When The Perfect Comes

1 Corinthians 13:8-13 (ESV Strong's)

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

We are children of God at the present moment. We will be until the perfect comes. Then we shall put aside our childhood and its childish ways when we come face to face with perfect love. We shall know as we’ve been known and love as we have been loved. We will be like Him. 

1 Corinthians 15:51-52 (ESV Strong's)

51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

Like A Tree

Psalms 1:1-3 (ESV Strong's)

Book One

Psalm 1

The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked

1 Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

3 He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.

Revelation speaks of a tree of life that yields fruit in its season and whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. The place of its planting is the New Jerusalem which will be the home of the throne of God. We are told the Bride of Christ is the New Jerusalem. 

The streams of water become the river of life which flow from His throne. The living waters reach us through the word of God and those who hear and keep it will live forever. 

Revelation 22:1-5 (ESV Strong's)

The River of Life

1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever. 

Revelation 21:2 (ESV Strong's)

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Wandering vs. Sojourning

Genesis 4:16 (ESV Strong's)

Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

The definition of Nod is “wandering.” Cain is cursed to a restless wandering of the earth, away from the Lord. Sin took his father from the Garden of Eden and now causes Cain to leave the presence of the Lord. 

We are all wanderers of this earth, unless we become sojourners passing through to another place, even the kingdom of heaven. Earth is no longer our home. 

Abundant Life

John 10:7-10 (ESV Strong's)

7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

We are two dimensional as human beings who live in time and space, until our spirits are made alive to God. Then we expand into a three dimensional life that is predestined for those who seek Him; one of time, space, and Spirit. 

We can have a full and pleasing life in time and space here on earth, but the abundant life comes to one made alive to God. The three dimensions of the abundant life can only be found in the Holy Trinity that is God. 

Garments Of Skin

Genesis 3:21 (ESV Strong's)

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Jesus would later come and clothe Himself with our flesh to lead us back into the Garden. This would become our tabernacle where we meet and find union with God. 

Sabbath Rest

Hebrews 4:9-11 (ESV Strong's)

9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

Our Sabbath rest begins when we rely on His finished work of creation for our justification and salvation. We abandon our labors and rest in Him. We are lifted up by His mighty hand; the people of God. 

The Flaming Sword

Genesis 3:24 (ESV Strong's)

He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

The flaming sword that guards the way to God is the Spirit, “which is the word of God.” It is the Spirit who opens our hearts to the truth of God and ourselves, which is the doorway to the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is the gate by which we enter the presence of the Lord and we do so through the body of Christ. 

Ephesians 6:17 (ESV Strong's)

and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,

Hebrews 4:12 (ESV Strong's)

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Matthew 7:14 (ESV Strong's)

For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.