And he inquired of the LORD for him, and gave him victuals, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine. 1 Sam 22:10

David stands as a shining example of God’s man who fulfilled divine destiny. One crucial ‘ingredient’ in David’s success as a King (Christian) can be traced to his very productive relationship with the Priesthood of Israel. 

  • He began His journey to kingship with the Priesthood….1 Sam 16:13.
  • He engaged the priesthood in seeking the mind of God for divine recovery…1 Sam 30:8
  • He functionally engaged the priesthood in successfully returning the ark to Israel… 2 Sam 6
  • He humbly yielded to God’s rod of discipline and & chastisement manifested through the hands of the priesthood …2 Sam 12:7-15
  • He engaged the Priesthood in ensuring generational transfer…1 Kings 1:38

Well you say, What does this have to do with me a new testament believer? Hasnt Jesus taking up that requirement and even made me a royal priesthood?

Yes Jesus became our priest forever in the order of Melchizedek Heb 7:17, offering intercession continually for us at the right hand of the Father. Yet the new covenant never eliminated the requirement for the role of the priesthood. Rather the elements of this key role have been partly transferred into the 5 fold ministry. Becoming something more like the role of the ‘Discipler’….or what is commonly refered to as ‘Father-in-the-Lord. ref 1 cor 4:15 

Like the 300 men whom God selected to go to war with Gideon after the water test, It is christians who fully partake (by lapping with their 5 fingers) of all elements of the 5 fold ministry who will be well-rounded enough to carry out consequential assignment for God.

Any new testament believer who will succeed in becoming what Christ has ordained them to be will not do so in isolation. The new testament church as established by Christ promotes the system of discipleship (formal and informal) through which we all are ‘helped’ in being conformed to the image of Christ. In essence you must have a discipler as Paul did with Ananias, and at somepoint hopefully also have a Timothy to whom you are also discipling. This discipler who may or may not be your local assembly pastor plays this role as your modern-day priest.

1 Common Mistake which takes christians out of the divine structure and makes us spiritually stagnant is this:

Adopting Priests of our own choosing unto ourselves.
When God has a plan for you, His plan includes divinely arranging whom will serve as His instrument in discipling you through certain stages of your walk of faith. This pattern exists right from Abraham and Melchizedek’s relationship in Gen 14:18, through Elijah and Elisha’s relationship, to Jesus and John the Baptist and even unto to Ananias and Saul in Acts 9. Some of the language has changed but the essence of it remains the same.

Today however too many of us young christians do not wait on God’s will for our discipleship; rather we hastily choose our ‘priest’ /’Father-in-the-Lord’ ourselves based on very earthly parameters such as ‘Fame’, ‘Net worth’, ‘Swag’, ‘Popularity’, ‘Location’, ‘Tribe’, ‘coincidence’. etc.

The problem with this as we will soon discover below is that attaching yourself to any man to disciple you outside of God’s divine choice will lead to utter spiritual infertility and possibly death of purpose.

The matter of coming under divinely appointed tutelage and engaging that persona in a productive manner is a severely serious issue..and can determine how succesful your christian race may be.

4 Major Keys to successfully engaging the priesthood for destiny success:

Key 1: Focus is Required!!!: No farfing about…..Know why you have come!!!….

1 Sam 21:1 ”Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest”
Matt 3:13 ‘Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him’.

To David, NOB wasnt the circumstantial end in itself, But in NOB Ahimelech the priest resided. This is very reminiscent of Jesus in Mathew 3:13.
Too many of us enter into the church with a mind of just ‘being in the church’, We may even take up an active role in our church of choice, but 20 years may pass and we have not come to the revelation of:

  • Why has God has brought me into this church to contribute? to receive?.
  • What does God want to achieve in my development through this pastor/overseer of with whom He has placed me under?.
  • What role is he meant to play in my life this season? What does he owe me?.

Key 2: Asking for & Desiring the right thing…Not wasting time on trivialities!!

3 Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present… 1 Sam 21:3

One repetitive trend we regularly experience in our out-reaches is people constantly coming to make aid requests pertaining to payment of school fees-rents-mobile phones and even connection to jobs. Whilst these are all valid needs which are due to the hardships of life; and whilst I also believe that the church and missions should do all they practically can to provide assistance where required; the ever-present danger is a complete diversion of focus from the key issue of serving the word of God which will prepare them for eternal relevance into serving tablesActs 6:2. In Saviour but not Lord: Christianity without Jesus i discuss how easy it is for people to engage the anointing not for the manna bread from above but entirely on solutions for their earthly needs. The son of man who himself had no place to lay his head demonstrated that it would be necessary to separate the true disciples and withdraw from the multitude before they change your focus and mandate.

