The world is in an uproar because human beings are seeking image, union, fruitfulness, and dominion apart from the rule of God in Christ in us. Man is seeking his inheritance apart from union with God through Christ.

For six thousand years God has been demonstrating to the heavens and the earth that all image, union, fruitfulness, and dominion must proceed from and be governed by total, restful union with Himself.

From this demonstration we have learned it is impossible to be in God's image, to enjoy satisfying relationships, to be fruitful, or to have dominion, apart from union with God through Christ.

God Himself always must be ruling throughout His entire creation. God's Kingdom is His rule in Christ in us. When God's rule in Christ has been perfected in us we shall govern both the spirit and the material realms. When God is ruling there are no wars. The true children of God are peacemakers.

Wars will continue to curse the earth until every person has accepted the rule of God in Christ in himself.

As soon as God has brought all things under subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ Himself will be subject to the Father so the Father may be All in all. This is the Kingdom of God.

God is bringing about His rule throughout all His creation by building an eternal house for Himself. This house is Christ—Head and Body, the holy city, the new Jerusalem, the place of God's rest forever.

As soon as God's house has been completed, God will be able to dwell in peace with his creatures. The Tabernacle of God, which is the Wife of the Lamb, will come down from Heaven and be established for eternity on the new earth.

The Old Testament speaks of the new heavens and the new earth:

For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. (Isaiah 65:17,18)

As far as we know, the first insight given in the Scriptures of God's plan concerning man, particularly His plan to live in and find rest in a called-out group (church), is found in the fifteenth chapter of Exodus:

The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him. (Exodus 15:2)

"I will prepare him an habitation."

Again:

Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. (Exodus 15:17)

"In the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in."

The two verses above, given in prophecy at the time of a milestone in Israel's history, indeed are remarkable.

To be continued.