119. God’s Home with us
John 14:23b We will come unto him and make our abode with him.
By His death and resurrection Jesus has prepared a place for us; that place is in us, in our spirit. The “abode” is a home, a semi-permanent dwelling, more than a tent and less than a solid brick building. The Father and the Son (“we”) come to the believer and make a home there. Technically, the promise is that the Holy Spirit comes to dwell within our spirit inside of our body and soul, but since God is one substance the Father and the Son come with HS. Who lives in me? God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Where can one find God on the earth? The world may find God on the earth in the hearts of His believers. In the human spirits of Christians is the home of God on earth, the Church, the Presence of God in our physical world. The human body becomes the Temple of God, the House of God, and the Home of God. When one is baptized or comes to faith in Jesus HS immediately enters in and dwells; He makes our dead spirit alive and then resides there beginning to influence the soul and the body while we live in exile, sojourning far from our home.
Until we die we cannot enter physically into the dwelling of God in heaven, that is, in the spiritual world existing alongside the physical world. Therefore, for the children of God who belong rightly in the home of God He has chosen to make a home with us. In truth, heaven is inside each believer in Christ. We don’t see it and we don’t often feel it, so God’s Word and Promises must tell us the truth: God’s home is with us, in our spirits.
When believers, in whom Christ lives, gather together in Jesus’ name He is there in the midst of us in a special way telling the Gospel and sharing His life. All the believers together make up the “body of Christ.” My own attitude toward myself and toward fellow members of the household of God is profoundly affected when I recognize Who is dwelling with me and with them. Conscious awareness of the Presence of God changes how I think and act. Additionally, my attitude toward those outside the church changes because I recognize them as potentially fellow members in whom Christ will live when they, too, are brought to faith through the Gospel.