What if you discovered that your house was much bigger than you thought it was?
What if you woke up and discovered a door where the wall was when you went to sleep?
What if you saw Jesus in all His Majesty and He personally took your hand and invited you to explore your expanded house?
And what if you discovered that more people had been living in your house than you ever knew? For a start, God and Jesus already live there with you!
Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves Me will obey My Teaching. My Father will love them and We will come and We will make Our Home with them.”
John 14:23
You live in two homes right now. You live in a “mobile home” called a body. You live in a house you may consider your home. Both houses are owned by God. But He is happy to let you live there with Him, Jesus and The Holy Spirit.
Jesus said, “My Father’s House has many rooms.”
John 14:2
If you could explore some of those rooms, you might discover all those you ever loved waiting for you. You might suddenly realize they had never been very far away … really just in other rooms of God’s Big House.
Welcome to your new and expanded life! I like Paul’s description of how the transition from one life to another happens.
“Clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.”
2 Corinthians 5:4
When we grow in our physical world, we get bigger, not smaller. As cells are added, we get more “rooms!”
As we grow, we get bigger clothes. We learn new ways of getting around. We go from crawling to walking to running. We are able to go to places we could not go as a child.
Our new life will be that way. We will not have lost anything of ourselves. But we will be changed in form, so we can do more things than was ever possible in our old bodies.
God has given us a preview of The Life to come by allowing us to feel those moments of total connectedness and Joy now. But they are just a taste of what is to come.
Paul continued.
“Now The One Who fashioned us for this very purpose is God, Who has given us The Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”
2 Corinthians 5:5
He summed it up well for the Philippians.
“For me to live is Christ and to die is gain!”
Philippians 1:21
Isn’t it going to be a little frightening to go through dying to get to the other side? Listen to what Jesus said.
“Very truly I tell you, whoever keeps My Word will never see death.”
John 8:51
If you have witnessed anyone’s death that seemed less than peaceful, you might say, “How is it possible to go through that and not notice it?”
We can get a clue from Stephen, who was martyred for His Faithful Testimony.
Stephen, full of The Holy Spirit, looked up to Heaven and saw The Glory of God and Jesus standing at The Right Hand of God .
“Look!” he said, “I see Heaven open and The Son of Man standing at The Right Hand of God.”
Acts 7:55-56
Those standing around might have just seen a man being stoned. But Stephen’s eyes were on His Lord and where he was going. He did not see death!
May it be so for us! Take a few moments and contemplate your enlarged Home to come. Enjoy this beautiful song by Libera.
