"Let not your heart be troubled: ye 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 unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (Jn. 14:1-3).

This is one of the most profound revelations Christ ever shared with His disciples. He was, with words glorious indeed and wonderful beyond the comprehension of the natural mind, showing His disciples a new realm of existence, a new sphere of life, a new dimension of reality they had not touched. He introduced the reality of the Father realm. In essence, Jesus told them, "I am leaving you to prepare a place for you in another realm. I am going to bring you into that new realm - My resurrected, ascended realm. You are going to be united with Me in the power and glory of My Father."

Did these disciples understand? Not any more than we have understood with our natural minds. Consider the incredible blindness of these men who had walked with Jesus and listened for three years to His gracious words of eternal life. God help us to see what the disciples did not! Christ opened up the way for us into a supernatural realm. He ascended up far above all heavens, back into the position of Fatherhood, from whence He poured out of Himself that flow of the Spirit which we need, and whereby we are able to cry, "Abba, Father." He yearns to seat every believer with Him in this heavenly place. He meant it when He said, "I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." He meant He would bring us to Himself - united with Him in His glory - right now while upon earth. If you "abide" in Him you must be where He is! He is outside of all that of this earth. He is outside of all that is fleshly. He is outside of all that is natural. He is outside of all that is visible. He is outside of all that is temporal. He is outside of all that is evil. He abides in the realm of Spirit. He dwells in the realm of holiness. He lives in the realm of the unlimited. AND ONLY THE HOLY SPIRIT CAN TAKE US TO WHERE HE IS!

The disciples heard Jesus' promise, "...that where I am, there ye may be also." But like multitudes today, they could understand it only in carnal, physical, material and geographical terms. "He will come someday, rapture me, and take me to His mansion in heaven," they were doubtless thinking. To them, it was all physical, and it was a future blessing. But Christ meant it to be an immediate reality. He wanted to return in mighty spirit power and quicken them in spirit and raise them up and make them sit together with Him in the heavenly places! How can we miss this intention? How clear can He make it? "I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also."

As we pointed out in our last article, God nowhere in the Bible holds up "heaven" as a hope for the future; but He does promise us "THE GLORY OF OUR LORD