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IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE: A BEAUTIFUL PICTURE! Posted By: Henry Falcone
Julia
IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE: A BEAUTIFUL PICTURE! Posted By: Henry Falcone
Posted By: Henry Falcone
Subject: IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE: A BEAUTIFUL PICTURE!
Date Posted: 07/19/2014 at 9:41am
Subject: IN MY FATHER’S HOUSE: A BEAUTIFUL PICTURE!
Date Posted: 07/19/2014 at 9:41am
| Beloveds of the Lord, This morning as I was meditating upon the Lord, I kept hearing 'in my Father's house." Over and over did I hear those words. As I did, the Holy Spirit began to remind me of the different parts of the Jewish wedding historically. As I did, a Glorious picture unfolded before me. I began to see Jesus working on building the room, the wedding chamber, connected to His Father's house. It was beautiful because He had gone to prepare a place for us. Then I heard, that "where I am, you shall also be." One of the most beautiful part of a Jewish wedding and customs in the time of Jesus is that when a couple got betrothed the "future husband" under the Ketubah part of the marriage agreement would go away to his father's house for about a year and build a new home for his bride "connected and built right next to His Fathers' house and then bring his bride there to BE WITH HIM! "This house or room was directly connected to His Fathers house for as a "full grown son" with all the benefits of his craft and trade he could now work in complete harmony, full trained along with His father in the family business bring His Bride unto Himself. It was also a Bridal chamber where he was making it so beautiful for her to come for 7 days of the wedding ceremony time to consummate their marriage and then dwell there with her for eternity of eternities as the Bridegroom with His bride. This wedding chamber in the “Father’s house” was a dwelling place to make their new home forever IN THE FATHERS HOUSE! This is so important of us to understand for the word of God says, “In HIM we LIVE and MOVE and HAVE our Being.” Acts 17:28 After the celebration of the 2nd part of the Jewish wedding feast is over the bride now becomes an intregal part of the Husband’s family and they live together there in His Father’s house. This is why the Bridegroom had to pay such a high price of a dowry to the Bride’s family, because the “usefulness” she had to her own family would be lost and all that she would now give would be to her husband and his family. The dowry “payment” was to “compensate” for the loss of her value to her family. Jesus paid that price for us and redeemed us from the world and bought us with His precious blood to “pay for our sins” and to bring us into His house. Jesus paid the price to pay for our “usefulness to the law sin and death and the world and free us from it.". He had to pay the price by his death and resurrection to take us out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of His marvelous light. To bring us where? To the Father’s House! In ancient Jewish times a betrothal of about a year under a Ketubah agreement was made. This helps us understand Jesus’s words when He says in John 14:1-4, "Do not let your hearts be troubled (distressed, agitated). You believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely on God; believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely also on Me.2 In My Father’s house there are many dwelling places (homes). If it were not so, I would have told you; for I am going away to prepare a place for you.3 And when (if) I go and make ready a place for you, I will come back again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also.4 And [to the place] where I am going, you know the way. In the Jewish custom of the wedding, "The groom then departed, but not before he assured his bride with the promises of building a home for her and returning to complete the marriage ceremony. He usually took a year to prepare her new home which often consisted of an addition built onto his own father's house. In studying the history of the Jewish wedding it is said: " A centuries-old family marriage tradition provided that sons would add rooms onto the father’s house when they married so the couple could remain a part of the father’s family. If a young Jewish man took an interest in a Jewish girl, he would first go to his father to ask permission. The groom’s father and the prospective bride’s father would meet to discuss terms of the marriage. After fathers of the prospective bride and groom entered into a marriage agreement and the groom paid the bride-price, the community regarded the couple as betrothed." When the marriage ceremony finally concluded (possibly up to one year after the engagement), the groom left his bride with her family. The groom returned to his father’s house and built a room onto his father’s house where he and his new bride would live with the rest of the family. The prospective bride stayed home and the family women taught her how to be a good wife and mother, according to Jewish traditions. When the bridegroom completed adding a room onto his father’s house, he would return to his bride’s house (usually at night) to retrieve her. Then the groom would take his bride back to their new home, “that where I am there you may be also.” What a beautiful picture that for a year the "husband to be" had to go away expediently so he could come back and get her and then bring her "to the place' where He made for the TWO OF THEM TO LIVE TOGETHER in their own house but ONE CONNECTED WITH THE BRIDEGROOMS FATHERS HOUSE Beloveds they were two different homes yet in the same house. The bridegroom made a new room, a new home for them to dwell together in the Father’s house. The new couple would be added to the purpose and plan of the Father for the Son had to learn the trade of the Father to carry on the family business. The bride and grooms room was separate but in total submission to the plan of the Father that was passed down from generation to generation. I think we can see what we lost of the Father’s heart today in most marriages. This is why their is such an attack of the enemy because he hates marriages. He tries to end them, not have people do them anymore, or pervert them by same sex marriages. Why? Because it is a picture of our life IN CHRIST and our RELATIONSHIP with Jesus IN THE FATHER AND HIS HOUSE! The one function and purpose as a new family of the bride and groom was to become their own family but still connected to the Father's house and a vital part of that family to bring forth the family purpose and plans. . What a spiritual picture that is of what the Lord is doing in our midst. This is the season where he has come back to bring us where? To where He is! To where He dwells, to the Secret Place of the Most High God.He has come to connect us IN HIM to be one even as He is IN the Father and the Father is in Him, but we would be ONE with them. John 17:20 " Neither for these alone do I pray [it is not for their sake only that I make this request], but also for all those who will ever come to believe in (trust in, cling to, rely on) Me through their word andteaching,21 That they all may be one, [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me. I am beginning