Heavenly Places, part 2

Can you describe the Heavenly Places?

The heavenly places consist of the first heaven (the atmosphere around earth); the second heaven (outer space); and, third heaven called Mount Zion, the heavenly or New Jerusalem where God lives [Revelation 21:2;  21:10; 3:12 KJV].  Angels are active in all three areas.  There are always angels around the throne in the third heaven.

God sits on a throne:

1 Kings 22:19

And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.

Psalm 11:4

The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’s throne is in heaven:

Revelation 4:2

And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

Christ is seated at His right hand:

Hebrews 8:1

Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest [the Lord Jesus Christ], who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens;

 

We are positionally seated with Christ, but we’re not there yet:

Ephesians 2:6

And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

God is omnipresent but he does have a form.  We’re made after his image:

Genesis 1:27

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

God is a Spirit:

John 4:24

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

He’s a spiritual being, but he does have a physical form.  He wears clothing (garments), has hair on his head, sits on a throne and rides around on a chariot guarded by cherubim.

Daniel 7:9-14 describes the future when the Lord Jesus Christ will go to receive the Kingdom from his Father. He (God, the Father) is called the Ancient of Days:

9 I beheld till the thrones [positions of authority] were cast down, and the Ancient of days [capitalized, referring to a person, God the Father; a very good description of God] did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.

10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

11 I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.

12 As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion [again, positions/realms of authority on earth] taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.

13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man [terminology used for Israel’s Messiah] came with the clouds [angels] of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they [angels] brought him near before him.

14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

God, the Father sits, wears a garment, and has a head of hair (v9).  His hair is white.  (That’s another reason why He allows our hair to grow white when we get older.  It’s interesting, that you see in pictures, the judges in England and our founding fathers all wore white wooly wigs which signified wisdom.  The bible talks about silver hair representing wisdom [Proverbs 16:31].)

He sits on a throne which is actually a chariot with wheels (also, v9) and cherubim typified by and associated with fire many places in scripture.

Genesis 3:24

So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

 

Psalm 99:1

The LORD reigneth; let the people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved.

Ezekiel 10:1-2, 9

Then I looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne. And he spake unto the man clothed with linen, and said, Go in between the wheels, even under the cherub,

And when I looked, behold the four wheels by the cherubims, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by another cherub: and the appearance of the wheels was as the colour of a beryl stone.

Have you ever heard of the Chariots of Fire?  God sits on a chariot with a throne.  He’s mobile.  God moves around (v10).  He doesn’t just sit there.

In verse 13, the Lord Jesus is referred to as ‘one like the Son of man’ and notice carefully what this verse tells you…

Daniel 7:13

I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they [the clouds] brought him near before him.

Remember what happened at the Lord Jesus’ ascension in Acts 1?

Acts 1:9

And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.

These “clouds” are angels!

Daniel is looking into the future when the Lord receives the Kingdom:

Daniel 7:14

And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed

Hopefully this helps!  

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Heavenly places, part 1

What can we know about the heavenly places?  

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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Dear Anonymous

Pastor Ron's response to a comment left on the January 24, 2011 post:  Hebrews…

Thanks for your opinion Anonymous, and although we disagree with your view on the human authorship of the epistle to the Hebrews, we do appreciate you reading our blog.

What you must remember is that the writer of Hebrews includes himself in the doctrine presented in the book, and our Apostle Paul was not a part of that doctrinal program!

Hebrews 4:11

Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Paul already has rest in Christ as a member of the Body of Christ!

Hebrews 4:14

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession

Paul did not have to hold fast, he is eternally secure as of the moment he trusted Christ!

Hebrews 10:26-27

For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

This does not pertain to our Apostle Paul, nor anyone else saved in the dispensation of grace! We all sin willfully at times against our Lord, yet we cannot ever lose our salvation!

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Paul was/is a member of the present Mystery dispensation of grace, and not a part of the Prophesied earthly kingdom program. So although many believe that Paul is the human author, he is not! And, what's most important is that God wrote it!

Hebrews 1:1

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

Remember what Paul says...he was given the mystery of Christ! You must rightly divide the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).

Romans 11:13

For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:

Ephesians 3:1-4

For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,  If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote aforein few words, Whereby , when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ).

Paul was sent by our Lord Jesus Christ to make known the Mystery, not to focus on Prophecy/kingdom program.

Colossians 1:24-26; 4:3-4

 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church: Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:

Withal praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: That I may make it [the Mystery of Christ] manifest , as I ought to speak .

2 Thessalonians 3:17

The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write.

You must beware of those attributing letters to Paul that he did not write...

2 Thessalonians 2:1-2a

Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled , neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as [but not] from us,

Again, Anonymous, thanks for reading our blog.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Ron Knight

Witnessing to a Muslim

I heard someone in a prison ministry say that when he was talking with a Muslim prisoner he said, “Isn’t it interesting that our God tells us to love our enemies and your god tells you to kill yours.”  He had a great opening to reach out with the truth.  How do you witness to Muslims?

Whether they’re Black Muslims in the Nation of Islam (Joseph Farrakhan’s group) or Middle Eastern Muslims, I talk about the Koran (I know it better than most of them do by the way) and Jesus.  I point out that their book calls Jesus perfect and it also says that Mohammed is not perfect.

So whether we agree on who Jesus is, at least Jesus in your book is perfect; and our books says he’s perfect.

