Press Forward to Victory

by Richard L Spangler

   The following is an exert from my book Adventures in the Spirit A Series of Prophetic Visions. This vison was given in late 2011 and published in 2012. I feel it has strong application for today.

THE STRONGHOLD

Afterwards, I found myself back in camp of the Army of God. Orders begin to flow from my mouth and from the others who were in the war room. The shofars sound, the troops form up and we begin to march. We soon find ourselves, surrounding this huge stronghold of evil, the fortress of control and manipulation.           

  In the Heavenly War Room the stronghold looked impressive, but standing in front of it, it was massive. The stronghold stretched skyward for what seemed like a hundred miles and all we could see was its thick dark walls.

   There was also a thick cloud of darkness surrounding the stronghold and you could almost taste the evil in the atmosphere. If it were not for the fact, that God had ordained this stronghold to fall, its appearance could cause even the most faithful to spring back.

     We could hear the shouts from the evil forces inside the stronghold. There were tens of thousands of demons inside and they made a terrible noise. The demons screamed at us, “To give up, to drop your shields for this stronghold will never be destroyed.”

This screaming at us raises my faith, I remember that their leader, the devil, is a liar and the father of lies and the truth is not in him. The demons also are liars and cannot tell the truth. So, everything they scream at us is a lie. Suddenly, they unleash waves of fiery arrows at us, but our Shields of Faith absorbed every one of them.

  In unison, the shofars sound and we worship and praise our Lord and Father. At first nothing seems to be happening. The demons begin to laugh at us and mock us. Then an amazing thing happens, the walls of the stronghold begin to crack and the gates begin to dissolve.

  The scripture came to my mind, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church.” The demons stopped laughing and starting screaming at us again. This time they yelled for us to stop the attack, for we have already won. At the same time it came to me by the Holy Spirit, “press the attack until this stronghold is completely destroyed. This stronghold has been attacked many times but my people have stopped short of total victory. This is the time for total victory; do not stop until this is done.”

At this, I worshipped and praised God pressing in all the more. The others around me do the same. A great light suddenly breaks out of heaven, striking the stronghold.

The warrior angels poured forth and the stronghold is covered in light, and the light grows brighter and brighter. Until, out of the center of the stronghold an evil force emerged, screaming and streaking away, faster than any missile I have ever seen. The  light (the Glory of God) grew even brighter. I had to close my eyes, as we continued to worship. Finally the worship and praise settles down. I opened my eyes, the stronghold is gone. In its place, is a portal between heaven and earth (what some call an open heaven).

   The portal itself stretches skyward, higher than the stronghold that was there. It is also wider. The portal glows with the Glory of God. Its color is golden and there is a multitude of colors in it and radiating out of it. The Glory of God is flowing out of it onto the earth and angels are ascending and descending.

   Watching all of this, my mind begins to wonder. What was that force of evil that flew over us?

The Holy Spirit answers, “That was the principality of control and manipulation fleeing. Do not worry about him, his day is almost done and his judgment is coming soon.”   

  We all start worshipping and we hear the voice of the Lord saying, “I will take back what is mine, I will restore and I will renew, I will bring My Glory to every corner of the earth once again. No power or principality will be able to stop what I have ordained to do. This is the hour of victory and restoration for my people and the restoration of My Glory covering the earth, as the waters cover the sea.”

Many in the church have been praying for the evil that was hidden to be revealed and for the stronghold of evil in our government to be revealed. We have seen this in the recent in events in our nation and yes we have some victories.

  But, we must press the attack in the spirit realm, we must continue to war is prayer, worship  and actions until this stronghold is completely brought down. We cannot allow this thing to rebuild and become stronger after this partial victory. We must press the attack against this stronghold until we have complete victory for the glory of God and for the sake of our nation and the nations of the earth.  

  It is my prayer that you will joint me and others in continuing to press this attack through prayer and worship until we have complete victory over this stronghold and the power in it.

