2Co 12:2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago–whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows–such a one was caught up to the third heaven.
Romans 6:7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
What does a dead person do?
- He is free from sin.
- He is delivered
- He is free from sickness.
- He is free from his past.
- He is free from his old identity.
- He is not susceptible to rejection.
- The corpse in fact is the freest person in the earth.
Many times the devil will make you feel that you are the one with the problem.
You are the one who is sick, or depressed, or without energy.
In more than half of the cases, you don’t have the problem.
It’s a lying attack from the outside.
But the devil will make you feel that it’s you, so you can never break free.
I have known for many years that I am dead with Christ, but the revelation never sank in to the point that I could deal with it and go on to the next level.
As long as the revelation of being a corpse in the grave with Jesus is not a total reality, and I still behave like an alive man in any way, the devil will hit me!
The devil would hit me with a sickness, or a problem, or with things that affect alive people, but not dead ones.
As much as I tried to break out into freedom I couldn’t, because freedom belongs to the dead.
So by the devils tactics he kept in the limbo of living in the second heavens.
The first heaven is where we naturally live, on earth.
The third heaven is the one which Paul talks about.
Its where God’s throne is.
It’s what Paul calls heavenly places.
Its where God has raised us up to, to sit at the right hand of God.
In between these two heavens is the second one, where Satan’s principalities, powers, dominions and spiritual wickedness in high places function.
When Christ resurrected, He did so by going through the first heavens, and through the second where He disarmed these principalities and powers and took them as the captive prisoners of a triumphant king, by His victory on the cross.
From there, He proceeded to the third heavens and now sits on the throne of God.
For the Christian, God sees him or her already seated with Him on His throne in the third heaven.
Bu the experience for most of us, is just not so!
Most of us are stuck somewhere in limbo land between the first and the third heavens!
Really, most of the church camps out somewhere in the second heaven, trying and trying to break out on the third, but finding herself in a never ending see saw war.
As long at the revelation of you being as dead as a door nail, and only Christ in you doing all the work through you, has not sunk in, the demons will hit you with things belonging to alive people, and through that, keep you tied up in the slime pits of the second heavens.
The moment that you realize that you are a corpse, you become free from the sin and the sickness and the attack of the demon, and from the slime pit of the second heaven, and suddenly thrust in and through into the third one, to walk and live from above, in heavenly places.
Some rules of engagement to get out of the second and into the third heavens.
What does a dead person do?
He is free from sin.
He is delivered
He is free from sickness.
He is free from his past.
He is free from his old identity.
He is not susceptible to rejection.
The corpse in fact is the freest person in the earth.
The devil does not mess around with a corpse for too long.
The biggest problem that Christians have is that they are way too alive.
Have you ever had an enemy?
God gave me a vision of Jesus Dying on the cross.
Surrounding Him were hundreds of Roman soldiers with menacing spears in their hands.
Sometime during the vision Jesus dies. A little while later, the soldiers begin to realize that the Lord had expired. One by one they left the scene of the crucifixion, their menacing spears no more. Jesus was dead. Everything was over and done.
As long as one is alive, the enemy feels threatened and might attack.
Once the person dies, the enemy has nothing that threatens him and departs. He gets bored with a corpse.
2 Timothy 2:26 And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
Greek: That they may return to soberness or awake out of the snare of the devil, after having being hunted down, taken captive, and caught alive by the devil, to do his will.
The devil is always actively hunting to “catch alive” by trapping our free will and make it to become passive, so that his will in us can then become active.
1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Be temperate dispassionate and serious in your life, be awake and watchful, because your opponent in a suit of law, the devil, as a roaring lion, conducts himself around, arduously and earnestly seeking, whom he may drink down, swallow, consume, and destroy.
Eph 4:27 Neither give place to the devil.
To give place to the devil as constructing an airport runway on our back for the devil to land upon! Only our sin and disobedience can do that. Any time that we are in willful disobedience to the Lord, we automatically open up an airport on our backs, where the enemy can land and take off at his personal fancy!
Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Many of us imagine that this focuses on non-Christians. That’s false. The devil is an equal opportunity deceiver.
The Greek word for worketh is defined as giving energy to.
The sons of disobedience energize the schemes or plans of the devil. The word for disobedience is being non-compliant. If a Christian is continually noncompliant in an area of his or her life to the will of God, will he or she energize the works of the devil? Yup.
Any obstinate, stubborn, defiant, person, Christian or non, will energize the devil’s schemes
Mat 12:43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
He travels continually throughout differing arid places “seeking a cessation of his now unpleasant circumstances” (because he has been cast out of the man), and in no way finds it (showing the necessity the demons have to possess a living being).
44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
I will return into my house whence I came out, and having come, finds it vacant and occupied, and in a perfected state of being swept, and cosmetically adorned.
How many people’s lives are cosmetically adorned on the outside but empty on the inside. They are great target practice for the devil.
2Co 2:11 Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
Lest Satan exploit us, for we are not without knowledge of his schemes.
The word devices for devices is “noema”, or thoughts. The devil has a big thought life which he can interject into an individual’s mind. Thus we must be led by the voice of the Holy Spirit .A mind doing its own thing and independent of the voice of God is a target practice for the devil’s own huge thought life. The devil cannot interject thoughts into the spirit of a person if the Holy Spirit dwells there. Is your mind doing its own thing? If it is you are a practice range for the devil to volley the golf balls of his thought life into it.
Jose and Mary Alvarez 