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“Speak to him, saying, Thus speaks Jehovah of hosts, saying, Here is a man, whose name is the Shoot [Branch, KJV]; and he will shoot forth from his place and will build the temple of Jehovah. Indeed, it is he who will build the temple of Jehovah; and he will bear majesty and will sit and rule on his throne; and he will be a priest on his throne; and the counsel of peace will be between the two of them” (Zech. 6:12-13).
The above two verses tell us that Christ is the Branch, and as both Priest and King, He will build the temple of Jehovah. According to Isaiah 4:2 and 11:1, Christ is both the Shoot of Jehovah and the Branch of Jesse. In His humanity He is the Branch of Jesse, and in His divinity He is the Shoot of Jehovah. By this we can see that the Branch refers to His incarnation, that is, His divinity mingled with humanity. This One who is called the Branch has both the divine and human natures in Him. He is the Shoot out of God and the Branch out of man.
It is as the Shoot that He will build the temple of Jehovah bearing two ministries. One is the priesthood, and the other is the kingship. “He...will sit and rule on his throne; and he will be a priest on his throne.” He is both Priest and King for the purpose of building the temple of Jehovah. In order to build up the temple of Jehovah properly, the Shoot needs to bear the priesthood and the kingship.
John 15 tells us that we are branches of the Shoot. The Shoot is the true vine, and we are the branches of this Shoot. We are branches of the incarnated One. This is very basic, for the building up of the church is a matter of incarnation. The church is not merely a group of human believers; it is a group of people who are peculiar, strange, and wonderful because they are mingled with God.
We are familiar with the word hybrid. There is a certain kind of fruit in China. It is rather hard to tell whether it is a peach or an apple. This is the result of the peach and the apple being mingled by grafting. This is a hybrid.
The word hybrid may not be the best word, yet it gives a picture of two lives mingled together. Therefore, a Christian is the highest hybrid. We are not only an apple or a peach, but we are a peach-apple! We are a peculiar people yet so marvelous and wonderful because we are a mingling of God with man. We are branches of the Shoot.
If we live simply as a man, we are not in reality a member of the church. We must be a hybrid. Others should find it rather hard to tell what we are. All the members of the Body of Christ are a peculiar people because they are a mingling of God with man. They are branches of the Shoot, and they must also bear the twofold ministry of the priesthood and the kingship.
We now need to read a few more verses from Zechariah. “Hear then, Joshua the high priest, you and your fellows who sit before you—for they are men of symbol—for I am about to bring forth My servant, the shoot. For here is the stone that I have set before Joshua—upon one stone are seven eyes. I will engrave its engraving, declares Jehovah of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day” (3:8-9).
Here we see that Joshua the high priest is related to the building of the temple with Christ as the Shoot and as the one stone that has seven eyes.
We also need to read Zechariah 4:7-9: “Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain, and he will bring forth the topstone with shouts of Grace, grace to it. Moreover the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house, and his hands will finish it; and you will know that Jehovah of hosts has sent Me to you.”
In chapter 3 Joshua the high priest is related to the building of the temple, and in chapter 4 Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, is also related to the building of the temple.
Now let us read Haggai 1:1-2. “In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of Jehovah came through Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and unto Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, Thus says Jehovah of hosts, saying, This people says, The time has not come, the time for the house of Jehovah to be built.”
In these verses the governor and the high priest are mentioned together. The high priest represents the priesthood, and the governor represents the kingship. Again, the priesthood and the kingship are both directly related to the building of the temple of God.
The prophethood is not as basic a ministry as the priesthood and kingship. The book of Hebrews tells us that Christ is a Priest, and the book of Matthew tells us that Christ is a King. But not one book tells us that Christ is a Prophet. Of course, in some verses He is called a prophet, but not one entire book emphasizes His prophethood. This is because the prophethood is not as basic for God’s purpose as are the priesthood and kingship.
This is true of the church today. Peter tells us that the spiritual house, which is the building of God, depends on the priesthood (1 Pet. 2:5, 9). This priesthood is not only the holy priesthood but also the kingly, or royal, priesthood.
