You may recognize that Paul quoted this passage in the fourth chapter of the Book of Ephesians, referring to the ministries and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

We easily can infer from this that the purpose of the ministries and gifts of the Holy Spirit is to build the Body of Christ to maturity so the Lord God may have a dwelling place.

Then the grand pronouncement was made:

This is what the LORD says: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?" (Isaiah 66:1—NIV)

When the Father's house is mentioned in John 14:2, people assume Heaven is meant. But Heaven is not the Father's house. Heaven is the throne of God. A need for a house, a resting place, remains.

The same question is asked at the time of the murder of Stephen.

Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? (Acts 7:49—NIV)

Since the Sanhedrin viewed Herod's Temple as God's house, this was an irritating question. Yet the question of God's house, His resting place, is central to the entire Divine operation from the beginning of the world.

Now notice carefully, referring to the one new Man—Jews and Gentiles made one in Christ:

Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:20-22—NIV)

The "whole building" mentioned above is the "Father's house" mentioned by the Lord Jesus in John 14:2. In the last two chapters of the Book of Revelation we see the Church, the eternal House of God, the Tabernacle of God, descending through the new sky to rest forever on a high mountain of the new earth. The throne of God and of the Lamb are in it. This is the Wife of the Lamb, the new Jerusalem, the holy city.

The new Jerusalem will dwell among the saved nations of the earth. Through the saints who compose the new Jerusalem God will wipe away the tears of saved mankind. This has been God's plan from the beginning and is the reason for the creation of the Church, the royal priesthood.

What It Means To Have Christ Living in You

Now we come to the place "where the boy caught his finger in the machinery," as a distinguished American jurist once said. How do we pass from Pentecost to the place where Christ is living in us? How do we arrive at Paul's level of maturity: "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet it is not I who am living but Christ who is living in me"?

To be continued.