John chapter 14 - Love requires a Price

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John’s Gospel presents Jesus as the flying Eagle around the throne. This is symbolic of the Spirit of God.

So in this Gospel, we must be prepared to think deeply.

God is a Spirit, but the created universe is physical.

Create means to make out of nothing.

GENESIS 1:1   In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

God created the spiritual Heaven where angels dwell and the physical heaven of deep space with the sun, moon, and stars. This created earth was covered in water, which evaporated and formed dense clouds that blocked out the sunlight.

Moses is watching this in a vision as he skims over the dark, featureless, water's flat surface.

He sees no “form” as water forms no hills or valleys, and the surface is empty or “void”.

GENESIS 1:2   And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

The only life was God as He moved over the water, creating and planting the seeds of life into the earth under the water. The seeds were created with the life of the future plant in them.

GENESIS 1:3    And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

The spoken Word of God struck the dense clouds and dispersed them. The sunlight could reach the surface of the water on the first day, Sunday.

GENESIS 1:11   And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

God did not create the vegetation at this stage as the created seeds were already planted in the earth. Now that He had raised the earth above the water to form a huge continent, He just told the earth to bring forth the vegetation. A web of life spanned the land to form a vast and beautiful ecosystem. Each plant grew as an individual but contributed to overall welfare by fitting into its place and blending harmoniously with the environment. Each plant had a role.

The sunlight energy was absorbed by each plant to become part of the plant and thus be available as life-giving food for future animals.

God made plants and animals with an instinct for co-operation to form an ecosystem that sustains them. Their behavior is controlled to a large extent by their instincts. They have very little freedom of choice. They cannot oppose their inbuilt instincts, nor choose those instincts of their own free will. They have a compelled servitude. Their behavior is controlled to a large extent. They operate through their physical senses.

But God wanted humans to have free will. But free will implies choice. So good and evil had to be present. But how could humans learn how to choose the good of their own free will? That was God’s problem.

He wanted each future human to be a separate individual and be focused on all the people's welfare. Each person must develop their own talents and strive for others' benefit as part of a caring support network. People were to operate through faith in God's plan for them. Mankind lost this attitude when sin entered.

Natural light manifests itself in two “contradictory” ways. It seems to travel through space as a wave but reacts with our eyes like a particle. Two very different ways of behaving, but it is the same light behaving in two very different ways.

Just like a man is a father to his son, but a son to his father. Two different relationships cause two different behaviours. But it is the same man.

God’s infinite Spirit seems to be “wave-like” as it ripples out and moves unseen all over the universe into every hidden corner.

But light behaves more suitably like a particle when it interacts with matter because the matter is made of tiny particles called atoms and electrons.

But to interact effectively with sinful men on earth, God had to become a Man Himself. Emmanuel, God with us. We call this Man by the name of  Jesus.

So Jesus is a Man on the outside but God on the inside.

The wave-like nature of light represents the Spirit of God that ripples out in all directions, just like when a stone is dropped into a puddle of water. For the first time in the Bible, John’s Gospel calls Him “God the Father”. This expression was never used in the Old Testament.

For the first time, the Spirit of God had found a Son, a human Man that He could fully live in.

Jesus said

JOHN 6:27   Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.

As the Son of man, the human Man that the Spirit of God indwelt, Jesus was the only guaranteed “carrier” of God’s Life. Jesus told them not to focus on material welfare but on their spiritual welfare.

Jesus alone could absorb the Spiritual Life of God into His physical Body as the Bread of Life.  This is reflected in nature by a plant absorbing sunlight to form food by photosynthesis.

The Jews already had physical life as the Old Testament emphasized the physical or natural world. But now the Jews (and us pagan Gentiles) needed something far more important, which was eternal life.

JOHN 6:28   Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?

The obvious but critical question. How do I get to serve God properly?

JOHN 6:29   Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

The simple answer. Believe on Jesus Christ. He is the Word of God. The Old Testament had prophesied of His Coming. In other words, believe on the Bible. Faith is the basis for serving God.

Only when Jesus was born, the perfect Son of God could God interact as God the Father. A new and deeper relationship was forming. God the Father was able to live inside a Man who behaved as an obedient Son.

Satan was happy to live inside animals like the serpent or the pigs at Gedara. God only wants to live in human hearts.

The secret of the Godhead was summed up by God becoming flesh. The Spirit of God created in Mary’s womb a human Tabernacle or House for God to dwell in. The Man Jesus was flesh and bone. So as a Man He is not God. God is a Spirit. But God was the supernatural Spirit that lived inside the Man Jesus.

