ask anything. Let him put His promise to the test.

Notice here what the true basis of sonship prayer is. The prayer that is answered is the prayer after God's will. And the reason for this is plain. What is God's will is cosmic purpose. I don't present to understand the depth of it, but when Jesus was going away He said, "Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name, from now on you will ask the Father in My name, and whatever you ask the Father I will do it." Ah, we have missed the importance of prayer in the redemptive and reconstructive and restorational purposes of God! Our prayers ARE important. It is the law of the Kingdom. You'll find yourself praying, you'll find yourself desiring to pray, and that's the Holy Spirit urging you to do what is necessary to enable things to happen the way they are supposed to happen. In the economy of the Kingdom there is a relationship between the decrees of God and the response of God's people! God created all things by a Word. God SAID, "Let there be...and it was so." Not God wished, or God thought, but God SAID. That's a CREATIVE WORD! Pray. er is a participation in the creative Word of God, speaking the new creation into existence. It's a mystery I don't fully understand, but there are times when I have to pray, there are times when the altar of my soul is full of clouds of holy incense as I send up to God petitions, as I decree a Word, not for myself, but for others, and when I can't articulate them in English I send them up in an unknown tongue. And there is that deep inner consciousness that somehow I am participating in a great tableau and drama of history. How narrow our prayers sometimes can be. We pray so often for ourselves: me and my wife, my son John, we three, no more. How broad our intercession should be! When we come before the throne of God whose Kingdom we represent, there must be a catholicity, a universality, about our prayers. We are the PRIESTHOOD for all creation!

TRUE WORSHIPPERS

There are four stages in intercession; first, to sit at the Lord's feet until we discover His will; second, to yield unto Him that His will may be fulfilled in and through us; third, to decree the thing creatively and proclaim it among men; fourth, to be committed to make it happen, to finish the task, and bring God's Kingdom to pass on earth.

To sit at His feet means to be a worshipper. It is much more than drawing nigh to God with our mouth and pouring forth beautiful expressions of praise or impassioned petitions. "The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him" (Jn. 4:23). The emphasis in this passage is not on worship, but on TRUE WORSHIPPERS. I do not hesitate to tell you that much of the so-called spiritual worship in this hour is in fact idolatrous, for many have made an idol of worship, they worship the beauty and glory of worship, rather than WORSHIPPING THE FATHER. But TRUE WORSHIPPERS are true worshippers because they worship the FATHER in spirit and in truth, or in reality. What we do is not of prime importance. What we ARE is the thing that matters, for out of a state of being comes our doing. The Holy Spirit cried through the prophet, "This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth and honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me. But in vain do they worship Me..." (Mat. 5:8,9).

It is not sufficient to worship God as an act. If you are not a true worshipper, your worship is vanity, matters not one whit how beautiful or spiritual it may sound; it is not in spirit and in truth, because it is not proceeding out of a state of being. "Well did Esaias prophesy of you, hypocrites" (Mat. 15:7). A hypocrite cannot worship God, it takes a worshipper to worship God. God is looking for those who have become true worshippers. "This people shall be unto Me for a praise, a name, and a glory." The man born blind whom Jesus healed, with wisdom and understanding declared, "If any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth His will, him He heareth" (Jn. 9:31). He did not say, "If any man worships God." Anyone can go through a form of worship. And so he said: If he BE A WORSHIPPER. God heareth not sinners, but if any man BE A WORSHIPPER OF GOD AND DOETH HIS WILL, He heareth him. Multitudes of people daily worship God, but God neither sees nor hears them.

