The Banquet of Heavenly Kingdom

After the “Pearl Conference”, C-Mo and I have been overwhelmed with all kinds of sentiments, therefore, we spent time giving thanks for God’s Wonderful acts at night, but still we need more time to be quiet, hoping to take in everything.

In the MG12 meeting on the following Monday, MG leaders gave very positive response, some brought few tens of cell members with them and all were greatly inspired. Some cell members requested to be pruned by their cell leaders after the Conference. A relative of a MG leader who had smoked for over 30 years lost the smoking urge right after the Conference and even planned to study in our Bible School. A marketplace (M) leader noticed that, compared with the “Blessed above all” series which were mainly of marketplace speakers, full time church staff (G) leaders did all the sharing in this conference. Therefore, it delivered more in-depth messages and helped a lot of people greatly.

An overseas pastor commented that he had heard of 611 as a church focusing solely on major church developments and ignoring the minority. This conference changed his mind totally as he realized that our church pastors had been built up in the Lord, out of predicament, setback and self-reflection. Now he is willing to open up his heart, seeking connection and help.

Before the Conference, Hong Kong had been hit by continuous rainstorms which flooded one of our escalators. We were deeply concerned with how to disperse the crowd and accommodation issue. However, through prayer offered in the unity of church staff, the weather improved and the crowd was dismissed in an orderly manner, sending out homely feeling and love to delegates. Praise the Lord! Two days before the Conference, we were compelled to change speakers around and pleased to receive fresh messages from God. Take the “Pastor’s Kid“ session for example, the testimonies shared touched every participant. Every pastor and leader who responded to the call and went forward, were greatly moved to tears. They prayed to the Lord out of fresh hope to rebuild relationship between two generations. That session received highest online hit as recorded by our website. Today many Christians, even pastor’s kids show no interest in attending church or faith matters. We must tackle this issue seriously by giving thanks on one had and repenting on the hand in order to amend this flaw of the Church.

“…the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” (Matthew 11:12)

The Pearl Conference was just like a rich, mouth-watering banquet of the Heavenly Kingdom with the Holy Spirit as its main Chef while every transformed life is God’s wonderful pearl. Dear brothers and sisters, the Kingdom of Heaven is just like attending banquet hosted by our Heavenly Father. He invites all to come but some turn down with various reasons while some take it as a commonplace, do not cherish it and hence miss out on all its abundance. The key therefore lies in whether we deeply give thanks, humble ourselves and reflect on ourselves. This is how we should be “forceful”. May every one of us feast on the abundance of this Heavenly Banquet! • [2017.07.09]