The Price of Our Heavenly Home

I've had this recurring dream for the last couple years or so and thought I'd write it down. It starts out in my house and there's a family that keeps trying to move in it without my permission. This goes on for a long period of time, with my "struggling" to get them out. (This represents the old man of the flesh or self who wants to take over our house as we struggle to keep him out.) I'm also struggling with those who are trying to take over my parking space. It's very frustrating to come home and find someone has parked in my space and moved in my house. (The old man will take over the land of your life, if you let him.)

Then the dream changes and suddenly there's an attic entrance (which my house has) but when I enter the attic, it's like a secret chamber, with many chambers. (This represents the mind of the flesh; our attic, what's in the top of our house.) It almost looks like it's made of ground in places, shorn up by wood structures. It's a scary, dark place and I don't spend too much time there. I check it out quickly and there are very many rooms -- some large, some small -- some with bridges and all sorts of trash and things all over; none of which I like. It's also rather dark and very little light comes through. (The mind of the flesh is where the earthly -- the wood, hay and stubble -- in our life is conceived. The chambers of the mind are many, large and small. We must give them all over to Jesus by the renewed mind of the Word.)

Then the dream changes and the dark rooms are no longer in my attic but in a long barn attached to the house. The barn has all sorts of junk in it: hay, abandoned tractor parts; and with many rooms, each after the other. (After conception in the mind, they become our works on the outside of our spiritual house.) It's very long and I never get to the end of it. The outside of the barn is rough-looking -- old wood that looks like it needs replaced. But inside the long barn, light shows through the wood slats of the walls; there are many cracks. It's not such a scary place, not like the attic, but there's not much of interest in it, not for me anyway. (It is good when the works of the wood, hay and stubble have no drawing in our life anymore; for then the spiritual things count, like the light that leaks in to remind us of heavenly truth.)

Then the dream changes and I realize all of a sudden that outside my house, past the yard and the carport there's a building that belongs to me. I wonder why I never knew this building belonged to me or that I never noticed it before and I am now just discovering it. (Many don't know of this house that is being built by God's works in us. {2Co.5:1} For we know that if the earthly house of our tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens. {2} For verily in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven: {3} if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. {4} For indeed we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but that we would be clothed upon, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life. {5} Now he that wrought us for this very thing is God, who gave unto us the earnest of the Spirit. {6} Being therefore always of good courage, and knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord {7} (for we walk by faith, not by sight); {8} we are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord. {9} Wherefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing unto him. {10} For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat of Christ; [Numeric New Testament ...] that each one may receive through the body, according to what he hath done, whether good or bad. How is it that we receive a reward through our new spiritual body? Just as with the lampros garment that was given to the Bride [Revelation 19:8] was created out of her works, so is this house, which we can see from the text is the garment. The reward is there are different bodies for different amounts of the glory of Jesus shining out of the saints [2 Corinthians 3:18]. {1Co.15:40} There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the [glory] of the terrestrial is another. {41} There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory. {42} So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: {43} it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: {44} it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual [body].

It starts with a platform that's sky blue in color (heavenly) and in the form of a whale. In the middle of the platform is a seat. Upon further inspection, it's a toilet. I think to myself, who'd put a toilet on the outside? I suppose I could sit here in the evening. In reality, the name of the street I live on is Pitt Street and it occurs to me that life on Pitt Street is like being in a toilet because the toilet is in the middle of a platform that looks like a whale; and I'm reminded of Jonah being swallowed up by the whale. Hmmm ... something to think about. (The path or platform to our heavenly house is to get rid of the waste that Paul said we should leave behind. Even his religious knowledge was considered dung. Like it was with Jonah, this old man is swallowed by the giant or whale or pit of the old life. Like the Israelites, we must conquer the giants in the land to have our new house.)

