What is the Full Time Training? In the words on the FTTL website, “Every Christian needs training. Without training, we will not experience and enjoy Christ’s riches in full. We also need training to function and serve the Lord profitably. The Full-Time Training in London provides a special opportunity to be trained to enjoy Christ, grow in His life, and serve Him to build up the church as His Body.” Below is a short testimony from brother Grant regarding his being in the training.
Being a young enjoyer of the Lord, two years out of university, I had consecrated myself to the Lord in October 2008 to attend the Full-Time training. Now – having graduated the FTTL at the end of 2010 – I can honestly say that these two years have been the best time of my life!
The motive behind my wanting to attend the training was to know more! I wanted to know more of the Bible, more of the ministry. This was because I was enjoying the Bible, I was enjoying the ministry and I had absolutely no clue how to share my enjoyment with my fellow university friends and work colleagues. So I wanted to go to a “Bible school” to get more knowledge!
Praise the Lord, He answered my prayer, but He also had more in store! My Lord not only blessed me with more of the truth, but He also showed me much more! He should me that He is the most beautiful, attractive, lovable and pre-eminent One in this universe and also that as this One He has a Body!
During the entire course of my training and especially in my last term, the Lord showed me that the safest thing to do in this universe, the most enjoyable thing to do in this universe and the only thing that we should do in this universe is to “…just love Him!…” As Christians we need to be those people who just “Give [ourselves] to love the Lord.” (see Hymn: Give yourself to love the Lord).
I learned that no matter where we are or what we are doing (studying, working or serving) we need to love the Lord with the first love. Revelation 2:4 footnote 2 in the Recovery version says “…Nothing but love can keep us in a proper relationship with the Lord…” As true Christians, we want to have a proper relationship with the Lord, we want to give our all to the Lord, and we want to waste ourselves on the Lord; however, if we want to truly know what is on His heart and what He has really prepared for us, we need to love Him!
1 Corinthians 2:9 says: “But as it is written, Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not come up in man’s heart; things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” Footnote 3: “To fear God, to worship God, and to believe in God (that is, to receive God) are all inadequate; to love Him is the indispensable requirement…. In this way [loving Him] we have the closest and most intimate fellowship with God, and we are able to enter into His heart and apprehend all its secrets.”
Secondly, I enjoyed seeing that my personal relationship with the Lord, my personal enjoyment and experiences of the Lord are not only for me but for His Body! I have been enlightened to see that I am here in the church life as an individual Christian not only for my satisfaction, but rather, I am here in the church life as a member of His Body for His satisfaction; I am here as a stone being prepared to be built into a dwelling place for His satisfaction.
I learnt in the training that the Lord does not want a bunch of individual Christians, but He wants a corporate Body, He wants His Bride, He wants His Church built and blended together for His satisfaction. When we waste ourselves on Him and on His Body, not only is He satisfied but we too are satisfied! From my experiences in the training, I can testify that when I give myself for His Body I am truly satisfied!
I will treasure all my experiences in the training of being built up with the trainee brothers from so many different nationalities, praying with these brothers for each other’s families, interceding for one another, pursuing the truth with these brothers, praising and worshipping the Lord with these brothers, enjoying the Lord in the word and serving with these brothers in practical activities!
These are treasures the Lord has laid in my being through this wonderful experience of being in the Full Time Training! Being built with these brothers in the training is something of eternity and my prayer and wish for all young saints is that they too may have these experiences!
Brothers and sisters, this is what I enjoyed from my two years in the Full-Time training! When I firstly give the Lord the best and first love, and then come to the brothers to enjoy the Lord (in serving, studying the truth or prayer) I find that there is no greater joy on this earth! What a sweet foretaste we have of our portion in eternity!
Amen. In the training:
We see the Lord, and we are drawn by this vision to love Him absolutely.
We see the body and we give ourselves to be blended and built up into this corporate body.
We see who and what we are and we repent in dust and ashes and hand ourselves over to the Potter that He would shape and mold and reshape and break as He sees fit to make us useful God-containers for the accomplishing of His purpose.
We enjoy a sweet foretaste of the finished work. New Jerusalem….
"When we waste ourselves on Him and on His Body, not only is He satisfied but we too are satisfied! " Amen.