A Priest Contacts God in the Mingling with God and he’s Thoroughly Mingled with God

God’s intention is that all His people would be priests, that is, that all His people would be open vessels to Him, those who seek not to merely know God’s will or do things for God but who are open to Him and are filled with Him.

A priest is not primarily someone who does things for God but someone who serves God by being in God’s presence, being filled with God, and overflowing out by shining out God in his daily living. If our priority would be not to “do things for God” but first contact God, we will be those who are filled with Him and saturated with Him, and what flows out from this is our work for Him – which is done in oneness with Him.

When our entire inward being is saturated, permeated, and possessed by God, we are priests in reality, and we are clothed outwardly with God as power and permeated inwardly with Him as everything (Luke 24:49; Eph. 5:18). As we are saturated, permeated, and possessed by God, spontaneously He will flow out of us, and we will be built up with others in this flow of life (see John 7:38; Eph. 2:21-22).

This matter of being a priest according to the divine revelation in the Bible is both deep, profound, rich, and so simple to apply: we simply need to spend more time with God by stopping our doing and just being open to Him to receive Him into us, be filled with Him, and be saturated with Him; then, something will flow out as work, and it will be according to God, from God, with God, and one with God.

God has no intention of calling us to do something for Him. His intention is that we answer His call by opening ourselves to Him and saying, “Lord, here I am, not ready to work for You, but ready to be filled and possessed by You and to be one with You.” Not until we are one with the Lord can we ever work for Him and be a real priest. The main function of a priest is not to work but to spend time in the presence of the Lord until he is one with Him in the spirit. The priesthood that God plans to have is a corporate man who is saturated and permeated with Himself. (Witness Lee, The Priesthood, p. 427)

A priest is one who contacts God again and again, and this contact is in God, in the mingling with God. Just as the priests contacted God in the tabernacle (which is a type of the mingling of God with man), so we contact God in the mingling of God with man, in God Himself.

We need to be in God more and contact God in God to be saturated with God and thoroughly mingled with Him. In this mingling of God and man God is expressed through man and man lives with God, for God, and lives out God.

A Priest is a Person who Contacts God in the Mingling with God: he contacts God in God!

In the Old Testament the priests didn’t contact God anywhere else apart from the tabernacle; they contacted God and served God in the tabernacle. The tabernacle is a type of God mingled with man, as seen in the types of the wood overlaid with gold, the lampstand, the show-bread table, the ark of the covenant, and all the things in the tabernacle.

How do we as priests contact God? We contact God in the mingling with God, that is, we contact God in God. We are one spirit with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17), and we contact God not in ourselves but in the mingling with God. Just as a priest passed through the Holy Place and into the Holy of Holies to contact God, so we have to get into our mingled spirit where God in Christ as the Spirit dwells, and we need to contact God in the mingling with God.

We don’t contact God objectively, as if He was in heaven and we down here on earth worship Him and fear Him; we contact God subjectively by being in God and by having God in us. Christ is in us, we are in Christ, and Christ is in the Father (John 14:20); as we contact God, we are in God and God is in us.

We contact the air by being in the air and by breathing the air in; similarly, we contact God the Spirit, the holy and divine air (breath), by being in Him and by having Him in us. We are branches in Him as the vine (John 15:4-5), and He is in us as our life (Col. 3:4).

We now have boldness through the blood to enter into the Holy of Holies, we open ourselves, we behold Him with an unveiled face, and we contact Him as He contacts us, and there’s a flow proceeding from Him, through us, and to others.

As we wait for Him, listen to Him, and contact Him, not rushing before Him or suggesting things to do for Him, He mingles Himself more with us and we have a God-man living. We all need to learn to contact God in the mingling of God, and we need to practice to contact God in God.

It is of God that we are in Christ Jesus (1 Cor. 1:30); therefore, we should abide in Him, and He will abide in us, and in this sweet organic union and divine-human mingling we contact God and are one with God as priests.

