September 21

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So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You.’ As He also says in another place: ‘You are a priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek’… Hebrews 5:5-6

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🔊 As we discover the Spirit’s witness in our hearts, there is first the dawning of sonship and then the dawning of an everlasting priesthood.  The Holy Spirit continually speaks of this twofold call to be sons and priests.  He continually leads us out of seeking worldly pleasures, into fellowship with God and offering ourselves to Him in prayer.  God’s kingdom functions on the basis of the sweet incense of lives offered up to God in prayer and intercession.  Clearly, no offering of ourselves in prayer can ever redeem anyone from sin – only one offering could do that.  But it is plain from Scripture that prayer and priesthood lie at the heart of God’s kingdom, just as they lay at the heart of the nation of Israel.  This prayer life may follow a path that involves loneliness, hunger, pain, worship, seekings, groanings, etc.  The heart of prayer is being identified with the Father’s deepest longings and will, which will include fellowship with Him in His unspeakable grief over sin, and His boundless joy at the power of Jesus to save.  This call to be both a son and a priest will lead us to be people after God’s own heart, sharing His joys and sorrows.  God’s call is persistent and patient, yet never dominating.  God rules over His own people by His love.  Inference and suggestion are more akin to the Spirit’s wooing tones than is shouting.  As God cried out in the Temple: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” – Isaiah 6:8, so now God seeks those who will be His true sons and ambassadors.