“I go to prepare a place for you!”
Do you remember those words of Jesus there in John 14?
Let me remind you of what it says and the exact context in which Jesus spoke about them.
According to the Gospel of John, this was part of Jesus’ words at one of the last – or even the last – times He ate the Jewish Passover meal with His disciples.
Therefore, to truly understand these words, you must start reading at John 13! There where Jesus washed His disciples’ feet one by one – even the feet of His betrayer! And where He told them and showed them what it means to be a follower in this broken world full of broken people!
Then He tells them that He is going to be crucified, die, be buried, but also be glorified by the Father when He is going to raise Him up and raise Him from the dead. So that they will truly recognize Him, Jesus, for who He really is and must be, the New King of heaven and earth. Yes, God the Son, God himself, who became man, to give His life as the Passover Lamb so that we might live.
Then He, as Lord and King, God himself, says to them: “I give you a new commandment: that you love one another. As I have loved you, you also must love one another. If you love one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples.”
This is also what He tells them: the time has passed when He Himself will be in living bodies, as an ordinary man, among and with them, 24/7. This time, this season, of which the Old Testament prophecies prophesied, is over!
Now a new season lies ahead!
Therefore, in preparation for this, He, as God the Son, goes back to His Father to do what is necessary for this new season that is now ahead.
Jesus describes it this way:
“I go to prepare a place for you… And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also.”
Where is that “place” that Jesus is talking about?
“In my Father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would not have told you that I go to prepare a place for you.”
In other words: He is going to prepare “a place” for us where we will experience the Father’s presence with and in us! Just as Jesus experienced and experienced it His entire life, the 33 years here on this broken earth, we will also experience it!
How is this going to happen, and when will it happen?
Jesus himself answers this question: When He has done what needs to be done to bring about this season: When He has been crucified, died, was buried, rose, and shown Himself alive, but also departed from this earth and ascended to heaven.
Then He will come back, and then He will take us to Him so that we can be and experience where He is and what He experiences, namely the presence of the Father, of God, with us and in us!
How is this going to happen? Listen to how Jesus explains it: “I will ask the Father, and He will send you another Advocate to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it does not see Him or know Him. But you know Him, because He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you again.”
Listen also to the further explanation of this, as we read in John 14:23 ff.:
“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”
In other words, when God the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in every believing follower of Jesus, every believer – yes, even those who never had the privilege of being physically with Jesus, as God the Son who became man, for 3 years – yes, each of us, every day, 24/7, will experience the presence in and with us of a living, resurrected Jesus, and the presence of God the Father, in and with us through the indwelling of God the Spirit!
How remarkable!
We are going to discover and experience a new reality, a new kind of life, a different, eternal way of life, where we can and will experience the presence in and with us of a living God, as Father, Son, and Spirit, every moment!
This is going to happen and will happen when God the Spirit, as the Old Testament prophets also prophesied, comes and comes to live and work in the lives of each of God’s believing children!