Heavens
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August 17, 2008 |
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 "You alone are the LORD You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before You" (Nehemiah 9:6).
The world in which God the Creator dwells is completely different from this world in which people live. If we call the space in which people live "the fleshly world," the invisible space in which God dwells can be called "the spiritual world." Even though the spiritual world exists without doubt, as they are unable to see a world of spirit many people refuse to acknowledge its existence. For them, the fleshly space – the universe including Earth – is all there is to the world as we know it. However, even the scientists who devote themselves to the study of the universe can only go as far as to describe that the size of the vast space is limitless.
Within the limit of man, it is impossible to clarify the universe in which we live, much less God's world. Yet, the Bible tells us of "the heaven of heavens" and of many heavens in addition to the heaven that is visible to our naked eyes.
1.Multiple Heavens
If one believes in God and in the existence of the heavenly kingdom, he can easily fathom at least two heavens in existence. The first is the heaven in the fleshly world in which we live and the other is the heavenly kingdom, which is of the spiritual world. In many parts of the Bible we find the emphasis placed on the existence of other heavens in addition to these.
Psalm 68:33 reads, "To Him who rides upon the highest heavens, which are from ancient times; Behold, He speaks forth with His voice, a mighty voice" while 1 Kings 8:27 tells us, "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built!" Ephesians 4:10 tells us, "He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things" and 2 Corinthians 12:2 reads, "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago ... such a man was caught up to the third heaven."
The Apostle Paul's confession that he was "caught up to the third heaven" indisputably tells us that there are not only first and second heavens but also of additional heavens. In Acts 7:56, Deacon Stephen confessed, "Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." Even an individual in the first heaven can see the spiritual world when his spiritual eyes are open and know of the existence of a heaven in which God dwells.
Today, even scientists acknowledge multiple heavens. For example, the theory of "parallel universes" proposed by renowned cosmologist and physicist Max Tegmark of the United States supports this idea of multiple heavens. "Cosmological observations reveal," Tegmark observes, "that our universe is a part of the whole universe. In this world are countless universes and the physical attributes of each of these universes can be different from those of the other." In other words, Tegmark proposes that there could be a different universe and it is possible that the physical attributes of each universe, i.e. time, spatial characteristics, and the like, can be completely different. Of course, it is not possible to clarify the spiritual world with science but we can gather from a scientific approach that the universe in which we live is not everything in existence.
Therefore, while there is a fleshly heaven that is visible to our naked eyes there are also heavens that belong to the spiritual world. Here, the term "heavens" is an expression that enables people in the three-dimensional world to easily understand the four-dimensional spiritual space. By the same token, we use the expression the "heavenly kingdom" because it facilitates our understanding.
2.The Fleshly Space and the Spiritual Space
In the beginning, there was only one space in which God existed. At the time of His choosing He devised a plan to accomplish the cultivation of mankind. He planned to create man, find children who will have taken after Him in their free will, and share love with them for eternity in gladness. The first phase of this plan called for the division of the space in which He dwelt alone into a fleshly space and a spiritual space.
What, then, is the difference between the fleshly space and the spiritual space? On the one hand, the fleshly space is a realm in which fleshly beings, i.e. man, animals, birds, and fish, exist, grow old, and decay with the passing of time. It is visible to people in the flesh and deteriorates with the passing of time. On the other hand, the spiritual space is a realm in which spiritual beings exist and visible only when spiritual eyes are opened and other spaces can exist within that space.
Thus, the first heaven – a fleshly space in which there are all the worlds and the universe – and the spiritual space – the second, third, and fourth heavens – were created.
The first half of 1 Thessalonians 4:17 tells us, "Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." Here, "the air" refers to the second heaven that belongs to the spiritual space.
In the second heaven is the Garden of Eden into which Adam the living being was led after having been created by God (Genesis 2 & 3). This is a spiritual space God created for Adam the living being. However, after committing the sin of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve were no longer spiritual beings and thus no longer allowed to stay in the Garden of Eden and were driven out from it.
At the east of the Garden of Eden is a space allowed for evil spirits for the purpose of the cultivation of mankind (Genesis 3:24). Ephesians 2:2 reads, "You formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience," and "the air" in this verse refers to a space in which the enemy devil and Satan dwell and wield authority. Thus, in the second heaven are territories of darkness and territories of the light.
The third heaven is a space in the kingdom of heaven in which the saved souls will dwell eternally. In 2 Corinthians 12:2-4, the apostle Paul confesses, "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago ... such a man was caught up to the third heaven ... [he] was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak." The Apostle Paul was led up to the third heaven and saw Paradise within the kingdom of heaven and we can gather that the heavenly kingdom in the third heaven is not one space but is divided into many.
The fourth heaven is the space in which God had existed alone in the beginning. It is a space where He existed as the light in which the sound was embedded, harbored all universal spaces in His heart, and ruled them. While the passing of time at different paces exist in the first, second, and third heavens, in the fourth heaven, such expressions as "time" or "space" are meaningless. When something is harbored in the heart, it is accomplished as the time and space are transcended here.
3.The Work of the Transferring of Spaces
The fleshly space and spiritual space overlap. We read in Acts 8:39-40, "When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he kept preaching the gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea."
When the Spirit of the Lord led Philip, in an instant he was from the wilderness and moved to a distant Azotus. As Philip was transferred through the spiritual space that overlaps with the fleshly space, he could disappear in a moment and appear at a different place a few moments later.
Instances of the manifestation of God's power that made use of the spiritual space are recorded throughout the Bible. However, this is possible only when one accomplishes whole spirit and completely controls, subdues, and rules over the fleshly body.
1 Kings 18:45b-46 tell us, "And Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. Then the hand of the LORD was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and outran Ahab to Jezreel." When "the hand of the Lord" wrapped Elijah's body in God's power, the prophet could ride the current of the time in the spiritual space.
John 20:19 tells us, "When the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, 'Peace be with you.'" The reason Jesus could appear in one moment and disappear in the next and could enter a room whose doors were shut was because Jesus' movement made use of the spiritual space. The same can be said of the time He walked on the water.
We also witnesses countless manifestations of God's power in Exodus, i.e. the appearance of an innumerable number of locusts that covered the surface of the land, the manna and quails, the Israelites' crossing of the Red Sea, all of which took place using the spiritual space.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, as Jesus tells us in John 4:48, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe," our times demand the manifestations of God's power. Therefore, may each of you come forth as a blessed child of God opening the space of the heavens and always experiencing His power, in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ I pray!
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