9.1 Many Rooms
© 2018 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also (John 14:1-3).
The title of this session, “Creating Rooms” is drawn from Patterns of Home, the pattern, “creating rooms inside and out.” The question we are asking, then, is how does Jesus use Ephesians 3:17-19 to fashion us together as God’s House? Thus, from John 14, we are drawing the phrase, “many mansions,” as the KJV/NKJV puts it.
Dwelling Places. The phrase John actually used was not “mansions,” as we well know, but rather, monai poillai, many abodes. The Greek word moné is the noun form of the verb ménō, to abide. Thus “many dwelling places” is a better rendition. Moné means a place to live, a room to call one’s own. And, of course, in Father’s “house” must be rooms, not “mansions.”
Father’s house is not a place called “heaven”; Father’s House is the gathering together, the ecclesia, which we are translating into our definition of the English word “church.” I have stated before that this concept of “many rooms” is a concept that goes fully in two directions at the same time.
Rooms for Father – Rooms for Us. The first direction of “many rooms” is many dwelling places for Father in His Church. (Church – Temple – House – Body – these terms are 100% synonymous, four different ways to talk about the same thing. And – each one of which we experience as the local church and the universal Church, at the same time.)
And the second direction of “many rooms” is many dwelling places for us inside of God. Jesus said in verse 3, that where I am, there you may be also, and then in verse 20, Jesus tells us where He is. Know that I am in the Father (where I am) and you in Me (many rooms for us in Father) and I in you (many rooms for Father in the Church.)
Paul’s Gospel. Yet there is a third “direction” for this concept as well, and that is many rooms for us in life together with one another. In this lesson, we want to focus on the first two directions of “many rooms,” but in the remainder of this session and the next, our focus is on the third, that is, life together.
Earlier, I stated Paul’s gospel in this way, four HUGE little words, syn/sym – en/eis – pas – allélón; in English, together with – in – all – one another. “Together with” is our personal symmorphy with Jesus, sharing the same form. “IN” is where we live; “all” is who and what is included. And “one another” is the symmorphy of God revealed as reciprocity through our koinonia together.
Many Brethren. Now, many rooms for Father in His House is easily understood. Father dwells in each one of us as individuals AND Father dwells in each gathering together of Church, that is, two or three (or more) IN Jesus’ name.
Jesus’ used the word moné only twice, only here in John 14. First, He said, “many rooms,” then He said, “Our Home.” We (Father and I) will come to him and make Our home with him (John 14:23b). Thus it is evident that “many rooms” is referring to Father dwelling in many humans all at the same time and as His House. Thus we see that the “many rooms” of John 14:2 is also the “many brethren” of Romans 8:29.
Christ Dwells. Now, I am trying to weave several threads together, things that are important to understanding life together. Let’s bring in the main verse, the second most important verse in the Bible, Ephesians 3:17-19 – modified from the Greek and paraphrased a bit by our present understanding.
Christ dwells (the action of being at home) IN your hearts (both individually and plural-together) through faith (through your active believing against all outward appearance), that you, being rooted and grounded IN love, may be able to seize together with all the saints the extent (of Father’s House)—and to know even more the surpassing knowledge of the love of Christ, that you might be filled unto and with all the fullness of God.
From Personal to Corporate. Thus the “many rooms” of John 14, the “many brethren” of Romans 8, and the “together with all the saints” of Ephesians 3:18 are all speaking of the same thing, as well as the “love one another” of John 15 and 1 John 3. And thus we see this strong and common thread of US TOGETHER running through the ten most important verses of the Bible, directly stated in seven of them and implied in the other three.
As I stated in the “Bridge,” in Symmorphy I: Purpose I taught the ten most important verses as applied to each one of us individually. Then, in Essence, Kingdom, and Covenant, I gradually made the transition from us individually to us as the Church. Now, in Symmorphy V: Life, I am applying these same ten verses specifically to life together.
Always All. Christ is always us as individuals AND Christ is always us together. Christ is always us together AND Christ is always us as individuals. Christ is always Word proceeding forth from Father, always becoming each one of us, Christ as us, always flowing out from us as a Spirit of power, always connecting us together as one Body. Always all, always.
And every one of the four critical words of Paul’s gospel is highly, highly offensive. Jesus is offensive. Symmorphy is the biggest problem in the universe. God manifest in FLESH continues to range from idiotic to a searing stench to downright evil in the thinking of every one of us.
Dealing with Offense. Our task as sons of God (plural) is to bring all creation into OUR (plural) glorious liberty. Adam and Eve turned their backs on that task because of how OFFENSIVE they found Jesus, that is, God manifest in the flesh, to be. There is a simple solution for each one of us towards the offensiveness of every word God speaks. That solution is Mary’s response to God’s “blasphemy” – “Let it be to me according to Your word.”
Now, as I said, I’m tying together several threads, all of which must come into our thinking in order for God’s House to be our LIFE. Let me talk next about many rooms inside of God for us individually, and for us together.
