2 Corinthians 12:1–6:

“It is necessary to go on boasting, though it is not profitable. I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ, who fourteen years ago—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—was caught up to the third heaven. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows—was caught up into paradise and heard things too sacred to be put into words, things that a person is not permitted to speak. On behalf of such an individual I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except about my weaknesses. For even if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be telling the truth. But I refrain from this, so that no one may regard me beyond what he sees in me or what he hears from me.”

This is day two of focusing on this passage. I’m going to be focusing on verse 2.

He said, “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—was caught up to the third heaven.”

So, in the concept of the “third heaven,” we may relate it to the fact that the first heaven is the sky you see above you. The second heaven consists of whatever you cannot see above you now, but you know, maybe through a telescope, people see it. The third heaven is now the place of God. In this passage, he said, “caught up to paradise,” where God is. And he said he heard some things. It is almost like he was eavesdropping on what is going on there.

But I want to draw your attention to something in this verse. He said, “whether in the body or out of the body I do not know.”

So Paul is saying, “I do not know everything, even though God knows everything.” Paul does not assume that because God knows everything, he has to know everything. God is not under obligation to tell you everything, to give you any information, or to reveal everything to you. And we are seeing here that some things are just God’s prerogative.

When the disciples told Jesus, in Acts 1, “Lord, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has set by His own authority” (Acts 1:6–7). Those timings are what God has reserved for Himself.

So it does not matter that one person says, “I want to fast, fast, fast. I’m going to pray…” Revelation from God is God’s prerogative. That is the truth. It is God’s prerogative. And here we are seeing a delineation. Of course, we think this is Paul talking about himself, so I am going to say it like this: Paul said he was caught up to the third heaven. And he is not trying to give us a lecture here, trying to tell you, “This is exactly what it means. This is what I did to be caught up. Therefore, if you do it, you also have the potential of being caught up.” No.

It is not a method. It is not a style. It is not a formula.

When John wrote, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day” (Revelation 1:10), it does not mean you should clap, clap, clap, then you will be “in the Spirit” and go into a trance. Or you dance and clap until you go into a state of delirium or lose consciousness or one spirit will now “take over” from you. Remember, not all spirits are from God.

That is why, as I mentioned yesterday, Paul said “visions and revelations from the Lord.” And I am saying it hints that some visions and revelations may not be from the Lord, and that we need to be careful.

But this verse is telling us that he was caught up to the third heaven.

When you look at Philip, he had a conversation with the Ethiopian eunuch, and after that he was immediately taken away—“the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away” (Acts 8:39–40). So he was bodily moved from one place to another. You can see he was “caught up,” but not to heaven—caught away from one location to another. We do not see that happening again in the rest of the Bible.

So you cannot get yourself a book that tells you about spiritual experiences, and people tell you stories of how “I was caught up to this place and I saw these things.” We need to not do that. We need to not be entrapped, because we can then begin to have our minds corrupted away from the truth of God’s word.

“The person said, ‘I saw, I saw, I saw. I saw Jesus. I climbed on the back of a lion that is Jesus. I saw…’” Let us be watchful. Paul wrote about some people who go on and on about what they have supposedly seen (Colossians 2:18); that becomes their MO.

And I just wanted to draw attention to this verse in which Paul is saying, “I do not know. I do not know. I cannot come to any conclusion in this matter.”

Can we do that? Can we be humble enough to say, “I do not know,” to say, “I am not sure,” to say, “The details are not there for me to come to this conclusion”? And accept that that is the way God has allowed it to be—for now.

God bless you. See you later.