A perfecting training for young working saints was held on September 8-10, 2005 at the Taiwan Convention Center, Taipei. Attendees saw, among other things, the overcomers' role and living in this age, as well as their glorious destiny in the coming one. As the Lord shepherds us to enjoy His rich pastures, the following are the enjoyment of some of the saints who were able to attend the said training.
I thank the Lord for giving me the chance to go Taiwan to join the Young Working Saints' Training. From the first day of the training until the end, the Spirit had been flowing richly. All the saints had a prayerful spirit. They prayed each time they gathered together regardless of where they were. They cooperated with the Spirit by their prayers, which caused the Lord to bless them richly.
Every message in the training was very rich and precious. The messages that I enjoyed the most are those on the Lord's coming, on being raptured and being martyred, and on the Lord's shepherding.
Concerning the Lord's return, we know that there are signs showing us that the Lord is coming very soon. However, we should not pay so much attention to the outward environment; rather we should ask ourselves, "What is it to me if the Lord is coming back?" We should not be spectators who merely await the Lord's coming. Instead, we must be those of dispensational value to bring the Lord back and turn this age of grace into the age of the kingdom.
Concerning rapture and martyrdom - before I thought that rapture was just something of the future and that it was something that would not be experienced by "simple" believers like me. Likewise, I thought that to be martyred was simply to be put to death whenever one refuses to deny the Lord. Through the message my concepts were uplifted. On one hand, our future is either to be raptured or to be martyred. On the other hand, we can also experience these two day by day.
Actually, to be martyred is to experience the cross of Christ and to be raptured is to experience the resurrection power of the Lord. There are so many things that we need to die to, like our lukewarmness, our heart of not being one with the Lord, our quenching our spirit, and many others. Whenever we don't want to "die," it is then that we need to die and experience the cross of Christ. In times we feel that we don't want to live, it is then that we need to live in the presence of the Lord and be in resurrection. Our daily life should be a matter of being martyred and being raptured. Daily we die and daily we live. The brothers put emphasis on the word daily. It is because our living today will determine our future. Abel was the first martyr. He was killed not just because Cain was angry at him but because Abel saw something and lived by it. Enoch was the first person to be raptured into the presence of the Lord. He daily walked with the Lord for more than three hundred years. Hence, rapture is an automatic result of our daily walk with the Lord.
Finally, concerning the Lord's shepherding, we often hear that we need to go and shepherd the saints. But before we can go and shepherd others we need to experience the Lord's shepherding. Then we can shepherd others with the Lord?s shepherding. Let us consider Peter. He was very bold in telling the Lord that he would never deny Him and would even die for Him. However, he denied the Lord not in front of the Pharisees but in front of a maidservant. After Peter denied the Lord three times, surely he was devastated and broken. We are just like Peter, we failed the Lord countless of times but the Lord never neglected us. Upon the Lord's resurrection, He told Mary to tell His disciples and Peter. How sweet this is! The Lord specifically mentioned Peter's name in order to cherish and restore him. Peter was surely shepherded by this that in his epistle he referred to the Lord as the Shepherd and Overseer of our soul. It is when we have experienced the Lord's shepherding that we can go and shepherd people. The Lord gave the commission to feed and shepherd His lamb after He took care of the disciples by the seashore in John 21.
I was also touched with the living of the saints, especially those from San Chong. Almost all the saints there are working ones. Every morning a brother or a sister would come to where we were accommodated and prepare our breakfast. Every night, they even bought us some snacks. These simple deeds have touched me and showed me their absolute heart for the Lord. They consecrated everything to the Lord - their family, time and their riches.
Today there is a need for overcomers and the way to become such ones is to live a life of rapture and martyrdom. We need to experience the Lord's shepherding in order to shepherd others to produce the overcomers and bring the Lord back. Come, Lord Jesus!
Grace Go
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Through the Young Working Saints' Perfecting Training in Taiwan, the Lord has shepherded my soul. He is shepherding me back to my love for Him in my bridal days of youth. This shepherding rekindled my yearning to be an overcomer for the Lord. It also stirred up my desire for His appearing. For the Lord to come back, He needs overcomers. Overcomers are those whose destiny is martyrdom if not rapture. They are those who daily live a life of being martyred and being raptured. Through the Lord's shepherding, I was able to make such a declaration, "My destiny, if not to be raptured, is to be martyred."
By having such a determination on how our lives should consummate, we would know how we should live today. Our destiny will control our living. The path we take today determines our future. We cannot be martyrs on that day if we are not living a martyr's life today. In the Bible, Abel was the first martyr and Enoch was the first to be raptured. Their living brought in their destiny.
We do not just wait for the day of our rapture or physical martyrdom. Day by day, we can experience the reality of being martyred and being raptured in our living. To experience the reality of martyrdom in our daily living is to experience the Lord's death. When we don't feel like dying, we need to die; when we don't feel like living, we need to live. To experience the reality of rapture in our daily living is to be in the Lord's resurrection by being in His presence. Whenever we fellowship with Him, His presence brings us into the reality of rapture. Day by day, we die to ourselves and live to the Lord. Oh, may we be constantly constrained by the love of Christ, so that we may daily live to Him. May our living and our walk be kept in the light of the Lord's appearing.
The Lord's shepherding me has also sown in my heart a desire to shepherd others. Shepherding is the highest commission that the Lord has given us. He has committed His possessions to us to be our talents. His possessions, the talents that He committed to us, are actually the people that God has entrusted us to shepherd. We need to treasure them and view them as God's possessions. Also, our shepherding is in the hope that the ones we shepherd will become overcomers that would hasten the Lord's return. May this vision uplift my shepherding and strengthen my service so that it will also be carried out in the light of the Lord's appearing.
Johanna Cunanan
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Throughout the ages the Lord has been longing to come back. We as His believers are not only spectators looking after the signs and prophecies of His return. We must be those cooperating with Him. In this age, the Lord wants to gain a group of overcomers. Without His overcomers, the Lord cannot come back. May we be determined to consecrate ourselves to be His overcomers.
To be an overcomer is to live as a normal Christian according to God's standards. In the training we have seen that as His overcomers we have such a glorious destiny! As brother Nee once said, our destiny, if it is not to be raptured, it is to be martyred! Rapture and martyrdom according to our natural concept may be something that will happen in the future. However, these must also be our experience in this present age. To be martyred is just to experience being conformed to His death and rapture is to experience the power of His resurrection. Our life is that of martyrdom and rapture! Everyday we die to ourselves and everyday we live to Him.
In the book of Hosea, we can see God shepherding His people that they may turn and receive the commission to shepherd from Him. They were people of apostasy and fornication. The same is with us today. The Lord loves us with His unchanging love. We may experience some kind of wilderness so that the Lord can shepherd and turn us back to Him. The issue of being shepherded by the Lord is we go and shepherd others, too. Only when we experience the Lord's shepherding will we be able to shepherd others. All of our experiences and environment were arranged so that we can gain more of Him. These circumstances allow the Lord opportunities to shepherd us. We are all under the Lord's shepherding so that we may eventually be those shepherding others.
Tracy Hernandez
