In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of seeking the Lord earnestly and experiencing His visitation. The speaker shares a personal testimony of going through a difficult time and seeking the Lord's guidance. During this time, the speaker reflects on the verse about the kernel of wheat falling to the ground and dying to produce fruit. The speaker desires to become like that kernel of wheat and produce fruit for the Lord. The sermon also encourages believers to wait upon the Lord and be open to His leading, allowing the Holy Spirit to have rightful lordship in their lives. The speaker highlights the need for a genuine expression of the Spirit of God and the importance of gathering together in a way that allows God to reveal His glory. The sermon concludes with a reminder of God's promises and the assurance that His word will accomplish its purpose. The speaker references various biblical elements such as the sanctuary, the rain from heaven, and the preparation of a place for believers in God's sanctuary.

I'm glad that we could gather in this manner, this weekend, and we pray that God will move in our midst, that it won't just be another gathering as such, but that God will come forth and reveal his glory in a new way in our midst. And let's keep the young people in mind. All this year, we felt that God had something special for the young people, and they've had a certain touch at times, but we believe the Lord would move into their lives in a very precious way. Let's look into the word of God this time. Let's turn to John chapter 14. John chapter 14. Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God. Believe also in me. 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. We'll continue reading on later, but I wanted to speak about this prepared place in Father's house. God has prepared a place for his people to dwell. And I'm not talking about beyond this life, the eternal realm, I'm talking about here and now. Jesus went away to prepare a place for us, here and now. There are many things in the Scripture, many, many verses, especially in the New Testament, that have been neglected or completely ignored by the Church, because they said, well, that's heaven, and so we don't know much about heaven, we'll go there someday. And many of those truths, many of those Scriptures do not apply to the hereafter, but to here and now. But don't worry about the hereafter. People, you know, they feel if we're taking those things that they've always thought was heaven and apply them now, well, they think they're being robbed of something. Don't fear that you're going to be robbed in the hereafter. God has untold glory for his people. It's going to take eternity for us to fully see the glory of God. Some people feel, well, you know, you're bringing that down for this life, that's really heaven. Don't worry about that. God has far more for the heavenly realm and the hereafter than you and I have ever dreamt of. But the Church has remained in a poverty-stricken condition for the simple reason that many of these things that we've said, well, yeah, that's heaven, that's wonderful, and we get to heaven, are for the here and now. And in that same chapter, where Robert quoted a verse, Paul says this, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. And I remember in church as a young person, even in Sunday school, the congregation would be asked to stand and quote a scripture, and this one would be quoted so often that I guess everybody pretty well knew it by heart. I have not seen nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. And of course, that was heaven, and God has prepared those wonderful things which I have not seen or ear heard. But if you just read on the next verse, then you realize, no, he's not talking about going to heaven to see these things, he's talking about the revelation of it here and now. But the next verse says, But unto us God hath revealed it by his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the depths of God. And so Paul says, we speak the hidden wisdom, the hidden wisdom, as it is written, things which I have not seen, which ear hath not heard, and which have not entered into the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for them that love him, but unto us God hath revealed them by his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the depths of God. So Paul is telling us that this hidden wisdom, this hidden wisdom which was hidden from the foundation of the world for his people to be revealed in the last time, contains and concerns things which you cannot see with the eye, and you cannot hear with the ear, and you cannot comprehend with your mind or your heart. Those are the things that God hath prepared for his own and hath revealed unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the depths of God. And so coming into John 14 here, we might go back there again, 1 Corinthians 2, but Jesus said, Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me. Jesus had been telling them he was going away, I'm going away, and Peter said, Where are you going, Lord? And he said, Whither I go thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me hereafter. And though the Lord had told them many times that he was to die, to go to the cross and go back to the Father, somehow it didn't dawn into their spirits what he was really saying because it didn't add up with their theology. They knew very well that when this Messiah came to earth that he was going to set up a kingdom, and they knew Jesus was the Messiah. And so Jesus would teach the principles of the kingdom, which was so entirely contrary to the principles of this world, and they would hear it and they wouldn't understand most of it. Jesus would take the disciples apart and explain to them a little more concerning the mysteries of the kingdom, which most of the people couldn't see or hear or understand because their hearts were hardened. But somehow even the disciples couldn't grasp the nature of the kingdom of God. When Jesus would talk about going to the cross and going back to the Father, oh, it must be another one of those parables, it must be another one of those mysterious sayings of his, right up to the very end. They couldn't grasp it. But Jesus was to depart from them in just a couple of days' time. And so he said, Don't let your hearts be troubled, don't let your hearts be troubled. If you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. And that word, which we have observed many times, is the same word that's used down in verse 23, where Jesus said, We will come unto him and make our abode with him. The very same word, so that they could have translated that in verse 23, We will come and make our mansion with him. But that wouldn't seem to make sense. And so they translated the one abode and the other mansion. But it's literally an abiding place, a place of habitation. And God certainly has a place of habitation in the hereafter. We're not denying that. And we have no way hardly of conceiving the nature of that eternal habitation. But Jesus is not talking about the hereafter in this verse. He's talking about Father's house, which has many abiding realms, many abiding places. Father's house, well, the temple is Father's house. Jesus said, It is written, My Father's house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, and you have made it a den of thieves. And so the temple was the house of God. And Jesus recognized the temple as being God's house because God wasn't through