From Eviction to the Palace #07
[John4:1-7] “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
There are many rooms…You have a home.
Jesus is coming back for you. So, you can be in the palace with him.
You know the way.
He is the way.
You know Jesus; therefore, your heart holds the key that unlocks your room.
A room in the house of God the Father.
When God evicted me from my earthly home in March of 2022 I was devastated. I felt abandoned by God, the very person that says he never will. In my heart, I knew he hadn’t, but I was left with the same emotions as abandonment. Emotions…ones I didn’t discount but I also didn’t let them navigate my heart into believing God had thrown me out of my home for punishment, or lack of love.
I’m curious if Adam and Eve felt the same when they were evicted from Eden? They made a choice, and that choice led them into a world that was now infiltrated with sin. Eden wasn’t the same, and in God’s love he kicked them out. Because if they were to stay in Eden, they would have, we would have been consumed with fear, worry, terror, evil, and sin living forever that way...eternal damnation.
[Genesis 3:21-24] The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden Cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.
But God.
God said, you are mine! And you forever will be! I am evicting you for your good. You can’t see it now, but one day you will see the good in me evicting you from your home. I hope you can trust me; I love you; I’m sending my Son to save you. I have not forgotten you, I have not abandoned you, and I forgive you.
What kindness and mercy! What if we as humans and heirs to his throne could tap into just an ounce of his love and forgiveness, both we and this world would be a much different place.
From eviction to the palace.
A place to call home, forever. To be returned to our Eden. To live once more in the presence of God without sin and evil. That is exactly where you are headed if Jesus knows you and you know him. If you call him friend and Savior. If you live his way, walk his way, sing praises to God the Father his way, if you serve only him, his way. Then you can be confident you will have a room in heaven one day, and forever praise his glorious name!
When I was evicted from my home in Seacrest Beach, Florida I wasn’t sure where to go. Along with not knowing where to live I also had to fight off doubt and what others might be thinking and some saying to my face. That I had mis-stewarded, mismanaged, disobeyed, took on a home I couldn’t afford to pay for in the first place, I deserved to be thrown out, therefore…let the chips fall where they may.
It wasn’t easy. At all. Many were trying to navigate for me, wanting me to think of a logical plan, and force me into what they believed was best. But God didn’t choose to trust me with this trial unprepared. I had acquired the tools necessary within the few years leading up to my eviction. God didn’t abandon me, he saved me. He used the eviction to show his glory and majesty.
Obedience led me into the fire, but no smoke or singed fabric was found on me.
[Daniel 3:27] and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.
I wasn’t hurt. I was protected and provided for. I still had to go into the fire, but the glory is, I CAME OUT.
God has made a way for us to come out of eternal fire and damnation. His Son Jesus came and took our debt. He nailed it to the cross once and forevermore. It’s gone. It’s been paid for by the sacrificing of our Savior, who is Jesus, the Christ.
Now, after he rose three days later, revealed himself alive and well, we too can rise after death and be with him in eternity. Forever unashamed, forever without guilt, forever saved. Forever loved. Forever walking hand in hand with our God.
I may not yet be living in my promised home in Alys Beach but like my promised home in heaven it's set. It has been built. Just like I must trust the words of Jesus that say I will live with him one day in his Father’s home, I must also trust my home here on this earth is coming soon. Just as he said and promised me...it will be.
It’s finished. It’s done.
What do we do in the meantime? Between heaven and earthly promises fulfilled? We light the way. We love our God. We obey and submit to Christ. We love and cherish those around us. We don’t give up! You have come this far, why would you give up now?!
Remember you have the key if you believe and know Jesus as Lord. The rest is waiting and trusting him to deliver as he said he would. Yes, you will have many trials along the way, but I can tell you from experience those trials are for your good.
The past couple years I have been moved around, living out of storage unit and suitcase, not knowing where was next on any given day. Rerouted in an instant. The removal of all my earthly securities and hope. Put in harsh environments that asked more of me than I am able on my own accord. There have been days filled with tears, and sorrows that carried me into morning. But remember each morning his mercies are new[Lamentations3:22-23]. His joy is infinite. His person is eternal life. Therefore, there is not one reason you or I as his follower cannot shed layers of sin and shame. That then lead us into new life, that lead us into more freedom than we ever knew was possible.
You can’t get to freedom locked inside your room here on earth. You must vacate the premises. You must hand your key over to the Lord, so he can give you, his key. His key that leads you to him, both now and in eternity where you will love and cherish the Father in heaven forever.
…I go and prepare a place for you…John 14:3