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PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT SERIES
THE 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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