Order of Melchizedek 1
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Melchizedek passages appear only three times in the whole bible (in Genesis, Psalm 110 and in Hebrews) and yet these appearances are backed up with heaven's emphasis. You'd feel it. Why would the father of faith, Abram, give him a tenth of everything after defeating his enemies? Why not give the tenth to the king of Sodom who also met him after his victory?
Be careful who you give your tenth to. Not all kings or priests are from Melchizedek's order.
You see, after your spiritual victories in life, two kings are bound to meet you--Melchizedek and the king of Sodom. Abram was careful not to accord Sodom's king with credit that he made Abram rich. Sodom's king wants that glory. After you defeat your enemy, he demands "Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself." He dictates what you get and he gives you the feeling that you owe it to him.
In this case, who is the "king of Sodom" in your life who meets you after your success and tells you what you should do (to later claim the glory)? There are lots of kings like him. Beware. They want to teach you all you should do even if you don't ask for their opinion. And believe me, you don't want their opinion because it's all about them. And kings like this can never feed you spiritually. Feeding is relational.
FEEDING IS RELATIONAL
Melchizedek, on the other hand, meets you with bread and wine which symbolizes the spoken Word and the Holy Spirit. In other words, Melchizedek feeds you well spiritually but he doesn't demand anything. He doesn't ask for money. He doesn't dictate to you what you should do. But he blesses you. He feeds you. Then you'd decide, of your own volition, to give him the "tenth of everything." You give it with a cheerful heart because it is relational. Tithing is relational.
This is the order of Melchizedek. Our priesthood is based on this because Jesus is 100 percent in us. We are co-heirs with him, says Romans 8. What is Christ's is also ours if we share in his sufferings, and then we share in his glory, too. Christ in you the hope of glory. And by this, we also see that tithing is very much a New Testament thing. We should still tithe because in Christ we are in the order of Melchizedek. But the tithing principle here is different. When there's a change of priesthood, there's also a change in the law [Hebrews 7.12].
Tithing in the order of Melchizedek means you first bring out bread and wine before you can receive any tithe. In other words, do you really feed your tithers spiritually or do you just entertain them with your nice programs and church music, motivational speeches, and other gimmicks? In this case, you don't receive tithes from them--you get "entrance ticket payment" from them for watching your Sunday shows or probably you charge them membership fee.
Do you feed them well as to make them defeat their spiritual enemy overwhelmingly? Abram defeated 4 kings all at the same time with only 318 men. Four kingdoms! If each kingdom had 40,000 soldiers (this is conservative) and you multiply this by 4, Abram and his handful of men defeated 160,000 soldiers. And Abram was able to get back everything that was stolen--I mean everything. Nothing and no one was missing.
Melchizedek fed him in such a way that Abram became strong and even trained 318 other men to be strong, too--strong for deadly warfare that demolishes the enemy, not just do cute church programs, sing well, play musical instruments and be active in church. Melchizedek put the very culture of heaven in Abram--the life of God--and Abram did likewise to his men. That's powerful discipleship. If you feed your sheep like this, you are in the order of Melchizedek and you may receive tithes from them.
Every pastor and church leader truly in Christ must be in the order of Melchizedek. The "bread and wine" you feed your flock should supernaturally create in them a deadly warrior spirit that could demolish the enemy's camps. And they, in turn, should be able to train others to do the same. The gates of hell will not prevail against such church, Jesus said. This is the order of Melchizedek.
We're not anymore of the old covenant where priests came from an order that failed to enter God's rest because of disobedience. Where priests had to deal with their own sins again and again before they could minister to others.
The priest is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. 3 This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. [Hebrews 5]Moreover, priests in the old order died so that their priesthood was cut short. "In the one case, the tenth is collected by people who die;" [Hebrews 7]. But in the new order, priests access life everlasting through their High Priest who continues the ministry for them without interference or end. The second part of Hebrews 7 says,"...but in the other case, by him who is declared to be living."
Jesus said we believers have "crossed over from death to life." He who believes will NEVER see or taste death. We are not of the priestly order where ministers suffer dead spiritual lives, going in and out if sin, easily falling into the slightest temptation and remaining carnal. We are not of those who see only what's in the flesh. We have in us our High Priest who lives and reigns forever. In Christ, we are "declared to be living."
And just as it can be said that Levi "paid" the tenth to Melchizedek through Abraham when Levi was still in his body, priests in the new order continue to do ministry even if they're physically dead because they're in Christ. Priesthood in the order of Melchizedek never ceases in Christ. In this sense, we too are declared to be priests forever in the order of Melchizedek in Christ.
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