For the first time, God had a "House” or dwelling place that He could trust and express Himself through.

The Jews were told not to make a graven image of God, as every carved image is dead.

God would make a living image of Himself, the Man Jesus. God lived in Jesus and expressed Himself through the words and actions of the Man Jesus.

HEBREWS 1:3   Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,

Jesus, by His words and behavior, made the invisible God within Him visible.

In the Old Testament, God, at times, created a supernatural Body to live in so that the Jews could see Him.

They never saw the invisible Spirit of God; they saw the supernatural Body that He lived in at that time.

When Pharaoh chased after Moses, God stood between them in a Pillar of Fire and in a Cloud when He led the Jews in the Exodus.

EXODUS 14:24   And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians,

God could only look through the Pillar of Fire if He was in the Pillar of Fire.

A Cloud and Pillar of Fire were temporary supernatural bodies that God created for Himself.

The Jews enjoyed the benefits of God's help but easily fell into sin.

So God being above the Jews did not really help the Jews.

God needed a better “Body” to dwell in.

King David decided to build a big Temple as a House for God.

The Spirit of God would dwell unseen in the Holy of Holies, behind the inner veil.

God sent a prophet to tell David that only the seed of David or the son of David, Solomon, could do that.

(This had a deeper meaning. Jesus was the real Seed of David. Jesus alone could be the Tabernacle, or House, or the Temple that the fullness of God could dwell in).

David had killed too many people. The Temple or House of God must be built by a man of peace, Solomon.

II SAMUEL 7:5   Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith the LORD, Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in?

The prophet told David that his son would build the House after David’s death.

II SAMUEL 7:12   And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.

:13   He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.

But Solomon’s descendants lost the throne in the days of King Coniah, or Jeconiah. (Also called Jehoiachin).

JEREMIAH 22:24   As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence;

JEREMIAH 22:30   Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

Thus Solomon as the natural son of David did not hold the kingdom forever as God had promised.

The Babylonians would destroy the Temple or House of God that Solomon built.

II KINGS 23:26   Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.

:27     And the LORD said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there.

Manasseh was a bad king. The Temple or House of God was not turning the Jews into better people.

I KINGS 3:1   And Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall of Jerusalem round about.

But the natural son of David was getting involved with the wrong women. So this great Temple or House was not really helping the Jews.

I KINGS 3:3   And Solomon loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in high places.

Even the great Solomon messed up at times, subject to the influences of his strange non-Jewish wives.

So we must look at the prophecy spiritually and see that the promise was made to a greater Son of David than what Solomon was, Jesus Christ.

But spiritually speaking, Jesus would come as the greater Son of David to rule for 1000 years in peace after the battle of Armageddon.

But even as he built the Temple, Solomon realized that it was an inadequate House to hold the infinite God.

I KINGS 8:27   But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?

So Jesus was to come and be a far better House for God to dwell in. How would He achieve that?

God had not dwelled in any House before Solomon built the Temple.

II SAMUEL 7:5   Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith the LORD, Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in?

:6   Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle.

Yet God said that Moses was faithful in all God’s House.

NUMBERS 12:7    My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.

So God had a House, a spiritual House which He was building up out of the genuine Jews who believed in Him.

GENESIS 7:1   And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark;

Here the word “house” refers to the family of Noah.

JOSHUA 24:15   : but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

Again, Joshua is referring to his family as a “house”.

So “house” can refer to a building in the natural sense or it can refer spiritually to the family that lives in that building.

Similarly, the church is not a building but refers to the people who are in the building.

ROMANS 16:3   Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus:

:5     Likewise greet the church that is in their house.

Christians are also referred to as the family of Jesus.

EPHESIANS 3:14   … our Lord Jesus Christ,

:15     Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

A “house” can refer to a family. The “church” refers to the people who all belong to the family of Jesus.

I PETER 1:23   Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

All life comes from a seed.

LUKE 8:11   Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

Born again of the Word of God makes us born again of the Spirit of Christ because he is the Word.

Thus Jesus is our spiritual Father.

ISAIAH 9:6   For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

We must all take on His name in water baptism.

ACTS 2:38   Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

The only Person that God could completely trust was the Man Jesus, whom God indwelt.

Jesus, as a Man, of His own free will, totally handed Himself over to the guidance and protection of the supernatural Spirit that indwelt Him. The main reason for this is that Jesus was focused not only on the events of His time on earth. He was also concerned with how His life fitted in with God’s Big Picture for the salvation of mankind.

We are too easily distracted by the events that happen on earth and then take our eyes off God's Big Plan.

