Testimonies from the University Training 2016

Learning to spend time with the Lord

Everything starts with our personal relationship with the Lord in the morning; everything starts with prayer. [expand title=”…read more…” swaptitle=” ” trigclass=”noarrow” targtag=”span” targpos=”inline”]I’ve been really burdened for one of my friends. It’s been a few years now and I’ve been asking “Lord, what’s going on here? What are You doing?” I was just encouraged to not be discouraged, that the Lord has His time and His way. Concerning the preaching of the gospel and being burdened for our friends, I realised that prayer and our personal relationship with the Lord matter more than anything else. In everything, we need to love the Lord first. As we give Him the first love and spend more time with Him, everything will be taken care of.[/expand]

Lord, thank You for the University Training! I enjoyed the morning revival times the most. Everything comes from our spending personal time with the Lord. [expand title=”…read more…” swaptitle=” ” trigclass=”noarrow” targtag=”span” targpos=”inline”]I saw that the difference to being at home and being here was mainly in the morning times. We wake up early and come just to be empty and to spend time with the Lord. I just want to continue to do this – not setting the bar too high, but ten minutes in the morning is not impossible. Paul’s gospel shows us the Christ who has been processed and has become the life-giving Spirit who indwells us (1 Corinthians 15:45b). We have heard of the Christ who is objective, historical, but we need to learn the Christ who is subjective. He becomes subjective by our taking Him in. It so important that we would have deep roots, a network of roots, by spending more time with Him.[/expand]

I have begun to realise how much we truly need to be in constant fellowship with the Lord [expand title=”…read more…” swaptitle=” ” trigclass=”noarrow” targtag=”span” targpos=”inline”]– this is so basic and central to everything we do in our Christian life, our daily life, and the church life. We need to first come to Him, touch Him by calling on His name, pray-reading the Word, and be open. Open to His shining, and follow His leading. I hope to begin building up a real and genuine morning time with the Lord, through practice, and to live ordinary days on the campus, under the divine dispensing.[/expand]

We do not need to try to do what we cannot do. We need to simply open [expand title=”…read more…” swaptitle=” ” trigclass=”noarrow” targtag=”span” targpos=”inline”]that part to the Lord and allow Him to come in and work it out in us, and we can depend on the Body. We need to learn to love the Lord as our first love, and care for what is on His heart – the building of the church. Everything issues from our spending personal time with the Lord and we are not able to do this without love. To be in what God is doing on the earth today, we need to be open vessels who lovingly seek Him and care for man. This is what I want to learn in my daily life![/expand]

Our enjoyment from the classes

“There is now then no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of life has freed us in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.” (Romans 8:1-2)

The law of sin and of death and the law of the Spirit of life can be illustrated by the law of gravity and the law of aerodynamics. [expand title=”…read more…” swaptitle=” ” trigclass=”noarrow” targtag=”span” targpos=”inline”] If a man climbed up a roof and jumped off and tried to fly, he would hurt himself. It’s the same with us when we try to live the overcoming life in ourselves. If we try to do it in the law of ‘gravity’, we always hurt ourselves. But if we would get into the ‘plane’, and let it fly for us, the plane takes care of everything. The Spirit takes care of everything. This is wonderful and so simple. May none of us hurt ourselves by trying to live the overcoming life in ourselves, because we are unable to do it. We are able to live this life only in Christ; only when we turn to our spirit. In the morning, our first words should be, “Lord Jesus, I love You. I give this day to You. I want to live the overcoming life in You”.[/expand]

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14)

I enjoyed the training. It certainly gave me a new vision of preaching the gospel. [expand title=”…read more…” swaptitle=” ” trigclass=”noarrow” targtag=”span” targpos=”inline”]When we preach the gospel, we need to have a purpose. Our purpose, especially in Europe, is to bring the Lord back and to consummate this age. I thank the Lord for this vision. The brothers shared with us about William Hunter in Brentwood, who was martyred because of reading the Bible. I realised that we need to really appreciate the Word of God. I also appreciated that we are not too young for the Lord to use us. William Hunter died when he was only 19. Many of us in this training are the same age. We are not too young. I just pray to the Lord, “May we all be equipped with the Word and the purpose of God to consummate this age.”[/expand]

The gospel of God that is revealed in the Bible is an all-inclusive gospel, not a shallow gospel. [expand title=”…read more…” swaptitle=” ” trigclass=”noarrow” targtag=”span” targpos=”inline”]Through this gospel we are redeemed judicially, saved organically, with the goal of the building up of the Body of Christ which is realised in the local churches. The church life is also the kingdom life with the highest demand and the highest supply with God Himself as grace to us. When we go out to preach the gospel of the kingdom, we live this gospel to bring our gospel contacts into the kingdom. This is our hastening of the Lord’s return. “Lord, bring us into this reality and use us to bring others into the same reality.”[/expand]

I realised there are so many verses, so many things I am familiar with, but I have not experienced. [expand title=”…read more…” swaptitle=” ” trigclass=”noarrow” targtag=”span” targpos=”inline”]This is like going to a five-star restaurant where people say the beef steak in front me is tasty, but I haven’t tasted it. I have been enjoying the brothers’ and sisters’ experiences second-hand, but this time I touched the Lord! Previously, when I heard “God is righteous” I took it for granted; I knew He is righteous. Now I realise we need to see the Lord, allow Him to get into us, and apply Him. Satan always accuses us of our fallen human nature, but we need to apply the precious blood. God is righteous, so whenever we apply the blood He must forgive us. I can confess, “Lord, forgive me, I didn’t bring anyone to You,” then I am forgiven and my relationship with Him is restored. Our relationship with Him is that of a Father and His children, it is so sweet. We can say, “Daddy, forgive me.”[/expand]

