KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES

"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 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" (Jn. 14:1-3).

Multitudes today believe Jesus told His disciples that Christians will spend eternity in "mansions" in heaven. Jesus said, "In My Father's house are many mansions." There is the assumption by carnal-minded Bible teachers and preachers that the Lord was discussing some material and physical mansions in a far away heaven somewhere; mansions in some bright glory world above that we will move into on "Some Golden Daybreak." The supposition is that these splendid mansions are now being built by Jesus, the master carpenter, on some utopian planet in a far distant galaxy. He has been ardently preoccupied with this monumental project for the past 2,000 years. From what we hear, however, many would be willing to forego their mansion and settle for a shack in some remote corner of gloryland, just so long as they don't have to go to hell!

Did Jesus really say that our reward is a mansion in heaven? Let's see! "In My Father's house," Jesus said plainly, "there are many MANSIONS. If it were not true," He continued, "I would have told you." Let us identify this "Father's house" of which Jesus spoke. Long centuries before these words of promise fell from the lips of Jesus David's holy desire was that he would "find out a place for the Lord, an HABITATION for the mighty God of Jacob" (Ps. 132:5). This holy, spirit-born desire was within him while just a child in his father's house in Ephrata (Ps. 132:6; I Sam. 17:12). The word "habitation" is a plural word, and should read "habitations."

Jesus went up to Jerusalem, entered into the temple, "And said to them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not MY FATHER'S HOUSE an house of merchandise" (Jn. 2:16). "And said unto them, It is written, MY HOUSE shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves" (Mat. 21:13). "Everyone that taketh hold of My covenant; even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in MY HOUSE OF PRAYER: - for MINE HOUSE shall be called an house of prayer for all people" (Isa. 56:6-7). And yet again Jesus refers to the earthly tabernacle as God's house, when He spoke of David, "How he entered into the HOUSE OF GOD, and did eat the showbread" (Mat. 12:4). Thus, according to the scriptures, the earthly tabernacle and temple in Israel was called "THE HOUSE OF GOD," and served "unto the example (exhibition) and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount" (Heb. 8:5).

Moses built a portable tabernacle, which was followed by Solomon's temple of splendor, and later still by the rebuilt temple of Zerubbabel, all of them to be an EXHIBITION, an earthly display of the greater spiritual habitation that is yet to be assembled, and which is even now in preparation under the ministration of the Holy Spirit. As we have pointed out, when we come to this phrase, "My Father's House," many of us carry our immature, childish understanding of "The Father's House" over into our adult thinking. We have automatically, due to former false teaching, conjured up a picture of a park-like place with golden streets and beautiful mansions, with saints flitting about in white night gowns, playing harps. We can readily imagine our mansion over the hilltop where we shall reside in magnificent splendor with nothing to do and all eternity to do it in! But let us look into the Word of the Lord, and let us not partake of the folly of another group of religionists who displayed their ignorance on one occasion when Jesus stood in the temple in Jerusalem and said to them, "Destroy THIS TEMPLE, and in three days I will raise it up again" (Jn. 2:19). Those Jews became indignant and replied that it had taken forty-six arduous years to construct that temple, and would He rebuild it in three days? With their carnal minds darkened, only able to see the natural, not receiving the revelation of His words by the Spirit, they "perceived not that He spake of the TEMPLE OF HIS BODY" (Jn. 2:19-21).

Jesus here states that HIS BODY is the TEMPLE. The revelation that His body was the Temple of God was as difficult for carnal minds as was the revelation that God was His Father. The scriptures clearly reveal that Jesus Himself is the beginning of the TRUE TABERNACLE of God. We must note particularly that beginning with the New Covenant which Jesus came to establish, God no longer dwells in tabernacles made with hands. "But it was Solomon who built a house for Him. However the Most High does not dwell in houses and temples made with hands; as the prophet says ... What kind of house can you build for Me, says the Lord..." (Acts 7:47-49). And again, "The God who produced and formed the world and all things in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in HANDMADE SHRINES. Neither is He served by human hands, as though He lacked anything..." (Acts 17:23-24, Amplified).

When king David desired to build a house for the Lord, God sent Nathan the prophet to him who delivered this message: "Thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not build Me a house to dwell in: it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired... that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish his kingdom. HE SHALL BUILD ME A HOUSE, and I will establish his throne forever." Now while it is true that Solomon, David's son, did build a house for God in Jerusalem, it is quite evident that neither Solomon nor his temple were the true fulfillment of this prophecy. But when Jesus came He was specifically identified as THE SON OF DAVID (Mat. 1:1). The angel Gabriel, in the annunciation to Mary declared, "And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call His name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the THRONE of HIS FATHER DAVID: and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end" (Lk. 1:31-33). Jesus was even born in the "City of David" (Lk. 2:4,11). So Nathan's remarkable prophecy was never fulfilled until Jesus came. The son of David who was to BUILD THE HOUSE OF THE LORD - is Jesus! Therefore, Jesus Himself is the beginning of the TRUE TABERNACLE of God.

