Lesson 94: The Ministry of Intercession, part 1
1 Peter 2:5 - you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 61:6 - but you shall be called the priests of the LORD…
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me: because the Lord has anointed Me.” These are the words of Jesus in Isaiah. As the fruit of His work all redeemed ones are priests, fellow-partakers with Him of His anointing with the Spirit as High Priest. “Like the precious ointment upon the beard of Aaron, that went down to the skirts of his garments.” As every son of Aaron, so every member of Jesus’ body has a right to the priesthood. But not everyone exercises it: many are still entirely ignorant of it. And yet it is the highest privilege of a child of God, the mark of greatest nearness and likeness to Him, “whoever lives to pray.” Do you doubt if this really be so? Think of what constitutes priesthood.
There is, first, the work of the priesthood. This has two sides, one Godward, the other manward. “Every priest is ordained for men in things pertaining to God” (Hebrews 5:1); or, as it is said by Moses (Deuteronomy 10:8, see also 21:5; 33:10; Mal. 2:6): “The Lord separated the tribe of Levi, to stand before the Lord to minister unto Him, and to bless His Name.” On the one hand, the priest had the power to draw near to God, to dwell with Him in His house, and to present before Him the blood of the sacrifice or the burning incense. This work he did not do, however, on his own behalf, but for the sake of the people whose representative he was. This is the other side of his work. He received from the people their sacrifices, presented them before God, and then came out to bless in His Name, to give the assurance of His favor and to teach them His law.
A priest is a man who does not at all live for himself. He lives with God and for God. His work is as God’s servant to care for His house, His honor, and His worship - to make known to men His love and His will. He lives with men and for men (Hebrews 5:2). His work is to find out their sin and need, and to bring it before God, to offer sacrifice and incense in their name, to obtain forgiveness and blessing for them, and then to come out and bless them in His Name. This is the high calling of every believer. “All His saints have this honor.” They have been redeemed with the one purpose to be in the midst of the perishing millions around them, God’s priests, who in conformity to Jesus, the Great High Priest, are to be the ministers and stewards of the grace of God to all around them.
And then there is the walk of the priesthood, in harmony with its work. As God is holy, so the priest was to be especially holy. This means not only separated from everything unclean, but holy unto God, being set apart and given up to God for His disposal. The separation from the world and setting apart unto God was indicated in many ways.
Prayer: Oh my blessed High Priest, accept the consecration in which my soul would now respond to Your message. I believe in the HOLY PRIESTHOOD OF YOUR SAINTS, and that I too am a priest, with power to appear before the Father, and in the prayer that accomplishes much, to bring down blessing on the perishing around me. I believe in the POWER OF YOUR PRECIOUS BLOOD to cleanse from all sin, to give me perfect confidence toward God, and bring me near in the full assurance of faith that my intercession will be heard. I believe in the ANOINTING OF THE SPIRIT, coming down daily from You, my Great High Priest, to sanctify me, to fill me with the consciousness of my priestly calling, and with love of souls, to teach me what is according to God’s will, and how to pray the prayer of faith. I believe that, as You my Lord Jesus, are in all things, my life, so You, too, are THE GUARANTOR FOR MY PRAYER-LIFE, and will draw me up into the fellowship of Your wondrous work of intercession. In this faith, I yield myself this day to my God, as one of His anointed priests, to stand before His face to intercede in behalf of sinners, and to come out and bless in His Name.