Full-Time Training - Testimonies

Becoming Useful to the Lord, Tony Espinosa

I became acquainted with the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee while I was an undergraduate at the University of California at Irvine. After having recently read the Bible for the first time, I was anxious to know its contents in a deeper way. The writings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee met this need by unveiling to me Christ as the mystery of God (Colossians 2:2) and the church as the mystery of Christ (Ephesians 3:4). Through the help of their ministry and the leading of the Spirit, I became clear that God's heart's desire is the church (Ephesians 1:9), and I wanted to become a useful vessel to the Lord for the building up of the church, His Body (Ephesians 1:22,23). It was at that time that the Lord put within me an aspiration to be trained in Bible truth and church service, but it took some time for my desire to become a reality.

After graduating from UCI, I completed a teaching credential at California State University at Long Beach and embarked on a five-year teaching career. It was during my fifth year of teaching that I heard the clear speaking of the Lord to complete the school year and then go to the Full-Time Training in Anaheim in order to receive the perfecting I had so desired in college. When the Lord's call came, however, I was married, working full-time and considering the possibility of starting a family in the near future. Outwardly, the time did not seem right for such a move, but inwardly, I had the assurance that the Lord had called me to serve Him with my full time.

By the Lord's mercy, I was able to leave my teaching career and, with the full support of my wife, begin the Full-Time Training in Anaheim in the fall of 2002. It is a decision that has tremendously impacted my Christian life and my usefulness to the Lord, because it is in the Training that I am learning the contents of God's eternal economy (Ephesians 3:9), His plan to dispense Himself into man, as they have been revealed in His Word and rightly unfolded in the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. Furthermore, I am practicing to speak the truth of God's economy to believers and unbelievers alike, thus joining the Lord in His work (Acts 26:18) of unveiling people to see, enter into, and experience His marvelous, hidden work in the universe. In the Full-Time Training I am being made useful to the Lord!

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