We have been seeing over several posts now how God intends us to enter into the realms of heaven, here and now while living on the earth.
If you are ready, it is time today to actually do that.
Step in, step out
If you are able, please stand up and pray in tongues for a minute – out loud if possible, just to activate your spirit. Please don’t skip over this. If right now you are not in a position to pray aloud, you are welcome to continue reading, but do come back to this post later and actually work through it, because it is very practical.
When you have been praying for a minute or so (don’t stop, carry on praying in tongues),
See that there is a door open.
God is standing in the door,
And He’s welcoming you to step into the realm of heaven
So as you continue to pray in tongues,
Take a step forward, a physical step,
And go into that realm, where your throne is, in the heavens.
You are now standing in the presence of God.
The glory of God is surrounding you,
The presence of God’s kingdom is surrounding you.
You step in and receive your lordship.
You step in as a lord,
And you are going to receive the authority to rule
On the mountain that is operating within your spirit.
You are in the heavenly realms.
You have stepped in to the presence of God
And He is investing in you
The right and the power to rule in your life
So step out of the heavenly realms
(Take a step backwards).
And now you have authority,
And you can exercise that rule and authority on your mountain
To see things change in this realm, on the earth.
I want to encourage you, you can step in and out of the realms of heaven as many times in the day as you choose to. Step into the realm of heaven; step back out of the realm of heaven: bring heavenly authority back with you and apply it to your life.
If there is something negative or difficult going on during the day, just step into the realms of heaven. Receive the robes of righteousness and then step out of the realm of heaven and exercise authority in the righteousness of God, here on earth.
Practise stepping in and stepping out.
Pray in tongues vigorously.
That will build your spirit so that you are able to step in and step out.
Engaging with God in our garden
We have a garden in our soul. Our garden is part of our heart (there are four chambers of the heart). Let’s begin to learn to fellowship with God there, as we open the door, that ‘everlasting door’ that is in each of us, to let God in.
So we pray in tongues for a minute or two, continue to pray …
[2 minutes]
And now we are going to open that door.
We open the door in our heart.
We welcome the King of Glory to come in
and be enthroned on the throne of our life.
We receive His lordship, His authority in our spirit,
For our spirit to rule our body, rule our soul, and have authority.
We operate in the authority of the kingdom: in heaven, in our lives, in our spirit.
So we develop that spiritual connection with God where the River of Life is flowing,
Where the garden of God becomes the garden in our heart.
As it is in heaven, so it is outworked on earth, in and through us.
You can learn to step in every day, open up your door, let the King of glory come in. And He will rule on the throne of your life as you surrender the rule of your life to Him.
When we first start exercising in this way, He rules. We surrender our life to Him. Then as we go on, He starts to give us back more authority. He trusts us to do the things on earth as in heaven. Once we have learnt to surrender our spirit, soul and body, He will give us the throne in our own life to rule with Him.
Step in every day. Open up the doors. Let the King of glory come in. Enthrone Him over your life. Then start to exercise that lordship on your spirit-gates, your body-gates, your soul-gates. Work on getting your gates open and flowing freely (you can use the diagram below to help you with this). The Spirit of God will start manifesting through you in everyday life.
You can continually step into and out of the realms of the heavens, as God intends.
Gates
Diagram of the gates of our spirit, soul and body. The origins of the diagram go back to at least the year 1919. Ian Clayton saw something similar to this on a scroll he received from heaven and offers extensive teaching on it.
In this diagram of the gates of our spirit, soul and body, you will see that the Glory of God is in the centre of our being, and the gates are the means of seeing Him manifest in our lives. They are not for ‘letting Him in’, but for ‘letting Him out’. Starting with the gate of First Love, we can work through them, asking God to show us if anything is blocking them, and then exercising heavenly authority to see them opened and freely flowing. The more of our gates are wide open, the more of God can be manifested in our daily lives.
