January 28, 2000

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