Jesus was the first man on the earth realm to ever build God a habitation where He could live and reveal Himself in His fullness. He did this by possessing His vessel (body) in honor and holiness, in obedience and submission, in love, humility and perfection. This was a place where God could fully live. For the first time since the creation God had a TRUE HABITATION on earth - a temple which was WHOLLY HIS - nothing reserved. Hebrews 1:8-9 says of Jesus, "But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows." Jesus did not receive the Spirit of God by measure, but was filled with ALL the fullness of God. "For He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him" (Jn. 3:34). "For in Him dwelleth ALL THE FULLNESS of the Godhead BODILY" (Col. 2:9). II Cor. 5:19 states: "It was God personally present in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself..." (Amplified Bible). Again, "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, GOD WITH US." Our Lord Himself declared, "If you had known Me - had learned to recognize Me - you would also have known My Father. From now on you know Him and have seen Him. Phillip said to Him, Lord show us the Father - cause us to see the Father, that is all we ask; then we shall be satisfied. Jesus replied, Have I been with all of you for so long a time and you do not recognize and know Me yet, Phillip? Anyone who has SEEN ME has seen THE FATHER. How can you say then, Show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in Me? The Father who lives continually in Me does the works" (Jn. 14:7-10, Amplified). So Jesus built the Father a house to live in. He became the beginning, the firstborn of a new and divine species - the TRUE TABERNACLE which the LORD PITCHED, and not man! The Father was even then indwelling His most treasured abode at that very moment in their midst!

But it is not sufficient to know only that Jesus was and is the temple, the dwelling place of God. It was with an expression of wonder that Paul demanded of the Corinthians, "Know ye not that YE ARE THE TEMPLE OF GOD, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, WHICH TEMPLE YE ARE" (I Cor. 3:16-17). And again, "And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for YE ARE THE TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD; as God hath said, I will DWELL IN THEM, and WALK IN THEM; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people" (II Cor. 6:16). And with still greater emphasis, "For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, YE are God's BUILDING" (I Cor. 3:9). The writer to the Hebrews presses the point even further. "Wherefore...consider the apostle... of our profession, Christ Jesus; who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was faithful in all HIS HOUSE ... for every house is builded by some man; but He that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all HIS HOUSE, as a servant, as a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; BUT CHRIST as a Son over HIS OWN HOUSE; whose house WE ARE" (Heb. 3:1-6).

These are solemnizing truths. Oh, that men and women would cease with their elation over the rebuilding of a temple in Jerusalem and rejoice rather in the holy knowledge that WE ARE THE HOUSE OF THE LORD. We have become so accustomed even to calling temporal and transient church buildings made of wood and brick and stone the "house of God" that we are amazed when we are shown that these are NOUGHT BUT BUILDINGS made with men's hands. The fact is, NO EARTHLY BUILDING is sacred or holy, no matter how earnestly you dedicate it to the service of God. Men reverence buildings when they should reverence GOD. No mundane building made with man's hands can ever qualify as the "house of God." All of these carnal, babylonian buildings that men erroneously call "churches" and the "house of the Lord" shall meet the same fate as the temple of old. Not one stone shall be left standing upon another! Babylon has raised up some fantastic structures, gems of architectural genius, but it is all VANITY and the glory of God dwells in none of them. May the Spirit of God so reveal to us the truth of God that we shall abandon even our perverted terminology acquired in Babylon and no longer call buildings made with men's hands churches and "the house of God." They are no such thing, and we need to correct our speech and sanctify our glossology before God and speak the truth as it is in Jesus, and refuse to even utter the distortions and foolishness of Babylon. The holy PLACE where our heavenly Father has chosen to put His name is not in any earthly building, nor in a geographical location, but IN HIS PEOPLE! Hallelujah!

Listen to the words of Peter: "To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, YE ALSO, as living stones, ARE BUILT UP A SPIRITUAL HOUSE... acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (I Pet. 2:4-5). Add to this these meaningful words of Paul from Weymouth's beautiful translation: "You are therefore no longer foreigners nor persons excluded from civil rights. On the contrary, you share citizenship with the saints and are MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY. YOU ARE A BUILDING which has been reared on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, the cornerstone being Christ Jesus Himself, IN UNION WITH WHOM the whole fabric, truly bonded together, is rising to form a HOLY SANCTUARY IN THE LORD; in whom you also are being BUILT UP TOGETHER to become a FIXED ABODE FOR GOD through the Spirit" (Eph. 2:19-22).

