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PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT SERIESTHE THREE REALMS OF PRAYER
We are going to look into the 3 realms of prayer. In the
Old Testament you will notice that they have the 3 realms. One is called the
Holy of Holies. The other is called the First Realm of Prayer Some people when they pray, they pray only in the But the secret is to learn to bring them to God and pray
through on those areas. But no matter how much you do through all those
areas, I want to emphasize there is a realm of the spirit in prayer where you
could enter deeper than that. This is what I called the babyhood stage. The
babyhood stage is where you are coming to God for your needs; you are coming
to God whenever you need help. In fact every time you fall into sin you say,
"God, forgive me." You just went back to the But God wants us
to move further. God wants us to move deeper than the babyhood stage. Now
don’t go around condemning others when they pray that way. Every baby
Christian starts that way. It doesn’t mean that a matured Christian does not
pray that way. They do but it’s a small percentage. Otherwise Jesus wouldn’t
add, ` give us this day our daily bread’ in The Lord's Prayer. He added it
in. So don’t jump to conclusion with truth like that. You could actually use
the truth of God and turn it into something negative. Just like you could go to
an unbeliever and tell him/her you are going to hell. It is right, it s the
truth, but that’s not the way truth is supposed to be applied. You don’t help
them. The most important things are
you must apply truth to help people. Not to destroy or condemn them. So
remember that there is an Second Realm of Prayer Then they could cross over from time to time as they
watch the things of the Spirit and the things of God. As they fellowship with
deeper Christians, they enter into the second realm of prayer, which is the So as we see in the middle court the prayers goes this
way. "O God I want the gifts of the Spirit. God I like to develop these
spiritual gifts in me." So some of the prayers I encourage you to pray
are in this realm. You cannot have the gifts unless you desire it and you
covet after them. So remember when we are talking about the different realms
of prayer, we are not saying do without them. But we are saying understand
the perspective from God’s side of view. If you have no perspective, you
could be living in the jungle all the time and don’t know what the jungle
looks like from the top. But it helps if you could go to the height of an
eagle and looks down and says, "Now I understand where I live." Prayers in the second realm of prayers are prayers that
regard to the gifts of God, the ministry in your life. "O God I desire
to be an evangelist. I want to understand the power of the name of
Jesus." The second realm is the realm where you have spiritual desire.
Notice they are different from the Third Realm of Prayer Then there is a third level, which is so deep that very
few people have entered into it. I would say in the whole of church history,
we probably have just a few thousands out of the millions of Christian who
have entered into the third realm of prayer. And even in the Bible we only
have a few of them who entered into that realm. Most people are satisfied
with the first realm. A lot of people are just satisfied about their natural
needs being met. They are not concerned about their spiritual position in
God. They are not concerned about what God wants them to do in the ministry
in the Body of Christ. They don’t want to move further than that. These
people are missing the whole perspective of heaven as to why Jesus died on
the cross. But it is always that way. Human beings are imperfect. And the
church is not perfected yet. Not everybody wants Jesus 100%. They are
thankful that Jesus died for their sins but not everybody wants Jesus to come
into their lives 100%. If you walk with God 100%, those who walk with God 90%
won’t understand you and any percentage of difference will cause you
suffering. The one who walk 90% in the Spirit will persecute the one who walk
100%. Why because the flesh always persecute the Spirit. Whatever percentage
not yielded to God must be in the flesh. It cannot be in the Spirit and the
flesh at the same time. There are compartments in our life. There are some areas
that some of us have not yielded to God yet. They are in the flesh. Some
areas that are yielded to God and they are in the Spirit. The surprising
thing is not many people want Jesus 100%. If Jesus was to come tonight and
said, "I’ll be with you. I’ll appear to you 3 times a week. Before I do
that, each of the 3 nights that I come per week to appear, to minister, to
walk and to fellowship with you all, I like you all to come 2 hours early to
pray and 2 hours early to worship." Altogether 4 hours. Do you expect
all the Christians in the city to come? They won’t. If Jesus were to walk
today on any city on this planet earth, He will still experience what He
experienced in the Bible. The fact is, not everybody wants to walk with Jesus
100%. What I am sharing with you in this message is to put a
desire in your heart which I know is the desire of our Father that more
people walk closely with Him as Enoch walked, as Elijah walked, and as Moses
walked. More people would walk closely with Him and walk within the second
veil. The realm of the second veil is the realm where you are not so much
concerned about the natural desire or the spiritual desire. But you are
completely lost in the Presence of God and you are in communion with God. And the third realm of prayer, which we are talking