to see why it was necessary for the Bridegroom to go and “prepare a place for us, so when I come back, I can take you so WHERE I AM YOU WILL ALSO BE! There is a spiritual place of “abiding” that must be In Him, where He is! This abiding place is first and foremost important before he sends us to the world so they can see Him in us. One of my Spiritual Fathers in the Lord would say, “Coming always proceeds going or doing: In Matthew 10 He choose the twelve that they "come and be with him and then sends them out.” John 15 speaks of this “coming to be with Him and in Him as the condition of true fruit bearing. As we ponder the work of what the Holy Spirit invasion is doing, what I see is it’s first and most vital work is to reveal in us, our need to CONTINUE TO ABIDE IN HIM as the first foundation to our true spiritual life. Everything flows from the fact that we are in Him first before the Christ in us can be seen and experienced fully. John 15:I am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser.2 Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit [that stops bearing] He cuts away (trims off, takes away); and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit.3 You are cleansed and pruned already, because of the word which I have given you [the teachings I have discussed with you]. 4 Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me.5 I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing. 6 If a person does not dwell in Me, he is thrown out like a [broken-off] branch, and withers; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and they are burned.7 If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.8 When you bear (produce) much fruit, My Father is honored and glorified, and you show andprove yourselves to be true followers of Mine. In this place of abiding with Him and in Him we are safe and secure. Psalm 91 teaches us the importance of us being IN HIM! Psalm 91 1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed. I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I [confidently] trust!3 For [then] He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. 4 [Then] He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings shall you trust and find refuge; His truth and His faithfulness are a shield and a buckler. under the shadows of the Almighty so we can say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, my God in Him will I trust. This is the new home the Bridegroom has built for us and the joy of our marriage supper of the lamb. What great joy that God brings to us in our hearts as He reveals to us that, “IN HIM WE LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING!” Acts 17:28. There is an upward call of the Bridegroom and a shout that is coming forth from at the midnight hour found in Matthew 25: But at midnight there was a shout, Behold, the bridegroom! Go out to meet him! Why is this important? Do not let your hearts be troubled (distressed, agitated). You believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely on God; believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely also on Me.2 In My Father’s house there are many dwelling places (homes). If it were not so, I would have told you; for I am going away to prepare a place for you.3 And when (if) I go and make ready a place for you, I will come back again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. This is the major symbolism of the Jewish wedding, that God Himself would send His son to pay for our sins, redeem us, purchase us with a price, and then go and prepare a place for us in His Fathers House, build a home there for us Himself so we can live with Him and in Him, We now can live in the fullness of all that the Father’s house is and our place with the Bridegroom in that House. Everything else flows from this Our identity with and in Christ, our work with and in Christ, our position with and in Christ comes ONLY AFTER THESE TRUTHS ARE ESTABLISHED IN US. “In Him we live and move and have our being Acts 17:28,” and John 17:1-3 Dwell in me and I will dwell in you, live in me and I will live in you . Just as no branch can bear fruit without ABIDING IN the vine, neither CAN YOU BEAR FRUIT UNLESS YOU ABIDE IN ME!. This truth keeps us solid in faith and in right relationship with God lest we get puffed up. Jesus told us “not to rejoice that the devils obey us, but to rejoice that our NAME IS WRITTEN IN THE LAMBS BOOK OF LIFE.” The power of God, our position in Christ, our identity in Christ, and even Christ in us are important truths that must be revealed in us during this time, but never, ever above our first position of being in Him. I am writing this for those who are coming into the fullness of God’s plans perhaps for the first time or for a little while so we don’t loose correct perspective of our life being Hidden in Christ. We must remember that our being in Him, our love, our devotion, our service to God must never elevate our hearts with pride in anyway to a place where man takes the glory that belongs to God alone. Our life must be found only In Him, who is eternity itself.Everything we are, everything we have, everything we will be is rooted in us being in Him! What we are becoming as full grown sons and daughters and what that will all look like must come forth from our being in Him first. We love Him because He FIRST LOVES US! He must be our FIRST LOVE ALWAYS! The whole Jewish wedding shows us this positionally and everything else comes forth from that as Jesus takes His place as our Heavenly Bridegroom in our hearts living that perfected life of only to do the will of the Father. This becomes our life as well. Hebrews 10 6 In burnt offerings and sin offerings You have taken no delight.7 Then I said, Behold, here I am, coming to do Your will, O God—[to fulfill] what is written of Me in the volume of the Book.” This is our inheritance that in Jesus we can now do the will of the Father because we have become one with Him. We are in our Father’s house with Jesus. Jesus has made a way for us to live in Him, move in Him and have our being in Him, so as He is in the world so are we. Praise our God forever more. AS WE DWELL IN HIM, HE DWELLS IN US and fruit comes forth that remains. . Jesus is the initiator and finisher of our faith and life,not us. He is the life source of our life, not us. He is the glory and power of God that is in us as we dwell in Him in continual abiding because of the Holy Spirit that is now in us to do that. Just as the moon can only reflect the glory of sun because the moon itself has no light in it, As we DWELL IN HIM, He dwells in us we become the reflection of his life and light in us that flows out of us to be seen by all God sends us. We become the reflection of His beauty. That is why as a Bride, “we must make ourselves ready.” What a beautiful picture of the “holy matrimony” and all the Father, Son and Holy Spirit has done to prepare a place for us in our Father’s House. So at the midnight hours a shout comes forth :GO OUT AND MEET THE BRIDEGROOM! In my Father's house are many dwelling places, if it were not so, I would have told you, but I have come back for you to take you where I am, FOR WHERE I AM YOU SHALL ALSO BE NOW AND FOREVER! ------------- Henry Falcone ______________________ |
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