For humanity, time is a constant
continuous dimension. We cannot realistically go backward or forward in time.
Theoretically, it is possible if we can exit the boundaries of the three
dimensions we live in. Time for us is linear, it has a point A and a point B.
We are born, point A, we die, point B. It is hard to imagine life, or even
heaven, without a starting point and a stopping point. God exists outside of
time. We sometimes imagine that God must have a starting point and stopping
point, or that God has to move within the bounds of time going from point A to
point B. But God sees the end from the beginning, or all of it together. God is
not subject to our three or four dimensional world.
Imagine you have just bought a
butterfly pavilion, and you have butterflies living in it. Butterflies can live
anywhere from one week to eight months depending on the species. So let’s imagine
we have filled our pavilion with the species of butterflies that live only one
week. They have a lot to do in that one week’s time don’t they? For the one
week, butterfly time is experienced differently than for us. All of the butterfly’s
beginnings, from first flight, figuring out what to eat, how to procreate, and then
finally death, happen relatively quickly. Each day may seem like a year to a
butterfly. Now, in our pavilion, we can control the environment but we cannot
control each individual butterfly’s behavior. We exist outside of the time
frame of our butterflies lives and we experience life at a slower pace. We do
not come to life, learn to eat, procreate and die in one week. According to our
timeframe the butterfly is experiencing life faster, we experience life slower.
Yet, to God, our lives move much faster. We only live a fraction of a day to
God, as a thousand years is one day in His time frame. We have to put markers
of start and stop times on God’s timing because we cannot fully understand
everlasting, or from age to age. We essentially live in an earthly pavilion, a
place created with boundaries of height, width, and depth. Everything we know
about our world stems from within those boundaries, but God is beyond these
boundaries. We continually attempt to put God into our pavilion, and we try to
understand Him by attaching the constraints of our three/four dimensions. Yet
there is an interesting ability that the spiritual person has. The Bible tells
us to look at the unseen. That seems like a contradiction. How can one see what
one can’t see? Let’s look at this in three different translations.
2 Cor 4:18 While we look not at
the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things
which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal
[166]. KJV
2 Cor 4:18 Since we consider
and look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for
the things that are visible are temporal (brief and fleeting), but the things
that are invisible are deathless and everlasting. AMP
2 Cor 4:18 because we do not
look for things that can be seen but for things that cannot be seen. For things
that can be seen are temporary, but things that cannot be seen are eternal. ISV
NT:166 aionios
(ahee-o'-nee-os); from NT:165; perpetual (also used of past time, or past and
future as well):KJV - eternal, for ever, everlasting, world
(began).(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with
Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc.
and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
We are to look at the things we
cannot see, not the temporary. This must be available because God says we are
to do it. If he says we are to do this we must have the ability. We may not
know it or understand it, but we have to be able to see what we can’t see. The
word eternal means perpetual. We are to look at the perpetual, the one who
exists perpetually.
Eph 3:18-19 That you may have
the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [God's
devoted people, the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and
height and depth [of it]; 19 [That you may really come] to know [practically,
through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses [5235]
mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your
being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine
Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]! AMP
NT:5235 huperballo
(hoop-er-bal'-lo); from NT:5228 and NT:906; to throw beyod the usual mark, i.e.
(figuratively) to surpass (only active participle supereminent): KJV -
exceeding, excel, pass.(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and
Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006
Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
NT:906
ballo (bal'-lo); a primary verb; to throw (in various applications, more or
less violent or intense): KJV - arise, cast (out), dung, lay, lie, pour, put (up), send, strike,
throw (down), thrust. Compare NT:4496.(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's
Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright ©
1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
We are to grasp love (agape)
because of its breadth (broad and wide), length (it goes on forever), height
(altitude, above) and depth, (profoundly deep). In other words, it’s four
dimensional. Like a cube, it has width, height, depth, except it is not
constrained to one point in time, it exists for a long time, forever. This overthrows
or surpasses knowledge. What we know by our physical life can’t comprehend this
love that exists always and forever.
The love of the Messiah
overthrows knowledge because it is beyond four dimensions. We have to see what
is unseen. In the world, with our natural eyes, it doesn’t look like the
Messiah loves us. How come he doesn’t rescue us and make this earth heavenly?
With spiritual eyes we can see and know His love, but Paul tells us who is
helping us to see and know Him.
