'The House of God'

We know the purpose of the gifts and ministries given by the Spirit of God are for the purpose of building every member of the Body of Christ to maturity as measured by the stature of the fullness of Christ. We know such maturity is accomplished as our adamic nature is crucified and Christ is formed in us.

We understand these things are true. But what purpose is served by having Christ brought to fullness in us? The purpose is to create a house, a resting place, for the Father and Christ.

"What house will you build Me? What is the place of My rest?" In this question we find the central purpose for the creating of man as a race distinct from the other creatures of God.

God needs a house, a place of rest for Himself. Only Jesus Christ meets the specifications for the eternal house of God. Therefore God dwells in His fullness in Christ.

But in God's House there is not just the chief Cornerstone there are many places of abode for God, many living stones. The Body of Christ, the fullness of Christ, is composed of these numerous places of abode. This is the mystery of the Gospel—Christ in us, the hope of the Glory that will be revealed when we all have been brought to the unity of the faith, to maturity as measured by the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Are you with me thus far? Isn't God's plan stupendous?

As far as I know, the first indication of God's intention appeared soon after the Jews left Egypt. You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance—the place, O LORD, you made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, O Lord, your hands established. (Exodus 15:17—NIV) "The place, O LORD, you made for your dwelling."

Think about this. We are speaking of a dwelling place for God.

When the Lord Jesus spoke of many rooms in the Father's house we, being self-centered, began to plan on going to a mansion in Paradise. The emphasis is not on a mansion for us, the emphasis is on the Father's house. This is what is important.

The Lord Jesus returns to us in the Spirit and brings us to where He is in the Father. Jesus is the way to the Father. We need to get more concerned about the Father's need for a house and place of rest than we are about having a mansion and a backyard full of diamonds. Do you agree?

The place You made for Your dwelling. This is what is important.

A little further in Exodus we find these words:

"Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them." (Exodus 25:8—NIV)

For whom was the Tabernacle of the Congregation prepared? For God!

Then in the twenty-third chapter of the Book of Leviticus we find seven feasts of the Lord. The fourth feast, as we have said, is Pentecost. The last and greatest of the feasts is that of Tabernacles, or Booths. What this tells us is that the program of salvation will proceed past Pentecost until a house, a booth, has been prepared for the Lord.

This is where we are today. God is ready to move past Pentecost.

The following passage reveals that the purpose of the gifts and ministries of the Body of Christ is to prepare a house for God, a place of rest for Him.

When you ascended on high, you led captives in your train; you received gifts from men, even from the rebellious— that you, O LORD God, might dwell there. (Psalms 68:17—NIV)

You may recognize that Paul quoted this passage in the fourth chapter of the Book of Ephesians, referring to the ministries and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

We easily can infer from this that the purpose of the ministries and gifts of the Holy Spirit is to build the Body of Christ to maturity so the Lord God may have a dwelling place. Then the grand pronouncement was made:

This is what the LORD says: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?" (Isaiah 66:1—NIV)

When the Father's house is mentioned, in John 14:2, people assume Heaven is meant. But Heaven is not the Father's house. Heaven is the throne of God. A need for a house, a resting place, remains. The same question is asked at the time of the murder of Stephen.

Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? (Acts 7:49—NIV)

Since the Sanhedrin viewed Herod's Temple as God's house, this was an irritating question. Yet the question of God's house, His resting place, is central to the entire Divine operation from the beginning of the world.

Now notice carefully, referring to the one new Man—Jews and Gentiles made one in Christ: Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:20-22—NIV)

The "whole building" mentioned above is the "Father's house" mentioned by the Lord Jesus in John 14:2. In the last two chapters of the Book of Revelation we see the Church, the eternal House of God, the Tabernacle of God, descending through the new sky to rest forever on a high mountain of the new earth. The throne of God and of the Lamb are in it. This is the Wife of the Lamb, the new Jerusalem, the holy city.

The new Jerusalem will dwell among the saved nations of the earth. Through the saints who compose the new Jerusalem God will wipe away the tears of saved mankind. This has been God's plan from the beginning and is the reason for the creation of the Church, the royal priesthood.

Back to The Mystery of the Gospel