Rooms in God. God is infinite. And God thinks an infinite number of thoughts concerning each one of us individually, an infinite number of thoughts concerning us together, and an infinite number of thoughts that have nothing to do with us. But God’s thoughts are not disassociated ideas as we tend to define ideas or opinions. God’s thoughts are the essence of His Being, upon which we now see the word Pro-Knowing. And thus every one of God’s major thoughts in the Bible is known to us as a ROOM in which we are free to dwell.
We are FREE, truly free, to live inside of God anywhere we wish. And inside of each one of those rooms, different verses each take on differing shapes and hues.
Differing Meanings. Here is a room in God in which I am free to dwell – Christ lives in MY heart through faith. And inside that room, each one of the ten most important verses, along with all their supporting verses, adds its flavor and meaning.
Here is another room in God in which I AM FREE to dwell – Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love (Ephesians 4:16). And inside this room, each of the ten most important verses fit, yet the flavor and meaning of each differs just a bit from their flavor and meaning inside of – Jesus lives in MY heart.
New Rooms Forever. More than that, as we have seen through God’s central metaphor of the gospel, the tabernacle of Moses, inside of God there are ever deeper and ever further rooms of the knowledge of God, rooms we have never known or considered. Yet, as we enter into every next room God unfolds for us inside Himself forever, we will discover, every single time, the key verses of the gospel taking on new shape and color to fit every new room in an infinite God, shapes and colors we cannot see right now, no matter how we dissect the words.
But then we see that our freedom in God is also our jeopardy. In the words of Jesus as well as in the Annie visions, we discover that God opens rooms inside Himself to us and invites us to enter, yet always the choice is ours.
Our Choice. Then, something happens to every individual person given a choice every single time to every single next room in God. For those who say, “No thanks, I’m not interested in that room (that word, that verse, that definition of Christ in the flesh),” slowly the room closes from their view and they will never know it – forever. Yet that is their right, Christ as them.
And those who say, “I enter in with boldness; let it be to me according to this specific word that You speak,” are sealed into that room and now possess it as their own forever, no matter how many or how different their other rooms in God might be. That also is their right. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name (John 1:12).
Our Right. John 1:12 is not a static, one-time experience, been there, done that. John 1:12 is dynamic, continuous, and forever. Jesus IS EVERY Word. And we are free to receive every differing word that He is, or not, as we wish; it is entirely our right.
Now, it is our right to receive and live in each specific word of our choosing, and God blesses us in our choosing, regardless. But it is NOT our right, nor do we have the power, to forbid our brother or sister to eat of a word God speaks as Christ, a word that we may be uninterested in right now. Neither do we have the right nor the power to disconnect ourselves from our brother or sister no matter how offensive they are to us, for we are members of one another.
Speak Christ. So what are we to do? WHAT DO WE DO with the word God speaks? (Let not your heart be troubled – believe in Me.) Do as I have taught you to do. We look squarely at every word God speaks and we say, “Look at me, God, I belong to You. Let it be to me according to everything You mean by this Word.”
And then we speak Christ as the only life we are by that same word. Christ is a many-membered Body – for you ARE members of one another – joined together as Christ by what YOU supply to me and by what I supply to you. – Let it be to me according to Your word. Then speak - my life together with you IS Christ as He is.
Every Word God Speaks. The disciples could not turn Jesus aside, no matter how hard they tried. All they got for their effort was, “Get behind me, Satan.” Pretty offensive, I know. In fact there are fewer words Jesus could speak into anyone more offensive than that.
It is my right to eat of every Word God speaks, no matter how much some don’t like it. And no one will turn me from my right. God does speak Christ as life together, no matter how much people might oppose the thought.
I will eat of His Word in my life. All the fullness of God, All that God is, a symmorphic God, revealing Himself through many walking together as one. I will possess every room inside of God that He has given me, starting with every verse in the Bible as Christ my life.
Whosoever Will. And I will do that together with whosoever will.
But just as no one had the power to escape from Jesus carrying them inside Himself all the way through death and into life, neither does anyone who belongs to Jesus have the power to escape from me laying down my life for them, carrying them all the way through their death and into life upon the Mercy Seat of God, my heart.
Oh, it will cost us everything – Christ. Yet we possess everything. The total cost of commitment; the boundless joy of freedom. Seized in His grip and poured out for others with no thought of ourselves – utterly free in God to live in any room and every room we wish.
Jesus Does All Things Well. Division in the church is not the fact that there are many rooms in God for believers and for assemblies and many rooms for God in the Church, in believers and in assemblies. Division is a false perception held by religious minds that do not want to allow God or other brethren to dwell in a room different from the room in which “I” dwell.
We, on the other hand, know each local church as a room for God inside the House of His entire Church. Yet each one of us individually remains that room for God most special to Him, and there is inside of God a most special room for each one of us individually.
Jesus is all in all, and Jesus does all things well.