Eph 1:17-21 [For I always pray
to] the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, that He may grant
you a spirit of wisdom and revelation [of insight into mysteries and secrets]
in the [deep and intimate] knowledge of Him,
First of all it is Pneuma Sophia, the Spirit of Wisdom, who
helps us with the apocalypse, the revealing
of what has been stolen and hidden by a kleptomaniac, in the above
discernment of Him. A more visual way of saying this is that the breath of
wisdom uncovers the hidden knowledge above us. That is Paul’s prayer for us.
Eph 1:18 By having the eyes of
your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to
which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints
(His set-apart ones),
That we would have illuminated
eyes through our deep thoughts and feelings in anticipation of our invitation,
the wealth of glory of the inheritance of the holy ones. Our heart has eyes to
see. There are two different words used in this text depending on the
translation. In the NA27 the word for heart is kardia while in the TR the word for “understanding” is deep thought. So, depending on the
translation you are reading from, the idea is either the “eyes of your heart”
or “the eyes of your understanding”. Aramaic translations use either word,
while EW Bullinger notes that this as a figure of speech called metonymy, which
is changing one noun for another. We know that the heart has thoughts because
Hebrews 4 tells us this. The idea eyes of
your heart/understanding is related to deep understandings in the core of a
human. Enoch gives us a little further insight to the heart and intellect as we
will note shortly.
Eph 1:19 And [so that you can
know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing
greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the
working of His mighty strength,
Also, the overthrowing
magnitude of miraculous power to us who have faith/conviction in the energizing
of His force and dominion.
Eph 1:20 Which He exerted in
Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His [own] right hand
in the heavenly [places],
Which God activated in the
Anointed One when God roused the Anointed One out from death and sat him down
at his right side within the celestial sphere.
Eph 1:21 Far above all rule and
authority and power and dominion and every name that is named [above every
title that can be conferred], not only in this age and in this world, but also
in the age and the world which are to come. AMP
Over and above every chief, magistrate,
force, supreme authority, and all known notoriety professed, not only within
the age but within the future.
There is something “other
worldly” taking place here. We need the Holy Spirit to help our minds
comprehend the immense powers and abundant glory we receive as heirs. And that
we would understand the overthrowing greatness of miraculous power to those of
us who have faith in his energized force of dominion (or the invigorated vigor
of power) which was activated when Jesus the Anointed Messiah was brought up
from death into the upper heavens to sit above every other being in the heavens
now and forever. If we remember Enoch’s description of the various places in
heaven, we will remember that there are plenty of other beings such as the ioanit stations of light. If we can wrap
our minds around this power, this force, this energy, we can see what is
unseen. We can comprehend what is invisible by faith and the Spirit.
We have faith; faith is
conviction. It is not simply believing, which can be a noun or a verb; faith is
a noun, no action required, it simply is. In other words, believing requires action,
but faith is what it is. The question is do we have to do something? The answer
is no, conviction is already accomplished. We have faith, conviction, that the
Messiah loves us just as we have conviction that the worlds, or ages, were made
by the spoken words of God.
Heb 11:3 By faith we understand
that the worlds [during the successive ages] were framed (fashioned, put in
order, and equipped for their intended purpose) by the word of God, so that
what we see was not made out of things which are visible. AMP
Heb 11:3 By faith we understand
that time was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from
things that are invisible. ISV
But for those who refuse to
believe in the Creator, the Bible says that they have no excuse, because the
creation has been made intelligible, it’s capable of being understood. Creation
is also obvious and apparent.
Rom 1:20 For ever since the
creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal
power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and
through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So [men] are without
excuse [altogether without any defense or justification], [Ps 19:1-4.] AMP
Really, what Paul is saying is
that even if we can’t see God himself, we can see his craftsmanship everywhere
we look. There are no humans that can build a flower, the life of a flower is
in the seed, not in a laboratory or a manufacturing plant. God’s handiwork is
not limited to creation, but includes people as well. We are not an accidental
combination of cells. There is intelligent design behind it all. Jesus is the
exact likeness of the unseen God. Jesus said no man has ever seen the Father,
so if we want to know what the Father looks like, he looks like His Son. Jesus
created all things, the Aleph Tav Elohim was at work, as evidenced by the
Genesis text. The Holy Spirit was there as well.
