The Daily Word of Righteousness

Filled With the Fullness, #7

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. (Isaiah 43:2—NIV)

This "cloud of unknowing," against which you beat in frustration, will one day pass. You will come forth from the fire a new person, only your bondages having been destroyed. The process is that of coming to know God; also of God moving from the outside to the inside of your personality.

The outcome is the spiritual fulfillment of the Jewish feast of Tabernacles. You no longer are playing volleyball with God: "I will do this if You will do that." You now are on the same side of the net. God has become your strength, your joy, your peace, your love, your salvation.

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live."

It is to this coming that the Lord was referring when He said: "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."

The New International Version by its choice of words, in the above verse, suggests Jesus meant He was going to Heaven and then would return to take us back to Heaven with Himself.

This is not what it means. It means Jesus went to the cross to prepare a place for us in Himself in God, and that He will return again in the Spirit to take us to His own Person that we may be with Him in the Center of the Person of the Father where He also dwells.

The same thought is expressed as follows:

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. (Revelation 3:20,21—NIV)

Such is the path to the fullness of God, to the very Throne of God.

And notice:

Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. (John 14:19—NIV)

We shall live because He lives. We shall live by His Life. We shall live because we have been filled with all the fullness of God. The world will not witness this coming. It is a coming in the Spirit to the faithful saints in preparation for their appearing with Him in the clouds of glory for all the world to see. His and their appearing in the clouds is the revealing of the sons of God, of which Paul spoke.

On that day you will realize I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (John 14:20—NIV)

"That day" is the Day of the Lord, the day when all flesh is cast down and the Lord alone is exalted. We must come to grasp this exalting of the Lord as part of our being filled with all the fullness of God.

To be continued.