Hidden Elijah's And Melchizedek's Of The Kingdom (Part 3) - Rod Mills

Melchizedek did not become a great priesthood on earth yet the scripture says Melchizedek was greater than Abraham. There is a spiritual authority that is accompanied with intimacy with God, and people who walk in faithfulness to him are able to grow deeper in that relationship.

Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):





​
​Well, we're, we're doing another installment on this short series on the hidden Elijah's and Melchizedek acts of the kingdom. And I said this in previous sessions, I'll say it again, that we initially we've done a few little teachings on the hidden Elijah's this one we're expanding, so a little bit of its review and then it's an expansion and then connecting it to the really what I believe is the the the Melchizedek call this priesthood that the Hebrew writer Hebrews writer talks about the this calling to the Melchizedek priesthood, and someone said, Pastor rod, are you preaching Mormon theology? Because the Mormons have this whole Melchizedek order thing? And I said, No, this is New Testament, I promise. And so hopefully, you'll see that as we get deeper into it. But last week, the place where we left off, if you remember, I started talking a little bit about this concept of earthly obscurity, regarding the hidden Elijah's and regarding Melchizedek, and we went through many different people in the Old Testament that we think of as famous. Because today on the earth, at least in the church, they're well known. We know who Abraham was. Abraham was not famous in his day. He was a farmer, he had his staff there. They're not really staff, his farmers that worked for him. And they were out in the desert. And you know, he goes to Egypt, and they didn't know who he was, you know, he goes around the desert. And when he shows up to a new area, they don't know who he is, they have no clue. He's not well known. And we started looking at how many people of faith throughout the Hall of Fame, have operated in earthly obscurity. And we look at it like, well, they had a lot of momentum, they were really faithful, because they were, they were known, and people on the earth really acknowledged who they were, and they really didn't so many of them. And the place we left off, we saw that the apostles we think of the apostles, you know, the, the the main place I see in the New Testament where the apostles were really well known, was on the day of Pentecost, 3000, people came to the Lord on the day of Pentecost, and Peter stands up, and he preaches. And so there's a lot of people there, of course, it wasn't a stadium, right? So that there's just all these people coming to the Lord. But church historians and scholars tell us that the churches in those days were not big churches, they weren't like, okay, from then on, they had this cathedral of 3000 people meeting in Jerusalem, most of the churches will pretty much almost all the churches were house churches. And they met in small groups. And we saw that the largest one that the scholars know of was the Corinth church, based on some of the readings and people that were they were meeting and they go back and study the when the Scripture talks about in history books, talk about where they met, they'll go back and look at some of those areas, and find that that church was probably one of the largest churches in the New Testament 75 people. Why am I saying this? Because we look at people often and go, well, they have a lot of momentum, and they're really faithful serving God, because they they're known and people know who they are. And they're on, you know, today, they're on TV, or they got a big church. And it's like, no, all through, not just the New Testament, but many hundreds of years in history and various places. Some of the great men and women of God, most of them were just like us, they were just in places where they had their little sphere, and they were being faithful in it. And some of you it was interesting to see some of the facial expressions, I said, if you think about it, there are leaders in Aaron Nova that probably have ministered to more people than the apostles did during their day in the New Testament. And people were like, what, because they didn't have Well, first of all, they didn't have a they didn't have a platform that we have where people listen in other countries and all these nations. They didn't have that. They didn't have mostly they didn't have big groups. I mean, there was time to time they did, but most of them were just being faithful where they were And we see different Apostles in church history. Not this is not in the Bible, but it's in a lot of the history books, went to different countries in places where nobody knew who they were, and began a work and started ministering in other places. In Christian Christianity was not a force to be reckoned with. In the Roman Empire, they were viewed as this little cult of few people here and there, that were part of this offshoot of Judaism, that Jesus, the Nazarene started, and then was crucified, that so they were not part of this big huge movement, like we often think of, yes, it was powerful. But in numbers, it wasn't gigantic. Why am I saying this? Because I believe in many ways, they functioned like these hidden Elijah's they, they, they were not like a Elijah was Elijah, the prophet was known throughout the nation, right. But the 7000 that God mentions, we're not we still today don't know their names on the earth. But of course, in the heavens, they are well known. So from these and many more, we see this pattern of people like the hidden Elijah's, whose lives and ministries are in earthly obscurity and heavenly, but they have heavenly fame. Now, why are we talking about this, because many people start looking at themselves through the lens of what society says, instead of what God says about you. And today, and I'll address this a little bit later, either today, or in our next teaching that we do this. Many people in the church have this idea that unless you're known unless you have a brand, unless you have a website, unless you have a teaching schedule, as you have a big church, or a ministry or finances or this level, that it's not significant. And I truly believe this is why Jesus in the parable of the talents in the parable of the meanness, has the illustration that the one who buried their talent was the one who had one, not the one who had five now I'm just that's speculation, I don't know. But why does Jesus not say in the guy who had five went and buried his five talents? Why does he used the example, that the one who buried his talent and the one who buried his mean, it was the one with one, because I believe many times the people who go, Well, I really don't have a lot to give, I really don't have a lot to offer. And then they start to think like, Well, I'm not really relevant. And the Lord's like, No, you're very relevant. Matter of fact, it's the 7000 that I've reserved for myself. He said in Romans 11, Paul tells us in Romans 11. So literally, you're not just important. God is not just saying, You're why I created you, here's important. He's saying that I have reserved you for myself, you're not