Full-Time Training - Testimonies

Changing My Inner Being, Tami Ross

I grew up in a Christian home and loved the Lord from a young age. My Christian walk began in junior high when I attended an international conference of the local churches at which Witness Lee spoke. That conference changed my life and after that week I began pursuing the Lord. I quickly discovered that the Christian walk is not without difficulty. As the years passed and my pursuit of Christ deepened, I began to discover things within myself (i.e. pride, jealousy...) that hindered my pursuit and stymied my growth in Christ. My college years were marked by an accelerated experience of Christ paralleled by an increased frustration with myself and the things within me that frustrated God's work in my life. This frustration was one of a number of reasons I chose to attend the Full-Time Training in Anaheim (FTTA) following my graduation from the University of Washington.

As I near the completion of my two years in the FTTA, I have come to firmly believe that the FTTA is arranged by God Himself. Outwardly, this Training is Witness Lee's Training; intrinsically, only God Himself could invent such a place. In the Training we receive a balanced dose of spiritual revelation and guidance, and practical application. Each morning we gather together to study and be taught about the spiritual truths from the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee according to the word of God. This aspect of the Training is truth and doctrine. However, the Christian life is not merely these objective matters. For the subjective side, we are placed on teams to do practical work and care for the preaching of the gospel, and we are also put into housing with other trainees. These practical arrangements force us to not just hear about Christ as our life, but to actually experience Him as such in a daily way. All that we hear and read from Watchman Nee and Witness Lee's ministry slowly becomes our experiential reality as we are given daily opportunities to apply the truth.

This balance of truth and practical experience in the FTTA affords the Lord an environment in which He can work in the depths of our being to make us more the same as He is. For me this has been an outstanding benefit of my stay here. The things within me that caused me so much grief and frustration in my earlier pursuit of the Lord have been gradually worked on by the Lord throughout the past two years. In my hearing of the ministry or reading of Watchman Nee or Witness Lee's books, I would receive light from the Lord concerning my wretched condition or my great need for the Lord in some area. Then, without fail, that light from the Lord would be tested and confirmed by my environmental arrangement. This sweet balance afforded God a way to finally break through in many areas of my inner being. To me, the worth of this is immeasurable.

I deeply thank the Lord for allowing me to come to the Training and I praise Him for the work He has done within!

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