Chosen to minister to the Lord

"My sons, do not be negligent now, for the Lord has chosen you to stand before Him, to serve Him, and that you should minister to Him and burn incense." 2Chronicles 29:11

Dear friends,

I pray that things are well with you. I would like to look at our role as priests in the new covenant and pray that this will be an encouragement to you.

First , you may ask the question, "Am I a priest?" If you are a believer, you are a priest. Peter says,"But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, 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." 1 Peter 2:9 Revelation calls us kings and priests. So now that we have established that we are priests let's look at some of the new covenant application.

A. You have been called and chosen. God reached out to you. Jesus said that noone could come to the Father except he was drawn. You have received the spirit of adoption. An adopted child is one who was chosen by his parents. Jesus said to His disciples that they didn't choose Him; He chose them. You are a chosen vessel unto the Lord.

B. You have been chosen to stand before Him. I believe to stand before Him speaks of our standing with Him. We can only stand before Him if we are in Christ. In Christ we are righteous or in right standing with God. We are righteous, not by virtue of what we have done, but by faith in what He has done. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2Cor. 5:21 I believe it also speaks of waiting before the Lord for instruction. As I was writing this I got this picture of a soldier standing before His commanding officer awaiting His orders.

C. You have been chosen to serve Him. I think of a waiter in a fine restaurant; he is attentive to the needs of those he is serving. To serve the Lord is to be attentive to His desires, to walk in humility, and submission before Him. It speaks of obedience to His voice. Worship is more than a slow song in which we praise the Lord. That is part, but worship is also our service to the Lord. Paul says, "I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you yield your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable act of worship. Romans 12: 1 Most translations translate that word worship as service. To give Him who gave Himself for us anything less than our complete submission would be unreasonable.

D. You have been chosen to minister to Him. We minister unto the Lord with our praise. I believe a heart expressing gratitude blesses the Lord. Fellowship with Him blesses Him. Putting Him in the place He belongs in the order of our lives ministers to Him. The priests of the old covenant would make sacrifices unto Him. No, we are not to sacrifice sheep, bulls, or goats as in the old covenant, but as we saw in the previous point there are sacrifices to be made in the new covenant. We saw above that we yield ourselves as living sacrifices and in Hebrews 13: 15 Therefore by Him continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. We must also understand that when we minister to one another, we minister to the Lord. Jesus said,"In as much as you have done unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto Me. When Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus, He did not ask ,"Why are you persecuting my followers?"; He asked, "Why are you persecuting Me?" How we treat each other is how we treat the Lord. When we bless others it blesses Him. When we minister to others, we minister to Him.

E. You have been chosen to burn incense. How does this apply to us today? Incense was a picture of prayer. Incense was to be burned upon the incense altar which was positioned in front of the veil of the tabernacle. The priest was to light it every morning and evening so that it burned perpetually before the Lord. In Revelation 5: 8 the scripture speaks of the golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. The incense was to burn perpetually before the Lord. Paul said in 1Thessalonians 5:17 Pray without ceasing. Luke 18:1 He (Jesus) spoke a parable to them that men always ought to pray and not lose heart. If there was ever a time in our lifetime when we need to be praying, it is now. You have been chosen to pray.

I pray that was a blessing to you. You are a chosen vessel and the Lord loves you so much. If you are experiencing difficulties we would love to pray for you. Write me an e-mail and I will pray for you. God answers prayer. I covet your prayers as well as we began a new phase of ministry. I have stepped out of my pastoral role to pursue other areas of ministry. I am now free to travel, if i could be a blessing to your church or group, please write at this e-mail addresss or call me at 478-960-6582. May God bless you exceedingly.

In His love,

Herb Dean