The true test of our spiritual life is in exhibiting our mountain top experiences in the valley. It is a wonderful thing to be on the mountain with God, but a person only gets there so that he may later go down and lift up the demon-possessed people and heal the sick in the valley (see Mark 9:14-18; Matthew 8: 14 – 16). If we only have the power to go up, without the power to descend from the mountain then something is wrong. For example, when you are in a secluded place during a fasting and prayer time for like 3 days, there are things we experience such as what we hear God say to us, what we learn and also our approach to spiritual matters becomes more mature, etc. You must also be able to bring into application what we’ve learned during our time with God on the mountain top to our day to day living with all humility. Winning souls to the kingdom are one of the primary objectives of all our spiritual experiences. We are made for the valley and the ordinary things of life (day to day living), and that is where we have to prove our stamina and strength. Yet our spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mountain. Have you not felt like that before? As in to always feel as to remain there whenever you remember your time alone with God. I have been there before but thank God, He weaned me of such. We feel that we could talk and live like perfect angels if we could only stay locked up in a place praying and fasting, but we must not allow our spiritual selfishness from wanting to make them the only time.

We have all experienced times of exaltation on the mountain when we have seen things from God’s perspective and have wanted to stay there. But God will never allow us to stay there. If we are ever going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed—you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed. Just like crude oil, it needs to be processed to become oil or diesel for car use (John 12:24). We have to be placed into God (mountain experience) and brought into agreement with Him before we can be broken bread in His hands. We don’t produce fruit on the mountain top experiences rather it’s in the valley (day to day living). And our relationship with God will allow us to express the life of Jesus each time we come up against any kind of challenge by being patient, love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control know the right and right place to apply our mountain top experiences in the valley place (day to day living).

Excerpts from utmost.org