In Zechariah and Haggai we see the three ministries of the priesthood, kingship, and prophethood. Zechariah was a priest, but he spoke as a prophet.
Haggai was a prophet, but he helped the priesthood and the kingship in the building of the house of God. The governor and the high priest were the ones to take care of the building of God’s temple, but they were a little weak and even discouraged. Therefore, the prophet was called to help.
But the prophet did not build the temple; the governor and the high priest did. God only sent the prophet to strengthen the priesthood and kingship that they might build up the house of Jehovah.
Can the church today be built up by the prophet? No, it can only be built up by the brothers and sisters who exercise the priesthood and kingship. The position of the prophet is to help but not to build. We think that we need a preacher, a minister of the word, or a teacher. We pay too much attention to the prophethood and neglect the priesthood and the kingship.
However, the priesthood and the kingship are both our birthright. A prophet would be unnecessary if we would enjoy and exercise our birthright. The problem is that doctrinally we understand that we have been born priests and kings, but we simply do not know how to exercise this birthright. The only way to exercise the priesthood and kingship is to learn the lesson of the incarnation. We must be mingled with the Lord by opening ourselves again and again to Him. Then He will saturate us with Himself.
The throne of God is the center of the New Jerusalem. This is the kingship, the authority, the headship, and the lordship. Then from the throne issues the flow of the river. This is the priesthood. The throne is the kingship with the authority; the flow is the priesthood with the fellowship. When we open ourselves to the Lord, He is able to flood us with Himself that He may flow out to others. Then we are in the fellowship of the priesthood, and the flow of this fellowship brings the authority of the throne with it. The whole New Jerusalem is under the throne and the flow of the living water. This indicates that the whole building of God is under the priesthood with the kingship.
Most Christians give their attention to ministers, preachers, and teachers. This means that they give their attention to the prophets. But not many prophets will take care of the building of God. Most of them simply give some messages about redemption and then establish standards of moral behavior. Therefore, it is impossible for the Lord to have His building. This is why the Lord is recovering the church life today. His recovery is nothing other than the recovery of His building.
We must learn that today our major need is not to have the prophets. What we need most is to assume our position as priests and kings. This is our birthright. We have been born in the house of God as priests and kings; now we must be bold enough by His grace to take up this position. However, merely to declare this does not work. We must also open ourselves to the Lord for Him to possess us and saturate us with Himself that He may flow out of us. Then we will have the flow of the priesthood, in which there is the authority of the kingship.
It is in this way that we come to the meetings. We simply behave as priests and kings. We do not come to teach others, but we open ourselves to the Lord that His flow might flow through us to others. We simply open our spirit to express something to the Lord by praying or praising. Once the Lord has a channel through us, the flow out of us into others will be so prevailing that the whole meeting will be a flow of living water. There will not be teaching with the exercise of the mind but only the flow through the exercise of the spirit.
In today’s so-called church service, the minister speaks by exercising his mind, and the listeners exercise their minds to listen. Hardly anyone exercises his spirit; therefore, there is no flow. It becomes a teaching with a religion—not the flow with life. Consequently, there is no nourishment or building up. For this reason, you must not pay too much attention to the prophets. If you would take the position of the priesthood and kingship, even I would simply be a priest and king among you. It is only when the priesthood is so weak and the kingship has disappeared that the ministry of the prophet is necessary. This is abnormal. I long to see the time when there is not much teaching or instruction. Only the flow of life through every member will build up the church.
The building of the tabernacle was without any prophets but was very much with the priesthood and the authority. Moses represented the authority of kingship. At the same time, Aaron was the high priest. This was also true in the building of the temple, for there was the priest as well as King Solomon, and the one who prepared the way and the materials for the building of the temple was David, who was in both the kingship and the priesthood.
Also, in the recovery of the temple, there was the governor of Judah with the authority of kingship, and there was Joshua, the high priest. Not one prophet built the temple directly. The prophet only functioned indirectly, helping the priesthood and the kingship.
Likewise, in the two books of the recovery, Ezra and Nehemiah, Ezra was a priest, and Nehemiah was a governor with authority. One was in the priesthood, and the other was in the kingship. There is not one book for the prophethood as such, but there are many books for the prophets to help the kingship and the priesthood. Strictly speaking, the prophetic ministry is unnecessary for the building up of the church if the basic need of the priesthood and the kingship is fully taken care of.
