Introduction
In Psalm 22:3, we read, “But Thou are holy, O Thou that inhabits the praises of Israel.” Then, in John 14:23, the Lord Jesus, speaking to His disciples, says: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make a home with him.” Therefore, one might greatly wonder how a Holy God can make a home with us. The Bible teaches in many places that the Lord dwells in our hearts when we love Him and invite Him in (Ephesians 3:17, Galatians 2:20, 2 Corinthians 5:17). However, when the Word of God tells us that the Lord lives in human heart, it is not the physical heart that the Lord dwells in, it is the spiritual heart that the Lord dwells in, and you can feel Him when you pray deeply with your soul not the mouth speaking. In this blog article, we will focus on a specific passage from the Gospel of John—specifically John 14:15-31. By exploring this passage, we aim to understand better what it means to love the Lord and how He dwells in our hearts.
“I will not leave you orphans”
In John chapter 14, the Lord Jesus discusses the Trinity of God and His love for the Father, as well as what it means to be a true believer. In John 14:15-31, the Lord Jesus teaches what it means to love Him. Loving the Lord Jesus means keeping all the commandments He gave in the Holy Bible. Any true believer who knows the commandments must keep them all to call themselves a true believer in God. If we love the Lord Jesus and keep His commandments, He will ask the Father to send the Intercessor (the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Christ) to abide with us to the age. When you read and meditate on the Holy Bible, ask for the Holy Spirit, in the name of the Lord Jesus, to be your teacher and give you a true understanding of the Holy Word. The beloved Son of God also promised peace to come, in the kingdom of God, to all true believers; the peace from the beloved Son of God is peace between the beloved Son of God and the true believers who have true repentance of their hearts. In this section, we will focus on the passage John 14:18-24.
John 14:18 I will not leave you orphans; I am coming to you.
Comments John 14:18. In this verse, as all readers can see, the beloved Son of God has promised to return for us. The beloved Son of God will be as our parent; all true believers will be as His children, and none will be as an orphan because the beloved Son of God lives for eternity, and as His children, we will always have Him with us. So, when the beloved Son says, “I am coming to you,” it becomes His promise to come to us. It is the beloved Son of God who made this promise; all true believers who believe in Him should remember this in their hearts. He is coming back for you, too.
19 Still a little, and the world sees Me no more; however, you see Me; because I live, and you will live.
Comments John 14:19. As this verse tells us, the beloved Son of God has said to all believers straight that His time as a human on earth has come to an end, and that all true believers in Him will no longer see Him with their physical eyes. Also, the people of the whole world, as well, will not see Him anymore with their physical eyes.
“However, you see Me.” Here, as the reader can notice, the beloved Son of God has told all true believers that they see Him, but not yet with a physical eye, but with the eye of the soul. And, not only does the eye of the soul see Him, but our own inner feeling feels Him as well. We feel that the beloved Son of God, His love, is still with everyone here.
“Because I live, and you will live.” Let all true believers take note of this portion of the verse. Because the Holy Son lives forever, His presence will keep all humans alive until the end of time comes for all. And at that time, when the judgment has been announced to all living, those who live, because of the life of the beloved Son of God, will get the first place to be announced to come up in front to receive the judgment of grace. And after that, those true believers will spend life eternally with the beloved Son of God.
20 In that day you will know that I in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
Comments John 14:20. When the verse says, “I in,” it means being in forever; but if it says, “I am in,” it means being in right now only.
As the verse tells all true believers, they have already, in their hearts, felt the beloved Son of God. When their heart has acknowledged the beloved Son of God, that heart has already acknowledged the Father which is in Him as well; and He Himself (the Lord Jesus) is in that person’s heart; and in the heart of the beloved Son of God, you also have a place to be as well, as the verse tells straight to all believers.
“In that day” refers to the day of the resurrection when the beloved Son of God returns to heaven.
21 The one having My commandments, and keeping them, that one is the one loving Me; and the one loving Me, will be loved by My heavenly Father; I will love him and will declare Myself to him.
Comments John 14:21. “The one having My commandments, and keeping them.” These two portions always go together because if you know the commandments but don’t keep them, that way will not be complete. Any true believer who knows the commandments must truly keep them all, not just in the head but deep in the heart as well. When you have kept them, you can call yourself a true believer in God. This qualification is needed to set yourself apart from the rest of the world.
