I want to conclude this little series of musings on what I’ve been learning about priesthood, & that with its’ logical end by which an almost unbelievable beginning is opened to us. It has so challenged me to the core that I’m wondering at it daily with my mouth gaping open & asking myself, “Can He mean what I sense He does?” But I do believe He does & so I’m endeavouring to respond in faith & to dwell in this dimension I’ve been spying. A quote by Art Katz first by way of introduction…
“When we have become discontent with everything less & when we have staggered and reeled before the demands of this calling, then we come to see that to enter into this priesthood, we must enter into the High Priest Himself. The book of Hebrews brings us to the reality of which the Levitical priesthood was but a type and a shadow. There is a higher order of priesthood, more sublime, more exalted and more demanding – the order of Melchizedek, the king of righteousness and peace.”
What I have been spying is that when we are called into the High Priest Himself through the fulness of His ministry on our behalf & to be priests out of His priesthood, we are simultaneously called to dwell in the heavenly places with Him – to enter & have our essential beings with Him there in the Most Holy Place, in the very throne room of God, & to be sent from there.
Most of us are familiar with His substitionary death for us by which our sins are atoned for & have therefore been united with Him in that dimension of His ministry, as a reality & not as mere doctrine. I have only recently been discovering union with Him in the other aspects of the fulness of His work for & in us, again as living realities & not empty doctrines I agree with mentally: His identificational death by which I was crucified with Him, His resurrection by which His resurrection life lives in & pushes through me…and most of all His ascension, by which I have been seated with Him in the heavenly places.
Before this year I have honestly never heard these aspects of the gospel, that I was invited into a living union with Christ to this extent of being seated with Him in the heavenly places. But if that’s where He is today & I am in Him it can’t be otherwise; as bizaare as it sounds, that I am presently dwelling in heaven while my physical body is here on earth, I am beginning to believe it, to believe the gospel!
Sarah said,
June 24, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Thanks for sharing this. It is helpful! This really resonates with me!
One thing that I am not really familiar with (or very good at) is actively participating in the whole gospel by exercising my spirit. I guess that’s mostly because I’m a product of the Enlightenment western culture (as opposed to a culture that is quite familiar and comfortable with engaging and participating in the spirit realm). This is something I am learning how to do more and more… Like you, I want to live in that reality. To learn to live “from there” via my spirit. He’s teaching me…
hebron said,
June 25, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Yes indeedy Sarah…I agree & identify so much with what you’ve pinpointed about not having been very familiar with or good at engaging with the gospel by exercising my spirit/heart!!
While I have very often lamented this it is striking me that strongholds are strongholds no matter what form they take & are not easily demolished (ie: idolatry of the mind or worshipping Mary, Vishnu or myself). I’m also simultaneously really impressed these days though by the exceedingly great power of the Word to break down strongholds & get through to us by His grace…bless God!!
And it’s also fascinating to me to see how much the spirit realm as a reality has been permeating western culture such that our children are & will (probably exponentially increasingly) have a very different experience of this than we had. Satan is clearly on the attack with counterfeits at the same time as God is restoring the realm of His Spirit as reality in our experience:)
Thanks for this important comment! charis