with it yet. Very shortly, it would pass away to make way for the true temple. Jesus was the true temple, but he was not manifested as such as yet, or recognized as such. But he was really the temple of God to replace all those Old Testament types and shadows, all those old temples of a bygone day. Jesus came on the earth to replace all those old temples. And so we're told that the Word, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And a little later on, John 1, And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The Word was made, or became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And the word dwelt there is a word which, part of it is the word tent, so that if you wanted to translate it very literally, it would be, the Word became flesh and pitched his tent in our midst. Or another translated, the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. So that the Lord Jesus Christ was that true tabernacle of God in the earth. He was Father's house, but he was going away. But he said, I'm going back to, in my Father's house are many abiding places, if it were not so, I would have told you. He said, I would have told you if it wasn't so. He says, I wouldn't go away and leave you with nothing. I'd have told you if that was the case. But that wasn't the case. If I go away, it's to prepare a habitation for you, my disciples. I'm going 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 you may be also. He didn't say that where I'm going, there you may be, but where I am. Jesus was already there. Jesus was already inhabiting the Father, and the Father was inhabiting him. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas said unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. So that's what he's talking about, coming to the heart of God, coming to the Father. I'm going to prepare a place for you, and if I go, I'll come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. Jesus, you know the way, and you know where I'm going. And they said, Lord, we don't know either one. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. He's talking about going back to the heart of the Father, and preparing a place in the heart of the Father for his own. If I go away, he says, I'll come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also. For when Jesus walked this earth, he dwelt in God, and God dwelt in him. They knew he was the Messiah, they knew he was the Son of God, they knew he was the king, they knew he was the great teacher, they knew all that, but somehow it was hard for them to grasp that he was the tabernacle, the home in which God the Father dwelt. And so they went on, sort of arguing a little with the Lord, till it said, Lord, you're talking about the Father, and opening up the way to the Father, and going to the Father, and show us the Father, and that's all we need to know. Just don't keep using mysterious language like that. Show us the Father, and that's sufficient. And Jesus answered, almost in surprise, Philip, have I been so long time with you, and yet haven't you known me, Philip? Yeah, he knew Jesus, but that wasn't Philip's question, Philip's question was, show us the Father. Jesus said, have I been with you these three, three and a half years, Philip, and you haven't known me? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. How sayest thou then, show us the Father? Father, believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? Don't you realize that the Father dwells in me, and I dwell in the Father? Now he's saying, I'm going away, but when I go away, I'll come and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. Where was he? He was in Father's house. He was the Father's house. He was in the Father, and the Father in him. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak in you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. It is hard for them to grasp, it's hard for you and I to grasp it, but the Lord Jesus Christ, walking here on earth, walked as a man in total union with the Heavenly Father, so that the very words that he spoke were the words of the Father. It wasn't just a Messiah that was talking, a great teacher, a great prophet. The words he spoke came from the heart of the Father. But here was a man, and all they saw was the man, and they saw him opening his lips and talking, but they didn't know that he was dwelling in the Father, and the Father was dwelling in him while he was here on earth, while he was here walking this earth. He dwelt in the Father, and the Father dwelt in him, so that when he would speak, he would speak the words of the Father. When he would go to a place to minister, it would be the Father that would be causing him to go to this place. When he would look upon different individuals and see their needs and their problems, it was the Father in him that was showing him the condition of the hearts of men. And because the Father was showing him, he would come out and declare some very strange things. It was the Father speaking through him, living in him, thinking in him, walking in him, speaking the words, and declaring the truth of God, and performing the works of God. They weren't his own, they weren't his own works. And that's why when they would come to him on several occasions and accuse him for doing something on the Sabbath day he shouldn't have been doing, he'd almost excuse himself and he'd say, the Father showed me that. I can of my own self do nothing, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. The Son can of himself do nothing. Now, these are the words of Jesus. I know we look upon Christ as the one who could do anything he wanted to do, and we're inclined to consider his miracles in the New Testament as something that he did because he was a miracle worker, but no, he just did it because the Father was there doing it. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. And so he had no doctrine of his own, no program of his own, no teaching of his own to expound. He came to reveal the Father, and so John said, the Word became flesh and tabernacled in our midst. The Word became flesh and pitched his tent in our midst, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, so that the glory that shone from Christ and the words he spoke and the works he performed and the healings he performed, the glory that shone forth was really the glory of the Heavenly Father. We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And so he goes on, John 14, verse 11, Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very work's sake. 