Imrah Ministries

By Robert Pennington
(Speaking about the priests) “They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven.”

Hebrews 8:5

While I was reading through Hebrews this verse really stuck out to me. I stopped and asked myself, “How is a shadow different from the object it is portraying?” To find out the differences I thought about a building’s shadow, seeing as that is what the verse is talking about. Think about it, what are the differences between the shadow of a building and the actual building itself?

• The shape can be distorted from the actual building.
• The beauty of the building cannot be displayed in a shadow.
• The contents of the building remain unknown by looking at a shadow.
• The dimensions of the building are lost in the two dimensional shadow.

Basically, if you were to look at the shadow of something, you wouldn’t have a clue as to what the real thing looks like other than the basic outline of the object. So, what does the heavenly temple look like? Personally, I can’t imagine, and with good reason, because in Luke chapter twenty-one it stated, “Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God.” And historians have stated that the Jerusalem temple, built by Caesar, was so magnificent that even the Romans that went there were astounded with its beauty. So if that remarkable and amazing building was just a shadow, how can we possibly even imagine what the Heavenly Temple looks like, seeing as that one was built with stones and human hands and the heavenly one is being built with men and women of God (1 Peter 2:4-5)?!

I don’t know about you, but all I can do is praise Him, HALLELU YAH!

1 Peter 2:6

“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

By Sidharth Mohandas

More than one heaven

Genesis 1: 1 says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

The Hebrew word used here for “heaven” in the above verse is “shamayim” which is in its plural. In Hebrew when a word ends with “Im” it implies it’s in the plural.

In 2 Chronicles 2: 6, Solomon says, “…Since the heavens, even the highest of heavens cannot contain Him.” The Hebrew for “highest of heavens” here is literally “heaven of heavens”, which again clearly implies that there is more than one heaven.

Paul says that he was caught up into the “third heaven” [2 Corinthians 12: 2-4]. Paul calls this place as Paradise [Paradeisos, the Greek for Paradise simply means “Garden”.] , which we know as the place of departed souls. [Read Luke 16].

Logically, if there is a third heaven, there have to be a first and a second heaven too.

Ephesians 4: 10 says, “…ascended higher than all the heavens”. The word “all” can be used only for 3 or more. For example, it would be wrong to say “all my parents”. This again proves that there are at least 3 heavens.

The war in heaven…

But what are these three heavens? The first heaven is obviously the visible one including the universe and all within it – sun, star, moon, planets etc. The third heaven according to Paul is the direct Presence of God.

What then is the second heaven? It is obviously an intermediate between the first and the third. I personally believe this is the heaven where Satan has access and where spiritual warfare happens.

When Paul says in Ephesians 6:12 that our struggle is against principalities and powers in the heavenly places, I believe Paul is speaking about the intermediate heaven.

In the book of Revelations, there are 3 references to a place called “mid-heaven”. This is mostly translated as “midst of the heaven” or “mid air”, but the Greek word “mesour anema” that is used for it, literally means the middle heaven.

And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven [middle heaven], saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!” [Rev 8: 13]

Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven [middle heaven], having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people… [Rev 14: 6]

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven [middle heaven], “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God…” [Rev 19: 17]

In all these three places, I noticed 2 interesting things:
(1) Only angelic beings occupy this place.
(2) These angels in all these three references are doing one thing: proclamation.

From the book of Daniel we see satan’s angel at work in hindering God’s angel. Again I believe this happened in the mid-heaven.

Now you may know that the Greek word for angel is angelo and it means “messengers”. A messenger is a person who carries a message. I come to believe from the title and from the above three verses that the weapons of warfare are proclamation of God’s message.

What we proclaim here on earth is what is proclaimed in the mid-heaven and this is what decides victory in our circumstances and the problems we face here on earth. Whatsoever we bind on earth is bound in heaven, and whatsoever we loose on earth is loosed in heaven. [Matthew 16:18]

Satan in heaven…

Scripture tells us that satan was thrown out of heaven when he sinned against God. However, in Job 1:6-7 we find satan in heaven. How is this possible? I believe satan does not have access to the direct Presence of God [the third heaven/Paradise], but he has been permitted access to the middle-heaven, where the angels assemble. What does Satan do in the mid-heaven? He does exactly what he did during Jobs time- accuse us before the Judge.

Revelation 12:10 calls him the “accuser of the brethren”. But Revelation 12:10 tells us a time in future when Satan will be hurled down even from the mid-heaven. But notice again, his weapons against us are “words of accusations”. And according to Revelation 12:11, our weapon is our word of testimony about what the blood of Christ has done for us.