| 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
Coming to the Disciple and Coming to the World, #7
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)
The Father's house, the eternal Temple of God, is not Heaven. This is not scriptural. The subject of the Father's house is a central concept of the Scriptures, Old Testament and New.
The Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the chief Cornerstone of the eternal House of God. Jesus went to the cross to prepare a place for us as living stones in the Temple of God, the Tabernacle of God that one day will descend through the new sky and be located for eternity on the new earth.
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)
Each one of us is to be a room in the Father's House, the Church, the Body of Christ, the new Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross, and then to the Presence of the Father in Heaven, sprinkling His blood in the Most Holy Place in Heaven. By this atonement He prepared a place for us in Himself and in the Father. This is the meaning of John 14:3.
The Greek term translated "mansions," in John 14:2 of the King James Version, is translated "abode," in John 14:23, revealing that the Lord is not speaking of going to Heaven to build houses there but of preparing a place for us in Himself that the Father and He might find their rest in us. This is the meaning of John 14:2 through 14:23. Now we are speaking of the personal coming of Jesus to His disciples prior to His historic coming to the earth in the clouds of glory. The personal coming is a genuine coming, just as much a coming as the historic coming, only a coming in the Spirit to His disciples and not to the world. I think the personal coming is beginning now and we need to look to the Lord for this experience, just as we did salvation and the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6—NIV)
Can you see in the above verse that the Lord is not speaking of going to Heaven as a place but to the Father as to a Person? Our goal is not to go to another place, it is to enter the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. This takes place today, not after we die.
To be with Christ where He is, is to be in the center of God's Person, as well as at His right hand with Christ. It is the entrance into God that is all important—that God in Christ may be dwelling in us in His Fullness and we in Christ in God in untroubled rest.
Going to Heaven is not our goal, it is God who is our Goal! After all, sin began in Heaven around the Throne of God, so going to Heaven solves nothing for us. It is God in Christ who solves everything for us.
To be continued.