encumbered by all these other things. Can you imagine the troubles you would have if you had to hire security team everywhere you went? You know, you can fill in the blank of a lot of famous people, rich people, men, they got to have security teams, they can't go to certain places, they can go to others. Some of them are a little bit more. They're a little bit more expressive, and how they do that is kind of funny. My I was talking to one of my kids the other day about Adam Sandler, and they go, Yeah, you know, his famous as he is, he likes to just go to parks and play basketball. He just shows up at parks and plays basketball. But I guarantee you, people like him, they gotta have security. Now, this is not about being movie stars. And I'm not saying that. But my point is that there is a tremendous blessing in being able to do ministry and do what God's called you to do, without being encumbered with what it is if you if you have a big ministry and all the administration and the fame, and the in the struggles and the the money and the lawsuits, and all those things that people have to deal with. And God wants us to see that where you are, you guys know one of my passions is to call people up to their calling. We only have a short time. We are in this window of time. And I'm telling you even if you live to be 100 You're going to snap your fingers a few times and boom, you're going to be in your old age and going What did I do with my life? Don't sit at home and not do anything press in to the fullness of what God has called you to do. Now the cool thing about being one talent people is that we we invest our talents and pretty soon we have two and then we invest them in person we have four and we invest in person we have eight and God has a way of of multiplying it. But although these people that we're talking about became known to many on the earth, hundreds of 1000s of years later, their lives were lived in faithfulness in relative earthly obscurity. But it didn't limit what God could do with them. I can pretty much guarantee you with some, I think, accurate speculation that Paul had no idea as he's writing these letters, and kind of like you and I sent him the text on the text strain, right, and these letters to the churches, and doing all this and teach in and start in his little house churches, how prevalent his ministry would become for 1000s of years after he left. And I know some people go well, Rod, Jesus is getting ready to come back. And and the world is going to change. And I don't have time, God, there's not 1000s of years in history for for my for God to use me that way. Well, first of all, don't worry about it, just be faithful. But second of all, God can do things you don't know that he can do. And who knows, we may be reading your prayer journals in the millennial kingdom teaching from things that God showed you, from your prayer journals here in the age, or in the millennial kingdom or the ages to come. I don't know. But one thing I do know, the Scripture says, and the books were opened, and another book was open, which is the book of life, in the books that are open, a lot of people think, oh, yeah, it's like the, the blotter God recorded all the crimes and all the things that soldiers did wrong over the weekend, and yada yada, yada. But that's not what it says. Because their history is being written of your legacy, Your faithfulness to God. And the secret things that you do in secret, the prayers you pray and secret, the things that God does in your heart. And then what you take in minister and God says, hey, just take it to these three people give this to these three people. And in your mind, you think that it's little, but God goes, Oh, you have no idea how I'm going to use this. And sometimes he's going, you have no idea how I'm going to use this years and years from now, when you're gone. And you go, but God, nobody knows about it. It goes, everything's been written down. Even in the heavens, don't you know, now, I don't know how this works. But I'm just looking at this from a very logical perspective, there's a new creation coming, God's going to create a new creation, we know that. But there will be a record of the old creation, there will be a record of your faithfulness to God, people, I don't even know who I don't even we don't know what God's going to do in the new creation, the Bible doesn't tell us what he's going to create, who is going to create how it's going to work, we know nothing about that. But we do know there's a new creation coming in, I have a pretty good hunch. And, and I think you'll agree with this, that it's going to be a bigger deal than this creation is going to be a bigger deal. And you you know, some people, you can let your imagination run wild and whatever your imagination runs wild, it's still not going to be, it's still going to be bigger than what you and I can ask or think. And so all of this to say that our faithfulness today is so critical. And if God has called you to be the hidden Elijah's and I believe he has. Now I'm not saying some of you won't be famous. I'm not saying that at all, because some somebody will, you know, but the point is that we are faithful in God's call. And we don't let the littleness of how we view ourselves, our families, our plot in life, where we were born, or where we are, or what our gifts are, or any of that we don't let it hold us back from stepping into the holy destiny God has for us because listen, when you step into your destiny, here, your divine destiny on this earth now in this life, in effect, you are stepping into your destiny in the age to come. Because when you do enter that Jesus connects, he provides a strategic continuity of the rewards and things that will come in the age to come that are directly connected in the vision I had recently of this or just the image I had, if you will, of this is their like strands of a tape history. And the strands every level, every act of faithfulness, every part of us that presses into God has a strand in this tapestry called destiny that is sewn into the coming ages. So that many rewards that come in the coming ages will be connected back to even the small All just acts of faithfulness and obedience and that's why Jesus says, even a cup of cold water that's given in my name will not go unrewarded. Wow, do you love this, I literally I mean, the hairs raising on my arms, I just think about the reality and the power of this. It's incredible. I believe God reserves many for himself in this fashion that we're talking about, so that they can focus their lives on him and his work with relative privacy. We can devote ourselves to the ways of the Lord, to the Word of God and to prayer into the areas God's called us without the encumbrances of this natural world at the same level that many have, while the list of great people of faith in Scripture who lived in ministered in relative obscurity, is much longer than what we talked about last week. Melchizedek is especially noted for his obscurity and hiddenness. If we can call it that, and I want to read Hebrews chapter seven, I'm going to read verses one through three. Now, I will tell you this later on either today or in our next installment, I'm going to read Hebrews seven, one through three again. And because what I would like to do is just read it and you can get your general impressions from the scripture. But after we talk about a few things, I want to come back and read it again, and see if maybe our eyes are opened a little more to what is being said in this passage. