THE EFFECT OF THE FULL-TIME TRAINING
It is really a great blessing to all the full-time trainees who have just finished their college education and are about to start a new stage in their life to set apart some time to be trained to know the Lord and serve Him. I believe that after they have been nurtured and equipped through the training, whether they stay to serve full-time or go to find employment, there will be no problem. This is because after they have been equipped, they will no longer be common Christians or even ordinary Christians in the Lord’s recovery. They will have been trained and equipped, and they will have received the Lord’s burden. This will affect their whole life.
I believe that after this kind of equipping, even if the trainees go back to their regular jobs, they will not be the same as ordinary people or even as they were before. Instead, they will be the Lord’s living witnesses, full of life and truth. No matter what they do in the future, whether taking care of a family, living, working, or operating a business, they will spontaneously be the Lord’s living witnesses. This will be a great success. It will be a great thing if we can produce one to two thousand of this kind of people as the foundation and basis for the island of Taiwan. Not only will they accomplish the great task of the gospelization of Taiwan, but they will also become the backbone of the church life in the Lord’s recovery. Consequently, they, along with their families and enterprises, will become a living testimony of the Lord. From this perspective, it is really worthwhile to spend this best time of your life in the full-time training.
However, the full-time training is just the first step for the evangelization of Taiwan. The next thing we have to do is to set the churches in order. Not only should we be well equipped in life and truth, but we should also be proper in our daily dress and conduct. We have to teach the saints that they should not be loose or dress carelessly, whether in the Lord’s Day meetings or in ordinary home meetings. We go to meetings to worship the Lord, so we all have to dress properly and conduct ourselves with gravity. We must be a group of special people who not only are the Lord’s testimony in truth and life but also are proper in our daily life, personal attire, and in the way we decorate our homes. I hope that once people come into our homes, they will see that we are high-class citizens. They will see that not only the standard of our morality is high but also that the way we dress and conduct ourselves is noble. Not only so, we should also know how to eat healthily and live properly so that we may become top citizens in the country.
The apostles also teach us how to live a proper human living. We must follow the Lord in truth and life in order to live a life that is according to the Lord’s requirements. We should not have just the revelation of the truth yet fall short in our living. This is a great charge which requires us to go on step by step.
A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE TRAINEES
Hence, we must learn and practice a few things. First, from now on we have to be equipped with the truth. We must not waste even a single minute, but rather study the Lord’s word whenever we have time so that we may know the truth. Second, we have to pursue the growth in life in an absolute way that we may arrive at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ and become living witnesses of the Lord, not only by preaching, teaching, or speaking but also by living Christ, so that to us to live is Christ. We should experience being one with the Lord whether in big things or in small things. Instead of being wasteful in the use of our energy, time, and money, we should walk according to the Spirit in using them. Third, we must definitely cultivate our character. This does not refer merely to our personality. We need to build up our character by learning to be accurate in words, genuine in dealing with people, punctual in appointments, precise in work, and well-mannered in the way we respond to others. I hope that we all would apply the matter of having a proper character to our living, our career, and our behavior so that we will learn to be living witnesses of the Lord.
Fourth, we must learn how to meet. Especially now that we are focusing on the small meetings instead of the big meetings, we need to learn to exercise our spirit, to stir up others’ spirits, and to give the Spirit the freedom in the meetings in singing, in praying, and in releasing the word. It will be a great loss if we who serve the Lord and testify for the Lord do not know how to meet. This is an extremely important matter. We must learn the principles for meeting. If we learn the secret of meeting, we will have a special reserve for our service to the Lord.
Fifth, we must know how to labor in the communities. This means that we should learn to knock on doors to deliver the gospel to people’s homes, to talk to them one on one, and to lead them to salvation. In this way, even if we are not a full-timer, we can still spread the gospel of the Lord.
We must spend time to diligently practice the above five points until they become our specialties. Then we will become not only the high-class citizens of the country but also the backbone of the church. Then we will not only be a group of people with noble personalities and disciplined characters but also people who are useful in the Lord’s hand.
(The Economy of God and the Mystery of the Transmission of the Divine Trinity, Chapter 10, by Witness Lee)
