Between the Living & the Dead

Transcript

Good morning and greetings in Jesus’ name. Welcome to this amazing new day.

I pray that today we will take our rightful role in authority in the body of Christ. The Lord sees each and every one of us as the royal priests in the body of Christ.
The job of a priest is to stand between God and man. We have all kinds of people around us. People that are living in sin, in poverty, in sickness. On the other side, we have a God who is holy, all powerful, all knowing, all understanding, glorious and great in every way. And, here we are, the royal priests of God who are in the middle. We stand between life and death. Our job as the priests of God, is to intercede, to stand in the gap.

If you read Numbers 16:48, we see the story of Aaron in the Old Testament, the high priest, who was appointed by Moses over the nation of Israel. It says Aaron stood between the dead and the living and the plague was stopped. The context of this story is a great rebellion by the people of Israel against the leadership. They came to hurt Moses and Aaron. As soon as they began to rebel against God’s people, there was a plague that entered the camp of Israel. The glory of God that manifested for Aaron and Moses which was a blessing to Aaron and Moses, became a curse to the people of Israel, a plague to them. This plague was killing people, hurting them, destroying and disconnecting them from their loved ones.

Moses and Aaron could have sat and enjoyed the whole thing. They could have said, “this is what will happen if you rebel against us”. They could have used this particular incident as an example to put fear in the hearts and minds of those people that have a tendency to rebel against God, against the leaders that God has placed, against the pastors and prophets that God has placed. And yet, Moses and Aaron knew they are not just prophets but they are also priests and the job of a priest is to intercede and to stand in the gap. So, immediately Moses told Aaron take the fire from the altar and take it into the camp of Israel and go and stand between the living and the dead.
That’s exactly what he did. He started searching for all those people that had been affected by the plague and went and stood between the living and the dead and suddenly, the plague got stopped.

On one side, the spirit of death was entering into the camp. All of a sudden, they find a man of God, a person who is in tune with the heart of God. A person who is standing on behalf of God, standing to intercede on behalf of a rebellious generation, for a disobedient generation, for a sinful generation. All of a sudden, the man of God’s atonement, altar, prayer, worked as a protection, as a shield for the entire group of people, that were out there to hurt the men of God and to rebel against God.

Today, our calling is the same. If you see yourself as a priest and as a king, as a royal priesthood, then you have to put yourself between the living and the dead, between God’s work and the enemy’s work. You have to intercede, stand in the gap and declare, “this plague will stop right here with me. It cannot cross me. This sickness cannot have authority in my family. This poverty cannot have authority in my neighbourhood. This addiction cannot have authority in my nation. The issue of drugs cannot have authority in my college, in my school”.

Today when you go to work, meet with your friends, relatives, church members, don’t keep that judgemental attitude on. Don’t look down on people who don’t have the same godly affections or ways that you have. Don’t look down on people who don’t understand the word of God or who don’t walk with God. Instead, why don’t you place yourself between them and the presence of God. You become the point of contact for some of these people to now experience the goodness, the grace, favour and the blessing of God.

If you read the context of the story from Numbers 16, the favour of God was upon Moses and Aaron. God was about to bless them and so, He wouldn’t hurt them. No matter where they stand, they couldn’t be hurt.
So, that’s why, Aaron ran up in between the crowd and said, “let me put myself in danger. Let me stand between the living and the dead and carry the atonement that I have been making for these people in between the crowd”. Technically speaking, Moses was willing to sacrifice his own life to ensure the redemption of the people of Israel.

May the Lord use you to do the same in your workplace, neighbourhoods, cities, in your nation during the course of this week.

Father, we commit this word into your hands. Give us this grace to stand in between the living and the dead, so that we can be the priest that is going to carry the presence of God, that is going to clearly stop the plague, clearly stop the sin, clearly stop the problems, the addictions, the struggles that the world around us is in bondage to. We thank you for hearing our prayer. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.