Garden (song)
Here is a Misty Edwards song we often use to help us engage with God in our garden.
In this ‘Kingdom Realms’ series we have begun to understand that God intends us to have access to heaven, right now. But to do so there are certain steps we must follow. He said to Joshua, the High Priest:
If you will walk in My ways and if you will perform My laws, then you will also govern My house and also have charge of My courts, and I will grant you free access among these who are standing here’ (Zech 3:7).
The earth is filled with his glory
Isaiah saw the Lord on His throne.
In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” (Isa 6:1-3).
So the Lord sits on His throne, on top of His mountain. And the structure of it is like the temple. There are seraphim who stand above Him (we will look at the angelic realms in more detail in a later post). They are prophesying the revelation they are receiving: that the earth is to be full of God’s glory. And God has chosen the church, He has chosen us, to display the fullness of His glory on the earth.
The Temple
The temple consists of the Outer and Inner Courts, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. The veils (or matrices) between the different heavenly dimensions are the way, the truth, and the life.
In the Outer Courts there is darkness. If we don’t want to spend eternity there, we must seek to fulfil our purpose and our call. This is where we will find those who are not faithful to fulfil what is written on their scroll and the destiny they have been given in God.
We have looked at that before: those such as the five foolish virgins, and those who say ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ to whom Jesus says ‘Depart from Me, I never knew you’; they will be thrown out into the outer darkness. It is not the place some think of as ‘hell‘ – how could a place of fire be dark?
The Way, the Truth and the Life
When Jesus described Himself as ‘the Way, the Truth and the Life’, He was referring to the pattern of the heavenly and earthly tabernacle, and specifically to the doors or veils between the various areas or dimensions. To those who were listening to Him it was perfectly clear what He was talking about, because they were familiar with those areas of the temple. He was saying that if we follow Him, we can enter in to the holiest place, and find abundance of life. Of course, if we approach this saying with a Greek mindset rather than a Hebrew one, the meaning will be completely lost on us.
There is a process to this, a progression, a series of protocols that God has prepared for us to enable us to enter in.
Everlasting Doors
Let’s look at this diagram again.
Most of the enemy activity that we are experiencing and trying to deal with right now is going on in the atmosphere of the earth. That is where the spiritual hosts of wickedness, the rulers in darkness, and powers are functioning in principalities (or spheres of geographical areas).
The pattern that is in heaven is expressed in us. We are made in the image of God. We are body, soul and spirit. And in us we also have a door into the realms of the heavens, which we can open and experience the kingdom of God in us.
In the same way, there are also Everlasting Doors on the boundary between the atmosphere of the earth and the heavens. We read about them in verses 7 and 9 of Psalm 24. Those doors are ruled by things we need to dispossess. I have seen God open some of these doors, often as a result of prayer and of intercession. When they are opened, revival starts to take place. God’s Presence and His glory become accessible in this earthly realm.
Mountains and thrones
Click the image for a larger, easier to read version (opens in new tab or window).
In the realm of the Kingdom of Earth is where we ‘walk in His ways’ (Zech 3:6-7). In the Kingdom of God is where we ‘keep His laws’, and where we are to rule as lords. In the realm of the Kingdom of Heaven is where we ‘rule His house’.
There are mountains and thrones in each of those realms, on which God intends us to rule. For example, in the Kingdom of God, we at Freedom have seven mountains as a church, and seven scrolls attached to those mountains. Other churches will have their mountains and scrolls too.
Each of us as individuals also have our own mountains, our own places of rule. These are according to our destiny, our call and our gift, and we are to occupy them as lords. Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords: we are the lords and kings that He is Lord and King of. As lords and kings, we raise people up in discipleship to themselves become lords and kings.
The seven spirits of God stand before the throne in the realm of Heaven. They are not God, they are creatures, and they are there as tutors to bring us to revelation of who God is and of His ways. We need to engage them and learn from them if we are to be revealed as the sons of God.
