Sermon Notes

ASCENDING INTO HIGHER REALMS

OVERVIEW

• Introduction
• Ascend into a Spiritual Maturity – Set up a Ladder
• Power of Prayer
• Holiness
• Obedience
• Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

2 Corinthians 3:18
18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The Bible says, the Church will move from one level of God’s Glory to another level of God’s Glory and all of us are destined to be like Lord Jesus Christ. Focus on high spiritual life in the church. Once saved, we should never go back to a lower spiritual level but have a higher understanding moving up to a superior spiritual life because our physical being will never advance without attaining spiritual progress. We will never experience the blessings of the almighty God and our life will never progress until there is a spiritual realm progressing in our life knowing Lord Jesus Christ which is the true spiritual realm. Our eyes should be opened to see the light of revelation knowledge of Lord Jesus Christ which no money can buy as proved in the Bible as well as in History. We cannever walk into the complete blessings of our almighty God if there is no spiritual progress in our Christian life immaterial of whether we have a Christian name or attend a church or speak in tongues or talk about the Holy Spirit or is a good worshipper. No one should be dwarfs or have child like wisdom in the kingdom of God but become mature sons of the living God who will manifest the manifold wisdom of the almighty God. The Bible says, God chose the Church to manifest the manifold wisdom of God.

ASCEND INTO A SPIRITUAL MATURITY

Genesis 28:12
12 Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

The word ASCEND is used many times in the Bible.

This is one of the first instances which records the word ascend in the Bible. This is the famous incident of Lord appearing in a dream to Jacob we know from the Bible which has a revelation that we all need to understand. There are different spheres in the spiritual realms. There are seven realms of spiritual dimensions as per the Bible. Everything is not yet revealed but will be disclosed as the Lord Jesus Christ comes to take back the Church. Three realms are always revealed. The first realm is what we experience in the Church as we come together to worship and experience His presence. Jacob moved into the second realm where angels ascend and descend; however, he had to set up a ladder. We use a ladder when we need to reach an object not accessible within our capacity. This is a season when we are purposely called to build our spiritual ladder as God wants to take us to a higher dimension of spiritual life. We can never be diminutive in the Kingdom of God or we cannot be like small children who do not grow according to the maturity of Jesus which underlines the importance of a spiritual ladder.

The ladder implies a great desire for a higher dimension of spiritual life. We get what we desire as the Bible says God will give the desires of our heart. Let us remove all the unwanted desires from our heart and get the desire of Lord Jesus Christ in our heart. Let us not desire for the worldly pleasures because the Bible says love of the world is enmity with God. All our desires should have more of God.
Spiritual growth is very necessary in our life which is an individual choice. Being a part of church may help but there is no guarantee for growth because spiritual advancement is something we need to desire for. If this desire is lost we can never ascend into the higher realms to understand the manifold wisdom of the almighty God. All the completeness of the blessings of God lies in the realm of spiritual growth and maturity. Salvation is only a starting point.

Why did Jacob ascend? Jacob ascended into his new season of Life as he saw the vision of ascension. Jacob is already blessed but has not attained the completeness. He had everything that was needed; still he thirsts for a deeper relationship with God and a purposeful desire of ascending into the higher realms. Desire takes us into another level

POWER OF PRAYER

The second aspect that will take us to the next level is to understand the power of prayer in our life. Why do we pray? Why do we waste our time in praying if we don’t believe that God will work in our life? We need to believe in the power of prayer when we pray. Prayer can work miracles. Attending church or calling the Pastor is not the solution but there should be a desire to ascend into a higher spiritual realm of maturity along with the power of prayer. Multiple times we need to tell our brain to pray – to pray more, pray higher, and pray longer. This is why the Bible keeps on saying to be steadfast in our prayers – pray continuously, pray without giving up and pray about everything. We need to pray all the time irrespective of the blessings that we have in our life. Many a times we pray only when we have problems. We could avoid the difficulties, and issues that break us down if we pray always.

HOLINESS

There is a pictorial representation for every event in the Bible. We call Jesus as the “Lamb of God” which is the pictorial representation of the life of Jesus or the crucifixion of Jesus. Similarly mountain is the pictorial representation of ascending into higher realms. We find there is always a higher spiritual activity on the mountains than what happened in the valleys whenever we read about mountains in the Bible. We should never be in the places where we are now as everyone should climb up the mountain of the almighty God, moving up in the higher dimension of spiritual life.
The first mountain mentioned in the scripture is Mount Ararat which means a “High Ground of Rest”. God used the Mount of Ararat as the first pictorial representation of ascending into higher realms in the Bible. Noah’s ark docked on the mountain in Ararat with only few inhabitants.

