The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Inner and Outer Kingdom of God, #21

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23)

The coming of the Father and Christ to dwell in the transformed saint.

The new creation is Christ formed in us. It is the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). It is the Father's eternal dwelling place. It is the new Jerusalem, the Kingdom of God, the place where God's will is performed.

When our personality has made the transition from Adam to Christ, the Father and Christ will enter us and make Their abode with us.

The entering of God and Christ into the firstfruits of the Church will take place, we believe, just prior to the return to earth of Christ. We think that one of the purposes of the great tribulation is to perfect that part of the firstfruits that will be on the earth when the Lord returns, for they will pass into immortality while still physically alive. This will not have been the case with the other members of the Body of Christ. Truly, many who are last in time will be first in the Kingdom of God.

When we discuss the entering of the Father and the Son into the Church we are not implying that Christ is not now in the heart of every true Christian or that God or His Spirit are not in us. We believe that the Spirit of Christ dwells in every true saint but that a much fuller indwelling is at hand and will reach maturity toward the end of the tribulation period.

We think that the entering of the Father and the Lord Jesus through the Spirit into the firstfruits of the Church will be the necessary forerunner of the appearing of the Lord in the clouds of heaven.

And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. (Revelation 11:11)

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: (I Thessalonians 4:16)

The Lord will enter His saints in supreme revelation at the time of earth's darkest hour, and then call up His radiant warriors to Himself as a great light filling the heavens and the earth.

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. (Isaiah 60:1,2)

For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. (Matthew 24:27)

Then the Lord will descend with His glorified saints to the Mount of Olives.

And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, . . . . (Zechariah 14:4)

The Lord Jesus is coming to us now in the spiritual fulfillment of the Blowing of Trumpets. The Lord cleanses our temple in the spiritual fulfillment of the Day of Atonement. Then the Father and His Christ through the Spirit enter us and make Their abode in us in fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles. This is the Kingdom of God, and it is in us.

To be continued.