There's a door on the right side of the platform and I'm told it enters into the building attached to it, but a person I can't see is showing this to me and bids me to enter from below. (We must enter by the most humbling of circumstances -- repentance and faith.) So we go down the stairs and enter the door of a large, wooden structure that looks rather shabby. (The new life looks like the old life from without to the casual observer. The sons of God are hidden within the old structure. Those who look on the outward appearance cannot tell a Christian from a sinner.) I'm surprised when I enter inside and see the most beautiful interior. (It is here that the manifestation of Christ is growing. "Christ in you, the hope of glory".) The floors are mahogany and cherry. (The natural life, represented by what grows from the earth, is under the feet.) Everything is beautiful and it looks like there's gold trimming everywhere. (The gold, silver and precious stones are the antithesis of the wood, hay and stubble of the former life.) I don't go too far into it to check it out, just take a long look and see it's very large. I see in the distance an open upper room and a wide hallway leading into more rooms or a large area. (The spiritual life is not constricted by the natural life.) This person I'm with points out a closet right inside the entrance we just entered and says that on the doors there are fingerprints (where usually handles are to open the doors). I put a fingertip to the fingerprints on the one door and it opens. (The new life has its own security code. Only the person who owns it may enter in or permit others to.) Inside is a closet and two red coats are hung. I'm not sure why that strikes me and the blood of Christ comes to mind, but I'm not sure why there are two red coats. (Our red coat is our works or fruit made possible by the cleansing of the blood of Jesus. Jesus is the High Priest of the new house. One coat is His and the other is ours.)

Then we walk outside and a little past this large building is a doorway. When we enter it's a store. A lady is picking up blue stuffed animals, saying this will never do here, it has to go. (Glorifying as heavenly, the beastly life that has no life is not permitted when one has to buy the heavenly life with the price of the beastly life. {Mat.16:23} But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art a stumbling-block unto me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men. {24} Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. {25} For whosoever would save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it. {Rev.3:18} I counsel thee to buy of me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich; and white garments, that thou mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame of thy nakedness be not made manifest; and eyesalve to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see. Notice in our 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 text above that our new house is also new garments that we must put on.)

I see people working at a display table that is glass in front where you can see the products that look like they should be on sale. (But Jesus paid the price, so there is no sale price.) I walk past that, through a doorway and down a short hallway that leads me to cement showers and toilets. There's a woman in the last shower at the end of the stalls, which have no doors, taking a shower. Some of the toilets in the open along the opposite wall are missing and there's just a hole in the floor with a toilet paper dispenser above it. What? (We don't get rid of the waste of the old life by resting on our rump but by walking in the light. {1Jn.1:7} but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin. Walking in the light is to be done openly before all the world, like these toilets. {9} If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.)

I leave the store, wondering how I'll ever learn to run it myself; it's all too much. First, a strange outside platform, then a beautiful building that I want to live in as my new home, then a store. (For those who think we have to "run it ourself", it will be "too much" trouble to give up the old life, for the new there will be plenty of company but no new heavenly house. By grace, Jesus gave us the new heavenly house and life and we must believe Him to do it in us.)

The person with me beckons me on. (Jesus wants to show us what will be if we pass up the spiritual house.) Then we walk outside and further down past the store. I see a long set of stairs that are not in the best of condition. (These are dangerous steps.) They're apartment stairs. I realize I have an apartment building. (If we pass up the heavenly gift of the house, we will be bundled together with the wicked, as Matthew 13 teaches.) When I look up the stairs, a man is starting to walk down. With him are a young girl, around age 8 or so, and a woman who looks like his wife. I realize there are quite a few apartments in this building, maybe more than 100. Maybe even more than that, more than I can possibly count from where I'm standing; the building is huge. The man says something to me I can't quite make out. I'm asking him how long he's lived here and who he's been paying rent to all this time. (The cost for doing things our way and not by faith is confusion, which is the meaning of "Babylon", the harlot.) He's saying something to me that I can't understand, maybe something about he meant to tell me and wants to talk to me. I'm trying hard to hear him; then I wake up. (The warning here, saints, is clear: Be determined to lose your old life to gain your new life or you will be on the broad road, with many others, that leads to confusion and death.)

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