157. Since a person's spirit means his mind, 'being in the spirit', a phrase which occurs a number of times in the Word, means the state in which the mind is separated from the body. That was the state the Prophets were in when they saw the kind of things which happen in the spiritual world, so it is called 'the vision of God.' They were then in the same state as that of the spirits and angels of that world. In that state a person's spirit, as the visual capacity of his mind, can be transported from place to place while his body remains in one place. This is the state in which I have been for the last twenty-six years, with the difference that I have been simultaneously in the spirit and in the body, and only at times outside the body. Ezekiel, Zechariah, Daniel and John the writer of Revelation were evident from the following passages.
Ezekiel says: 'A spirit lifted me up, and brought me back to Chaldaea to the captives in a vision, in the spirit of God; so the vision which I had seen went up from me' (Ezek. 11:1, 24). A spirit lifted him up and he heard behind him an earthquake (Ezek. 3:12, 14). A spirit lifted him up between earth and heaven, and carried him off to Jerusalem, and he saw abominations (Ezek. 8:3ff). He saw four creatures, which were Cherubim, and various sights with them (Ezek. chapters 1 and 10); also a new earth and a new temple, and an angel measuring them (Ezek. chapters 40-48). He was then in receipt of a vision and in the spirit (Ezek. 40:2; 13:5).
[2] Similar things happened to Zechariah, when he was with an angel and saw a man riding a horse among myrtles (Zech. 1:8ff); four horns [1:18] and a man with a measuring line in his hand (Zech. 2:1, 5ff); Joshua the high priest (Zech. 3:1ff); four chariots coming out between two mountains, and their horses (Zech. 6:1ff). Daniel was in the same state when he saw four beasts coming up out of the sea and various other details about them (Dan. 7:1ff); the fights between a ram and a he-goat (Dan: 8:1ff). He saw these things in a vision (Dan. 7:1, 2, 7, 13; 8:2; 10:1, 7, 8); the angel Gabriel appeared to him in a vision and spoke with him (Dan. 9:21).
[3] It was the same with John when he wrote Revelation. He says that he was in the spirit on the Lord's day (Rev. 1:10); that he was carried in the spirit into the desert (Rev. 17:3); onto a high mountain in the spirit (Rev. 21:10); that he saw [horses] in a vision (Rev. 9:17). Elsewhere he says that he saw what he described, as for instance the Son of Man in the midst of the seven lampstands; a tabernacle, a temple, an ark and an altar in heaven; a book sealed with seven seals, and horses that came out of it; four creatures around the throne; twelve thousand chosen from each tribe; then the Lamb upon Mount Zion; locusts coming up from the abyss; the dragon and his battle with Michael; a woman bearing a son, and fleeing into the desert because of the dragon; two beasts, one coming up from the sea, the other from the earth; a woman sitting on a scarlet beast; the dragon cast out into a lake of fire and brimstone; a white horse and a great banquet; the Holy City of Jerusalem coming down, with a description of its gates, wall and the foundations of the wall; a river of living water, and trees of life which bear fruit in every month; and much else besides. Peter, James and John were in a similar state when they saw Jesus transfigured; and so was Paul when he heard from heaven things past telling.