The Jews would reject Him, and then He would turn to the Gentiles in the seven church ages. Then the Gentiles will reject Him in the last church age, and He will turn back to the 144000 Jews of the twelve tribes of Israel in the Tribulation.

He gave a hint of this when He created enough bread to have 12 and then 7 baskets of rejected bread fragments left over. Bread is symbolic of God’s Word. The Word that the Jews would reject at Calvary and return to later in the Tribulation.

So His time on earth had to fulfill two vital functions. To achieve our salvation on the cross and lay the foundation for the future church ages by training the apostles.

Jesus now reveals His future plans of how He intends to build up a spiritual family of born again Christians over the next 2000 years who will be the House that the Spirit of God dwells in.

HEBREWS 9:11   But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;

God will guide His people through different circumstances in different ages. His Bride will be those who recognize what God is trying to achieve during their specific conditions created by the world events of their times.

A portion of God’s Spirit will have to indwell each person to guide them and shape them until their focus is on their portion of God’s Big Picture that they needed to fulfill. For instance, the missionaries would have to give up their lives and head for unknown dangerous places to spread the Gospel. In the Dark Ages millions would have to die because they refused to believe in the Pope and the Roman Catholic church.

The goal of Bible study today, in the last church age, is to account for all Scripture by explaining a verse in terms of its relationships to other verses. We live in the age of the eagle and are supposed to have a much better insight into the Bible mysteries. If we remain ignorant of the Bible verses' deeper meanings, then we have simply missed what our age is all about.

God attaches great value at the end-time to the revelation of the Bible mysteries.
DANIEL 12:4   But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

Since the first church age, God has never had a church that really understood the Bible. He is anxious to reveal His inner secrets to His end-time Bride. But people are not interested. Studying the Bible is too much like hard work.

Splicing quotes together into man-made imaginations is much easier, even though that increases Bible ignorance.

We should only believe the same basic ideas that the first church age believed. The last church age ripens as a seed to look just like the original seed that was planted in the first church age.

Every Bible verse has its real meaning which is only revealed by its links to other verses. We should be seeking these meanings in our information age. Ours is the age when the Bible becomes an open Book that we can read and understand. Each Bible verse is shaped to fit into a chain of other Bible verses. Just like each cell in your body is shaped to fit in with the other cells so that every cell seeks the welfare, not of itself, but of your entire body. A white blood cell will sacrifice itself to destroy a germ or virus that threatens the body.

So each church age only has its real meaning in terms of how it links to the other church ages.

We live in the age when the mystery of God should be finished.

REVELATION 10:7   But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

If we say we cannot explain Bible verses then we are ignorant of what has been revealed in our day.

Ignorance can expect no reward.

If we claim that the King James Version of the Bible has mistakes, contradictions, and wrong interpretations, then that is what we are saying about Jesus, because He is the Word.

In Revelation Chapter 4, the throne of God is surrounded by four beasts. These are the Spirit-beings that God is acting through as He builds up His church or spiritual House. God is using our different times on earth to shape us as living stones in different ways. God shapes the individual spirits of men and women on earth but then stores and assembles those spirits in Heaven, waiting until the last one is in to complete His great structure or Bride (called His family or House). The entire church from 2000 years  forms a living House for God to dwell in. Each spiritual stone is a unique individual yet all the stones harmonize perfectly together to form a great pyramid with Saint Paul’s age as the foundation and Christ as the Coming Capstone.

I PETER 2:5     Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Each born-again Christian is a living stone whose character and beliefs are being shaped by God to fit into a certain place in His great spiritual House or Tabernacle.

God’s will for your life is when you allow Him to shape you and your beliefs for your predestined place in His great body of believers.

REVELATION 4:6   And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

Eyes speak of intelligence. “Before” means they know the future and “behind” means they know the past. Their task is to shape the church over time so that it forms a harmony, a web of spiritual life that unites all into one Body, the Bride of Christ.

REVELATION 4:7   And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

The first church age had the truth, the Lion of the tribe of Judah is Jesus.

This truth was lost in the almost 1200 years of the Dark Ages from Constantine who ruled from AD 312 until Martin Luther’s revolt around 1520. This was more than half the time of the church ages. The young calf indicates that it had a long life ahead of it. A calf is castrated to lose its ability to reproduce and then becomes an ox that is slaughtered as its meat is too valuable. Truth died in the Dark Ages and the  Roman Catholic church killed tens of millions of dissenters. Many were killed before they could have families. Many watched their families being destroyed.

Then the human spirit of wisdom produced the Reformation of salvation by faith and living holy. God blessed these scholars with the language skills needed to correctly translate the Hebrew and Greek texts. We could not do that today. They in turn could not understand what all the deep Bible verses meant.