In the words of Jesus throughout the Gospels we find references to three houses "My house," "Father's house," and "your house." The temple in Jerusalem had been "Father's house" so long as the ministry there moved under the anointing of the Spirit. But when the Lord began His ministry, He said to the people, "But I say unto you, That in this place is One greater than the temple" (Mat. 12:6). And truly, Christ is far superior to the temple and all its trappings, even as He is far superior to the present church order, no matter how good we think some of it is. Jesus saw that "Father's house" had become "your house," so He proclaimed of their house, "Behold, YOUR HOUSE is left unto you desolate." It was no longer "Father's house" for the corrupt priesthood had usurped the glory of God and had made it "their house" with their empty traditions and vain abominations. "And Jesus went into the temple... and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said unto them, It is written, MY HOUSE shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves" (Mat. 21:12-13). Although Jesus drove out the moneychangers, the judgment of the temple was given by our Lord, for He declared it to be A "DESOLATE" HOUSE, or a house devoid of the presence and purpose of God.

Here now we must ask the blessed Spirit of truth to uncover the hidden things from before our understanding and reveal the things that from the foundation of the world have been kept secret. The word "mansion" is found in only one place in the King James Version of the Bible. "In My Father's house are many mansions" (Jn. 14:2). The word "mansions" is obviously a mistranslation. The Amplified Bible says, "In My Father's house are many dwelling places." The New English Bible and Wuest's translation say the same. The Revised Standard version, Phillips translation, Goodspeed, and the Jerusalem Bible all say, "There are many rooms in My Father's house." Rotheham's Emphasized New Testament reads, "In the house of My Father are many dwellings." The Greek word MONE should be correctly translated as "abodes" or, as the Amplified Bible renders it, "abiding places." In the Father's house are many "abiding places," with no allusion to size or grandeur. Furthermore, the reference is not to the space available inside the house, but rather to the very FRAMEWORK OF THE HOUSE ITSELF. For it is NOT WE who dwell in the Father's house - it is the FATHER HIMSELF who dwells in and fills the house. We ARE the house!

Read it again. The "mansion" is not for YOU to live in! A few verses later Jesus says, "If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and MAKE OUR ABODE WITH HIM" (Jn. 14:23). Very beautiful is it to notice that our Lord here employs the same sweet and significant word, with which He began this wonderful series of encouragements, when He said, "In My Father's house are many MANSIONS." "Mansions" in Jn. 14:1 is the same Greek word as "abode" in Jn. 14:23 (MONE). If the translators had been consistent in their rendering vs. 23 would read, "We will come unto him, and make our MANSION with him." The message is clear - God is preparing YOU and ME, beloved, as the place to live and have His abode. OUR mansion is IN GOD and GOD'S mansion is IN US. Glory! The church system has taught us that we have a mansion in the sky. Great singers, before vast crowds of thousands sing, "I've got a mansion just over the hilltop," and the carnal mind gets blessed with the thought that since we don't have much wealth and riches, or many yachts or mansions down here, God has prepared a beautiful mansion for us on that beautiful "Isle of Somewhere." This sounds sweet to the emotional, carnal mind, but how far from the truth it is! This deception is so imprinted in the minds of the people that nought but the overflowing grace of God can ever erase it. They understand not that God's chosen and elect saints ARE that beautiful home, full of life and light and love, where no power of darkness, sin or death can ever invade or operate. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Listen to the words of Paul as he presses this truth home to heart of the young minister, Timothy. "But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the HOUSE OF GOD, WHICH IS THE CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD, the pillar and ground of the truth" (I Tim. 3:15). What does this term "the house of God" mean? When you refer to "your house," you mean the place where you dwell, where you live, where you work out your life; and that is just the meaning of the house of God. It is not a frivolous term. "The house of God" is the place where God dwells, where He lives, and where He works out His life. It is His address!

This house is none other than the CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD. Notice that the term here is not merely "God," but "the living God." He is so living; and He now dwells in the Church, moves in the Church, lives in the Church, and works out His whole life in the Church. When we say that the Church is the house of God, we must have a very deep realization that God dwells, lives, and works out His life in this house. I speak not of that "harlot's house" which everywhere calls itself "the church" and masquerades as the "house of God," but of that true temple of the redeemed, regenerated and transformed people of God whose feet have been washed from the filth of all of Babylon's abominations, each one a living stone, an eternal abiding place which our God is building for Himself. Within the Church - this group of redeemed, regenerated and transformed people - God dwells; and upon this group of people, there is the reality of the universe. All the reality of the universe is centered in this body of the Christ. If anyone wants to know what life is he must come to this Church and see. If some would like to know what love is, they too must come and see. If anyone wants to touch the manifold wisdom, grace, glory and power of God, the body of Christ is the place to find it. The function of this body is not in doctrine, ceremony and ritual, but in bearing Christ as the reality.

