LAWS OF ASCENDING AND DESCENDING FROM HEAVEN
It is a spiritual law not a principle that if we draw close to God, He will draw close to us. This means that it is a way that Reality is set up, that when people draw close to God, He perforce or by His Nature draws near to us.
There are ways of ascending into heaven. These are practical and taught in scripture. The most obvious maps are in David¹s writings. We need to know practical ways of entering God¹s Realm. Many people are entering heaven more often than before through worship and in dream and visions in our day, but few have been shown the basic maps of how to ascend and enter.
Here are practical tools for ascending. They are found in scripture and follow this pattern. First, we confess all our sins, for, ³who may ascend the hill of the Lord? He who has clean hands and a pure heart.² (Ps.24:3) Jesus did this for us at the cross. So we start there–with the cross. Because when we confess our sins He is faithful to forgive and cleanse, this is the way we begin our ascent–through confession. This is because sin blocks us from being able to be fully in God¹s Presence. So we confess.
When we do this, we realize what He has done and then enter thanks. We find ourself thanking Him for cleansing us–for the cross–and for the present application of the cross. Once we are thanking Him, we enter the courts–ie the outer parts of heaven. For thankfulness creates a space in us which allows God to flow and move us.
Once we are thanking, we enter, and once we enter His Courts, we will then find ourselves praising Him. That is the order of ascension: confession, thanks, praise. You see this pattern also in Daniel¹s prayer life, and in the Lord¹s prayer.
Once we are praising, God can take us anywhere in heaven and show us whatever He wishes us to see. He may show us our heavenly homes, or the parts of heaven that we are meant to, and will eventually completely, dwell within. Or, He may show us His Feet. He may show us something He is doing in a friend¹s life, or for a group or nation of people. But He will show us things! This may be a space where He shows us how He is praying for someone or a place, and so may bring intercession. Or it may be a place of gazing on some aspect of Himself. Whatever he leads us to we will go there and enter!
This is a simple pattern of entry, but it is practical. In our hour, many are being drawn up into heaven on a more regular basis, and this is for His Purposes. But we need to know these basic patterns or laws of The Spirit, so we will not become confused.
Many for instance, go worship once a week, and as they leave find themselves passing back into a spiritual valley of shadow. This is to be expected. For as we pass back through the gates of heaven, the enemy¹s hordes are outside of these gates, and they attempt to get us to focus on them, and leave the streams or ways of God pouring out from heaven. Know that on the outside of the gates, the enemy gathers–both to keep people out, and to keep people from returning, and to try to steal the things which one has gathered from heaven.
Once we know that this is the case, we are less immediately drawn away from the streams or ways or righteousness (the still waters) that keep us in the ways of God. The enemy is always trying to draw us out away from those streams. But to stay by them is a matter of staying close to the good shepherd as we descend into the valleys. We are to do whatever we do to stay close to Jesus. For me, it is spontaneous worship, or reading scripture out loud, or prophesying to strangers, or making music. Different people stay close to Him in different ways, but the thing is to cling to Him as we descend and not focus on the enemy, because that is the first thing you will see as you leave the heavens. This is especially true as the third heaven is beginning to press down into the second and onto the earth.
Too much of our heaven talk has gotten esoteric or mystical. But it is a practical matter to get into and out of heaven daily. And God has revealed spiritual laws of entry and exit in His Word. We need to know daily how to ascend and descend the mountain of our Lord! For from where does our strengh come from? Look to the hills, for our strength comes from The Lord!
This morning as I was confessing, thanking and then finally praising, God began to take me to a house in his Spirit. I saw a friend of mine getting annointed and freed to go into a new phase in his own life. I watched as He was lifted and then lowered and prayed over in a most exciting way. I got to see what God was giving Him right now in his life.
When we get up there, we never know what God is going to show us, or how He might use it. In another part of my experience, I was at God¹s feet just praising Him, and I felt that verse about blessed are the feet who bring good tidings, and I realized that those feet in that verse are always His, but that He lets us be His Feet at times! So this is part of a good tiding from The Lord. May it bless you wherever you are at on His Journey.