Then the flying, sharp-eyed prophetic eagle arrived with its incredible insight into the mysteries of the Bible. Our relationship to the past church ages is that we must be able to understand the hidden meanings of the written verses. If we do that correctly, then we will return back to the beliefs of the early New Testament Lion church age.

But problems lie in our path.

Jesus Christ, the true Word, is an object of rejection as men prefer darkness to light.

I PETER 2:4   To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,

Jesus Christ was rejected by the religious leaders of His day.

Jesus is the Word, and Bible verses are rejected and changed by church pastors who lack the eagle-insight needed to explain them.

Today Christians no longer prove their beliefs by running them through the different verses of the Bible. They simply splice carefully selected quotes together by means of their own interpretation of these quotes. This approach ignores other quotes on the topics and they do not prove their ideas by linking up Bible verses.

Bible ignorance is growing in message-circles.

“The prophet said …” or "I've got a quote" has replaced “It is written …”.

Jesus said,

MATTHEW 23:2   …The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat:

The Jewish religious leaders quoted the prophet Moses in order to reject Jesus. They also interpreted Moses law of the Sabbath to mean not healing a sick person. Their interpretation was seriously wrong but it allowed them to reject the true Word which was Jesus.

Message-pastors quote the prophet William Branham in order to reject Scripture where it suits them.

They also interpret a certain carefully selected quote differently to what brother Branham actually said.  Then they ignore his other quotes that contradict their interpretations.

For instance, they claim they know what the seven Thunders are and what they uttered. Brother Branham said the Thunders were revealed in the Seals, but then the seventh Seal revealed the Thunders to be a total mystery that nobody knows. He also said that the seventh Seal never opened. But message-preachers nevertheless claim that they do know the seventh Seal and the seven Thunders. Despite the fact that the seventh Seal and the seven Thunders are not written in Scripture.

Each Scripture is precious. But people discard the verses that they cannot explain or which contradict their beliefs. But God has chosen those discarded verses.

True Christians who trust only the Bible as their Absolute are also like discarded stones. But God is building up a spiritual house from these discarded stones. The "Bible-believing rejects" who are not wanted in denominational churches and message-churches are the ones who are seeking out a deeper understanding of Scripture.

The “discarded” Christians believe all the discarded verses of the Bible that message-churches contradict, ignore, change, or do not understand.

DEUTERONOMY 8:3   And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

If we are to believe the King James Bible, then we must believe every verse just the way it is written.

We prove we are the Bride only when we are able to believe every Bible verse. Since the days of Saint Paul, there has never been another church that has believed everything that is written in Scripture.

Christians have been killed in every possible way. Christians have been missionaries throughout the world. Christians have correctly interpreted the Greek and Hebrew texts to write the perfect King James Bible.

But after the first church age, Christians have not been able to understand all the Bible as It revealed the ages that they passed through. They were able to understand parts of the Bible, but many parts remained a big mystery.

People have served God in the past. But they need our final contribution to add the finishing touches to their efforts.
HEBREWS 11:40   God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

That is our burden. We have to understand the Bible mysteries. That is where we complete the great spiritual House that God has built for Himself over the last 2000 years.

I PETER 2:5     Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

:6     Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.

The Chief Cornerstone is our Absolute.

The Chief Cornerstone is Jesus, the Word, not some other man.

The corner stone has an odd-shape that can only fit on top of a pyramid. This represents the Second Coming of Jesus

at the end of the seventh church age.

Jesus is the King James Bible. He is the Word of God. The Bible tells us His thoughts. You cannot separate Jesus from His thoughts.

Thus the preachers reject Jesus when they ignore the verses in the King James Bible that do not fit in with their theories. Pastors regard themselves as the head of the church. No Scripture claims this. Jesus alone is the Head of the church. Thus modern churches cannot fit the Bible pattern.

That is why the Lord has not come yet.

The message-churches believe too many things that they cannot prove from Scripture.

And there are too many Scriptures that they cannot understand.

There are too many things that they believe that the early church did not believe.

There is nowhere suitable for the Capstone to fit onto.

So Jesus begins to outline His plan for the future.

JOHN 14:1   Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

His death is almost on Him but His vision stretches far into the future. He is the physical Man that God’s Spirit dwells in. So whatever cruel death awaits Him, God’s will is fulfilled through Him. God is controlling Him.

JOHN 1:1   In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

How can Jesus be God and yet be with God?

In the beginning, before God became a Man, Jesus was the Spiritual Body that God dwelled in. You are everything that is in you.

