Category: Biblical History

Dr Hollisa Alewine – Footsteps of Messiah Part 169 (The Second Story and the Third Heaven Part A)

Dr Hollisa Alewine – Footsteps of Messiah Part 169 (The Second Story and the Third Heaven Part A)

by | Nov 9, 2025 | , , , , | 0 |

The Second Story and the Third Heaven
This week I’d like to visit the architecture of resurrection. Yes, such a thing is possible! Scripture gives us several examples from literal buildings. Last week’s newsletter gave a hint with the resurrection patterns in the homes of the women who extended hospitality to Elijah and Elisha. There are even more examples than that.
 
Just to review, the last several newsletters have investigated the Torah’s ancient call to hospitality, not just a a nice thing to do, but as a vital preparation to inherit the Kingdom. Our hospitality study trail through the Torah, Prophets, Writings, and New Covenant started with Song of Songs 5:1, a restoration of the Bride and Bridegroom to the Garden of Eden:
 
• “I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh along with my balsam.I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk. Eat, friends; drink and imbibe deeply, O lovers.”
 
Elijah in 1 Kings 17:9 protected the widow and her son during the famine. Because she used the last of her flour and oil to feed the prophet of YHVH, she never lacked during the tribulation. She also hospitably gave him an upper room in which to dwell during the famine. In return, her son was resurrected from the dead in that upper room. Because she ministered to the man of God during an apocalyptic famine, she received multiplied miracles of nourishment and resurrection. 
 
And in Elisha’s “double portion” fashion, he performs two resurrections for the hospitality of the upper room. First, the barren Shunnemite woman is rewarded with a son, and then later the son is resurrected from the dead:
 
• “Now there came a day when Elisha passed over to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman, and she persuaded him to eat food. And so it was, as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat food. She said to her husband, “Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God passing by us continually. Please, let us make a little walled upper chamber and let us set a bed for him there, and a table and a chair and a lampstand; and it shall be, when he comes to us, that he can turn in there.” (2 Ki 4:8-10)
 
The Shunemmite furnished her upper room with the furniture of the Mishkan. She made a little House for the Presence to dwell over the daily activities of her lower rooms. Elisha, a righteous visitor, was the stand-in for the very resurrecting Presence of Adonai.
 
The upper room is the highest room of our home, a set apart place, yet attached to the rest of the home. What we furnish in the upper room blesses the rest of the home…or not. It can be where heaven meets earth…or not. When the Shunnemite woman constructed an upper room, imagine it as a third story built atop their own living quarters in the second story. Not a brand-new building, but one atop the existing one.
 
Although now more symbolic because its examples are drawn from building construction in ancient times, today we still have upper rooms, those spaces we make to host the righteous believers who will accept our invitations. The visitor becomes the presence of Yeshua in our homes, especially during Shabbat.
 
During the Iron Age (1000–586 BCE; the First Temple Period), the “four-room house” dominated Israelite architecture. The four-room house with pillars was widespread already, but it often had more or less than four rooms. The majority of houses only had three rooms, but could also five or more. The house had long rooms and a transverse broad room in the back, which could be partitioned by walls or columns.
 
The ground level housed valuable livestock and had a working area for storage, weaving, food preparation, or other working tasks. The second level had the living quarters. A rooftop had an area for drying certain products, such as flax or fruits, and it was used as sleeping quarters in the intense heat of the summer for the cool breeze.
 
