In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.” John 14:2.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Today we continue considering what Jesus repeated twice the night of the Passover supper when Judas betrayed Jesus and handed Him over, Jesus told you that “these things” He had spoken to you were said by Him so that you could have His joy made full in you.
First, in His teaching on the Vine and the branches, He stated:
These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. John 15:11.
And second in His prayer to Me that the Holy Spirit has revealed to you:
But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. . . I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word.” John 17:13-14;20.
So the question we are considering is what are “these things” to which He is referring. And I am showing you what they are by bringing before you the things recorded that He said that night leading up to those statements. And that would be chapters 13, 14, 15, and 16 of John’s Gospel, supplemented by the things you find in Matthew, Mark, and Luke spoken at that meal the same night. Yesterday we went through the beauty of believing in Me and My Son so that you will never let your heart be troubled by the trials and tribulations of this world caused by the evil of sin. So now we will go forward to the His next words that are for all the generations to the present day.
We will begin again with one sentence that opens a rich treasure vein of who you are now and forever, it has to do with whom you abide and who abides in you.
“In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.” John 14:2.
Many dwelling places making up My house, one house, a Kingdom that is vast and peaceful filled with righteousness, peace and joy IN THE HOLY SPIRIT.
The word used for “dwelling places” in the Greek language of the New Testament is the word “monē (μονή), monḗ is from the word ménō, which means “to remain, abide,” and mone means an abiding dwelling-place that is not transitory. It denotes an individual dwelling and can be a room, a mansion, a dwelling place, an abode.
Shortly after the statement quoted above Jesus uses the same word in the verb form from which it derives,“meno,” and applies it to your life now, the life of those who believe in Jesus, love Him, and keep My Word.
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides (meno) with you and will be in you.” John 14:15-17.
The Holy Spirit abiding in you and you in Him. Your wonderful teacher, counselor, guide, leader, advocate, revealer of mysteries, prayer partner, and witness. By the gift of the Holy Spirit I pour My love into your heart.
And then Jesus uses the noun form of “mone” again shortly after that:
Jesus answered him, saying, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling (monē) place with him.” John 14:23.
Do you see? The word “mone” denotes both a prepared place for you in My, your Father’s, house as well as My present habitation within each believer, embracing both your citizenship and seat with and in Christ in Heaven and your role as My ambassador, witness, royal priesthood, and member of the body of Christ on earth, giving you current fellowship with and continual access to Me in the Spirit in your born-again spirit. Jesus and I pledge to reside within the obedient disciple, marking an intimate, ongoing communion mediated by the Spirit. John 14:16-17. This fulfills My promise to My prophet Jeremiah that I would make a New Covenant with you where all would know Me personally from the least to the greatest.
“Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” Jeremiah 31:31-34.
And everyone who joins with Jesus becomes a part of that New and everlasting Covenant—gentile, Jew, male, female, slave, free, for all become one family with Me, given My Name, in Jesus. For as Peter learned when I sent him to preach the good news to the Roman centurion Cornelius who was seeking to know Me, “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.” Acts 10:34-35.
And Paul, by revelation of the Holy Spirit explained to you the mystery of
Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands— remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. Ephesians 2:11-22.
The mystery of the gentiles and the Jews becoming one new man in Christ by the mystery of Christ in you, your hope of glory.
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Ephesians 3:1-12.
And My Spirit through the writings of the apostle Paul takes you further:
“Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16.
This time the world used for “dwell” is the verb oikeó (οἰκέω), which means to dwell, inhabit, live. It is from oikos, meaning a residence, a family home, household, dwelling where you cohabit, dwell.
But not seeing it in Greek you do not recognize that word as the same one Jesus used when He said: “In My Father’s house.” The word He used for “house” was the noun oikia (οἰκία), which is also from oikos, meaning a residence, a family home, household, dwelling where a family lives together as one.
So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. Galatians 6:10.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. Ephesians 3:14.-15.
A household of faith, one in Me, you dwell in Me in Jesus and I dwell in you in Jesus. You have security in our secret place and it is permanent,“imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for you.” 1 Peter 1:4. One in fellowship so that you are with Me forever. 1 Thessalonians 4:17. I will welcome you into heavenly places but even now I reside within you by My Spirit, who “abides with you and will be in you,” John 14:17, which springs from love and obedience, making you My sanctuary, anticipating the consummation when “the dwelling place of God is with man,” uniting present sanctification with future glorification. John 14:21-24.
Revelation 21:3.
The tabernacle (Exodus 25:8), the temple (1 Kings 8:27-30), and Zion as My dwelling place (Psalm 132:13-14) prefigure the abiding presence promised by Jesus at the Last Supper. Yet the New Covenant surpasses these types, relocating My dwelling from a structure to you who follow Jesus.1 Corinthians 3:16.
You know what this should all mean to you? NOTHING can separate you from My love. Sin cannot, death cannot, the devil cannot, other people cannot, My love is there for you as manifested in Jesus, My gift to you who pays the judgment against you and satisfies your sentence of eternal death so that you may come with confidence to My throne of grace and RECEIVE mercy and FIND grace just when you need it. He became sin for you and gave you My righteousness. Your sins are not just forgiven but gone. We are one by the blood, the water, and the Spirit. It is not about forcing Me to do something but receiving what I have done. It is the matter of giving and receiving. Grace makes it and faith takes it. Just open your heart and receive the unfathomable riches of Christ.
But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37-39.
I love you and that will never change. Each one of you who believe is My dwelling place and I am your dwelling place. I have made a Kingdom for you where each of you is a dwelling place together in My dwelling place, the household of faith.
How lovely are Your dwelling places, O LORD of hosts! Psalm 84:1.