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. We take that scripture, you know, and we take it out of its context and quote it a lot, and we, you know, we tell the people that God's going to do greater works to his people on the earth now than Jesus did when he was here, and all that's true. But you must see it in its context to realize that the reason God's people on the earth are going to do greater works is not because they're greater. They're much less, they're much inferior. He alone is the exalted Son of God, and he alone must have all preeminence. But the reason these people on earth are going to do greater works than Jesus did was because I go to the Father. Greater works than these shall he do because I go unto the Father. Well, what's that got to do with it? Well, because in going to the Father, he's able to release that same spirit that was in him into his disciples, so that not only would there be one man dwelling in the Father and the Father in him, but there would be a people wherever this gospel would be preached. There would be a people, a corporate people, a body, a church in whom the Father would be dwelling. And because Jesus was exalted at the right hand of the throne of God, he would be able to release that spirit that was in him unto his people in the earth. And therefore, they would do greater works because the Lord of glory, who once walked on earth and performed the will of the Father as one individual man, was now going to be exalted at God's right hand, and he would have a people in the earth, his beloved disciples who would have that same spirit that was in him, and they would go far and wide, throughout the length and the breadth of the earth, and do greater works because he had gone to the Father. He had gone to the place of supreme authority. He'd gone to the throne room, and because he was at the throne room, he would be able to impart unto his own all those hidden resources that were in Christ when he was here. And so Jesus said, he shall take of mine and will show it unto you. But let's get back to this matter here of the place, the prepared place that God has for his church, not in heaven, but here, this prepared place. God's purpose in redeeming us was not negative. You say, well, I know that. I know, but it's been presented that way, that he redeemed us, saved us from death, saved us from sin, saved us from hell, saved us from eternal destruction. All that is true, but that's negative. God's real purpose in saving us is to take us out of and into, take us out of and into, out of the place of condemnation, out of the world, out of sin, out of the grasp of the enemy, to take us into the heart of God. So the Apocryphal Paul says, God has translated us out of the powers of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, out of and into, out of and into. And so it's the story of Exodus and Joshua coming out and going in. God called them out of Egypt, out of the place of bondage, to bring them into Canaan. And so it is Moses that led them out by the will of God and by the anointing of God. But it was Joshua who led them in. And God's purpose is not completed until we have both those aspects. He brings us out to bring us in. And so even when they sang the victory song in the Old Testament, when they had crossed over the Red Sea and had been delivered from Pharaoh, and we're not going into that story, but when they were delivered from Pharaoh and brought across the Red Sea and God closed the Red Sea behind them and they knew they were safe on the eastern banks of the Red Sea and that Pharaoh's host had been destroyed there in the waters of the Red Sea, what could they do but sing the victory song? And so they sang the victory song, the song of Moses, the song of victory. And Miriam, an old lady there, took her timbrel and she led the ladies in songs of praise and triumph because of what God had done. The Lord hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. But even here, and if you'll notice in the Scriptures, even though God does some great work, if you'll notice, if you'll read carefully, you'll discover that God always has certain ultimates in mind that we're slow to apprehend. We see the great work that God does, but we're slow to apprehend that in that work God is seeking to point us to something greater. And failing to realize that, we fail to go on with God. Because what God has done has been wonderful and we rejoice in that, our eyes, our ears are slow to comprehend that God has something much more than this immediate thing that he has done. And so even in the victory song, there's a verse here that declares God's ultimate purpose for them, which no doubt as they sang this song they didn't even grasp what God was saying. But it's there in the song, by prophetic inspiration, thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. That's right there in the victory song, that God had brought them out to bring them into the place of God's inheritance. Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, in the place, O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in. God's place for his people is in the place that God made for himself. God's place for his people is in the very heart of God. God's habitation is in man and man's habitation is in God. I think it was Augustine who said that man was made to give glory to God and he can never be happy, can never find rest, until he finds himself in union with God. And that is true. But do we realize that God made man to be a habitation for himself? And God cannot be in rest, totally at rest, until he finds his habitation in man. Both are true, because your habitation is in God and God is in you, so that your rest and God's rest is really the same. As you find your rest in God, it's only because God finds his rest in you. And God found total rest in his Son, total rest, total delight in his Son. On two or three occasions he declared with a mighty voice from heaven, this is my beloved Son, in whom is all my delight. God found total delight in his Son, he found a habitation in his Son, so that when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, it was the glory of God that was there. We beheld his glory, the glories of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. God always wanted a place to dwell. That's why God ordained, and one of the first things he did when he brought them out of the land, and before he brought them into the land of promise, before he brought them into the mountain of his inheritance, into the sanctuary which God's hands have established, even before that, right there in the wilderness, God ordered that they build him a sanctuary. Now does God really want a house of wood and stone to dwell in? It isn't that God wanted a house of wood and stone, but he was leading his people on and on and on to that place where he would find that real habitation that he was after in the hearts of men, and all these tabernacles and tents and sanctuaries that we find in the Old Testament, and there were several of them, they all looked forward to that day when the true temple would be revealed from heaven, even the Lord Jesus Christ. He became the temple of God. Jesus knew that, so that as they stood there looking at the temple in the distance, the temple of Herod, which was gorgeous and beautifully built and very costly, took 46 years to build, the stones of it were very costly and very precious, and as Jesus looked upon it and the Jews said to him, what sign are you going to give us, give us a sign, and he said, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. You might want to accuse the Lord of being deceptive, but in actual fact, he was declaring very simply that he was the temple. No longer did the glory of God dwell in that temple at Herodville, if it ever was there. It never really was there, but it was still considered to be Father's house, sacrifices were still offered there, and the true people of God still came there with their sacrifices. And even when Jesus was born, there was a remnant, a holy remnant there in that temple. There was an Anna, a prophetess, there was Simeon, an old man who would come into the temple, there was Zacharias, a priest who was a godly man, and who received a visitation from God, and to whom was born John the Baptist. So there was always a true remnant, even in that temple, and God wasn't through with it yet, but the glory of God was not there, and when Jesus stood there and they asked him for a