Would God that all the saints might see that since WE ARE THE HOUSE OF GOD, our dwelling place is not inside the house, but in the very framework of the house. Every part of a building has its specific place to "abide." What would happen to a building were its members possessed of the faculty of speech and the ability of movement? What would happen were the roof to say, "I'm tired of being up here, exposed to the heat of the sun in summer, the beating of the rain, and the chill of winter. I have decided to come inside and abide on the floor!" Or, what if the doors announced, "We're tired of hanging here on the wall, pushed and pulled all the time. Let's go up and rest on the roof." Or, suppose the walls were to declare, "We don't like this position; we're going out and lie on the lawn!" Or if the carpet curled up in the bathtub, or the electric range floated up to the ceiling. Ridiculous! In every house - each stone, board, nail, and furnishing has its unique abiding place. And all together, in perfect order, each fulfilling its place and function for which the architect designed it, they form the complete, perfect building, a place of habitation for those worthy of it.

Ah, we are given the transcendent and glorious privilege of entering into Father's house! Not as a guest, or occupant, but as part of the very substance of the building itself to be DWELT IN, FULLY INHABITED BY THE FATHER HIMSELF! Jesus says that if this were not true, He would have told us. But because it IS wondrously true, He has prepared a place for us in this glorious habitation of God, bringing us into relationship with the Father, that as sons we might be filled with ALL the fullness of God.

In the first reference we have to the temple of God in the book of Revelation, Jesus proclaimed to the seven churches, "Him that overcometh will I make a PILLAR in the TEMPLE OF MY GOD, and he shall go no more out" (Rev. 3:12). A "pillar" is a part of the structure. Just think of that! I doubt not that thousands of saints who read these lines rejoice in the knowledge that they are LIVING STONES in the wall, but here is a promise, given to overcomers, that they shall be P-I-L-L-A-R-S IN THE TEMPLE OF GOD. It is a high and wonderful promise. Only God can reveal such things to us. The pillars bear the weight of the superstructure. One day, when Paul was writing to his son in the faith, he wrote of the house of God "which is the church of the living God, the PILLAR and ground of the truth" (I Tim. 3:15). This house of God, in which God dwells, lives, and works out His life, is also the P-I-L-L-A-R OF THE TRUTH. What is truth? Be not deceived into thinking, my beloved, that truth is a doctrine, creed, or correct understanding about God. The most simple definition of truth is - REALITY. Nothing is real in the whole material universe, nothing is truth; everything is but a shadow, all is temporal, illusion, and is passing away. Everything that can be seen, touched, tasted, and possessed is not real, but at best a shadow. Whatever exists in this universe of appearances is but a figure, not the real thing.

What is the real thing - REALITY? "The things which are SEEN are temporal," the inspired apostle says, "but the things which are NOT SEEN ARE ETERNAL" (II Cor. 4:18). The things which cannot be seen by the natural eye are the things of the SPIRIT. CHRIST, the SPIRIT, is the reality of everything! You may think that the human life you have is real, but it is not; it too is only a shadow. "For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away" (James 1:24). Real life is Christ. If you have the Son of God, you have life; if you do not have the Son of God, you do not have life (I Jn. 5:12). If someone sends you a photograph of himself, you will say, "That is uncle Joe, or cousin Mary." But in truth, that is not any person at all. It is merely a picture, an image, a false likeness. REAL things are not found in pictures! The whole universe is but a picture, an image, a likeness. All the types, shadows and figures in the Bible were but symbols and images of REALITY to come, and that reality IS CHRIST. Christ is the truth, the reality of all. In the physical realm we have food, but Christ is the living bread that came down from heaven. On earth we have great rocks, but Christ is the true rock of ages, the stability that cannot be moved or shaken by anything. We dress our bodies in clothing, but Christ is the eternal robe of righteousness covering the nakedness of our flesh nature. Christ Himself is the truth, and His Spirit is the Spirit of truth (Jn. 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; I Jn. 5:7). Christ is the reality, and His Spirit is the SPIRIT OF REALITY. The people in whom the living God dwells, lives and moves, is the PILLAR OF THE TRUTH, the support upon which reality stands, the buttress that bears the reality. Upon this people can be seen what is the glory of the Lord, the reality of the universe! Upon this people can be seen what is real and true - truth. Upon the sons of God can be seen the reality of life and incorruption, the reality of love, the reality of righteousness, the reality of mercy and goodness, the reality of wisdom and knowledge and power. The sons of God are the PILLARS of God' s temple, the support of the superstructure, the resting place of all truth, the foundation of all REALITY! God is raising up a many-membered temple, all in perfect union with Christ, to be filled with all the glory of God for eternity. And this body, dear ones, IS the FATHER'S HOUSE!