Abraham is the classic example of a true worshipper. There arrived for the faithful patriarch that most solemn of days in which the voice of the Almighty fell upon his listening ear, commanding, "Take now thy son, shine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt-offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of" (Gen. 22:2). Though this command filled Abraham's heart with pain, yet he would not be as surprised to receive it as a father would in our day; for such offerings were very common among all those people in the land where Abraham lived. Abraham, being strong in faith, never for one moment doubted or disobeyed God's word. He knew that Isaac was the child whom God had promised, and that God had promised, too, that Isaac should have children, and that those coming from Isaac should be a great nation and a company of nations. He did not see how God could fulfill His promise with regard to Isaac, if Isaac should be slain as an offering: unless, indeed, God should raise him up from the dead afterward, a thought which Abraham's unwavering faith did not discount. But Abraham undertook at once to obey God's command. He took two young men with him and an ass laden with wood for the fire; and he went toward the mountain in the north, Isaac his son walking by his side. For two days they journeyed, sleeping under the trees at night in the open country. And on the third day, Abraham saw the mountain far away. As they drew near to the mountain, Abraham said to the young men, "Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you" (Gen. 22:5).

Ah! he did not say, "I and the lad will go yonder and offer up a sacrifice," but "we will go yonder and WORSHIP." So great was his faith in God's promise that Abraham declared, "and WE will come again to you." For Abraham believed that in some way God would bring back Isaac to life. He took the wood from the ass and placed it on Isaac, and the two walked up the mountain together. As they were walking, Isaac said, "Father, here is the wood, but where is the lamb for the offering?" And Abraham replied, "My son, God will provide Himself a lamb." And they came to the place on the top of the mountain. There Abraham built an altar of stones and earth heaped up, and on it he placed the wood. Then he tied the hands and the feet of Isaac, and laid him on the wood on the altar. And Abraham lifted up his hand, holding a knife to kill his son. A moment longer, and Isaac would be slain by his own father's hand. But just at that moment the angel of the Lord out of heaven called to Abraham, and said, "Abraham! Abraham!" And Abraham answered, "Here I am Lord." Then the angel of the Lord said, "Do not lay your hand upon your son. Now I know that you love God more than you love your only son, since you are ready to give up your son, your only son, to God."

The message is clear - Abraham WORSHIPPED GOD in the offering up of Isaac. Abraham was a true worshipper! When called on to offer up his son, he did it as an act of worship. If Abraham had not been a true worshipper, he might have offered up Isaac, but it would not have been an act of worship to God. It might have been a sacrifice, but because Abraham was a true worshipper, his offering up of Isaac became an act of true worship in the presence of God.

Worship is from the Hebrew word SHAHAH meaning "to bow down, to prostrate," and from the Greek PROSKYNEO meaning "to prostrate, do obeisance to." Worship is the honor, reverence, and homage paid to superior beings and powers, and to God. It is not words at all, but an attitude, a state of being, a reverent and submissive bending to God's will. It is not what you are doing that matters most, but your state of being when doing it. You can pray for something and it can be just a selfish, proud, egotistical thing. Or it can be an act of worship to God. It is worship when it is GOD'S WILL you seek, that His kingdom might be brought to pass on earth.

When David brought the ark to Jerusalem according to the word of the Lord, he worshipped the Lord in the beauty of holiness (I Chron. 16:29). Why did David have to go back for the ark twice? Because the first time it was not an act of worship. It was an act of triumph: they were conquering their enemies. If it was worship they would have brought the ark according to God's way, but they thought, If the Philistines can haul it on a cart, we can do the same, and so God smote them. But later David worshipped the Lord in the beauty of holiness, because he brought the ark back according to the Lord's command: on the shoulders of the Levites and rejoicing in the presence of the Lord.

When Job, that mighty man of the East, received the evil tidings that his sons and daughters were dead, and all his possessions lost, "Then Job arose and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and WORSHIPPED" (Job 1:20). If Job had been a complainer, he would have complained. If Job had been a backbiter, he would have backbitten. If he was rebellious, he would have rebelled. But Job was a worshipper, therefore he worshipped. He was a man, perfect and upright, one that feared God and hated evil. That was the testimony of his state of being, which was a state of worship. We may be very congenial and lovable people, with an aura of spirituality surrounding our every action, when you catch us in the right mood and under the proper circumstances; but when things start to happen as they did to Job, then whatever your state of being is, it will come out! Job fell on his face, and what he was, was manifested: he was a worshipper, so he worshipped God. Ah, what would have been our first expression had we been in Job's place? May God make us true worshippers! Anyone can draw nigh with their mouth and praise God, but it is vanity, a religious pretense if it is not proceeding from a state of being. God wants worship in spirit and in truth, which comes out of a state of being: true worshippers worshipping the Father!