sign, he says, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. And oh, of course, they started to argue, and they called him a fool, it took 46 years to build this temple, and you're going to raise it up in three days? And that was one of the accusations they brought against him when he was brought to trial before Pilate. But this man said he was going to destroy a temple and build it in three days, and he spoke of the temple of his body, that's what he spoke about, the temple of his body. Because in him, in that body that was prepared of God, dwelt the very glory and presence of the Heavenly Father. Now, I don't think we have any problem with that, but our problem comes when it is revealed that this one who was the temple of God was going to go away, and that he was going to take on an enlargement of that temple, that the temple was going to be enlarged to include a people in the earth. And that's what Jesus is talking about in John 14. He says, I am going to prepare a place for you, and I'll come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there ye may be also. I'm going to prepare this place. Thou shalt bring them in, into the mountain of thine inheritance, and the place, O Lord, which thou hast ordained for thee to dwell in, and the sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. That's the place that God has gone to prepare. And considering the prepared temples in the Old Testament, we're not going to consider them all. We're just going to briefly consider the preparations that were necessary in the building of this house for God in the Old Testament. When God got the people to Sinai and began to give them his holy commandments and his holy laws, and he must cause them to wait there at Sinai almost a year, that this people, who had just come out of Egyptian bondage, might be disciplined in God's ways, might learn of the holy God, might learn of God's holy requirements, might receive his laws and his ordinances. God said in the midst of all that, let the people bring together certain substances, certain materials, and he told them what they were, shidom wood and linen and scarlet and purple and gold and silver and brass, and he names it all off. Let them bring these materials, and let them make me a sanctuary that I might dwell among them. Why did God, way back there in the Old Testament in the wilderness, why did he insist on having a sanctuary that he might dwell in this wooden structure when clearly God doesn't dwell in temples made with hands? Many centuries later, when Solomon was ordained to the Lord to build a more glorious temple, a far more glorious temple than the one Moses built, Solomon built it and established the order of the priesthood and the musicians and the Levites and everybody had their place, the doorkeepers, and when it was all prepared, the glory of God came down and filled that temple. And you remember how Solomon had built a great platform out in the midst of the great court there, and he had knelt down, and with his hands raised to heaven, he prayed that famous prayer, which we find there, I think, in 2 Chronicles or 1 Chronicles, that great prayer unto God, dedicating this temple. But one thing that he said, which we must not lose sight of, in the midst of all the glory of this temple, Solomon said, but will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house that I have built. Solomon made it very clear that God wasn't really dwelling there, it was just a place for his name, just a place for his name that, he said, if your people are in trouble or if they get into captivity or if they're scattered in the far corners of the earth, if, Lord, he said, if they'll consider their sin and why you scattered them and will repent and pray towards this house, let it be that your name will be here, and that as they pray towards this house, that you will hear from heaven and forgive their sin and restore again their captivity. So Solomon knew and all the prophets knew that God didn't really dwell in a house made with hands. But it became that to the people of God. That became the sanctuary. And let us never look upon any sanctuary that we gather in, let us not look upon that as being the temple of God. Let us not think, you know, that this building here is built for the sanctuary of God. You're God's sanctuary. You're the house in which God dwells. You're that temple in which God would dwell. Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price? You and I are that temple. Israel got to thinking that they had done something for God. They had made a house for God. And God, through the prophet Isaiah, he reproved them very severely. And he says, where is the place of my rest and where is the house that you're going to build for me? Hath not my hand made all these things? Behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain them, said Solomon. And God says, behold, the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool, now what kind of a house are you going to build me? But God said, but to this man will I look, even to him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and that trembles at my word. God has always wanted to dwell in the hearts of men, and that's the only tabernacle that God ever wanted, the only temple he ever wanted, the only temple that would truly be compatible to God. You know that in the heaven of heavens that God can't find a resting place, he can't find a place for his throne, the earth is just merely a footstool for his feet, God couldn't find a true habitation anywhere. Why? Because only man was made in his image, only man was made in the image and likeness of God. He made angels, he made cherubim, he made seraphim, he made archangels, how many celestial beings, how many kinds, perhaps we do not know, but there's only one creature that is said to have been made in the image and likeness of God, and that was man. I know man forfeited that, but that's what redemption is all about, that's what redemption is all about, bringing man back, redeeming him out of the hand of the enemy and out from sin that God might once again have one in his image, one who would be compatible with himself, one in whom he might dwell. And so he found that one in the Lord Jesus Christ. But now Jesus said, I'm going away, and he said, don't let your hearts be troubled, don't let it be troubled. This is not going to in any way hinder God's plan. It seemed to them that it was a great interruption to the plan of God, that Jesus, the Messiah who came to establish a kingdom in the earth, it seemed that that whole program was interrupted, and that somehow they had slain the Son of God. Jesus said, don't let your heart be troubled. In my Father's house are many abodes. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. He was the abode of God, I know, but now he says, I'm going to prepare a place for you. They said, where are you going? What's this all about? He says, you know where I'm going and you know the way. They said, no, we don't. He said, yes, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Now, just briefly, let's go through this same chapter. I dealt with verse 12, where Jesus said, because the Father is in me and I'm in the Father and I'm going back to the Father, that should be a cause for rejoicing, because I go to the Father. You're going to do greater works than I've been doing, because I go to the Father. Greater works than these shall you do, because I go to the Father. And whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. The Father is glorified in the Son when he performs greater works in the Son's many brethren in the earth. The Father is glorified in the Son. So it's not you and I doing the works, it's the exalted King at God's right hand, through his authority and through his power, that his people in the earth are able to do these greater works. I know it's verse 16, I will pray the Father, and he will give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever. 