CHAPTER NINE

THE THIRD HEAVEN

“I KNEW A MAN IN CHRIST ABOVE FOURTEEN YEARS AGO, (WHETHER IN THE BODY, I CANNOT TELL; OR WHETHER OUT OF THE BODY, I CANNOT TELL: GOD KNOWETH;) such an one CAUGHT UP TO THE THIRD HEAVEN.” (2Cor. 12:3-4)

As I begin to express my heart concerning this glorious mystery, I can sense the pulsating of my blood as it begins to grasp and reach out for that which is FAR ABOVE! I don’t say these things from a religious desire, but a desire that has propelled me since I was a little child. From my earliest years, I recall singing a very special song when preparing to do something important, such as play a baseball game or having to “do my best” at something else. I would prepare myself by singing this song:  “UP, UP AND AWAY IN MY BEAUTIFUL BALLOON; I WANT TO GO TO HEAVEN IN MY BEAUTIFUL BALLOON.” Now you have probably heard that song before; and to me, it was the only way to make “CONTACT” with God. As a child I believed in God but knew nothing about him. I simply feared him and tried to stay out of His way; but when I needed to excel at something, I always called out to Him in the simplest and most heartfelt way I knew.

I grew up singing this song about “going up;” and now, as a born-gain, Spirit-filled son of God, this desire is still the yearning of my heart. I have always desired “to go where no man has gone before” and I have always desired to peer into the supernatural realms of God. I have always wanted to see Him and be with Him; and now, after all this time, I see in the Word of God that the possibility does exist to enter into that which has been planted in me from the beginning of my life upon this earth, which is to ENTER INTO HIS PRESENCE. I see this in the Apostle Paul’s writing, when he declares that HE WENT INTO THE THIRD HEAVEN! The third heaven, as the Apostle describes it, is a place called PARADISE. One can only imagine what this place is UNTIL they themselves have seen it.

The Apostle Paul did see it; and he said that, while he was there, he HEARD things that were not possible to speak. It was not that he was commanded not to speak but that he simply found no human words to relay what he had seen and heard. I want to go through this passage of Scripture to gain a greater insight and hopefully find a way into these glorious events and places as the generation upon whom has come the GREAT TRANSLATION. First of all, let’s look at what happened to Paul. First he says that he “WILL COME TO VISIONS AND REVELATIONS OF THE LORD.” (2Cor. 12:1)  This is very important to our understanding. Visions and revelations are a part of our experience as born-again beings, for it was said by Jesus that unless one is born again he cannot SEE the Kingdom of God; and unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot ENTER into the Kingdom of God.

Both SEEING and ENTERING into the Kingdom of God requires a NEW BIRTH, or what we call a BORN-AGAIN EXPERIENCE. It is through this being BORN AGAIN that we have now become heirs of a great promise, and that promise is to SEE and ENTER into the Kingdom of God. Many have thought this meant AFTER DEATH they would awake to the Kingdom and enter into it, but Jesus clarified when he said, “THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS WITHIN YOU.”  (Luke) When Moses told the people to BE READY AGAINST THE THIRD DAY, he explained to them that they were going to SEE GOD:  “FOR ON THE THIRD DAY GOD SHALL COME DOWN INTO THE SIGHT OF ALL THE PEOPLE”! (Exodus 19:10-14)  We spoke about this earlier, so I will not repeat the information; but to pick up the progression, we look at this necessity of being born-again to have any experience at all with these heavenly promises and divine events. The Kingdom of God is an INWARD REALITY that comes into spiritual view when one has become born again. This is exactly what happened to the Apostle Paul. He said that he was having visions (SEE) and revelations (ENTER) into the things of God. You and I are to have the same experiences as the Apostle Paul did. He represents the divine precedence for the Third Day Church! As he entered into the Third Heaven and HEARD AND SAW, so we, too, have access by one Spirit into the same experience!

This generation has been qualified by God to ENTER IN! Let us go forth, therefore and BE READY for such an adventure, knowing that we are not talking about physical, outward experiences but inward and spiritual matters. As you and I are READY, we, too, shall experience the journey of a lifetime as we enter into this realm of the Spirit. Paul said that he had this experience, NOT KNOWING if he had been bodily transported or simply spiritually elevated. This tells us that we can have visions and revelations without ever leaving the earth and that we can go to places in the Spirit realm without ever leaving our bodies if the Lord chooses it so. In other words there is no FORMULA to these events happening; they simply happen as the Spirit leads and wills them to happen. The next statement Paul makes is interesting:  “SUCH A ONE CAUGHT UP TO THE THIRD HEAVEN.” (2Cor. 12:2)  The phrase “caught up” carries two possibilities; first, it may be that Paul was INSTANTANEOUSLY RAPTURED into this glorious realm without any WORK of his own or any effort exerted on his part, or two, that Paul had labored in the Spirit in such a manner that he literally caught up to that which he had been pursuing. There is no doubt that he had been pursuing God with his whole heart, for he declared that he counted all as loss in order to win Christ. He said that his goal in life was to KNOW HIM, be intimate with Him and to APPREHEND HIM!