This is another view of the realms of heaven, based on Ian Clayton‘s ‘menorah’ diagrams.
You can see how these realms of authority in the heavens are arranged in the same way as the structure of the temple: Outer Courts, Inner Courts, Holy Place, Holy of Holies. There are protocols we can follow which will help us to access each of these, as we will need to in order to fulfil our destiny. We each need to be able to rule as a lord, and a king, and to stand as a son.
For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God (Rom 8:19).
And we will be manifested as sons on the earth, just as God always intended.
36. The Joshua Generation will bring revelation that wherever the next generation place their feet they will possess.
That possession includes not only this world but also the heavenlies. Both are their inheritance and destiny.
So Moses swore on that day, saying, “Surely the land on which your foot has trodden will be an inheritance to you and to your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God fully”(Joshua 14:9).
Now as we know, God did not intend that inheritance just to be a piece of land, but the whole world. ‘For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world…’ (Romans 4:13). And Jesus said that all authority had been given to Him both in the heavens in the earth (Matt 28:18-20).
The whole of creation groans as it waits for the sons of God to be revealed. When you take your place as sons in the heavenly realms, you are beginning to step up into your inheritance, which is the whole creation. And you will find that you can go anywhere in creation, you will see the galaxies – and actually we are supposed to create too. We are supposed to do the works that Jesus did. Who created the stars, the galaxies? Jesus did. You can go and do the same, and you will. Yes, in eternity, but you can actually go and do it now, if you access some of these realms and especially the courts.
The courts of heaven issue papers which confer upon you the authority to act, here on earth. That is sometimes the reason we have been unable to do things we know we ought to have been able to do: we have neglected to go to the courts of heaven to get the necessary authority.
Yes, that was because we didn’t know we were supposed to. We do now.
37. The Joshua Generation will encourage a passion to love God, and walk in His ways, and serve Him will all our hearts and souls.
Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God and walk in all His ways and keep His commandments and hold fast to Him and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul (Joshua 22: 5).
So take diligent heed to yourselves to love the LORD your God (Josh 23:11)
God hates mixture and lukewarmness – and so will we. It will take diligence, and self-discipline, and perseverance, but the Joshua generation will become so focused on walking in His ways and serving Him wholeheartedly that it will set us apart and cause others to take notice. The love of God will become a passion for us: it will burn in our hearts; and it will be unthinkable for us to offer Him anything less than complete obedience and dedication. Joshua the High Priest was promised access to heavenly realms if he would walk in God’s ways and perform Gods laws: we know the same offer is open to us. Once we have tasted of that, how could we turn away?
38. The Joshua Generation will warn the next generation about the dangers of compromise and going backwards.
There is a real danger if you see all this and choose to walk away from it. Ian Clayton has talked about how the spirit of antichrist is those who walked with the church and then turned away to start sowing false teaching. Once we get here, there is no going back.
For if you ever go back and cling to the rest of these nations, these which remain among you, and intermarry with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, know with certainty that the LORD your God will not continue to drive these nations out from before you; but they will be a snare and a trap to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which the LORD your God has given you (Joshua 23:12-13).
39. The Joshua Generation will charge the next generation to never stop waging war.
The fight goes on until the Kingdom of God fills the earth, until the glory of God fills the earth, and Jesus returns. Meanwhile, we cannot let up, we cannot compromise, we cannot stop fighting, we cannot let down our guard; and neither can the generation that follows us.
Now it came about after the death of Joshua that the sons of Israel inquired of the LORD, saying, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” (Judges 1:1).
They continued to enquire of the Lord. They did not say, ‘Now that Joshua has gone, we can do our own thing’. The war was still ongoing, even though we have read that Joshua gave them the whole land (Joshua 11:23). The Canaanites were still out there in the rest of the world, and they were still enemies of Israel, and of God. Israel were heirs of the world, intended to be a blessing to it. They were supposed to take that blessing out into the whole world. Obviously, they didn’t do that. They stopped short, even though God had said “but indeed, as I live, all the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD” (Num 14:21).