Let me repeat - this time in the anointed words of George Warnock, "When Jesus said, 'We will come unto him, and make our ABODE with him,' He used the very same word for ABODE as He used earlier when He said, 'In My Father's house are many mansions.' The word 'mansion' and 'abode' is one and the same Greek word. This, then, is the real mansion that Christ has gone to prepare for His own. Some might prefer a house of gold or of glistening white marble or pearl. But those things are corruptible; even gold and silver are described by the apostle as being 'corruptible things.' They are not REAL. The real things are the counterparts of gold, and pearls, and sapphires, and emeralds, and jasper. In our finite and limited understanding these natural and earthly things are used to describe our heavenly heritage - because that is the only language that we can understand. But in reality, the glorious realm of the SPIRIT far transcends and outshines any such earthly glory. One glorious thing about the realm of the Spirit is that here there is nothing stagnant or monotonous. Immediately one is introduced into this glorious realm, there is ceaseless progression and activity. Then you are linked up with the infinite and eternal God, whose ways are past finding out, whose depths are unsearchable, and whose heights are unattainable. Therefore the Lord tells us there are many ABODES in Father's house, depending on the level of one's experience, and his spiritual attainment through faith and obedience. 'In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonour' (II Tim. 2:20). There is a resting-place, an abiding-place; but in God the true rest is found in the midst of outward strife and warfare: and the true ABIDING-PLACE is the one that is ceaselessly moving forward and upward into a closer and more vital union with the Father" -end quote.

The door into the invisible world of the Father's house is Jesus Himself. In the drinking of the cup of wine at the "last supper," Jesus told His disciples that He would effect the New Covenant, which promised that within the covenant all men would KNOW the Lord. Jesus, by making the New Covenant for man, would bring man into ultimate communion with the Father, dwelling in His house. This He would go and accomplish for them that night; and having accomplished it, He would return to them by the Spirit that they might share a common life. What a revelation! What a wonderful word this was! What different prospects were being held out from what the twelve had been expecting! Earthly ambitions of Kingdom honors were now on the wane, as wonderfully new and unthought of hopes came upon their horizon. At last the truth was dawning like the brilliant hues of the break of day within their breasts that in the Father's house ARE many mansions many dwelling places, many planes of life. On the earth there are many forms of life, beginning with the lowly shellfish on up to man, the king upon the earth. And the Bible tells us that all these are mere pictures of spiritual realities - celestial spheres of life in the eternal and heavenly Kingdom of God. Yes, there are many mansions or planes of reality. There is a house of many mansions - many levels of experience, many dimensions of truth, or a many-faceted wisdom of God. Each realm of truth we embrace and move into brings us higher and higher into the Kingdom of Reality. Each dimension we attain to brings us into a larger degree of KNOWING GOD. Those who truly "follow on" to "know the Lord" thus explore the "many mansions" - these blessed ones discover reality in every room and are still moving forward into UNLIMITED AND INFINITE TRUTH. Praise God! the many mansions are here and now accessible, and they are found IN HIM.

The following vision was received many years ago by a young sister in Argentina. If you can interpret it with a spiritual mind you will see that under the metaphor of "houses" the Holy Spirit has portrayed for us those bright celestial realms IN THE SPIRIT, composed not of cold hard stones, but of living realities possessed by living members of a living temple of living stones who are built up a spiritual house, an habitation of God through the Spirit. The vision is as follows: "The Lord set me free from the heavy oppressions of the enemy and I was enabled to enter into His presence most easily and quickly. Then He carried me away to the sphere where He resides in His great Cloud. When I looked He showed me a great many most wonderful houses but they were not at all like houses down here. They were like great, beautiful arches of light, each by itself distinctly separated one from the other. These treasures were for His people and there they would abide with Him. And indeed they were so beautiful they truly appeared like most wonderful riches for they were like glowing gems of purest celestial light of some material I could never explain.

"There was a marked difference between the houses on the different spheres. Those on the same sphere were more or less of the same appearance and were of a great number, but those on a higher sphere were vastly different and far more wonderful. The highest sphere of all was so gloriously brilliant that I could only behold in amazing wonder without being able to describe it. Each separate sphere was most markedly different, superior, harmonious and far more brilliant than the sphere below it. So great was their light and so glorious their shining that they outshone the sun by far. Nevertheless, I could not ascertain the number of spheres.

