When Jesus said that He was going to prepare a place in the Father’s house, He was talking about a Jewish wedding, where the bridegroom and his father would pay a bride price to the bride’s father, which meant the couple were already legally married. The father and his son would then go back to their house to prepare a place for the bride – however long that would take – while the bride remained with her father. When the preparation was complete, the father would send the son to fetch his bride and a trumpet was sound, which was a signal to the bride to put on her wedding garments. Thereafter the marriage would take place. This was an analogy of what Jesus came to do. At the resurrection Jesus ascended to the Father after he appeared to Mary, to prepare an abiding place for His bride. In Revelation we read that the first heaven and earth had passed away and there was no more sea (outer court). The bride (The Body of Christ, the city, the temple of the Holy Spirit, the New Jerusalem) came, prepared for her husband. In the Jewish mindset the father’s house meant the temple in Jerusalem. The Holy of Holies was seen as heaven (the throne), the Holy Place was seen as earth, and the Outer Court contained a brazen container where the purification washing took place and that was called the sea. This was all a shadow of the true tabernacle in heaven. Because the Jews held on to this temple, which had a veil (the law) they were blinded to the new temple, it was a mystery. Jesus called Himself the temple, the new access to the Father, which statement thoroughly riled up the Jews. He was going to prepare a place of fellowship within Him. Jesus came through the true tabernacle (his body), He is the High Priest over the true tabernacle of God (man), writing the new law on their hearts. In the 40 years after the resurrection, Jesus was preparing a place for his Bride by revealing to the Church that they were the temple, the Kingdom of God. In AD70 the previous holy place (Jerusalem, the temple – the Jewish heaven and earth) was surrounded by the abomination of desolation (the Roman army) and everything prophesied about the day of vengeance against Israel in the Old Testament was fulfilled, total destruction of the system of Law and sacrifices. We need to get the revelation of the fact that God and His Kingdom is in us, that we are His temple, Holy Priesthood and have our actions manifest that to the people around us.
