As many as I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be committed and repent. Listen! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone listens to My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him, and he with Me. Those who conquer: I will give them the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I also won the victory and sat down with My Father on His throne. (Revelation 3:19-21)
Jesus stands at the door of your heart-soul and knocks with His voice. Jesus is in your Spirit, but for your life to be fully transformed you must permit Him to live and reign in your heart-soul also. Heart and soul can mean the same thing in the Bible.
It is important to understand that you are Spirit, soul, and body, (1 Thes 5:23). Your Spirit is the part of you that is born from above, from your Father in Heaven. You were created in Christ Jesus, for God’s planned life-destiny for you (Eph 2:10). Your Spirit is the real you in perfect form and a witness of God’s will for your life. Your Spirit is the core of your being and your source of life for your soul and body. In your Spirit is the Kingdom of God and eternity. Your Spirit is inside your heart-soul, and your heart-soul is inside your body.
As mentioned in Part 2, your heart-soul kingdom includes your will, mind, desires, emotions, and conscience. Your conscience is the part of you that becomes conscious of what you choose to focus on. Your heart-soul is also where you process information received from your Spirit and your body. Your body is the part of you that interacts with the physical realm and is also conscious of physical desires.
For the mind set on the flesh [body and physical realm] is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; …. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. (Romans 8:6-14 NASB)
Your heart-soul is where you rule your life by your will. Your will is the throne of your heart kingdom. Your mind is the battlefield where the battles for your will and life are fought. When you choose to hear the voice of Jesus and allow Him into your heart, He comes in. Then you decide where He is permitted to occupy in your heart.
You can keep Him in a closet in the back of your mind and ignore Him, until you need Him. You may keep Him in your Sunday church section and pay attention to Him at times on that day. However, the highest place of honor you can give Jesus in your heart-soul kingdom is to permit Him to sit on the throne of your will. Your will rules your life; when you submit your will to His will, you are being transformed to be like Him, face to face.
My purpose for telling you these things is so that the joy that I experience will fill your hearts with overflowing gladness! “So this is my command: Love each other deeply, as much as I have loved you. For the greatest love of all is a love that sacrifices all. And this great love is demonstrated when a person sacrifices his life for his friends. “You show that you are my intimate friends when you obey all that I command you, -Jesus
(John 15:11-14 TPT)
For those who permit Jesus to come in their hearts He says, “I will come into him and dine with him, and he with Me. Those who conquer: I will give them the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I also won the victory and sat down with My Father on His throne.” This is a profound promise. If you allow Jesus to sit on your throne and submit your will to Him, He will share His throne with you, forever.
There is a price to pay; you must conquer, you must overcome yourself and give your life fully to Him. If your desire is to sacrifice your life for Jesus, then He will help you, the Holy Spirit will help you, the armies of Heaven will help you; but it will not be easy or it would not be sacrifice. However, the eternal reward is so much greater than the cost.
Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it, (Luke 9:23-24).
Jesus spoke of dining with those who permit Him in their hearts. We celebrate communion as a reminder of the price Jesus paid for us on the cross. “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor 10:16 NASB). The word communion means fellowship, sharing, common union.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me, (John 6:54-57 NIV).
Since this takes place in your heart it must have spiritual meaning. The Spirit is the One who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life, (John 6:63 HCSB).
Every blessing that we have received, and every blessing we will ever receive from God our Father came through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things, (Romans 8:32 NASB). All of the promises of God are fulfilled in Jesus the Christ. For every one of God’s promises is “Yes” in Him. Therefore, the “Amen” is also spoken through Him by us for God’s glory, (2 Cor 1:20 HCSB).
As Jesus has given His life for us and we receive spiritually through the communion of His blood and body, we also offer up ourselves as sacrifice for Him to receive. Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual worship, (Rom 12:1 HCSB).
It seems that one meaning of Jesus dining in fellowship with us in our hearts, is that as we are receiving the blessings from His life and sacrifice. He also is blessed by our willingness to give our life to Him. Together, we have Holy communion with each other.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:14-19 ESV)
⇐ Return to Repent Part 2 – Transformation | Go to Repent Part 4 – Realize Who you Are ⇒