Full-Time Training - Testimonies

Counting All Things as Loss, Javier Emanuel Gonzalez

In my Christian Life, so many times I have to count things as loss to gain Christ (Philippians 3:8). This is pretty much my experience of how I came to the Full-Time Training in Anaheim (FTTA).

In my sophomore year in college, I made a decision before the Lord to come to the FTTA after finishing college. But now I realize that that was easy for me to say because at that time I had nothing to give up. It was not until the Lord let me gain something that I could put on the burning altar, that it became more than something easy to say. Growing up in the Lord's Recovery, I knew since I heard about the FTTA that I would want to go, but I didn't know all the experiences that I would have to pass through in order to appreciate the significance of giving up my life to the Lord.

In my last semester in college, I started my professional practices in a huge company, one of the most important companies in the textile branch industry in Mexico. As a matter of fact I was the second in my class to get a job related to my career. At the beginning, even though I was so excited, I was not that happy because I did not want to be ensnared by the job, money, and all the stuff that you get with it. I really wanted to go to the Training right away after college; but it didn't work out that way.

The day after I graduated, I went to the elder brothers in Monterrey to fellowship with them concerning my desire to go to the Training, but there was no response. From that time on while I was working, I was praying at the same time, because I was so afraid to get involved too much in my job and forget about the Lord, and because I knew it was going to be so hard to leave everything and go to the Training afterwards. So time went by and two years passed, but in when a new term of the Training was about to commence (that is every six months) I prayed to the Lord to send me. Little by little I became better in my job, I started to have promotion upon promotion, success upon success, and started to become more involved in the world. As a consequence, I started to forget about the Lord. But, no matter how many successes I had achieved, still something was missing; I wasn't satisfied. By the end of two years of working full-time, I lost any hope to be sent to the FTTA, especially because I was doing great. But at that very time, when I had achieved so many things, the Lord called me, and the elders came to me and asked me if I was ready to go to the FTTA. My inward reaction was “yea, all right, but it can't be now.” Even though I had that feeling within me, the only thing that came out of my mouth was “Just let me know when to quit, and I will quit.” So, next Monday in my office I was sitting at my desk, asking to myself, what am I doing? The next step was to quit, so when I went to my boss to quit, the first thing that he asked me it was if I was going to another company, and he offered me more money, but I said I had to go. Two days later I received a promotion notification for an executive position, an opportunity that many people wait for, but never comes. So at that very moment I realized what it meant to give up everything to the Lord. When He asks you, if you love Him, you just have to answer Amen; and I did it, I said Amen, and I came to the Full-Time Training.

Now, I am in my third term and when I look back, I see that this turned out to be my salvation, from being a nominal Christian, a passive believer, to a loving seeker of Christ. Now I can testify that Christ is more experiential and subjective to me. Looking back I realize that our Christian life is a life of counting things as loss, giving so many things up for the Lord and gaining Him at any cost, a life of being infused with Him (Ephesians 1:23; John 10:10). Now I see that the highest profession on earth is just to be filled with Him, and to share Christ with people.

So many lives and bright futures have been wasted for Him, as Watchman Nee and Witness Lee did, and many others. Now as Mary, I will break my flask of alabaster, and pour out my whole life to Him (Mark 14:3).

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