The Heavenly Realms

  

The article below is a small portion of my manuscript, Waiting For The Day And Hour:

When I insist that we are raptured immediately into the ἐπουράνιος (epouranios) heavenly realms, I mean the place where the Lord and his holy angels’ dwell, as I said above, the place where God the Father is. This place is where God the Father has his Holy throne (Rev. 4:2-3). When the body of Christ is caught up into this place, we will see God seated on his throne along with twenty-four other thrones that surround his throne—the twenty-four elders are on these thrones (Rev. 4:4). We will see coming from God’s throne ορεύονται ἀστραπαὶ (orévontai astrapaí) “lightning strikes” (Rev. 4:5a, mGNT). We will also hear φωναὶ καὶ βρονταί (fonaí kaí vrontaí) “voices and thunder” (Rev. 4:5b, mGNT). The only way the raptured church can withstand the brightness of God, the lightning strikes that emanate from his throne, and the voices and thunder, is because we will be incorruptible and immortal—we will be in our heavenly bodies.

In the heavenly realms, the incorruptible and immortal bride of Christ will also see the precious Holy Spirit of God in physical form. No person has ever seen the Holy Spirit physically. Christians can feel his presence within and around them at times. We have seen and experienced his work being performed. But we the church have never seen the Holy Spirit with our eyes that I know of. The apostle Paul might be the exception (2 Cor. 12:2-4). – When I was very young in the faith, a man told me he was caught up to the 3^rd heaven like Paul. And that he had seen things he could not tell me. I did not believe him. But only the Spirit of God knows whether he was or not telling me the truth. – The angels of God have certainly seen the Holy Spirit because they are heavenly beings. The Scriptures indicate that the prophet Isaiah may have seen him when he had the vision of God’s throne room (Isa. 6:1-13). The Scriptures also indicate that the prophet Ezekiel may have seen the Spirit of God in visions (Ez. 1:1 – 3:15).

The ἑπτὰ λαμπάδες πυρὸς (eptá lampádes pyrós) “seven lamps of fire” (Rev. 4:c, mGNT), are an image of the Holy Spirit. The image of seven lamps on fire before the throne of the Father is the Holy Spirit in physical form. The number seven is allusive to him being complete, and the fire is allusive to him being pure, righteous, and holy. The Holy Spirit’s image is καιόμεναι ἐνώπιον τοῦ θρόνου (kaiómenai enópion toú thrónou) “burning before the throne” (Rev. 4:5d, mGNT). This reference is allusive to him being omnipresent and omnipotent. The Holy Spirit being omnipresent means that he is not only in the throne room of the Father, but that he is also, everywhere in creation at all times. He is in the heavenly realms, and the earthly realms, all at one time. He is everywhere at all times. Being omnipotent means that the Holy Spirit has unlimited power and authority. He is the Almighty. The Holy Spirit is God Almighty, with the Father, and the Son. The Holy Spirit is also referred to as being: τὰ ἑπτὰ πνεύματα τοῦ θεοῦ (tá eptá pnévmata toú theoú) “the seven spirits of God” (Rev. 4:5e, mGNT). The reason why he is referred to as “the seven spirits of God” is because the number seven, again, represents completeness, and spirits refer to his divinity. The Holy Spirit is God, complete. God the Father and God the Son are complete with the Holy Spirit. Their perfectness is manifested in the person of the Holy Spirit. God the Father, Son, and Spirit are all together, the only true, Lord God, Almighty.  

The place in the heavenly realms, where the throne room of God is situated, is a restricted area to the angels that rebelled against Yahweh. In chapter #11, I wrote about the angels that rebelled along with Satan, that committed sin, against the Lord. These sons of God, the fallen ones (Gen. 6:2, 4: Deut. 32:8), once had access to the throne room of God, but when they committed mutiny, they had their access revoked. Jesus said to 72 of his disciples: “I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning” (Lk. 10:18, CSB). When Jesus made this statement, he was referring to the inner sanctuary of οὐρανός (ouranós) “heaven” where God’s throne room is situated. Satan and his angels still have access to other regions, or sectors, of the ἐπουράνιος (epouranios) heavenly realms, but not the inner sanctuary of God. However, as I have written before, one day they will not have any more access because they will all be cast out of the heavenly realms to the Earth—this will happen during the 7-year Tribulation Period (Rev. 12:7-9). But now, in the lower regions of the heavenly places, there is a battle, between the host (army) of holy angels and the multitude of fallen angels. The apostle Paul wrote about it. The body of Christ’s fight is against the fallen ones in the lower sectors of the heavenly realms, it is not against flesh and blood (Eph. 6:12). When the body of Christ is raptured, we bypass this lower region right into the inner sanctuary of God Almighty.     

In the 1^st two chapters of the book of Job, we see that the sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh and Satan was with them (Job 1:6; 2:1). The Scripture does not say whether or not Satan met face-to-face with God on these occasions, only that he was in attendance with the other angels. Being in attendance does not mean there was a direct face-to-face interaction. Being present could have meant that Satan met God via a heavenly type of Zoom technology. Since he had fallen from heaven (the inner sanctuary), he could have only presented himself to God in a way similar to Zoom technology from a different realm. For the sake of argument, from the outer courts of heaven. The Scripture does not say whether the sons of God were all holy sons, besides Satan, or that they were all fallen sons and they too presented themselves before God via the heavenly Zoom technology while in the outer courts of heaven. The Scripture does not make it clear. But one thing is for sure: Satan would not have had a face-to-face meeting with God during the days of Job because he had already lied and deceived Eve in the Garden (Gen. 3:1-5). This means that before he had deceived Eve he must have already fallen from heaven as Jesus witnessed. In Job 1:7, and Job 2:2, Satan said he had been walking the Earth, so this means he had already been ejected from the inner sanctuary of heaven because of his rebellion. One-third of the sons of God would have already committed rebellion before Satan deceived Eve also. 

Picture: Old Testament Allusions and the Apocalypse of John – by Wes Van Fleet

https://oldtestamentallusions.blog/2018/07/13/old-testament-allusions-and-the-apocalypse-of-john-revelation-41-6/