How Intercessory Prayer Gives Access into the Spirit Realm

On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet (Revelation 1:10 NIV).

“On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit. . .”

I don’t think it was an accident that John gives us this significant detail. The Passion paraphrase says it like this: “I was in the Spirit realm on the Lord’s Day” (Rev. 1:10 TPT, emphasis added). The natural tendency of the flesh when we are going through trials or tough situations is to pull away from God and attempt to cope with things on our own, in our own strength. Some even get angry at God for allowing their trials to come. Others think they’ve done something wrong or doubt their faith. Never mind that Jesus Himself said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”[1] Some of God’s choice servants with the most faith experienced deep trials and tribulation. Just read the second half of Hebrews Chapter 11, the great Hall of Faith. Despite his grueling circumstances, John made a deliberate choice to keep his eyes focused and his heart postured toward God. A model for us all, he didn’t blame God or pull away in his difficult circumstance. Instead, he pressed in closer through worship and prayer.

It’s quite possible to be in a prison of circumstance and be in the Spirit at the same time. At the time John was suffering on Patmos, isolated in that cave, he was also in the Spirit. Think about that. That means God was fully present in the midst of his pain and difficulties, and He is fully present in ours. Surely John felt the silence of God for days and possibly months before his breakthrough. Often the silence of God is loud, but we can press in and break through the silence. A more literal translation of Revelation 1:10 is “. . . I came to be in the Spirit.”[2] John was no longer simply thinking about God or even talking to God, he was being drawn into more of Him, becoming one with Him. A merging was taking place that continued until a bursting forth of the Spirit. John “came to be in the Spirit.” Only when we concentrate and fully focus will we engage in the power of prayer. Prayer is more than petitioning God for things and for deliverance from difficult situations. It is drawing near to Him and coming into His awareness. “If we draw near to God,” James wrote, “He will draw near to us.”[3] What an incredible promise.

Like a loving parent sitting on a sofa who scoots closer to embrace their child who has crawled up to be close to them, God responds to our crawling up to Him by shifting closer to us and embracing us. As much as we want an encounter with God, He wants an encounter with us.

Paul wrote to the church in Ephesians, “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in heavenly places.”[4] This was not a message to the church solely to tell us where we go when we die. It was also a positional reality in the Spirit realm that is available to us now. Paul sent this letter to the church at Ephesus, one of the seven churches that the apostle John oversaw.

When John prayed with great fervor, he unlocked a door and found himself in another realm on visible display. The dullness of his surroundings dissipated, and the spectacular realities of another dimension became fully alive before him. Paul also stated in Romans, “You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.”[5]

Of course, God is sovereign and that is something we must understand. He knows all things and is working all things together for His purposes. He had John chosen from the beginning to write the Revelation of Jesus. He knew John would be in that cave on Patmos drawing near. God knew John would be in a position to receive. We work together with God in partnership. The Bible clearly teaches that God is in control, that He predestined us, and that He knows beforehand what we are going to do. The Bible also clearly teaches that we have free will and must choose by faith to believe and act in obedience. It is a mystery that we will understand fully in eternity. For now, according to Hebrews, “He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”[6] The implication is clear. If we don’t diligently seek Him, we don’t get the reward. But what is the reward? It’s many things, but first and foremost, the reward is Himself, His manifest presence. Regarding this passage, nineteenth- century Scottish theologian Alexander MacLaren said, “The best reward of seeking is to find the thing that you are looking for. So, the best reward that God, the Rewarder, gives is when He gives Himself.”[7]

John did not receive what he wrote in Revelation by sitting around on a Sunday with nothing to do, waiting for something interesting to happen. He was praying. Drawing near. Diligently seeking God. He was putting himself in a posture to receive. He “came to be in the Spirit.” John already had the Holy Spirit inside him, but “in the Spirit” is a greater manifestation. Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown wrote in their 1882 commentary on this verse:

In the Spirit—in a state of ecstasy; the outer world being shut out, and the inner and higher life or spirit being taken full possession of by God’s Spirit, so that an immediate connection with the invisible world is established. While the prophet “speaks” in the Spirit, the apocalyptic seer is in the Spirit in his whole person. The spirit only (that which connects us with God and the invisible world) is active, or rather recipient, in the apocalyptic state. With Christ this being “in the Spirit” was not the exception, but His continual state.[8]

