Royal Priesthood 

Last week I delivered an easter message called Dirty Jobs, it was based on what God showed me in Leviticus, priests got dirty on other people’s behalf. I believe it was my most impactful message since I started my channel. Please go check it out if you haven’t done so already. As I talked about Jesus being our perfect sinless high priest it occurred to me that some of us may not be aware that once you receive salvation you become a priest as well. There is only one high priest, Jesus, but each of us is called to priesthood when we come to Christ.

When we receive salvation we become sons and daughters to the highest king, we are deemed royalty. I think a lot of Christians have one of three options:

1. They fight to be royalty because they still are in love with their sin. Some would call this lukewarm.
2. They dont understand what it is to be Royalty. Where they do their best to live for Jesus but are powerless in certain areas because they don’t understand their identity!
3. They accept it in full and run into it. Those are the on fire from day one Christians who keep their foot on the devil’s neck and don’t let up.

Honestly, I believe the person who runs into royal priesthood has most likely had a deep spiritual encounter with Jesus and probably deliverance. Two popular people that I can think of are Pastor Isaiah Saldivar and Pastor Rich Lorenzo when you listen to their testimonies you can see a straight line out of a life rooted in sin and to the feet of Jesus.

But, if your walk is anything like mine, it took some time for God to develop us. I’m one of those special little birds that Jesus had to take his time with. It took some time for me to accept that the life that Jesus died to give me looked nothing like the life that I had built for myself. And as I record this the lord is still working out my understanding of my full identity as a daughter of the King and as a priest in his kingdom. Royal priesthood can be an intimidating term if you look at it from having to carry all of the responsibilities with your strength. 

I think that’s what happens in the movies, I was watching Game of Thrones and I can’t remember what arc it was but one of the princesses had run away. She was feeling the pressure of being trapped in the castle and looking at all of the life outside the castle walls that she thought she was missing. And as she ran off into the darkness she found herself in a brothel and was recognized by a commoner which put her life in danger. Of course, she was rescued by her uncle but the point was she was a princess called to a life of duty, responsibility, and comfort and she decided that she was missing something on the other side of the castle walls. In all actuality, she wasn’t missing anything but poverty, illness, theft, and death. The life that she was called to wasn’t easy but it had its benefits as long as she followed her father’s rules. And if you haven’t seen the show, her father was a good king and a loving father, she was the apple of his eye. 

Sometimes we can’t see the benefits of a life with Christ because we are too busy looking at the lives of others, coveting the “freedoms” they have as they live without him. 

But Jesus is too good to let a life of sin be a better option than the life he set before us, he promises eternal joy and peace in God’s presence, and that we will see his goodness in the land of the living, and after salvation the benefits he gives us and the promises he fulfills are bonuses that we get to enjoy. The more I thought about that runaway princess and the life of the Royal priesthood that Jesus calls us into the holy spirit reminded by of 1 Peter 2:9 the bible says: 

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

I want to break this verse down so we can better grasp our identity, the life that Jesus died to give us, and the calling that he put on our lives. Jesus wants us to understand who he made us to be and what he’s called us to do. 

First, Peter starts by calling us a chosen generation. We were hand-selected by God to exist and serve for such a time as this. The year you were born was not a mistake and the way he sustained your life was intentional. Our mistakes and shortcomings aren’t a surprise to him either. He allowed our imperfections so he could get glory through us. Jesus knew exactly what he was getting when he chose you. He gave us our strengths and our weaknesses because his strength is made perfect in our weakness. 

Jesus knew when you would be born, he knew who you would be, and he knew what you would go through to make you the person you are today. The time we find ourselves in is perfect because God ordained it. Nothing happens without his say-so. His hand is on you and your existence is not a mistake. 

Next Peter says that we’re a royal priesthood. What makes us royal? Jesus, The King of Kings has adopted us! In receiving salvation we become grafted into God’s royal family through the salvation that Jesus died to give us. And remember what I said last week, the job of priests was to help the general public either get right or stay right with God. But In being priests ourselves there are millions of people in the world who dont know Jesus and it’s our job to help them meet him. But because we’re human, it can be easy for us to forget that being part of a royal priesthood means that we dont live by the same standards as everyone else. 

We are royalty which means we have a value that is based on our bloodline, a bloodline directly affected by the blood that Jesus spilled at Calvary. That means no matter how deep into the pits we go our value is still there. We have to get out of the habit of allowing people to assign a value to us especially when they don’t understand their value. And that no matter what trouble we find ourselves in we are still children of the eternal Living God, called to be priests in his kingdom. 

As royal priests, we can’t go to the same places and enjoy the same things as regular people. As I mentioned earlier the limitations of being a Royal priest remind me of every movie about a kingdom ever made. There’s always a royal child who sneaks off to a bar or some other seedy place filled with commoners and they never realize that their identity followed them. 

Royalty couldn’t go where they were unprotected and neither can we. Where God guides he provides, that’s why it’s important to be in his will and stay there. It’s important to be able to discern if you’re in the place where God has called you to be. Because he’s going to provide and protect you especially as you walk in his will. 