Below are photos of the four-room house located at the Tamar Fortress. Its size suggests it belonged to a prominent administrator, and it is incredible that its stones were not repurposed for construction under the rule of other empires such as Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, or even the Byzantine. It is a very clean view into the early Israelite construction, characterized by undressed stones. Undressed stones are fitted into the wall or building in their natural shape, while later dressed stones are hewn into uniform blocks.
The Upper Room pattern continues into the Newer Covenant. Yeshua affirms this by directing his disciples to follow a man with a water pitcher to an upper room where the host will have prepared a place for them to eat the Passover together. The experience is profound for the disciples, especially the foot-washing. He re-establishes the heavenly “Upper Room” hospitality pattern for their future Kingdom work:
 
• “When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.” (Ac 1:13-14)
 
And it leads to the selection of another disciple (Ps 109:8) to take Judas’ place, for he had been one to receive his “portion,” or blessing from Yeshua’s ministry, like an inheritance for his position:
 
• “For he was counted among us and received his share in this ministry…” (v 17) …Therefore, it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us— beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.” (Ac 1:21-22)
 
The Land of Israel is something inherited at the resurrection. It is more than just a physical piece of property! It is set apart from the inheritance of the nations.
 
Each of the twelve disciples received his share of the hospitable donations of food, drink, or money while they ministered with Yeshua, and in the Kingdom, they would also receive an eternal inheritance for their work. It was vital that Judas’ replacement was an eyewitness to Yeshua’s resurrection, for resurrection is what anchors our second story to the third story. What happened in the physical ministry on earth was anchored to the Third Heaven, also called Paradise or the Garden of Eden.
 
Another upper room resurrection:
 
• “So Peter arose and went with them. When he arrived, they brought him into the upper room; and all the widows stood beside him, weeping and showing all the tunics and garments that Dorcas used to make while she was with them…and he gave her his hand and raised her up; and calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive.” (Ac 9:39;41)
 
Had Dorcas made these garments to clothe the righteous and widows of her congregation? Surely she didn’t just have a room stuffed full of garments! She was doing acts of hospitality to the needy in the holy community by making garments to give away. Don’t you love the association of women, especially widows, with the resurrection of the Upper Room? Elijah’s widow, the Shunnemite woman, the women disciples and Miriam the mother of Yeshua gathered in Acts 1:14, the disciple Dorcas and widows gathered to mourn her? This “New” Testament has some pretty Old roots, doesn’t it?
 
“A wise woman builds her house
But the foolish tears it down with her own hands.” (Pr 14:1)
 
These wise women were building a third story, an upper room in their homes, as a testimony to the resurrection of the dead through Yeshua. They served their household faithfully, and they served the household of faith in their second stories from the resources of the ground floor: feeding, clothing, praying, preparing, lighting, sanctifying, learning, washing, listening…and those second stories became the third stories. They invited the saints to the Upper Room, a sanctuary to remind us of the return to the Garden of Eden, the dwelling and inheritance of the righteous ones.
 
When Yeshua returns, the righteous who have inherited the Third Heaven will administrate from a purified Jerusalem with him, and they will guide many upward from their First Story, the animal kingdom over which mankind was to rule. The millennial reign will be so awesome that even the earthy First Story will be restored to its creation glory.
 
So what’s your story? Are we carving time for prayer, study, and hospitality, building the Upper Room, or just spending all day on the ground floor feeding the donkeys and cows? Although it seems strange to build a house on top of a barn, it makes a lot sense, too. The flies would be drawn down instead of up.
 
Another Upper Room example was in the ministry of Paul, this one associated with Motzei Shabbat (the going out of Shabbat on Saturday night):
 
• On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight. There were many lamps in the upper room where we were gathered together. And there was a young man named Eutychus sitting on the window sill, sinking into a deep sleep; and as Paul kept on talking, he was overcome by sleep and fell down from the third floor and was picked up dead. But Paul went down and fell upon him, and after embracing him, he said, “Do not be troubled, for his life is in him.” When he had gone back up and had broken the bread and eaten, he talked with them a long while until daybreak, and then left. They took away the boy alive and were greatly comforted. (Ac 20:7-12)
 
Would you like to know more about Paul’s “first day of the week” resurrection experience in the upper room? It is densely packed with prophetic words and phrases you can put in your study toolkit, so look for the newsletter next week!