Yet that is still God’s plan – as Isaiah says:
Now it will come about that In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it (Isa 2:2).
The mountain, the place of authority; the house of the Lord – these are all in the heavenly realms. Then it is worked out in this realm, as all the hills – all the other earthly authorities – start streaming to the church. Because we are living in the fullness of our sonship, because we start to radiate the goodness of God, because we start to manifest light, and live in creative light, not just created light. There is some awesome stuff coming, but we need to be prepared.
There will be no end to the increase of His government and peace, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this (Isa 9:7).
Justice and righteousness are the foundations of the throne of heaven, foundations of the throne of the kingdom. God is going to accomplish this: He will have His way.
40. The Joshua Generation will set a clear choice before the next generation.
They can choose the past, or they can choose to walk in their future destiny.
There is so much that we already have, that we already know and enjoy, and it is good. People can choose to stick with that – but if they do, they will miss God’s best. We don’t want to take possession of what God has given us, and then settle. Our influence has to increase and grow, because it is the nature of God that He wants to fill the earth with His glory.
Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD (Joshua 24:14-15).
We are coming to a close now, not just of these posts about the Joshua Generation, but of the whole 15-month series on the Prophetic Timetable. Next time we will begin something new, but for now I want to leave you with this: Joshua was 110 years old before he died, having fulfilled his destiny. There is time for all of us who are called to this purpose to raise up and release the next harvesting generation. Joshua did it: God wants us to do it.
Whether it is to be that Joshua generation who take our inheritance and bring others in, or whether it is to be part of the next generation, the Jesus generation, who will see Him return: God wants to reveal to us our destiny, and to see us fulfil it.
Engaging God on the Heavenly Pathways of Relationship and Responsibility is our online school for equipping a Joshua Generation of supernatural sons of God to live according to the order of Melchizedek.
We are approaching the end of this series looking at the generation who will possess all that God has promised, and be forerunners who inspire others to do the same.
31. The Joshua generation will be ruthless in the pursuit and eradication of the enemy.
Again, we are not talking about fighting against flesh and blood, but that we must not compromise in dealing with the spiritual forces of wickedness. We have to be ruthless. No compromise. We can’t live alongside them; we can’t share thrones with them; we have to destroy them.
Joshua captured all the cities of these kings, and all their kings, and he struck them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed them; just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded… For it was of the LORD to harden their hearts, to meet Israel in battle in order that he might utterly destroy them, that they might receive no mercy, but that he might destroy them, just as the LORD had commanded Moses (Joshua 11:12, 20).
This is a picture of something they did in the natural realm and we must do in the spiritual realm. When we do, it gives us authority in this realm: authority to rule.
32. The Joshua generation will ensure that nothing God commands will be unfinished.
We need to be faithful in carrying out God’s commands, and carrying them out fully. We need to persevere.
Just as the LORD had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did; he left nothing undone of all that the LORD had commanded Moses (Joshua 11:15).
We need to fulfil the word of God. If we are to take the commands of God, the counsels of God, and fulfil them, then we must know them. And knowing them involves much more than head knowledge. We need to hear the word God speaks to us, go into heaven with it, get revelation on it, and bring it back down here.
33. The Joshua generation will bring the next generation into their full inheritance and rest.
So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD had spoken to Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Thus the land had rest from war (Joshua 11:23).
He took everything that was promised: the whole of the land. Now that should have been the starting point for them to go into the rest of the world, and bless the whole world. Remember, Abraham was given the whole world as his inheritance, not just a tiny piece of land in the Middle East. They were supposed to go from that place to fill the earth: they never did it. So the kingdom was taken away from them and given to a people who will. Jesus said He had been given all authority in heaven and on earth, and that his followers were to go and disciple the nations. That is the same authority in heaven and on earth: it is authority granted in heaven to be outworked on earth.