We must open ourselves to the Lord and let Him flow in to transform us. Then we will have the authority and be in order. There will be the flow of life with the headship in the meetings.
In today’s situation in Christianity there is no fellowship, but there is much confusion. This is not normal. The normal church life has the fellowship of the priesthood with the order of the kingship. Everyone is under the authority of the Head when they are in the flow of fellowship. For example, look at our physical body. The arm is under the shoulder, the hand is under the arm, and the fingers are under the hand. All the members must be under the head in order to be built up together. There is then no confusion, but everything is in order with the fellowship of the flow of life.
I long to see a group of believers who realize the real meaning of the priesthood and the kingship and do not look to a preacher or teacher. If the Lord sends someone to help them, they are grateful, but they are not dependent on him, for they all exercise and enjoy their position as priests and kings.
In both the Old and New Testaments, this twofold ministry is necessary in the building of God. First Peter 2:5 and 9 tell us that the building of the spiritual house is the priesthood and that this priesthood is holy and kingly. These priests are kings. They know the fellowship and the authority, meaning that they know the inner life and the Lord’s headship. We must have life flowing within and be under the headship of the Lord.
The church is not a matter of democracy or autocracy; it is a matter of kingship. When I am going to speak to a brother, I must speak under the headship of the Lord. I do not have the freedom to say anything apart from the Lord. This is not the control of man but the control of the Head over the Body. If we are under this headship, we will also be in authority. It is needless for us to exercise authority over others; they will sense the authority in us by our being under the authority of the Head.
Suppose a brother is very careless about the headship. He says whatever he chooses to say and criticizes the brothers freely. Eventually, he will become lighter than air. He will have no weight. The more he criticizes, the less authority he has. On the contrary, if a brother is under the headship of the Lord, his mouth, his thinking, his mind, his heart, and his work are under the control of the Head. The more he lives in this way, the more others will sense the weight and the authority. This is true kingship. The authority in the church is not by organization or by voting but is that which comes by being under the Lord’s headship.
We, as the children of God, must realize that we are born priests and kings. Therefore, by His grace we must assume this position by exercising our spirit to take the priesthood in reality and to be under the headship. Then the fellowship in life with the headship of the Lord will build up the church.
The real need today is to have the practice of the priesthood with the kingship for the church life. This means that each brother and sister must be helped to know the inner life and exercise their spirit until they are strengthened within to have the adequate growth in life. As we have seen, life always brings authority.
We do not mean that the prophethood is unnecessary, but we must realize that the prophethood is not for the prophethood. Rather, it must be for the priesthood with the kingship. Today the tragedy in Christianity is that people consider the prophethood as everything and as the only need. Their concept is that the prophethood is to build up a kind of ministry. But the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments, gives us a clear picture that the direct need for God’s building is not the prophethood but the priesthood with the kingship. Of course, on some occasions when the priesthood and the kingship need to be strengthened, there is the need of the prophethood to charge and to encourage the saints.
The Lord has recovered the prophethood during the past five hundred years, but what is the Lord’s purpose in recovering the prophethood? Now we see clearly that the prophethood must be for the building up of the Body. It is an indirect ministry for the building of the Body. Even the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers mentioned in Ephesians 4:11 do not build up the Body directly. They are simply to perfect the saints who are the members of the Body. Then the saints themselves directly build up the Body, as seen in Ephesians 4:16.
Today the Lord is recovering the building of the Body. This recovery needs the recovery of the priesthood and the kingship. Of course, there still must be a certain amount of ministry from the prophethood, yet we need to realize that the prophethood must raise up the priesthood with the kingship. This means that the prophethood does not merely teach others and give a lot of knowledge to the saints. The true prophethood must minister life to the saints and help them grow. The building up of the Body through the practical experience of the church life comes mainly from the inner life—not from the teachings or gifts.
Therefore, what we need today is the real experience of the inner life so that the priesthood with the authority of the kingship can be realized for the building up of the Lord’s churches on this earth.
