God wants us to be able to ascend to the heavenly realm, commune with Him, and bring back revelation. You can't give to others something you have not already received. However, we can access the throne room of God, spend time with Him there, and bring back healing and deliverance we can give to others.
In John 1, Nathanael received a supernatural revelation when Jesus revealed He knew something about Nathanael despite them never having met. Nathanael was impressed, but Jesus told him he would have even more reason to be impressed in the future. “And He said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man’” (John 1:51).
If you ever receive a real prophetic word from God, it will open up to you the revelatory and supernatural realm. Receiving prophetic words will position you to see greater things than that, to see the heavens open, and to see angels. The word angels can also be translated as messengers. I believe that not only do the angels have access to the throne room and the third heaven, but every messenger of God—every Christian—has been granted access. We can ascend and descend, bringing to earth what only heaven possesses, and taking prayers from earth to the throne of grace.
God is looking for people who want to be able to ascend into the heavenlies, get loaded up, and bring what they get in that encounter back to earth. In the Lord's prayer, the Lord told us to pray, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). That means it's not a given right now. His overarching will is going to be accomplished, but in day-to-day matters, His will is not always done. He's depending on us to be heaven's ambassadors. Jesus brought a taste of heaven on earth, and we're called to do the same.
In Genesis 28, Jacob had a dream that a stairway to the heavens rested on the ground, and God's messengers were going up and down it. God was showing Jacob how things are supposed to operate; we're supposed to have access to the heavenly realm. Adam and Eve had access, but sin broke that connection. Heaven and earth, the supernatural realm and the natural realm, were fused together, but sin began to slowly separate it. That's why at the beginning of the Bible, you see a lot of supernatural events, like miracles done by Elijah and Moses, but no open vision at the end of the Old Testament. Jesus came to reunify heaven and earth and to recommission messengers to bring things from heaven to earth.
The place where Jacob saw the messengers ascending and descending was called Beth-el, or the house of God. That’s why Jesus said in John 1:51, “Hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” Until that point, the house of God had been the physical temple standing in Jerusalem, but Jesus came to permanently replace a physical structure. Since He's the ladder that reconnected heaven and earth after the fall, we as believers have access to heaven through our intimacy, our fellowship, and our union with Christ. We have access to the heavenly realm and can go there and bring what is in heaven to earth.
The disciples who were with Jesus during His early ministry got to see Him teach and perform many miracles, but Jesus told them there were even greater things to come. He said this in John 16:12-15: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are mine. Therefore I said that He will take of mine and declare it to you.”
Jesus was trying to tell them they could know God better through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit than if they had just walked with Him in the flesh. We are not second-rate Christians who have less supernatural power than the disciples had. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would bring even more supernatural power. I have always wished I could have been there when Jesus opened the blind eyes and the deaf ears, but Jesus is saying there is even more power available through and by the Holy Spirit.
So, what I'm pointing you to is this: you can know Jesus better by the Holy Spirit than by walking with Him in the flesh. That's the level of communion you can have with Him, the level of ascension and descension you can have. You can access the heavenly realm and have throne room encounters and experiences with God that you can bring back and give to people around you. Next week, we will explore what that looks like in practice.
