By Richard
L. Spangler
My quest for a deeper relationship began
out of a simple prayer: “Lord show me your heart.”This prayer came out of a
study of King David and that the Bible stated, “David was a man after God’s own
heart.” I mediated on this phrase, and came to the conclusion that for David to
be a man after God’s own heart, David had to have an encounter with God that
caused him to know something about the heart of God. So, I started calling out
to the Lord, “show me your heart.” I prayed this short prayer for six months,
little did I realize when and how God would answer and how it would change my
life.
I had the preconceived idea, that God would
reveal his heart to me in a church service or in my personal time with him. The
way He did show me was opposite of both, not in church and in a very public
place.
I was driving a trolley for the local public
transit company along the oceanfront of Virginia Beach, Virginia on a July 4,
1991. It was a hot, humid afternoon and I was driving a not air
conditioned, full loaded trolley along Atlantic Ave. The police stopped the
trolley to allow a large crowd of people to cross the street, when I heard the
Lord say, “Son, I will show you my heart.” I thought great and thank you
Father. As I was watching the mass of people crossing in front of me, suddenly
a veil parted and I could see everything about every person crossing in front
of me. I could see their worries, their hurts and pains, their sickness and the
deceptions of the devil in their lives and their sins. I groaned out loud under
the weight of what I was seeing.
One of the passengers asked me. “Driver are
you O.K?”
I responded, “I was alright.”
What else
could I say; I couldn’t tell him what I was experiencing.
Then I heard
the Lord say, “Now I am going to show my love for them.”
I
immediately felt the love of the Father for these people and mixed with the
love was a overwhelming sorrow for the pain they were in and the sin that was
destroying His children. I wanted to reach out and hug each one, and to the
tell them, “It’s alright, the Father loves them and wants to help them and that
I loved them too.”
Again I let
a groan, due to the power of the Love of God flowing in me and through me.
At this point several passengers asked, “Driver,
are you sure your O.K.? Do you help?” The compassion they were expressing added
to flow of God’s love I was experiencing.
I again stated, “I’m O.K.”
Mercifully, the police officer signaled for
me move and I continued down Atlantic Ave. discharging passengers until I
reached the end of Atlantic Ave at Rudee Inlet, where the trolleys were lined
up to start their northbound run up Atlantic Ave.
During this entire time I was awash in God’s
love for everyone I could see. It felt as if my whole body was going explode
with love. I asked a supervisor, that was there releasing the trolleys to start
the north bound runs, it I could have a break. He said, “Yes.”
I headed over to the boardwalk and quickly
walked from 1st street to
fifth street and back praying, “Please Father, take this from I cannot bear the
weight of your love any longer.”
The
sensation of the flow of God’s love slowly lifted. Then, I heard the Lord say,
“You have not scratched the surface of my heart of love for you and mankind.”
As I walked back to my trolley, I knew I was a
changed man.
Before that encounter with the Heart of God,
I knew about God’s love and had what I thought was a good understanding of it
but the experience of His love caused me to realize how wrong I was. Over the
next few days and weeks I found myself having more compassion and love for
people than I ever had before. Thank God, the love and compassion that He
deposited in me during that experience has continued and has expanded in me
over the years.
I pray, that the love of God will continue
expanded in me and expand me and pray for you that you will also experience
God’s love in a way that will transform your life the way it has mine. Just ask
for it, the Father is waiting to share His love with you.
©COPYRIGHT 2013 RICHARD L SPANGLER
