Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." (John 14:23—NIV)

The Day of Atonement prepares us for the spiritual fulfillment of the Old Testament feast of Tabernacles. The feast of Tabernacles has been fulfilled in us when the Father and the Son have made Their eternal abode in us and we are dwelling in untroubled rest in the Father through Christ.

We must be completely freed from the bondages of sin in our flesh. The Holy Spirit stands ready to hear our confession and to deliver us. Older Christians are discovering that sins they thought they had overcome many years ago are surging to the surface and expressing themselves. It is time now to put them to death by the wisdom and power of the Spirit of God.

The worst bondage of all, our self-will, shall be dealt with in the present hour as God brings us into various imprisonments and sufferings. We are useless in the Kingdom until Jesus actually is supreme Lord of our life. As long as we are struggling against the will of God we are in the worst of all bondages, the bondage of the will.

The original sin was the self-will of Satan. It is through self-will that Satan is able to enter us. Until we submit to the dealings of the Lord without blaming the tools God uses, we will remain alive in our adamic nature. As long as we seek to save our life we will lose it.

The Lord is looking today for those who will surrender their will to Him. It is these, and these alone, who will return with the Lord on the white war stallions. To appear with Jesus Christ it must be true that He has become our very life. Any soldier in the Lord's army who is not completely, sternly obedient to God poses a threat to the entire army; for Satan can enter this person and cause him to injure those around him, just as self-centered people in the churches of today slander other Christians and cause division in the local body of believers.

Set the resurrection unto life before you. Talk to the Lord about your resurrection. Lay aside all else. Seek Christ until every aspect of your personality and behavior is held before the Lord. Communicate with all relationships, circumstances, and things through the Lord. Count all else as garbage.

Never mind what the other believers are doing. Meditate constantly in the New Testament. Ask for God's wisdom and power in obeying Christ and His Apostles. Set your affection, your thoughts, on things above where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Live this way day in and day out.

Some day your waiting will be over and the day of resurrection will be here. Then you will be so glad you turned away from that which is temporary and grasped the eternal. You will receive a house, a body like that of your Lord.

Every person who has this hope purifies himself, washing his robes in the blood of the Lamb, preparing himself for the worldwide manifestation of Divine Glory referred to as the marriage of the Lamb. (from The House From Heaven)