This scripture says they had rest. In one of my face-to-face encounters with Jesus, he took me and showed me the seat of rest: what it is to come from a position of rest. He taught me from Matthew 11 and from Hebrews 4. Everything we do must come from rest. From peace, from wholeness, not striving or struggling; not being weary and heavy-laden in our own strength. Everything needs to come out of rest; then we are doing things in the strength of God.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matt 11:29).
The word translated ‘gentle’ here is the word for a stallion under complete control, a wild stallion which has been broken and has a bit in its mouth, so that whoever rides it is able to control it. That is like us, knowing that we are a wild stallion, empowered with authority, but totally submitted like Jesus was to the Father: ‘I only do the will of Him who sent Me’ (see John 4:34 and 6:38).
False humility is pride in disguise, saying that I’m no good, that I have nothing to offer. True humility lies in saying, ‘I am a son of God, seated in heavenly places. I have authority and power. And I choose to surrender that authority and power only to do what I see the Father doing.’
In complete surrender you can come from a place of rest.
34. The Joshua generation will have supernatural strength for war.
They will be like Caleb, who at 85 years of age was still going in and out to fight.
So, let’s understand, none of all this is about age: it is about who we are and what we are in the spirit. No matter what our physical age is, in the spirit we can have rulership and strength to overcome.
I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in. Now then, give me this hill country about which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day that Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps the LORD will be with me, and I will drive them out as the LORD has spoken (Joshua 14:11-12).
Caleb and Joshua, as we saw in characteristic #7, had a different spirit on them. They had an attitude. They were going to rule. They came with authority and power.
Let me ask you this: when Caleb talked about going out and coming in, where do you think he was going out and coming in from? It was the heavenly realms, because that is where his strength for war came from. If you go up and down, you will be able to go to and fro, as we have seen before.
One of the things I really like about Caleb is where he went when he did go out to war: to the mountains! ‘Give me this hill country’. Because in the hills, in the mountains, (in the place of authority, as we now understand) was where the giants were. He wasn’t going to settle for the easy places, where there was no-one much to conquer.
35. The Joshua generation will be giant killers, forerunners for the next generation.
I have a sword, which enables me to destroy and cut the heads off giants. All of us need to be giant-slayers. You all have giants who are occupying your thrones in the heavenly realms – that is, unless you have already been there and dispossessed them. You have to dispossess the enemy in order to possess your inheritance. In the heavenly realms is where you do it, and then you outwork your inheritance here.
We have to do that in our role as forerunners. We have to take our place of authority. We can’t pass this on as theory: it has to come out of our experience if we are to lead others into it.
I can only talk about giant-killing like this now because I have been and killed one. I couldn’t talk about it before. I am not going to talk to you about theory, I am only going to talk to you about things I have done, and about places I have been, so that you can go there too. And if you go to places I haven’t been, and do things I haven’t done, then you can testify to those so that I can get to go there and do them too. That is how testimony works: it opens up my experiences for you, and yours for me; ours for others, and theirs for us. And so we overcome by the word of our testimony.
Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak: Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai, the children of Anak (Joshua 15:14).
There are 9 races of giants, which arose from the activity of fallen angels who did not keep their proper place, as we read in Jude. Nephilim did not have human spirits, so when they died they went into the heavenly realms, where they occupied mountains and thrones.
If we are to take our place of authority, we need to kill the giants. And if we are to fully receive our inheritance we will need to kill dragons as well, because if you go into the heavenly realms you are going to come across them too. I know maybe all this is a bit ‘out there’ for you, but I have seen it, and so I can tell you about it. It really is up to you what you do with it – I would suggest you go to God yourself and ask Him to show you.
Dragons are another result of Satan’s attempts to manipulate DNA.