Col 1:15-17 [Now] He is the
exact likeness of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible];
He is the Firstborn of all creation. 16 For it was in Him that all things were
created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, whether
thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities; all things were created and exist
through Him [by His service, intervention] and in and for Him. 17 And He
Himself existed before all things, and in Him all things consist (cohere, are held
together). [Prov 8:22-31.] AMP
Yahewh/Jehovah, the beginning
and the ending, the first and the last, brought forth the Spirit of Wisdom, who
was the master craftsman, the architect, at the creation of the world Proverbs
8:22-31. Men have no excuse for not believing that our earth was an
intentionally created place. The Holy Spirit wrote the Bible, the Holy Spirit
helps us understand it; the Pneuma Sophia, Pneuma Hagion. What would happen if
we actually understood all the power our Creator has and we understood all that
he is giving us?
Paul thanks Jesus the Christ
and Messiah for strengthening him, he then tells us how he was a blasphemer,
but he received mercy because he did it ignorantly. Paul calls him the “King of
eternity”. We know from Revelation 11 that at that time Jesus will take back
rulership of the world. But while we are on earth, he is now incorruptible, as
he rose from the dead and is now immortal, and also invisible.
1 Tim 1:16-17 But I obtained
mercy for the reason that in me, as the foremost [of sinners], Jesus Christ
might show forth and display all His perfect long-suffering and patience for an
example to [encourage] those who would thereafter believe on Him for [the
gaining of] eternal life. 17 Now to the King of eternity, incorruptible and
immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever (to the
ages of ages). Amen (so be it). AMP
The living creatures give glory
and honor to the Lamb in Revelation 4, and by Revelation 5 everyone is singing
about giving glory and honor to the Lamb. I want to point out something here.
We can sing blessings and honor and glory and power, now, to the unseen God. We
do not have to wait. While the events in Revelation are on a linear time path, really
for the benefit of understanding where we are in time, we can worship Jesus
now. Worship transcends time, it goes over and out of our time domain. Just
like His love transcends our four dimensions, it goes from outside our understandable
realm to inside our known realm. Our worship rises above and goes beyond our
understandable earthly pavilion of dimensions and into other dimensions that we
don’t comprehend. From within our pavilion, our singing voices can be heard
outside the pavilion. Just because he is invisible does not mean he does not
exist. When His love enters into our hearts, we know he exists, we feel him. Remember,
we studied a little about the heart, it has thoughts and intents, and it pumps
blood throughout our bodies. Jesus dwells in our heart if we so choose, and all
our blood is energized by Jesus as it passes through our heart.
The idea of an ever living
everlasting God in the Old Testament was expressed as God existing concealed,
or out of time.
Ps 90:1-4 A Prayer of Moses the
man of God.1 LORD, YOU have been our dwelling place and our refuge in all
generations [says Moses]. 2 Before the mountains were brought forth or ever You
had formed and given birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to
everlasting [5768] You are God. 3 You turn man back to dust and corruption, and
say, Return, O sons of the earthborn [to the earth]! 4 For a thousand years in
Your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. [2
Peter 3:8.] AMP
OT:5768 `owlam (o-lawm'); or
`olam (o-lawm'); from OT:5956; properly, concealed, i.e. the vanishing point;
generally, time out of mind (past or future), i.e. (practically) eternity;
frequentatively, adverbial (especially with prepositional prefix) always: KJV -
alway (-s), ancient (time), any more, continuance, eternal, (for, [n-]) ever
(-lasting, -more, of old), lasting, long (time), (of) old (time), perpetual, at
any time, (beginning of the) world (+without end). Compare OT:5331, OT:5703.
(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded
Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006 Biblesoft, Inc. and
International Bible Translators, Inc.)
The Elohim Adoni is our
dwelling and refuge within the vanishing point that was concealed out of time,
from our understanding. Moses obviously understood that the Creator was from
outside our understanding, but Moses knew God personally, remember he spoke to
I AM face to face. That means that God can manifest into our three dimensions
so that people just like Moses and Abraham could connect with Him. But humans only connect with God on such a
very small scale. God could not show his love for His creation and have humans
experience him without a new contract for humanity. A contract that would last
eternally, forever.
