We praise the Lord for the Victoria Conference in Montreal this past May. Through this annual blending conference of the churches in eastern Canada, the Lord released His word richly,bringing the saints into oneness. There were 260 full time attendees with the number surpassing 320 on Lord’s day from twelve localities, including even ones from the Vancouver area and the Maritime provinces. The saints blended together with overflowing joy and brotherly love.
The topic of this conference was the development of the Kingdom of God in the Christian life and the church life, which is from message 4 of past International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones (ITERO). The first message was on “The Development of the Kingdom of God into Realm over Which God rules in His diving life”, the second message was on “Living the Kingdom Life by Taking Care of Others according to Spirit and by Realizing God’s Forgiveness”; the third message was on the “Conflict of Two Kingdoms and the Work and Responsibility of the Church”; the last message was on “Preaching of the Kingdom and Disciplining All the Nations for the Spread and Development of the Kingdom of God.”
The brothers started by emphasizing that the reality of the kingdom is Jesus Christ sowing himself into the believers as the seed of the Kingdom, developing in the heart of the believers into a realm of His ruling. This seed with the divine life and divine nature and all the divine riches is now sown into us. Thus, the apostle Peter exhorts us to pursue the growth and development of this seed diligently, so that we can have a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom of God. To purse the growth and development of life, we need to take heed to the feelings of our inner life and learn to walking according to it. To work according to the feeling of life, we need to develop this feeling, and go on from the feeling of our conscience to instinct of the spirit, that is to develop from self-rule (by conscience) to God’s rule (Him ruling us directly through the instinct in our conscience). This is the development of the Kingdom of God in us, which we all should pursue diligently.
In the meantime, the kingdom life is not only the development of the kingdom seed in us individually, but also the corporate church life, which is the kingdom of God today. The believers live the kingdom life in the church. If we live under the rule of the Heavenly Kingdom, this ruling will require us to take care of others according to the spirit. We need to live in the spirit of humility, always judging ourselves, not others, despising no believers but loving our brothers and forgiving them. To others, we need to learn to be merciful, and forgive always; if we judge others in a light way, condemn them easily, and complain about others’ acts and their mistreat of us, we will end up in God’s governmental hand. If we are strict to others, so will God be to us. When others are in trouble, they need our help not condemnation. Many brothers are suffering great failures today, it is only because they have fiercely judged others before; many weaknesses they possess today are a result of judging others. Moreover, if we treat others too harshly and are unforgiving in our spirit, there will be dispensational dealing for us in the Millennial Kingdom. May the Lord give us grace that we will live under the rule of Kingdom and deal with others in a correct way.
In the last two messages, we must see that the Kingdom is a spiritual warfare. Christ the heavenly King will establish His kingdom on the earth which was usurped by Satan. Thus, there is a war waging on fiercely and we need to join the war. The work of the church is to bring in the kingdom of God, the church is responsible to carry on the warfare of Christ on the earth; the church must carry on the victorious work of Christ, resisting Satan. Thus, the church needs to pray the prayer of warfare to bring in the Kingdom of God and defeat the enemy.
Moreover, to develop and spread the Kingdom of God, we need to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom and disciple all the nations. The brothers were burdened for the vital groups, may the Lord rise up many twos and threes, vital companions that will take the authority of the Lord bind the strong one, Satan, and plunder his house (lost sinners and backsliding saints), recover them for the propagation of the Kingdom of God.
May the Kingdom of God gain the genuine development and propagation in the churches in Eastern Canada. Praise the Lord.
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