The church is the house of God, the household of God, and as such the church is the Father’s house. The Lord Jesus was zealous for the Father’s house (see John 2:16-21) and He spoke at length in John 14 concerning the many abodes in the Father’s house.
Contrary to the traditional and religious understanding of the many abodes in the Father’s house to be the many mansions Christ is now preparing in the heavens for us, these abodes signify the many members of the Body of Christ produced and prepared by Christ through His death and resurrection.
All the genuine believers in the Lord who have been redeemed, regenerated, and are in the process of transformation, are the many abodes in the Father’s house.
As the many abodes in the Father’s house, we are incorporated with the Triune God – we are in God and God is in us (John 14:20). Incorporation in this article is used in the sense of two or more persons being and living in one another. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three and distinct, yet they live and are in one another.
With our limited human mind we cannot apprehend how this is possible, but we now know that Christ is in the Father, the Father is in Christ, Christ is in us, and we are in Christ (see John 14:20). We are incorporated with the Triune God to be the Father’s house, His enlargement and expression on earth! We need to see such a high view of the church as the Father’s house.
The Church is the Father’s House, a Divine-Human Incorporation
The first issue of the glorification of Christ through His death and resurrection is the church as the Father’s house, as seen in John 14 (the other two issues are: the Son’s vine, John 15, and the Spirit’s child, John 16).
The Father’s house was mentioned by the Lord Jesus in John 2:16-21, and is what God desires. God the Father desires a home, a house, a place where He can dwell and be comfortable, where He is fully expressed.
The Father’s house is spoken of by the Lord in John 14:2, and the many abodes in the Father’s house are the believers in Christ, produced by Christ’s death and resurrection (He “went to prepare a place for us” by His going to the cross and resurrecting from the dead).
The Father’s house is a divine and human incorporation of the processed and consummated God with His redeemed, regenerated, and transformed chosen people. We as believers in Christ have been redeemed through the blood of Christ, we have been regenerated with God’s life by His Spirit, and we are in the process of being transformed with the divine element by the life-giving Spirit.
We are the many abodes in the Father’s house, the many “rooms” in the Father’s dwelling place, as the many members of the Body of Christ.
As seen in John 14:20, this house is a matter of incorporation, of dwelling and being in one another: we are in God and God is in us, we live in God and God lives in us. We are incorporated with God in life: Christ has regenerated us, putting the divine life into us, and putting us into God.
Also, we are God’s divine family as the children begotten of God (John 1:12-13), and we are the real Bethel, the place where earth is joined to heaven and heaven is brought to earth by Christ as the heavenly ladder (John 1:51).
As the Father’s house, we are the temple of God and the house of God, the enlargement and expansion of the individual house and temple of God, Christ (John 2:16-22).
The church as the Father’s house is a mutual abode for the Triune God and the believers to be built up by the Father and the Son (John 14:23), consummating in the New Jerusalem (see Rev. 21). Wow, what a high view of the church as the Father’s house!
The Building up of the Father’s House
How is the Father’s house built up? John 14:23 tells us that the Father’s house is built up by the constant visitation of the Father and the Son with the Spirit to the ones who keep His word.
If we keep His word by prayerfully eating it, masticating it, and digesting it, the Father and the Son with the Spirit who indwells us will visit us to become with us the mutual dwelling place of the consummated Triune God with His chosen people.
We can all testify that the Father and the Son often come to visit us. No matter where we are, whether at home or at school, at work or while shopping, on the street or on the bus, the Father and the Son come to visit us to do a building work in us! This building work is constant and it lasts for our whole life, as we open to Him and turn to Him!
It is such a dreadful thing not to be visited by the Father with the Son! It is terrible to be set aside by God and not be visited by Him daily.
We need to deal with anything that would hinder God from visiting us, and we need to constantly muse on His word, opening to Him, opening the door of our heart to His constant visitation, so that the Father and the Son with the Spirit would visit us and build up the Father’s house in and with us.
Eventually, He will not only visit us but be real to us and in us all the time, being fully expressed through the church as the Father’s house in glory!
The Purpose of the Father’s House
Why does God need a house? Doesn’t He have everything? Didn’t He create everything? What is the purpose of the Father’s house? First of all, the invisible and mysterious Triune God desires to have a visible and solid manifestation in humanity. This is the first aspect of the purpose of God’s house.
God wants to be expressed visible, tangibly, and solidly among men on earth – He wants to be manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:15-16). For people to see God, they need to come to the church, where God lives, dwells, and is manifested. We as the church of the living God are the visible and solid manifestation of what God is.
Secondly, the purpose of the Father’s house is for His satisfaction and rest. Just as our own home is for our satisfaction and rest, so God desires to be satisfied and be at rest. God is not pleased to dwell in a man-made building or in anything else, but in man He is pleased to dwell. Here, in His house, He is happy, comfortable, at rest, and at peace; here He is expressed.
Finally, the purpose of the Father’s house is for the carrying out of His eternal economy. God’s eternal economy is to gain a holy city, the New Jerusalem, for His eternal expansion and expression. It is through the house of God as the Father’s house that God accomplishes His economy to gain His corporate expression in humanity.
God “works from home” by carrying out His economy from His house, the church. The eternal and purposeful Triune God carries out His eternal economy to consummate the New Jerusalem as His eternal goal for His eternal expression and expansion through the church as the Father’s house. Hallelujah!
Praise You, Father, for regenerating us with Your divine life and thus making us Your house, the many abodes in the Father’s house. We treasure Your constant visitation as You come to make Your home in us and build up Your dwelling place with us. We want to keep Your word by taking it into us all the time by means of all prayer, musing, pondering, praising, and singing. Abba Father, we love Your word. We love Your visitation. We love Your house. Gain what You are after, Your divine-human incorporation to express You in humanity!
References and Further Reading
- Inspiration: Bro. Andrew Yu’s sharing and portions in, The Issue of Christ Being Glorified by the Father with the Divine Glory (chs. 4, 6), and, Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John (msg. 11), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, “The Completing Ministry of Paul“, week 5 entitled, Five Aspects of the Church. Many similar portions can be found in the latter part of the ministry of brother Witness Lee, in, The High Peak of the Divine Revelation.
- Hymns on this topic:
# We’re Thy total reproduction, / Thy dear Body and Thy Bride, / Thine expression and Thy fulness, / For Thee ever to abide. / We are Thy continuation, / Thy life-increase and Thy spread, / Thy full growth and Thy rich surplus, / One with Thee, our glorious Head.
# We in faith were regenerated; / God and man thus incorporated. / This took place through Christ’s resurrection. / For His divine, glorious multiplication.
# O Lord, I love You, / I really love You, / Without You life’s really nothing. / You are so attracting, / And You are so charming; / Your riches are unsearchable. / Your name’s so dear and sweet, / Calling makes one satisfied, / Now You are mine and I am Thine, Lord; / Joined and mingled with You, / God-man incorporation, / Foretaste of the New Jerusalem. - Pictures credit: Chester Lake (Canada, via friend on Facebook), and John 14:23 here (with thanks).
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