In the type of Israel, there is a great part concerning the kings. The kings are the representatives of Israel and the top ones. Israel was mainly enjoying the good land. They had everything of their living from the source of the good land. The top ones, who were enjoying the good land on the top level, were the kings. These kings are types of the New Testament believers, because all of the New Testament believers were saved by God to be kings. Every New Testament believer is to be a king and a priest (1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 2 Tim. 2:12).
Both the kings and the priests are the deputy authority of God. The deputy authority of God is composed of God’s oracle to speak and God’s authority to rule. In the Old Testament, the first group ordained by God to speak for Him as His oracle was called the priests. Actually, God entrusted to the priests not only the speaking part of His deputy authority but also the ruling part. Thus, the priests were the speakers and also the kings. God, however, does not want a king to replace Him. He just wants His authority to be exercised. So at the beginning of Israel’s history with the priests, there was no king, but they did have the Urim and the Thummim. The Urim and the Thummim were a deputy authority for both God’s speaking and God’s ruling (Exo. 28:30; Lev. 8:8). Because Israel adopted the custom of the nations, they wanted to have a king. Thus, God gave them a negative king named Saul. Actually, God Himself was their King already. Israel’s real king was not a human person but God Himself.
In the New Testament, all the believers were saved to be kings and priests. When the priests speak for God, they become God’s spokesmen, God’s mouthpiece, and these are the prophets. So in the New Testament, we believers are kings, priests, and prophets. The kings of the Old Testament were a type, and this type is fulfilled by the New Testament believers being kings. These are the people who enjoy Christ to the uttermost.
Romans 5:17 says that “those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life.” John 1 says that when God came in His incarnation, grace came (vv. 14, 17). When God came to be a man, that was grace coming. Grace is the Triune God as our enjoyment. We all have received this grace in abundance. It is not just abundant grace but abounding grace, which is increasing all the time. We have received this grace, and we have received a gift from God, which is also abounding. This gift is God’s righteousness for our redemption judicially. Thus, we have received these two things: grace and righteousness. These are for us to reign in life, to be kings in life.
If we have not reached the level of a king in our Christian life, we are still below the proper standard. We may say that we enjoy Christ, but to what degree, to what extent, do we enjoy Christ? Our enjoyment of Christ may be only “one inch high,” but Christ is unlimited. Our enjoyment of Christ should come up to the kingship level. As the God-ordained prophets and priests, we are also kings to rule over all the enemies of God. God rules, but He does not rule directly. God rules through us, through the believers, as kings. The believers in the New Testament should be the fulfillment of the typology of the kings in God’s economy.
Now we need to see how we can be such kings. We can be such kings only by being men regenerated with God and transformed with God as the element, so that we live not by our own life, by ourselves, by our natural man, or by our flesh. Instead, we live by God who is now mingling Himself with us as one. The believers’ life is to live such a human yet divine life. It is in this life that we can be kings to enjoy our God-ordained portion, which is Christ as our good land.
Our fellowship here is not a man’s teaching or some kind of theology discovered by Bible students. This is a revelation, just like the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation presents us a view, not teachings. My fellowship here is a revelation showing you a view. It is altogether not doctrines or facts in black and white as a record.
Now we need to consider where we should be according to this revelation. We all have to answer, “We should be in the resurrection.” The resurrection of Christ eventually should become the place where we stay. We were God’s created people who became fallen. Now we are God’s redeemed people based upon His choosing of us, and we are also God’s regenerated and transformed people who have been transformed with God’s element to make us God-men. Now we are here in resurrection. To be in resurrection means to deny everything old to become something new and live by the element of newness, which is the divine life, God Himself.
In resurrection we have become God’s new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15). This new creation is God’s re-created, regenerated, transformed people. This is also the church in localities and the Body of Christ universally. Whether in the church locally or for the Body of Christ universally, we should be a person in resurrection.
Do not forget that when you open your mouth to speak Christ into people, you become God’s oracle and God’s prophet. Then you become a good priest. Samuel was such a person. He was not a priest according to God’s ordination from the tribe of Levi. But he became a priest by prophesying for God, and this priest brought in the kingship. Thus, when you speak, you will be a prophet. Then your prophetic ministry will bring you into the kingship.
(Living a Life According to the High Peak of God's Revelation, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)