The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Church Within the Churches, #14

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. (John 14:3—NIV)

The above verse is not speaking of going to Heaven but of becoming part of Christ.

When we read a verse like John 14:3 (above) and suppose it is speaking of going to Heaven, we are not yet part of the Church, only a member of the Christian religion.

"Take you to be with me." "Be with me where I am."

Can you hear it? Can you hear what is being said?

One can be a member of the Christian religion for his or her entire lifetime and never really know the Lord.

The great High Priest of God is moving among the lampstands today. He is looking for those who will open their heart to Him, with whom He can dine in peace and joy.

We dine on His body and blood for this is how we become an integral part of Him. He dines on our love, worship, and obedience. This is what it means to be a true saint, a member of the Wife of the Lamb. All the trappings of the Christian religion are as scaffolding. It is our oneness with Jesus Christ that is the building.

We do not comprehend the magnitude or intensity of the love that Christ bears for us or what marriage to Him involves for Him or for us. It is an eternal union. After the thousand-year Kingdom Age has ended, and the universe to which we are accustomed has disappeared, there will appear a new heaven and a new earth. The Lamb's love for His Wife then will be dawning in the fullness of its splendor. When we come to the end of eternity, that will be just the beginning of our righteousness, love, joy, peace, and gladness of heart.

Today we are struggling in the dark womb of flesh-and-blood life on the earth. We shall spend our spiritual childhood and adolescence with the Lord during the thousand-year Kingdom Age. But our true life will begin when the new heaven and earth appear. Then the former things will be forgotten.

Our present "life" is but the threshold of true life. Yet the seemingly insignificant decisions we are making each day are determining our eternal destiny in the true world that is to come in the future.

The Lamb is receiving us into His Personality. This embrace will change what He is forever. We are being created an integral part of His Personality. This union changes what we are forever. The marriage of the Lamb is the adding to Him of a complement to His Being. It is an event of such extreme importance that everything else in the universe derives its significance, purpose, and direction from the uniting of the Lamb with His Bride.

The Holy City, which is the Lamb's Wife, the true Church, will be the center of the universe and will govern the creation of God forever—ages without end.

My lover spoke and said to me, "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me. See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me." (Song of Solomon 2:10-13—NIV) (from The Church Within the Churches)