There are both heavenly places and regions of darkness, as mentioned previously. They are spiritual places because they are not limited by time or space as we know it on earth. The spiritual places have nothing to do with our geography on earth. They belong to a different dimension than ours; nevertheless, they can affect or be over a physical region. Such is the case of Jacob’s Ladder, or the regions Naphtali and Zebulon that Jesus described as places of darkness and shadow of death. When we think about Heaven or hell, we have images in our minds about them, but the spiritual reality is very different from Hollywood movies, the stories written by Dante Alighieri, or the paintings of the Renaissance. Therefore, God is changing our understanding and revelation, according to the apostolic and prophetic anointing under which we are living. In traditional theology, there is little understanding of the invisible world and its operation. These theologies were developed in a time before the prophetic and apostolic anointings of today. After the Church fathers died at the end of the first century, much of the understanding they had was buried with them, especially the prophetic and the apostolic. Many important documents are probably still lost in history, and the ones we have today were gathered until the fourth century. Darkness covered the Church for centuries until the reformation movement in the sixteenth century. From that time on and throughout each period of the history of the church, the light of revelation has been increasing. With the restoration of the prophetic and apostolic movement in the last 20 years we are getting more understanding than in the prior centuries. In spite of the little revelation that we have on these subjects, there are some theological points on which most Christians are agreed: We understand that hell is the eternal dwelling of the lost. We believe that the deceased either go to Heaven or hell. We are also aware that there is a lake of fire into which the beast and the false prophet will be thrown along with the condemned, after the great judgment of God. We know there is a place called Tartarus that is the deepest prison of hell (where the fallen angels dwell according to the Epistle of Jude). This is basically all the theology currently available on the subject. Theology is developed on the basis of the Scripture, but many of the theologies we have today ignore and suppress the parts of Scripture that they didn’t understand. This is why God is bringing a new reformation and understanding so we can grab hold of everything that is in the Bible for us. However, God is revealing to many prophets and apostles concepts in the Spirit requiring deeper study. The Scriptures speak of invisible dimensions that affect each one of us. The Bible has many interesting verses concerning the regions of captivity, the way they operate, and where they are found. It is now that the Holy Spirit is shedding light on this subject for our understanding.
KNOWING THE SPIRIT WORLD: THE PROPHETIC A NOINTING
To understand the spiritual world, we must examine the prophetic anointing. In this manner, we can receive complete revelation. The prophetic anointing is beyond saying: “Thus saith the Lord,” or having a vision from Heaven. The prophetic anointing occurs in a different realm than ours. It is the entrance to the invisible Kingdom of God. It’s the instrument used by God to make the Kingdomvisible, audible, and palpable. The prophetic anointing allows us to penetrate the Kingdom and extract from it riches of wisdom and knowledge. The Old Testament prophets experienced this dimension. Some of them penetrated it, being caught away as Ezekiel was when he saw the temple of God and the Holy City. Daniel was lifted between Heaven and earth to receive the vision of the beasts. Moses was taken to extraordinary dimensions in which he received the revelation of the Genesis of creation. The Book of Hebrews says that God has prepared something even better for us. Can’t you see? God wants to give us greater things than He gave to these Old Testament people of God. The apostles understood this dimension because they penetrated the Kingdom of God. The union of Heaven and earth through Jesus was their daily experience . For example, in the Book of Acts, Philip was translated from one place to another in both spirit and body (see Acts 8:39-40). The same thing happened to Peter, when he was taken prisoner by Herod. While in prison, he fell into a deep sleep and saw an angel who came to rescue him. Both of them translated through the prison, as if it were a mere vision. What was happening in the spiritual realm was simultaneously happening in the natural (see Acts 12:6-10). Paul was taken to the third heaven and didn’t know whether he was in his body or outside his body (see 2 Cor. 12:2). John was taken in the Spirit to see the unfolding of the Book of Revelation in which Heaven and the depths of hell were revealed to him. Dear reader, the Book of Acts did not end in the first century. It continues to be written through those who believe God and have penetrated the Kingdom of God. How can we do this? Simply by following the example of the apostle John and others who practiced being in the Spirit , or entering the realm of His glory, as an essential part of their spiritual lives. Being in the Spirit is a state of deep intimacy with God through which the spirit of man becomes hypersensitive to the presence of God. This is the position from which revelation and visions of the heavenly Kingdom are seen in full. The Kingdom of God is among us; only a thin, transparent membrane separates us from it. When we know God intimately, that membrane breaks. Our faith and love of God and time spent alone with Him allow us to pass to the other side. There, He becomes visible and audible and gives us great revelations. The apostle John experienced extraordinary trances in which he saw Jesus in His glory. John was not only taken to the third heaven, but regions of the kingdom of darkness were also shown to him. Likewise, the more we experience Heaven and are used to inhabiting its reality, the greater revelations we will have, even about the secret places of our enemy. John saw the spiritual regions mentioned in this book while being in God’s presence. He was taken to Heaven in order to see what was to happen in the future. Beginning in Revelation 13, John sees one spiritual region after another, starting with “the sea.” This was not an ocean on earth, but a spiritual ocean, where he observed the emergence of the beast. Please note that he was in Heaven watching the kingdom of darkness. And the dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name (Revelation 13:1). Everything the beast does on the earth was revealed to John at “the sea.” Afterward, he was shown a place between earth and hell, in order to see the second beast arise. Then I saw another beast, coming out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon (Revelation 13:11). In Revelation 17, an angel carried John to a place of darkness called “the desert,” where satan governs from Babylon. John described this spiritual city as a habitation of demons, the hideout of every unclean spirit, and the lodging of every unclean and abominable bird (see Rev. 18:2). One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters…. Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a desert. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns (Revelation 17:1,3). Jesus also spoke of that desert and taught his disciples that demons inhabit dry, desert places. When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it (Matthew 12:43). Another place revealed to John was “the Abyss or Abaddon” where satan is imprisoned for a thousand years and smoke and locusts are released to destroy the earth (see Rev. 20:1-3 and 9:2-3). Later, we will understand that these places are not only very important in the prophetic account of Revelation, but they are active places around us. Thousands of souls are held captive there while satan carries out his plans of tyranny and destruction. The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. When he opened the Abyss , smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss…. They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon (Revelation 9:1-2;11). (Abaddon is both the name of the angel and of the place, as we will learn later.) During the revelation of the final judgment, God showed John the places where death operates. Everyone who dies without Jesus is taken to one of three different places, where they lie until they are judged: The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death (Revelation 20:13-14). If we read that the dead are in the sea, we might think it refers to people who have drowned or were eaten by sharks. If this were true, we would read: “the sea gave up its dead and the earth gave up those who were within it.” But it doesn’t mention “the earth,” only the sea, death, and Hades, which are three spiritual places. The experience of the apostle John reveals to us both the heavenly placesand the regions of darkness. God wants us to have this type of experience so He can give His children greater wisdom. “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Cor. 2:9). Jesus came to make Heaven a visible, audible, and palpable reality. Although the Holy Spirit will not take everyone to the third heaven, everyone can have visions of the Kingdom of God and it is possible that the Lord will reveal places of captivity to them: having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him (Ephesians 1:9-10 NKJV). Seeing spiritual reality was common among the apostles. In the Book of Acts, the Apostle Peter clearly identified spiritual regions where Simon the magician was being held captive (see Acts 8:9-23). In this case, a vision was not necessary to identify the regions; the Holy Spirit revealed them through a word of knowledge. This magician had accepted the Lord, was a baptized Christian, and took part in his local church, but he had never been set free. His mind was captured in the spiritual world. That is why he committed the mistake of trying to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit. In witchcraft, it is customary to purchase “spiritual services” with money. Peter rebuked him sharply. Peter said to him, Destruction overtake your money and you, because you imagined you could obtain the [free] gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is all wrong in God’s sight [it is not straightforward or right or true before God]. So repent of this depravity and wickedness of yours and pray to the Lord that, if possible, this contriving thought and purpose of your heart may be removed and disregarded and forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in a bond forged by iniquity [to fetter souls] (Acts 8:20-23 AMP). This Scripture describes clearly the apostle’s ability to discern the condition of people’s souls. God is allowing thousands to see and understand the spiritual world in a deeper way, through the gifts of the word of knowledge and prophecy. In this way, we will be more effective in setting people free from captivity with extraordinary results. These gifts operate at different levels. God permits prophets more vivid experiences than others. Some will be introduced to great depths, as the apostle Paul said, “Whether in the body or out of the body, I don’t know, I know a man who was taken to the third heaven” (see 2 Cor. 12:2). Amen.
TRANCE IN GOD VERSUS ASTRAL PROJECTION
As we continue to examine the prophetic dimensions, questions arise such as, “Is a trance in the Spirit the same thing as an astral projection?” Not at all! They are two very different things. A trance is a vision in which one experiences the event in the spiritual world. It is as though you were in a movie theater watching a film and suddenlyjumped into the big screen. The person having this experience is totally conscious, never leaving the physical body. The Bible says that the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet (see 1 Cor. 14:32). In other words, the prophet can stop the experience voluntarily and is able to communicate with others who are having the same experience in the room (in the case of what is called a corporate vision) . A vision is primarily a manifestation of the gifts of prophecy and word of knowledge. An example of this was described by the prophet Ezekiel who said that in visions of God he was taken to the holy city (see Ezekiel 40). Again, this experience is an aspect of being in the spirit . It happens to a person developed in revelation gifts. John’s and Paul’s experiences can best be described as translation in the Spirit , or moving supernaturally from one place to another. Paul described the experience as a state of not knowing whether he was in the body or outside it (see 2 Cor. 12:3). God is the only one capable of spiritually translating someone in this way. It is not accomplished by an act of the human will . What is known as astral projection in the occult world is a very different experience. Astral projection (or astral travel) is an esoteric interpretation of any form of out-of-body experience (OOBE) that assumes the existence of an “astral body” separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it. 1 Astral projection or travel denotes the astral body leaving the physical body to travel in the astral plane. After having been in the occult before my conversion to Christ and after 25 years as an authority in deliverance, I understand very well the difference between the real experience in God and this demonic practice. In this occult experience the spirit of the traveler is surrendered to “guiding spirits” or “spirits of power” that separate the body from the spirit. After leaving the body, the person remains unconscious, in a lethargic state. He or she does not have the ability to control the experience, but is controlled by demons. It is possible for demon spirits to use the person’s body to speak during the trance. The voice is clearly identified as belonging to someone other than the person who is traveling spiritually. This is an extremely dangerous practice and is contrary to the Bible. Like all demonic experiences in the spiritual realm, astral projection is a counterfeit of the beneficial spiritual experiences that God has designed for us. E NDNOTE 1. “Out-of-body experience,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-body_experience