Now God is asking us if we will permit Him to enter the throne room of our personality; if we will step down from the throne and permit the Father and the Son to take Their place as the origin of our will and motives.

Since the essence of the human being is his will, we can see that God is asking nothing less than the surrender of our right to be ourselves. God is requiring that we enter the same relationship with Jesus Christ that Jesus Christ has with the Father.

Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. (John 6:57—NIV)

That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so the world may believe you have sent me. (John 17:21—NIV)

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20—NIV)

The message to the church in Laodicea may be directed especially toward the closing days of the Church Age. The Lord had little praise for this church. It seems the church was on friendly terms with the government for it had become wealthy and needed nothing. The believers were spiritually lukewarm and lacking in insight and righteousness.

Yet to this apathetic group was given the supreme invitation:

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. (Revelation 3:20,21—NIV)

The Lord Jesus is standing before the believers in our day. He is requesting entrance into our personalities.

If we hear Him knocking we are to open the door of our heart. If we do this He will come in and eat with us and we with Him. He eats of the worship and obedience of our personality. We eat of His flesh and drink His blood. It is this continual eating and drinking together with Him that brings us into the intense, fiery union that characterizes the spiritual fulfillment of the Jewish feast of Tabernacles, the third great platform of Divine grace.

As we persist in living in union with Him, overcoming all that would draw us away into more external interests—even religious interests—we gain the right to sit with Christ on His throne.

Where is the throne of Christ? It is in Heaven at the right hand of God. It also is in our heart.

Jesus Christ also overcame. He is seated with His Father on His great throne in Heaven, and we are there with Him.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, (Ephesians 2:6—NIV)

But perhaps more importantly, the Father also is enthroned in the heart of Christ. Christ sits with the Father on the throne of His own heart.

To be continued.