"These arches - or domes of light - were not things separate from Him but they were a PART OF HIMSELF. This was the most surprising of all. They were parts of His very person. Each separate sphere was made up of a part of Himself but was such a different manifestation of Himself. Each higher sphere was so much superior and wonderful than the one before. I thought afterwards of an illustration from my own mind to try to describe it: As though a young lady prepares herself in one way to work in the kitchen, in another way to go out to tea, but in still another way she beautifies herself to go out for an evening gala celebration. 'These are the riches of Myself,' He said, 'and are most distinct one from the other. I have offered every one of these dwellings in every sphere to every one of My children. Although I have given to every one the same opportunities, many will be satisfied and will resign themselves to lower spheres because they do not want any more of Me. Each one will reach the place that his heart truly desires which will be given to him. Because some do not want to make the effort to reach out for any more they will have no more for they do not want any more.'

"As He showed me the most glorious mansions on the highest sphere, He said, 'These will be given to those who have sought for Me alone, who have not sought for these riches but have sought to be with Me. Even though they have not sought for any of these I am going to give them as a gift because they greatly desired to be more and more at My side and to be with Me. Those who are conformists and do not want to make any more effort did not really desire to be with Me as much as they desired My blessings and My riches. They have loved Me and I have loved them and these dwelling places are for those who truly desired and sought for Me. This was their will and their desire and it shall be given unto them.' Then He further said that although it was their will it was also His will for them, that He had willed it to be so for them and therefore it was so. He had ordered it to be and therefore it was" -end quote.

God nowhere in the Bible holds up heaven as a hope for the future; but He does promise us "THE GLORY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST" (II Thes. 2:14). And all who are hoping for a mansion in heaven are, in their blindness, totally ignoring the jewels of great price and toying instead with an invention of ignorance, which can bring but disappointment and shame and loss at the end of the road. Of course they find statements in the Word which they use as proof for their delusions. So does every crack-pot cult and "ism" on earth. God wrote His Word in such a way that those who do not want to believe the truth can always find mistaken evidence to prove their ignorance. And the one popular obsession and pastime of even Christians today seems to be that of using scripture which they do not understand to contradict and make a lie of scripture which they can understand, but refuse to believe.

They say that heaven must be a place, because Christ is now preparing a place for His own. "I go to prepare a place for you." But has anyone ever found where the One who spoke those words called that place heaven? Let them search! Many eyes have searched for many centuries to find such. And it has not been found. Let Satan's simpletons show us just one statement even, in the Word, which says that Christ is building a mansion for us away up in heaven. Just one statement is all we need to make it true. But there is no such statement to be found in God's blessed Book.

The darkness of religious tradition has blinded the people of God, causing them to become spiritual illiterates, staggering in spiritual stupidities, totally unprepared for and unmindful of God's eternal purpose in His elect. Let us consider seven verses of scripture from the fourteenth chapter of John. To suit our purpose of emphasizing just what Jesus is REALLY saying, in contrast with what most people THINK He was saying, we shall paraphrase all seven verses in keeping with the popular teaching of the church systems. To hear the average Christian expounding the things of God, it would go something like this:

"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in hell, believe also in heaven. In heaven there are many mansions: you know I have told you this and described its beautiful golden streets many times. I am going to heaven to preprepare a mansion just over the hilltop for you, and if I go and build a mansion for you, I will come again and take you to heaven, that where I will then be you may be also. And you all know well that I am going to heaven, and you know the way to heaven. And Thomas saith unto Him, Lord, we didn't know you were going to heaven and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man shall ever get to heaven but by Me. If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also: but when you get to heaven you shall know Him and you shall see Him."

Strange as it may seem to those brainwashed by the errors of Babylon, the subject of the fourteenth chapter of John is NOT HEAVEN! Jesus rarely spoke of heaven in the traditional sense during His teaching ministry. For Jesus came, not as the revelation of a geographical or astral location, but as the revelation of a PERSON. And that Person is the FATHER. It is significant to note that the word "heaven" does not appear even once in this entire chapter, whereas the term "Father" appears TWENTY-THREE TIMES! I stand in amazement and wonder at the incredible blindness of the carnal mind and how it twists the pure Word of God into grotesque forms of spiritual nonsense. Jesus did not say, "In heaven there are many mansions," rather, "In My FATHER'S HOUSE there are many abiding places." Jesus did not say, "I am going to heaven to build you a mansion." He said, "I GO to prepare a PLACE for you." Jesus never said, "I will come again and take you to heaven." What He said was, "I will come again and receive you UNTO MYSELF." Jesus never said, "I am the way to heaven." He said, "I am the way... no man cometh UNTO THE FATHER but by Me." Jesus was not talking about a "place" in "heaven." He was talking about a PLACE IN THE FATHER, and in the FATHER'S HOUSE. "Believe Me that I AM IN THE FATHER, and the FATHER IS IN ME...at that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and YE IN ME, and I in you" (Jn. 14:11,20). Can we not understand by this that the key word in John chapter fourteen is "Father" and not "heaven"!

