Dwelling Places
by Katie Harding on June 26, 2023
“John 14:2-3.”
If someone asked me to name one of my favorite Bible passages, that would be my answer.
These are two well-known verses often read at funerals. “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 to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (NKJV). Yet, because these verses are so common at funerals, we often miss the full impact of what Jesus was saying.
The passage is one of my favorites not because it describes what happens when I die, but quite the opposite. The word that is often interpreted as mansions actually means dwelling places. Until the time when Jesus uttered this phrase, the thought was God had one dwelling place — in the temple. Prior to the temple, it had been the tabernacle. But in these verses, Jesus tells His disciples that in His Father’s house, there will be many dwelling places, and then He asks them, “If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a [dwelling] place for you?” I can imagine Him saying, “I am going to prepare a dwelling place for you, Peter, and you, John, and you, James, and you, Matthew, and…” — naming them all one by one. Then He finishes His thought with “And if I go and prepare a [dwelling] place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”
What these verses say is so powerful it excites my heart every time I read them. Jesus was stating that His going would make it possible for us to become dwelling places for the indwelling of God’s Spirit. Not when we die, but as we continue to live here on this earth. Emmanuel. God with us. And He would come again and draw us close to Himself, and we would abide with Him there. No longer would there be just one dwelling place, but many dwelling places as God’s Spirit would soon dwell within His people. In fact, Jesus says later in the chapter, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23).
“No longer would there be just one dwelling place, but many dwelling places as God’s Spirit would soon dwell within His people. ”
Then “Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’” And Jesus replied, “‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life’” (John 14:6). Believing in Jesus is the way to becoming an indwelling place for God’s Spirit, to understanding truth, and to receiving life. A new life in Him. Not one day far off in the future, but presently, here and now. For me, it just doesn’t get any better than that!