In the garden, Satan overshadowed Eve. That was what the fruit was all about: it wasn’t like eating an apple off a tree; it was an overshadowing where he mixed DNA. Cain and Abel were twins, but one of them had Satan as his father. That is why Cain killed Abel, to stop the line of Adam going forward, so that the reptilian line could fill the earth.
DNA is important, because only DNA could occupy the realms of heaven. Only DNA could inherit. So Satan needed DNA – he had tried to manipulate it in the first creation, where his pollution of reptilian seed outworked in the dinosaurs. When those dinosaurs died, their spirits became dragons, in the heavenly realms.
Dragons occupy our inheritance. When we cut off their head, let’s make sure we cut off their tail, split them open and get out everything that is in their belly: our scrolls, and all that God intended for us to have. That is what they do: they stop the provision and the inheritance of God coming through to us.
We need to kill the giants to take our place of authority; and we need to kill the dragons to receive our inheritance.
Mike takes us through his daily meditation practice in this single-session teaching taken from the Sons Arise! Expanding Our Reality intensive. Cost £5 GBP.
Are you part of the Joshua Generation?
We developed this just for you:
Engaging God on the Heavenly Pathways of Relationship and Responsibility
Equipping a Joshua Generation of supernatural sons of God to live according to the order of Melchizedek
The veil is open: in the spirit we can walk through that veil which is Jesus’ flesh, into the heavenly realms. So we can live there. There is a whole dimension here that we need to enter into. The Promised Land is not just about here on earth, it is about bringing heaven to earth. As we saw last time, if we are to be truly effective we have to learn to rule in the heavens and then bring that authority to bear in this realm. Today we will return to looking into the characteristics of the Joshua Generation again, but as we do, I want to encourage you to look at them from that perspective.
Another Joshua
First, though, let me mention another Joshua for a moment, to help us grasp all this. This is a much later Joshua, who was the High Priest, being called to enter the heavenly realms.
‘And the angel of the LORD admonished Joshua, saying, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘If you will walk in My ways and if you will perform My laws, then you will also govern My house and also have charge of My courts, and I will grant you free access among these who are standing here’”’(Zech 3:6).
‘If you will walk in My ways and if you will perform My laws’: those are the things we do here, in this realm. We can read Psalm 119:1-40 to understand more about His ways: His ordinances, His character, His nature. It establishes precedent when we fulfil the ways of God. Then it talks about performing His laws: if we follow the principles of the kingdom, here in the earthly realms, we will see manifestation of the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
‘Then you will also govern my house’: ruling the house is something to be done in the heavenly realms. The house of God is a dimension of the realms of heaven. And we are also a house, a dwelling place, for God.
‘You will also have charge of my courts’: the courts of heaven are where God administers justice, and the jurisdiction of God’s kingdom, manifested in the heavens, can be outworked here on earth.
‘And I will grant you free access among these who are standing here’: standing before the throne, in heaven. The High Priest had access to come into the very presence of God. If we are able to govern the house, and take charge of the courts, we will have access to stand in the presence of God. In His personal presence, not just His Presence. It is the difference between smoke and fire. Smoke tells you there is a fire. The Presence of God that we experience here in worship is like the smoke. But beyond that there is his Person, which is the fire. This passage in Zechariah is describing protocols which we must go through in order to be able to stand in the fire.
Let’s get back now to our original Joshua:
21 The Joshua generation will encourage people to hear the word of God directly.
Joshua 3:9 Then Joshua said to the sons of Israel, “Come here, and hear the words of the LORD your God.”
It is important for us as individuals to come and hear the words of God for ourselves, and to train up others to do so for themselves too. We need to come before the throne, to come into the courts, to rule the house. My intention in doing so myself, and teaching it to you, is that I bring you into it.