about, is where you actually sit in a boardroom with God planning the things
of God. You say does God permit people to go into that realm. Yes, there are
a few who have entered in. But the third realm of prayer is where you have walked
with God so closely that you are literally in the boardroom with God. Now God
doesn’t need us. We need Him. Yet God enjoy working together with us. And the
greater closeness you walk with God, the greater closeness God will have you
involved in a boardroom meeting. Let me illustrate some men of God who have walked with
God into the third realm of prayer. Again I must emphasize in case people
misunderstands, I am not saying that it is wrong to pray the first, and the
second level. People must be allowed to grow. There is a strange thing about
truth. If truth is given to people who are not ready for it, they will
straight away take it and abuse it and use it to torture others. For that
reason God doesn’t reveal some of His truth until we have changed in our
character in our life. God made a
statement in Genesis 18: 17 The Lord said, "Shall I hide from Abraham
what I am doing?" We can’t fathom the depth of which Abraham had
walked with God up to this time. We have only a glimpse of his life in these few
short chapters in Genesis. But there is something in his life that has
brought him into quite a close relationship with God and this man has walked
to the extent of walking into the third realm with God. Previously there were
many things that shows that God was working in his life. And here he walked
into that realm where his fellowship with God was so deep that God said,
`Shall I hide from Abraham what I am going to do.’ So God spoke to Abraham
about what He is going to do in Genesis 18: 20-23 "Because the outcry
against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, I
will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the
outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not I will know.’ Then the men
turned away from there and went toward Now here is Abraham. He is in the boardroom with God. Now
God said He is going to destroy Some Christians don’t understand that if they are walking
in the first realm, they don’t have much power with God. But when you walk
with God into the third realm. You got great power. Your character is quite
molded by that time. That’s why you would not misuse and abuse that kind of
power. When you walk in the third realm with God, if you
literally ask God in certain areas, He will grant you. It is a dangerous
power also. Remember when Jesus was tempted in Matthew 4; He was tempted to
turn the stones into bread. I believe He had the power to do it. And that
temptation was to abuse power for the first realm. That’s to abuse the power
in the first realm to meet His own selfish need although He was in need of
food and He was hungry and thirsty. Jesus, however, was in the third realm
all the time. He refused to use the power that He had unless God wanted Him
to. We are going to talk about the principles that apply to
the third realm for us to walk carefully in the third realm. The third realm
is such if you understand from Elijah’s life, you have such power with God
that if you ask God to send down fire, the fire would come. I.e. why people
who walk in the third realm, you better be careful. People who walk close
with God in the third realm. They are very much like God. We will look at another case before we go to the
principle. I am giving you examples of people who have walked into the third
realm with God. They heard that Elijah was on the mountain in 2 King 1:9-10 Then
the king sent to him a captain with his fifty men. So he went up to him and
there he was, sitting on the top of a hill. And he spoke to him: "Man of
God, the king has said, 'Come down!' So Elijah answered and said to the
captain of fifty, "If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from
heaven and consume you and your fifty men." Fire came down from heaven
and consumed him and his fifty. You don't simply disturb someone who
walks in the third realm. The world is made in such a way, the closer you
walk with God, the fewer people understand you. They can only understand if
they walk in the same realm. In the natural we realize that. If you are a
schoolteacher who doesn’t know anything about computer and a computer expert
gives all the computer formula, you wouldn’t understand anything. Even in the
natural between specialists, they don’t understand each other unless there is
a common ground. How much more between the different realms that people walk
in? The closer you want to walk with God please prepare to be persecuted
more. Please be prepared to be misunderstood more. Please be prepared to walk
alone with God. Now Elijah walked in the third realm. He had such power
with God. There are few people in the church history that walked in the third
realm. One of them was John Knox. The Queen of Scotland said of John Knox,
"I am not afraid of all the armies of Notice Elijah had such power with God. When the army came
against him, they were finished. So
there is a realm that you can walk with God. And it’s only through the avenue
of prayer. Not all that are
in the ministry walk in the third realm. There are even those in the ministry
who only walk in the first realm. There are some that walk in the second and
fewer walk in the third. Not all that wants to walk in the third realm need
to enter into the ministry. You only enter the ministry if God call you. Even
if God didn’t call you, you still can walk in the third realm by your
closeness with God. So its not limited to one in the ministry or not in the
ministry. Its open to all whosoever will since Jesus opened the way for us.
