The fourteenth and fifteenth chapters of John deal with progressive levels in our spiritual life, plateaus to which we attain. Even with Christ’s disciples, there were levels of discipleship. The Word tells us the Lord deals with us without partiality; nevertheless, there were always those who went a little farther with Him. Peter, James, and John, who were with Him on the mountain where He was transfigured (Matthew 17:1–13), perhaps had determined a higher plateau upon which they would walk. Under the twelve was the ministry of the seventy (John 10:1); below the seventy were the other disciples.
The various plateaus to which individuals can attain are not reached by personal diligence and self-discipline, but by their faith and by their walk with the Lord; in faithfulness they go from one level to another. Sometimes we think it is enough that we are delivered from oppression and bondages. It is not enough! We also must determine how to break through what seems like impossible impasses to get to the next level.
Let not your heart be troubled; believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for 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 to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. (Not, there you “will” be also, but there you “may” be also.) And you know the way where I am going. Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going; how do we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”
Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know me, Phillip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak of My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; otherwise believe on account of the works themselves. Truly, Truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” John 14:1–14.
The Lord told the disciples, “The Father is abiding in Me, and if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father. Now I am going to the Father!” Levels and plateaus in the spirit are not measured by distance. We have to get rid of the idea that heaven is way out there beyond the stars. Spiritual plateaus are a matter of plane rather than place.
There are people who walk around, unaware of the Lord, yet the Lord says, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Others are so aware of the presence of the Lord that they walk with the Lord continually, for they came up to a higher plateau of spiritual awareness.
We are surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1), and yet we get the idea that the dead in Christ are tucked away in some corner of a distant galaxy, waiting for the day of resurrection. It is not so! They are not far away in distance, but they can seem so, because the spiritual plane is different.
“In My Father’s house there are many abiding places, and I go to prepare a place for you.” He is going to another plane. “I go to the Father.” The Father was not distant; the Father was abiding in Him. “He that has seen Me has seen the Father.
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to Myself; (Consider it a plane, not place.) that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:3. It was of this relationship of abiding in Him which He refers to in John 14:12: … he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also.
In John 15, He was on that same thought when He said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, (it is that higher plane of abiding) ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.” Verse 7.
The Lord is saying, “Come higher.” It is not a matter of distance; it is a matter of a higher spiritual plane. Anyone who has such a tremendous potential created in their spirit to walk with God, and is content to live on a lower natural plane is foolish. It is ridiculous for the new creation to be so earthbound. It is beyond reason for us to continually dwell on that lower plane when everything is speaking, If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Colossians 3:1.
We have to open our heart to see this, and come up to something better. Our not being spiritual is foolish. It is ridiculous for us to be so earthbound that we find our natural appetites still governing, and our spiritual appetites having a vagueness about them until it is not important whether or not we read the Word, pray, and dwell in the things of the Lord. Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Matthew 4:4.
Come up a little higher. We can change our position spiritually, and come into the mystical presence of the Lord. There are many abiding places. The only difference between us and those who are sleeping in Christ Jesus is not a matter of distance but of spiritual plane. We can be aware of the Lord, like Moses, who endured as seeing Him who is invisible (Hebrews 11:27).
After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:3–5), and to John on the Isle of Patmos (Revelation 1:1). There must have been many such appearances. Jesus said to Mary, Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father … and to your Father John 20:17? Yet He was seen for forty days before His ascension, when the clouds received Him out of their sight. Where did He go? Was it a natural cloud that received Him or was it the same cloud that led the children of Israel in the wilderness (Exodus 13:21)? Was it the cloud of witnesses that he ascended into?
Acts 1: 9And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. 10And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; 11Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
They saw Jesus levitate up into the cloud. He slowly disappeared from their sight, and he will come to us in the same manner. All we have to do is come up a little higher, that where he is we may be also.