Entering into the realms of heaven is for all of us. Separate to that, I have a role which is to bring signs and wonders and miracles and healing. I am going to pursue that for myself. But you, too, need to find out what is written on your scroll, and pursue that for yourselves. We each need to fulfil the scroll of our destiny (which we can find in the heavenly realms), read it, eat it, get it inside us, into our heart, and start outworking it.
22 The Joshua generation will be honoured and respected by the next generation.
There is going to be a culture of honour. Jesus said, “if you receive a prophet in the name of a prophet, you will receive a prophet’s reward” (Matt 10:41). We have to receive people in their gift and calling in order to receive the reward in our own lives. We want to honour one another and receive one another, because every single one of us have gifts and calls, and we must look to help one another fulfil those and work them out.
On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel; so that they revered him, just as they had revered Moses all the days of his life (Joshua 4:14).
23 The Joshua generation will free the next generation from the reproach and effects of the past generations, into new revelation of past activities.
‘Now when they had finished circumcising all the nation, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. Then the LORD said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” So the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. While the sons of Israel camped at Gilgal they observed the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day of the month on the desert plains of Jericho’ (Joshua 5:8-10).
There are things we have done, and things that we have within God’s kingdom and within the church, in which we have operated up to the level of revelation we previously had. But now everything is moving up to a higher level.
Here they celebrated the Passover and re-instituted circumcision, which they did not do in the wilderness. They came to consecrate themselves to God; the reproach of the past was wiped away, the stumbling-blocks were removed, the purifying and refining was taking place. When we come into new revelation, even in the things that we have done already we will begin to appreciate new levels of meaning as God opens them up to us in their fullness.
24 The Joshua generation will operate with the angelic realm.
This is something which causes Christians a lot of needless problems and argument. ‘Why do we need angels when we have the Holy Spirit?’ – you know the kind of thing. Angels and the Holy Spirit are completely different. Angels have a completely different purpose and function. And in fact all angels have their own particular functions.
For example, one night when Ian Clayton was here, he dropped frankincense on the floor and the aroma of it filled the room. It took me into the realms of heaven and I saw a canopy, and big angels being released from the throne. They had huge wings, and razor-sharp feathers which I could tell they were going to use as weapons. I knew instinctively who they were: they were the hunter angels. They go out to bring in a harvest. Their weapons are about cutting blindness off people’s eyes, which would prevent them from seeing and responding to the truth. And God is releasing them right now. They are different from the gathering angels, and the watcher angels, and other angels that we see. You notice, we even describe them by their function.
Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us or for our adversaries?” He said, “No; rather I indeed come now as captain of the host of the LORD.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and bowed down, and said to him, “What has my lord to say to his servant?” The captain of the LORD’S host said to Joshua, “Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so (Joshua 5:13-15).
When you read that he ‘lifted up his eyes’, it means he was looking into the heavens, and seeing into another realm, another dimension. As you read the scriptures again, you will see examples of this in other places too, such as when Abraham ‘lifted up his eyes and looked’ and saw the three men standing opposite his tent (Gen 18:2). And in this passage, the captain of the host goes on to give Joshua strategy that will help him be victorious and successful. When we praise God, that high praise releases some of these angels. Read Psalm 149 and you will see more about that, how we execute judgments that are written, how we execute vengeance upon the enemy.
We are not fighting against flesh and blood. Earthly strategy just won’t cut it.
25 The Joshua generation will hear God’s strategy for warfare.
The LORD said to Joshua, “See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors. You shall march around the city, all the men of war circling the city once. You shall do so for six days. Also seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark; then on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. It shall be that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people will go up every man straight ahead” (Joshua 6:2-5).
When God said, “See”, how could Joshua see that? It hadn’t happened yet. The answer is that God was showing him in the realms of heaven what would happen. It is just like when Jesus said He did the things He saw the Father doing (John 5:19). In what realm did He see the Father doing them? The Holy Spirit will disclose things which are to come, before they actually happen, because we see – and can step into – a different realm.