Let us now proceed to examine the profound truth that Jesus the SON is unfolding to those who are called unto sonship in this significant portion of scripture. As a preface to His teaching He says, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me." Christ here identifies Himself with God. Christ is setting forth the great revelation of His sonship to the Father, opening to the minds of these wondering disciples a relationsnip with God that no man had ever understood before. This revelation of sonship was the truth that was so difficult for the Jews to receive. They reasoned that if Jesus was the Son of God, that then made Him ONE with God, EQUAL with God - GOD!

Their carnal hearts comprehended not that GOD WAS IN CHRIST, that Jesus was in very fact the embodiment and personalization of the Father, and that it pleased the Father that in Him should ALL FULLNESS dwell. It is a blessed and wonderful truth that all that the Father is was deposited in Jesus. The body of Jesus housed the Father-Spirit. When Jesus moved, it was the Father moving in Him. "The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, HE doeth the works" (Jn. 14: 10). When He spoke it was the Father speaking. When He looked, it was the Father looking through Him. When He stretched forth His hand, it was the Father stretching His hand. This, precious friend of mine, is the glorious "place" where Jesus dwelt, this was His plane of existence, His sphere of life, His state of being. When Jesus walked on earth He was the only body-building of God, but one beautiful day He thrust wide the door into that exalted realm and proclaimed that in His Father's house are MANY MANSIONS and that He would go to the Father and prepare A PLACE FOR US. Since Jesus dwelt in a spiritual realm of relationship with the Father, we know that the place prepared for us is a spiritual rather than a natural sphere. It is a heavenly realm. It is the realm of the Father's indwelling. It is a place in Father's house. It is not only a place prepared FOR us, but a place prepared IN us. What has Christ prepared in you? A place where there is perfect peace. "In the world ye shall have tribulation... IN ME ye have PEACE" (Jn. 16:33). What has Christ cultivated in your spirit? A place where there is fullness of joy and righteousness. What has He enjoined you to have? Longsuffering, meekness, gentleness, temperance. What is Christ preparing in you? Goodness, faith, and divine love. What has Christ brought you into? He has ushered us into dimensions of His wisdom, knowledge, power and glory. What a PLACE He has prepared for us!

Evelyn Isaacs wrote, "There are those who are not of this world. They tread the path no vulture's eye has seen, above this mundane sphere, seated in heavenly places with Christ. God has actually lifted a body of people out of this earthly sphere. How suddenly we were awakened to His exaltation and to the revelation of His person within. The light of God's day broke through the prison cell of flesh and we see our way about through an inner illumination. The traveling has seemed a little rough as we have gone from one world of understanding to another, but now we are becoming satisfied with a new satisfaction that we no longer live in this changing world of confusion and revolution. We are so aware that we have been translated out of these passing kingdoms which totter and fall, into the one Kingdom which is eternally secure and cannot be moved: the Kingdom of God's dear Son. Who could want a more beautiful mansion than that one eternally in the heavens of a redeemed mind and state of being? Man says when he dies he will go to heaven and live in a mansion. Why not die to self now and move into a spiritual mansion here in this present world? We can be caught up in perfection in a quickened body, in a new way of life. Entering the Kingdom of God is coming into God's realm" -end quote.

Having ascertained that the Father's house is a spiritual temple, we can easily understand the meaning of there being many mansions, or rooms, or chambers, as we look at the beautiful type of Solomon's magnificent temple. "And against the wall of the house (temple) he built chambers round about, against the walls of the house round about, both of the temple and the oracle: and he made chambers round about: and the nethermost chamber was five cubits broad, and the middle was six cubits broad. The door for the middle chamber was in the right side of the house: and they went up with winding stairs in to the middle chamber, and out of the middle into the third. And then he built chambers against all the house five cubits high: and they rested on the house with timber of cedar" (I Kings 6:5-10).

In turning to Jer. 35:2, we read this: "Speak unto them, and bring them into the house of the Lord, INTO ONE OF THE CHAMBERS." In the fourth verse of the same chapter, we notice that different chambers were for persons of different rank. Hanan, a man of God, had his chamber or room "By the chamber of the princes...which was above the chamber of... the keeper of the door." The various chambers or "mansions" corresponded to the ranks of the persons residing in them. Each room of the temple - a type of the Father's house - not only designated the RESIDENCE of each official, but also indicated his POSITION OR OFFICE, whether he was a doorkeeper or prince.

