The Church, the Body of Christ, is the fullness of the House of God.

We are the means through which the invisible God will make Himself visible and approachable to the nations of the earth. We, who are part of Christ, are that "seed" in which all the nations of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 22:18).

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:3)

The Lord Jesus will appear in the clouds of heaven, raise us from the dead, and then draw us to Himself in the air. After that we shall be ever with the Lord.

However, the context of John 14:3 is not a discussion of the second coming of the King. Rather, it is the spiritual coming of the Lord to His temple, as we mentioned previously (note John 14:18-23).

Christ is coming to us today and receiving us to Himself, and this is why we are experiencing judgment now. Christ always abides in the center of God's Presence and will. This is where He is bringing us. Such nearness to the Father results in the coming of Divine judgment upon the sin and self-seeking that remain in us.

Christ is not intent on bringing us to Heaven as to a place. Rather, His efforts are directed toward bringing us into the center of God's Presence and will. To be with Him where He is, is to be in the center of God's Presence and will.

Christ has not left it up to man to fashion the blocks of the eternal Temple of God. Rather, Christ is here among us now, cutting and polishing each of the stones of the eternal temple. He is receiving us today, through the Spirit, and bringing us into untroubled rest in "the secret place of the most High."

Are you "coming away" in the Spirit with Christ? Is He drawing you out of Sodom, out of "Babylon" (man-directed Christianity), out of all that corrupts and defiles? It is a heavenly romance. Christ is drawing us to Himself so where He is, there we may be also.

We are not advising the believers to leave their churches. To leave one's church may be to create another Babylon. Rather it is a coming out in the heart until we are married to Jesus and not to our church or to the work of the Lord.

Sometimes it appears that the Catholic Church, which is the consummate denomination, invites people to be married to the Church. This is not satisfactory in the Kingdom of God. From the Pope on down, each believer is to be married to the Lamb of God, to none other. Each of us is to be married to the Lord. To remain in union with an institution or a heavenly personage other than the Lord Jesus is idolatry.

He who has ears to hear will hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches in our day.

To be continued.