“… that one is the one loving Me; and the one loving Me, will be loved by My heavenly Father.” As the verse tells all true believers, if you love the beloved Son of God, the Father will also love you. Therefore, to win the love of the Father, the heart of a true believer must listen and obey all teachings of the beloved Son of God.
“I will love him and will declare Myself to him.” This saying is the promise of the beloved Son of God to show Himself to all true believers, and He will love all those who truly love Him and obey His teachings. And those true believers will experience the beloved Son of God’s love in their hearts, and they can also feel His love and presence around them, and those persons will never feel alone anymore; the love of the beloved Son of God will surround the true believers at all times.
22 Judas (not the Iscariot) says to Him, Lord, and what has occurred that Thou are about to declare Thyself to us, and not to the world?
Comments John 14:22. “Judas … to us.” When Judas asked this question, he also had another question in his heart that he wanted to know. So, when the beloved Son of God told them that He would show Himself to them, it made him also think whether they were more special than the rest of the world.
This question will also be for the rest of the people to whom the beloved Son of God will show Himself. Is the Lord Jesus talking here about the chosen ones or not? The answer for all is true: the beloved Son of God is talking about the chosen ones who have been chosen to listen and obey His teachings. If you do not listen and obey, you will become like the rest of the world, who hear about the beloved Son of God but do not believe that what He says is true. This difference separates the world (of those who know about the Bible) into two types of souls: those who listen to and obey the teaching of the Holy Bible, and those who know about the Holy Bible but do not believe it is the true teaching of God. The point of separation is the heart of each soul itself. If you believe in the Holy Bible, you must meditate and read, and these actions will convince the person’s soul to come and be willing to serve the Lord God Almighty without doubting or delay.
“And not to the world.” This part of the verse refers to those who have surrendered their hearts to the teachings of the dark side. These persons have known the Holy Word but did not believe. And instead of meditating on the Word for faith, those persons have meditated on the Word to find mistakes in the Word and be able to fight the ones that come with faith to weaken their faith by throwing doubts in their hearts. It is difficult for the rest of the world to know the difference between the Spirit of the Holy Word and the spirit of the dark teaching.
23 Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make a home with him.
Comments John 14:23. “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word.” So, as the verse clearly tells, if you love the beloved Son of God, you will keep His teachings in your heart. But in order to keep His word, you must also read and meditate on the Holy Bible. The Holy Bible contains all the teachings, and those teachings will make your heart ready to receive Him as well.
“... and My Father will love him.” Give attention to what the verse has said to all true believers. The beloved Son of God has told all that the Father Himself will love you because you love the beloved Son of God. And this is the way the Father shows love to anyone: when that person meditates on the Holy Word, they will realize peace in their heart, and during that time, within their heart, they will have great joy because the Father Himself is also happy with that soul. The root of all happiness for the soul is the Holy Word of God.
“And We will come to him.” Give attention to the word “We”: this “We” refers to the Trinity of God, and at the same time, the Spirit of the beloved Son of God will also be there.
“… and will make a home with him.” When the heart of a true believer becomes home for the Lord, that heart of the blessed one will receive the greatest joy of life, which will also make the faith grow. The home is the place where God will dwell, and also will make that home the proper place for receiving all the praises of the soul. The request the soul will ask for the Lord to dwell in will receive the answer. Deep in the heart of true believers, it will acknowledge the answer they have received, which they can feel by the soul, not by the feeling of the head itself. That feeling will be deep down until the person cannot tell where that happiness comes from. Therefore, to decorate the heart to be the home of the Lord, all believers should put praises in their hearts that glorify the Trinity of God; the words used to glorify the Trinity of God will decorate the heart of the soul itself for the Lord.
At this point, one might ask: how does the Lord live in our hearts? To understand this, we must not think in physical terms, but in spiritual terms. The heart of the true believer is like a palace, which will have many rooms in it, and each room will be used for a different purpose as well, because that heart has become the home of God to dwell.
That is the will of the Father to live in our souls when we open our souls to receive Him. The Father uses the Holy Bible as the path for humans to come into contact with the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Bible, the Holy Spirit will work in the heart of the reader. And when that heart has invited the Holy Spirit to be their guide, the Holy Spirit will use that invitation and put Himself to join with the soul itself.
