The
tenth chapter of Daniel gives some understanding about the heavenly places
where we’re going to live. Gabriel had
to travel through the region of the prince of Persia (a fallen angel); he was
held back and it took him 21 days to be able to reach Daniel even with
Michael’s help.
Daniel 10:12-13
Then
said he [Gabriel]
unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for
from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to
chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy
words. But the prince of the kingdom
of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of
the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of
Persia.
When
the Lord Jesus Christ himself comes back, whether it’s for the members of his body…
1 Thessalonians 4:17
Then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in
the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the
Lord.
or at his return (aka, second advent)…
2 Thessalonians 1:7
And
to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed
from heaven with his mighty angels,
Revelation 19:14
And the
armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine
linen, white and clean.
He
always mentions angels coming with him.
And the reason is because his angels have to battle and fight. Even before he comes back at the second
coming for Israel he has Michael fight Satan and his angels in heavenly
places. This is real!
Revelation 12:7-9
And there
was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon;
and the dragon [Satan] fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither
was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out,
that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world:
he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
There
is war out there – war in heaven. So he’s always with his angels. Remember
when he comes at the Rapture that archangel is most likely Michael.
1 Thessalonians 4:16
For
the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of
the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise
first:
He’s
the only one who is called an
archangel in scripture. Michael is
going to come back for us. And the
reason is that he’ll have to fight to get us through the heavenlies. The fallen angels are still in existence
today and they’re operating in the heavenlies.
Romans 8:38-39
For I
am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ephesians 3:10
To
the intent that now unto the principalities and powers [various classes
of angels] in heavenly places
might be known by the church [they are up there learning] the manifold wisdom of God,
I
don’t know exactly what each rank does, but there are different classes and
ranks and authority of angels.
Colossians 1:16
For
by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions,
or principalities, or powers [various level of authorities]: all things were created by him,
and for him:
The
angels run creation. (It will be like that with the nation of Israel as the sons of
God [in the earth] and with the body of Christ [in the heavenly places]. There will be higher positions of authority
given to us.)
Just
as there are good and bad rulers in human government here on earth, it is the
same in the heavenly places. There are
holy [elect] angels and fallen angels that are in governmental positions.
Job 15:15b
…the
heavens are not clean in his sight. […because of the rebellion still going
on there.]
The
operation in the heavens didn’t cease with the opening of the dispensation of grace. That has remained the same
throughout the dispensations. The only program on hold during this gap of
time is Israel’s
prophetic program on the earth –
not what is happening in the heavens. The way the heavens function today has always
been the same since God created the angelic creatures, even though one third of
the angels followed Satan. They’re still
doing their jobs.
To
get a sense of what is going on in the heavenly places, let’s look at Job 1 and
I Kings 22:
Job 1:6a
Now
there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD…
They
were called in to give an account—much like your boss calling you in for a
meeting. That means that all of them are
not just sitting in his presence at every moment. They’re ‘out there’ but then they come
together – they congregate. There is an
actual place where God meets with them; it’s called the mount of congregation,
located in the heaven
of heavens.
Isaiah 14:13
For
thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my
throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the
congregation, in the sides of the north:
Having
an understanding of how things are operating in heavenly places helps me to be
able to dispensationally apply truths found in the rest of the Bible outside of
Paul’s epistles. And knowing the details
of what is happening in the heavens as revealed in the Old Testament helps me
to understand what the heavenly places are like and what God will do with the body of Christ when we get there; that is, how we will be used in service to him there. If you study about the
kingdoms on earth in the Old Testament, you’ll have an understanding about what
is going on in the heavenly places.
Knowing
all these details today isn’t going to affect our every-day lives as believers;
but if you know what Paul is saying about the cross and how to share a clear
Gospel, and you know how to share the rightly divided word and teach people
about Paul’s ministry, you will be doing God’s will for you in your lives here
and now—that’s our main job. Unlike what
religious leaders teach, we are not ‘disciples of Christ’ but, rather his ambassadors.
2 Corinthians 5:19-20
To
wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not
imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of [the ministry
of] reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for
Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead,
be ye reconciled to God.
Hopefully this helps!
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