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Third Heaven Perspectives

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IN 2022 CBN shared an article about the transdimensionality of our universe. It states: Dr. Hugh Ross is an astrophysicist that uses science and scripture to show that God is not constrained by the time and space dimensions that we are. Humans operate within four dimensions of space and time which include length, width, depth, and time. When astrophysicists began studying String theory, they realized there were six additional small space dimensions, totaling 9 space dimensions and one dimension of time. The math on String theory looks promising and would result in 11 space-time dimensions. Dr. Ross explains, “The remarkable advances of research reveal a God who lives and operates in the equivalent of at least 11 dimensions of space and time. They show that God can create space-time dimensions at will and is not limited by any of his created dimensions. Therefore, God is transdimensional.

In 2 Corinthians 12:2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—was caught up to the third heaven. At that time the Jewish rabbis had a belief in three heavens: our atmosphere, outer space, and paradise or Heaven. Years ago I learned a phrase called “Second Heaven Revelation.” The inference was that the enemy operated in the second heaven, whereas God existed in Paradise or the Third Heaven. The challenge was to not see people from the devil’s perspective – but from God’s, Third Heaven perspective.

I recall the first time I heard Dr. Ross speak explaining extra dimensions of time: In a two-dimensional world a triangle cannot be a circle and a circle cannot be a triangle. But add a third dimension to the triangle and the triangle becomes a cone. In a three dimensional world a triangle can be a circle and a circle a triangle. He used this illustration as an example of understanding the Trinity of God. But the same can be applied to our perceptions of ourselves and others. Jesus raises us from the death of a two-dimensional existence – to the life of a multi-dimensional existence. The catch? He wants us to co-partner with Him in lifting others up to His multi-dimensional, level of existence. Not only does He desire our partnership – He longs for His Forever Family to begin seeing others from this perspective. Brad McClendon once said, If you are going to the Bible looking for flaws – How can you see Jesus? True discernment is looking for Jesus. See behind the prison bars. The Bible says Jesus is our Mirror. The accuser wants your focus on yourself and others performance – not the Mirror of Jesus.

Todays Challenge? Rise to God’s perspective and ask to see people as He sees them.

Space Cowboys

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There’s an old leadership quote: “You cannot lead people where you have never been.” But it’s usually accompanied by another famous quote by Aristotle: “He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.” Jesse Jackson said it another way: You can’t Teach what you don’t know, and You Can’t Lead where you won’t go!”

This year I’ve been asking the Lord to allow me to experience this one Scripture so I can teach others how to go there. It has intrigued, challenged and puzzled me for years. It’s mysterious and seems to be out of reach. Yet, there it remains lodged as a “splinter in my mind.” The first time I heard that quote from a character named Morpheus in the movie The Matrix: What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.

What is the Scripture? Revelation 1:10-12 I was in the Spirit [rapt in His power] on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a great voice like the calling of a war trumpet,11 Saying, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last. Write promptly what you see (your vision) in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia—to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.12 Then I turned to see [whose was] the voice that was speaking to me,… 

I was in the Spirit [rapt in His power] on the Lord’s Day,…This is my “splinter.” I have prayed to have more understanding of its meaning. I have been praying for the experience – yet it stands removed and distant from me – like a distant planet I have only seen pictures of. Yet contrary to popular, Christian theology, the Bible was written as a testimony – a witness of what others have experienced; a testimony for future space traveling, cowboys who are willing to “boldly go where no man has gone before.”

Now don’t get me wrong I have prayed “in the Spirit” and I believe I have worshipped “in the Spirit” – but I’m still curious what lies beyond the door of being in the Spirit. Jesus said in John 4 that the Father is seeking for these kind of worshippers – so it must be pretty important. Which adds another piece to the puzzle. The book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, is chocked full of mystical references to doors: entry to the Garden, sin crouching at your door, Noahs’ ark door, and Abrahams’ door. The book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, has references to doors of time and space, or multi-dimensional portals. Whatever you want to call them they usher you into a dimension that is not your own. And Jesus is asking, seeking, and knocking – for someone to overcome the Laodicean Church Age and answer the Call. Isn’t it interesting the similarities between these actions of Jesus and His teaching on prayer in Matthew 7:7-8 Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the DOOR will be opened to you…. It’s as if Jesus’ “secret coded message” to anyone who will listen is that what the Father is searching for – Jesus is praying. Are you an answer to Jesus’ prayer? Referring back to The Matrix. Is Jesus like Morpheus and we are His “Neo’s?” Can you “see” the “Voice?”

Sounding the Depths

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Ephesians. 3:18-19 That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God’s devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]; 19 [That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!

This was part of a prayer the Apostle Paul prayed for the Christians in Ephesus. In the book Mere Christianity, its author C.S. Lewis remarked: A good many people nowadays say, “I believe in a God, but not in a personal God.” He adds that those who believe that God goes beyond personality are really saying that God is impersonal; something less than personal. We expect this kind of talk from unbelievers but not from followers of Jesus. Unfortunately our practice of spirituality reveals that we really view God as less than personal. More like a rug or a mat that we place on the floor and clean our feet or walk over – ignoring it altogether. We don’t expect much from the rug or mat.

Interestingly enough, physical truth often mirrors spiritual truth. For example, we think very little of a two dimensional world. But add extra dimensions to it and it becomes more than lines on a page. It becomes an object that we can interact with. Inside or outside of that object you can move three ways. Lewis adds: “you can move…to the left or right, backwards or forwards, up or down. Every direction is either one of these three or a compromise between them. They are called the three Dimensions. Now notice this. If you are using only one dimension, you could draw only a straight line. If you are using two, you could draw a figure: say, a square. And a square is made up of four straight lines. Now a step further. If you have three dimensions, you can then build what we call a solid body: say, a cube – a thing like a dice or a lump of sugar. And a cube is made up of six squares.

Now all of these lines converge to make something that is tangible and real. Even as you advance to deeper levels you never leave behind the simpler ones. You combine them to advance to something far grander than you or I imagined. Unfortunately, Western Christianity has resigned God to be a line or two. Nothing more than a mat or a rug.

Pauls’ prayer for the Ephesians, and I believe for us, is that we would know personally the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ experientially. That our mere knowledge, without experience, would be surpassed by experiences that build upon the simple lines that have been given to us in order to advance in our intimate, experiential, progressing relationship with the Creator of the Universe.

The majority of pew warmers in the West are still treating Jesus like a mat or rug. But you need to understand – there’s no accidents with Jesus. He has caused the infinite, eternal lines of Eternity to merge with yours. The question is, will you go wider, farther, higher up, and deeper in? Or will you simply keep walking over the mat? How could you ever miss a God so big?