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. Jesus is telling them, when I go away, I'm going to pray the Father, he's going to send you another comforter, another advocate. He was their helper, he was their comforter, he was their advocate, he was their intercessor, he was the mediator, he was the one that stood between them and the Father and showed them the will of the Father, showed them the words of the Father, imparted to them the wisdom of the Father. He was the one, but he says, when I go away, that's not going to interfere with anything, because I'll give you another comforter, that he may abide with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive. Jesus, when he was here, said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He says, I'm going away, but I'm going to send you the spirit of truth. The same truth that Jesus was, would come back to dwell and abide in his people. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. I will come to you, because this is the spirit of truth, this is the spirit of Jesus. He says, I'm not going to leave you comfortless, I'm not going to leave you bereaved, I'm not going to leave you without a parent. The word in the Greek is orphanos, from which we get our word orphan. I will not leave you as orphans, I won't leave you as one without a father. I will come to you, you see, so that in the coming of the Holy Spirit, we have Jesus coming to abide in his people, in the spirit of truth. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you, yet a little while, just a few days' time, and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me, because I live, ye shall live also. At that day, what day? When the spirit of truth comes, when the spirit of Jesus comes back to abide in them, at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. At that day ye shall know. 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. Verse 23, 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, he translated the same as back there in the early part of the chapter, it would be mansion, listen to this, if a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and we will make our abiding place in him. So now we have a habitation for the Father and the Son. Let's not get theological, you know, and try and figure out all these different expressions. The spirit of Jesus is the Holy Spirit. I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. He comes to them with the Father. He comes with the spirit of the Father. We will come unto him and make our abiding place in him. Verse 28, You have heard how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto you. It's not the second coming that we're now expecting. It's this going and coming, this going away for a little while and coming again in the spirit. And that's something that I believe the Church of Christ has not really seen, the full impact of it. And I believe before that second coming, that literal coming of the Lord, we're going to see a full revelation of what it means for the Holy Spirit to abide in fullness in his temple. I say that for this reason, that God does not send forth his word into the earth and let it die there. He doesn't send forth his word and say, well, I intended this to happen, but it didn't happen and so I guess I'll do something else. God doesn't do that. God sends forth his word into the earth and makes a declaration of his intention. That word lingers in the earth. It might linger there for centuries. It might linger there for hundreds and hundreds of years. We read a way back in the book of Genesis about God's rest and how the Joshua, it was to take the people of God out of the wilderness and into the rest which pertained to the people of God. And God gave them rest, we're told. But Paul, when he refers to it in Hebrews 4, he said the rest that Joshua gave them wasn't really the true rest of God. It wasn't the fullness of it. For he says, if it was, then God wouldn't have spoken about another day. God spoke about another day in the book of Psalms. And so Paul says, if Joshua had truly given them rest, he would not have spoken of another day, which he did. Therefore, says Paul, there remaineth a rest for the people of God. And so there remaineth this rest. And Paul said in that same chapter, seeing therefore, it remaineth that some must enter therein. And they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief. Again, he defineth a certain day. God limited, set apart another day because the first generation didn't appropriate it. God defined another day, saying, if they shall enter into my rest. Seeing therefore, it remaineth that some must enter therein. There must be a people that enter into the fullness of God's rest. And I often remind the people of God that the Old Testament, given by God, written by holy men of God as they spoke, by the Holy Spirit, carried along as it were by the Holy Spirit in the river of revelation. Peter says holy men of God spake as they were moved or carried along by the Holy Spirit. And though God had planned a new covenant in the fullness of time and would do away with the old covenant, Jesus made it very clear that because God gave that old covenant, it could not pass away till everything was fulfilled. There will not fail, he said, one jot or tittle of all that is written. All must come to pass. And yet Paul tells us that the law was a ministration of death and a ministration of condemnation, that it was only given for a certain season and that it was going to pass away to make way for the new covenant. He tells us that. We won't go into all that, but Romans, Galatians. Jesus fulfilled the law that he might bring forth a new covenant. The point is that God wouldn't let the old law just disintegrate in view of the fact that he had something better coming on the scene. He gave it, he said, it's got to be fulfilled to the very letter. Every jot and tittle, not one comma, he says, not one period can fail from the law till all is fulfilled. Now, if that's true of the old covenant, how much more true is it of the new covenant? That is an eternal covenant, that's a ministration of life, that's a ministration of righteousness, that's the ultimate of God's purpose. He said, I had to let the old covenant pass away because, he said, my people continue not in my covenant, and so I regarded them not, saith the Lord. So he said, I let it fade away because they continued not in it. And so, God says, the time will come when I will make a new covenant, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, for they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. But this is the terms of the new covenant, God said. He said, I will write my laws in their hearts, I will write them in their minds, I will be their God and they shall be my people. It's a better covenant because it's a covenant wherein God himself writes with his holy finger of fire in the hearts of his people the law which he required in the Old Testament but which man was not able to fulfill. And so when a covenant, when the covenant of