What does the Bible Really Say about the Father’s House and the Many Abodes in John 14?

The Lord Jesus is the good Shepherd, and He takes all-inclusive tender care of all His sheep (John 10) for the Father’s house (John 14). Through His shepherding, all the believers are being redeemed, regenerated, and transformed to be united, mingled, and incorporated with the Triune God in the Father’s house, the church, the Body of Christ.

Many Christians believe that the Father’s house is “the heavenly mansions” that Christ is building right now for all His believers, but there’s no biblical foundation for such a hope. Rather, what the gospel of John tells us is that the Lord had to go and then come (He went to the Father through His death and in His resurrection He came back to His disciples) to prepare a place for all His believers.

Through His death and resurrection, Christ released the divine life from within Him and regenerated the millions of believers for His Body, the church, the Father’s house. Now all the believers in Christ are the many abodes in the Father’s house, and as they love the Lord and keep His word, the Father and the Son are constantly making Their abode with them (John 14:22-23).

The Father’s house is a person, the corporate Christ – the Body of Christ – which is an incorporation of the Triune God with the tripartite man. Eventually, the Father’s house will consummate in the New Jerusalem where God will dwell in man and man will dwell in God for eternity.

The unique building project Christ is working on today is the building up of the church as the Father’s house consummating in the New Jerusalem. The entire Bible talks about Christ and the church, that is, about life and building. Christ is life, and the church is a building of God with and in man. This is all spiritual and not physical.

May the Lord deliver us from any hope for a physical “golden city” or “heavenly mansions” and bring us into the full realization of what the Father’s house in John 14 is!

What is “The Father’s House” in John 14:1-3?

Many believers think that the Father’s house in John 14:1-3 is a physical place the Lord went to the heavens to prepare for us, and He is right now the heavenly Carpenter working really hard to build these “heavenly mansions” in a “city of gold and precious stones”.

They believe that this is what Jesus has been doing for the past 2000 years, and since some houses take a long time to build because they are so precious, it’s worth the wait. This is a superstitious thought with its roots even in Buddhism with no real foundation in the Bible.

The Father’s house of which the Lord spoke in John 14 is not a physical place but it is an incorporation of the divine with the human, of God with man. In this house God dwells in man and man dwells in God, and here God is mingled with man and man is mingled with God.

As seen in John 14-17, the Father’s house is personal – it is a person, the person of God and man mingled together, the processed and consummated Triune God with His redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people. If we were to look in more depth into this matter, there are at least five things we need to take care of:

1. We need to interpret the Bible with the Bible. We should not bring in our natural concept and desire, with our natural hope for something outward and physical. Let the Bible interpret itself, and see what other verses speak about this matter of the Father’s house and the many abodes.
2. To understand John 14:2 we need to read John 2:16 and 21 and , where we see that the temple Christ is building is His body. This temple is not only the physical body of Christ but the enlarged mystical Body of Christ, which is the house of God, the church. Peter and Paul also speak of the same thing in 1 Tim. 3:15, 1 Cor. 3:16, 1 Pet. 2:5, Heb. 3:4, and Eph. 2:21-22. This temple, the Father’s house, is the church, the mutual dwelling place of God and man.
3. God is one and He is doing only one work of building in the universe today – as seen in Matt. 16:18, Christ is building His church. God has only one building project in the entire universe, which is to build up the church. The church is the one building God cares about, and He is not doing anything else except this. The Father’s house is the church, the building of God, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem.
4. The many abodes in John 14:1-3 are NOT “condominiums” and “flats” in the “big heavenly mansion” Christ is supposedly building today. Rather, in John 14:23 we see that, as the believers love the Lord and keep His word, the Triune God comes to them and makes His abode with them. It is a mutual abode of God and man, and all the believers as members of the Body of Christ are the many mutual abodes in the Father’s house. Let the Bible interpret itself!
5. Christ’s going and His coming are NOT His going to heavens to prepare the heavenly mansion and then returning to bring us all to Him and enjoy these heavenly golden palaces….The Lord mentioned again and again that He has to go to the Father by dying on the cross, and then He will return to His believers in His resurrection as the Spirit. By His going and His coming, the Lord prepared a place for us – He prepared a place in the Triune God! Through His death the separating veil was rent and we now have a new and living way to enter into God, into the Holiest of all. As a result of Christ’s going through death and coming in resurrection, man can dwell in God and God can dwell in man. God and man are incorporated – God is enlarged in man to become the church, the Body of Christ, the Father’s house.

