2 Cor. 12: “2I 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 an one caught up to THE THIRD HEAVEN… 4How that he was caught UP INTO PARADISE, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.”

So If Heaven is the dwelling place of God and we also know that Heaven is God Himself (Deut. 32:40, Heb. 6:13) present everywhere by His Spirit, why did God record for us that there is a third Heaven? Where is the first and second Heaven of God? For you cannot have the third number without the first and second.

Remember that Heaven is real and that is where God dwells.

ARK-THE FIRST HEAVEN OF GOD

WHAT IS THE NATURE OF GOD?

Ans.; “The Lord talked with you face-to-face in the mount out of the midst of fire, …YAHWEH spoke to you from the midst of the fire; You heard the sound of words but SAW NO SHAPE, there was only a voice.” But is it possible that God would really live on earth? Why, even the skies and the Highest heavens cannot contain you, much less this Temple, because GOD IS SPIRIT and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit (your spirit where He dwells, 2 Cor. 13:5; 1 Cor. 14:25) and in truth (reality),” Deut. 5:4, 4:12; 1 Kg 8:27; John 4:24, KJV, JB, TLB, NCV.

From the above Scriptures, we discovered that God has no shape or form and that He is Spirit, therefore to imagine what God looks like and even go to the extent of describing His shape is idolatry of the highest order.

Hence the Word of God said, “…before me, there was no GOD FORMED,” – Isa. 43:10. That is, He has never had a shape or form from eternity until He assumed a shape in Christ Jesus, who being in the FORM OF GOD – In order to reveal the spirit God to man. Phil. 2:6; John 1:18.

And so, it means He can take any shape that He wants .

And so when we read, “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters,” Gen. 1:2, it is simply prophetic of God revealing Himself to humanity. “For the waters which thou sawest, where the whore (mystery Babylon) sitteth are PEOPLES AND MULTITUDES AND NATIONS AND TONGUES,” Rev. 17:1, 15. Compare Jer. 51:13, Ps. 124:2-7.

In other words, the intelligence of man (face of the intelligent) was enlightened (Humanity) by God’s Spirit. So when he said, “let there be light,” Gen. 1:3a, He meant that man receives His life which is the light-Christ; hence we see that this life which was from the beginning has become the LIGHT OF MEN. See John 1:1-4; Deut. 30:20.

This is because Christ in Jesus is the Light (Life) of the world (Humanity), John 9:5, 8:12. So we see that God is Spirit from eternity and He is self existence.

How did God start pulling man to Himself?

Listen, “And the LORD spake unto Moses saying: Speak unto the children of Israel (Grandchildren to Abraham) …And let them MAKE ME A SANCTUARY; THAT I MAY DWELL AMONG THEM, according to all that I shew thee …And they shall make AN ARK of shittim wood,” Exo. 25:1-2, 8a, 9-10a. The above quotation tells us clearly how God desired to dwell among His people in a more tangible form, for the ARK was the sign of God’s presence.

“And I will meet you there (The Ark) and talk with you from above the mercy seat between the cherubim …There I will tell you my commandments for the people of Israel. Exo. 25:22_TLB.

1 Sam. 4:4 “And the tabernacle that housed the Ark was the dwelling place of God which accompany the people on their journey, Exo. 25:9, 40:34; 2 Sam. 7:6, until at last the Temple of Jerusalem become God’s house (dwelling), 1 Kg. 8:10.

Therefore the ARK WAS THE FIRST PLACE THAT GOD DWELT TANGIBLY AMONG HIS PEOPLE in order to draw faith to himself only because the natural man loves to walk by sight (senses).

This is one of the reasons man in religious gab is still waiting for a Jesus to come from the SKY to rekindle their dead faith forgetting that Christ is now Spirit, 2 Cor. 5:16; Acts 2:36.

Again, the Ark with the laws was only necessary because the children of Israel had lost their sense of spiritual worship while in Egypt as slaves.

Therefore, they could not walk in the covenant of God made with father Abraham (Gen. 15:8-18, 17:19-21) who never kept the laws, neither did Isaac nor Jacob.

“For the LORD made not this covenant with our Fathers, BUT WITH US EVEN US, who are all of us here (Mt. Sinai premises) alive this day,” Deut. 5:3; Exo. 31:13-17.

Even these laws, they still could not keep, Ps. 78:10; 2 Kg. 17:19-21, hence the new covenant with the laws (God’s life) in our hearts, Heb. 8:10-11.

This is true because we can see that before the Ark, God was worshipped wherever he specially manifested His presence by means of a theophany. Gen. 12:7.

“AND the LORD appeared unto Abraham …and there builded he an altar unto the LORD.” See Gen. 28:12-19, etc.

The greatest of this manifestation was at Mt. Sinai; hence we say that God dwells and comes from Mt. Sinai, Exo. 3:1; 1 Kg.19:8; Deut. 33:2; Hab. 3:3; Ps. 68:8.

Now we know that wherever God dwells and manifests Himself is his Heaven. The Ark of the Covenant was (is) therefore the first Heaven of God, for God was present there. Mind you, this is in tangible, physical form.

To be continued…