We have a Standing for us to Enter into God: we’re the Abodes in the Father’s House

In the Father’s house there are many abodes, which are the many members of the Body of Christ, and the Lord prepared a place for us by accomplishing redemption to make a standing for us to enter into God. Hallelujah!

As believers in Christ, we are those who believe into the Lord and are organically joined to Him, and we are members of the Body of Christ to be part of the Father’s house, that is, the many abodes in the Father’s house.

The Father’s house is not heaven nor is it heavenly mansions; it is the Body of Christ as the enlargement and expansion of Christ to be the dwelling place of God and man.

If we come to the Lord’s word in the New Testament and allow Him to shine on us, we will realize that the Father’s house has nothing to do with what many Christians talk about today.

Some Christians like fast cars or they love playing golf, so they think that the Father’s house will be a place where they have their mansion and their golf course or their racecourse.

This is a natural thinking. Many Christians today think they can just call themselves Christians and live the way they want, for they “won the lottery” by believing in Jesus, for He will return to bring them to heaven and give them a heavenly mansion.

Such a thought of the heavenly place after we die if we behave in a good way is natural and exists both in heathenism and in paganism.

Whether it is the Persians, the druids, the Greeks, or any other nationality or tribe, everyone has this concept about the afterlife and the good things that await us there.

How much we hate Satan for bringing such a thought into Christianity and making it so prevailing even among seeking Christians!

We need to expose the leaven brought in by the enemy to mix it with the pure word of God and make it something so appealing to the natural man and the flesh!

What God desires and what He has for us is not a physical place but Himself! God wants to bring us into God Himself.

He doesn’t want us to go to heaven and enjoy all kinds of things there; He wants to bring us into Himself and for Him to be in us so that together, man and God, God and man, would be a mutual, eternal dwelling place.

Our destiny is not a heavenly mansion or anything that is physical; our destiny is God Himself.

He has gone through a process in order for Him to come into us and indwell us, making us His dwelling place, and He is taking us through a process for us to be transformed and matured, even to be built up so that we may be built into God. God abides in us, we abide in God; God dwells in us and we dwell in God.

All Believers in Christ are the Many Abodes in the Father’s House, the Body of Christ

John 14:2 says that in the Father’s house there are many abodes.

First of all, the highest definition of the Father’s house is that it is a divine and human incorporation of the processed and consummated Triune God constituted with His redeemed, regenerated, and transformed elect (John 14:20). Wow!

The Father’s house is an incorporation of God and man, but not just the eternal God and the sinful man, but the processed and consummated God and the man who was redeemed, regenerated, and transformed.

In other words, God went through a process in order to be united, mingled, and incorporated with man, and man also goes through a process in order to be joined to God.

May we forget about the heavenly mansions and realize that the Father’s house is this divine-human incorporation of God and man!

This is what God is after, and He will gain it! In the Father’s house there are many abodes (John 14:2).

What are the many abodes in the Father’s house? The many abodes in the Father’s house are the many members of the Body of Christ, which is God’s temple (Rom. 12:4; 1 Cor. 3:16-17).

The Greek word for abodes is the plural form of the word abode, which is also mentioned in John 14:23.

In this verse the Lord clearly indicated who or what are the many abodes in the Father’s house.

He said that, if we love Him and keep His word, the Father and the Son will come to us and will make an abode with us.

In other words, we, the believers in Christ who love God and abide in His word, are the many abodes in the Father’s house.

Every genuine believer in Christ is an abode in the Father’s house.

The many abodes in the Father’s house are the many members of the Body of Christ (Rom. 12:5), and the Body of Christ is the temple of God. Hallelujah!

When He was on the earth, Christ was individually the temple of God, the Father’s house; however, through death and resurrection, He has been glorified and enlarged to be the Body of Christ comprising many members of the Body.

All the believers in Christ are the many members of the Body of Christ, and each believer is the temple of God individually, and corporately, we together are the temple of God. Hallelujah!

How thankful we are that we are the many abodes in the Father’s house!

