John 14:3 English Standard Version (ESV) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

There is an irresistible draw in this verse that creates in us the desire to see Him come to take us away. That draw is so compelling because we grow weary of this world and all the evil in it. We just want to be with our Lord. That is the natural desire of people in love, they want to be together.

We can focus on studies of that event to the point of ignoring what our Lord has said before He declared His return. He is preparing a place for us. Perfect understanding with our perfect God requires a perfect relationship with our God. Because we are human and not yet perfected, what we come to understand has to be what we need to know by revelation from our perfect God to perform His will in our lives.

Think of it as a “need to know” basis.

1 Corinthians 8:1b English Standard Version (ESV) we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up.

Knowing that God is building us up to be the pure spotless bride, one prepared for His Son, one worthy to be His bride, God will not allow us to be puffed up with bloated egos. We will receive that which we can digest without doing harm to our souls. The soul or the mind, will and emotions of a living human being is fraught with imperfections that need a makeover.

Seeking to understand on our own those things that we are not prepared to receive will lead to ignoring what needs to happen to prepare us for the conforming process.

Romans 8:29 English Standard Version (ESV) For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Revelation 21:1-2 English Standard Version

The New Heaven and the New Earth

¹ Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ² And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Many will conceptualize that being the bride of Christ is being married to Christ. This is a misunderstanding of the historical aspect of Jewish weddings. The example set before us in those customs identifies how God prepares for the wedding feast. We have not come to the wedding, nor the wedding feast. We are being prepared to become the worthy bride where our gown will be spotless white. As long as we live, we are still being prepared and we have not arrived yet.

Matthew 1:18-20 English Standard Version

The Birth of Jesus Christ

¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰ But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

A woman betrothed is called a bride but is not called wife until after the wedding.  Jewish custom was such that the father of the groom would decide when the son had sufficiently prepared a home for his betrothed. Jesus in like fashion is waiting on the Father to say when all the preparations are ready for the wedding.

John 14:3 English Standard Version (ESV) And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.