©COPYRIGHT 2016 RICHARD L SPANGLER

Pray for Your City

As I reflect on, the United Cry 16 in D.C., Azusa Now in L.A. and Houston and prayer meetings across this country and Canada on Saturday April 9,2016, this is what I sense from the Holy Spirit .Today as we pray we Will be not only bring about a move of the Holy Spirit in North America but we will be raising a wall. This wall, is a wall of protection of God for North America. It will run from D.C. north along the east coast of the United States and Canada. It will run south... along the east coast coming around and moving west along the Gulf Coast connecting with the wall running from Houston to the east. The Houston connection will not only run east but will also run west protecting the southern border of the United States and connecting with the L.A. portion of the wall running east. The L.A. Prayer Wall will run the length of West Coast of United States and Canada reaching the farest points of Alaska and Canada, also reaching across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. This is far greater and more powerful than any physical wall and must be maintained by the prayers of the Saints of God! !
So today, raising this Wall of the Lord God's Protection and maintaining it is just the end of beginning of what God is doing in North America, so saints let's get to work, relying on the Holy Spirit to lead us into another Great Awakening that will not only effect the United States and Canada but every nation and people group on earth!!!

It is with these events in mind, and following the leading of the Holy Spirit, that I asking everyone join us in "Praying for Your City" April 23, 2016 at 10 a.m. (your local time). Check out the event at

Pray for Your City

The Adam Relationship

As we know, God is restoring all things. When we say this we are thinking of the restoration of the 5-fold ministry and gifts of the Spirit. Then, all members of the Body of Christ doing the work of the ministry.

 But, the Lord is restoring beyond those things. His will and purpose is to restore our relationship with Him. This relationship goes beyond the relationship that King David had, beyond what Joshua and Moses had, beyond what Enoch enjoyed. As wonderful as these relationships were, God wants to bring us back to the relationship that Adam had in the Garden of Eden.

  This a place of not only knowing the Will of God for our lives, not only knowing His Voice and seeing what He is doing and moving with Him but knowing Him intimately.  It is a place of knowing His footsteps and not only hearing His heartbeat but that we will know what it is to be in the center of His Heart.

This is the Call of Father God for each of us. This is the purpose of sending His Son Jesus Christ and the giving us the Fullness of the Holy Spirit overflowing our lives.

  Sadly, many of us never even move beyond the basics of being saved and being filled with the Holy Spirit but there is a desire for more but many never get to the more of God. This creates a sense of frustration in our spirits and eventually leads many to settle for what that have. There are others who attempt to do it in their own strength. This often leads to a legalistic life of reading so much of Word of God, and praying many hours a day. These things are good as tools and need to happen but the Word without the Spirit and prayer without the Spirit lead only to an intellectual knowledge about the relationship with God.

 

So, how do we reach the relationship that God has purposed us and created us to be in with Him. This requires a shift in the way we do things for God. It requires a shift in our attitude about our relationship with God, our Father. We must realize that relationship is more than what we do for Him.  

   Relationship comes from spending time with one another not just in the doing of things.  The time factor is key. Sadly, many do what has been mentioned above, read the Bible, some study the Bible (there is a difference) and they pray. This is where most of us stumble, we make prayer a one-way litany of our needs with a little praise and thanksgiving to top it off. Then, we are out the door, expecting an answer, but never taking time to listen or spend time with the one we are praying to.

   Listening is the beginning of relationship. Psalm 46:10 the NRSV, NIV, ESV, KJV all translate this way, “Be still, and know that I am God.” The NASB says,” Cease striving and know that I am God” and the AMP version, “Let be and be still, and know (recognize and understand) that I am God.” In all of these translations, God is saying to us to “stop” realize Who I Am.

How do we be still and start listening? I started, 8 years ago, by stopping for 5 minutes at the start of each day, now this means turning off all distractions in our lives, TV, computers, tablets and yes cell phones, and I inviting God come. I would say this: “Father I want to be with you, come and be with me.” Then, I would wait, thinking on God, with expectation that He would come. This takes some training to keep your mind from wandering off to other things but you can do it as I did.

 Since then my time with the Father has grown and grown, it how goes well beyond the 5 minutes, it is developing into more and more intimate relationship with God.

  It has become a knowing that God is with me every day, all day and this fact makes my life exciting and an Adventure in the Spirit, daily.

   Salvation opens the way. Being filled with Holy Spirit gives us the power. Studying the Word of God gives us knowledge and prayer starts the communication. Taking time to invite God to come and be with us, waiting and listening for Him are the first steps in the restoration of the Adam Relationship in our lives.

 There is much more to come. You can begin to experience this relationship with God. God wants you to have it, all you have to do is willing to spend time with Him.

©COPYRIGHT 2016 RICHARD L SPANGLER

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