Place

““Let not your heart be troubled; you 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 to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”
‭‭John‬ ‭14‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Place

One thing that gives me peace in these perilous times is the reality and glory of that which lies before me, cannot compare to what is coming. Wearing this withering meat suit is a daily trial, filled with great struggle, but I rejoice in that one day, hopefully soon, I will put off the mortal for the immortal, to occupy a new place.

I also look further on, to the place that the Lord is preparing for me, and for all those who call upon the name of Christ, who have been born again. That place will be glorious, immense, and illuminated by the Father and the Son, as the God comes to earth to tabernacle with humanity, as was intended when He created Adam.

“Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.”
Revelation 21:9-11 NKJV

I tell you the truth, my mind is frequently consumed thinking about the eternal life that we will have in that great city, on a new earth, but even as I try to focus, I am overwhelmed, for what is to come is beyond my comprehension.

Followers of Jesus have the promise of eternity with the Lord, where He is, in a place prepared by Jesus, in a place established for His saints. Because of this, there is great confidence, eternal hope, and an increasing desire for that time soon to come.

In the meantime, we are here on this earth, commissioned to do the work of sharing the good news of the Gospel, telling others of this God/Man who came to earth, leaving the place He had with the Father to make the sacrifice that would reunite His fallen creation with Himself. Before His leaving, He provided us the world that we must do.

“And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.”
Matthew 28:18-20 NKJV

Those who are filled with the Spirit are not robots, slavishly committed to fulfilling the will of God, but we retain our own will, based on the level of surrender to our God. As Jesus is preparing a place for us in the coming New Jerusalem, we are given the sanctifying task of making a place for Him in our lives.

You see, we are also preparing a place, for justified by the work of God through grace alone, we work out our further salvation, our sanctification, through deliberate effort, as we seek to put aside the things that feed our flesh, that we leave room for Jesus. This involves putting death those things in us that take up room better used by God.

“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.”
Colossians 3:1-7 NKJV

Brothers and sisters, each of us, those who have been forgiven, born again, and filled with the Holy Spirit, have ourselves become a place a temple where the Lord dwells. God has not entered in as a rogue invader, but as a gentle persuader, offering spiritual guidance to the Christian.

Each of us has invited Him in to dwell in us, to change us, to prepare us for the holy habitation to come that will be beyond glorious. Because of what Jesus has promised, let us give our Lord free access, asking Him, the Holy Spirit, to examine us through His word, that He reveal to us the sins that take up space, thus diminishing the glory He desires to shine in us.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.”
Psalms 139:23-24 NKJV

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”
Hebrews 4:12-13 NKJV

The Lord does not leave us thinking wistfully of what He will provide, but He has given us a foretaste of glory divine. Through our obedience and surrender, those who are in Christ Jesus can know that peace, that rest that comes only from the Lord.

The coming days, weeks and months will be very troubling, and many of us will be tempted to seek out solutions that are not of God, thus bringing much clutter into the place that is our heart. But we must resist the temptation, for even as the darkness threatens to envelope us, we must look forward to that place that the Lord is creating, for the destruction of this world is making room for the glorious eternal kingdom to come.

May we be reminded that this reality in which we now live is but hell for those who know the Lord. Your best day is the worst, when compared to the glory to come. Let us keep that in mind as we prepare that place in us for the Lord, in preparation for the place that is being prepared for us by Jesus.

“But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light. And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”
Revelation 21:22-27 NKJV

Have a blessed Friday! Sunday’s coming!

#prayforrevival

#prayfortheharvest

#prayforthepersecuted

#prayforthepeaceofIsrael

#praythatthegospelspreadeverywhere

https://www.allaboutgod.com/the-roman-road.htm