But the Spiritual Body that God revealed Himself in was not human, so God did not take on the human name Jesus in the Old Testament.

JOHN 1:14   And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,

God dwelled in different spiritual bodies in the Old Testament and called Himself by different names.

Then God finally made a human Body to dwell in.

COLOSSIANS 2:9   For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

COLOSSIANS 1:19   For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

All of God dwelled in the Man Jesus.

JOHN 14:2   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.

God’s House is His future family or church.

God wants to dwell in His people, not in a building.

Each human must be shaped by the trials of his or her life until they fit into their proper place in God’s spiritual House.

HEBREWS 11:40   God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

We are all part of a Bigger Picture that includes those from the past.

Thus we are not just living our own lives. We have to fit into the blueprint  that includes everyone else.

“Mansions”.

This is the only reference to mansions in the Bible.

Mansions are big buildings that have plenty of rooms to explore. Each individual in God’s family or church or Bride has a future mansion to dwell in. Each individual has an endless potential for future discovery, delight, and spiritual development. In this life our mind or spirit keeps developing and can keep improving. The same will happen in Heaven.

Each family member of God’s spiritual House or dwelling place is an individual who will be endlessly developed but will nevertheless be totally subject to the Head which is Jesus. Each cell in our body is dedicated to the whole body's welfare because it is subject to the head.

Each Christian will be dedicated to the welfare of the entire church that has existed for 2000 years.

House can also mean household. Those who live in the building.

LEVITICUS 16: 6       And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house.

:17     And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made an atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation of Israel.

God, as the master Engineer, had to design a complex DNA blueprint to make us humans fit to survive in our physical environment. But our brief natural lives are soon over. We rely on Science to keep us alive as long as possible. We are not keen to die, which shows a spark within us that wants to be eternal.

So Jesus had to design a spiritual blueprint which He wrote as a Bible. We must learn how to let God guide us as He reveals the way of eternal life by un-coding the mysteries of Scripture. We have to rely on faith to receive this deeper revelation.

“I go to prepare a place for you”.

Our future home is the spiritual church built up from the living stones where each person plays a role. Jesus left the earth so that people could follow His Word. By fulfilling the Scriptures that apply to their day and age, people get shaped and built up so that they can fit into God’s Big Plan. He wants the Christians from all seven church ages to be the building blocks of His spiritual Building or House.

But God sees things way above what we can see.

I CORINTHIANS 2:9   But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

We need to pray and study in order for God to reveal the truth to us.

ISAIAH 55:8   For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

ISAIAH 55:9   For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

We think we understand how to serve God. We actually have not much clue what God wants us to do.

Thus people just stay in the rut and routine of their comfort zone in a church.

When God changes direction to fit in with His huge New Testament plan that spans 2000 years, the church just continues in its traditional way.

REVELATION 18:1   And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

:2   And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

A strong angel or messenger that condemns our modern church systems. This has to be because Jesus stands outside the church in the seventh church age.

This sounds a lot like brother Branham's ministry.

REVELATION 18:4
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

"Come out of the church systems". A modern-day exodus.

This is not the voice of the angel or messenger.

This is the inner voice of the indwelling Holy Spirit that is our link to Heaven.

JOHN 14:3   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.

Each believer has a portion of God’s Spirit. When all the believers are finally joined together, they will combine to have the fullness of God’s Spirit.

When Jesus has eventually shaped us all into a complete Body that He can fully dwell in, then all of us will be permanently with God. All of God will be dwelling in His church which is God's future House.

JOHN 14:4   And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.

Jesus claims that we can know what we do not think we know. He said that they knew where He was going and how to get there.

The human attributes of the Spirit of Christ, when He died, would return to the supernatural attributes of God the Father.

In death, the human unites with the Supernatural. The way back to God is simply to believe and obey everything that is in the Bible.

JOHN 14:5   Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?

Thomas said that they did not know His destination nor how to get there.

JOHN 14:6   Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

All they had to do was to believe in Jesus as He would open the Door to Heaven for them.

Believing in Jesus was the only way that they could follow God's plan.

As the Word, Jesus is the truth. This truth of God’s Word is written out in the Bible and by believing the Bible and obeying It, you automatically follow the path that leads to eternal Life.

The Spirit of God was in Christ. So by coming to Christ, you are automatically coming to God.

If you do not approach Christ, Who is the Word,  then it is impossible for you to approach God.

Life is an invisible spirit that reveals itself by being in a fruit or seed that you can see. So by eating the visible fruit, you also eat the invisible life in the fruit.

Jesus is the Word. So by believing the visible Word or Bible, you automatically gain the invisible Holy Spirit that is contained within the Word.

