 When we look at the Bible and we start looking at the three heavens and there are three heavens as a first second third heaven The Bible goes into a little bit of detail about them It's some interesting points that come out about it And so let's go ahead and jump into it the first time that we even see the word have been or have been Which is important is in the beginning in the beginning the Bible says the God the God created the heavens and the earth Well, the word for heavens is the word ha shamaim, which is the ha shamaim Shamaim is the word for heavens. It is derived from the word water, which is maim. So maim water Shamaim heavens, and of course these are both plural words And so it indicates that there are at least three. Why do I say that? Because in Hebrew there are three ways to number one the singular Second the dual those two are explained and self-explanatory The third one is the plural where you have the aim sound the yadmim Where you have a plurality three or more and so in this case We have the word shamaim or or ha shamaim, which is the heavens And so I want to go to Genesis 2 and let's look up when they were actually created in Genesis 1 6 God said let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and here we have this word for water shamaim And here we have the word for waters Maim and he says and let it separate the waters from the water So what God is doing is God is taking the waters that's there on the earth Remember in the very beginning the earth whole earth was covered with water It was formless and void, but there was just water The Holy Spirit was hovering over the deep over the waters And so what God does he takes the waters and he begins to separate them And which we can see what we now come to understand and see as the atmosphere Let's go back to what he says that verse 7 and God made the expanse and separated The waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse And it was so and God called the expanse heaven and there's that word heaven What we see the word shamaim remember the word water is maim and the word for heaven is shamaim And so God called this separation Heavens and so understand we've got water not just the physical water. We've got this this expanse We've got this waters that we call our atmosphere and then above that this other Level we call outer space. And so those are the first two Layers of heaven or the first two heavens And so to kind of even get another understanding another scripture to kind of go along with this If we look at genesis chapter 6 verse 7 forgetting the context of just how the word is used here in 7 He says so the Lord said I will blot out man Whom I have created on the face of the land man And animals and creeping things and birds of the here's that word heaven is the word That is the birds of the sky For I am sorry that I have made them and so this word for heavens This one indicates the first heaven, which is the sky But then the bible also talks about this second heaven as well And there are more scriptures other than the ones that i'm just pulling up But just to give you an idea the second heaven that's pulled that's that's covered in the scriptures is in deuteronomy 419 where he says and beware lest you raise your eye to heaven And when you see the sun and the moon and the stars all the hopes of heaven Will be drawn away and bowed down to them now the whole point here is The heavens that he's speaking of the hosts of heavens is speaking of that's the same word again Hashem A'im is the second heaven our space where we have the sun the moon stars and other celestial bodies and so forth And so now we've got the first heaven the second heaven most folks can understand that then we've got This third heaven the abode of God we see that in Psalm 148 I'm sorry. Yeah 148 4 he says praise him You highest heavens and you waters above the heavens And so the highest heaven you highest heaven This is referring to the same word that's used though Hashem A'im the same word this is referring to the third heaven now There are passages in the bible that refer to the third heaven as well as a matter of fact The bible paul tells us if we didn't if this was enough paul lets us know that there is a third heaven Why do we say that because paul in 2nd corinthians chapter 12 says that he went to the third heaven Let's go to it. He says first two for I know a man in christ who 14 years ago Was caught up to the third heaven now the word heaven here in the greek is the word orano, which is oranas Which is the word for heaven interestingly enough it is also used for the word sky just like the hebrae word and so It can be used to mention the third one or the first two in this case paul Literally mentions the third heaven now He doesn't say if he went in in bodily form or in a vision But the point is he mentions a third heaven now There's something interesting to note about the heavens all three of them Obviously mankind lives in the first heaven this atmosphere that we breathe in with this air this oxygen But then We also have seen some men who have traveled to the second heaven Interestingly enough science has verified that there is trace amounts of Water in the atmosphere obviously in or in the heavens in outer space not enough to at least just normally sustain life Not like we have here in this the first heaven, but that's interesting enough to note but the third heaven Jesus makes a statement that we don't think about really until he makes a statement He says in john chapter 3. He states that verse 12 He says I have told you earthly things and you do not believe how then Can you believe if I tell you heavenly things and look what he says? No one has ascended into heaven No one has ascended and by the way It is the definite article. So no one has it has ascended into the heaven So he's speaking literally of the third heaven. No one has ascended into the heaven or into heaven Except he says he who descended from heaven that is a son of man So obviously we only know of one person that is descended from heaven Which is jesus, but he makes a statement that no one has ascended into the heaven. No one has ascended into heaven But wait a second What about inak? What about elisha? Well, again Since we're using the word For heaven that's also used of sky Then it could probably make sense that they weren't taken into heaven. Jesus was not incorrect Jesus is simply stating that only he has gone as for elisha and inak Let's go to second kings and let's look at it second kings have a two verse one It says now when the lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven and the word that's used here is the plural Hashem ayin He's taken up in the heaven by world when elisha and elisha were on their way So the point is that here we see elisha taking up the same thing with inak The bible says that inak walked with god But it just simply means that he was taken away as a matter of fact Let's go and look at the at herews chapter 11 verse 5 He says that by faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death And he was not found because god had taken him and the word used for taken Just simply means that he is no longer Or he has been removed and so enoch was taken But it never indicates that he was taken into the third heaven Nor does it ever indicate that elisha was taken into the third heaven And further validation of that is that jesus makes a statement that no one Has ascended now after jesus's death there on resurrection and then his ultimate ascension Now we've got people who have gone there, but they didn't proceed jesus and so kind of interesting and so one very important fact To note about heaven notice that by faith Enoch please god now. Where's he not now? He's certainly in the third heaven. Where are the other people who by faith have pleased god? They are in the third heaven. You cannot make it to the third heaven even though we kind of speak metaphorically God has to speak to us kind of in his anthropomorphic language Which is he speaks to us in the ways that we can understand it And so he might use figures of speech and so we talk about looking up to heaven We're just saying kind of metaphorically looking up to god even though no matter how how you go I don't care how great the rocket ship is how much fuel you have you'll never go high enough far enough long enough To reach heaven there is one way to get there though and that is by faith placing your faith in what christ has done Who came down from heaven? Died on the cross then after his death prayer resurrection ascended back into heaven And then as made it possible for the rest of us to go there How by faith and so if you ever want to go to the third heaven The only way to get there is not by a long walk not by a ship Only by faith Amen