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God who met Abraham, returning from the slaughter of the kings, and he blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a 10th He gave a tithe, part of all first being translated King of Righteousness. And then also he's called king of Salem, meaning king of peace, because Salem means peace, without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God remains a priest continually. It's very important, the word like is very, very important in this verse, it's very important, we're going to talk about this. He's made like the Son of God. So let's talk about some preliminary truths in the Hebrews chapter seven, about about McKissic. There are some important facts for us to cover. Before we identify some of the main teaching points that we want to explore here. Some people teach that Jesus or that Melchizedek was Jesus, the incarnate Yawei, appearing to Abraham in that day. Now, for me, this is very difficult to believe or to accept, for several reasons. Now, here's the reason why they say they say without father without mother, without beginning without end, and you go, Oh, man, that's Jesus. And then he says, that he's like the Son of God, not that he is the Son of God. When the Lord visits Abraham, in Genesis chapter 18, is a good example of this. When the Lord visits Abraham, the scriptures will clearly say it's the Lord. The scriptures does not say, well, it's another guy. And then you got to interpret usually, when you see God visit Abraham, he will say, like Genesis 18 The Lord, so that you know exactly as the Lord. The Hebrews writer does not say Melchizedek was the Son of God, it says, He was made like the Son of God in verse three, and the Greek word for made like in this passage, it literally means similar to resembles a copy of, and this is what theologians call a type of Jesus, you'll see this terminology alight. A lot. A type of Jesus is someone who has characteristics and qualities that parallel Jesus there are many types throughout the Scripture. You can buy entire books, on types in theology in the Bible, to study types because there's so many of them. So there are many important parallels between Melchizedek and between Jesus, we see that Melchizedek was a king of righteousness and peace. We see that Jesus is a king of righteousness and peace. We see that Melchizedek was the king of Salem, which is the early name many scholars say this is the early name for Jerusalem. It but it was a village little village back then. Jesus is the King of the New Giroux, Salem, same geographical area Melchizedek was the ruler of Salem. And and scholars believe that village was very small because birthless way before David, this was back during Abraham's time. So we're talking about a very little area populated area compared to that now some people see this word King, and they get really impressed with King. The Hebrews didn't have a lot of vocabulary in Hebrew. So they would use this for basically ruler weather. And so in this case, Village Mayor might be more appropriate terminology. But the point is the Hebrew uses this word to be ruler or governor or mayor or ruler. We know very little about Melchizedek history. And this is what I think that the writers getting to when it says without father without mother without genealogy, having neither beginning nor in the end of days, or many people in the Scripture. It doesn't, it'll tell them in the, in this this year of their father, they were born. And then they died. And you'll see this genealogy, it'll track him. But there's no genealogy Melchizedek like there is all through Israel. There's this genealogy even before Abraham's time, it'll say And Methuselah was born this year, when they have those of us, you know, when it's usually will tell you like how old his father was, I think was 65 or something like that. And it will tell you actually how old their parents were, who their parents were, who their kids were. And that gives you this genealogy. And we don't have that, concerning Melchizedek. So I believe the writer of Hebrews is trying to show us, Hey, we don't know anything about him. We don't know his history. We don't know his genealogy. We don't know the past. We don't know the the end. But he uses terminology to highlight the type hood of Melchizedek. Because when he starts talking like this, who do you start thinking about? We start thinking about Jesus, because of the parallels that are there. Now, in similar fashion, think about this. We know very little about Jesus eternal history. We know his natural history, we know that it's prophesied that He would come. And we know, it's prophesied that He would be from this tribe. And we know that it's all these different things, his natural lineage. But what we don't know is we know very little of eternal history, that most things about eternal history, we have no clue what has happened. And eternal history is way longer than human history. I mean, wouldn't you admit God's been around for a long time. And the Trinity God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit, He has been around for a long time, we don't know what he has done. The Bible doesn't start by saying now, everything God done, internal history is recorded here. And if it's not recorded here, it didn't happen. People don't think about this, there could be all kinds of things in eternal history, God's done that we are totally clueless of. And that we don't know. And I'm pretty sure that's the case. It's a very reasonable conclusion. When you look at everything that we know about God, today, we know about his character about his nature. I don't think God was sitting there. And he goes, you know, the last trillion years have been really boring. I think we're going to create the human race, you know. So there's a lot of things I believe that are in eternal history, we know nothing about them. And I think that parallels what, what we know Melchizedek so there's a parallel between the two Melchizedek The scripture says is a priest forever. Jesus is a priest forever. I'm not even sure I ever recall reading the scripture that said the Levitical priests were priests forever. The Levitical priesthood was something for this earth and this time, similar to Jesus eternal history. We know nothing about Melchizedek background, natural history, genealogy, nothing about his offspring, nothing about when or where he was born, nothing about when or where he died. Contrast this to the Levitical priesthood that came from Abraham. We know most of these things about them, and much more we all the things I just mentioned, we know about the Levites. One priestly order is well known in the world, even to this day. Its origins, its lineage. And the other nothing is known about very little just very, very small glimpse. Melchizedek did not become a great great priesthood on the earth, like Abraham's priesthood, right. I