Description
The chapters of this book are not chronological. Each chapter is a random stepping stone to lead us deeper into God. Each stepping stone is an entrance.
This book is meant to open our spirits in a greater way to God's world. As to His essence, God is spirit, and we must know Him in that realm. God's world is different from ours. In the earthly realm, there are natural laws, such as the law of gravity. In the spiritual realm, there are also laws. The laws of spirit that govern God's kingdom are foreign to the natural man. For example, we measure progress by going forward in our natural world. In the spiritual realm, our progress is measured by ascending upward. As Christians, we could spend a lifetime moving forward, i.e., learning about God, but never really coming to know Him in a greater way. Knowledge is attained on a horizontal timeline, but a closer relationship with the Lord is only achieved by ascending. We could call that the law of penetration. It is God penetrating deeper into us and us penetrating deeper into Him. In the earthly realm, things tend to be either this way or that way. Human understanding would say we are either one with God or not one with Him. But spiritually, many levels of oneness exist. Vertically ascending takes us further into God's heart. If this truth is hard to imagine, let's read what Jesus told Nathanael.
John 1
47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and *said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!"
48 Nathanael *said to Him, "How do You know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."
49 Nathanael answered Him, "Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel."
50 Jesus answered and said to him, "Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these."
51 And He *said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."
In Jesus Christ, the heavens open. Open heavens signify vertical ascension. "After these things, I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, 'Come up here….' " Revelation 4:1
Nicodemus, like many Christians, struggled to understand the spiritual realm.
John 3
4 Nicodemus *said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?"
5 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 "Do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'
8 "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
9 Nicodemus said to Him, "How can these things be?"
10 Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?
10 Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?
11 "Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony.
12 "If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
13 "No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.
Nicodemus did not understand anything Jesus was telling him. "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" Our natural minds are also incapable of understanding spiritual truths. They don't make sense. Paul put it this way:
1st Corinthians 2
11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts