Nothing that we do here on earth is original. As intelligent as God has created us to be, we are not creating anything new within the earth. We’re simply using what God has already created to produce and reproduce. Heavenly Father tells us in Isaiah 55:9(NLT), “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” There isn’t anything that you and I, or anyone else, can do, think, feel, or say, that is outside the boundaries of what God already knew we would do, think, feel, or say. He knows everything and has woven contingencies within His brilliant plan for both the highest and lowest levels of our rebellion or compliance with His Word.
God’s brilliance knows no bounds. If there was anyone remotely capable of exploring the depths of His intelligence, they’d never reach the end of it. This should in no way preclude any of us from trying. Afterall, God wants us to know Him as intimately as He can be known by us. He’s given us His Word, and He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to save the entire world and to leave a loving example that we should follow. Colossians 1:19(NLT) tells us, “For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ.” And by living in Christ, God gave us an up-close, personal, live and in technicolor view of who He is. To know Christ is to know God, and through Christ, we can know the depth of God’s love.
We must also know that God doesn’t force us to learn about Him. He has never restricted our choices. He’s made it known to us that if we comply with His Word and obey it, blessings will overtake us. Just the opposite is true if we do not. He’s given us free-will and allows us to choose who and what we are going to be.
Sadly, we have all made the choice to sin, and Romans 6:23 tells us that the wages or consequence of sin is death. We desperately needed to be rescued and God sent His only begotten Son to do it. Jesus Christ gave his life as a sacrifice for our sin, and in this, he redeemed us from sin’s curse. Now we can live a free life through Jesus Christ! We can have confidence that God loves us because He alone orchestrated everything we need to walk in victory. So, by all that God has done for every individual that has ever lived, we can know His ordinary brilliance, and we can know the true, pure, perfection, righteous, loving, majestic, and power of His divine nature.
In this new life that Jesus Christ has given us, we can worship our God in Spirit and in truth. John 4:23 tells us that this is what He requires. In the Old Testament, we can see how extremely vital worshipping God is to our lives and to our relationships with Him. During Old Testament times, God chose the Israelites to be His very own people, and when they were enslaved by the Egyptians, He sent Moses to deliver them from Pharaoh’s tyranny. Exodus 8:20(NLT) says, ““Then the LORD told Moses, “Get up early in the morning and stand in Pharaoh’s way as he goes down to the river. Say to him, ‘This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so they can worship me.””
It is important for us to understand that worship was God’s requirement. We must also understand that the Israelites were not permitted to do anything they wanted and call it worship. God gave them very specific instructions and patterns to follow, so that they could worship God in a way that was pleasing to Him.
Again, God is sheer perfection in His brilliance, intelligence, holiness and righteousness. Worship thousands of years ago had to signify an understanding of this, and worship of Him today must reflect the same. There is perfect and continual worship of our God in heaven, and His Will must be done on earth as it is heaven. As a part of worshipping God, in Exodus 25:1-7, He told His people the kinds of sacred offerings He would except. And in Exodus 25:8-9(NLT), He said, “8 Have the people of Israel build me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them. 9 You must build this Tabernacle and its furnishings exactly according to the pattern I will show you.” Our Heavenly Father wanted to be near His people, and He gave Moses heavenly patterns to set up the tabernacle so that His people would worship Him through sacredness and honor.
We see from His Word that God is teaching us what He deserves and how to honor Him. He is showing us how to embody the holiness that is acceptable. Worship—true sanctified worship, is important to the Father and He has made this abundantly clear. In the Old Testament, God designated the tribe of Levites to be priests before Him. Their responsibility was to serve and minister to God. He told them in Exodus 19:6(NLT), “And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.’ This is the message you must give to the people of Israel.” Again, God was teaching us His holy and most excellent patterns so that His Will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.
His people living during Old Testament times were servants, not sons and daughters. And very often they would turn their backs on God in disobedience and get themselves in all kinds of trouble. Because of the finished work of Christ through his sacrifice and resurrection, the born-again believer today is redeemed from sin’s curse. We are sons and daughters of God! 1Peter 2:5,9(NLT) tells us, “5 And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God. 9 for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.”
Because of what God accomplished through Christ, the Holy Spirit has come to live within us. Romans 8:16(NLT) tells us, “For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.” 1Corinthians 6:17 says, “But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.” There is no word great enough to describe the magnitude of what God has done for us through Christ! His Spirit abides within us and testifies that we are God’s children! Because of the anointing of the Holy Spirit, we have the tremendous privilege and responsibility to minister to God as His royal priests and chosen people. This high calling to be all that God promised we would be is an unfathomable honor. How wonderful it is to know that we can minister to our magnificent Heavenly Father and use our lives to worship and please Him in this way.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“God’s Royal Priesthood”, written for 4theChristianman.com. Copyright© 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.