The first mountain in the Bible is Mount Ararat. Noah kept on preaching the gospel for one hundred and twenty years which is the fulfilment of God’s time before the great flood. Only eight souls were saved during the righteous wrath and judgement from Holy God. The first step to ascend into the higher realms of spiritual dimension is Salvation. We should be saved, believe in Jesus; accept Jesus as our personal saviour, believe in water baptism, accept water baptism and be filled with the Holy Spirit baptism as well. Noah’s family along with the animals got into the ark. The ark represents Jesus in the new covenant. Noah and his family experienced the love of Jesus, comfort of Jesus, peace of Jesus, safety of Jesus and experienced the entirety connected with Jesus in their lives. There was a great flood soon after, that the waters prevailed on the earth for one hundred and fifty days. Anyone outside the ark could not overcome and sustain the flood as they did not hear and believe the gospel to find a rightful place inside the ark. People mocked and called Noah a fool. No one desired to ascend into the higher realms which drowned all of them except the eight in the ark. This is exactly what happens in churches today. The problems will drown our life if we do not grow spiritually. Let us take a decision to ascend into the higher realms of the almighty God.

God had a conversation with Noah on the Mount of Ararat and asks him to be fruitful, multiply and abound on this earth. Noah received these blessings from God on the mountain. All the promises get activated only in the higher spiritual realms. The promises will be fulfilled as long as we stay connected to that higher realm. God accepted the sacrifice of burnt offerings and smelled a soothing aroma, made a covenant with Noah. It was all glorious and marvellous on top of the mountain. The following verses in Genesis chapter 9 of the Bible says they all came out of the ark, went down into the valley to be farmers and planted a vineyard. Noah was drunk of the wine and was uncovered in his tent which brought the curses back to the mankind. This is why David kept on praying, “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?” David realised and understood that he needs to be there at the higher realms of the almighty God. We can be the most blessed people if the realisation to stay in the higher realms of spiritual life is in our hearts. It is amazing to experience the wonderful growth in our spiritual life when we have the comprehension to ascend and stay
in the higher dimension of the almighty God which also brings the fullness of the blessings of God in our life. Let us be encouraged to desire and grow into a higher beautiful spiritual life. There is always a risk that we may fall trap into this ever attractive world when God blesses us. We always need to desire more to be in the presence of the almighty God which is always on the higher dimension. The first gift that we will inherit in the complete blessings of God is rest or Shabbat.

Rest means no tension or worries, imply the state of peace or divine peace that will manifest in our physical life, spiritual life and our emotional life. There should be a definite progress in our physical life, spiritual life and our emotional life. There will be rest in the spiritual progress that we attain in our life. When we go through the Bible, we find that Abraham went up to the mountain to sacrifice his own Son even though he was blessed. He had a deep understanding of the revelation and told his young men to allow Abraham and his son to worship on the mountain and come back.
Real worship is an individual understanding of us moving into a higher realm with the almighty God. Abraham goes to the mountain along with his son and for the first time in the Bible, God is represented by a new epithet – Jehovah Jireh which is often translated as “the Lord will provide” and, when used as a name, “the LORD my provider”. Abraham already knew the El-Shaddai God because the self revealing God proved His might and power by blessing Abraham with a son in his hundredth year which is a great miracle. Still, Abraham went to the mountain displaying his complete absolute obedience. This is where we all struggle having the habit of partial obedience. On the mountain there is absolutely no scope for partial obedience, but opportunity only for complete and total obedience.

OBEDIENCE

OBEDIENCE is to conform in total submission to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Abraham was blessed with generations and all riches; still he obeyed God when he was called to the mountain of higher spiritual realm. This is a reminder to many of us by the Holy Spirit to climb up in our spiritual life.

Why do we cry when God wants us to be like Abraham who never cried or was emotionally broken? Abraham does not have any kind of emotions which is proved beyond doubt by his action to give his son as a living sacrifice. His emotions are completely crucified according to the new covenant theology because Abraham is confident that God will resurrect the child back to life even if he killed his son which is a clear display of the level of faith that he possesses. This higher dimension of spiritual maturity and faith is always available for all the believers. Christian life is a one of progress and ascending into higher realms.

Genesis 1:8-9
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day. 9 Then God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.

The word Shamayim is used to describe heavens. This is the first instance in the Bible where God talks about realms. God separated the realm that we are currently in with a realm right above us that can be described as the spiritual realm. God calls anything above the waters in this spiritual realm as the “HEAVENS” in plural. There are seven heavens according to the Bible. Apostle Paul was able to reach only till the third heaven. Our physical life will have the completeness of the blessings of God only if there is growth in our spiritual life. Many churches falter in this aspect. God started introducing himself as the God of Abraham, God of Isaac and God of Jacob when Abraham went up to the mountain and had ascension – a connection with the heavenly realm; which can be replicated not only in our generation but the following many generations as well if we can climb up the spiritual life.