In engaging the priesthood of Abimelech, David didn’t beat about the bush. He had an understanding of the priest’s role as a steward of divine gifts and pertinent revelation which God regularly places under his hand. David was focused on the portion that falleth to him at that time and season and asked for it.

This bread from the prophetic context is not just bread for the flesh, but the revealed word of God for the moment. A similar thing Jesus demonstrated with the woman at the well of Sychar when he chided her in John 4:10 saying:

Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water…John 4:10

Too many of us christians are like this woman at the well of Sychar who granted a rare opportunity to spend time with the priesthood will begin wasting time on trivialities; Prioritizing prayer requests on desires for cars, contracts, money, wives, husbands, etc without ever asking for the hard thing like Elisha did of Elijah. We spend the little time we have with the priest seeking to press the oil for ‘all other things‘ which God has already promised to add to us by default when we seek 1st the kingdom. If Christ does not intervene in our lives through His mercies, then we are a foregone conclusion.

Let us be good Shepherds who don’t pander to base issues
As for we who are privileged to serve as shepherds of the flock in any capacity. Let us not pander exclusively to these needs of them that are ‘given to us’ instead we should take a leaf from David’s diary in 1 Sam 22, whom over 400 men who were ‘in distress‘, ‘in debt‘ & ‘were discontented‘ gathered to him; and he became captain over them. At the cave at Adullam he never focussed on solving their problems, rather He focussed on moulding them into something greater than their problems. When he was through with them they became captains over tens, hundreds and thousands themselves.

Key 3: Consecration is required to easily get access to spiritual things.

4 And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women. 5 And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel. 6 So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the Lord, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away….1 Sam 21:4-6

1 cor 2:4 tells us explicitly that ”The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned”.

If we are to engage the priesthood not for trivialities but for the higher things of God, we must understand that we must eschew carnality. Living a consecrated life enables us to easily get access into the things of the spirit, but we cannot be actively living in carnality and sin and presume we can easily press the button and have the spirit yield to our request. It would be akin to ‘throwing pearls to swine’.

There are too many Father’s-in-the-Lord today {Priests} who are only possess the common bread of philosophy, denominationalism, and human idiosyncracies. They are purely giving out common bread filled with the yeast of compromise and sweet words which tickle the itchy ears of the flock. They are severely lacking in the shew-bread but instead constantly rehash and recycle sermons from other ‘men of God’. Men whom God may have possibly left God somewhere along the line but appear to cover it up nicely with excellent oratory and a focus on activities such as ‘comedic plays on sunday services’ and ‘concerts’ completely relegating the time spent on teaching to the bottom rung of priorities.

This is why anyone who truly is a sheep of the Lord will be in the habit of ‘smelling’ the food to see if it is fit for consumption. Not like goats who eat anything without due consideration.

Have you taken time recently to ask some questions of the Lord as concerning your priest? Or do you continually down the cool-aid without the Berean trait?

Key 4: Get ready to Engage your Faith in the right direction.

8 And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste. 9 And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me. 1 Sam 21:8-9

One thing leads to another. Unless like David we have been able to demand and receive the shewbread from the table of the Lord, the eyes of our understanding may never open enough to know that we require spiritual equipping by the word and anointed impartation to confront the battles ahead.

The priest owes you divine equipping to fight the battles ahead. Do not be comfortable with any priest who lures you into believing He will fight for you always.
Christ has in his infinite wisdom allowed for certain trials of faith to come our way as a means of maturity intended testing. He also gives us the opportunity to actively confront and destroy the works of satan in our environment and the lives of those around us. One way He equips us is by making certain unction’s available through our discipler.

Like David we must understand that one of the reason God brings us under a man for a season is to train and equip us spiritually. Do not be lured into false comfort, for if in the day of adversity (which must surely come) you faint, then your strength is smallPsalm 24:10.

One painful thing i behold in the body of Christ is this current trend of wearing arm bands bearing the face of your father-in-the-Lord, carrying handkerchiefs from the altar bearing the insignia of the church, purchasing of special ‘holy water’, distribution and sale of special anointing oils, pasting of anointed protection stickers on doors and cars together with all sort of effigies which we are encouraged to place our faith in.

THESE PHYSICAL GIFTS & EFFIGIES ARE NOT WHAT THE PRIEST OWES US…Ref 1 Tim 1:18. SEPERATE YOURSELVES FROM SUCH PRACTICES.
They are temporal things which we should not place our faiths in.
Priests are meant to equip us with the word and the Holy Spirit and Fire with which we can confront any storms.

David was given the sword that slayed Goliath. 
Do Not Settle for Less……

May the mercies of the Lord deliver us.
Amen

please share if it has made any meaning to you.


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