Priests Arise, Obey and Serve: Your High Calling in Christ Jesus

What if your “calling” was already made clear? What if the ministry, the place of service, God has called you to, is already evident? We live in an age where everyone has a podcast, a platform, and a mic, but few serve at the altar. Even less are ministering to God and His people. They seek profit for their own pockets, instead of a crown that will never fade. God is calling His priests to arise, obey, and serve! 

Recently, I heard the Lord say, “There shall be no disobedience among my priests!” If you don’t know that you are a priest, you won’t act like one. You will continue to search for your destiny and calling in other things. You will serve Baal instead of Yeshua, Jesus!  

We just finished celebrating Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, a time when Jews and Gentiles remember God delivering them from bondage. Now that we are free, we need to know and walk in our callings, just like Israel. We are not called to wander in the desert. There is a good land that awaits us where we serve the Lord.

In Exodus 8:1, God told Pharaoh through Moses, “Let my people go so that they may serve me.” You and I have been set free to serve. As God called His Son Israel out of Egypt to become a “kingdom of priests and a holy nation,” God has called each of us to be part of His “royal priesthood” in Christ (Exodus 19:6, 1 Peter 2:9).

When Moses was first commanding Pharaoh to release Israel from their bondage he said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Let my people go so they may hold a festival (feast) in my honor in the wilderness,” but the pagan king would not release them so Moses and Aaron persisted, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us,” they declared. “So let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness so we can offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. If we don’t, he will kill us with a plague or with the sword.” (Exodus 5:1-3)

Something in you dies when you don’t serve the Lord. The priesthood is not solely for the five-fold. It’s for the entire body of Christ, and unless we serve at the altar, something in us will die. Our lives will feel wasted; our schedules simply a going-through-the-motions. Every accomplishment will be fool’s gold and rubble when we stand before Him. 

When you realize that you GET to operate as a priest, that your body is a temple, and your life an altar, something in you comes alive. Mundane days become holy offerings; sacred service to the Most High. God is calling His Church to walk in this calling and therefore thrive in the Kingdom. The Apostle John said, “To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to HIM be glory and dominion forever and ever. Behold He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him…” (Revelations 1:5-6)

That last line is very important. “Behold He is coming,” Yes, He is coming back for His holy priests, His priestly-bride who serves at the altar. We see this in Malachi chapter 3. Most people refer to this passage for tithes and offerings, but don’t start in the first verse. They miss the entire context, even as far back as chapter 1. The prophet Malachi writes, 

“Behold, I send My Messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me, and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,’” says the Lord of hosts. “But who can endure the day of His coming?…. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi (those called to the priesthood), and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness …. Yet from the days of your fathers you have gone away from My ordinances and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts. “But you said, ‘In what way shall we return?’ Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed Me, even this whole nation ….” Your words have been harsh against Me,” says the Lord, “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against You?’ You have said, ‘It is useless to serve God; what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance … Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name. “They shall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.” Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.” Malachi 3 NKJV.

Again, God is calling for the obedient priests to arise! While the pagans worship Satan through their perversity and rebellion, we worship Jesus through our purity and obedience. There shall be no disobedience among His true priests. Where are you, oh priests of the Lord!? Where are those who long to be of service, who want to find true purpose in this life! We rob God by not serving at the altar. We rob God by believing it is useless to serve Jesus, that being a Christian “Isn’t worth it.” Those who serve at the altar eat from the altar. You will always find yourself full when you find yourself serving. 

Here are some ways that His priests serve:

• Incense: Offer up prayers, a sweet-smelling incense in His nostrils, (Rev.5:8, 8:3-4)
• Teaching: Making disciples, by teaching everything that He has commanded (Mat. 28:19-20)
• Sacrifices: Giving sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving (Hebrews 13:15)
• Partaking of the sacrifice: Eating the offering, “Take, eat, this is my body…” (Mat. 26:26, Ex. 29:31-34). 
• Living Set Apart from the Culture: Walking in holiness and purity even as He is pure, (Ex. 19:22, 1 John 3:3, 1 Peter 1:16)
• God’s Representatives: Being an ambassador for Christ and intercessor before the Lord (Hebrews 5:1, 2 Cor. 5:20, Joel 2:17)
• Worship: Singing and making melody in your heart before the Lord as the original Levites (Ezra 3:10-11, Ephesians 5:19)
• Builders: Rebuilding God’s temple, His church, through exhortation and encouragement. Also, building your own temple by praying in the Spirit (Ezra 3:7-13, Jude 1:20)
• The Lord is your portion: Living close to His presence and seeking first His kingdom, all things are added to us (Numbers 18:20, Deut. 18:1-5, Matthew 6:33).

God has made clear your calling, and these are your priestly duties. Everywhere you go, wherever you find yourself, led by His Spirit, do this and live. You don’t need a title, you already have one — Priest of the Lord (Isaiah 61:6). You have been called by the Great High Priest Jesus, and He dearly loves you! He has shown you how to truly live as His priest. Every priest has their inheritance in the Lord, for He is their portion! How rich are His priests!!

Much love,

His Yielded Vessel