mean, not I understand now, the church and all of that, but I'm saying that we don't see At this record of the great Melchizedek priesthood on the earth. Now, of course, we believe there's a great record in the heavens of this priesthood, of whom the Hebrews writer says Jesus is the great high priest of this priesthood. But my point being that not, of course, it has become great in the church now. But the point is that you don't have this big record of it. And you'll see why I mentioned this in a moment. Yet the scripture says Melchizedek was greater than Abraham. Man. That's why a lot of people are like, man, well, that has to be Jesus. These only guy could be greater than Abraham, who says, like, right? I mean, yeah, we're part of one of the Abrahamic religions, I understand that. And we revere Abraham is our spiritual father. But I, when I look at the Scripture, if I'm being intellectually honest, I have to say, well, the Scripture says He's greater than Abraham. In fact, we haven't talked about this, we'll talk about it a different time. This is really an incredible mystery. The scripture says that Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. And that the Levites paid tithes into Abraham. And their Hebrews, right are teaching it is teaching the church. He's telling them when you pay tithes, this is the church now, he's the Hebrews writer is not writing to unbelievers, he's writing to Believers, literally. He's saying, hey, when you pay tithes, you're paying tithes into Abraham, which is in and he says, in Hebrews that Melchizedek is receiving them in the heavens. It's a present tense, or a present indicative, which is ongoing. So you go, Wait a minute, what? So now there's acts of worship that are going on right now, that give us a eternal continuity with Melchizedek himself? This is a mystery, because now it brings us deeper, I believe, by obedience into the priestly order of Melchizedek. Why is that important? We're going to talk about that, and we'll have time today. Why is this so important? It's, it's marvelous. And some of you already know this, and some of you a little bit here and there, but we'll explore it for a few minutes. It is clear. Let me say this. Also, what does the Scripture mean by greater I tend to believe it's probably has to do with his relationship with God. I believe that Melchizedek obviously had a very unique relationship with God. And there is a corresponding spiritual authority. There's some really good writings on this, I think Watchman Nee writes on this his book of spiritual authority. But people tend to think of spiritual authority as something that's given or delegated, based upon a title or a position we hold. Yes, there is truth in that. In other words, if you are given a position in the kingdom of responsibility as a shepherd, as a leader, to whom much is given, much is required. And yes, what is being given his delegated authority from Jesus Himself, it is not your authority, it's not my authority. I don't own it any of any authority I have, because I'm in a pastoral role or, or a fivefold ministry role. It is not my authority. It's Jesus authority. It's given to me by Jesus, it's given to you by Jesus, and what Jesus gives Jesus can take away right. So we understand that we don't own it. However, I do believe there is also and we're not have we won't teach on this today. But there is a spiritual authority that's accompanied with intimacy with God, and people who walk in faithfulness to him. So as we walk in faithfulness, we're able to grow deeper in relationship in ways in places that we were not able to grow. So if there's areas of disobedience in our life, one of the greatest incentives for repentance and to get out of those areas of disobedience and into the regions of faithfulness and obedience to God, is because what it does is it opens doors into regions in our relationship with God that we have closed. It's literally obedience and faithfulness to God opens up doors and allows us closer closeness with God that we were blocked from, that sin blocks us from, and I'm going to say, let me use another word because sin sometimes automatically just think of really bad things. Disobedience or just not doing what God told you to do. You know, there's there's basic things that God calls us to do. And there's specific things that God calls us to do. And what I found is if I can obey God in the basics, it becomes a whole lot easier to obey Him in the specifics. But I believe that Melchizedek had a relationship with God, that was unique. And because of that God yielded to him or delegated to him, if you will, a spiritual authority that accompany that intimacy, because God could trust him with that authority with that spiritual authority. You see, God wants to give you more, most of the time God is going How can I give you more? How can I give more I'm trying to figure out here, how can we do this, let me get you to this place. So I can bless you more. Because God edit in his very heart, he's a giver. And so he's looking for ways to give. It's very important, this is a side note, but we've got to get out of this thinking of looking at God, like he's a man or like, he's somebody in this fallen world. He doesn't even think like us at all. And people are like, Well, God, you want me to do this? So so you can get that out of me? And I'll serve you. And it's like, no, no, he doesn't need you. Right. He's, before I got on the earth, he was doing just fine. Right, and he still was doing his mission. And when I leave the Earth, he'll still be doing his mission. And he brings me into it as a gift to me. He brings you into it as a gift. It's not about what God wants. It's about what he wants for you. But it's it begins with surrender, repentance, and obedience and faithfulness to God. But the deeper I press into this, these ways of God, I'm literally opening up doors where God is able to minister and to give things that he wants to give and bring into my life. Can somebody say amen? Yeah, that's, it's really cool to see the heart of God that way. And so here's Melchizedek. And then the New Testament writer of Hebrews is saying, hey, and you're part of this, this is what he's telling the church is you're part of this order, step into it. Now, just because you're part of it doesn't mean you've stepped into it, right. And we're going to talk a little about this a little bit later. But there are many areas that people just assume that railroad reward is there for them when they get to heaven. But then we'll step into the the apprehension of those rewards. And this is where we do it. It is clear in Hebrews seven that Melchizedek had this really unique relationship with God. And let's call it spiritual DNA for a minute, because what I mean by spiritual DNA, DNA is the markers or characteristics of that relationship, the spiritual known DNA of his relationship with Yahweh. That is, what will also call tribe or how they the culture of his relationship with God, the tribe that is, was different than Abraham's and the relationship that God had with Israel. So there's a difference. The Hebrews writers making this very clear that the relationship Melchizedek had in the priesthood of Melchizedek is different