Gospel Encounter 19
YOUR PREPARED PLACED . . . WHERE IS IT?
John 14:1-4. (K.J.V.) (1) Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. (2) In my Father’s house ( His Temple = us) are many mansions (Gk.= dwelling places) : if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (3) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am (I am in the Father and the Father is in Me), there ye may be also. (4) And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
(6) Jesus said . . .I am the way, the truth and the life . . . no man comes (not ‘goes’ — for He was already there!) to the Father but by Me.
‘Unto’ (v.3) . . . Gk. PROS4315 = towards . . . towards where Jesus Christ is . . . in Father’s throne.
BELIEVE . . . BELIEVE . . . This is the work of God that you BELIEVE . . . (John 6:29)
In Father’s house (us) He has many dwelling places or levels of growth and development . . . Jesus went and prepared a special place for us different to those previously given levels.
When did He do it?
When He died and was buried . . . resurrected and ASCENDED into Father’s throne . . . the place of ruling being the highest vantage point of seeing God and what He has planned.
We are in Christ Jesus . . . in that PREPARED PLACE (Ephesians 2:6). It became ours’ when Father raised Him (with us) up into Himself. Then He came again from that place . . . this Spirit-God came to His body for a spirit must have a body to be expressed through.
So, NOW (in the Spirit) do you KNOW where you are? . . . seated where? In Him in Father’s throne.
Praise the Lord . . . what a provision! “Keep looking down!” Amen.
He said it would all take place “In a little while”
John 16:16 “A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.”
Jesus was SPIRIT in a body. One cannot see a spirit unless he is in a body.
John 4:24 “God is Spirit . . .” There is ONE God and He is Spirit.
1 Cor 6:17 “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit”.
Jesus had to be thus to be one with His Father. John 10:30 “I and my Father are one”.
John 14:9 “Jesus said unto him, . . . he that has seen me has seen the Father . . .”
IN A LITTLE WHILE in our opening verse . . . the two “little while’s” are the same and therefore close in time. NOT one of them being different to the extent of 2000 years plus from the other. . . not one ‘little while’ and one ‘big while’! Jesus left the earthly scene. When did that happen?
HE WENT: On the cross He yielded up His Spirit to the Father. After three days and three nights God raised Him from the dead and gave Him a resurrected body. Then came His ascension where He went into the unseen realm of spirit. . . back into God Himself . . . into that One Spirit.
HE CAME: When did He — this SPIRIT — come back? Answer: When the disciples were born again in John 20:22 (according to Romans 10:9 . . . and it was after the resurrection), He came into His Body and at Pentecost and came upon His Body . . . this time His Body was corporate. . . to release Himself from within each so that He could be all in all.
The Spirit of God left and the Spirit of God came.
The “little while” is over and completed . . . some 2000 years ago! HE’s HERE! . . . being developed and growing- up in each one of us. He will yet come forth in all His fullness in His Body. The unenlightened will say then that He has come! . . . but we know that He has been here all along! §