Especially at the Lord’s table, as we partake of the symbols on the Table and remember the Lord in love, we are led to worship the Father for making us the abodes in the Father’s house.

We are not just believers but even more, we’re abodes in God.

All the believers in Christ are the abodes in God’s building, the Father’s house; this building is the Body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23; 2:21-22; 5:30; 1 Cor. 12:27).

Christ came to dwell in us, making us His abode, and we dwell in God, taking Him as our abode.

Together, God and us, we and God, are a mutual abode, and as the church, the Body of Christ, we are the temple of God with all the believers in Christ as the many abodes in the Father’s house. Hallelujah!

May we daily contact the Lord, love Him, and enjoy Him in His word so that we may have the fresh visitation of the Triune God to make an abode with us.

May we never forget to turn to the Lord, enjoy Him, and partake of His riches in His word so that we may have more of God wrought into us and for us to be built into God.

And when we meet with the saints, may we appreciate and see one another as the many abodes in the Father’s house!

Hallelujah, we abide in God and God abides in us!

Lord Jesus, thank You for making us the many abodes in the Father’s house! Hallelujah, we believers in Christ are now in God and God is in us! Praise the Lord, we dwell in God and God dwells in us. We love You, Lord, and we love Your word. We love coming to Your word to enjoy You and partake of Your riches. Thank You for coming to us again and again to make an abode with us. Thank You for making us the temple of God, the dwelling place of God in spirit. We worship You, Lord, and we thank You. We want to enjoy and experience Your indwelling daily. We want to abide in You and have You abide in us. Keep us turning to You, Lord Jesus, and keep us enjoying You in our spirit. Keep us in our spirit today so that we may be in the mingling of God and man. Make Your home in us. We take You as our home. We want to live in You and have You live in us. We abide in You, Lord, for You to abide in us. Hallelujah, we believers in Christ are the many abodes in the Father’s house!

Christ Prepared a Place by Accomplishing Redemption to Open the Way and Make a Standing for us to Enter into God

On the one hand, we are the many abodes in the Father’s house. On the other hand, the Lord Jesus said that He goes to prepare a place for us (John 14:2).

What does it mean that the Lord goes to prepare a place for us? It means that the Lord would prepare a place, accomplish redemption, open up the way, and make a standing for us to enter into God (John 14:2-3, 6).

Going to prepare a place does not mean that the Lord as the son of Joseph the carpenter is now working tirelessly for more than two thousand years to make a heavenly mansion for each and every one of His believers.

No, the Lord has only one work and one desire.

He desires to gain His building, the Father’s house, the dwelling place of God and man.

But for Him to obtain such a building of God and man, He first needs to take care of all the problems and obstacles in the way.

Despite God’s desire and the Lord’s intention being that He would bring us into Himself for the building up of His dwelling place, there are a lot of problems and obstacles between God and man.

There is sin, sins, the world, death, the flesh, the self, the old man, and even the devil himself; all these are obstacles to the building of God.

So the Lord came through incarnation to deal with and take care of all the negative problems; He went through death on the cross to accomplish redemption so that He can open a new and living way for us to come forward to God.

Now we have a way to come to God and even enter into God. In the whole universe, God has only one building – the church as the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem.

For this building to be gained by the Lord, the Lord had to prepare a place, that is, accomplish redemption, open up the way, and make a standing for man to get into God.

This is what He was speaking about in John 14.

For us to dwell in God and allow God to dwell in us, we first must get into Him.

For us to get into God, we need Christ’s redemption through His blood; His blood opens the way for us to enter into God.

How can we as sinners dwell in God? How can we as rebellious sinners get into God and how can God get into us?

It is only by Christ preparing the way and dealing with all the problems.

Through His death on the cross, Christ dealt with sin (Rom. 8:3; John 1:29), sins, the world, the flesh (Gal. 5:24), death, the flesh, the self, and the old man (Rom. 6:6); He terminated all the negative things and beings on the cross.

He did a work of preparation in His going; His going was through death and resurrection.

How thankful we are that all the obstacles have been removed by the Lord’s all-inclusive and all-terminating death!