But the sad fact is how few do enter into that realm. Here Elijah was
told to come down 3 times. When the fifty soldiers and captain didn’t return
the king sent another captain and fifty men. In 2 Kings 9: 11 Then he sent
to him another captain of fifty with his fifty men. "Man of God,’ thus
as the kings said, 'Come down quickly!’ He is even ruder. Remember he is
a captain. A captain is used to ordering people around. People who are high
in business circle are used to ordering people around. 2 Kings 9: 12 So
Elijah answered and said to them, "If I am a man of God, let fire come
down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men. And the fire of God came
down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty men. Why does the Bible record all these things? To show the
difference between those who walk in the first realm, the second realm, and
the third realm. You have such power with God. The amazing thing is this; you
won’t enter the third realm until your character is changed and you won’t
misuse God’s power. By the time you reached that level and God’s power is
given to you, you don’t misuse it because there are principles that govern
walking in the third realm. So the third group
came in verse 2 Kings 1: 13. Again, he sent a third captain of fifty with his
fifty men. And the third captain of fifty with his fifty men went up, and
came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and pleaded with him, and said to
him: "Man of God, please spare my life and the life of these fifty
servants of yours be precious in your sight." So there is danger
involved in the third realm. But let me also say the danger is also to you
who walk in the third realm. There is sacredness here; the greater God gives
you authority, the greater and higher the responsibility. Anytime you have a
chance of getting a greater reward, then the chance of getting a greater
punishment is equal. Then we have Moses. He also walked into the third realm.
There are many of this kind of truth. You can never finish studying the truth
of God. Exodus 32: 7-14, And the Lord said to Moses, "Go, get down!
For your people whom you brought out of the You know Moses entered the boardroom and he had a
conference with God. He says, ` God don’t destroy them.’ Because he is a
board member, the Lord listens. What authority, what power is this in the
third realm. Elijah was also operating in the third realm. In 1 Kg.
17:1, Now Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab,
"As the Lord God of There are a lot of people who are only first realm
Christians. They go around and say, `O God judge that person, send fire here,
send fire there.’ First realm Christian! All they know about is God meet my
needs. Here is what I want to show you that Elijah had the authority to stop
the weather more because he asked God than because God wanted it. Look at the
book of James 5:17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed
earnestly that it would not rain. I know that he prayed later for it to
rain. But the Bible tells us he prayed for it not to rain. The only way you
can do that, to get God to do something, where you got such power with God as
you have power with man is to walk into the third realm. To get to be a board
member and you could see a key here in verse 17 Elijah was a man with a
nature like ours and he prayed earnestly. First Key : Long Hours of Prayers The first condition that you have to meet to get into the
third realm is to absolutely be breathing prayers in your life. There is no
doubt that we have to start at the first realm. They are like steps. You
cannot bypass them. When you begin to learn to turn to God for your needs, it
is better than the world looking to themselves leaning to their own
understanding. You are not depending on your own intelligence, your own
strength to meet your needs. You realize your source is God and you practice
the principles of tithing and offering and also you learn to pray in your
supply. So through operating faithfully in your first realm, you begin to see
results until it becomes second nature. If you are new to
operating in a gift of God, at first there is a lot of effort but as you
become familiar with the gift of God, it becomes second nature to you. So
there is a realm when you first step out where it takes great discipline and
effort to be obedient. You learn to turn to God and not lean on your own
understanding. As you began to trust God to pray through on natural areas and
you are so successful at the first realm, you will surely look into the
second realm. As you break into the second realm, you begin to ask God for
more spiritual things like the spiritual gifts and the ministry of God. Then
you began to get the answers. You become successful at that then you see way
ahead there is a realm you want to move in. You move into the
third realm. Obviously by that time you are quite a prayer expert in the
first and second realm. That’s the key. You have to start praying in the
first two realms. And be so accustomed in it until it is ingrained as a
second nature in your life. Then you would move until you could pray on
anything earnestly. I would say the third realm belongs to those who spend
hours upon hours in communion with God. People don’t realize the benefits of
spending long hours with God. You could hardly meet Christians who spend more
than 2 hours with God. That is why very few Christians walk in the third realm.
