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John 14:2-3..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.
Someone once said to me, that heaven was unappealing to them because there was nothing to do there but float on clouds and play harps. They seemed to indicate that it was an existence without purpose and one was sure to be bored with all the time on their hands. However, nothing could be further away from the truth. Heaven is under great construction. Even now as you read, there is building and preparations being made for God's plan to unfold. What gifts you are excercizing now on Earth will be essentially your ministry throughout eternity. If you preach or teach - if you are used in music or art this will be, I believe, your kingdom mission. Man has been given an ability to create. Whether he yields that ability to Good or Evil is his choice now. But when our inspiration is to be used as God's instrument, we are sowing seeds of purpose for many tomorrows ahead, even "Age to Age".
The word "prepare" in verses 2 & 3 of John literally mean to make ready, construct, or create. Because God rested from his work on the seventh day in Genesis, this did not mean that His days for creating were over. Everytime the Father draws a man or woman into his kingdom, something creative happens in spirit. They become a new creature in Christ; they have passed from death to life.
2 Cor 5:17..Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Notice in the tiny little word "all", is the meaning of completeness while the words "passed away" communicate the provision and ability of God to leave none of the traces left behind of the old creature. It is easy to see the outward construction of God going on in ministry today and I suppose even easier to get caught up in that aspect alone. But God said of his spiritual creation:
Ezk 36:26-27..A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart.. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statues, and ye shall keep my judgements, and do them.
Perhaps the creation process is not so clearly seen for Gods ways can be mysterious to man, but the product of creation which comes as a result of this divine work done in mans heart is hard to overlook. When the fruit of obedience ( "I...will cause you to walk in my statues," ) appears in a life thats out of control, God has created something out of nothing and gets the glory for it, - for what else could cause such change? Certainly not self will or self discipline, these strengths of men have no lasting power to ground them in eternity. No, only God has the power to change the Human heart. This is where Gods most creative efforts begin because it is the place of inspiration and imagination central in all that comes forth out of are living.
As you consider these thoughts remember that the method of Jesus to prepare us a place in His Fathers' House is to prepare us as a usable vessel for His glory. Our mansion inheritance is being built upon the work of God being done in us now as His creation. This means we have a part in preparing our own future abiding place too, by cooperating along with God.
I believe God has created us, yes, as new creatures in Christ and that he continues to create us now in the image of His son. This first inspiration and contemplation of man in Gods heart was His plan from the start - that man would be like him and reign with him in Glory which is our inheritance, but let's not forget that we His creation are also his inheritance as well.