than the relationship Abraham had. And I don't mean different in species, but different inequalities, if you will. And so we see that he's drawing a contrast between the two. So in Melchizedek, we see this glimpse of a deeper relationship with God, than Israel had. David also caught a glimpse of this uniqueness. Now this is cool. In Psalm 110, David catches a glimpse of this unique relationship with God. And David is the first one I can find in Scripture. You tell me if there's another one earlier because I couldn't find it, where David calls it a priesthood order. He's like, Hey, this is a priesthood. This is an actual order, a priesthood. Now David's speaking by revelation, God has opened his eyes to see something. I don't know of any person in Scripture before David, who recognized this priesthood order like David did. And in Psalm 110, four, he says, The Lord has sworn and he will not relent. Okay, now, we're at a different level. Can somebody say next level, okay, when God swears, and that doesn't mean cussing in the Bible. When God swears he is int, he is literally speaking an oath with himself. When God makes when God makes a decree like this, and he makes a swears he's literally making an oath with himself. There is no stronger oath. There's no stronger covenant. In in all of existence, in all of eternity in all of the things created in uncreated, there's no commitment stronger than God agreeing with himself and swearing to himself that he will do this. As a matter of fact, this is a side note, but we see remember, whenever God was making his covenant with Abraham, and the scripture says that God put Abraham into a deep sleep, Do y'all remember that passage? Well, what they would do is they would split the animals in half mu, put them on the sides, and the two people entering into covenant would walk between the the halves of the animals in the blood, to signify that they were completely bound by this covenant for life. But God did not ask Abraham to walk through between those halves. Man, this is just, he literally puts Abraham into a deep sleep. And God walks through for himself and for Abraham. So God makes a covenant with Abraham, where He literally says, I will make my commitments, and I will make your commitments for you. So it cannot be broken. Just in case you think human power can be broken. So here, David says, The Lord has sworn and he will not relent. You are a priest, as long as the world stands. No, I just miss quoted the Bible on purpose. Okay, so you get your attention. He says, You are a priest forever. But he doesn't stop he goes according to the order of Melchizedek Nyssa messianic prophecy about Jesus, according to the order of Melchizedek, different order, different order. I don't know of a scripture where it says Jesus was a Levitical priest, because he wasn't even from the tribe of Levi. David prophetically saw a glimpse of the Messiah, walking in the same priestly order and way in God, as Melchizedek was. And first of all, he even first saw that Melchizedek was a priesthood. To me, that's like, wow, this is mind blowing. Because he sees the priesthood of Melchizedek. No one else seems to have seen in Scripture, at least not that I know of. And then he sees that the Messiah will be in this order. And it is different than the Levitical order. And it's something to get excited about, because it's something we can enter into now. And we're going to talk about that if we have time. Today. We will if we don't, we'll do it. The next one, Hebrews, chapter seven, verse 11. Therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood, for under it, the people received the law, What further need was there that another priest should rise according to the order of Melchizedek, and not be called according to the order of Aaron? So he's contrasting saying, Why would there even be a need? Hebrews chapter seven, verse 14, for it is evident that our Lord arose from Judah, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood. So he's saying Jesus is not a Levitical priesthood, he's from Judah. And it is yet far more evident, if in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest, who has come not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life. So he's saying, Listen, this relationship Melchizedek had with God had eternal qualities to it, that was uncharacteristic of anything we have ever seen before in human history. And he says in that relationship is actually working the very power of an endless life. And Jesus steps into this role in his time on earth. He says, For he testifies, he's this is in Hebrews. Now he's quoting Psalm 110. Four, he testifies, you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. Then jump down to verse 23. With me, also, there were many priests, because there were because they were prevented by death from continuing. So he says, hey, there were many priests in the Levitical priesthood. But two things happen to Levitical priesthood. Number one, you had to retire from active priesthood at age 50. And then you became an overseer. So you kind of that's the cool part of life. That's where I am right now only I'm, I'm still active. But my point is, basically, they're kind of like the guys that they're no longer running the company so to speak, they're now on the board, they still get paid real well. And so these priests would step into advisory roles after they turned 50. But they were no longer operating as active priests, if you will. And then he says, Oh, by the way, they die and it's over. There's no more priesthood he's, he's saying in Hebrews that when they pass away, they are prevented by death from continuing as a priest. But he says in verse 24, but he Jesus, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Not only does it last forever, it will not change, it will have these qualities about it. Therefore, he also, he is also able to save to the uttermost, those who come to God through Him. Now, that's the priestly function, right? The priests goes to God on behalf of people, since he always lives to make intercession for them. So now, intercession is when you is two things. One, when the priest goes to God on behalf of someone, and when the priest goes to someone on behalf of God, that's intercession with me, so to intercede is more than just going to God on behalf of someone intercession. When you say I'm an intercessor, you say, I'm an inner city, I intercede, literally, what you're, what you're actually saying is, yes, I go to God on behalf of people. But it's also you're also saying, I go to people on behalf of God. Oh, that's the other part of intercession, we don't talk a lot about, well, this spiritual family is really good at doing that. But it's important to know that's part of intercession. That's what we were talking about earlier, before the recorder came on. It's like, we can't be intercessors and spiritual governors in the earth by prayer. That's the calling. We'll get in that in a minute. And then only talk to God about the people but not relay what God is saying, even when it's difficult for people to receive. He says, For such a high priest, was fitting for us now I liked the part where he calls Jesus high priest, because if he's a High