John was experiencing this manifestation of the Spirit smackdab in the middle of his suffering, great pain, and great joy. Prayer like this combines the experiences of being on Patmos and being in the Spirit. This kind of revelation comes only to the person who prays. Sometimes God does His greatest works when we are in prison. John’s story on Patmos reminds me of John Bunyan, the author of the classic allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress. With over 250 million copies sold, it is the most read book outside of the Bible.[9] Millions have been drawn closer to Jesus and received comfort and salvation because of this book. In 1661, Bunyan was thrown into prison for preaching the gospel and holding church services. He remained imprisoned for twelve years. Think of it...twelve years. Bunyan was a prayer warrior and spent the time in his cell reading and praying, drawing near to God. God became his closest companion in that prison. He had two books during that time: the Holy Bible and a copy of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Then one night he had a supernatural breakthrough into the Spirit realm in the form of a divine dream that set the idea of The Pilgrim’s Progress into motion. From there his prison cell became the place where he could write undistracted. He penned the epic Pilgrim’s Progress along with a couple other books. John Bunyan said, “Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the soul to God.” Undoubtedly, this is what John was doing in the cave on the Lord’s Day and had been doing every day.

When you arrive at this place called “in the Spirit,” you are more conscious of spiritual things than you are of natural things. Jesus gave us a glimpse when He transfigured before Peter, James, and John, reflecting images of a greater reality. He hinted at this reality when He announced that His kingdom was at hand. He told them to repent, which means to change the way you think so that you may grasp what is right in front of you. In essence, Jesus was declaring to them that His kingdom was within their reach. He declared. On Patmos, John understood this and had to pray himself beyond his limitations and the distraction of his physical pain.

It’s interesting that he found himself in the Spirit “on the Lord’s Day” and not on the Sabbath day. The Sabbath was never referred to as the Lord’s Day. Had John meant that, he would have said he was in the Spirit on the Sabbath day. Theologians differ as to where this term “the Lord’s Day” originated, but the general consensus is that Jesus was resurrected on the first day of the week, which we know is a Sunday. Almost all commentaries agree. The Pulpit Commentary says, “There can be little doubt but that ‘the first day of the week,’ the Christian Sunday, is meant.”[10] Jesus was arrested on a Thursday, crucified on a Friday morning, and placed in the tomb early that evening. There was no activity on that following Saturday, as all Jewish people were observing the Sabbath. Not until the first day of the week, Sunday, do we see things begin to move. The women went to the tomb to anoint His body and found the stone rolled away. Instead of finding the body of Jesus, they discovered an empty tomb and an angel who announced, “He has risen!”[11] Because He was resurrected on a Sunday, the first day of the week, that day would eventually become known as the Lord’s Day. Every Sunday following would then be recognized as the same, but that first Easter morning is where it began. Some even suggest that John could have had his encounter on an Easter Sunday. If this is indeed the case, the deeper layers of understanding reveal an even greater declaration, as John announced that he was in the Spirit realm, on the anniversary of our resurrected Lord, the Lord’s Day.” This is the day that John’s seven congregations gathered together to worship and pray. John does not know how they are managing life in these churches, and he of course is concerned. And it’s on behalf of these seven churches that Jesus reveals Himself, giving specific instruction to each one.

So, the praying pastor, the intense and passionate intercessor, presses into the Spirit realm and is given vision and understanding that transform the tortured exile into a most energetic prophet. Visions, if they are truly visions, make things happen. John the exiled is now John the empowered because of the vision. From Patmos he ascends into the realm of the Spirit and is given a vision of Christ. He returns to the cave as a pastor with power. Rome tried to shut him up, no longer to be seen or heard, but the Spirit lifted him up and filled his eyes with visions and his mouth with encouraging words that have given direction to churches ever since.

Notes

1. John 16:33 NIV

2. https://www.quotescosmos.com/bible/bible-verses/Revelation-1-10.html

3. James 4:8 (my paraphrase)

4. Ephesians 2:6 NIV

5. Romans 8:9 NIV, emphasis added

6. Hebrews 11:6 NKJV

7. Expositions of Holy Scripture, Alexander MacLaren, https://biblehub.com/com-mentaries/maclaren/hebrews/11.htm

8. A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments by Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

9. https://www.thetrails.org/blog/post/pilgrims-progress

10. The Pulpit Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright © 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2010 by Biblesoft, Inc.

11. Matthew 28:1–15; Luke 24:1–12; John 20:1–10