Tuesday, October 14, 2008

"Become What You Believe"

1:00 AM by Christi Bowman

The concept that the Church is God's House is not foreign to us, but that we, individually, are the mansions (KJV) or the rooms (NIV), in John 14:2, is unheard of (as far as I know).

John 14:2-4 In my Father's house (oikia) are many mansions (moné); if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am ye may be also 4You know the way to the place where I am going."

John 14:23 ...we will come unto him and make our abode (moné) with him.

I looked up mansions (John 14:2 KJV) and abode (John 14:23 KJV) in Strong's dictionary and they happen to be the same Greek word, moné.

If Christians, as a group of people, make up the Church and the Church is God's House (oikia) than in God's House (the Church (oikia)) there are many mansions (people (moné))...and God will make His abode (moné) in us (mansions (moné).

John 14:2 goes on to say, "I go to prepare a place for you". I have always been taught that Jesus is going to His Father's house (Heaven) when he speaks of going to prepare a place for us, but when I also looked up "go" in Strong's it referenced a journey to remove or to die. In context, Jesus is preparing His disciples for His death...

So, what if the place He is going to is the cross? What if His death prepared that place and that place was us. What if Jesus, in His death, prepared our physical bodies for new creation? In essence He prepared us for our new selves.

Jesus goes on to say "and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also. What if Jesus is not prophesying His second coming in this verse at all but instead His resurrection. What if, in coming back from the dead, He already came back for us? What if He already has received us and what if we are already with Him because He lives in us individually and we live in Him as a group?

What if Heaven starts now? What if there really is no spoon? What if we must believe it to see it happen? What if when we start to believe it Heaven comes a little bit more to earth?

To believe in this would mean that everything I have been taught to wait for has happened...it would mean that I no longer have to wait for the mansion, but that I am the mansion and my mansion (me) is in God's House, the Church...and not church as in a building...but Church as in ekklesia or people.

What if Heaven on earth, for us, is being apart of a community of people that eats and breathes God and is constantly bringing heaven to earth by bringing people to the realization that Heaven is now and can be realized no matter what? Heaven is the place where God dwells and God dwells in the Church (ekklesia). No wonder I hunger for community like this...I hunger for heaven on earth...and that is what I am supposed to hunger for!!

Matthew 9:27-29 As Jesus left the house, he was followed by two blind men crying out, "Mercy, Son of David! Mercy on us!" When Jesus got home, the blind men went in with him. Jesus said to them, "Do you really believe I can do this?" They said, "Why, yes, Master!" He touched their eyes and said, "Become what you believe."

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