God remains unfinished, God is going to finish it. And the terms of the new covenant is this, God commissioned the Holy Spirit to abide in his people and to lead them into all truth. That's the commission that was laid upon the Holy Spirit, coming to abide in this temple, lead my people into all truth. Now he's still here in the church, he hasn't been given his lordship and therefore we do not see the Holy Spirit in the full expression of his being because he hasn't been given his lordship. And this is the day and hour, I believe, when God is calling upon a people to give the Lord Jesus Christ, dwelling in the midst of his people by his Holy Spirit, to give him his true lordship. Instead of trying to use him, instead of trying to get everything we can from God, to give God his true lordship. And until we come to that, we're not going to see that full expression of the Spirit of God in our midst. So that these things which you say, well I have the Spirit and so yes he comes and he comforts me and all that, we haven't seen yet. We haven't seen that real impact of the Spirit of God abiding in his temple in the earth. When there would be a people who would do greater works than Jesus did when he was here, not because they're greater, but because the Lord is at the right hand of the Father and able to take the glory of the Father and to give it unto his people. And so Jesus said in his Father, glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. And God did glorify his son while Jesus walked and ministered in this earth. He did glorify his son and we hear the Father saying from heaven, I have glorified thy name and I will glorify it again. So God glorified his name as Jesus walked on this earth as the temple of God. God glorified the son, even though the Jehovah God said, my glory will I not give to another. Because here was one, a son, who when he received glory from God, immediately he so lived, he so acted, he so worked in the earth that the glory that God put upon his son immediately went back to the Father. So Jesus was not taking glory from the Father, but the glory that came to the son went back to the Father. God's waiting for a people who will come to that. But it's going to take discipline, it's going to take chastisement, it's going to take test, it's going to take trial, but there's going to come forth a church that's going to glorify the Father and God will be able to bestow upon them all his glory because as he does, that glory will immediately go back to himself. Jesus prayed for that. He says, the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them. The very glory that God gave to the son, Jesus gave it to his people. The glory you gave me, I gave them. Not to make us glorious, not to make us a great people, but that because of that glory we would glorify the son as the son glorifies the Father. When God finds this people, when God has prepared this people through trial, through test, through discipline of one kind or another, until they have learned to give all the glory unto the son, when God finds this people who will come together in fellowship, one with another, whose only purpose in coming together is to give glory unto the Father, God will be able to come forth and manifest his glory in their midst. But he will not be able to do it as long as when God bestows some measure of glory, we keep it here. We keep it here, we glorify our gathering, or we glorify a leader, or glorify an apostle or prophet, or glorify some church structure that we have built. Glorify the people and keep the glory here, God won't stand for it. He won't stand for it. When God has disciplined you and I until we have the same attitude that Jesus had, when he said, Father, glorify thy son that thy son might glorify thee. You bestow glory upon me, he says, I'll give glory back to you. God is honored in doing that, and God will be honored and greatly glorified when there is a people on the earth who can receive the glory of the Son and are able to give it back to the Son, not retaining it for themselves. That will take much work by the Holy Spirit in our hearts, but God is going to do that, he is going to have this people that Jesus prayed for. He prayed for them, that the glory that he had would come upon his people, that we might be one with him as he was one with the Father. One with the Son as the Son is one with the Father. And Jesus said, At that day ye shall know. What day? That day when he goes to the heart of the Father and comes back by the Spirit. I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me. Because I live, ye shall live also. At that day, at that day, that day when I come to you by my Spirit and dwell in you, at that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. And we will come unto him and make our abode with him. And so Jesus is preparing a place in the Father's house. Many abiding places, many realms. Let's just briefly, in closing, go over the preparation that was made in that first sanctuary of God. Way back there in the wilderness. First, coming in at the gate of the outer court, there was an altar. That was the first thing, an altar. And so Jesus is preparing, because of his intercession at the right hand of the Father, he's preparing an obedient people in the earth. That when he finds his obedient people, we'll find our habitation in God. And the first thing that he prepares for his people is an altar. He asks you and I to cooperate, but it's the altar of God. And so there was the brazen altar. And though the Israelites perhaps had very little understanding of what God was really pointing to, as far as they were concerned, God said, bring a bullock or bring a sin offering, and bring it to the priest, and leave it with the priest, and let him slay it, and sprinkle the blood, and burn the animal on the brazen altar, and the Israelite went away free. He had sinned. He presented the offering. Probably had very little understanding of what God really saw. For God was looking forward to that time when there would be an altar. An altar for his Son, even the cross. Let you and I never forget that the cross which God gave to Jesus, he gives also to you and I. And we are to take up our cross also and follow him. And Jesus said, if any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, and let him take up his cross and follow me. There are many Christians in the earth. There are many who are converted. Many who are saved. Many who have received a portion of God's Spirit. Many who have received gifts of the Spirit. But not that many who are true disciples. A disciple is one who gives all. It's not even taught in the church. It's taught if you give your tenth, that's all God requires. Jesus said, if any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, and let him take up his cross and follow me. And so God wants disciples. God is preparing disciples today. Those who are prepared to give all. In order that we might have all of him. If a man loved me, Jesus said he would keep my words. And my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode in him. Greater love hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friends. And so Jesus was the true burnt offering, who laid down his life at the altar. But there's an altar for you and I. Not to redeem the world. But there is a burnt offering, where we present ourselves as living sacrifices, wholly acceptable unto God. So we have a portion of that cross. And our portion of it is the burnt offering, where we present ourselves wholeheartedly unto God. Present yourselves a living sacrifice. So there's the altar. There's the labor that God has prepared. A place of cleansing, a place of washing. A place of sanctification, where we're set apart unto God. And then in the holy place, there's still further preparation. There's a table that was prepared. There's a candlestick that was prepared. There's another altar that was prepared, a golden altar. All these things you see are types and shadows of the true temple, not made with hands. Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you in Father's house. This is Father's house. This is the place where God's preparing a place for you and I, in the temple. In the holy places of God. And so in the holy place, you go on from the brazen altar and the labor and into the holy place. There's a candlestick. There's illumination. There's revelation. There's further understanding. They had very limited understanding out there in the outer court. All they could go by was by the light they could see from the sun. But in the holy place, they didn't go by the light of the sun. They didn't walk around by the light of the sun. They walked in the holy place by a new light. The light of the candlestick. And so I cannot see nor hear, hear, hear, nor can the heart of man perceive the things that God has prepared for them that love him. But unto us God has revealed them by his Spirit. So Jesus spoke to the multitudes in parables because it was the word of God. It is true. They didn't understand it because all they could see was what they could see with their eye and hear with their natural ears. And therefore they didn't see beyond that. But they could hear the story about a sower going forth to sow and casting seed into the earth and how the seed would bring forth after its kind. Some seed would be wasted. It would fall by the wayside. Some would fall on stony ground. Some would fall among thorns and wouldn't bring forth any fruit. But some would fall on good ground and bring forth fruit unto eternal life. So they'd hear that and they rejoiced in hearing the word but they never saw it because they didn't have the illumination of the holy place. But in the holy place there's a new illumination. It's the illumination of God's Holy Spirit. And so Paul prays for his people that they might have the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. We're talking about Father's house, you see. A new illumination. A new appreciation of the Word. No longer just the manna, but the showbread. Or bread of the presence. Bread that had stayed there in God's presence for a whole week and they ate that. And so we're eating food. God is bringing forth the showbread these days. It hasn't been general out there amongst the multitudes. They have the manna, the Word of God. But God is bringing forth now in this Sabbath day, for the priest ate it on the Sabbath day. In this day when there's a people who are coming into God's rest, God has a new food for them. Showbread. Bread of the presence. It's been there in God's presence, but now it's there, available for the priest to eat. And then in the holy place there was an altar. Another altar. But a golden altar. Not an altar for sacrifice. Not an altar of bloody sacrifice, but an altar whereby we glorify God in all that we do. A golden altar. And I know there's much made in this day and hour of praise and worship. But there's no true praise and worship from the golden altar unless a fire has been kindled to burn the incense from the golden altar. And the only fire that God allowed to kindle the incense of the golden altar were the coals of fire that they took off the brazen altar. I've heard people say, well, you know, maybe there's some wildfire, but better to have wildfire than no fire at all. But that's not the way God looks at it. And Nadab and Abihu understood that. Oh, they said, we can come into God's presence and we'll make our own fire. They didn't go out reverently before the Lord and take fire of coals from off the brazen altar and bring it in, but they made their own and kindled their own fire to consume the incense. And what happened? Fire came out from the presence of God and destroyed them. God doesn't want your wildfire. He doesn't want it. And it's going to be destructive. There's going to be a lot of the judgments of God upon His people in this day and hour. People play around trying to worship God with all kinds of gimmicks and all kinds of rock and roll and all kinds of stuff like that. Wildfire. God won't have it. He's going to have a people as they come into the holy place, if they want to kindle true worship and prayer and intercession and thanksgiving and praise to God, they've got to get the coals from the brazen altar. In other words, it must be coals that are kindled by obedience unto the Lord, by offering ourselves as a sacrifice unto God, holy and without blemish. That's the only kind of fire that God will accept. The kindling of the incense on the golden altar. And then in behind the veil there was the holiest of all. Another realm. Another place. There are many realms in God. And Jesus said, I've gone to prepare a place for you. And if we want to go into that place of total intimacy with the Lord, where we have nothing actually but God, then we have to go from the outer court to the holy place and behind the veil into the very holiest of all where there's nothing but God. No light there but God Himself. Not even a candlestick. Not even gifts of the Spirit. If we had time, we could show how the candlestick speaks of the shining forth of the gifts of the Spirit. And we need those gifts. But they're to show us the way, the better way, the more excellent way into the holiest of all where God's presence was the dominating thing. He was the light and He was the glory. And there there was the Ark of the Covenant and in the Ark a golden pot of manna which never went into corruption like the manna out there in the outer court or out in the camp of Israel. It went into corruption in one day. That's why they had to have fresh manna every day. But in the Ark of the Covenant, there was the hidden manna. There was the incorruptible manna. Elder Roberts quoted that about the hidden wisdom. Paul says, We make known the wisdom of God, but it's the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the worlds unto our glory, which none of the rulers of this world hath known, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But the hidden wisdom, he said, are those things which eye hath not seen, which ear hath not heard, which has not entered into the heart of man. The things that God hath prepared for those that love Him, for unto us God hath revealed them by His Spirit. Prepared for those that love Him. What did Jesus say? If any man love Me, he will keep My word and we will come unto him and make our abode in him. There's only one thing that's going to qualify you to come into this abiding place in the Father, in the Son, in the secret place of the Most High, and that is total love for Him. Love unto death. Love that's prepared to give all. And we can only do that because He loved us. And we love, said John, because He first loved us. And so we can love because He loved us. He opened up the avenue for the flow of His love through your heart and mine on the cross. And by taking away the veil from our eyes when He gets the people who are totally committed, He's opened up a channel whereby the Spirit of God can come in and manifest that love in you and I. God's going to have a people in the earth who are going to come into that realm of perfect love. John talks about perfect love. And that's the holiest of all realms. Faith, hope, love. There it is again. Outer car, holy place, holiest of all. There it is. Total love. And so the golden pot of manna, the hidden wisdom, the hidden truth, the incorruptible truth. Aaron's rod that budded. Resurrection life, which God has for a people walking here in the flesh. Resurrection life. But we only know resurrection life as we stand in the place of death. Always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, said Paul, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal bodies. Resurrection life in the place of mortality. The early church had a portion of it. It soon faded away. God is going to bring it back. God's going to have a people who will so walk in the footsteps of the Master, which leads to Calvary, that they too will experience resurrection life. