[Luk 17:20-32 KJV]

And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see [it]. And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after [them], nor follow [them]. For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one [part] under heaven, shineth unto the other [part] under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day. But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed [them] all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot’s wife.

There seems to be a never ending predilection out there, to assume all things declared in the scriptures, if not seen, handled and tasted now, must therefor be off in the future. It seems man and his troubled history are dragged along in a cart, as a homeless person with all his collected valuables are placed in a “borrowed” shopping cart and propelled from one place to another. Many such have all but given up hope of ever seeing a better day, as there is none evident here and now. The eyes of the religious world are transfixed on the horizon of the future, expecting what is referred to as the second coming of Christ.

I will be the last person to ever tell you that the Lord will not be reveal in the fullness of His glory. But I will also be the last to dissuade any from understanding, and embracing with a strong, jealous, and determined grip upon what we DO have here and now.

When Jesus began to describe to the first disciples how that He must go to Jerusalem to be falsely accused of blasphemy, to be physically beaten, mocked and derided, to be crucified and then raised on the third day; raised, glorified and inaugurated on the right hand of all power and majesty…the message was not well received. All the expectation of the Jews, the Samaritans (scattered tribes), and even the first disciples, was that Messiah would reunite the nation, drive out the foreign occupiers, and sit upon the throne of David, then and there in Jerusalem. Peter’s thinking reflected this when he attempted to rebuke Jesus for speaking of His impending death and resurrection. James and John showed this when they had their mother approach Jesus about a potential high place on His right hand and left…Jesus telling them they didn’t know what they were asking. The rest of the ten reflected this when they were so upset about James and John making a seeming power grab. John the Baptist reflected this when his ministry landed him in prison (and eventual beheading). From prison, he sent to ask Jesus, “Are you He, or do we look for another?” The two disciples leaving Emmaus reflected this by telling Jesus this was in fact their now defunct expectation. Indeed, it is always a challenge to reconcile eternal truth with temporal surroundings and situations. But the truth is, Jesus has come again, exactly as He spoke He would, and it seems to be entirely overlooked by the masses, although in each passing generation, a remnant do see it, and are added to it, functioning in this in faith.

John 14:

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if [it were] not [so], I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou [then], Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I [am] in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater [works] than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do [it]. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; [Even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I [am] in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being [yet] present with you. But the Comforter, [which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come [again] unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.

Jesus IS the Father’s house. And in resurrection, all who dwell in Him. When Jesus said, “The Father dwells in me”, it was not a poetic statement. It is the absolute truth. The fact that something is largely incomprehensible to flesh and blood, does not make it untrue. For example, when Jesus spoke to Nicodemus that one absolutely must be born again, Nicodemus said, “How can these things be?” When Jesus spoke of the coming of the Spirit and said “I will come to you”, because He does not come to you as a man, it does not make the Spirit of Christ in you to be any less Christ. It is not the commonly held expectation of a man coming to sit on a chair in Jerusalem and satisfy whatever the world is expecting of Him, But that does not in any way diminish what happened when the day of Pentecost was once for all fulfilled. The Spirit and Promise of the Father came. He has not departed. He does not come and go. Philip had a hard time with this, as did Judas (not Iscariot). Judas asked Jesus how would He manifest Himself to “us”, and not to the world. Jesus said, “If a man (woman…makes no difference) love me, he will keep my words: and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him”. These Jesus described, IS the Father’s house of many houses.

The book of Revelation aptly describes Christ as he who came, is coming, and will come.

Rev 1:8

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Ezekiel also spoke of the Teacher, the Spirit of Truth. In the vision of Christ which God gave him. The vision was of a man who is a temple. The dimensions of the temple were based upon the rod in His hand. A Rod is two cubits. A cubit is two spans. The Span is the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the little finger when the hand is stretched wide open. The one Ezekiel saw, is the one the gospels declare all things were made by, and for. It says of Him that He measured the heavens with the span. It is He from whom these living waters flow, being the same who stood upon the steps of the stone temple, and as the Living and true temple and house of the living God, He cried:

[Jhn 7:37-39 KJV] In the last day, that great [day] of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet [given]; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

This is what Jesus had spoken to His disciples, is what the prophets saw, and is what happened on the day it was fulfilled. The living temple Ezekiel was shown is Christ. The temple, should one search and read, is like none I have seen. The farther into it Ezekiel looked, the bigger the measurements became. And having seen this, Ezekiel, a Levite and priest, was told to show this house to the house of Israel, that might learn to be ashamed of what they do.

Christ, the Anointing in you, is the hope of glory, your hope of glory. Not Christ in anointed teachers and pastors. Not Christ perceived to be in a system. Christ in YOU.

Why the title “MAN WITHOUT A CITY”?

This is to call attention to the time we live in as shown before in Enoch. Enoch the seventh from Adam, so identified by Jude, in order to distinguish of which Enoch Jude wrote. For there were three in the days of Noah. Enoch the son of the murderer Cain. Enoch the city named for that son of Cain. And Enoch who walked with God, and God took. Jesus compared the days (plural) of the coming of the Son of man to those days. And in those days, the long suffering and patience of God was on display, while the ark was being built. But when it was built, the age in which it was built was ended. And indeed, we live in the days of the coming of the son of man. Not the unfulfilled desire of a man on a chair. But the days from the time Jesus was raised and glorified, and the Spirit of Christ came, and many are added by faith daily unto this present day, and finally until the last day is spent, the last added, and the Father sums all things up in Christ. That day will not be what many expect. I don’t claim to know what will unfold, only that the apostles wrote of elements being on fire, and the world and it’s works being burned up. Indeed, Jesus also said the days would be as in the days of Lot. Both examples Jesus gave did not give a comforting picture to man and his works. Both spoke of a way out..a way to survive the days. That is revealed to be in Christ.

Enoch the seventh came into the world and in time, came to understand that it had a city that bore his name. He was not deceived by it, and sought no place in it. It was the work of a fallen man and his offspring, conceived outside of the Lord’s presence, in a land called Nod, which means “aimless wandering”. A place so conceived and built, can not deliver what it’s name proclaims it to be. The very name “Enoch” means “a place of inauguration”. In other words, a place where you are added to something, enjoined to something, instilled in something. Enoch, though he found in his age and time, no continuing city in the world, He did find the Lord, and in the Spirit, walked with the Lord. And the Lord took him, in order that he should not see death. He, Enoch, did not wait for the Lord to straighten everything out. And it’s a good thing he didn’t. He walked with God and wasn’t waiting for anything, but walking in it.

The time we find ourselves in, is as those days. There is a lot in the world that seems to identify itself as the Lord, or of the Lord. Many places to join, and then sit around and wait. But the Teacher, as shown to Ezekiel, was first ankle deep, then knee deep and thigh deep. Finally it was waters to swim in, waters that could not be crossed. As long as the foot, or any part of the body can feel the bottom, the carnal mind finds a certain level of comfort. But if one is standing on the bottom, the waters passing him along, he/she will never be carried along of them. It says the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual and not with the words that man’s wisdom teaches (1 Cor 2:13). In other words, not comparing Himself to the things the foot can stand on. I don’t bring this up to discourage anyone. For I have found that there is nothing more substantial and certain than what the Lord teaches you. Indeed, the things which are spiritually discerned are foolishness to man. But he/she who has the Lord as his/her teacher, will never be disappointed. Without Christ in you now, I don’t see any possibility of being prepared for the things which are coming. In a world so full of so many and contrary voices, the invitation still rings true:

[Jhn 7:37 KJV] In the last day, that great [day] of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.

[Rev 22:17 KJV] And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.