You don’t get there by spending 2 hours. Two hours is peanuts. Two hours
makes you an expert in the 1st realm. This is why I encourage you
to be regular in overnight prayer. Because in overnight prayers you spend 4,
5, 6 hours with God and it becomes a lifestyle in your life. Some of you may
have the privilege to sit in God’s board meeting. People don’t see the value of spending long hours with
God because they haven’t tasted the value. There is no way except to spend
hours with God. If you spend about 2 hours in God, one hour in prayers and
one hour in the Lord, that is the barest minimum in your daily needs in the
first realm. Some Christians even die in the In the second realm it seems that only those who enter
into regular weekly periods of consecrated time with God that they could move
into. Not only those who spend 2 hours a day but they would even consecrate
one day a week to the Lord to have a day of fast or something. Christians
don’t realize it. But it’s a blessing to be worshipping God for long hours.
You not only get more from the Lord and give more to the Lord. It has a very
sub-conscious influence on your whole life. It tends to put a greater hunger
for God in your life than you realize it. And added to that it helps you to
move into the second realm. Sunday then becomes the day you consecrate to the Lord.
When I go to church I am not sure I get out at lunchtime. In fact we may get
out at dinnertime. What does that mean to the Christians who come on Sunday?
It makes them consecrate that day to the Lord. You are not going to plan many
things except to worship the Lord on that day. At first it looks a little bit
like compulsion in flowing along. Later on when people began to see the
benefits, they begin to reap spiritual rewards. Sometimes they reap it
without even realizing it. If you began to learn to spend maybe 4, 5 hours in
God’s Presence weekly and once or twice a week where you have particulars
days where you spend 4/5 hours with God, you seem to break through in the
second realm. The gifts of God operate easily in your life like second
nature. You flow into the ministry of God with no problem while others are
still struggling. There are a lot of people who pray 2 hours a day and
think they want to breakthrough in the second realm. They are trying to use
the first realm method to break through into the second realm. No way. If you
want to walk in the second realm to the fullness learning to spend time with
God for 5/7 hours at a stretch are peanuts. 2 hours per day is peanuts for
the first realm. If you spend 2 hours in God every day, you will notice
something. Your financial life becomes
prosperous. Your physical life becomes health. See all the natural thing will
just flow together. Promotions come like nobody business. Blessings pour in
their life. There are the side benefits. So in the first realm is 2 hours. In the second realm it seems you have to learn a certain
stretch to pray 5 –7 hours. Remember I am talking about time spent with God.
Not necessary just prayer. That includes worship, reading the word and prayer
all mixed up together. Then you spend a special day by yourself – Saturday.
You are going to do all these things in spite of so many distractions, phone
ringing, people calling you for lunch. All these distractions it’s not so
easy. And it seems that those who are willing to spend time with God at a
stretch in regular weekly period maybe about 7 hours once or twice a week
seems to make a breakthrough in the second realm. So as you walk in the
second realm, it becomes peanuts if you just spend 2 days with about 7 hours
each with God. How can a person spend so much time with God? What about
Jesus who spent the whole night with God regularly? Let’s compare ourselves
to Jesus. Don’t compare ourselves to the one next to us. So you have to learn
to spend weekly time of about 7 hours until it becomes peanuts with you. Then
you only reach the second realm. The gifts and ministry of God flow out
easily. While others are just struggling, you just flow. You just move into
those areas with no problem. Then as this second realm becomes ingrained in you,
there’s the third realm to move into. The third realm is where you literally
live just to live with God. Every free moment you got, you run to the Lord.
Every day every free moment you get, you enter into that realm in prayer.
What I mean is you learn to run into the realm of God as if you only live for
that realm. This is what happens when you enter into that realm. Lets say you
are working and so after whatever you need to do instead of spending hours on
your papers, the moment you get back, you bathe, and you run into the closet
and worship God. If you are a family person, please don’t neglect you family.