Heb 13:20-21 Now may the God of
peace [Who is the Author and the Giver of peace], Who brought again from among
the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood [that
sealed, ratified] the everlasting agreement (covenant, testament), [Isa 55:3; 63:11;
Ezek 37:26; Zech 9:11.] 21 Strengthen (complete, perfect) and make you what you
ought to be and equip you with everything good that you may carry out His will;
[while He Himself] works in you and accomplishes that which is pleasing in His
sight, through Jesus Christ (the Messiah); to Whom be the glory forever and
ever (to the ages of the ages). Amen (so be it). AMP
Jesus’ blood sealed a covenant
agreement forever. We can’t see forever. We hardly comprehend that there will
be an afterlife for us, it is outside our three dimensions. How is it that time
will continue for us but without the constraints of three dimensions? This
means that if we enter into this covenant that was bought by innocent blood, we
will one day leave our pavilion, and continue to exist. But before this time
Jesus says no man has gone up to heaven.
John 3:13-17 And no man hath
ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man
which is in heaven.14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of man be lifted up:15 That whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life.16 For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn
the world; but that the world through him might be saved. KJV
Jesus came from somewhere
outside our known world to show us a way to share his universal love forever. He
made it simple, if we have faith in him, we will be able to transcend time as
we know it and live forever. We understand this as a rescue, but why? What
happens if we choose to reject his offer? We still live forever but where we
live eternally becomes the question.
John 5:24-25 Verily, verily, I
say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath
everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from
death unto life.25 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now
is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear
shall live. KJV
Passing from death to life, we
know there is a place of condemnation, we also know that Jesus witnessed to the
imprisoned spirits when he spent three days and nights in the grave. Again,
beyond our carnal knowledge, we cannot perceive a life after our earthly life.
But remember, we are to see what is invisible. Enoch explained this to his sons
and explains how God made and divided time.
The Secrets of Enoch LXV.
Of Enoch's instruction of his sons. AND
Enoch answered all his people saying: 'Hear, my children, before that all
creatures were created, the Lord created the visible and invisible things. 2
And as much time as there was and went past, understand that after that he
created man in the likeness of his own form, and put into him eyes to see, and
ears to hear, and heart to reflect, and intellect wherewith to deliberate.3 And
the Lord saw all man's works, and created all his creatures, and divided time,
from time he fixed the years, and from the years he appointed the months, and
from the months he appointed the days, and of days he appointed seven.
First, God made man in His likeness, and gave man a heart
to reflect, and an intellect to deliberate. That gives us a clue. The heart is
where we know things, but the mind is where we rationalize things, either for
or against a subject. If the mind deliberates, it could convince us against the
things that the heart knows. God divided time from time, and years and months
and days. He then divided time further.
LXV:4
And in those he appointed the hours, measured them out exactly, that man might
reflect on time and count years, months, and hours, their alternation,
beginning, and end, and that he might count his own life, from the beginning
until death, and reflect on his sin and write his work bad and good; because no
work is hidden before the Lord, that every man might know his works and never
transgress all his commandments, and keep my handwriting from generation to
generation.
Time was given for reflection and for the writing of our
works, both good and bad. Then, when all creation reaches its end there is the
great white throne judgment, Revelation 20:11. Time divided gives us structure,
we know when to awake, when to sleep, when to eat, all because time is divided.
We know when to plant seeds or when to harvest our crops, or when to get out
our snow boots out and put away our sandals. But time is not a structure
everywhere, only in our world, our pavilion. The laws of time do not exist
everywhere, it only exists in the places we can know by our three dimensions.
Yet our heart knows love, our heart knows God’s power, our heart is our portal
to comprehension of the multidimensionality of our Creator. Our mind is limited
to our four dimensions, where we reside: depth, width, and height, and when we
reside: the year, month, day, hour, minute, and second.
LXV:5
When all creation visible and invisible, as the Lord created it, shall end,
then every man goes to the great judgement, and then all time shall perish, and
the years, and thenceforward there will be neither months nor days nor hours,
they will be stuck together and will not be counted.
This is when time, or what we understand as time (from
point A to point B), ends. There are no more days, weeks, months, or years.
Just one age. We won’t need to predict what season or what year we are in, or
what events might be taking place next as in prophetic revelation. We won’t
need to be watching for the coming Messiah, the Messiah’s call from the clouds,
or the returning Messiah with his armies. We will be with the Messiah
eternally.