The more you believe and understand the Bible, the more the Holy Spirit grows within you.

JOHN 14:7   If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

Jesus as a Man, by His words and behavior, was the outward expression of the indwelling Spirit of God.

JOHN 14:8   Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.

Philip thought that God the Father was a separate Person to Jesus.

Thus he asked to see God the Father.

JOHN 14:9   Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

Jesus said that He as a Man was the express image of the indwelling Spirit of God. Jesus was God in the form of a Man.

COLOSSIANS 2:9   For in him [Jesus] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

HEBREWS 1:3   (Jesus) Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his (God’s) person,

JOHN 14:10   Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

Jesus was fully in the will of God because God dwelt in Jesus to guide Him.

Jesus was the Body of God, and this is the example that the church has to follow to become God’s body. A portion of the Spirit of God must be living in each church member.

JOHN 14:11   Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.

The miracles and Scriptural accuracy of the Life of Jesus were proof that God dwelled in Him. By fulfilling Scripture, Jesus dwelled in the Word, which is God.

The supernatural miracles were proof of Him being God in the flesh.

JOHN 14:12   Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

Christians would perform miracles in the church ages at various times. Jesus as a Man was limited to being in one place at a time. But once He returned to the supernatural realm of Heaven then His Holy Spirit would be free to move around the world inside His believers. Thus a greater number of supernatural works would be done if one added them all up over the 2000 years.

JOHN 14:13   And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

Jesus would answer the prayers of His people.

We cannot picture an infinite, invisible God.

But by becoming a Man, God gave us a focus. Thus, we can focus on the Man Jesus, Who is the Son of God or the Body of God Who makes the invisible God visible. By glorifying the power of Jesus, we actually glorify the power of the invisible Father inside Him.

JOHN 14:14   If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

The name of Jesus is the key to God’s power because Jesus is the human name of God. In Jesus, God became one of us.

If you call out a person's name as they walk past you, they will stop and speak to you.

God is always moving near us. So if you call out the His human name, Jesus, then He will stop and speak to you.

JOHN 14:15   If ye love me, keep my commandments.

The definition of love is to obey the Bible, which is Jesus in Word form.

If you disagree with anything in the Bible, then you disagree with Jesus. Then you do not love Jesus.

If you feel that the Bible has too many rules, then the Spirit of Jesus does not indwell you, and you are not part of His Body.

The way you feel about the Bible, the Word of God, is the same way you feel about Jesus.

The Bible commandments are how the Head, Jesus, controls the Body of believers. Your entire body loves to obey whatever your head says. If your body does not obey your head then you need urgent medical help.

Saved Christians who do not obey all the commandments of Scripture will get straightened out in the Tribulation.

JOHN 14:16   And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

Jesus, the Man, was about to leave the scene.

But a deeper plan was being prepared.

People did not realize that by living in Jesus, God had been able to develop His Human characteristics.

Thus the Holy Spirit also has human characteristics.

Adam and Eve were originally a single human spirit-being created in the image of God, because God is a Spirit.

The feminine characteristics were originally part of Adam’s spirit but were then separated into a feminine body.

GENESIS 5:2   Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

Our human characteristics were originally in God’s Spirit.

After the death of Jesus the Holy Spirit returned to live in the people, as happened on the Day of Pentecost. The portion of the Holy Spirit that entered each person was not only supernatural but was also partly human. That way God could make each believer into the human being that He had originally intended them to be.

Thus our old human spirit needs to die and be replaced by the new combination of supernatural and human spirit that comes into us. Both supernatural and human attributes have to come from God’s Spirit as He moulds us.

JOHN 14:17   Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

The Comforter is the Spirit of truth. But Jesus said He was the Truth. Jesus now says that He will return to comfort them.

JOHN 14:18   I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

Thus Jesus is clearly saying that He is the comforting Holy Spirit.

The important change is that God’s Spirit, by living in the Man Jesus, had now developed His human qualities.

Thus the Spirit of Jesus Who was living with them would now return as the Holy Spirit to live within them.

But the Holy Spirit was now partly human, not just supernatural.

The world knows not the truth because they are too fond of finding mistakes in the Bible instead of believing the all the Bible.

JOHN 14:19   Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.

The secret of the future church's success would be the human-supernatural Spirit of Christ living in them.

Each person would thus be moulded into the type of person that God wanted them to be.

The Christians would see Christ revealed in the written Bible, while the world would reject or criticize the Bible. Thus the world would not see the truth, which is Jesus.