We Need to see “Life and Building” in the Gospel of John

The entire Bible speaks of Christ and the church, and in the Gospel of John we see “life and building”. Christ is life, and the church is a building in life and of life. Christ has come to be life (John 14:2), even our life, and the result of our enjoyment, experience, and growth in life is the building of God, which is an organic matter.

Actually, the whole Bible speaks of life and building, from the beginning to the end. In Genesis 1-2 we see the tree of life and then the precious materials (useful for building), and in Revelation 21-22 we see the city of life with the water of life and the tree of life, and this city is a building.

In a sense, the gospel of John is a bridge between Genesis and Revelation, and the entire gospel speaks of Christ being life (not right or wrong, good or bad) to gain a building (the bride, His Body, the Father’s house, the oneness).

God intends to dispense Himself into man as life, and the result of this dispensing is that the believers become the building of God, His expansion, enlargement, and corporate expression (see John 1:4; 10:10b; 11:25; 14:2-3, 6).

God’s purpose is to impart Himself into man as life so that man would be regenerated with His divine life, and then to transform man into precious materials for His building – the Father’s house, the church, the Body of Christ. In his book, The Building of God, Witness Lee says the following on this matter on p. 204,

“The divine building is the one Body, the one church, the one Bethel, the one corporate testimony of the Lord Himself. Eventually, there is the New Jerusalem as the completion. The New Jerusalem is not a physical place but a living composition of all of the living, redeemed ones in God, through the Spirit, having Christ as their life.
May the Lord reveal more and more to us concerning this building. I leave you with these two words: life and building. Life is for the building, and the building is of life. Life is the Lord Himself, and the building is the issue of the experience of the Lord as life. The more we experience the Lord as life, the more we realize the divine building among us.” (CWWL, 1963, vol. 3, “The Building of God,” p. 204)

May the Lord shine on us and remove any veil from our eyes that we may see the divine revelation in His word concerning Jesus, our wonderful Shepherd, His purpose, His life in us, and His building. May we cooperate with the Lord to let His light shine on any religious and natural veil that covers our eyes, hindering us from seeing the revelation in His word.

When we see life and building, we will care only for His life growing in us for the building of God! When we see that God cares only for Christ and the church, we will open to His dispensing every day so that we may be filled with God and be transformed to be precious stones, part of His building as His enlargement and expansion!

Lord Jesus, reveal to us the real meaning of Your words in the Bible. Shine on us as we get into the holy Word. Lord, You are our life. We open to Your dispensing. Dispense Yourself as life into every part of our being. Keep us under Your divine dispensing today. Remove any natural expectations and hopes for the future, and take away from our eyes any religious veil that we may see and be the Father’s house, the church, the Body of Christ! Praise You, Lord, for coming to dwell in us and causing us to dwell in You as the many mutual abodes in the Father’s house!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Minoru Chen’s speaking in the message for this week, and portions from, The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John (ch. 37), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Mending Ministry of John, week 3 / msg 3, The Shepherding of Christ for the Church as the One Flock and the Father’s House.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Thou art all my life, Lord, / In me Thou dost live; / With Thee all God’s fulness / Thou to me dost give. / By Thy holy nature / I am sanctified, / By Thy resurrection, / Vict’ry is supplied. [Hymns #841, W. Lee]
  # “I will build My church upon this rock,” said the Lord Jesus, / And we see the building of His purpose and His plan; / Setting members in the Body as Himself it pleases, / Building us together in Christ our land. [Hymns #1236]
  # By Thy life and by its flowing / I can grow and be transformed, / With the saints coordinated, / Builded up, to Thee conformed; / Keep the order in the Body, / There to function in Thy will, / Ever serving, helping others, / All Thy purpose to fulfill. [Hymns #840, W. Lee]
  # Lord, You revealed Yourself to me, / You showed me Your purpose, / To have the church as Your body / So You can mingle all that You are. [new song #358]