Be balanced in everything you do. But every moment you got, you run into that
realm. It becomes like a daily thing, where you spend daily time with God 8
hours. I believe that’s how Enoch walked with God. Enoch walked so close with
God that God says come on and finish it and get into God’s realm. That’s the
end. He never came back. Look at Moses. God will one day require his body to
be raised on the last days where even others were not raised. Elijah moves
into the third realm. What a blessing. So the first key is to spend hours with God. Every free
moment you got, you go to Him. And a day will come God will say come and sit
at My board meeting. God is going to
say, "Should I not show him what I am gong to do in this city?"
Remember in a board meeting, God will reveal something. It is still in His
planning stages. Outside of the board meeting any revelation cannot be
changed. Any revelation within the board meeting has an element of discussion
permitted. So in the third realm in prayer, you literally live for God. When a person reached that stage, how
little important the things of the world become. You hardly even think about
your natural thing. You become so powerful in this first realm too. If you
walk from the third realm into the first realm here and you pray a first
realm prayer, your answer comes quickly. It may take two years for someone to
get an answer in the first realm. You
take only a few days. My friends when you come to the overnight prayer, you
have the opportunity to move into the third realm. Count yourself privileged.
There are not many that have such a meeting that allow you to have such
opportunity to enter the third realm to commune with God. Second Key : Knowing the Heart of God The second key takes place as you
enter into that realm. You really know the heart of God. Abraham knew the
heart of God. Shall the judge of all the earth do right? Moses knew the heart
of God, he says, `Lord, You…’ see by the time you reach the third realm, you
are not desiring for your own things. God said, "I’ll make you a great
nation." He is not interested. He said, "No, Lord, what will the
others say about You?" He begins to have the mind and nature of God. He
begins to think about how it will reflect on God and not on himself. And in
the third realm you see the thing about Moses in this second key. You would
know and understand the very heart and nature of God. That’s why third realm
people are full of God’s love. Only when you are full of God’s love can you
understand the third realm. Elijah understood it. When he came to God and he
prayed through until he reached the third realm. Third Key : Becoming an Extension of God The third key is the change in your own self and nature.
Where you are only interested to bring glory to God. When Moses prayed he said, " God what
would they say about Your Name and about You," he literally become an
extension of God. You have completely died to yourself as a separate being.
You have given yourself where you are an extension of God and you are only
interested in things that have to do with God. Moses was offered to have a
nation. He refused that. Your key interest is in God’s will. And being an
extension of God’s will to others. The thing about it is this that God make
us with free will. You have a choice to choose your own way. By the time you
reached the third realm, you have chosen not to choose anything but what He
chooses. You have yielded yourself to the extent like what Paul would express
he is bound by the Spirit. He literally becomes an extension of God Himself.
And God could do anything with you as He wills and see fit and you don’t
mind. So the third key is you become an extension of God Himself. So the first key is long hours in prayers. The second key
is to understand the nature of God, how much you know God. The third is how
much you realize that you are no more yourself but you are fully an extension
of God. By the third key you are lost to yourself. You are God’s property.
God will protect His property. I know that objectively everybody is God’s
property. But subjectively not everybody lives as God’s property. That is
what I am talking. The third realm is 100% commitment for Jesus Christ. And
you belong to God. God could do whatever He wants with you. Fourth Key : Knowing the Mind of God The fourth key has to do with knowledge of His plans and
His purposes. Now this has to do with the mind of God. See in the first key
has to do with long hours with God, in communion with God. In the second key
it has to do with the heart of God. In the third key it has to do with the
Hand of God. In the fourth key it has to do with the mind of God. Moses said,
"Remember Thy covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ See he knows the
will of God and he had such knowledge and the word of God and the will of God
and the mind of God in that matter. He knew that was the depth of God’s mind
to keep His covenant. And he brought that forth. Elijah sensed the mind of
God. For in the word that God said, "If His people turn to idol and sin,
the heaven would become brass.’ But it took a man to understand that word and
entered the third realm and in the board meeting, he got clearance from God
to stop the rain. And in the fourth key your mind is the mind of Christ.
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