You've Been Anointed As Priest
And You're Expected To Do The Work
A fascinating thread unfolds in God’s Word as it pertains to His Chosen people.
Priests. Prophets. Kings/Queens.
Priests are people who act on behalf of God.
Prophets are people who speak the message of God.
Kings/Queens are people who reign alongside God.
If we look at God’s Word from a 40,000-foot view, we can see that there’s an expectation for God’s people to lean into each one of these categories and steward their responsibilities as priests, prophets, and kings/queens.
Adam and Eve are God’s first priests, prophets, and kings.
They are supposed to mediate between God and the Garden of Eden.
They are supposed to fill the earth with people who know God (teaching them His ways).
They are supposed to co-reign with God in all the world.
They forsake their responsibilities for their desires and, therefore, introduce the world to broken priests, prophets, and kings. Since that day, we’ve struggled (to say the least) to lean into those roles with purity and excellence in a way that honors God.
In an attempt to make each post a reasonable length, the next three paid articles will be:
You’ve Been Anointed As Priest
You’ve Been Anointed As Prophet
You’ve Been Anointed As King/Queen
We’ll look at the Biblical calling, the anointing, and the responsibility we have as a result of that calling and anointing.
Have you ever thought of yourself as a Priest?
I grew up in a catholic church. For me, the priest was the guy who wore a white collar on weekdays and nice robes on Sundays, led the church in the sacraments, and looked very important.
It was in college—shortly after I came to repentance and faith in Christ—that I realized I may also be considered a priest.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
—Revelation 1:5-6
I was so caught off guard by that verse.
Am I a priest to my God? What does that even mean?
As disorienting as that was for me, it doesn’t make it any less true. God has made me—and you, if you’re in Christ—a priest to Him.
That means, in the same way that we see Adam and Eve, Aaron & the Levitical Priesthood, and Jesus acting as a mediator between heaven and earth—we have that type of responsibility.
In other words, God has things He wants to do on earth, and He wants to use His priests to do it. That’s how He’s always operated.
Adam and Eve were supposed to work the land & fill the earth with people who worship Him.
Aaron was supposed to help the people of God worship God properly.
Jesus brought heaven to earth and, by His obedience, the people around Him learned to experience God.
Now, God uses Spirit-filled, born-again Christ-followers to do the work He wants to do in the world.
That’s you1. That’s me.
He has work; we carry it out.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
—Ephesians 2:10
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But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
—1 Peter 2:9
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And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”
—Revelation 5:9-10
The scripture is clear. We have been made priests, and we have work to do on the earth on behalf of God and with His power at work within us.
So what is our work?
According to the passages I laid out earlier, here are a few responsibilities we have:
Walk in God’s good works (aka, be obedient)
Proclaim the excellencies of God (aka, share the Gospel and tell of his works)
Reign on the earth (aka, steward everything God has given us for His glory)
But there’s one other component I want to point out that was a very specific task given to the Levitical Priesthood in the book of Numbers:
The Priestly Blessing
The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:
“‘“The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”’“So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”
—Numbers 6:22-27
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but people are harsh. We’ve dehumanized people (not just our politicians) to the point that we feel like we have the right to say anything we want to anybody we want. This is a product of the social media era.
As a result, I believe we’ve also seen a radical decrease in the encouragement of people. All of us are desperate for encouragement, and all we can think about is ourselves and how much we need.
But the priest operates differently.
The Kingdom Priest is immersed in God’s promises and has the role of blessing others. The Levitical Priests had the responsibility to speak over the people of Israel.
The Lord bless you
The Lord keep you
The Lord make his face shine on you (show you favor)
The Lord be gracious to you
The Lord turn his face toward you
The Lord give you peace
And notice the promise attached to this: As the Priests “put the Lord’s name” on the Israelites, the Lord will bless the Israelites. (v27)
I’m not going to pretend to know how that works in the heavenly realm, but it’s clear that there’s a connection between God’s people speaking blessing over one another and God actually blessing His people.
Could it be that God’s people are stuck in sin, struggling with mental health, and apathetic toward the things of God because we’re not speaking blessing over one another?
I don’t know, but according to the passage in Numbers, something significant happens after God’s priests speak such a blessing. We often think about our breakthrough, our victory over sin, and our personal revival but what if your fellow church member isn’t going to experience breakthrough, victory over sin, or personal revival until you speak a blessing over them?
People generally drift toward two things: Self-Centeredness and Self-Righteousness.
Self-Centered people never consider the need to speak blessing over someone else.
Self-Righteous people never see someone else as worthy to speak blessing over.
God’s priest doesn’t operate that way. God’s priest considers others ahead of themselves (Philippians 2) and is wildly aware of their need for God’s grace in their life (Matthew 5:3). There’s no room for self-centeredness or self-righteousness for God’s priest.
Whether we know it or not, God’s people have been made into a royal priesthood, priests unto God. This means we have a big responsibility, and it’s imperative we lean into that responsibility and do God’s work.
—Brandon
That’s you if you know Jesus. This isn’t a work for non-Christians. It’s for people who have repented and believed in Jesus for salvation.
So true!