The Holy Spirit and the Spirit of the beloved Son are in the Holy Word itself. Also, let all believers remember this: the Holy Bible is the Living Word of God. God has spoken every word in the Holy Bible. The Word never dies; it is always alive and has life. The Word itself has life and gives life to all true believers. If you truly believe you can feel the Word is alive, but general people will not have that feeling; only the true believers will gain that feeling, which is a gift from the Father Himself, when you have meditated on the Holy Word.
We can also say this another way: the Holy Bible is the path of connection of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Christ with the true believers when they meditate on the Word of God. When you meditate on the Word of God, you have connected your soul to the path where you find the Lord who guides you. The Word that the Living God has spoken, that Word has life in itself. The Holy Bible is the true Living Word of God, and every word in the Bible is alive. Therefore, you must first connect with the path before you can connect with the Lord.
24 The one that loves Me not, keeps not My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but of the Father who sent Me.
Comments John 14:24. “The one that loves Me not …” As the verse tells all readers, when you do not love the beloved Son of God, you will not keep what He has taught in the Holy Bible. The Holy Bible is not an ordinary book. The Holy Bible will give life to all who meditate and follow it, because the root of the Holy Bible is the Trinity of God. No other book can give you life as the Holy Bible gives you. This saying in this verse is not a repetition of the verse before; rather, the Lord has shown the opposite. The verse before speaks of having faith and doing, but this verse says the opposite: that when you do not love the beloved Son of God, you will not love His teachings either. But His teachings are not from Himself; they are from the Father. The beloved Son of God wants to make sure that all readers pay attention to the difference between these two verses, and the verses will talk to you when you pay attention to the differences.
Here, the Lord Jesus wants to make it clear that the Father and the Holy Spirit will not come to those who do not love Him. The idea of the verse is that some might think that somehow the Father will come to them regardless of whether they love or not the beloved Son of God, but that is not true. When verse 23 says, “We will come to him, and make a home with him,” this applies only to those who love the beloved Son of God and keep His teachings.
“… but of the Father who sent Me.” The beloved Son of God has told all true believers the truth. The Word that He is teaching to all humans is not His own Word but of the Father who sent Him to teach that Word. Let all true believers think of this as well; if the Holy Bible has the words from the Father, then every word in the Holy Bible will give life to all who meditate on and believe that word.
Conclusions
In conclusion, to have the Holy Trinity of God—God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit—living in our hearts, we must first love the Lord Jesus as both the Son of God and the Son of Man. And if we love the beloved Son of God, the Father will also love us. The Holy Bible is the Living Word of God. God has spoken every word in the Holy Bible. The Word of God never dies; it is always alive and has life. The Holy Spirit and the Spirit of the beloved Son of God are in the Holy Word itself. One should read and meditate on the Holy Word; these actions will inspire a person’s soul to come and be willing to serve the Lord God Almighty without doubting or delay. Therefore, to win the love of the Father, a true believer’s heart must sincerely love the Lord Jesus; this involves reading and meditating on the Word of God, listening to His teachings, obeying them, and wholeheartedly following all His commandments. When one does all these, and goes and baptizes in the water through immersion in the name of God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ), and God the Holy Spirit, the Trinity of God will love that one and “will come to him, and will make a home with him. When you have kept all the commandments of the beloved Son of God wholeheartedly, you can call yourself a true follower of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. All true followers will experience the beloved Son of God’s love in their hearts, and they can also feel the love of the Trinity of God in their hearts and the presence of the Trinity of God covering them. Their hearts and souls have become the home of the Trinity of God. When the heart and soul of a true believer become home for the Lord, that heart of the blessed one will receive the greatest joy of life, which will also make the faith grow and stay firm. The heart of a true believer is like a palace with many rooms, each serving a different purpose, as it has become a dwelling place for the Trinity of God. It is the Father’s will to reside in our souls when we open ourselves to receive Him. The Father uses the Holy Bible as the path for humans to come into contact with the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Bible, the Holy Spirit will work in the heart of the reader to remain firm in faith.
Therefore, to decorate the heart to be the home of the Lord, all believers should put praises in their hearts that glorify the Trinity of God. The words used to glorify the Trinity of God will decorate the heart and soul for the Lord. And when we do that, we can apply the saying of Psalm 22:3 to ourselves, saying: “But Thou are holy, O Thou that inhabits the praises of my soul.”
Meditation Tasks
- We encourage all readers to reflect on how they can sincerely praise the Lord and experience the presence of the Holy Trinity of God in their lives. Additionally, we invite you to read our blog article titled “The Lord Jesus Would Pass By Them!”