| |
| IN COMMUNION WITH THE FATHER THROUGH NATURE |
|
| By Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy |
"My heart, my navel, are still connected
with the mountains. There’s something
about
pitch-black darkness at night,
and the
serenity
of the cold, crisp air
that can
only be savored when you’re
up there.
It is when dusk falls and the
night is young,
and there’s no other
sound but the noise
of the bugs
and crickets that I am elevated
to a different high. It is when I am
lying down,
half-awake, half-asleep,
amid the quiet
of cold afternoons that
I hear Him say,
‘Son, My Son,
I love you."
Imagine sitting atop a wooden bench on a grassy knoll,
thousands of feet above sea level. And the cold, gentle
breeze dampens your face, blowing fresh clean, air into
your lungs – leaving you in a wistful thinking: what if I
stay below these trees forever?
|
 |
And what if the trees I am talking about aren’t those
moss-covered timbers in the forest, but fragrant pine trees,
thousands of them encircling you in a cocoon of a haven up in
the mountains. Where sunlight is bright enough to let you see
the farthest layer of the pale blue mountains in the horizon, and where the night always reminds you of the world’s
innocence and the simplicity of life back in the Garden.
And then, all these thoughts lead you to a special
chamber in the faculty of your being, it is when you
are closest to nature that you feel closest to the Almighty
Father, who created all these beauty that your eyes are
blessed enough to behold. |
 |
My First Home
I have been receiving questions where I was really
physically born. You go to the Glory Mountain in
Tamayong (Mt. Apo, Davao City) today, that is really where I was born 60 years ago. I am the real Lumad. If
you have only been there since 1980, you are not a true
Lumad to me. I am the true Lumad, for I was born in that
place.
The Father gave back that
place to us, now abloom with pine
groves and wildfl owers, and that is
where I was in the later part of May
and in the early weeks of June this
year. I was busy meditating, communing
with the Almighty Father and also
tending to all of the pines trees that are
there, making it the environment that
the Father wanted it to be, just like the
Covenant Mountain and Prayer Center. I
thank the Father that He chose that place
for me to be physically born. |
I was there for two weeks together with
many of the fulltime miracle workers
who have physically, manually labored with me in tending the Glory Mountain. Most of the Kingdom musicians
were with me. We had handsaws and many farm implements to work
with and I enjoyed it to the fullest because farm-life is really my passion.
|
 |
I grew up in the mountains. And as soon as I got back
from my
studies in Cotobato (sixth grade to high school), we had a coffee plantation
and I worked for some time with my father in the fl esh. We didn’t
have any mechanized equipments so we used manual farm implements
to clean up, to weed out and to tend to the coffee trees. We used backbreaking
manual labor to
take care of the coffee plantation of my father
and I
had always enjoyed that. I would always like to go back
to
that kind
living, if time permits.
The Father has given me the time before my international stint
for the North American King is Coming Tour. It was very refreshing and
it was a time that I really missed. The Father has given me those times by myself to meditate and to always
commune with the Father Almighty’s
Spirit as it was in those six years of
my training in Kitbog (one year) and
Tamayong (fi ve years).
While I was there at the Glory
Mountain during my rests, we had
meals in between and then we took
few hours or several minutes of rest. I
just put out my plastic mat on the grass
under the pine trees and then, take a
nap. I enjoyed that more than anything
else. You cannot pay me one billion
(pesos) for that
|
|
I had some few inspiring
talks and revelations coming from the
Almighty Father, just as I did when I
was at the Prayer Mountain (now Covenant
Mountain and Prayer Center) for
five years. I always heard His voice.
It’s been a long time since I became
the Father’s Spokesperson and Audible
Voice, so it is always me that you
hear. My voice that you hear is the Father’s
audible voice, especially whenever
I speak about His Word.
Seldom do I hear Him anymore
outside of me like in my five
years in Tamayong. I would always
have the experience of being caught
up. I no longer have those experiences
because my training is over.
But I still miss those times
when I hear the voice of the Father
out of me because He is in me and
out of me. So that when I became His
Spokesperson, His Audible Voice, you
hear Him through me. But it is always
nice for the Appointed Son to hear the
Father once in a while outside of this
body. I am familiar with my voice and
you are familiar with my voice. It is not
the voice that is important but it is the
message carried by the voice that is
important.
Praise the Almighty Father’s
Name that once again, I heard the
Father say to me, “Son, I love you.”
While I was there, doing those things
at the Glory Mountain, I would take
a nap, the Father would whisper into
my ear and say, “My Son, I love you.”
Just for the Father to let you hear those
words, you cannot pay me a trillion
pesos for that. It means so much to
me.
It is like me talking to David
(Axel). I would call him and say
to him, “David, I wanted to tell you
something.” And David knows what
it is, so he would be the fi rst one to
speak, and he would always answer
me, “I love you, Pang.” He would
say, “I said it fi rst.” He knows that
I would be saying that to him so he
would say it fi rst to me. It is a very nice relationship, isn’t it?
Sometimes, the hustle and bustle of our daily activities muddles that relationship.
But it is nice at times to go back and be alone with yourself and the Father’s presence and
hear that voice again, “My Son, I love you.”
That is why I love the song entitled “It’s Enough to Know that You Still Love Me”.
When He says that, that’s enough. All the things that have been nagging you or crowding
your mind would just dissipate and you would just bask in the presence of the Father
Almighty when you hear that voice that He loves you. That is just the message that you hear
and it’s beautiful. I thank the Father for that.
|
ALONE TIME - Pastor Apollo in a moment
of silence during a lunch break. “Manual
labor is what I am into in my sabbatical
at the Glory Mountain,” he relates.
“It’s just so relaxing.”
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
