WHERE I AM

Jesus knew that it was in the plan of God that His disciples be separated from him for a time, but in the future, they would be reunited, and from that time, they would forever be with Him. So knowing His earthly ministry was coming to an end and He was going to leave them, Jesus sought to give a word of comfort about their future. In John 12:26b Jesus said, “Where I am, there shall also my servant be, “and in John 14:3, He said, “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 also be.” In these verses, Jesus was alluding to the events that would occur after the rapture when believers are caught up to meet Him in the air and taken to heaven as Paul reiterates in1 Thessalonians 4:17, “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

While believers are in heaven on earth, the tribulation will take place. And at the conclusion of it, Jesus will return to the earth for Jude 1:14 recorded, “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,” and John in Revelation19:14 saw believers as an army clothed in fine clean white linen following the Faithful and True Jesus back to earth to establish His millennial kingdom.

After the millennial reign, the battle of Gog and Magog, and the White Throne Judgment, this earth with its’ heaven will pass away, and there will be a new heaven and earth. John in Revelation 21:2 recorded, “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” It is in this new city on the new earth that Jesus will continue to rule as Lord and King and believers will be there with Him forever as He promised.

In closing, according to Isaiah 45:18, God created the earth with a purpose: to inhabit it with His kingdom citizens. As stated in Psalm 115:16, the heavens are His domain, but the earth He gave to the children of men. Finally, Jesus, as ordained before the earth’s foundation, will rule on a pure, lasting earth with all of His citizens fulfilling his words, “Where I Am.”