| This is a three part teaching-article entitled Encounter with Heaven. Todd begins this week’s second segment by sharing two examples of daring history-makers who model the DNA that God wants to activate, today, in believers who are in the right position. God wants us to come into a new spiritual dimension! Heaven’s reality will unfold before you as Todd explains what happened when he encountered a taste of heaven when the Lord Jesus Christ walked into his world while he was ministering (recently) at a Youth Conference. Once again, get ready for transformation as heaven touches your life!
ENCOUNTER WITH HEAVEN
by Revivalist Todd Bentley (as edited by Kathy Thorne)
Part 2 Perhaps you’ve sensed after reading Part One that I’m pretty pumped up about what God is doing. Well, you’re right! I am pumped up! Listen. There are times, historic times really, when God touches those who are prepared and ready and He launches them into areas that are virtually uncharted. TAKE A GIANT LEAP! For example, let’s take a look at the early explorers. Hundreds of years ago fearless explorers sailed from Europe into unknown, new waters. What drove them on was the awareness in their spirit that much more landmass existed than was the common perception of the day. So they sought and got the necessary resources, their crews, and they set sail from the familiar, not giving up until they eventually set foot on new land. And their courage was rewarded! Those bold explorers discovered the “Americas” [parts of a landmass eventually termed: the Western Hemisphere]! No wonder European life was never the same again!
It was a pivotal time in world history back then . . . and yet it is no less for us today. This is an hour like none other. Instead of a Western Hemisphere waiting to be discovered, there is a heavenly hemisphere or heavenly realms waiting for exploration by those who dare. As a matter of fact, in the natural, outer space has been probed by gutsy astronauts for about four decades—beginning about seven years before I was born! Perhaps some of you might remember the famous words of “ground-breaker” astronaut Neil Armstrong as he set foot on the moon’s surface [July 21, 1969]—“That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind!”
Wow! Those courageous explorers and astronauts discovered new realms, and yet—don’t miss this—there is more “out there” that God wants us to discover and understand. In fact, today, there is a new breed of believers that God is raising up who have the same DNA as the explorers and the astronauts! These new pioneers are about to take a giant leap into new heavenly realms that for the most part have been unexplored, except by a few. This is God’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. A WHOLE NEW DIMENSION IS OPENING UP
God’s works and His ways are unendingly awesome! A whole new dimension is opening up for those who love the Lord, who are in the right position. Remember last week I shared that heaven is more real to me now than it’s ever been; all because I’ve been there! I’ve been taken into heaven.
Recently, the Lord Jesus Christ walked into my world while I was away ministering at a Youth Conference, just like He did when He approached two of His disciples as they walked along the road to Emmaus! (Luke 24:13–15). Here’s what happened. I was sitting with my team at the conference. It was already in session but I was getting ready to minister. I was receiving specific prophetic words from the Lord for the region and for the church hosting it, when suddenly I was overcome by the Holy Spirit. Feeling somewhat weak, as if I was going to go into a trance, [a feeling somewhat familiar to me], I asked my team to help me leave the meeting. I had about an hour’s time before I was scheduled to speak and they took me behind the platform into a little room. Sitting down on the couch I could feel a strong overwhelming sense of the presence of God and I knew I was going to fall into a trance. I was going to have a supernatural encounter. [See Part One for an explanation of trances.]
In the chair, with my eyes open, I had an open vision. Jesus appeared right in front of me. It was as though He stepped right out of heaven, the Lord Jesus Himself, and stood before me as a Man. He wasn’t the King of glory or the Lord full of majesty. He was as He would have been on the earth as the Son of man. In fact, I was struck by His appearance, surprised that He did not look more majestic—King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. But I knew it was the Lord; I saw His eyes.
Now I want you to understand there are times when, although you can see everything (in a heavenly encounter), there are only certain details that become the focus. So, even though I could give a description of the Lord, the main thing that I was drawn to was Jesus’ eyes. He had brown eyes, and I know it sounds funny, but I immediately thought of Bambi! He had these big brown eyes and he was wearing a simple garment; it was almost brown, like the dust of the earth or almost the color of wood (the cross), with a little hint of purple. Pondering what I was seeing, I had the quickening realization that He was as the Good Shepherd would be. It was like Jesus simply stepped out of the harvest field, came as the Son of man, very humble in apparel. I focused on the eyes of the Lord. I wanted to go into His eyes. I was drawn into His eyes.