Ah - there are many mansions in God's house, many spiritual levels with various elevations and degrees of prestige and honor, and each of us must find his own. "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead" (I Cor. 15:41-42). The Father's house contains many positions, many glories. Some saints have tried to seize some coveted position as did the mother of James and John on behalf of her two sons, who came to Jesus, "worshipping, and desiring a certain thing of Him. And He said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto Him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on Thy right hand, and the other on the left, in Thy Kingdom" (Mat. 20:20-21). Jesus did not deny that these positions existed, but He did say, "to sit on My right hand, and on My left, is not mine to give, BUT IT SHALL BE GIVEN TO THEM FOR WHOM IT IS PREPARED OF MY FATHER" (Mat. 20:23).

Some desire the position so much that they appoint themselves and claim to be this or that great one, Elijah, the two witnesses, the seventh angel, or an already manifested son; but there are no self-appointed positions in the Kingdom of God. This is a place prepared for a prepared people, and THE SON DOES THE PREPARING. "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit He taketh away, and every branch that bringeth forth fruit He purgeth (pruneth) it, that it may bring forth more fruit" (Jn. 15:2). The Spirit of God, through the Word, thus testifies or witnesses to us the rule of our heavenly Father's dealing with His sons - chastisements, pruning, taking away of the dross, and a development of life. Our all-wise heavenly Father is preparing a glorious spiritual temple, in and through which the world of mankind is to have the privilege of coming to reconciliation with Himself. We see in the scriptures the great Architect's ideal in respect to this temple - that the ideal of the whole was represented in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, its chief cornerstone, and "top-stone," "laid in heaven." We can see the better what is required of all those who will be acceptable to God as the "living stones" of that temple - to be builded together with Christ the Head, for an habitation of God through the Spirit. And in the light of His glory we discern our own roughness by nature, our inharmony with the graceful lines of the temple, delineated in its "top-stone." We can readily discern that much chiseling and much polishing are absolutely necessary to us, if we would be fitted and prepared for the place in this temple to which, through the grace of God, we are called and chosen. And hence those who find that they are not receiving the blows from the Lord's hammer and chisel, lack this "witness" which the Spirit of God testifies must come to all living stones of His temple: and which even the grand top-stone did not escape. If the Spirit of God does not mark out for us a NARROW WAY with a certain amount of difficulty and adversity, with dealings and processings - if we are simply permitted to rest without trials and testings, super abounding in health, wealth, and blessing, then we may know of a surety that God is not dealing with us as with stones in His temple, because we lack the "witness" of our acceptance and preparation. But if we have this "witness" of chiselings, polishings, prunings, disciplines, chastisements, let us take them patiently, joyfully, appreciatively, as evidences of our Father's love essential to our attainment to our high-calling, knowing that we are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ our Lord, IF SO BE THAT WE SUFFER WITH HIM, that we may be also glorified together (Rom. 8:17). We are His workmanship, and the clay does not say to the Potter, What makest Thou? but yields for the outworking of His will.

We do not vie and compete for positions in Father's house, but we rejoice that there is a room for each one. "In My Father's house are M-A-N-Y  M-A-N-S-I-O-N-S." Note its ample room! This spiritual house is the reality of which the earthly temple was intended to be the dim prophecy and shadow. A chamber in the great temple waits for each of us, and the question is, Shall we occupy it, or shall we not? The old rabbis had a tradition which, like a great many of their apparently foolish sayings, covers in picturesque guise a very deep truth. They said that, how ever many the throngs of worshippers who came up to Jerusalem at the time of the Feasts, the streets of the city and the courts of the sanctuary were never crowded. And so it is with that great heavenly temple. There is room for all! There are throngs, a great multitude that no man can number, but no crowds. Each finds a place in the ample sweep of the Father's house, like some of the great palaces that barbaric Eastern kings used to build, in whose courts armies might encamp, and the chambers of which were counted by the thousand. And surely in that ample accommodation, you and I and ALL MANKIND shall find a place where we may lodge for evermore.

When God sent forth His Son, Jesus Christ was the projection of the Father, and everything we see revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ is to make known to us the Father, that we might truly come to know Him, and be made partakers of His wonderful nature, character and purpose. Furthermore, the Son must reign - and reign He shall, until everything is subdued, and then "He shall deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father... that God may be all in all" (I Cor. 15:24,28). And God shall not be ALL IN ALL until everything and everyone has been brought back to the Father. And it is IN HIM that we shall find our dwelling place - the secret place of the Most High, under the shadow of the Almighty, our heavenly Father!

So, my dear friends, if you are looking for a mansion over the hilltop or a cabin in the corner of gloryland you are going to be disappointed. Christ has prepared a place for us alright - a place IN HIM - which is far more glorious and exciting than some tangible, carnal possession. He has raised us up to sit with Him, and in Him, in the higher than all heavens. The place He has been preparing for each one of us is not only a world to come, or a heaven somewhere, but a position, a place of eminence, a place of glory IN HIM - thereto reveal all the magnificence of the INDWELLING FATHER to all the endlessness of the unbounded heavens!

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