Priest, there's only one high priest, we know that from the Levitical priests, or there's only one high priest, but if it's a priesthood, there's more priests than that. Right? So there's a high priest and then there's priests in this priesthood, and of this Melchizedek, and priesthood, he says, for such a high priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens, that's a high level of priesthood, right? They're higher than the heavens themselves. Now, let's see what Peter says. Because Peter gives us a revelation. That is already in the Scripture, but now it's really cool. Some of you have probably seen this, I'm probably not. First Peter won't. First Peter chapter two, verse nine. But you are a chosen generation. Now, by the way, guys, we've been quoting and singing this verse so much that it's entered the cliche level. And so it loses its power. So kind of push back the cliche and let's enter into this, for you are a chosen generation. A royal priesthood? Oh, that's different. The Levitical priesthood was not a royal priesthood, not one of them was a king that I know of. Oh, you see where this is going? This is exciting. Because now when he calls it a royal priesthood, it has two qualities. What is royalty? What is loyalty? It's kingship. That's right. You're of the bloodline of the king. It is the king ship. Now, you start to see what this priesthood is. It is more than just priesthood. It involves much more. It involves the kingly qualities King of Righteousness, king of Salem, king of peace. Melchizedek carried the qualities of ruler. He says, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, who once were not a people, but now are the people of God. Who had not obtained mercy but now you have named you have obtained mercy. So there are several things that we learned from these few verses we've read today. The way of Melchizedek is more than a couple of traits. This it's a priesthood order. But this priesthood order went, if you were born a Levite in the Bible, that determined a lot of things about your life. If you were in the order, it was a complete way of life. It was a complete identity. It was a complete true tribe, it has its own tribe, its own uniqueness. Nobody else was like them. Everything was different for them their whole lives. So when we say a priesthood order, we mean an entire way of life, a way of life that begins here, but continues into eternity. Jesus is the high priest of this order, you saw that the way of Melchizedek is especially characterized by humility, Nancy talked about this earlier in the in the exhortation time, which often means humble obscurity on this earth. Now, here's the thing. Melchizedek was perfectly content to be a man without, he wasn't worried about who knew what his lineage was, I mean, we, we see that there is a characteristic of humility upon his life. And this, this concept of earthly obscurity is closely related to humility. This is getting more and more important because society, in the powers of darkness are pressing people the harder and harder and harder to fame and fortune, that are empty that mean nothing, they be nothing they are, they are dangerous to pursue. And and now we have a strong currents in the world that are powered by the kingdom of darkness. And I mentioned this before, it's so bad that whenever someone commits a mass murderer, or does something, there's a lot of news agencies that will not say their names, they will not repeat the name of the person on the news, because there's too many wicked people want to be famous. And they don't care if it's even famous, because they did some horrible. You see what I'm getting at? What am I saying there's the currents in society are so strong right now, that to be significant, you have to be famous to be significant, you have to be known to be significant. You've got to have all of these things that we talk about. And this is the opposite of the humility that we're talking about. The humility of earthly obscurity, the hidden Elijah's the the Melchizedek, who it's like, when you're when your life is over. And I'm gonna tell you this, when my life is over, I don't care if the world knows, like, my lineage, my accomplishments, my military awards, none of that. It doesn't matter. Literally, it doesn't matter. Yeah. The cool things that most of the cool things I've done in my life that people say are really important. Honestly, I'm talking about non Kingdom things. Yeah, they look impressive, but they don't mean anything. They haven't changed people's lives. Right? They look really good. They look really cool. They impress people who operate by the flesh. But it doesn't mean anything. And 100 years from now, it won't mean a thing, no matter if there's books written about you or not. This humility, this, this humbleness of this earthly obscurity is so important for us to grasp hold of and to walk in. We see Jesus walk in the same humility. His brothers are like Jesus, you gotta go to Jerusalem. You got to do these miracles in Jerusalem. He's like, no, no, I don't. And he doesn't go. And then when he does go, he's making a ruckus and throwing over the money changers tables, and not garnering any support at all. I mean, it's a horrible marketing campaign for your ministry. Right? I mean, if you if you looked at Jesus life, he did not have a good marketing program for his ministry, if he's trying to get famous, if he's trying to get everybody to like his ministry. But if his goal is to raise up the people, the elect who are called by God, he had the perfect marketing program. And of course, we know that's what he did. So it's this, this this way of Melchizedek, characterized by humility, and I'm bringing this up because it it looks to me like the same humility of the hidden Elijah's, I believe, it's because we're talking about the same people who are called to this Amen. And Paul in Romans 11, calls them the remnant, and Hebrews writer and Hebrews seven calls them the priesthood of Melchizedek. Its lineage and origins are not well known on the earth, like the Levitical priesthood was known. We said that it's in a heavenly eternal priesthood order. I'm just going through some of the things that we gathered from the scriptures. It's a heavenly eternal priesthood order. So it goes on eternally. Even in its manifestations on the earth, you guys know some people when they hear the word eternity, or eternal, many times they think something that will start on the other side. Most of the things that God is doing in our Our lives on the other side, he starts over here. I got I just been getting some major revelation on this. I haven't. I'm not prepared to teach it right now. But there's a scripture from Isaiah that's been quoted. And I think the way it's been quoted in used, it's actually another application. But the Lord actually uses terminology and Isaiah, to tell us He's establishing the heavens, present tense. So right now is this Womb of God establishing eternal heavens. And it's in seed form right now, one translation actually says, He seeds the heavens, another, the way, it's translated as establishes the heavens in Isaiah. That's just a sneak preview. I've been so excited this week and my just recording it in prayer journal