Kingdom PioneersSample

Day 6: The Priesthood:
Jesus only has one kind of people. Your church only has one kind of people. Your family has only one kind of people: CALLED people. You may not feel very qualified, but called trumps qualified all day, every day of the week. Your calling will make space for you. Your calling will open unusual doors and opportunities. There is an invisible grace operating at all times, enabling you to walk faithfully in this unique calling.

This has been the witness of my life:

But God chose those whom the world considers foolish to shame those who think they are wise, and God chose the puny and powerless to shame the high and mighty. He chose the lowly, the laughable in the world’s eyes—nobodies—so that he would shame the somebodies. For he chose what is regarded as insignificant in order to supersede what is regarded as prominent, so that there would be no place for prideful boasting in God’s presence.” —1 Corinthians 1:27-29 (TPT)

If you are a follower of Christ, then you are a minister. Congratulations! Welcome to the priesthood of ALL believers. You might not have a microphone, a stage, or a title before your name, but you are a minister ordained by King Jesus Himself. The Great Commission is YOUR mission. You don’t need Elijah to throw his cloak around your shoulders; Jesus has directly commissioned you.

Your gifts will often make space for you around really significant tables. Sometimes, the agendas of man will try to yoke themselves to your gift with self-serving interest. If you steward your gifts well, there is never a shortage of balls to juggle and opportunities to say yes to. The reward for faithfulness is more to steward. But you only have one family. One marriage. Everything you say yes to is something else you have to say no to, so make sure you’re saying yes to the things that hold eternal value and not just the things that give you temporary validation.

This is a Kingdom of priests, not of titles. You can be prophetic but not operate in the office of a prophet. Acts tells us in the last days He’ll pour out His Spirit on ALL flesh, and sons and daughters will prophesy. You can be a pastor and not operate in the office of a shepherd. If you’re a parent, you’re called to be the most influential pastor in your child’s life. For every other gift given to the church that isn’t one of the Five-Fold governmental offices you get to decide who called you—God or man:

But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted. —Peter 2:9-10 (TPT)

It might not be your vocational calling, but ministering to Jesus and His bride is your full-time assignment. Wherever your feet step, that’s your mission field. We cannot hold onto our forms and onto Jesus at the same time. We cannot hide behind our titles and think we’re living out the Great Commission.

There is a Grand Canyon-sized gap we have a very challenging time reconciling, between what we read in Acts and the Epistles and the church models of today. The New Testament Ecclesia was in no way created to be a consumer-driven organization. It was a living organism full of contributors. We’ve relegated church to be an event we attend instead of a body we belong to.

I heard somewhere that something like 98 percent of Christians aren’t in full-time vocational ministry. Maybe that’s outdated by the time you read this, but it would appear to be accurate if you look in our churches at the ratio of staff to attendees. God did not create this model. There is no way 2 percent of the body of Christ can carry the advancement of the kingdom on their backs. It’s going to take a long, long, long time to bring in the harvest that way. What does Jesus have to say about the harvest?

“The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields. Now go, and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves.” —Luke 10:2 (NLT)

Clearly, Jesus recognized that the worker-to-harvest ratio was out of balance. But He didn’t stop short at noticing the workers were few. That’s usually where we stop. He went on to command us to PRAY for God to send more workers. You and I stepping into the fullness of our callings was a dream in the heart of Jesus thousands of years before we ever were born.

Gifts are for serving. The church isn’t your talent agency. If you’re a believer God calls you a Priest and He’s called you to lay aside all other self-serving interests and agendas. Jesus, our great High Priest has equipped you with every gift you need for serving the church in your unique capacity and He’s commissioned you to take those gifts outside the walls of a building and bring His kingdom to earth everywhere you go.

Have you been living like a consumer? Showing up to church with a list of complaints and demands? Or if you’re working in a church– have you been doing all the work of the ministry yourself instead of launching arrows into the night and equipping others to do it? You may not feel qualified, but you are called. It’s time to take your place in a Purified, Positioned, Priesthood.

“Zeal for your house consumes me.” —Psalm 69:9 (NIV)