The first time I ever tried to ‘go’ into the heavens I was driving in my car on an hours-long trip, talking on my cell phone with a friend named Ben. We were talking about the idea of freely accessing the heavenly realm, and I was the only person I knew until that conversation who believed that was possible. Turns out that the things I had been pondering were things he had recently begun to experience too, and it was a confirmation to me.

In weeks past I had been thinking about things like “We are seated in heavenly places in Christ” and “we are blessed with every spiritual blessing IN heavenly places” and ‘come boldly before the throne of grace’. They all suggest that there is an experience to be had that goes along with this concept of ‘in the spirit’. And if there is an experience, and it’s something God has for us, then I’d like to experience it myself.

Ben told me about the first time he ever went to heaven in the spirit, and what he saw. And when he went the first time, a friend walked him through what he saw in a particular place he had been to in heaven. Ben started out by just imagining the things his friend was telling him about. If the friend said there was a tree to his right, he’d imagine that. Then he started to see what else he could see, and started actually interacting with the imaginary experience, and it basically had stopped being just imagination and had transitioned into the actual place in heaven the friend was describing.

Right there on the phone he started telling me about it and I started seeing it in my head, sort of like I was imagining it too, but it was almost the same as if I was having a vision too (to me they’re a lot alike — vision and imagination). He was telling me about it and told me to try it later when I wasn’t driving, but I realized that I was actually doing it then while we were on the phone. I’ve been back to that place multiple times since then, and one time I ended up on a horse that took me to a city where I had an encounter with Jesus that brought some inner healing to me related to my sexuality. I am happy to share that with you later if you want to hear about it.

But that’s how I got started my first time ever. Since then, I have had other experiences that have had me places in heaven, and sometimes I might choose to go back to a location I remember just because I can. When I ‘go back’, it’s much like how I went the first time. I start remembering and imagining what it was like, with the intent that I’m going to actually BE there. As I do that, I begin to experience it in my mind/imagination once more,

As for how you can practice it — have you ever had an experience or a vision that you felt like took place somewhere in heaven? If you have, you can just remember and re-imagine that experience, and you’re basically going to re-enter that place in the spirit just by wanting and imagining. And from there, what you do in that place is up to you. You might see if you can meet an angel or just ask God to do something and see what happens, or walk around and see what else you see nearby that place. For the longest time we have had this belief in religion that spiritual things had to be hard to attain–whereas Jesus said that his yoke was easy and his burden was light. I encourage you to try heaven-travel on your own, in a quiet space if possible, and see what you might discover. Heaven is much closer than you think.

If you would like to read more about traveling in the spirit, pick up a copy of my book The Beginner’s Guide to Traveling in the Spirit, available on Amazon.com in both print and Kindle.