The Bible lays out the blueprint of how God wants to steer His church through the tumultuous 2000 years of church history. In each age, Jesus enlightened the believers to the revealed truths of their day.

JOHN 14:20   At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

Jesus as a Man, was completely subjected to the will of God and fulfilled every Scripture so as to be fully in the Word of God the Father.

As the supernatural God had full control over the Man Jesus, so Jesus wants to dwell within each believer and take full control of that person’s life.

Only by being in full control of a person’s life and thoughts can Jesus shape that person’s belief and bring that person into full subjection to the will and Word of God.

JOHN 14:21   He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

Our attitude to the Bible displays our attitude to Jesus.

When we desire to keep and obey all that is written in Scripture, then we know that we love Jesus. When we want to know more about the mysteries of the Bible, then we know that if God deepens our understanding of the written Word, it is because God loves us and wants us to know more about Him.

As we get a deeper revelation of the Bible, so we gain a deeper understanding of what Jesus is doing today. Then we can see how He manifests Himself in the fulfilled Scriptures.

MATTHEW 25:29   For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.

If we believe the portions of Scripture that God has revealed to us, then He will grant more and more revelation of Scripture. But if our knowledge of the Bible is superficial then that demonstrates our lack of interest. We will then start to lose even that bit of Scripture that we once understood.

We read of sad testimonies where people who are now atheists claim that they were once Christians.

Christians who once claimed to believe what was in the Bible now only believe their church's traditions and opinions.

Our depth of knowledge of Scripture can only come from Jesus, as He is the Word. Our desire to understand Scripture indicates how much we love Him.

JOHN 14:22   Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?

How will we see Jesus but the world will not?

Believers see Jesus walking through the pages of the Bible. They see the prophecies in the Bible being fulfilled. Unbelievers look at the Bible and see a collection of myths and contradictions.

JOHN 14:23   Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

If we love Jesus we will keep His Word. Then God will love us and God’s Spirit will enter us.

The supernatural guidance and protection of God the Father is accompanied by the human understanding and empathy of Jesus.

The supernatural and human combine to enable us to recognize the Word for our day.  So that we can understand the Scriptures in order that we can fulfill the Word, which is how God guides us towards His Second Coming.

JOHN 14:24   He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.

If we disobey, ignore, or contradict, or change and modify any Scripture, we signify that we do not really love God. People say they love God from an emotional point of view, but if they are not Scriptural in all their beliefs then they actually do not love God in the way they say they do.

God's eternal Spirit expressed His deep thoughts as the written Word. The Word is just the thoughts of God coming down to our level.

Our thoughts are deeper than our words.

Our thoughts are the father of our words.

But our words  are the closest we can come to expressing our thoughts.

God the Father sits on a throne of unimaginably deep thoughts. As God the Father speaks so His Word is the Son which tries to express those thoughts to us.

But Jesus alone can give us the eagle-eyed insight that we need to interpret the Word in a way that reveals God's thinking.

JOHN 14:25   These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you.

Jesus as a separate Person had lived with the Jews as Emmanuel, God with us, and spoken and tried to explain things to them.

But He was preparing for a better plan.

JOHN 14:26   But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

The Holy Spirit has no name in Scripture.

That is a real problem for the Trinity doctrine. Three Persons cannot have one name. So the Trinity God has got no name.

The Holy Spirit will come in the name of Jesus because when the supernatural Spirit of God became a Man, then the Holy Spirit of God was able to take on the human name of Jesus.

By then, the Holy Ghost had also developed God’s human attributes because God had lived as a human Being for 33 years.

Thus the Holy Spirit would be better able to explain the truth of the Bible to us human beings.

God’s problem was to be able to bring His deep thoughts down to our shallow human level of thinking.

Jesus, being the human manifestation of God, would act as the only Mediator between the Supernatural and the human understanding. Jesus, during the church ages would be the indwelling Holy Spirit that would strive to elevate our limited human thinking skills so that we could get a revelation of God’s real thoughts.

“He shall teach you all things”.

This describes the Holy Ghost baptism.

The purpose of the Holy Ghost is to teach us the mysteries  of the written Bible so that we can recognize God’s plan for each age.

The seventh church age is for individuals to finish the mystery of God and return back to the Bible beliefs of the first apostolic age.

JOHN 16:13   Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:

This is God’s master plan for the end time when He spues the church out of His mouth and, standing outside the church door, He appeals to individuals to listen to His Word. But the church, focused on quotes, is no longer listening to Scripture.

REVELATION 3:14   And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;

:16   So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

He spues out the church.

He is now outside the church, knocking on the church door. He mentions no exceptions, so that includes every denominational and message church.

