International Blending Conference in Baarlo
A refreshing weekend with the saints
Dear saints and friends,
I was in Baarlo, the Netherlands for the past weekend, and it was so great to get to meet some of you in person! Thank you so much for your encouraging words for me to keep writing these updates. Even though I would say I do have a certain "vision" concerning writing these weekly (I know I'm currently missing one for this term, I'll make up to it soon!), but some cheering up do help me keep on going 🏃🏻♀️
After all, everything that I've experienced of the Lord in the Training is not just for myself, but for the Body. I'm glad that some of the experiences that the Lord has given me were able to supply you too!
I suppose this is a great segue into the International Blending Conference in Baarlo for the past weekend. The title of the conference is Body-Consciousness and Truthfulness. I felt that the Lord has certainly spoken something very much in His heart to us in Europe as the day draw nearer. And like what brother Ron Kangas shared, the matters that we covered were very deep, but the application is simple.
From three out of the four messages that I got to attend, I was especially touched by these points:
The divine life within us has senses and feelings, just like our human life does. As we pay attention to our spirit and open to the Lord for His life to increase in us, this sense of life can be cultivated, issuing in a consciousness of the Body of Christ.
Sometimes we might have a sense of suffering yet not knowing where it comes from. Then as we open up this inner feeling to the Lord instead of suppressing it, and asking Him where its source is, He may indicate to us that there is a member in the Body that is suffering, and so we join ourselves to this member in prayer.
In order to enter into the fourth (final) stage of the experience of life– the stage where we know the Body, being in the reality of the Body, being one with the ascended Lord, engaging in spiritual warfare– we need to go through the third stage of the experience of life, which is to deal with our self, natural constitution and flesh. We don’t want to be those who only remain in the second stage, where we are happy with just not sinning and not being worldly.
Romans 8:28 All things work together for good to those who love God, and not just love Christ or the Father. When we truly recognise God as being God and submit under His authority, including what our function is and whom we are placed with etc., we will become conscious of the Body.
Every part of our body is precious, just like we would appreciate every single finger on our hand, even though some are longer and some shorter. Therefore, we should also love all the saints with the same love, and also not despising anyone’s function and portion.
There is a kind of worship that the Father has been seeking for centuries– the worship in spirit and truthfulness. It is by having the Triune God dispensed more into us that His truthfulness can become our genuineness and sincerity for us to worship Him. Therefore, day by day we need to labor on Christ as the good land that whenever we come to the Lord’s Table meeting, we will not be empty-handed, but we will bring a fresh portion of Christ as the reality of the offerings to worship the Father.
Other than the main messages, I was also very touched by the special fellowship, which is mainly concerning the matter of prayer for the Lord’s move in Europe. The brothers shared that the saints in France and Belgium have been praying for the French-speaking people every day for three years, that the Lord would have a breakthrough in them. They have also been praying that the Lord will bring them out of the stage of initiation into an established, rooted church life.
As a result of their prayers, the Lord brought many seeking ones to the saints during the Olympics this year. They also testified that what is taking place in France right now is the result of the coordination of all the saints in Europe taking care of different localities in France.
Towards the end, they also shared with us an updated list of cities to pray for. While this is not the list, the brothers urged all the saints to pray together to see if it’ll echo what is on the Lord’s heart, that the Lord will have a way to do something in these cities.
If you’re interested to know more about the conference, you can listen to the audio messages, including the special fellowship, here.
Last but not least, my highlight of the entire conference is definitely meeting with the saints. I think this is the first biggest event in Europe I've attended after the pandemic, so I was really happy to meet many of the saints after so long. A total of 685 saints including young people were there for the weekend with around 100 children, representing more than 30 countries.
And there goes my weekend in Baarlo, it felt like a holiday for me 🙈 I was certainly refreshed to come back for more training.
Hope to see you saints in person again soon! In the meantime, let's keep enjoying the Lord no matter where we are for the genuine building up of the Body of Christ.
Much grace,
HuiPing