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Dr Hollisa Alewine – Footsteps of Messiah Part 168 (Better Homes and Garden)

Dr Hollisa Alewine – Footsteps of Messiah Part 168 (Better Homes and Garden)

by | Nov 2, 2025 | , , , , | 0 |

Better Homes and Garden

The last several newsletters have investigated the Torah’s ancient call to hospitality, not just a a nice thing to do, but as a vital preparation to inherit the Kingdom. Our hospitality study trail through the Torah, Prophets, Writings, and New Covenant started with Song of Songs 5:1, a restoration of the Bride and Bridegroom to the Garden of Eden:

“I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh along with my balsam.I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk. Eat, friends; drink and imbibe deeply, O lovers.”

This hospitality verse is thought to be one source for the traditional belief that the four rivers of Eden flow with milk, honey, wine, and balsam.

In past newsletters, we made the connection between hospitality to the needy and the righteous stranger and one’s preparation for to inherit, or even just enter the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 25:34-46). Entering the Father’s House, which was prepared for the righteous from the foundation of the world, is contingent upon preparing one’s own house. Yeshua will definitely knock on the door! The very light of the earth was sown for the righteous at the beginning (Ps 97:11), the light of the Word of good works for them to walk in eternally (Eph 2:10).

A better garden will be filled with the multiplication of human beings, the precious crown of creation created to fellowship with the Holy One Himself. Yeshua taught his disciples that the “rooms” of the Garden, their eternal home of inheritance, are being prepared for them, yet they also must prepare to inherit by preparing their own homes on earth. This would cause the Presence of the Creator to dwell comfortably in them. Better home, better Garden.

“Depart from evil and do good, so you will abide forever. For the LORD loves justice and does not forsake His godly ones; they are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked will be cut off. The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.” (Ps 37:27-29)

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The commentators to the verse in Song of Songs 5:1 connect it to Psalm 37:27-29 above in the Midrash Rabbah and write, ”The word yishkenu should not be translated as ‘they will dwell,’ but as a causative verb in the present tense, ‘They cause to dwell.’” “If only the righteous dwell upon the earth, what will the wicked do? Shall they fly in the air? Rather, the verse means that the wicked did not cause the Divine Presence to dwell on earth, but the righteous did cause the Divine Presence to dwell on earth.” (5§1)

In yishkenu, you see the root of shachan, “to dwell,” and the “Shechinah,” or indwelling Presence. The Presence of the Creator Elohim has always longed to have an intimate relationship with human beings. He did not appoint them to rule of the earth in order to be a distant, cold judge of their actions, but so they would administer on His behalf according to His will because His Word was alive in them through fellowship. They would be able rulers because of their daily walking and talking in the special abode, the Garden of Eden.

The Garden is thought to hover just above the Land of Israel, its centerpoint over Jerusalem. From there the Kingdom will be administered by Yeshua. The righteous are those whose lives are a home of hospitality to the Presence of Elohim. They CAUSE Him to descend for the fellowship He longs for with His creation.

Inheriting the Land of Israel, the administrative center of the entire earth, is a matter of preparation. Even in Revelation 21:2, the Bride is described as the inhabitants of New Jerusalem “prepared for her husband.” Prepared. Prepared. Who is the Bride? Those who prepared the better Garden, working the will of the Word in their lives, which affects what Yeshua prepares for them in the Third Heaven, or the Garden of Eden. Is there something in our hospitality study to connect us to this Third Heaven?

Yes.

The Upper Room.

An Upper Room is a characteristic of a Better Home preparing for a Better Garden.

This yishkenu is an important nuance of grammar. The righteous are those who cause the Presence of Adonai to dwell on earth. They understand that hospitality is not just a place to spend the night and move on. Hospitality is extending a home that is prepared for the righteous to dwell, even the Holy One Himself. Yeshua’s instructions to inquire about a worthy home to stay in as the disciples ministered wasn’t a random comment. It is a vital insight. They were looking for a sanctuary of reverence for Adonai.

