The Daily Word of Righteousness

Seven Steps to the Rest of God, #31

Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? (Acts 7:49)

God was on the earth in the beginning. God did not call to Adam from Heaven but from the garden where He was walking.

Because of the rebellion of Adam and Eve, God's Presence withdrew from the earth, leaving all nature in a state of corruption and death.

It is not God's intention to remain in the spirit realm as an invisible Spirit while His children in the earth grope blindly for the light and worship demons. It is God's desire to live in the earth among His creatures and this is why He is building a house for Himself.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the chief Cornerstone of the House of God. God appeared in the world in His House, that is, in the chief Cornerstone of His House. No longer was God invisible, unapproachable to men. God was here among us. This was a foretaste of the day when God will come to live with us forever.

The Lord Jesus is not to be the only living stone in the Temple of God. A number of other living stones are being cut and polished. One day the structure will be finished. Then God and Christ will enter the completed temple in Their Fullness and the Temple of God will come from the spirit realm and be revealed in the physical realm. This is the coming to earth of the Kingdom of God, the new Jerusalem, the Wife of the Lamb.

Jesus was referring to the Temple of God when He said, "In my Father's house are many mansions (dwelling places)." If there were not to be more dwelling places in God's House, the Lord Jesus would have set up His Kingdom at that time; for the main purpose of the subsequent two thousand years has been the creation of additional rooms in the House of God. It is God's House primarily, God's rest, not ours, that is being constructed.

Jesus went to prepare a "place" for us. The Lord Jesus went to the cross, He descended into Hades. After that He took back His body from the cave of Joseph of Arimathea. Forty days later He ascended into Heaven to make intercession for us. He also sprinkled His blood upon and before the Mercy Seat in Heaven. In addition He sent down to earth the Holy Spirit. All Christ's actions are with the end in view of preparing a place in which God can find rest in us and we can find rest in God.

Through the many workings of redemption the Lord Jesus prepares a place for us in Himself and a place for us in our own personality. Apart from the Lord Jesus we are not able to dwell correctly even in our own personality. Apart from the Lord we soon destroy our own body and soul.

For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: (Hebrews 9:24)

To be continued.