Forever Home in the Eternal Family of God

Encouragement for the Family of God by Kenton Cheek

11 December 2025

Reading From Revelation 2

“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God…To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it…To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father.  I will also give that one the morning star.  Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”—Revelation 2:7, 17, 26-29

In the beginning, God gave mankind dominion over all the Earth. Adam and Eve enjoyed perfect relationship with Elohim and they functioned freely in His power and authority. The Creator gave human beings free will and tragically they gave into Satan’s temptation, sin spoiled the paradise they lived in, and still today our reality is an off the rails blend of beauty and ugliness, joy and pain, compassion and cruelty. The goal of the atonement of Jesus Christ is to redeem the creation; to restore mankind to the perfect, paradisiacal glory He intended for us. One day in the New Heaven and the New Earth, there will only be the goodness of God. “And He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be death; there will no longer be sorrow and anguish, or crying, or pain; for the former order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:4). God will restore us to the New Eden.

In the New Eden we will eat of the Tree of Life once again. Eternal life is promised to everyone whosoever chooses to believe, repent, confess and receive Jesus as Savior and Lord. We do not have to fear physical death, for it will be for us a seamless transition into glory. The second death which is the casting of Satan, his demons, and all those who reject the gift of salvation through Jesus into the lake of fire is also something that the children of God will be far removed from. We still be safe and at peace in the Presence of the Father.

We will eat from the hidden manna which might symbolize knowledge reserved only for sons and daughters of God as well as spiritual intimacy with Jesus. I Peter 1:12 says of the ancient prophets, “It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.” Angels wish they knew the depths of love and knowledge experienced by fallen humans restored to relationship with the Father through the Son.

Jesus is the Bread of Life, the Word of God in bodily form. Psalm 119:103 says, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Manna, the miraculous culinary provision from Yahweh to children of Israel as they wandered through the desert, is described in Exodus as, “like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.” In our present reality we receive “foretaste of glory divine” as Fanny Crosby described it in her hymn, “Blessed Assurance.” Right now we know in part and we experience in part, but we are being prepared in this life for expanded capacity in the life to come. There, we will “know even as we are fully known” (I Corinthians 13:12). We are fully known by God. He will heal and restore and expand our ability to know and understand. We will be able to absorb and retain and use knowledge to the fullest extent of our created yet glorified abilities in the New Heaven and the New Earth. Oh the questions we will ask and finally have the answers to! Praise God for the hidden manna that we will taste.

The white stone with a new name has two meanings. In the ancient world a white stone meant an acquittal in a trial, a token of victory. The name upon it might represent our new identity in Jesus and an invitation to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. That only the Savior and the one holding the stone would know the new name is a precious indication of love and intimacy. The Prophet Jeremiah wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” The answer comes in the next verse, “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”

We also know from the writings of the Apostle Paul that, “No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.” Since every born again child of God has the Spirit Himself within them, we are privy to spiritual knowledge divinely and intimately revealed to our hearts and minds. With this knowledge we will reign with Christ for all eternity and function in His power and authority in the paradise of the New Eden.

“Thank You Lord for Your great and precious promises. Through them we are partakers of the divine nature. May we honor and glorify Your holy Name. Amen.”

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

—Ephesians 3:14-21