LXV:6
There will be one aeon, and all the righteous who shall escape the Lord's great
judgement, shall be collected in the great aeon, for the righteous the great
aeon will begin, and they will live eternally, and then too there will be
amongst them neither labour, nor sickness, nor humiliation, nor anxiety, nor
need, nor violence, nor night, nor darkness, but great light.7 And they shall
have a great indestructible wall, and a paradise bright and incorruptible, for
all corruptible things shall pass away, and there will be eternal life.
Enoch goes on explaining what the Book of Revelation
tells us about the New Heaven and New Earth. The judgment at the end of the
age, after the Day of the Lord, brings all whose works have been found
acceptable into the New Jerusalem. Keep in mind that the redeemed have already
been judged and will inherit the New Heavens. Enoch gives his sons some
guidance.
The Secrets of Enoch LXVI:7 Walk, my children, in
longsuffering, in meekness, honesty, in provocation, in grief, in faith and in
truth, in reliance on promises, in illness, in abuse, in
wounds, in temptation, in nakedness, in privation, loving one another, till you
go out from this age of ills, that you become inheritors of endless time. 8
Blessed are the just who shall escape the great judgement, for they shall shine
forth more than the sun sevenfold, for in this world the seventh part is taken
off from all, light, darkness, food, enjoyment, sorrow, paradise, torture,
fire, frost, and other things; he put all down in writing, that you might read
and understand.'
We are becoming inheritors of endless time, the Holy
Spirit did put it down in writing so that we could understand. Before we start
thinking that time in our world is not important, we have to remember Daniel
was given the exact day that the Messiah would announce himself, which was the
exact day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Jesus held the people of that
time responsible for not knowing the hour of his visitation. Daniel 9, Luke
19:44, ** see also Sir Robert Anderson’s book The Coming Prince**.
Therefore, when God gives us dates we have to pay close attention
because dividing the time correctly has a benefit for us. So why don’t we
understand what is written? Because these things are spiritually discerned. To
understand dimensions beyond ours we need the help of the Breath of Wisdom, the
Pneuma Sophia.
1 Cor 2:12-16 Now we have not received the spirit [that
belongs to] the world, but the [Holy] Spirit Who is from God, [given to us]
that we might realize and comprehend and appreciate the gifts [of divine favor
and blessing so freely and lavishly] bestowed on us by God. 13 And we are
setting these truths forth in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by
the [Holy] Spirit, combining and interpreting spiritual truths with spiritual
language [to those who possess the Holy Spirit]. 14 But the natural,
nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts
and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly
(meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of
progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with
them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated. 15
But the spiritual man tries all things [he examines, investigates, inquires
into, questions, and discerns all things], yet is himself to be put on trial
and judged by no one [he can read the meaning of everything, but no one can
properly discern or appraise or get an insight into him]. 16 For who has known
or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide
and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the mind of Christ (the
Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart. [Isa
40:13.]AMP
We simply can’t know this with our own intellect, we have
to know this is the very place Jesus dwells, in our heart. The Holy Spirit was
sent to teach us after Jesus left. The spiritual man tries, examines,
investigates, and inquires. That means one must have a hunger to know spiritual
matters. Who will help us learn?
2 Cor 13:14 The amazing grace of the Master, Jesus
Christ, the extravagant love of God, the intimate friendship [2842] of the Holy
Spirit, be with all of you. (from THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary
Language © 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved.)
2 Cor 13:14 The grace (favor and spiritual blessing) of
the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the presence and fellowship
[2842] (the communion and sharing together, and participation) in the Holy
Spirit be with you all. Amen (so be it). AMP
NT:2842 koinonia (koy-nohn-ee'-ah); from NT:2844;
partnership, i.e. (literally) participation, or (social) intercourse, or
(pecuniary) benefaction: KJV - (to) communicate (-ation), communion, (contri-)
distribution, fellowship.(Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and
Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003, 2006
Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.)
To understand the realm outside of our earthly pavilion
we need the Holy Spirit to be our partner and friend because the Holy Spirit
exists beyond our domain of time and space. Jesus resides within our heart and
that is where we must look to comprehend everlasting ages, forever. That is how
we see the invisible. Again, the Holy Spirit wrote for us to look at things
unseen, it is impossible to see what is unseen with our physical eyes. Yet with
the eyes of our heart we can see, know, and comprehend. Pursue after the eyes
of the heart and the Holy Spirit.
