"It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord."

                                   2 Corinthians 12:1

       Paul walked in an absolute assurance that he would experience both visions and revelations of the Lord.  This shouldn't surprise us.  After all, Jesus himself told Peter, "Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven" (Matt.16:17).  Then he proceeded to say, "...and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). 

        This was God's method of building his church.  According to Ephesians chapter three, Paul states: "How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery: (as I wrote afore in few words; whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ,) which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit" (Eph. 3:3-5).  Everything that pertains to our redemption in Christ came by revelation.  That is one of the blessings afforded us in Christ.  Not only did God reveal the secrets of his mystery to his apostles and prophets, but he continues today building his church upon the power of revelation knowledge.

        I love Paul's assertiveness in expecting to see and know things by the Holy Spirit.  But actually, if you think about it, this was not just some unique privilege belonging only to Paul or even that it was some special, exclusive invitation offered only to him.  We all have the privilege of being taught by the Holy Spirit truths that do not come to us through our senses, but by the revelation of the Spirit of God.

One of the great works attributed to the Holy Spirit, as part of his mission in the church, is to provide us with what we call the gifts of the Spirit or manifestations of the Spirit.  Among the nine listed in First Corinthians chapter twelve, three of them are what we call revelation gifts: the Word of wisdom, the Word of knowledge, and Discerning of Spirits (1 Cor. 12:7-10).  It was by means of these manifestations that most of the writings of the New Testament came into existence.

When Paul talked about his own self having visions and revelations of the Lord, he recalls his own experience, saying: "I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such a one caught up to the third heaven" (2 Cor. 12:2).  Paul is speaking about a man in Christ who was caught up in the Spirit, and by the Spirit, to the third heaven where we are positioned as believers (Eph. 2:6).  I find it very interesting that when we speak of the rapture of the church, that it is also referred to as a catching up (1 Thess. 4:17).  There is a day coming when the entire body of Christ is going to be caught up to be with the Lord. But what we need to realize is that as believers, we have the opportunity to experience a catching up into the Spirit to see and know things from a position of an ascended life in Christ.

In writing to the church of Colosse, Paul says: "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth" (Col. 3:1-2).  We as believers have an awesome privilege given to us in Christ.  When we put on the new man and choose to live out of this new man, who Paul calls "a man in Christ," we can experience things that exist in that spiritual realm that can appear just as real to us as natural things.  It is called living an ascended life.  It is where we get caught up in the things of God and see and know things by the Holy Spirit that are beyond our natural understanding.

This is the life that God wants us to live.  We can have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him so that the eyes of our understanding are enlightened (Eph. 1:17, 18).  I like to think of it this way:  When I practice a life of ascending up in the Spirit, really what I am doing is getting myself prepared for the Great Ascension - when we are all caught up together to meet the Lord in the air!