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our mortal flesh. Resurrection life in our mortal flesh. Aaron's rod that budded. And the tables of the law. The tables in which God said, Thou shalt and thou shalt not. And when He brought them down from the mountain, the people had already committed idolatry. And Moses shattered the tables at the foot of the mountain. But God told Moses to make another set of tables and bring them up to God and He would write upon them His holy law. And He took those tables down and He put them in the Ark of the Covenant. Speaking of the new covenant. Speaking of a broken law. And because of the broken law, God says I'll bring forth a new law, a new covenant. And the new covenant is that covenant where God writes His holy will, His holy requirements upon your heart and mine. We know He's done it in measure. We're going to see a fullness of it. We're going to see the fullness of all that God has promised. Because God said when I send forth My word into the earth, it's like the rain from heaven. When I send the rain upon the earth, I don't take it back until it is brought forth. Seed for the sower and bread for the eater. Then He says the rain will come back. It will go back. It will be evaporated. It will go back into the clouds. And it will come again. But God says when I send it forth, it's going to accomplish the purpose for which I sent it forth. And so, Jesus has gone to prepare this place for you and I in His sanctuary. Some place in His sanctuary. In the candlestick, in the table of shewbread, in the Ark of the Covenant, in the Heron's Rod. There's a place there for God's people. Because that was just a picture. Just a shadow of the heavenly. Jesus has gone to prepare that place. And He says if I go away, I'll come again. Receive you unto Myself. The Holy Spirit has come, I know. But until we give Him His rightful lordship in our midst, we're not going to see that expression of the Spirit of God that God desires. Let us set our hearts to that even in this gathering together. Let everyone be free. As you wait upon the Lord and as you sense the Spirit of God giving you a word or a song or an exhortation, be free to stand and give it. But let us wait upon the Lord for it. It's not just that we're all here so that everybody can have an opportunity to say their little bit. We want the Spirit of the Lord to truly be in our midst. But we have to learn that. We have to learn that sensitivity to the voice of the Spirit. So I realize that sometimes people feel you're taking a chance if you throw a meeting open for the people to come up and minister because quite often there are those who don't really have anything, but they want to be heard. Now don't get under condemnation when they say that. You just know that's so. Wait upon the Lord. And if you have something the Spirit has inspired you to say or speak or sing or exhort, prophecy, revelation that God has given, stand and give it because if the Spirit is saying, we want to hear it. So may the Lord bless this word to your hearts and may we all seek the Lord earnestly these two or three days and we might truly see the precious visitation of the Lord. Amen. I had, for the first time in my life, I had a little bit of time to seek the Lord. I couldn't make enough money in the summer to live pretty good in winter for a few months. And while fasting and waiting on the Lord, it was impressed upon my mind this one verse, unless the kernel of wheat fall on the ground and die, it stays alone, but if it dies, it brings forth fruit. And I had such a desire at that time to become that kernel of wheat. I wanted to produce fruit for the Lord. I had realized my life seemed so empty the years that we had attended church, been active, and many people might have thought, well, Brother Vogt is doing all right, but Brother Vogt wasn't doing all right at all. So I wanted to really count for God, but if I had known what it would mean, I would have hesitated to pray that prayer from my heart, Lord, let me become the kernel of wheat that dies. I didn't really realize what I was praying, but God apparently took me at my word, and soon after that I realized that things weren't going very good. I was, all of a sudden, I was developing asthma, and that wasn't very good. And then I became sick in my stomach, and I thought I was going to die. I lost about 46 pounds there in a couple of weeks. And the doctor later said he wouldn't have given five cents for my life. You know how it goes. Those poor, miserable doctors, sometimes they think they know everything. So we are here still today, and you know, sometimes I felt I have almost reached it. I've almost died to self. I just about made it. And then, bang, something will come up, and the old man is still as strong as ever. The other day I had a situation. I thought I had died to self, and before I knew it, all that old pride came up again. Where did it come from? Oh, then you begin to pray again, and you begin to cry. Oh, God, why will this old, miserable skin perish? And so that's the fight that the old nature made die. You know, years ago, we used to go to the holiness people, and they would preach entire sanctification, and for a while it just, it thrilled me to think there was a place I could really die out to self, you know, and let Jesus only move in my heart. Then later on I realized it just didn't work that way somehow. That old man still wouldn't die. And then another realization, that self cannot kill self. Oh, here's something. Okay? I couldn't commit suicide, I mean, in a sense. So what does it mean that God has to do it, eh? And I believe he will. I believe God can and he will die, make me, kill me, so to speak, until there is that going forth that Jesus Christ living in me, not I anymore, but Christ totally. And about a year ago, I think Brother George and I were talking, he said, you know, we're on the last stage, and I kind of said, yes, but in my heart, I really couldn't see it. But since then I can see it with fear, in a way, I think we're in the last stage, you know, all of a sudden it hit me. Look on the situation of the world, there isn't one spot in the world where there's peace. There's nothing but turmoil coming on the world, unemployment, even our nation is scared, our government, they don't know what to do anymore. And so God is going to do something. And I want to close with this, that one great comfort that Brother brings it out, you know, time and again in his books, but some must enter in. Maybe it's me, maybe I will enter in.