2 Corinthians 5:21

For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Hebrews 5:9

And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

1 Peter 1:19

But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

We agree on that.  So then why wouldn’t you trust someone who is perfect?  They make a big deal about Mohammed, but Mohammed himself lays out some of his imperfections.

Muslims are very religious.  They like to talk about that stuff.  In the conversation just deal with Jesus.  That’s all I do.  Jesus is the issue.  They hold him in high respect.  They just think he’s a great prophet – not God – but a step below Mohammed.  You don’t even have to know the Koran.  Just talk to them about Jesus and that he’s perfect and you’ll get to them. 

Hopefully this helps! 

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Greater Light vs. lesser light

Besides the so-called signs of the Zodiac and astrology, how have pagan religions corrupted the intended symbolism of the cosmos in Scripture?

In addition to figures in the constellations being patterns for false gods (lions, calves, etc.) other heavenly bodies have been used to represent false gods and are counterfeits of God’s truth. 

In Scripture, the sun represents Jesus Christ (the greater light).

Genesis 1:16

And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

The moon (the lesser light) represents Satan (the name means ‘light bearer’) – the one who rules the darkness.  Night always typifies evil.

Ephesians 6:12

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

2 Corinthians 11:14

And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

Allah, the desert moon god, is represented by a crescent moon.  Muslims don’t realize their moon god represents Satan—‘the lesser light who rules the darkness.’

Satan is the prince of the power of the air and he’s the ruler of this earth and its world system.  Satan has a kingdom.

Galatians 1:4

Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:

Ephesians 2:2

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this [present evil] world, according to the prince of the power of the air [Satan], the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Walid Shoebat is a well-known example of a Muslim who was converted to Christianity from Islam. When Walid read the Bible he realized that the god they were worshipping was Lucifer/Satan. He and others will tell you that many of the 99 names of Allah in the Koran are descriptions of Satan in Scripture, such as “The Great Deceiver.”

Why is their god called a great deceiver?  Because in Islam it’s permissible to lie to your enemy, the ‘infidel.’  That’s how the antichrist is going to deal with Israel.  He’ll say one thing to Israel, and another to his followers.

Hopefully this helps!

Golden Calf

Why did Aaron make a golden image to be worshipped in the form of a calf?

Egyptians made their gods based upon which constellation they were under at that time.  That’s why in Egypt some gods are in the image of lions, calves, etc.  In the time of the Exodus they were under the sign of Taurus (the bull).

Exodus 32:1, 4, 8

And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

God created the stars and constellations perfectly, but since the fall of man His whole creation is out of whack because of sin.  It is said that the Gospel (of Jesus Christ) is pictured in the stars.  Astrology is a counterfeit of the real meaning of the constellations in the heavens.  Every one of them has some type of significance.

Hopefully this helps! 

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Israel's Flag

Why is the symbol on the flag of Israel called the Star of David and what does it symbolize?

David is their conquering hero.  The Lord Jesus Christ is called the Son of David.

Matthew 1:1

The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

To the Jews, David is a type of Messiah.  If you look at David’s life you’ll see what they were expecting the Lord Jesus (Messiah) to do—defeat their enemies, particularly the Romans.  David was a king and a warrior.  They were looking for their Messiah to also be a warrior King.  The Jews took Jesus by force and tried to force him to be King. But he said, no, I’m the king but I have to die first. 

John 6:15

When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.

The banner of a country is on their flag.  In the Bible a real flag is called a banner.

Exodus 17:15-16

And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi [The Lord is our Banner]: For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

Psalm 20:5

We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the LORD fulfil all thy petitions.

Isaiah 13:2

Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles.

When you conquer a territory you put your banner (plant your flag) in the land that you conquer, right?  So the star on Israel’s flag represents David to the Hebrew people.  What they’re saying is, “This land is David’s land.”  It’s his kingdom.  That’s the symbolism behind it.

But to New Agers and in witchcraft, that symbol has been ‘hijacked’  to represent their common saying, “as above, so below” (it points up and it points down). This has to do with the fallen angels that comingled with the daughters of men in Genesis 6.  They were above, and then they came down.

Genesis 6:4

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

So their use of the same symbol is extremely occultic. 

Israel’s star also represents the three pyramids at Giza.  I personally believe because those were prophetic times, the builders got the vision for them from fallen angels, as well as the power and capability to build them.  The architecture is so precise (think laser technology) and other-worldly that even today we can’t understand how they could do it.    And what is interesting is that they have no hieroglyphics in them at all.  They had to have had supernatural help by someone who was more than willing to have them worship him (Satan and his fallen angels).

Interestingly the pyramids built by the Egyptians copy that design, but they actually fall apart.  They aren’t built as well and they’re filled with hieroglyphs to their gods.

Likewise, the tower of Babel also represented ‘something above.’  They built it as a tower to reach into Heaven - not literally to reach to the stars, but as a representation of the way they would reach Heaven; and it wasn’t going to be God’s way, it would be their own way. 

Another counterfeit way to heaven is represented by a gateway (think Hollywood’s Stargate) that bridges earth and heaven.  That is an occult counterfeit of Jacob’s Ladder from Genesis.

Genesis 28:12

And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

The Lord talks about this:

John 1:51

And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

The actual location where this will occur is where Jacob had his dream

Genesis 28:10

And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran.

It’s a like a ladder reaching to heaven literally.  So there is evidence in Scripture that there is an area on earth (in Israel) where the angels actually travel between heaven and earth.

Hopefully this helps...Maranatha!

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