Thus the Heavens Were Finished

We always say God is in heaven, but where does He live exactly? As a child of God I know where He lives, by way of the Holy Spirit within me. But before all of that, to everyone else, where is He?

Now let me tell you how I reason it, and I will say plainly that it is reasoning, because Genesis 2:1 does not stop and explain any of this. It says the heavens and the earth were finished.

When He created the heavens, the picture that comes to me is space, and space is my word and not the verse’s. Whatever the heavens are, He made them, so He was there before there was a there. You could work that out all day.

And Genesis says He created the heavens. So He was before them, and He was not made along with them. Outside is my word for it, and it is a poor one, because He is not a bigger thing standing in a bigger room. You cannot build the house from inside the house before the house exists. That is my picture. He was before it, making it.

Paul gives us the expression, in Corinthians, of the third heaven. He does not explain its arrangement or tell me what those heavens consist of. Whatever he means by third heaven, God was before it all.

So here is the wonder, and God is not contained by what He made, heaven does not hold Him. Heaven is His creation, and the Creator is never trapped inside the thing He creates. But He lives in me, waw! Fellowship on your own with that.

The Heaven of Heavens Cannot Contain Him

Solomon built God a house, and then said the very thing. The heaven of heavens cannot contain You, and He knew what he built with his hands could not compare. God had given him the plan, and I will show you that verse further down. The favor and the very ability to build it are my own way of saying what I see in his life, and I do not have a verse for those two on this page. That alone is beautiful. And when Solomon caught the view of God’s space, he had to exalt the God who enabled him to build the earthly, because he beheld God’s in his. The house he raised only made him see the One it could never hold. That is true humility.

So where is He? And here I have to be careful not to answer too small. Scripture says His glory is above the heavens and that Christ ascended far above all heavens. But Solomon says the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, and that does not mean He is shut out of them. It means no room holds Him.

Isaiah and Matthew both speak of heaven as His throne and earth as His footstool, because it is where His majesty and His work are displayed. He gets to enjoy the work of His hands.

So is He living there? I will say He is omnipresent. His throne is there, His glory is above it, and He is everywhere at once.

His glory is set above the heavens. David, like his son Solomon, was in awe of God's greatness, and the doings of God were marvelous in his sight. Where God laid His head is my way of saying it and it is not David's. And that line about Christ ascending is Paul's, not mine, so here it is.

Far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. Above, and filling, both in the one verse.

One day I had a vision. It was like a real conversation. It was like Christ came and was speaking to me.

Where That Left Me Sitting

He began telling me about a sister’s position in Him. I believe there was a reason He brought her up, because she would go on a bit too long in her detail, so that we all used to brace ourselves when she got up to testify. Nevertheless, God spoke of her position in Him.

“And yes, you, you are seated in heavenly places.”

I began to explain that to myself, and I began to pull from that Scripture for strength, because my life needed me to see that at the time. It was drama upon drama, lots going on.

And I have to give you two more verses, because the next thing I say is standing on them and they were not on this page.

Far above every name that is named. Now read what Paul says we are up against.

So the wrestling is real and Paul names it. And Christ is far above every one of those names. If I am seated with Christ, then this drama needs to be seen for what it is.

Like a roaring lion, emphasis on the like. And here is what I take from putting those verses together, and the taking is mine. Paul says we are seated with Christ, and Paul says Christ is far above every name that is named. So I read my seat as being where He is. And Paul also says we wrestle, so I am not telling you the fight is over. The roar is real. What I am saying is where I am sitting while it goes on.

And All the Host of Them

The rest of the verse says, and all the host of them. All. All means all, nothing left undone, no stone to overturn, when God finished, He finished.

And Peter says something that sounds like it, so let me put his words up and then say what I do with them.

We serve a God that finishes, and He finished the heavens and all their host. Read his words exactly. All things that pertain unto life and godliness. He does not say salvation, and he does not say it is finished in me, so let me not put either word in his mouth. And for the thing I actually want to say, there is a verse that does say it.

Will perform it. So in the heavens and in me, what He began He carries through, and those are the two I have verses for.

We are the temple now. The Holy Spirit lives in us, the very thing said at the top of this study, He lives in me, waw. And here is what I just saw, and I am going to give you the verse that lets me see it, because I nearly said this without one.

According to the pattern. Now read who that is about, because I nearly ran it into the wrong house. That is Moses and the tabernacle, not Solomon and the temple. Hebrews says nothing about Solomon there. But Solomon had a pattern too, and it is written down.

By the spirit. So Moses had a pattern shewed to him in the mount, and Solomon had a pattern given him by his father, which David says he had by the spirit. Two houses, and neither man drew the plan himself. And Solomon knew his house could not hold God, he said it himself. But it was still built glorious, and it was still built to a pattern. And now I am going to carry that across to us, so let me say that the carrying is mine. Neither Hebrews nor Chronicles nor Paul says that because the old house had a pattern, we are built to that same pattern. Nobody says that. I am saying it. So this temple, us, ought to be the same. Glorious, because God lives in it. Built to His pattern, because that is Who we carry.

He Is Still Building Us

He made us fearfully and wonderfully the first time, and He is at it again, building the temple He formed. The God who could not fit in the heaven of heavens chose to live in us. Which means we are not a shabby ruin He tolerates. And I could say this wrong, so hear it plainly. He is not waiting for us to be glorious before He moves in. Paul says the Holy Ghost is in you, present tense, already. So the building is not to make room for Him. He is in the house while the work is going on. He is not just forgiving us, He is building us.

Changed from glory to glory, and He is renovating the temple. The same God who gave Solomon the plan, and who I read as giving him the favor and the ability with it, is at work on us. And not to make us fit to hold Him, because He is already in. And I am joining two pictures here, Paul’s temple and Paul’s from glory to glory, so the joining is mine. He is making the dwelling like Himself.

And here is the part not to miss. He is still building us. We are not yet a finished work made manifest. And Paul says there is a presenting coming, a glorious church without spot or wrinkle. He does not say in that verse when it happens, so the day I am picturing is mine and comes from elsewhere. What the verse gives me is that the work ends in a presenting.

So the study that began by asking where God lives ends here, He lives in me, and He is making the place He already lives in like Himself. When the drama roars today, remember where your seat is, and remember what you are. Not a ruin He puts up with, but a temple He is making glorious, from glory to glory. Sit down in it, and rest. And let me say the last part carefully, because I have just told you He is still building us and I am not going to turn round and unsay it. What is finished is what Christ did. What is still going on is what He is doing in me. The God who finished the heavens will finish me too, and He is the One doing the work, in Jesus’ name.