If there is no complete committal to God, then the offering up of our possessions to God will not be worship. "Though I give my body to be burnt," says Paul, "If it is not an expression of my state of being as a worshipper, filled with divine love, it profits me nothing." God wants what comes out of us to be an expression of what He is doing and of what He has wrought in us. True worship is an expression of our relationship with God, where everything within us is done for the glory and praise and honor of God. That is why it made no difference to God whether Jesus did carpentry work for a number of years, or healed the sick for three and a half years. Jesus was a worshipper. He came only to do the will of His Father whether that meant working or waiting, or winning or losing, or living or dying. The Father said, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I AM well pleased," when all He had done was carpentry work for almost thirty years! Can we not see by this that it is only in the spirit of worship that one can sit at the feet of the Father and receive from His great mind and heart the instruction and counsel of His will. May God make us such TRUE WORSHIPPERS that our walk will be worship!

There have ever been those who seek, as did Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, to offer strange fire - strange worship - before the Lord. The fire of the Tabernacle had been kindled by God Himself, out of the burning heat of His glory-cloud. That divine fire was keep ever burning - God's very own fire - and was drawn forth to light the candlestick and the golden altar of incense. The fire was God's fire, and it characterized the entire ministry of the priesthood as they ministered that which had come directly from the Lord. You recall that Nadab and Abihu took "either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, WHICH HE COMMANDED THEM NOT" (Lev. 10:1).

This strange fire is first that which God has not commanded. Rather than worship, then, as it purported to be, it was REBELLION in disguise, because it was not the result of an obedience to the Word of God, but was that which came "by the will of man." Ah, how often have we witnessed the offering of strange fire before the Lord! Throughout long centuries the church systems have accumulated a great variety of traditions, creeds, ordinances, methods, institutions and programs, all of which are but poor products of the carnal minds of unspiritual men. The apostle Peter gives a remarkable clue that unmistakably identifies a ministry which offers strange fire before the Lord. "But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you... and many shall follow their pernicious ways...and THROUGH COVETOUSNESS SHALL THEY WITH FEIGNED WORDS MAKE MERCHANDISE OF YOU: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not" (II Pet. 2:1-3).

THEIR need of YOUR money is the object of every meeting they hold, every magazine they publish, and every letter they write. They need money for this, money for that, money for their crusades, money for their broadcast, money for missions, money for the destitute, money for buildings, money for Bible schools, money for grandiose programs to save the nation and schemes to evangelize the world. They will send you a book for your money, they will send you a tape for your money, they will send you some gold-colored trinket for your money, they will pray for you for your money' and with a thousand other crafty schemes they MAKE MERCHANDISE of the gullible people who blindly follow them.

This strange fire was an adulterous and perverted worship, for the word translated "strange" in the King James version comes from the Hebrew root word ZUWR meaning "to turn aside," hence, to be foreign, strange or profane. There were two brothers, Cain and Abel. What was the difference between them? Abel worshipped God in the offering of a lamb, the prescribed method by which man may come to God. From the foundation of the world there was the revelation of the Lamb slain at the portals of Eden. The commandment was and ever has been that "without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin." Cain, however, brought a sacrifice of another nature, for it is written, "And in the process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought of the FRUIT OF THE GROUND an offering unto the Lord" (Gen. 4:3).

