Hearing God - Part 2

The 2^nd message I spiritually heard was "mansions in heaven'. I told God I really didn't need a mansion in heaven but I sure hoped there would be a garden for me to work. I started pondering the whole concept of mansions in heaven. I stopped long enough to pray and ask God to give me revelation before I researched the subject. Without the benefit of godly revelation, the information is useless to me. Holy Spirit, walk me through this!! If my thinking gets in the way, stop me short. If the information I am reading is not in line with God's word, make that plain to see. I saw a lot that irked my spirit. I want revelation, not irking!

Over the years, I've heard many explanations and descriptions of what mansions in heaven would be like. My questions…why do we need a mansion (as defined in Webster's) to ramble around in all by ourselves? Apparently, everyone is to have his/her own mansion. I once heard a preacher describe how his mansion would be decorated. Why would we need décor when we will be in Heaven? It seems to me Heaven will be more glorious than any décor we could come up with, so this didn't sit well with me. I want to spend as much time as possible in worship and praise, no need for a mansion. Yet, it is in the Bible so there had to be another facet of this I was not seeing. I pushed on. I found an article that landed softly in my soul. It felt on target spiritually. I recently wrote about making sure we seek out the original intent of scripture by knowing how it was written in the original language and the time it was written to better understand it in context without benefit of being watered down over time and versions. This article makes my point. I've included only the information pertinent to mansions in heaven. Perhaps this is on to something.

Jesus said, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you." (John 14:2) In this scripture, the word "house" in the Greek is "oikia" (pronounced oy-kee'-ah) and means "household" and by extension "family" the word "mansions" is "mone" (pronounced 'mon-ay') and means "residence" (the act or the place).

The meaning of the word "mansions" is "residence" which can either be the place of residence or the act of residence. I've always heard it taught as a place of residence, Christians are always referring to their "mansion in heaven" and the "keys to their mansion." If a mansion by definition is a very large house, how can there be many mansions in a house? There must be another interpretation for this scripture. Perhaps in this case the word "residence" really refers to the act of residence. Are you familiar with the terms, "a doctor in residence" and "a doctor completing his residency?"

Here's some interesting information from the World Book Dictionary. The word "Residence" means - The seat of some power or activity. "Residency" means -The position of a doctor who continues practicing in a hospital after completing his internship. "Resident" means - An official sent to live in a foreign land to represent his country. Interesting, isn't it? If within this context that Jesus made the statement, "In My Father's house there are many mansions," (John 14:2) was He was in fact meaning that, "within the Family or Government of God, there are many official positions of authority?" Many "Residencies" are available!

"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." (John 14:2,3)

The word "place" is translated from the Greek word, "topos" and means "special position" so "to prepare a place" means "to prepare a special position." The word "receive" is "paralambano" and means "to assume an office," the word "unto" is translated from "pros" which means "by the side of" and the phrase "may be" is the Greek word "o" which means "should stand."

So perhaps the verse, "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." can be interpreted, "There are many positions of authority in my Father's Government: If this weren't true I wouldn't say so. I'm leaving to prepare a special place for you now. And if I'm doing this, then I will return and take you with me to stand in that position of authority at my side.

Bear in mind that Jesus made this statement just after one of His ministers (Judas) left to betray Him and consequently abandon his official position. Is Jesus indicating to the rest of His ministers that if they remain faithful to the ministry, for which they were called and selected, at the appointed time He will grant them the right to assume the official offices in which they should stand and for which they have been trained?

Well, that's what I've come up with at this point. This information settles in my spirit but you know me, I want a postcard from Heaven with definitive answers. I'll be waiting and listening for confirmation. It just hit me, if all this is on target, I'll have to find the garden somewhere else.