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Tuesday, January 8, 2013

My Quest


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

 

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