One of the most exciting things that happens to us when we are born again is that we gain the capacity to engage and interface with the realms of our Father’s kingdom in heaven. The “heavenly places” where we are seated in Christ are not mythical places, but they are very real. They are, in fact, more real than this realm, and you can engage with them now. The heart is the connecting chamber or gateway into heavenly dimensions.
Ephesians 2:4-6: But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ
(by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together,
and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
2 Corinthians 4:18: …while we do not look at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen.
For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Before the fall, the earth realm was a part of what we now call the heavenly realm, and Adam and Eve interfaced with heaven while on earth. They met, walked and communed with God in the garden that was in Eden. Eden is God’s garden, yet Genesis 2:8 tells us that God created a garden for Adam that was eastward in Eden. The garden was a portal, an intersection of heavenly and earthly dimensions. At the fall, earth’s substance changed and fell out of the heavenly dimension, becoming a limited, earthly, natural, temporal dimension.
Just like Adam and Eve communed with God in the garden He had created for them, you can commune with Him in the garden of your heart. It is the multidimensional place you go to commune and to walk with God. Because of the cross, we don’t have to wait until we die to do this. It is available for us now. The veil of separation was torn when Christ atoned for the sin of mankind. Christ restored and became the Way back to the Father. Death is not the door to heaven; Yeshua is the Door to the realm of heaven and to the Father!
Your imagination is a God-ordained gateway into spiritual dimensions. Here is a prayer that will help prepare you to encounter the Father in the garden of your heart.
Heavenly Father, thank You for my life in You. Yeshua, I thank you for Your blood that cleanses me and Your cross that delivers me. I dedicate my spirit, soul and body to You and to Your care. I apply Your blood to the gateways within me, and I release Your glory and Your light into my entire being. I repent for misusing my imagination for my own pleasure, and I ask You to cleanse my imagination gate from all defilement. Where my imagination has been closed, I ask You to open it. Where it has been defiled, I ask You to cleanse it. I ask You to bring me into total alignment with You as I learn to engage heaven with my imagination and as I learn to see in the Spirit. I ask for eyes to see what You are doing and ears to hear what You are saying. Thank you that seeing in the Spirit is a part of my inheritance as Your child and that hearing Your voice is too! I pray this in Yeshua’s most wonderful and mighty name. Amen.
Now, in simple, childlike faith, go through the gate of your now-sanctified imagination and encounter your Father in the garden of your heart. Trust that spiritual reality is flowing through this gate and remember that it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you His kingdom (Luke 12:32).
Over the next few weeks, we’ll explore the River of Life, the Throne of Grace, the Throneroom of God, the Courts of Heaven, the Court of Accusation, the Fiery Stones in the Father’s Heart and your Seat of Rest. So, stay tuned for some glorious adventures!
This is an excerpt from our training manual, The Ruling and Reigning Manual, by Connie Woods. To order a PDF download, click here: Ruling and Reigning PDF. And to order a hard copy, click here: Ruling and Reigning hard copy
Now, have fun exploring the many mansions in your Father’s heart!
Sean, Virginia, Connie & ATR team