Mike Parsons
and Jeremy Westcott –
The diagram above is a representation of the realms of heaven we have been exploring.
You may have heard people talk about the first, second and third heavens. In the past, that may have helped us to get some understanding of where we were, and how we could interact with heaven, but it was very basic, and in fact it was very flawed. With our Greek (rather than Hebrew) understanding, we assumed that we had to go through the second heaven to get to the third, and that is not the case at all. Instead of layers, we now think realms, or dimensions. We have spoken before about seven realms, three into the earth, the atmosphere of the earth, and three into the heavens.
Seven realms
Looking at the diagram above, we live our physical lives here in the Kingdom of Earth, where we can experience God’s Presence. We are also aware of the atmosphere of the earth – remember that Satan was called ‘the prince of the power of the air’. There are actually three spheres within the atmosphere of the earth: rulers, powers and principalities. These were created by God, but are currently occupied by the forces of evil. Up to now they have been reasonably successful in blocking the flow of God’s glory from coming to us through the Everlasting Doors (we will consider these Everlasting Doors in the next post).
Moving into the heavenly realms, we see the Kingdom of God, the place of God’s government. Fallen angels and the demonic still have access there, but they do not have access to the Kingdom of Heaven. The Kingdom of God is where the court is in which Satan accuses the brethren. But the devil and his angels have no access beyond this, to the Kingdom of Heaven, or to Heaven God’s abode – though we do; it is where we are seated with Christ in authority. And beyond that, there are other realms as you see.
Under the earth there are also three realms. These were all created by God, but are now occupied by fallen angels: Sheol is the place of the dead; Tartarus is where the ‘angels who did not keep their proper place’ are chained up; and Satan’s Lair. There are other places down here as well, including Satan’s trophy room that we have written about before.
God’s intention is that we take back all the realms currently occupied by the enemy. But it is not for us to engage fallen angels – there are twice as many angels on God’s side who will do that for us if we learn how to interact with them. Our role is to take up our mantles and operate in the authority that God has called us to exercise.
Seven mountains, seven thrones
In the heavenly places there are mountains, and thrones on those mountains. That is to say, there are places of authority, and seats of rulership. Associated with those mountains and thrones are scrolls: decrees, mandates, and resources we can draw upon. Freedom Church has seven mountains and seven thrones. They were not unoccupied – giants were sitting on them, and they have had to be unseated. In fact every church has mountains and thrones of its own which relate to God’s purpose and calling for that particular body of believers, so every church needs its giant-killers.
And we all as individuals have seven thrones, which we need to go and occupy. Family, marketplace, gifts, ministry, calling, and so on – there are many different thrones we might have, and we only find out through revelation, from God showing us. Remember, if we are not sitting on them, something else is, and it will need to be battled with and dethroned. Killing a giant is not difficult, but it takes spiritual effort: we are going to need to build up our spiritual muscles. If the throne is rightfully yours, you can dethrone the giant and occupy it. But you have to have the authority to rule there – you can’t just go and take someone else’s mountain and throne for them.
I know this may all seem a bit ‘out there’, a bit Lord of the Rings, but actually Tolkein understood some of these things. Giants, dragons – you have to chop off their heads, rip open their bellies, and recover their spoil.
A different kind of authority
With all this talk about rule and authority, please understand we are not being arrogant. In the kingdom, the last will be first and the first last. The ruler will be the servant of all. We are not rulers to lord it over people. It is a different kind of authority. We are there to support people, serve them, help them discover their gifting and their own God-given mandates, to bring others where we are and beyond. That is how it is with the Joshua Generation.
Heaven to earth
The plain truth is that if we are to bring heaven to earth, as we have said before, we need to access heaven. That is how Jesus did it. He brought heaven to earth in the form of miracles, deliverance, healing, salvation, transformation, signs and wonders – and He did so by operating in dual realms (look at the present tense of the verb ‘is’, in John 3:13).
There are higher levels of mountains within the Kingdom of God, and dragons occupy those thrones. I have been there, fought dragons, but I can’t do it all myself. No-one can. As yet I have only seen a handful of others there, but it is time for us all to step up and begin to occupy the places of authority God has given us.
There are yet higher mountains and higher thrones in the realm of the Kingdom of Heaven (a yet greater degree of authority and rule).
The mountains actually represent our governmental positions of authority, we are mountains. When we occupy the top mountain, our governmental position, we can rule all the other mountains from there.
It is time for us all to act as the lords, and kings, and sons we are called to be.