These phrases make us understand that this man was indeed running a race and it was to WIN CHRIST! HE was in HOT PURSUIT, and I believe that it was with this kind of fire and passion that he finally CAUGHT UP to that reality in the Spirit that is available to all who seek it! Yes, I believe that laziness in the Body of Christ has caused us NOT to ENTER IN to those long awaited realms of the Spirit and that our lack of pursuit and passion has kept us out of those experiences we claim to desire with all our hearts. And because we have left off the holy pursuit for the King of Glory, we have settled for the next best thing, which simply is to die and hopefully arrive in this special place. But this was not the heart of Paul! He would have nothing to do with lukewarm and compromising Christianity! He knew that would bring him right back into a religious form, just a bit different from the one he spent so much time shaking off and releasing. For Paul, it was CHRIST OR NOTHING! He had no desire to start another religion just for the sake of something new. And because of this kind of passion, he CAUGHT UP TO THE THIRD HEAVEN! His inward passion released a spiritual thrust of divine power that elevated him into PARADISE! Oh Saints of God, would we not all do well to let go of all in order to WIN CHRIST? Would we not experience life in a greater dimension if we would but forsake all for the Kingdom? So many are afraid that if they FORSAKE ALL, ALL WILL BE LOST!

Yet the truth is that, as we forsake all we gain so much more! We enter into a realm of the Spirit that few have ever been and we receive the benefits of such an experience as we are TRANSFORMED and FOREVER CHANGED! Now all things are possible! We go to the fish’s mouth and take out the money we need, we feed thousands with very little, we always have enough and so much more because now the provision of God is released into our lives. This is the result of a holy passion and pursuit. Paul was not the only one to ascend to the highest heights; John, too, was CALLED UP into the THRONE ROOM OF GOD! Yes, in the fourth chapter of the Revelation, a TRUMPET was talking with John and said, “COME UP HITHER AND I WILL SHOW YOU THINGS THAT MUST BE HEREAFTER.”  (Rev. 4:1)  John said that IMMEDIATELY HE WAS IN THE SPIRIT and BEHOLD, A THRONE WAS SET IN HEAVEN! Beloved do you hear this? A TRUMPET SPOKE TO HIM! We are living in the prophetic Third Day and the prophetic Seventh Day of the Lord, and there is a TRUMPET SOUNDING throughout the land, TALKING with a people who have ears to hear! The voice of the trumpet is saying: “COME UP HIGHER! THE HEAVENS ARE OPEN, AND THE THRONE IS SET! COME UP AND SEE THE KING! COME UP AND I WILL SHOW YOU THINGS FOR THIS GENERATION! COME UP AND I WILL REVEAL ALL MY MYSTERIES AND SECRETS TO YOU! THIS IS THE TIME! THIS IS THE GENERATION!”

The difference between Paul’s and John’s ascension from ours is that this generation will be released to SPEAK those things that they hear! There will no longer be restriction upon the words of God! There is a TRUMPET that sounds in the Book of Corinthians telling God’s people that they are about to be CHANGED and TRANSFORMED! The voice of the trumpet declares a generation that will not taste death! The trumpet is talking; are we listening? John is an altogether Third Day and Seventh Day man! For it was he that went up to the Mount of Transfiguration on the Seventh Day and was the third apostle named in the list: “AND JESUS TOOK WITH HIM PETER, JAMES AND JOHN.” (Matt. 17:1)  John is the THIRD APOSTLE, the Apostle of Love who once again speaks as divine precedence to this generation! We are the disciples of Love who are being called up to hear the words of God! Are you ready?

Watch out for 2006! Mysteries and secrets revealed! We have spoken in some length on the Third Day, yet we have not yet begun to scratch the surface of what lies beneath this revealed knowledge. What I have shared with you thus far is but the outline of a new day, a prophetic season; and I leave it to you to go on with your pursuit of the Lord and of this glorious time we are in so that you may discover the width, breadth, length and depth of the FULLNESS of what this DAY is truly all about. I want now to shift into another part of this season, the counterpart of the Third Day--the Seventh Day. Again, some mysteries have been revealed concerning this most critical time period we are in, which will propel us deeper into our destinies in the Lord of Glory. I want to speak about the SEVENTH DAY, A DAY OF REST FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD, a day that demands our attention and calls to us saying, “COME, NOW IS THE TIME TO ENTER INTO MY REST! Let’s go!!!