John 14:1-6 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. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

This portion of scripture is read at almost every Christian funeral to minister to the bereaved and give them a sense of comfort when it comes to the dwelling place of their departed loved one. How many times have we heard the expression, “They’re in a better place now”. The place that Jesus was preparing is universally accepted in the Christian tradition as a place in heaven. We sing songs about it. “I’ve got a mansion just over the hilltop.”, “Some glad morning when this life is o’re I’ll fly away” and the list goes on and on. We talk about living in mansions and walking on streets of gold in heaven after we die, but is this the place that Jesus was referring to in these scriptures? Is it a place somewhere, away out there or up there in the sky, if you prefer?  Was Jesus referring to houses in heaven when He made reference to the place for us that He was preparing? Is it to these houses, when they are finished, that He is going to come for us and take us to them to live with him forever in heaven?

Let’s take another look at the words of Jesus. I would like to suggest to you that the place that Jesus was referring to in these scriptures was not a mansion in heaven that we get to dwell in after we die. On the contrary, it was a spiritual place, a place in the Father, a place of total unity and oneness with Him and the Father.  He said that where I am, you may be also. John 14:3 Jesus is talking about the present tense here. He did not say, that where I am going to be, you are going to be also. Jesus was talking about a place that He was already dwelling in and that place was a place of total unity and oneness with His Father. We need to understand that Jesus identified completely with His Father. Did He not say that He and His Father were one? John 10:30 Did He not say that the words He spoke were the words of His Father and the actions that He did were the actions of His Father? John 14:10 Did He not say that those who had seen Him had seen the Father? John 14:9 Did He not say that His desire for us was to be one with Him and therefore one with the Father? John 17:22 Of course He did and that is the place that He desires for us to dwell in. That is the place that He went to prepare for us to dwell in and where was he going to prepare it? He wasn’t going to heaven to prepare it. He was going to the cross. Jesus is not working in heaven to prepare us a place in heaven that we can dwell in when we die. In heaven, Jesus isn’t working, He is sitting. Eph 1:20 His work is over. The assignment that God gave His Son is completed and Jesus completed it on the earth. He did His work in the earth on the cross to prepare that dwelling place for us. On the cross He said, “It is finished”. John 19:30 Do you see it? Do you understand it.? “THE PLACE THAT JESUS DESIRES FOR US TO DWELL IN, IS A PLACE IN THE SPIRIT, A PLACE OF ONENESS WITH HIM AND THE FATHER AND IT IS PREPARED FOR US TO DWELL IN RIGHT NOW” I’m telling you the truth. Are you able to receive it? The way of the cross was the means by which Jesus prepared for us that dwelling place and right now we can partake of the life of Jesus, eternal life and that place of oneness with Him and with the Father, right now. We don’t have to wait until we die and go to heaven to dwell there. Jesus drove the last nail in that dwelling place on the cross.

Before the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, we were alienated from God the Father through Adam’s sin but Jesus Christ on the cross dealt with sin and brought us back into right relationship with the Father. Adam got us kicked out of that place of oneness with the Father through his rebellion but Jesus Christ came to restore us to that place of oneness with the Father through His obedience, even His obedience to a death on the cross. Phil 2:8 God reconciled man to Himself through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ and prepared that place of oneness with the Father on the cross. Praise God, brothers and sisters, that place of oneness with Jesus Christ and the Father is completed. Our mansion is already for us to dwell in and we can dwell in it through faith and obedience to the Word of God at this very moment.

Jesus said when the place is prepared, “I will come again and receive you unto myself” John 14:3 and praise God He did that very thing. He came again. He came in the person of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. He came to receive us unto Himself. He came to baptise us in and fill us with the Spirit of the Father, so that He would be in us and we would be in Him and in the Father. John 17:21-23 Jesus Christ prepared that place of oneness with the Father for all of mankind on the cross and He came to invite us to dwell there with Him. The apostle Peter said that the promise of the Father is to you and to your children and to all that are a far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Acts 2:39

You can dwell in your mansion of oneness with the Father right now. Jesus was dwelling in His mansion but He told us that the Father had lots of them for us to dwell in. John 14:2 He was going to prepare ours for us and He did it on the cross. You don’t need to wait until you die and go to heaven to occupy a house that you will not need in heaven. You can be one with Jesus and one with the Father right now. You can begin speaking the words of the Father and doing the actions of the Father right now. You can start taking on the characteristics of the Father and manifesting His glory right now. John 17:21-24 Jesus said even greater things than these will you do, because I go unto my Father. John 14:12. Are you ready to live in a better place and do the greater things that Jesus was talking about? Understanding these words of Jesus will get you prepared to begin dwelling in your mansion in God and doing the works of the Father.                                                 

        Darrell McLellan