REVELATION 3:20   Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice,

Jesus stands outside the church door that has rejected Him as the Word of God and appeals to an individual in the church who is still prepared to listen to Scripture.

So our relationship with Jesus depends on our attitude to the Scripture. It does not depend on how we “feel” about Jesus.

Church-goers in our end-time church age all profess to love Jesus dearly, but the Bible says nothing good about our last church age of the Laodiceans.

So God is not impressed with our modern church world.

All 45000 different types of denominational and message churches have not produced one compliment from God.

There is not one church group that the Bible speaks well of.

JOHN 14:27   Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Jesus is about to die cruelly and unjustly. Jerusalem is in turmoil as the people know that the priests are looking for Jesus. There is no worldly peace, as the disciples will soon be scared and running for their lives.

Yet Jesus gives them peace. That is the inner peace that comes from trusting in Jesus because He is the only One Who can win the victory. His inner peace also comes from resting in the Scriptures. Whatever happens and however turbulent the events seem to be, if Scripture is being fulfilled then it is all part of God’s plan. And we should never be troubled nor afraid when God’s Will unfolds.

If Scripture is being fulfilled in troubled times, then we must be at rest.

The disciples would have to learn to leave things to Jesus. Then alone could they be unafraid and at peace in a world that was chaotic in its uproar and confusion.

JOHN 14:28   Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.

Jesus is going away from this world in death. But He will return in the resurrection. Then He will go away again when He ascended to Heaven in a glorified Body. The infinite God the Father now dwells in Heaven in His glorified resurrected Body.

ISAIAH 9:6   For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

But despite feeling their loss of Him, they should have realized that everything Jesus did was not in His own interests but in the interests of the welfare of the church.

Such was His love for the future church. The disciples should have loved Him enough to know that whatever He did, it was for their benefit.

As a Spirit, God is unlimited. As a Man, Jesus had limits, such as being physically in one place.

Thus the supernatural Spirit of God the Father was more powerful than the Man Jesus.

This shows that the Trinity of three co-equal People is false.

Jesus would then return as the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Dwelling in each believer and guiding them as the Holy Spirit would make Jesus far more effective.  His Spirit would spread out as the disciples spread out to different lands to preach the Gospel.

JOHN 14:29   And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.

Prophecy is the key ingredient of the Bible. Telling people what will happen before it happens.

No other book can do that. That is the fingerprint of God on the pages of the Scripture.

JOHN 14:30   Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

Jesus has not got much longer on earth. Satan is the prince of this world. But the Devil is unscriptural and he cannot prove his beliefs by running them through the verses of the Bible.

When a preacher changes words in the Bible, or contradicts the Bible, or ignores certain verses in the Bible then we know that the Devil is influencing him. Judas walked away from the Word when he walked away from Jesus.

JOHN 14:31   But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.

This is one of the most amazing verses in the Bible.

Jesus was going to be judged in the most unfair trial. He was going to die in cruel and excruciating agony. He would be humiliated in every possible way.

But the supernatural Spirit of God within Him told Him that He must do it.

So Jesus never argued.

His love for the Father's plan and for us was so great that He was prepared to pay the ultimate price.

He did not stress His suffering. He stressed His love for the supernatural Spirit that was within Him, guiding Him down this path.

The whole focus of Jesus was no longer on His own life. He was thinking purely of the welfare of His future church. We Gentiles were lost in sin and could not save ourselves. But if Jesus died as a Sacrificial Lamb for our sins, then we would be saved.

The welfare of the entire church was His goal. And he was prepared to do the awful task that He alone could do to save the church, His future Body of believers.

He gave, He did not seek to get.

For Jesus, as a Man, it was not to try to reason a way out. It was not to feel sorry for Himself. It was only to obey the Will of the supernatural God within Him.

Whatever the cost to His humanity, He would see that God’s Word was fulfilled.

This was the path that He had to follow to prepare a spiritual House for Himself. Built from the spiritual building blocks of millions of Christians over a time span of 2000 years.

This amazing spiritual structure makes sure that there is a place for each of us as an essential piece in that great House, if we can stay Scriptural.

"Arise, let us go hence”.

Jesus knew where He was going.

If we obey Scripture, then we know that God will guide us.

Rise up in the Spirit above the concerns and suffering of the flesh.

Rise up to a higher call of duty until the flesh is in total subjection to the Spirit.

Rise up in obedience to Scripture until we are high enough for God’s Will to sweep us up like eagles soaring on an updraft of faith that takes us high above the storms.

Stuck on earth, people have a limited materialistic vision. The storms of life will always trouble them. Their destination will always be unsure.