The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Tail of the Dragon, #2

Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into [the] heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into [the] heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into [the] heaven. (Acts 1:11)

Spiritual Heaven or heavens, or sky, or all heavens?

Because the Greek language does not differentiate among the spiritual Heaven where we are to place our affection, the lower spiritual heavens, and the starry firmament, it is difficult to understand which heaven a given passage is referring to!

Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also [the] heaven. (Hebrews 12:26)

Spiritual Heaven or heavens, or the starry firmament, or all heavens?

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. (Revelation 21:1)

Spiritual Heaven or heavens, or sky, or all heavens?

The reason we have asked "or all heavens" is that we have come to believe the physical heaven and the spiritual heavens are related. It is clear the physical heaven and the spiritual heavens are not next to each other, that is, one could not travel into outer space until he arrived at the spiritual heavens. Rather, the heavens coexist and they interact. What takes place in one directly affects the other.

We see this in the human body. One could not dissect the human body until he arrived at the soul and spirit. The human personality is a unit. The spirit, soul, and body coexist and interact. What takes place in one area affects the entire personality. The spirit and soul are invisible to the human eye while the body is visible to the human eye. When the spirit and soul are separated from the body we have the condition known as "death," the death of the body.

We would submit that the spiritual heavens and the physical heaven coexist and interact. What takes place in one area affects the other. One is visible to the human eye while the others are invisible to the human eye. But they are a unit nevertheless. When the Heaven of God is separated from the physical realm, the physical realm is dead as far as the Life of God is concerned.

When the Lord Jesus ascended into the heaven he was visible until He passed into the spiritual Heaven. As long as He remained only in the physical realm He was visible. But the moment He passed into the spiritual Heaven He became invisible to human beings. The Lord did not travel trillions of light years until He arrived at the spiritual Heaven. The spiritual Heaven is at the level of the clouds. In fact, it is likely that the lowest aspect of the spiritual heavens begins at the surface of the earth, just as the lowest aspect of the physical heavens begins at the surface of the earth, and that Jesus ascended to 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. (II Corinthians 12:2)

"To the third heaven"!

To be continued.