Lord Jesus, teach us how to contact You in the mingling with God. We want to contact You not merely objectively but subjectively by contacting You in You! We come forward with boldness to the Holy of Holies through the precious blood of Christ, and we want to meet You, abide in You, and remain in You as we contact You in the mingling of God with man. Oh Lord, keep us in Your presence waiting for You, listening to You, beholding You with an unveiled face, being open to You, and contacting You so that we may be one with You in You and flow You out.

A Priest is one who is Absolutely and Thoroughly Mingled with God

When a priest would contact God in the Old Testament, he had to go in the tabernacle and pass through the Holy Place to get into the Holy of Holies; everything in the atmosphere of the tabernacle, including the smoke, the flavor, and the substance of the offerings, signifies an aspect of God.

When the priest came out of God’s presence in the tabernacle, he would shine forth with God, smell like God, and be saturated with God; he was mingled with God. A priest is one who is absolutely and thoroughly mingled with God. When we contact God in God, in the mingling with God, we are mingled with God and we even shine forth God and smell like God.

God’s purpose is to mingle Himself with man so that He would become man’s life, nature, and content, and so that man would corporately become His expression (Eph. 3:16-21; 4:4-6, 16).

In this mingling of God with man there’s no “third nature” being produced; there’s the union of the elements of divinity and humanity to form one organic entity, yet these elements remain distinct in the union. It is helpful to read this footnote to understand and enjoy this more,

Matthew 1:18 and 20 tell us that Mary “was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit,” and that “that which has been begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit.” This indicates that the divine essence out of the Holy Spirit had been begotten in Mary’s womb before she delivered the child Jesus. Such a conception of the Holy Spirit in the human virgin, accomplished with the divine and human essences, constituted a mingling of the divine nature with the human nature, which produced a God-man, One who is both the complete God and the perfect man, possessing the divine nature and the human nature distinctly, without a third nature being produced. This is the most wonderful and most excellent person of Jesus, who is Jehovah the Savior. (Luke 1:35, footnote 2, Recovery Version Bible)

God in Christ as the Spirit has come into us through regeneration, and He is mingling Himself with us constantly; a priest is one who is absolutely and thoroughly mingled with God. When we contact God in God, in the mingling with God, He is mingling Himself with us more and He becomes our life practically; just as our life is intimately related to us to the point that if someone takes it away from us we die, so Christ is intimately related to us as our life!

As He mingles Himself with us, our soul (the organ of expression) is sanctified, renewed, and transformed so that Christ who is the Spirit with our spirit would shine forth through the faculties of our soul effortlessly, and we corporately become God’s expression. Hallelujah!

We simply need to behold Him with an unveiled face, and we will reflect the glory of the Lord which is in the face of Jesus Christ. When we contact the Lord in our spirit, the practical Holy of Holies, we behold Him and we are being transformed from one degree of glory to another degree of glory!

Lord Jesus, become our nature and content so that we may be Your corporate expression! Mingle Yourself with us so that You may become our life, our nature, and our content, so that we may be Your corporate expression! We simply want to behold You with an unveiled face so that we may reflect You and be transformed into Your image from glory to glory. Oh Lord, absolutely and thoroughly mingle Yourself with us as we contact You in the mingling of God with man. Keep us in our spirit enjoying You, contacting You, and being one with You as Your priests!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, The Priesthood, chs. 1, 8-15 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Priesthood or God’s Building, week 2 / msg 2, The Definition of a Priest.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # Pray to fellowship with Jesus, / Fully opened from within, / With thy face unveiled, beholding, / Single, pure, and genuine. (Hymns #784)
  # As I dwell in You, Lord You’re flowing through. / Lord, You’re filling me, overflowing too. / Here we all are one and expressing You. / Here our joy is full as we dwell in You. (Song on being in Christ)
  # God’s intention in this universe is with humanity, / So the Lord became the Spirit just with man to mingled be. / We rejoice that we can all partake of His economy. / Yes, mingling is the way. (Hymns #1199)