It is a remarkable fact that Adam was named because he was formed of the dust of the ground. Man himself is ground, for it is written, "The first man Adam was of the earth, earthy" (I Cor. 15:47). Cain, then, in bringing of the fruit of the ground was bringing the fruit of HIS OWN GROUND, the produce of the flesh, the product of his own thinking and understanding and imagination. Like the religion of this evil day, he offered the good works and zealous programs of his own invention, presenting them to be blessed by God upon HIS ALTAR, and in so doing, he offered "strange fire" - perverted worship - unto the Lord and was, for his sin, driven out from the presence of the Lord. Cain was offering some excellent and beautiful fruit of his fleshly abilities and talents, but there was not a spirit of worship in him, for he brought not what God required. He was not a true worshipper. He passed through all the forms, but the moment he was rejected he killed his brother. He killed because he was a murderer. He killed because he was not a worshipper, he would not bow to be God's viceroy, but presumed to act as a god in his own right. God wants people who are worshippers, who will prostrate themselves before His majesty, and learn of Him, drinking deeply from the unlimited fountain of eternal life and wisdom and power and glory.

Once we have drunk abundantly of the precious mind of our Father in heaven, and have been instructed by His wise counsel, we are then prepared to reign over the earth. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the pattern and example. Once when He walked upon this planet there came to Him a Roman centurion whose servant was sick. "And when Jesus was coming to Capernaum, there came unto Him a centurion, beseeching Him, and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof: but SPEAK THE WORD only, and my servant shall be healed." Jesus spoke the word and the servant was healed in the self-same moment. The Lord was not near the place, but a miracle took place. How did this happen? When He spoke His Word was creative and His Spirit went forth and did the work. God speaks, His Spirit goes forth and things are created. Christ speaks, His Spirit goes forth and people are healed, the dead are raised, the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the dumb speak and the deaf hear. The Lord speaks, and mighty empires rise and fall. Have you not noticed, precious friend of mine, that the Lord never did any great works without speaking? To the man with the withered arm He said, "Stretch out your hand." To the paralytic He said, "Arise, take up your bed and walk." To the dead He commanded, "Come forth!" He spoke the Word and marvelous things happened. This is how the Kingdom of God operates. But the Law of the Kingdom is that one can speak into existence only those things that he has received of Him. Oh! how we need to sit at His blessed feet and be taught of HIM!

Reflecting in one of his writings on the exploits of George Muller, whom we have mentioned earlier in this article, George Hawtin once wrote: "For many years I read of the marvellous faith of George Muller. How I coveted a similar faith by which mountains and obstacles could be removed! Well, the truth is that mountain moving faith is very simple. There is nothing to it at all - nothing except complete harmony with the will of God and the purpose of the Lord. Elijah himself could not have done what Muller did simply because God had not asked him to do it. And George Muller could not have called down fire on the altar simply because God did not ask him to do it or lead him into a circumstance where such an act was necessary. A lifetime of experience has taught me that there is ONLY ONE element necessary to real faith, and that one element is THE WILL OF GOD. Therefore harmony with the divine mind is the secret of faith and it is this harmony and submission to God's purpose in us that must be the single thought and the compelling spirit that controls all our fasting and all our prayer.

"How often have you heard Christians dreamily say, 'I wish the Lord would send us a revival.' 'I wish the Lord would save my husband.' 'I wish the Lord would heal my body. 'I wish the Lord would send us a good rain,' or some such thing. Then they will make request in the congregation desiring people to pray that these wishes of theirs, which they call 'prayer requests,' will be answered. Then when such requests go unanswered for years we wonder why the Lord did not hear us. Why should He hear us when the request is born, NOT OF HIS SPIRIT, but OF THE NATURAL MIND? There is far too much rushing into God's presence with out boots on, far too much lifting up of unholy hands, far too much stepping where angels fear to tread, and far too little preparation of the heart in waiting for the Spirit of God to put the YEARNINGS OF THE ALMIGHTY in the spirit and on the lips of man" - end quote. This is beyond any chance of contradiction the CENTRAL TRUTH in intercession. Learn, O man of God, to fellowship with Christ, rejoicing in the Holy Spirit communing with the Father, becoming one with Him in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, walking in His will and doing His bidding, and you will then be qualified to enter upon that precious ministry of priestly intercession as a PRIEST OF THE MOST HIGH GOD. (The end of the Priesthood series)