The life of Noah was associated with a mountain just like Abraham. The life of Moses is all about mountains and he was in that higher realm without food and even water for forty days. Moses could fast without food and water as he ascended into a higher realm which could never be achieved in the physical realm. If this was possible in the old covenant, how much more we can experience the higher spiritual realm in the new covenant when we understand the level and the degree of God’s glory very high in ascension. We should not be just seeking that glory but as the ones who experience the elevated glory of God.

Joshua 2:11
11 And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

Heaven is the place where God dwells according to the Hebrew translation which can be called as a place of Shekinah Glory. What we experience in this world is the Kabod – the weight of God’s glory which is Doxa that is the presence of God’s glory. However, God invites everyone to a higher realm where Shekinah Glory of God will be manifested in us.

Even Elijah can be identified with a mountain. It was very common to see mountains representing a higher realm of communication with God throughout the old covenant. There is the mountain of transfiguration in the new covenant which transfigured Jesus from looking like a physical human being into the image of the Son of God. We ought to ascend into the higher realms of the almighty God if we need to be transformed into the same image of the glory of God as in 2 Corinthians 3:18. What is stopping us from climbing the hill of the almighty God? Are we progressing in our spiritual life every day? What is that we get to know more about God today than we know till yesterday? Are we aware that God wants us to climb up to a higher realm and not remain stagnant? We become polluted and damaged with a foul smell emanating from our life when we are dormant and do not progress in our spiritual life.

2 Corinthians 12:2
2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven.

This is a beautiful experience that Paul had which was not in the church but an individualistic encounter. It is very easy to have such experiences in the church as the realm is already open with worship, praise and with the men of God who carry the anointing. The most important question is how about when we are all alone. Negative emotions do not touch us in the higher realms. Negative thoughts prevail when we do not ascend into the higher realms.

It is not easy to climb up into higher realms. Let us examine in the new covenant the names of people who climbed up the higher realms. All the stalwarts like Peter, Paul, Stephen and John in the new covenant were successful as they ascended into higher realms.

Matthew 12:50
50 For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”

It is very interesting to note the Greek word – Ouranos that is used which means the dwelling place of God. Whoever does the will of God dwelling in our heart is our brother, sister and mother. The struggle against God’s will lie in our heart. We will definitely miss God’s plan and purpose in our life and can never ascend into the higher realm of God’s glory if we think about the thought process of other people around us. It is only the God’s will that can take us into ascension. Every decision made in the dwelling place of God – Ouranos is a step to elevate us into the higher realms of God’s glory. There is a beauty that will start manifesting as God takes us from one level of Glory to another, if we can align every desire in the Ouranos to the will of God.

Acts 10:11
11 and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth.

The Greek word used is Paradeisos which means garden or paradise. The garden of God was in Eden. The inhabitants turned into farmers when they were sent out from the Garden of Eden by God. Farmers always cultivate on plain lands. Until then God said maintain His garden and never asked to be like farmers as everything required was provided. Peter saw a vision exactly as in Genesis Chapter 2 because God wanted Peter to be taken to the paradise or the garden of God for Peter’s ministry to be upgraded and for an enhancement to happen in his physical life. Upgrade will happen only in the higher realms.

We may not even know what to ask God for or we may not know what to pray for but the easiest way of getting blessed in spiritual life is to climb up the mountain of God and ascending into the higher realms. We will be surprised to see what God has in store for you. What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor did the human heart conceive, what God has prepared for those who love him.

Revelations 21:9, 10, 11
9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the last seven plagues came to me and said, “Come. I will show you the beautiful bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 He carried me away in the realm of the Spirit to the top of a great, high mountain. There he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. 11 It was infused with the glory of God, and its radiance was like that of a very rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

The heaven represented in the verse 10 of the above scripture is the seventh heaven. When we study the Bible in detail, it is the seventh heaven and the sixth heaven that makes us one in the end. The word infused means something than cannot be separated. In the beginning it started with a mountain and the church has to land on a mountain to be the bride. We cannot be a part of being the bride if we do not ascend into the higher realms of spiritual life. The Bible does not consider us the beautiful bride if we do not ascend into the higher realms of God’s glory. The beauty of the bride of Christ is manifested in the higher realms.

CONCLUSION

Let us have a great desire to be the beautiful bride of the Lamb. We need to really move up into higher realms as the glory of God is infused only in the higher realms. Our journey into God’s heart is a spiritual ascend, a vertical elevation into the atmosphere of heaven. The mountain of the Lord is the place where we personally experience God’s attributes. Our ascend up to the mountain is thus a climb into the very heart of God. It is a place of revelation and experience. The word, ascend means to climb, to go upward, to proceed from an inferior degree to a superior degree. It also means ‘to go to the source’.

OUR SOURCE IS IN HEAVEN