PRIESTS AND PROPHETS
21st Oct 2020
As you read through the Old Testament and see the amazing interaction between God and certain individuals, it’s easy to think, OK but that was Moses, David, Ezekiel etc., and not expect the same for yourself. These accounts are about the lives of individual priests, prophets, psalmists and are unique and supernatural.
You and I are part of a New Testament priesthood called out to be in living contact with Father God through his Holy Spirit - a nation of priests and prophets. We cannot dismiss God’s supernatural dealings by saying, “I’m not one of them.” - you are! 1 Peter 2:9 declares, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare….”
I am reading the book of Ezekiel and am amazed at the understanding granted to him. He is physically in Babylon with the exiles by the Kebar River, but by the Spirit he knows what is happening in Jerusalem. He is aware of religious leaders who are secretly worshipping idols! He sees what God thinks about it and what He is doing in the heavenly realms. He sees the appearance of the glory of God and is terrified, and yet the Spirit raises him to obey the command of God, “Stand on your feet”. God speaks and gives him understanding of why there is such trouble, hardship, death and famine.
If we are called to be a holy nation of priests and prophets, shouldn’t we have more understanding than we seem to have of our present times? I believe as we ‘sigh and cry’ over the state of the world, God will open our spiritual eyes and ears and give us understanding so we can pray and co-operate with what He is doing.
Ezekiel was shown that God was bringing the nation to its knees in order that they would seek him and be given a new heart of flesh, not stone, and a desire to know God; or they would chooses to worship their worthless idols and remain independent and without the help of and rescuing and loving Saviour. (Ezekiel 11:19-21)
Revelation, dreams and visions are initiated by God’s Spirit. If we seek to know the mind and purposes of God, we will be given understanding in order to both pray and be part of God’s rescue plan, as with Daniel who fasted and prayed and God gave him the content and meaning of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, which saved the lives of himself and his friends.
My prayer for myself and the Church is, “Open the eyes of our understanding, grant us revelation so that in both personal and national matters we know how to co-operate with the Spirit of God, and with Him accomplish what is in the heart of God.”
Here is a promise from Psalm 32:8, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you.”
by Joyce Sibthorpe