The Lord (of course) knew what I was thinking! He spoke to me without words— “These are My eyes as I had eyes on the earth. But if you were to see Me in heaven I have eyes ‘blue, like revelation eyes,’ like fire. These are My human eyes, not My God eyes.” As I looked into His eyes I couldn’t help but notice that from behind the Lord, almost like a projection, a vision of heaven shone from the back of the Lord’s body. It was as if He stepped out of heaven and a trail of heaven followed Him. He appeared before me but heaven was projected behind him. That’s what I saw. [“The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard” (Is. 58:8)]. HEAVEN IS MUCH MORE THAN WHAT WE THINK
Out of the Lord came beams of white and golden light. Such brightness! From out of the white, golden, light came other brilliant colors—blue, purple, green, red and pink were the main ones—like rainbows. Pink prophetically represents love and emotions. I saw what looked to be ten rainbows coming from the Lord, Himself. It reminded me of the description of the throne room in Ezekiel 1:28—“Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.”
Then I saw what Psalm 23 and Isaiah 35 describe. I began to have a vision of the Paradise of heaven. I saw flowers, and gardens. I saw bumble bees, large blue birds, and humming birds. I saw many lions and lambs lying down together. I thought: This is the millennium. I am living Psalm 23. I am living the highway of holiness in Isaiah 35.
Plainly, heaven came out of the Lord! The Lord was heaven! And yet, there is a place, heaven, but it’s not separable from the Lord. Literally, heaven is the bosom of the Father. Literally, heaven is God; it is light. When you are in heaven you are in God, you are in Christ, and you are in the Father. However, it’s not merely that there is a place called “heaven” where Jesus sits on His throne in heaven. Though that is true, heaven literally came out of the Lord. I saw white shafts of light everywhere. I even saw rivers of oil, rivers of honey, and I saw bridges. Incredible! Open heavens! I saw a sun in the sky though there was no need for a sun. It was a prophetic picture of the Son of Righteousness because God is the light of heaven. I saw the color of the glory. I said, “I am beholding the glory, and this is the Lord Himself.”
Then the Lord did two things to me. He walked up to me and He put His hand inside my belly and He gave me a supernatural enablement to live through what was about to take place. He was establishing me so I wouldn’t die. I say that because when I saw heaven I wanted to pass the Lord and go into heaven. But the Lord said, “If you pass Me right now, you will die. Todd, you are not just having a vision, you are in heaven and this is real.” The Lord said, “I am the gate, I am the door, I am the ladder. There is no heaven without Me.” He said if you pass Me, you will die. Something sustained me. He put His hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes and said one word, “Peace I give you, not as the world gives,” and this peace came over me like a vibration and my whole body vibrated while I received the peace of God.
Then the vision faded and I was numb, honestly. I was still behind the platform. Remember, I was in a meeting and I was going to preach soon. Yet I was so overcome by the glory of God I just laid on the floor behind the stage, behind the curtain. Then as I was lying there, all of a sudden I was caught up instantly into the spirit. I was no longer aware that I was in a conference setting. All of a sudden I was standing on a grassy hill and I saw still waters, a river flowing, I saw river banks. It was like Psalm 23, green pastures, and I was looking down. I thought the (flowing) river was going to be pure living water but as I looked I saw that it was a river of oil and honey. Next the colors changed from pink and rainbows, white light and the color of gold, to orangey red. Everywhere I looked was the appearance of amber. Everywhere, it was like a sunrise or a sunset, red or ruby or orangey red.
I looked up to my left and there was a bridge, and my first thought was: What a secret place. Still waters, I am in paradise, this is Ps 23. Look at that beautiful bridge! I just want to sit up on the bridge. That’s what I was thinking. The butterflies were flying by and I felt the peace of God, I was overcome by the Shalom, wow. I thought: Look at that bridge. Now, when you think something in heaven, you are there, so although I don’t actually remember moving, the next thing I knew I was actually sitting on the bridge.
What happened next? Well, I am still feasting on it, and so I want to share the fantastic banquet with you next week in Part Three. In preparation I invite you to pray and meditate on Hebrews 12:1, the scripture quoted at the very beginning of this teaching series. For next week, emphasis will be placed on “since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.” “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us,
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”
[emphasis mine] Before closing, for those of you who want to study this teaching further I want to recommend four valuable resources which are available here at Fresh Fire Ministries that will help to reinforce or boost your spiritual sensitivity---The Reality of the Supernatural World [book]; Audio resources -- Developing Your Seer Gift; Open Heavens Worship and Prayer CD [Vol. II]; and School of the Supernatural Realms of Heaven (with optional workbook). |
