Book 3 of Musings The Father’s House

The Father's House is the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are living stones in that House. It is God's will that each member of the Body of Christ be filled with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John, the Lord told us the Holy Spirit of God would be with us and in us forever. This is the beginning of our experience as a living stone in the eternal House of God.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever- The Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. (John 14:16-17)

If we will cooperate with the indwelling Holy Spirit, He will enable us to keep the commandments of the Lord. Then a further work will take place. The Father and the Son will come and make their eternal abode in us.

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)

I know some will say if we are saved we have the Holy Spirit, and if we have the Holy Spirit we have the Father and the Son, because They all are One.

I think this is true. If we are genuinely saved we have the Holy Spirit; we have the Son; and we have the Father.

However, those of us who have been saved for a period of time, and after that have spoken in tongues, know there is a difference between those who speak in tongues and those who do not.

Today the Pentecostal churches are so dead, in many instances, that you cannot tell the difference between the Pentecostal churches and the Evangelical churches. But it used to be, during the first half of the twentieth century, that when you went into a Pentecostal church you felt the fire of God-quite a different environment than was true of most Evangelical churches at that time. Maybe a hundred and fifty years ago the Evangelical churches had that same fire. I don't know.

I wonder what has happened to the Pentecostal fire. Today you go into a Pentecostal church and they are talking about strategizing, or marketing, or computer analysis, or some other technique to save the world. What happened to the fire we knew in the old days? I think we are leaning on the arm of flesh, to tell you the truth.

In the old days you could go into an Evangelical church filled with people who were truly saved, and then into a Pentecostal church filled with people who also were truly saved, and you would notice the difference immediately-particularly in the area of worship. There was a freedom of worship in the Pentecostal churches that was not true in many of the Evangelical churches.

We know the Evangelicals were saved through the work of the Holy Spirit. We can reason all we want to and say that the Evangelicals already had the Holy Spirit although they did not speak in tongues. But those who at one time were familiar with the typical Evangelical church, and then went into a Pentecostal church and experienced speaking in tongues, realize there is a difference.

Now we are up against the same argument. The believers will say, "We already are saved and have the Holy Spirit living in us. Therefore the Father and the Son are living in us, because the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are One.

Well, we can reason all we want to. But those who are pressing forward into the third great work of grace, as symbolized by the feasts of the Lord and the Tabernacle of the Congregation, know we are coming into something greater than what we experienced in initial salvation and in speaking in tongues.

Just prior to being filled with the Father and the Son we must go through a time of judgment and cleansing. It is as though God is angry with us. I do not know if all believers are judged with the same severity. My own experience was just about all I could stand. But the Lord brought me through.

This is one way you can tell whether a church is at the Pentecostal level or if it is pressing through to the Tabernacles experience. If the church is pressing through to the Tabernacles experience there is a realization God, who has covered our sins in time past, is now uncovering them and helping us confess and turn away from them.

This judgment and moral deliverance is an actual experience, just as is true of being born again or speaking in tongues. You have to try it to see how real it actually is.

After God has sifted us, exposing the worldliness, lust, and self-will that are in us, there comes a greater sense of God's Presence. We know now that we are on our way to being filled with all the fullness of God.

It was for this purpose that we were saved in the first place. God is seeking a dwelling place for Himself, a dwelling in which He can find rest and through which He can communicate with His creatures.

If you have been saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, I encourage you to press forward in God. The great types of the Old Testament show us that there are three great works of grace: salvation, the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and the Tabernacles level.

It is a good thing there are three and not two works of grace. We know the Bride of the Lamb will be without spot or wrinkle. Assuredly this is not true today. The Pentecostal and other churches are filled with every work of the sinful nature, including slander, lust, and covetousness. If we were left at this level of redemption we would not be able to stand in the Presence of the Lord.

But we have come now to the third great work, the coming of Christ and the Father to make Their eternal home in us. This third work will enable us to stand victoriously in the age of moral horrors on the horizon.

Truly, the Lord has kept the best wine until now.

And to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:19)