Grace is God Himself in Christ as the Spirit given to us, gained by us and enjoyed by us. When the brother giving this message asked, “What is grace?”, I thought, “I have no idea, no clue.” [expand title=”…read more…” swaptitle=” ” trigclass=”noarrow” targtag=”span” targpos=”inline”]But actually it is so easy; grace is the Spirit in and with our spirit which we enjoy. We can enjoy the Spirit with our spirit in so many ways: by singing and sharing, by praying, by pray-reading. God doesn’t give grace like a rich man randomly giving to the poor, but it is for His purpose. “Lord, we want to give ourselves to You for Your purpose.”[/expand]

I really enjoyed the precious blood of Jesus. It is sufficient to cleanse us from all of our sins. No matter how many, we just need to turn back to the Lord. [expand title=”…read more…” swaptitle=” ” trigclass=”noarrow” targtag=”span” targpos=”inline”]We have a rebellious nature; there is no doubt about that. But we just need to quickly turn back to the Lord in everything. The more we apply the blood the more we can remain in the fellowship with the Lord.[/expand]

Our experience as Christian students at university – we need companions!

I started university last year. At first I was so worried because I didn’t know any saints there. [expand title=”…read more…” swaptitle=” ” trigclass=”noarrow” targtag=”span” targpos=”inline”]I wanted to have and stay in the church life during my time at university, especially moving out of home. I was worried so I prayed, “Lord, can You bring some companions? I need someone to have a proper church life with.” And then one day, a brother set up a WhatsApp group and asked if we wanted to meet and read the Bible on the campus. He would travel all the way just to have an hour with us. I was so touched. The Lord is really moving on the campus through us. In everything we do, if we first pray to the Lord, He will listen to us. If we have a heart for His heart’s desire then He will have a way to move. When we give things to the Lord in prayer, trust in Him, and let Him do everything, He takes care of everything.[/expand]

This year was very hard, but I was so glad to have a companion and whenever I struggled I could call or text her, and we would pray. [expand title=”…read more…” swaptitle=” ” trigclass=”noarrow” targtag=”span” targpos=”inline”]God wants everyone to repent for the kingdom. But on my own I found it hard. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find Him. But my companions would always pray with me. Even at my placement, a sister would come every Monday to visit me and ask about my week.  This was such a help to me. God needs men of prayer. So many times I tried to preach the gospel to my friends and invited them to a Bible study and expected them to receive the Lord right there and then – but we need to pray.[/expand]

Our experience preaching the gospel

During the gospel time, one girl rejected the gospel tract. Then I shared this with the sisters and they said, “Don’t be discouraged by rejection because the Lord will have prepared the seeking ones.” [expand title=”…read more…” swaptitle=” ” trigclass=”noarrow” targtag=”span” targpos=”inline”]On the high street, we were walking back and forth and prayed, “Lord, give us the seeking ones. Who do we go to?” I was so touched that this time was so enjoyable. I didn’t realise that it could be so easy to approach people. Even if they say no, we can still give them a gospel tract and say, “It’s free.”[/expand]

This was my first time being at a distribution table. I was very surprised how enjoyable it was. [expand title=”…read more…” swaptitle=” ” trigclass=”noarrow” targtag=”span” targpos=”inline”]The first person I talked to was trying to give us a leaflet about self-improvement. After listening to him and asking some questions, I then gave him a gospel tract – The Mystery of Human Life.[/expand]

Our experience of being training

I appreciated this week. Before I came, after the exam week, I didn’t want to go to the church meetings as much. On the first day when the new trainees shared their testimonies, I so touched. [expand title=”…read more…” swaptitle=” ” trigclass=”noarrow” targtag=”span” targpos=”inline”]They all struggled by asking, “Should I go, or should I not go to the training? Should I give myself to the Lord? I already have a job, should I give it all up?” I prayed to the Lord “Lord, give me the same experience.” The Lord really took care of each of them. Although they had struggled, when they were sharing, they were shining. This made me cry. This caused me to see that we need more than just knowledge. The real training is for the Lord to go deeper and further in us. In the first meeting we heard that we need to have a specific vision. At that time I didn’t understand, but now I see that we need to know who we are and what age we live in. We are at the end of this age.[/expand]

I found it quite difficult to pray lately, so I took some verses to and in our spare time, while the sisters were sleeping in our cabin, I went to the hall and pray-read the Word, loudly, with a loud voice. Oh what a difference it makes! [expand title=”…read more…” swaptitle=” ” trigclass=”noarrow” targtag=”span” targpos=”inline”]I took something as simple as John 1:12-13, that we are children of God. Just pray-reading these verses in a loud voice really got them into me. I am so happy I came to the training to remind me and bring me back to the basics, like pray-reading, and calling on His name![/expand]

“Lord, thank You for everything, thank You that I’m here, for Your gospel, for Your desire. Lord, whatever You want, just do it in me. O Lord Jesus, I want to hasten Your second coming.” [expand title=”…read more…” swaptitle=” ” trigclass=”noarrow” targtag=”span” targpos=”inline”] I was impressed that God created us for the accomplishment of His economy with the intention that we would become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead, for His expression. He just wants to dispense Himself into us, making us the same as He is. He also wants us to testify to all the nations. “O Lord, put Your desire in my heart, for my whole life.”[/expand]

Read the University Training 2016 report for more testimonies
and to see what it was like being in the training this year