The Scripture in Revelation 1:6 and 5:10 refers to saints as being kings and priests. We carry something as kings and priests that is powerful. Combined together, our identity as kings and priests allows us to access the throne of Grace and receive not only strength but also instruction and divine blueprints that we then administrate on earth.
The notion of kings and priests applies to each of us as individual believers but it also applies to us as ministers. Think of priest ministers functioning in the Church as clergy and kings as ministers in the marketplace.
All saints are members of the Body of Christ and have a membership ministry to manifest – as salt and light, as witnesses and demonstrators of the Kingdom of God. Priestly ministers fulfill their membership ministry inside the local church. Kingly ministers fulfill their membership ministry in their workplace, profession, or at home.
We see this modeled in Acts 6:1-6. The Hellenistic Jewish widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of the food. The apostles, the priestly ministers, said, “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.” Now serving tables was not beneath the apostles, but it was not their calling and commissioning. Rather, the apostles recognized that mature business people (kingly ministers) were better suited to oversee the task of the daily distribution of food to the widows. These mature business people, as kingly ministers, were men with a good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom. Seven business men were selected including Stephen and Philip, and the apostles laid their hands on them and commissioned them to the task.
Businessman Stephen was chosen to help run the food bank which some might see as a demotion. However, Stephen found his supernatural calling in the midst of a natural career.
Stephen, was full of grace and power, and performed great wonders and signs among the people (verse 8). He walked in the fullness of God right where he was and made a tremendous impact around him. Stephen was essentially a glorified waiter, but he did not act like a waiter. No, he instead walked in signs and wonders and brought the influence of the King of kings wherever he went. Those around him were not able to resist the wisdom and Spirit that enabled him to speak. He gained such a reputation for spreading the Gospel that he received great persecution and became the first martyr.
Stephen believed that he was called to make a difference in his sphere of influence; his title and vocation did not hinder him from engaging in full-time ministry. He took dominion over the area that was entrusted to him and helped establish the Kingdom of God in Jerusalem.
As a result of the persecution in Acts chapters 7 and 8, businessman Philip went to Samaria and began preaching Christ to them performing signs, casting out unclean spirits, and the paralyzed and lame were healed. This was followed by Apostles Peter and John (the priestly ministers) coming to Samaria and laying their hands on the new believers to receive the Holy Spirit and to set the church in order.
Looking at Jesus. Jesus Himself was raised by a kingly minister. When God sent His Son to live on the earth, He chose to put Him in the home of a businessman, Joseph. While Mary is the mother of Jesus and God is His Father, we know that Joseph fulfilled the role of father on earth. God entrusted His Son into the hands of Mary and Joseph, a builder/carpenter – a businessman. Jesus was raised in the home of a businessman as a part of the plan and purpose of God. While God put John the Baptist in the home of a priest, He put His Son into the home of a king, a businessman. And when Jesus was about age fifteen, Joseph died which left Jesus in charge of His mother, brothers, and sisters. Jesus worked as a businessman to care for His family until He launched His ministry around age thirty. Jesus understood the ministry role of a business person.
The Early Church was built upon business people. These saints were “king” ministers who fulfilled their membership ministry in the workplace, profession, and home. Before the initial 40 years of the newborn Church had transpired, the first-generation saints had spread across the world. The model of the 1st Century Saints Movement is the same model that the Lord is using today in the 21st Century Saints Movement.
Approximately two percent of all Christians serve inside the church, which means that 98% of the saints serve in the marketplace and public square. There are seven mountains of culture today in which saints are ministering:
- Marketplace (business) mountain
- Public square (government) mountain
- Media/communications mountain
- Arts mountain
- Education mountain
- Family mountain
- Church and ministry mountain
If you think that the Church Mountain is the only spiritual mountain, then you form a great divide between the Church and our culture. We imply that the Church is the holy spiritual mountain and the rest of the mountains are of the world and profane. The shocking truth is that each mountain is a spiritual mountain!
We, as kingly ministers in the marketplace, are the business/professional people who are to manifest the supernatural works of Jesus in our daily lives. And we are to be salt and light in the mountain on which we are planted.
Activating prayer:
Lord, I believe and declare that you have called me to be a kingly minister and fulfill my membership ministry in the workplace, profession, and home. Open my spiritual eyes to see myself as a minister right where you have planted me. Help me see that the mountain in which I live and work is as spiritual as the Church Mountain. I ask that you fill me with Your Holy Spirit so that I have the power to manifest the works of Jesus in my daily life and be the salt and light that my mountain needs me to be. In Jesus Name, Amen!