I want to take you through a journey through the bible from Genesis to Revelation to see what the bible says about seeing in the Spirit and heavenly encounters. You will begin to see that these things are not reserved for the ultra spiritual, or saints from bible times, but are the bread and butter for new testament believers. The bible is not merely a book full of history, but a book of possibilities. If they experienced it, so can we!

So lets begin.

Genesis 28:12, 16-17 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

In Jesus’ earthly ministry He stated to Phillip that He would see the heavens opened and angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man. (see John 1:51) What was the point? Jesus was saying that He is Jacob’s ladder. What is Jacobs ladder? It is the connection point between two realms, the earth, and heaven. The door, or portal through which heaven invades earth. In another place Jesus said I AM the door, anyone who enters in another way is a thief and robber. Jesus is the access point into the kingdom realms of God. Now with this in mind, where does Christ live? Within us! Therefore because we have Jacobs ladder embedded within our spirit, we can step through that door into the kingdom and experience eternity right here and now! Now before we move on there is another revelation in this passage. Jacob in a state of awe said,  “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” We are the house of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit. And according to this passage, the house of God is the gate of heaven. We are gateways between two realms, a pipeline through which the presence and power of God flows through to manifest in the earth bringing salvation, healing, deliverance, and restoration to the chaos we see all around us.

Numbers 31:27, 31 And when the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with a staff. Then the LORD opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with his sword drawn. So he bowed low and fell facedown.

Now

2 Kings 6:17 And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, LORD, so that he may see.” Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

Isaiah 6:1-4 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon his throne, high and exalted. The train of his robe filled the Temple. The seraphim stood above him. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he was flying. They kept on calling to each other: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of the Heavenly Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!” The foundations of the thresholds quaked at the sound of those who kept calling out, and the Temple was filled with smoke.

Ezekiel 8:1-3 In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I had just sat down in my house, with the elders of Judah seated in front of me. All of a sudden, the hand of the Lord GOD touched me and I saw a likeness comparable to the appearance of a man. From his thighs downward there was the appearance of fire, and from his waist upward, there was the appearance of brightness that looked like brass. The form of a hand reached out and took me by the hair of my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and sky, brought me toward Jerusalem, and in visions that came from God took me through the doors of the inner gate that faced north, where an image that provoked God’s jealous anger had been erected.

Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

Matthew 11:11 Among men born of women none was was greater than John the baptist but he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

John 3:3 Jesus replied to him, “Truly, I tell you emphatically, unless a person is born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 7:37-39 On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and shouted, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink! The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have rivers of living water flowing from his heart.”  Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who were believing in him were to receive, because the Spirit was not yet present and Jesus had not yet been glorified.

John 17:22-24 “I have given them the glory that you gave me, so that they may be one, just as we are one. I am in them, and you are in me. May they be completely one, so that the world may know that you sent me and that you have loved them as you loved me. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am and to see my glory, which you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

Luke 17:21 People won’t be saying, ‘Look! Here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ because now the kingdom of God is within you.”

Romans 8:32 The one who did not spare his own Son, but offered him as a sacrifice for all of us, surely will give us all things, along with his Son, won’t he?

Acts 7:55-56 But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. He said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

1 Corinthians 2:9-12 But as it is written, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined the things that God has prepared for those who love him.” But God has revealed those things to us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God. Is there anyone who can understand his own thoughts except his own inner spirit? In the same way, no one can know the thoughts of God except God’s Spirit. Now, we have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we can understand the things that were freely given to us by God.

1 Corinthians 6:17, 19 But the person who unites himself with the Lord becomes one spirit with him. You know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God, don’t you? You do not belong to yourselves!

2 Corinthians 3:9-10 Now if the ministry of death that was inscribed in letters of stone came with such glory that the people of Israel could not gaze on Moses’ face (because the glory was fading away from it), will not the Spirit’s ministry have even more glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, then the ministry of justification has an overwhelming glory. In fact, that which once had glory is no glory in comparison to the surpassing glory of the new covenant.

2 Corinthians 12:1-2 It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast. For I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ, fourteen years ago (whether in the body, I don’t know, or whether out of the body, I don’t know; God knows), such a one caught up into the third heaven.I know such a man (whether in the body, or outside of the body, I don’t know; God knows), how he was caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Ephesians 1:17-18 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts note enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.

Ephesians 1:23 The church is His body: the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 2:6 And He raised us up together with Him and seated us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:18 For by one Spirit we both have access to the Father.

Ephesians 3:12 In him we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him.

Philippians 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 3:1-3 If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

2 Peter 1:3-4 Seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue, by which he has granted to us his precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.

Hebrews 4:16 Let’s therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace for help in time of need.
Hebrews 10:19-23 Therefore, my brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Holiest place by the blood of Jesus, the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great high priest over the household of God, let us continue to come near with sincere hearts in the full assurance that faith provides, because our hearts have been sprinkled clean from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

Revelation 1:10-20 I came to be in the Spirit on the Day of the Lord, when I heard a loud voice behind me like a trumpet, saying, “Write on a scroll what you see, and send it to the seven churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.” Then I turned to see who was talking to me, and when I turned I saw seven gold lamp stands. Among the lamp stands there was someone like the Son of Man. He was wearing a long robe with a gold sash around his chest. His head and his hair were white like wool, in fact, as white as snow. His eyes were like flames of fire, his feet were like glowing bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of raging waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword. His face was like the sun when it shines with full force. When I saw him, I fell down at his feet like a dead man. But he placed his right hand on me and said, “Stop being afraid! I am the first and the last, the living one. I was dead—but look!—I am alive forever and ever! I have the keys of Death and Hades.

Revelation 3:18 Therefore, I advise you to buy from me gold purified in fire so you may be rich, white clothes to wear so your shameful nakedness won’t show, and ointment to put on your eyes so you may see.

Revelation 4:1-6 After these things, I saw a door standing open in heaven. The first voice that I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after this.” Instantly I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne in heaven with a person seated on the throne. The person sitting there looked like jasper and carnelian, and there was a rainbow around the throne that looked like an emerald. Around the throne were 24 other thrones, and on these thrones sat 24 elders wearing white robes and gold victor’s crowns on their heads. Flashes of lightning, noises, and peals of thunder came from the throne. Burning in front of the throne were seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God. In front of the throne was something like a sea of glass as clear as crystal. In the center of the throne and on each side of the throne were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back.