God has an eternal plan with a holy destination that we do not know about other than what is told us in the Scriptures (given by the Spirit) and told to us by the one who came from the destination, the Son of God. Yet that picture is like looking from a foggy seashore to find a boat on the horizon and its destination beyond. Even when the fog thins, the ship may be found, but the image of the destination is curved below the horizon. The destination remains hidden. The eternal plan remains a mystery.
Mankind individually perceives eternity and infinite existence. And we know that absolute holiness and perfect love exists. We experience these and yet we cannot grasp their meaning or their entirety. We cannot grasp them and yet we contemplate their existence. We react similarly to the perception of God’s existence. God has placed in the core of our being the awareness that He exists. Yet because we cannot grasp the entirety of his being we question his existence. God’s nature remains a mystery.
Mankind’s inadequacy to comprehend eternity, the infinite, absolute holiness, perfect love, and God’s character was not always a part of our being. Nor does our inadequacy need to remain. To regain the ability to know (dwell in wholeness) of the mystery of God is possible. We cannot only see the destination, but we can exist in it. Until then we need to step from the foggy shore onto the boat headed to the horizon and beyond the final destiny.
Till the destination is reached God tests us (18). The tests are refinements of the soul (mind, heart, and will). The initial state of mankind when born is incapable of reaching the destination beyond the horizon. Refinements via test are needed. The result of one type of test is designed to help us accept that we are like animals. The end result of the unprepared and unchanged soul is death (19). Like animals, we come from dust, and dust our body returns (20). The reality of our mortality must be established and accepted. Fear of death and that it is orchestrated by God is the beginning of wisdom.
Then the forever-nagging reality of eternity, the infinite, absolute holiness, perfect love, and God’s character leads us to the question, “Who can bring me to see what will happen after I die?” (21) “Can I experience even a little bit of the destination now?” I am here to say, “Yes. God has made a way for us to experience him for he is the all-encompassing destination that awaits.”
Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.” (John 14:9–11).
Jesus continued, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (John 14:16–20)
