The Adventure Continues...

This is an excerpt from my new book, the Working title is

"The Adventure Continues:
More Adventures in the Spirit"

 The Plateau of Sacrifice

by Richard L. Spangler

   Once again I am caught up in the Spirit, finding myself where I was before, standing on top of one of the Mountains of Refreshing, one of several. There is a light breeze of refreshing blowing around me and yet through my body, soul and spirit. The view is as amazing as before. There are beautiful valleys below me and the glorious mountains reaching upwards to high places of Heaven.

   Suddenly, the Wind of the Spirit sweeps me up and I am soaring above the highest of the mountains and beauty below me is breathe taking. As I begin to worship our Father, the Glory of God surrounds me, becoming so thick I can see nothing but the light of His Glory.
  
 I feel myself dissenting through the Glory, the ground racing up to meet me. I land softly and starts walking, as the glory lifts. I stop in my tracks, stunned by what I see.  I am in a barren place, no trees, no plants, no grass and no water as far as I can see. The ground looks strange. Upon closer inspection, the ground is a solid black rock.

  Since, the Lord put me here I decide I might as well explore this new place. I walk in one direction for the rest of the day. As evening came, tried and hungry I lay down on the rock ground to try to sleep. After a restless night, I get up and continue my trek across the rock. After walking most of the day, I come to what looks like ledge. To my dismay, it is a sheer drop off, its looks like its hundreds of miles down to the valley below. I turn walking along the edge, looking for a way down. This takes the rest of day. As night fell, I move away the edge and lay down to try and get some sleep. The next day was the same and next.

  As the day dawns, I feel like every muscle and bone in my body aches, I am tired and hungry. The realization hits me, this is a plateau and there is no way down. My frustration explodes, and I yelled at God, “Why have you left me here?   “Why are you not coming to my rescue?” At times I shake my fist skyward and I other times I pound my fist on the ground.  

   At some point my yelling turns into pleading with God and asking for forgiveness for every sin I have done or might have done. Finally, (dirty and bloody) I lay down and say, “Lord I am yours. If this is where my life ends, then take it, I surrender to you my Father and my God.” Just then,a bolt of bright light, strikes me, it lifts me up. Then, I fall asleep from exhaustion.

    I don’t know how long I was asleep but I woke up lying on a carpet of grass. Sitting up, I am surrounded by fruit-bearing trees and right beside me there is a brook of crystal clear water. I roll over and drink my fill from the brook. Then, getting up I pick and eat some of the fruit from the trees. Standing there, I begin to think, “How did I get here?”

   I hear a familiar voice behind saying, “Get where?” I turn and there stands Jesus, smiling at me. I fall to my knees and worship Him.
 
He lifts me up and repeats, “Get where?”

“Get here” I reply.
Jesus says, “You are in the same place. You didn’t go anywhere.”

“But, I had to, this is a beautiful place and the plateau was a black barren place.” Jesus starts laughing. This is very confusing to me.

   
    Jesus explains, “This is the same place. It is called the Plateau of Sacrifice. This whole plateau is alter and the moment you surrendered your life, your sacrifice brought forth all that you see around you. Sacrifice always bears fruit and the greater the sacrifice the greater the fruit that is produced. Come and walk with me.”

  As we walked I thought about what Jesus had said. I began to think about his sacrifice, which is the greatest sacrifice of all and the abundance of fruit that has come from His sacrifice. I was glad that I would not have to make this sacrifice again. Then Jesus said, “There are many places of sacrifice.” This caused my heart to sink a little.

 Then I spoke, “I hope I will be able to make the sacrifices when the time comes.”
 
Jesus: “You will be able but you also must be willing.”

   We walked on, enjoying the beauty that surrounded us. There was even a tree lined trail that had appeared on the side of the plateau. I looked away to enjoy the view and hear, “See you soon my son.” I looked back and Jesus was gone. I continued down the trail. 

   Two thoughts filled my mind. First was that there are many places of sacrifices, this caused a part of me to cringe, I knew that was my fleshly nature not wanting to sacrificed. The second, was that I was able but needed to be willing. Willingness is the key to making sacrifice and to all the fruit that comes from that sacrifice. I stop at an overlook and cried out to Father, “Lord, I cannot be willing on my own, Holy Spirit help me to be willing, to yield my will to your will, even when it means making sacrifices.”
 
   Suddenly, the of Wind of the Spirit is flowing around me and lifting me up.

 ©COPYRIGHT 2014 RICHARD L. SPANGLER

 

 

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Third Level Blessing

By Richard L. Spangler
(At the urging of the Holy Spirit, I am reposting this article. I hope it Blesses you.)

 While attending a Ministering Spiritual Gifts Conference I heard a teaching by

Apostle John Burkholder of Buffalo, NY. Apostle Burkholder taught on Luke 6:38,
“Give and it will be given to you a good measure, pressed down, shaken together
and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it
will be measured to you.”

             He stated, that he prays this over his offerings regularly. One day as he was                  
praying  this verse, God spoke to him that he was praying it wrong. Apostle John
asked how that he was praying it wrong. The Lord stated it was not enough to pray
for his offering to blessed, but he needed to pray for those who the Lord spoke to:
 to give to him to be blessed, so that they could give.

Then the Lord took it to another level, not only was to pray for blessings for those who were to give to him but also pray for those who were to bless the givers so that they could bless the givers. This is a third level blessing.

This takes blessing others to a whole different level; it takes it beyond simple
addition into multiplication of blessings. God is a God of multiplication. We see at
creation in Genesis how God commanded everything living thing to be fruitful and
multiply (not add).

 This is true in blessings as well as praying for others to be blessed. If we pray in the
matter stated above, our blessings will be multiplied as well.  So as you give your
tithes and offerings, pray for those who are to give to you, to be blessed, and also for
hose who are to bless them to receive a blessing.

Here is a personal example. I prayed over my offering that afternoon and on Sunday
at church. Now my wife has had some physical issues that prevented her from
working for more than two years. (God has been faithful in His provision for us).
  We and her doctors agreed that she should apply for disability. So, she set down and
filled out all the paperwork and submitted it. Her claim was promptly rejected. She
appealed. We were to go to an appeals hearing on the next Tuesday. I was told that I
could say nothing during the hearing, so I just sat there and prayed quietly in the
Spirit. The judge stated that it appeared my wife qualified and that we would be
notified in 7 to 10 days of his decision. We were excited and praised God. It gets
better, our attorney called on Friday, stating that the judge’s decision had already
been given and he ruled in our favor! She stated it would at least two months before
we received any back payments (two years’ worth) and then monthly checks. We
again rejoiced. Then on the following Tuesday, the lawyer called, stating she did not
understand it but the checked was already processed and mailed. We were stunned. On Friday we received a check for two years’ worth of back payments. Praise the
Lord.  We tithed on what we received and I again prayed over it and now waiting to
see what God does now.

            Again I want to encourage you, when you give your tithes and offerings praying for God’s blessing. Then go beyond that praying for others to be blessed so they can bless you. Finally, take it to third level of blessing, praying for those to be blessed that are to bless those who are to bless you. Then, watch and see what God will do.

©COPYRIGHT 2012 RICHARD SPANGLER

Adventures in the Spirit A Series of Prophetic Visions