A few years ago I was learning how to train people to hear God’s voice and was so frequently in the Spirit my numerous visions and revelations filled several notebooks. I shared some of these in one of the books I wrote at that time, Communion, Enjoying Spiritual Fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and one of those visions was brought back to my heart this very week.
In an initial vision I first just saw a heavenly throne. It was SILVER and had ornate filigree work on the chair back. I was looking at it directly in front of me and it was slightly higher than my point of view and I had to study it to understand what I was looking it. It was not GOD’s glorious throne. It looked human-scale but again was made of pure silver carved with fine craftsmanship. Jesus was not on it either, no one was! Nor was it set among 24 other thrones so I assumed it was not Jesus’ throne nor was it a throne that belonged to any of the 24 Elders. What was it?!
It was a brief vision, a static picture, and as I thought about it during the week I felt in my heart it was somehow MY throne, but I did not know there was such a thing! All week this stirred in my heart and that next Sunday when we were praying again in our fellowship I set in my heart to go back and see this throne more clearly. When I did I was in for a shock! But I’ll get to that later.
An Invitation
Let me first say that the initial vision was just a picture, it was not even moving or active like a vision or dream. But when I went back of my own will I saw it in a living, interactive scene.
Before I share what I saw and what it means and why it came to mind this week, let me just start by saying what I learned in that instance is that heavenly visions are not like a printed post card or photograph—they are glimpses into a living reality above and beyond, and can serve as a kind of invitation to us if we respond with eager hope and confidence to it. I learned an important lesson that day about visions and interaction with the Holy Spirit that while we may start as passive receivers, like people listening to a radio or TV broadcast, the Spirit is living and active and God wants to invite us into a dynamic interaction with him, to have interactive fellowship with him, to enjoy two-way communication, and this is the basis for an authentic fulfilling relationship with him—if we respond.
So what we have since learned to do when we pray is not only wait passively for a prophetic word to come to us like a radio broadcast but instead to GO INTO HIS PRESENCE PURPOSEFULLY ourselves and interact with him directly, yes purposefully, an act of our will and desire. We are told to BOLDLY APPROACH the Throne of Grace, not to just passively wait around until maybe God might let us see a picture of it some day. NO, we are told to GO THREE BOLDLY! How do you GO to a place IN HEAVEN? Does that make sense to you? But in fact you can.
Skeptical? Let me ask you, would God tell you do something he does not give you the ability to do? Forget thinking of God like a BOSS, would your DAD not allow you just to go visit him when you want to talk with him, yes, even when he’s busy working!!
Paul even said he knelt before the Father when he prayed, and this may not make sense to people unaccustomed to spiritual things, but God is literally WITHIN US as we are literally WITHIN HIM. Heaven in fact is not just ‘a place we go when we die,’ as earth-bound people often think of it. Those who believe in Christ will never in fact die! I won’t get into all that right now, but if God says to BOLDLY GO TO THE THRONE OF GRACE (the place of empowerment to strengthen you in any way you are weak), and to especially go in your time of hardship, and this is a place in ‘heaven,’ don’t you think at a minimum that maybe is a possible thing for us to do?
Heaven is a realm, a kingdom, a society and a country we are now citizens of if Jesus is our Lord. It is our true home! People who are too earth-bound in their thinking cannot make sense of this yet, but being so frequently in his presence then it became our daily reality. We could visit heaven whenever we wanted to! My first few times I needed help, I felt like an uninvited guest, but God would often tell me openly, “Go visit heaven more!” I was very welcome, and especially love to visit my house in heaven, or his throne, or whatever the Holy Spirit is leading me to do. I am a citizen of heaven, not an illegal alien of it.
Draw Near
Anyway, let me just say these few things again before I go on to deeper things: a vision from God can be an invitation, treat it as such! He may want you to draw near to him, and so to bring you into a more meaningful experience with him, but you must be willing! He wants you to exercise your own free will! Is God testing whether you want to spend more time with him? If he is I sure hope you pass that test! But this happened to me a few times and I learned this, a picture of a spiritual reality is often an open invitation to seek him in that area more, and from which he will then bring me into a more rich and meaningful heavenly experience. God is always on-line! The Holy Spirit is always ready to bring us into an interactive experience. He wants to have spiritual fellowship with us more than we know!
People who are scared of the Holy Spirit, who identify too strongly with their earthly, carnal past maybe, who are too ‘religious,’ filled with Man’s ways, or are just too carnal in their thinking will not dare to approach God so freely and actively. No they won’t! Too bad for them! Some have a carnal fear of God that makes them draw back not a holy fear that makes them want to draw near. There are sheep and there are goats. There are both unwise and wise virgins. Don’t ever take spiritual or especially biblical advice from a goat! Never be found wanting in the community of the unwise virgins!
Seek God, the God of Vision
Also there are many spiritual thrones mentioned in the Bible; there are thrones over cities, over countries, and in my case what I saw was a throne over my own life—MY throne! Maybe I’ll share more on this later! I hope so. But first just consider when God is talking to you he wants to draw you in a deeper conversation. We are called to an UPWARD calling in; we are always called to have more faith. We are always called to a more interactive relationship with Him.
So yes, seek God for a fresh vision, He always has so much he wants to say to each of us every day!—but also think about visions and even dreams he’s already given you that have left you wondering. Do you know what he was telling you? Do you want him to explain more to you? Did you ask him to explain it to you yet? People often suffer from a severe lack of spiritual curiosity and their relationship with God, their spiritual development and their maturity as saints suffers accordingly. Don’t be so dull, don’t be so consumed by social media that you lose your passion and curiosity to spend time with God in the Spirit—explore your God! Get to know him better! You will be glad you did!