The King’s word protected those who didn’t sit on the throne, they weren’t on the throne but they had a claim to it and when ordered by the King they were untouchable. And when it was time for a royal to wed they couldn’t just marry anyone, their marriages always involved a mission. And it’s the same for us as the daughters of the most high King. We are valuable, kingdoms are built by what comes from us. We don’t just produce offspring by accident, we gift the earth with the very salt that will preserve it. I don’t have kids but when I do the enemy is gonna have a problem on his hands. in Psalm 112:1-3 God promises to bless the generations that come from us and make them mighty in the earth. We are blessed and so are our children. Your kids may not look like what you expect them to but give them over to God and watch what he does with them!

As Royal priests we can’t even define ourselves, we have no say in who we are once we come to salvation we have to relearn how to identify ourselves. We have to detach from the name the world gave us and start using the names God has given us.

Jesus called you The head and not the tail, above and not below. He called you chosen and blameless, you are the branch and he is the vine, he calls you free and he calls you a friend. He calls you loved redeemed, triumphant, and accepted, and above all he calls you his child!

Jesus died to make us righteous, he died to bring us in right standing with God, and he died so that God’s Holy Spirit can come and live within us. He died to change our identity from sinful to righteous all so we could be one with him.

We are defined by the blood, which is so filled with power and glory that identifying by anything else is an insult. We can become so used to what the world says about us and the circumstances we face we can easily forget what Jesus said if we let ourselves. We have to actively decide to free ourselves from the lies of the enemy and start believing what God has said. Even now I still struggle with my identity in Christ and I have to constantly remind myself of who’s I am. Do not forget you are a child of the most high King, the undefeated, eternal, living God! 

The renewal of the mind is a lifetime of work, give yourself some grace. I’m just here to show you that you dont have to know it all and you dont have to be perfect to start serving Jesus in whatever capacity he’s called you to operate in. You are loved you are chosen you are a royal priesthood and 1 Peter 2:9  goes on to say that we are a holy nation.

When I hear Holy Nation, I can’t help but hear that you have people. Jesus is the one who makes us holy and righteous it’s not done by anything that we do on our own but it’s by what he did at the cross! And because salvation is freely given to both the Jew and the Gentile that means that not only is Jesus for you but he’s both able and willing to bring you support. People are waiting to help you with what you’ve been called to and to help heal you. Jesus died so you don’t have to be isolated.

God has ordained friends, a church, leaders, and guardians and has prepared them to help you, you don’t have to do this life alone. Just keep showing up walking in love, do your best to serve Christ, and keep giving your best to the people you’re assigned to. Your tribe will reveal themselves because not only are you set apart but your friends will be too. 

Don’t let the devil lie to you and tell you you deserve to be lonely because you don’t fit in or because of the life you used to live. If you’re an oddball, I am too! Peter tells us in today’s verse that you’re a called and chosen oddball! Some people will be okay with who you are. Now does this mean that you don’t have to self-improve? Of course not, but it means that you dont have to pretend to be someone you aren’t to fit in. When you finally meet your people you’ll know it. You are a royal priest set aside as part of a holy nation. Jesus will give you people!

In today’s verse, Peter also calls us a peculiar people and that means we are chosen by God, we are marked as his own. We are people who walk by faith and not by sight, what kind of people can speak to a mountain and move it, what kind of people can step out of a boat and walk on water, and what kind of Man dies on a cross and rises after 3 days to save the world and then return to sit at the right hand of God in his glory. The same man who is God, to whom every knee must bow and whose word does not return void. The one who is fully God and fully man, and who is eternal and undefeated. You are part of a peculiar people who are strange and who don’t move like the world because you belong to a holy nation of chosen people who belong to a living, breathing, peculiar God! 

Jesus died on the cross like a sinner and rose in 3 days as if death had not even touched him. Jesus himself was peculiar so you’re in good company!

So let’s refresh on our foundational 1 Peter 2:9 says: 

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

And so because of who Jesus has made us be through salvation Peter says we are to Shew forth the praises of God “to Shew forth” in the Blue letter bible is the Greek word G1804  exangellō (Ex-Ahn-gello). It means to declare or to make known by praising or proclaiming, to celebrate. 

Peter instructs us that because of the salvific work that Jesus did; bringing us from the death and darkness that was our sin into his righteousness, we are to make Jesus known by praising, proclaiming, and celebrating his name. Because of all of the benefits that Jesus has given us and because of who he has qualified us to be he deserves our every praise.

Living holy isn’t always easy, sin is fun for a reason, but let’s not forget what Jesus did and the sacrifice he died for us to have, it’s our reasonable service to do our best to love, honor, and make him known. If you feel like you are being called out of the darkness that is your sin and into his righteous light pray this prayer:

“Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins and surrender my life. Wash me clean. I believe that you are the Son of God. You died on the cross for my sins and rose again on the third day for my Victory, I believe in my heart and confess with my mouth, that you are my Lord and Savior. I receive eternal life, in Jesus name, Amen.”

If you just prayed that prayer welcome to the light and if you’re already saved I hope you prayed that God would break someone’s heart of stone to make a way for them to accept Jesus. Now let’s go out and show the world how to be a royal priesthood, a chosen generation, and a holy nation that serves the one true and living King Jesus… 

We’ve got work to do!