and praying through it. It's really exciting. It is characterized by both this is what I've started to get at kingly functions and priestly functions. This is Milkis I mean, Peters, description of a royal priesthood. This is the description of the Hebrews writer given the kingly functions, given the priestly functions. So the apostle Peter recognized, and he called out its dual functions as being kingly, and being priestly. Probably from his knowledge of David's revelation in Psalm 110. The apostle John, now we've moved from Peter. Now let's go to John. So we've talked about the Hebrews, writer, and then, Peter, and now let's look at what John tells us. The apostle John saw this calling in this priestly order as a reward from God in the heavens. This priesthood in the heavens gives us some glimpses of our functions in the new creation, since it's an eternal order, so that you guys are tracking with me, we know now this is an eternal order, what you're entering into right now is the beginnings of something that is going to blossom and grow and have extraordinary fruit, hopefully, in this life, but especially, especially predominantly in the next life, many scriptures integrate, indicate that we begin entering into this calling, and this kingship in this life by becoming overcomers, in this life, what do I mean, ruling over our own souls, ruling over our own spirits? ruling over the earthly passions that that come against us in a bad way in the darkness and ruling over our spheres of responsibility. So you see, there's an old saying, of if, if a person cannot rule themselves, they cannot rule others. Hmm. And so there is a call of God to begin ruling in the spheres of our calling, and it starts here. And we're living in a society that has separated out what's inside of us the interior life and the exterior life and God doesn't do that. That's why every scripture in the New Testament that gives the qualifications for leadership in the church is not skills based. Yeah, there's a skill here or there. But if you look at it, 95% of the qualifications for leadership in the church is character in inward qualities, inward qualities and how that comes out of them into the natural qualities. Why? Because God is concerned with us becoming rulers who rule and reign with Him by first, ruling and reigning in our own personal hearts, and then our own personal lives. That is our marriage. That is our family. That is our spiritual family. That is the people we're called to serve and minister to, but it begins on the inside. We have to get the stuff right on the inside. Now, I'm not saying become perfect before you serve God. That's not what we're saying. But this is a call that has continuity to it. God is calling us as kings and priests before him and let's talk about the kingly function to rule over our own souls well, and to be overcomers to look at every admonition Jesus gives to the seven churches in Revelation. It's about overcoming. Literally, this is the main area where we have Jesus speaking to actual physical churches on the earth is the seven churches in Revelation. And it's all about overcoming it's about becoming an overcomer. And so he speaks to them about being overcomers and then he makes specific promises concerning the commands and admonishment that he just gave. Do you love this as much Because I do, man. Furthermore, we enter into both the kingly and priestly functions, by spiritual governing through prayer. If we do not become people to prayer, and I'm just preaching to the choir, you guys are people of prayer. This this group, I mean, I know each one of us in a different place, but as a spiritual family, you're deeply into prayer. But if we do not become people committed to prayer, individually, and corporately, it's not enough just to have a great individual prayer life, we must be in corporate prayer. That's why we have per counsels and do it. You will never, I will say this, that never is a strong word, you will never reign over your own life, well, you will never become an overcomer if you are not a person of prayer, I think I'm on pretty good ground. It's impossible. You might do some great things, you might have some great ministry, you might have a big church, you might be able to do some things that are really impressive in the natural realm. But you will not become an overcomer if you do not become a person of prayer, because prayer is the the place where it opens up the conduit between us and God, because you and I cannot do this on our own, it must come from him. And so Prayer is the key part of spiritual governing. That's why we use the terminology spiritual governing through prayer, because prayer is how we learn to spiritually govern, and we begin governing spiritually governing through prayer in our relationship with God. And then God is the one who brings the ability, the grace, and all of the things that that encompass that. So that is we bring our entire lives into alignment with God's heavenly ways, first, through prayer and intimacy with God rather than just trying to do them in our own strength. Hmm. So this is man, can I get an amen? That's a revelation Chair. Thank you. Revelation chapter one, verse five, to him who loved us, and washed, washed us from our sins in his own blood. This is John has made us kings and priests to his God and Father, to Him be glory, and dominion forever and ever. Amen. kings and priests, kings and priests. And it's forever. But prayer is where it begins in this life, it must we must be people to prayer, because the priestly function is operating and the kingly function is operating. And they're in prayer is where we gain dominion. Because God shows up. And when God shows up, now you gotta be patient. And guys, listen, you guys know this. I'm preaching to the choir, those of you on Zoom many of you prayer, you got to be patient with God. It's not like, the world is today where everything's fast food, you got to sit before the Lord in His presence alone. You got to sit before the Lord. You got to sit before the Lord with your spouse, you got to sit before the Lord with your family. You got to sit before the Lord with your spiritual family. And in doing so, there is a waiting and a patience of the saints that comes upon us to enter into God and His ways and pray and seek the Lord. But the world is telling us Hey, you got to be entertained you got to be satisfied you got to be thinking about this you got to be looking at your phone you got to be looking I got to look that up I got to do this. You know in my prayer life I've gotten to where the Lord just says when we start just put everything down don't even have your prayer journal Open which is my my iPad is on that prayer journals on my iPad so I need that but the Lord will say just let's come together you guys know I light incense I like it does something for me to light the incense and just, it's the fragrance going up before the Lord is physically doing what they didn't in the Bible to illustrate what's happening spiritually, and it helps me focus in on the Lord. We have to do this as a spiritual family as well. Because I'll tell you this, if you let me just talk about your prayer life for men, I know this is off track and