Jesus Christ was talking about the Rapture when He spoke of the mansion He was going back to Heaven to prepare. I used to think that I would not receive my mansion until after the Marriage Supper and the one thousand years of His glorious New World Order. The Bible is clear that the City of New Jerusalem is the city of His Bride and the raptured saints are going to possess this city as their eternal inheritance. We will also possess eternal glorified bodies and will ascend and descend just like the angels do presently. During the Millennial Kingdom, we will be His kings and priests and reign over the earth but will also move between Heaven and earth freely.

This was the same truth that Abraham understood when the Bible spoke of his looking for this great eternal city. "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." (Hebrews 11:8-10) Abraham was a rich man and certainly lived in splendor, but his heart was set far above his earthly surroundings. I do not know of any Biblical statement that ever spoke of the Heavenly city, so this revelation was a testimony to Abraham’s great experience with God. He was a heavenly-minded saint whose heart was set on his God

Our nation and people are so rich and full that the Heavenly city has lost much of its appeal. But to the dedicated saint that has experienced the very presence of God Himself, there is a sense that this world’s best is nothing compared to this city. The great need of our church world is to move beyond the sights and sounds of religion and to meet God in His excellent holiness, and, then and only then, will we start looking for a city with foundations.

The very statement "with foundations" is where the eternal comes into view. Look at the great cities of the world and then remember how many ancient ruins of past great cities we have read about or even visited. I have visited the ruins of Ereck (Genesis 10:10), Babylon, Hatzor, and Nineveh, all of which are in Iraq. I’ve been to many additional ruins of ancient Israel, such as Capernaum and Caesarea, and have read of many others and have studied their great history. But, that’s about all there is left except for a few treasures discovered in these ruins. They all are now past history, and each great city of this present world will be left in ruins as each culture ends its hold on survival.

The great revelation of Nebuchadnezzar interpreted by Daniel reveals that human government will be short lived compared to eternity. This great revelation said that all earthly kingdoms and empires will be broken down and destroyed, and our God will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. Here are God’s words, "And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure." (Daniel 2:44-45)

The great saints that knew God have looked past the glitter of human works and longed for a city with foundations. Nothing created by man is eternal because it has no foundations in the eternal sense. Jerusalem, the world’s capitol in Biblical language, has been wrecked so often that archaeologists find cultural ruins on top of cultural ruins spread beneath its walls.
Abraham knew there was something better, a "city with foundations," that would exist in a frame of continuance unknown to the human logic. It’s impossible to think in this realm without having met the Master of all life and redemption. Worldly men will read this Prophetic News Alert and laugh at my simpleminded thinking. The scientific thoughts of our educated society sees no realm but the one where the senses of touch and sight are the limit. Abraham had met and talked to God and the result was the utter surrender of his life to faith while living in the real world. He walked with his head in the sky and his feet on the ground.

This is real Christianity. This is where the Saints of God live. We are not earthbound, we are only tolerating life until He releases us. Paul said, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Phillippians 1:21) Hebrews describes these saints that have already made the mental transfer and are just waiting to be set free. The writer said, "Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection." (Hebrews 11:35)

Let’s work with God until we get as close as Enoch did that our Father simply says, "Just go home with me to My house!"

Joseph R. Chambers