Yeshua instructed his disciples to find a home prepared with righteous hospitality. The morally upright home will be part of the cause the disciples minister freely: teaching, immersing, healing, because they know they have a place to abide that is hospitable, compatible to their goals in that community. That house shares in the inheritance of that Kingdom being built!

Yeshua said, “If you have done it unto the least of these my brothers, you have done it unto me.” In the context, he refers to the Jewish sages’ interpretation of inheriting the Kingdom by causing the Presence to dwell. They are royal priests, performing the Mishkan/Mikdash service by ministering to the world as the kohanim ministered in the Holy House.

Hospitality is a vital practice for the believer, an upper room. Jewish scholars made the connection, and Yeshua tied a double-knot on it in Matthew 25.

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’”

Inhospitality and ill-will to the disciple of Yeshua is the same as inhospitality to Yeshua himself:

Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord,…as he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting… (Ac 9:1; 3-5)

The guest is not there to re-arrange the furniture any more than pilgrims re-arranged the Temple. The guest accepts however much or little is offered and blesses the home. Elijah in 1 Kings 17 protected the widow and her son during the famine. Because she used the last of her flour and oil to feed the prophet of YHVH, she never lacked during the tribulation. She also hospitably gave him an upper room in which to dwell during the famine. In return, her son was resurrected from the dead. Because she ministered to the man of God during an apocalyptic famine, she received miracles of nourishment and resurrection.

It is not likely this woman was chosen randomly. Elijah chose her because the Holy One chose her. There was already something of hospitality in her life for him to be sent so far to her home.

Lesson? Prepare hospitality before the tribulation. A generous host who offers in a time of plenty is more likely to be generous in a time of scarcity. It is a resurrection preparation. A better homes-to-Garden habit.

And in Elisha’s “double portion” fashion, he performs two resurrections for the hospitality of the upper room. First, the barren Shunnemite woman is rewarded with a son, and then later the son is resurrected from the dead:

“Now there came a day when Elisha passed over to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman, and she persuaded him to eat food. And so it was, as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat food. She said to her husband, “Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God passing by us continually. Please, let us make a little walled upper chamber and let us set a bed for him there, and a table and a chair and a lampstand; and it shall be, when he comes to us, that he can turn in there.” (2 Ki 4:8-10)

Did you catch that? The Shunemmite furnished her upper room with the furniture of the Mishkan. She made a little House for the Presence to dwell over the daily activities of her lower rooms. Elisha, a righteous visitor, was the stand-in for the very Presence of Adonai.

What have we prepared in the Upper Room of our homes? It is the highest room of our home, a set apart place, yet attached to the rest of the home. What we furnish in the upper room blesses the rest of the home…or not. It can be where heaven meets earth…or not.

If we prepare an Upper Room in our homes of hospitality and service toward the needy and righteous ministers of the Kingdom, then the entire home will be blessed, for that is the deal. Literally the deal, according to Yeshua. A family who receives a minister of Yeshua is entitled to blessings of peace.

Is there more chaos, unrest, need, and warfare in your home than could ever allow you to think of it as a Better Home prepared for the Garden above?

Although it does not address all the home repairs necessary, there is one thing you can do today. Right now. This very instant. And it will begin to reverse the inhospitality to the spirit of shalom on your home. It will begin a sincere song of invitation, a “Shalom Aleikhem”, to the Presence of the Most High.

Begin preparing for a righteous guest next Shabbat. They have the spiritual authority to leave a blessing of peace upon your home. If it’s Shabbat today, just start planning. If it’s a weekday, start cleaning. Buy some groceries. Organize. Air out. Set boundaries.

A steady stream of righteous guests will make your home inhospitable to the chaos. They’ll bring some of the Kingdom with them each visit, a word from the Word, a song, a correction, an exhortation, a word of good counsel. The chaos will either shape up or ship out. Resurrect or retreat.

Try Him and see if His Word is not true.

Furnish your upper room, and see if the lower rooms don’t improve.

Yeshua will be knocking…the person just may not look like what you thought Yeshua looked like.

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