Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As I write these words, I do so with great hesitation because I know that I am not worthy to stand before you and talk about the glory of God. But the Lord has been pressing me in, to share the little that I have learned so that others can add to it and as I do so, I too will be blessed in returned.

In the past weeks, the Lord has showed me several visions . . . . . In the past 6 months , He has also given me a personal practical lesson to live by. . . . Today, the Lord began to blend these together and from these He showed me one aspect about His glory.

I am submitting these words for you to test and to discern.

THE PERSONAL PRACTICAL LESSON

During the last 6 months of 1999, God put me into a season of practicum. At various times, He would ask me to bring two lists before Him. One list detailed all the good works done for God and with that all of God's manifestation's and miracles. And the other list detailed all of my struggles and my failures. Then, after giving me some times to meditate on these two lists--He would ask me to lay them down at His feet. Then I saw Him burn the lists and He encouraged me with these words. " Your struggles and failures are mine so do not take them back with you again when you leave my Presence. In the same manner your success and the miracles you witness belongs to me and be careful how you handle them. Do not talk about them unless I tell you." Then He would bid me to go my way and to put into practice and live out the instructions He gave me.

As I go about living these truths, time & again I found myself failing. It is so easy to dwell on the failures and be drowned by the struggles as I encountered them along the way. Instead of leaving them at the feet of the Lord ,I tend to carry them close to my heart and find my faith clouded and my spiritual vision dimmed. And when good days comes and miracles abound and I am walking high in the mountaintop---I often find myself too quick to pick these up and holding them up like a medal in my hand and love to show them off to others in the guise of giving personal testimony instead of laying them down at the feet of the Lord and forgetting about them.

THE VISION OF THE HAMMER

I saw a big hammer coming down from heaven unto like a city with many structures. When the hammer was lifted back, all the structure were broken to many pieces. But underneath I saw a big mattress and it somehow cushioned the impact of the hammer's force.

THE VISION OF THE SCALE

I saw the statue of lady who is blindfolded and she holds a scale in her hand. I saw that the scale was tilted out of balance. At one end of the scale were placed envelopes bundled up and marked with these words "blessings & miracles" while on the other side of the scale I saw only one envelope and it was marked " cross".

THE WEAVING OF GOD

The Holy Spirit began taking all these pieces together and He began weaving them and I felt Him sharing these impressions to me.

In each generations that has come and go, the Lord has revealed to His people His power and His grace. There has been a show of His miracles in each generation. At the same time, He has also led His people through their own deserts and wilderness. If we are to weigh it all in the balance--It will seem that we have been magnifying the miracles more than the cross. We are quick to show off the good things and love to talk about the good times, but we prefer not to focus much on what God has taught us during the desert and wilderness times and many times we don't like to talk to others or let people know about those difficult moments. And this we have carried over not only into our own lives but many times even to the way that we present the gospel to others , and even to the extent that we handle our ministry. In the midst of other people, we love to pull out from our memory bags the greatest healings or the most powerful words of knowledge and other acts of wonders that we have tasted and see and we love to display them for others. In so many ways, we are not much different than King Hezekiah when he showed to the envoys from Babylon all that is in his treasure house (2 Kings 20:12-15)

RELEASING A HEAVENLY HAMMER

God is releasing a "heavenly hammer" and He is about to destroy all the "worldly structures" that men have set up in the midst of the church. When the hammer falls, many will be broken to pieces which meant that great change and great shaking will take place. Ministries might fall, leadership might change. But in the midst of all these, we must put on the "mattress of love" and must guard our mind and our heart about harboring wrong thoughts, perception and ideas about anything or anybody. Nobody can have all the answers and it is important for each one to cover each other in love and not in judgment or criticism.

OUR VICTORIES AND STRUGGLES BELONG TO HIM

God wants His church and His people to remember that our victories and our struggles belongs to Him alone. We must be careful how we handle the miracles we see taking place in our lives and in our ministry. They belong to God, and we have to offer them back to Him as quickly as they manifest and be willing to burn them like incense before Him, and we must avoid using these events and the people to draw attention to ourselves and our ministry unless the Spirit clearly directs us .

Instead we must seek to follow the example of Jesus who encouraged those who received healing and miracles from His ministry to go back to their hometown to tell about what God has done for them by themselves. In the same manner, as we released our struggles and our failures to Him, we must learn to be transparent to God about them and to those that God would led us to share these things remembering how David find favors before the Father because of his willingness to confess his weakness.

We have to began sharing the whole gospel of Christ. God is about to reveal Himself to us in all His Glory and Majesty. We must seek not only His hand of blessings but we must seek His face and His heart.

MY PRAYER

"Father, forgive us for those times that we have mis-represented you before other men. Give us a better understanding of who you are and how you want us to know you. Help us never to touch the Glory that belongs to you alone. Teach us not to mis-use your name for our own benefit. But give us your heart for your people. These we ask in Your Son, our Savior Jesus Name. Amen!"

Submitted by:
Sis. Ching Co Cebu City Philippine