Through His death and resurrection, Christ paved the way, removed the obstacles, lowered the hills, and covered up every valley for the highway of man to be brought into God. Hallelujah!

By His death and resurrection, the Lord Jesus paved the way and prepared the place so that we the believers in Christ might be brought into God.

All the mountains were removed, all the gaps were filled, and the way is now wide open; we don’t have to pay any charge: we can simply come directly into God.

By believing into Christ, we are justified by Him, reconciled to Him, and saved by Him.

On the judicial side, redemption was made and we can claim it. On the organic side, we are regenerated by God to be the children of God.

This is our gospel. We don’t proclaim only that man is a sinner and needs to repent before the Lord to receive His life; we proclaim that Christ died and resurrected to open a way for us to come into God and be the many abodes in the Father’s house!

We now have a standing in God. We have a standing within God, for we are not just before the Lord but even more, we are in God!

Even God cannot reject us, for Christ is our righteousness and He is also our life.

We have a firm standing in God, and we are firmly secure about the fact that we’re in God. He has done everything necessary for this.

Since the Lord Jesus has gone through the cross and has been raised from the dead, we know that we have a position before God and a standing in God.

Praise the Lord! We are full of joy and rejoicing as we tell the Lord from the bottom of our heart,

Hallelujah, we have a standing before God! Praise the Lord, through Christ’s death and resurrection we have been redeemed and justified, and now we have a standing in God! Thank You, Lord, for dealing with everything that stood in the way of us entering into God through Your death. Your death dealt with the obstacles of sin, sins, the world, the devil, death, the flesh, the self, and the old man. Thank You, Lord, we can simply exercise our spirit and come forward to God, even enter into God! Hallelujah, through His death and resurrection the Lord paved the way and prepared the place so that we the believers in Christ might be brought into God! Amen, Lord, we believe into Your name and we receive the accomplished work on the cross. Hallelujah, we have standing in God and we have a place in God! Praise the Lord, we are the many abodes in the Father’s house, and we have a firm standing in God! Thank You, Lord Jesus!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Minoru Chen in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of John, msgs. 31-32, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2024 July Semiannual Training), week 11, In the Father’s House—Living in the Place Prepared for Us through the Death and Resurrection of Christ.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – Mutual Abiding from Resurrection to New Jerusalem, via, New Jerusalem blog.
  – Many Abodes Being Many Members of the Body of Christ, Which Is the Church, a portion from, Life-Study of John, Chapter 30.
  – A Harmonious Coordination between Generations to Advance God’s Move, via, Shepherding Words.
  – The Father’s house with many abodes, a portion from, The Building of God, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
  – We’re in the Lord already: we just need to Abide in Him! More via, 21 Century Nazarites.
  – In My Father’s House – the unleavened truth of John 14, article by Ron Kangas in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Is Christ in Heaven Building Our Mansions? More via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – The church built up in resurrection, a portion from, The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John, Chapter 37, by Witness Lee.
  – Touching the Divine Concept in the Bible by Exercising Our Spirit When Coming to the Bible, via, Living to Him.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – The holiest of God’s temple is / The inmost part; the mercy seat, / God’s presence and the ark are there, / And there the priests the Lord may meet. / Now we’re God’s temple in three parts; / Our inmost part the spirit is; / There God and Christ as Spirit dwell, / The holiest place of holy ’tis. (Hymna #747 stanzas 1-2)
  – Father, to Thee a joyful song we raise / With all Thine own; / And in Thy presence sound a note of praise / To Thee alone; / Bro’t nigh, bro’t home to Thee—O wondrous grace, / That gives us now with Thine own Son our place. (Hymns #52 stanza 1)
  – Bold can I stand in every way, / For who aught to my charge shall lay? / Fully, by Thee, absolved I am / From sin and fear, from guilt and shame. / This spotless robe the same appears, / When ruined nature sinks in years; / No age can change its glorious hue, / Its glory is forever new. / Thou God of power, Thou God of love, / Let all Thy saints Thy mercy prove; / Our beauty this, our glorious dress, / Jesus the Lord, our Righteousness. (Hymns #295 stanzas 4-6)