Christ has sealed each of us with a firstfruits portion of the Holy Spirit of God, looking toward the Day of Redemption when our whole spirit, soul, and body are filled with the Spirit of God.

Christ Himself has been born and is being formed in us.

Christ Himself is at the right hand of God, making intercession as High Priest on the behalf of each Christian.

Then Christ Himself comes to us in fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:34). He stands at the door of our heart, and knocks (Revelation 3:20). If we hear His voice and open the door, Christ comes in to us. We dine together on His broken body and shed blood. This is the celebration of the new covenant. It is a love feast.

We can understand, from the preceding paragraphs, that it was not possible for any human being to become a room in God's eternal Temple before Christ went to the cross and rose again from the dead. He went to prepare a place for us in Himself who is God's House.

When Christ comes into us and we dine with Him on His body and blood, the eternal House of God has come into us and is sharing His Divine Substance and Nature with us. Now we have become one of the abiding places in the Abiding Place of God.

Sometimes we question the many varied—and often perplexing and painful—dealings of God with us. We begin to think God has forgotten about us.

God is faithful. He never forgets!

The most important question God asks —and He keeps on asking it—is, "Do you love me?"

If the Kingdom of God were to remain external to our personality, then (as we have stated previously) the demands on us would be but a small fraction of what they are.

Because the Kingdom of God is God in Christ in the saint, our transformation must be total! absolute! final! The issue is that of the marriage of the Lamb. Christ prepares a place for us in Himself, and for Himself in us. It is a two-way abiding, a two-way dining.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (Revelation 21:3)

The new Jerusalem is the Wife of the Lamb, the many-roomed house of the Father, the Tabernacle of God.

And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. (Revelation 21:22)

Today there is a temple of God in Heaven (Isaiah 6:1). But there is no temple of God in the new Jerusalem. There no longer is a separating veil, a gap between the Lord and the sons of God. Our marriage to the Lamb has removed the gap between God and us.

The aspects of redemption we shall be presenting in the remainder of this book have as their purpose the removing of the veil between God and us. God desires to close the gap. We are not always willing to receive Christ to this extent.

The Lord God of Heaven cannot wipe away the tears of mankind until His Church, His Bride, is willing to become the living tabernacle that He envisions. It is through the perfected Bride that God will heal the nations of the saved.

The most important issue of Christianity is our abiding in Christ and His abiding in us. (from Christ in You)