we're out of time but but I want to say this when we are praying and seeking the Lord. The devil will give you a use a rod that's not the devil. That's just my curiosity. Maybe it is but you will have all kinds of ideas. You're like, Man, I gotta look that up, man. I gotta look this up, man. I gotta get this done today, man, I gotta get that done today. And I learned a long time ago from one of my mentors to have a to do list next to my prayer closet. And every time something comes up Oh, You got to do this today. I did write it down. Literally, I go, Okay, I write it down, boom, I go, right. I can go back to prayer and not be distracted. Because if you're not careful, you he'll derail you, the enemy will derail you, or you'll derail you, you know, and pretty soon it's like, oh, god, look at this, oh, yeah, I'm praying about this, I need to see what they put anything on the news about this. And you know, and you're on your phone, you're on your iPad, whatever. So I encourage us to walk this way. Totally free chicken commercial there. But the point really is, and I know we're going long, I'm gonna close it. There's a kingly function and a priestly function. And it begins in the intimacy of prayer. Prayer is something we're going to do for the rest of our lives. And we're going to live a long time. If you don't like per now, Boy, I tell you, you're missing out, there's something wrong, because we're going to enter into communion with God on the other side, and we're going to be people of prayer, we're going to be people who come before the Lord and commune with the Lord. That's our main function. That's more important than everything else we do is to commune with the Father, to commune with Jesus to commune with the Holy Spirit, to hear what's on his heart. And there's nothing wrong with having a methodology to that. But it's very important to have and you guys know, when I wake up in the morning, I like to just say, Good morning, father, this gets me eye contact with him. Good morning, father. Good morning, Jesus. Good morning, Holy Spirit. And then usually, at some point, after the good mornings, I like to just say, Lord, what's on your heart today? And sometimes, you know, it'll be, you know, I'll say what's on your heart today? Lord, what do you want to do today? And sometimes he'll go, let's not talk about what I want to do today. Let's just talk about you. Or let's talk about this, or let's look at this, or let's look at this scripture. And then the third question I like to ask is, how can I enter in with you? But don't I don't use it? legalistically? Because, you know, sometimes the Lord's like, yeah, that's not to this, we're not doing that checklist. And then it's good to have some kind of plan in the scriptures as well. You guys may not know this, a lot of times I use the common book of prayer. i There's a common book of prayer for The Daily Office, they called The Daily Office of prayer. And it used to be eight in the church. And then for five, I don't know how long 600 years ago, they started just doing two all they consolidated in the Anglican Church and went to two, but their scripture readings in the morning and in the evening for the office of prayer. And that's what they call it. I don't know why they call it that. But so I'm not saying don't I'm saying have a methodology of something, some consistency of how does the Lord draw you in now sometimes, what's great is, is when I do pick up my iPad, there's already streams of revelation flowing in the prayer streams. Because I need that guys as part of my devotional life, because I start picking up on what is God saying to people this morning. I want to connect with what God is saying to people. Because what God is saying to my wife, what God is saying to my spiritual family, what God is saying to my, my own grown children, is very, very important to me, because it usually sheds light on what's going on. Now, we're not going to have time to, to continue here. So what I'd like to do is we're going to close we'll open it up for some discussion I've gotten a few minutes long today. But there's so much more here to cover. And, and we will we won't go all night. But I just want to encourage you to look deeper into these passages. And when we come back together for the next installment on this, I'm interested also to hear what is God showing you as well as today after we turn the recorder off. So let's pray. Lord, we are humbled and honored that you Lord have started this divine order for kings and priests people of tomorrow. What I sometimes call the kings of tomorrow are the kings of forever, priests of God Most High, an endless priesthood of whom you are the great high priest, Lord, what an honor it is to enter into this and father, we don't want just to assume that all of this is ours. We want to accept it by obedience and faith. Because we know Lord that you taught us we must enter into these things through faith and obedience and be faithful in the small things. And you said you will make us ruler over many things. We believe your words. We believe what you say with all of our hearts, and we have banked everything on you. We don't have a plan B. We don't have any backup plans. Our plan is you, that's our plan a or plan B, our plan Z, Lord, literally we've banked everything on you in this life and the next. And so we're dependent on you. And so Father, I pray for my, my spiritual family and friends and those who are listening to the teaching library. Lord, we ask You, Father, give us revelation, help us to understand what you're teaching us in the scriptures, from Genesis to Psalms to Hebrews to First Peter to John to Revelation, to understand the whole counsel of God, concerning these things concerning this, the hidden Elijah's in the Melchizedek of the kingdom, and we give You all the praise all the glory, you are our King forever, and the king of all forever Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for joining us today. Aaron ova is raising up spiritual leaders in many nations through our spiritual enrichment events, syndicated NetCast international prayer Council network, and numerous international seminary scholarships. Together, we are lighting the fires of revival, fueling prayer movements and raising up friends of Jesus in the nation's we invite you to partner with us in this extraordinary movement. You can sign up as a prayer and financial partner today by going to Aaron nola.org and clicking give. Please include your email address so that we can send you updates. That's era nova.org. Click give and become a monthly partner today. Invest in some of the most fertile spiritual soils on the planet and give the gift of faith and love today, to those with a deep need and hunger to know God. Their lives will be better because of your generosity, and Heaven will be greater because of your love. We pray that you will be drawn ever closer in your walk with God and that you will see his dreams unfold in your life in extraordinary ways. Thank you for your faithful prayers and gifts that enable us to take the Friends of Jesus movement to the nations as we watched the rise of the presence of God in His people throughout the earth. For more info, go to aeronova.org​.