Calling All Priests: Stopping for the One

Where are the priests today? Not the pious men holding a position of power in a religious establishment. Where are the priests that are talked about in Numbers 1:49-53? The people, set apart by God, who are "appointed over the tabernacle of testimony (verse 50)." The PEOPLE...not the hierachical PERSON. God set apart an entire tribe of Israel to have one mission - to care for the tabernacle or the tent of meeting.  The tent of meeting was the place where a person could meet God. The Levites were entrusted with the care of this tabernacle, this tent, this housing place for the presence of God.  They were instructed to carry this tent of meeting on their shoulders wherever God led them. When the cloud moved, the tent of meeting moved with it and all of Israel followed. When the cloud stopped, the tent of meeting stopped and all of Israel camped around it. The tabernacle was the intersection between humanity and God and the priests were the guarders of this intersection. 

When Jesus entered the scene, He functioned as a priest, the new intersection between humanity and God's presence. In John 2:19, Jesus calls Himself the temple, the new place of meeting God. Because of this, I seek to understand how He carried God's presence to humanity. I don't see Him going after governmental systems with new legislation. That wasn't His method. His method to bring a heaven-to-earth intersection was underground, subversive. He went after the one person. And then the next one person. Even when the crowds followed Him or the Pharisees harassed Him and He had an opportunity to impact the masses and build His fame, or add His voice to the cultural mix, He chose to speak in hidden riddles and parables. It's like He was trying to weed people out, rather than gather thousands of conversions.  Why? Because He knew that real change comes from disciples, not deciders. Real changes comes from relationship, not the pressing of religious agenda. He stopped for the unstoppable so that in His Kingdom, they would become unstoppable. This is the power of a changed heart that houses the presence of the living God. The job of the Levite priest, the mission of Jesus was to set up a meeting place with God. 

1 Peter 2:5 says that, "you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." You and I are now a living, walking tabernacle, a moving, breathing tent of meeting, the priestly intersection between heaven and earth. Is your life, your words a habitation where people meet God? Where they encounter His presence - His healing, His destruction of hell, His definition of their identity, etc.? It wasn't the masses from the gospels who created the New Testament church that has astronomically grown throughout the ages. It originated with few that Jesus stopped for. It originated with Jesus the temple stopping when the cloud stopped to give people a meeting place...the tax collector, the rich young ruler, Peter's mother-in-law, the fishermen, the prostitute, the chief priest, the Samaritan woman, the thief on the cross, the Walmart cashier, the public school teacher, the transgender 17 year old, the buddhist doctor...me. 

I really believe that the American church as a whole spreads a constant message that the lifestyle of a Christian is to habitually hog and hide the presence of God. It's all about me and my God, the cosmic vending machine, who must exist only for my needs or my feel good experience from Sunday to Sunday. Read the lyrics of the majority of mainstream worship songs these days. How many of them are "ME" focused instead of "declaring the praises of Him," which is what the royal priesthood is called to do? I'm calling for the priests of God, the lovers of God's presence, the ones who care for and guard His presence, not as a hoarder, but as one who has been so changed by Him, that they understand He can't be contained. Those who have been so changed by His overwhelming love, that you understand that you are a "chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light! (1 Peter 2:9)

Where are the priests? Where are the obedient, submitted, set apart tents of meeting? Those worshiping fanatics who, when they show up to a fight, the enemy turns on itself bringing about his own destruction, like in the days of Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20:22-23)? Those carriers of God's presence. 

I won't be a hoarder of God's presence. Today I will:

be a meeting place for my children

be a meeting place for my husband

be a meeting place for our neighborhood kids 

be a meeting place for people who interrupt my schedule

be a meeting place for ___________________. 

I'm calling all priests.