Again, when this passage talks about a city with its king and its warriors, we can understand that solely in the natural realm. But above and beyond that, in the realms of the heavens, there are also mountains, and rulers and kings. We need to deal with them in that realm in order to deal with their counterparts in this realm. As I wrote last time, that is why we may historically have struggled to overcome in this realm – it is because we cannot do so effectively without dealing with the heavenly realm first.
Like Jesus, we also need to see what the Father is doing, in order to bring it to earth. If that is how Jesus operated (and He told us it was), then surely that is how we must operate too. Jesus lived constantly in two realms, in relationship with the Father.
The strategy God gave for taking Jericho was very clear, and very detailed. And the strategy that Joshua received in the heavenly realms, he had to carry out in this earthly realm. We need to be able to do that, every day, all the time.
That is what it means to be living in dual realms, to see what the Father is doing, to be constantly connected.
And that is what it takes to bring heaven to earth.
Engaging God on the Heavenly Pathways of Relationship and Responsibility
Equipping a Joshua Generation of supernatural sons of God to live according to the order of Melchizedek
In June 2010 I went to a prophetic conference in Torquay, down on the south coast of Devon. God really impacted me and challenged me about experiencing His love and intimacy. He drew me into a place of intimacy, in which He called me to go on a 40 day fast.
I also received a prophetic word from Mike Bryant, and on the envelope he had written ‘Read this every day for six weeks’ (which is pretty much 40 days too). So I went into that fast seeking God for prophetic direction.
Prophetic word
Now I want to share just what that word was, and what God did:
‘A change is coming, and you cannot stop it, so be strong in my Spirit and the things I have shown you. Prepare the future and know that the harvest you long for is near. I am raising up those near you to stand with you. Look for the rainbow within your heart. Ascend where I am, where you are seated, a door will open for you. Prepare the future, ask of me and I will show you’.
I prayed over that several times a day. Now I already know that a change is coming: God is a God of change, and change for the good. I know that God wants us to prepare for a future harvest. I know that God wants to raise people up to work together as a team in ministry. But ‘look for the rainbow in my heart’? Well I didn’t know, but God showed me.
God opened the door
The first 20 days of that fast were really hard work; not physically, but spiritually. Basically I was being put on a cross and crucified of all the stuff of the flesh. But then in the next 20 days God opened the door into the heavenly realms and I had 78 different prophetic visions and encounters with God. These were direct encounters face to face with God, and he was speaking, revealing things, showing me things I had never seen before. Definitely, a door opened.
Quantum physics?
And that prophetic word says, ‘Prepare for the future, ask of me and I will show you’, so that’s what I did. I said, ‘God I want you to prepare me and the church for the future, so I’m asking, and I want you to show me’. And he showed me all sorts of stuff, some of it pretty way-out, which I wasn’t really prepared for. You know, I was happy to feel the love of God and experience God and be purified and refined and all that sort of thing. But when God started talking about quantum physics and quantum mechanics and how he created the universe, it was a challenge: although I have a science background, I was a biochemist not a physicist. Physics was not my favourite subject, I can tell you.
But God started speaking about light and the nature of light, about how light is particles but it is also waves. He talked about the nature of sound, about frequency and resonance, about what was going on in the heavenly realm (that is the spiritual realm), and how we need to connect up with that realm. He showed me that everything in the whole realm of quantum physics was only showing what the Bible was already saying, and I have shared some of that in the Quantum Vision series of talks. In this blog we will go a bit further with that and then I want to share with you some of the prophetic revelation that God gave me for the future.
Now I don’t do that lightly and it has taken me 6 months or more to get to the point where I’m prepared to share some of it, but I am going to share some of it in this series.
This article is also available in French
Cet article existe également en français
Engage with God like never before!
Engaging God on the Heavenly Pathways of Relationship and Responsibility
Equipping a Joshua Generation of supernatural sons of God to live according to the order of Melchizedek
Sons of Issachar 