| E-MAIL SERVICE | Sign me up to receive the daily Word of Righteousness free via my E-mail address! ( ONLY AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH ) | |
| ARCHIVES | I want to check out the daily Words of Righteousness for any of the last fourteen days or from previous weeks. ( ENGLISH ONLY ) | |
| FEEDBACK | I have a question or comment about today's Word of Righteousness. ( ENGLISH AND SPANISH ONLY ) | |
| BOOK LIST | I would like to see the complete book list of the Words of Righteousness author Robert B. Thompson. (SOME SPANISH TITLES AVAILABLE ) |
The Daily Word of Righteousness
John 14:1,2, continued
The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? (Isaiah 33:14)
God cannot find rest in a stone in His house until that stone has surrendered all to Him.
Now here you are. You are washed in the blood. You are filled with God's Spirit. Now you are at the crossroads. Will you press forward until Christ is living in you or will you try to use your salvation and your gifts to accomplish what you think is God's will?
Entering God's rest, becoming God's house, is a tremendous step forward. First you must tell God this is what you desire—to be His house forever. You want God so badly you will give Him every key to every room in your personality.
I love God's fire, don't you? I want to dwell in the center of the consuming fire forever. I love it!
How badly do you want God? Are you prepared to go all the way? Are you willing to learn to live by Christ's body and blood as He lives by the Father?
What a wonderful opportunity. It will not be available forever, we have to act now.
God draws us little by little until finally we are broken, snared, and taken, to quote Isaiah when he spoke of talking in tongues.
For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. (Isaiah 28:11-13)
In Deuteronomy 16:16 we notice that the Jews were commanded to go up to Jerusalem three times (not two) each year. They were required to observe the feast of Unleavened Bread, the feast of Weeks (Pentecost), and the feast of Tabernacles.
Unleavened Bread refers to our initial salvation.
Pentecost portrays the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
Tabernacles, the feast of Booths, signifies the fullness of God of which we have been speaking.
John 14:23 may be the clearest reference in the New Testament to the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles. Here we find the Father and the Son coming to dwell in the believer who keeps the commandments of Christ. The term "abode" in this verse is the same Greek noun employed in John 14:2 and translated "mansion," tying together verses two through twenty-three of the fourteenth chapter of John.
The "tabernacles" experience, as you might imagine, is infinitely more demanding on us that is true of initial salvation or the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
It is well to count the cost of going on to the fullness of God. It is well also to count the cost of not going on to the fullness of God.
I personally have counted the cost of going on with God. I am willing to pay it and have been paying it.
I do not even think about the cost of not going forward with God. The cost is astronomical and I won't even consider paying it.