Acts 1:8 NKJV
8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be [a]witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Jesus had the task of raising a new generation of priests when he walked the face of this earth and that he did through his disciples. When he gives them the charge to go, he tells them that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to him and thus he is charging us to go based on that authority. Interestingly, we see him telling the disciples to hold it for a little while until they are empowered from on high by the Holy Spirit then they can be witnesses of him throughout the whole world.
You and I cannot be priests unto God unless we are empowered to do so. There is no way God would give us such a huge responsibility and then not empower us to get the job done. Once we are born again and filled with the Holy Spirit then we are empowered to function as priests unto God.
The sad reality is that many believers do not see it that way. We have reduced the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives to speaking in tongues and doing some weird things we see in some of our churches while not fully functioning as priests unto God.
When we read the book of Acts, we see a group of ordinary men and women who were empowered and they went out to do their priestly duties. They functioned as priests in whatever sphere they were and the bible tells us that the Lord added to their number daily those who were being born again. They did what Jesus had demonstrated for them to do.
We today have been empowered by the same Holy Spirit, the question then remains, will we function as priests the way we are supposed to?
Reflections
Why has God given you the Holy Spirit?
Do you allow the Holy Spirit to direct you on how to fulfill your priestly duties?
Are you raising other priests by making disciples?
