I know when I was in training to work on that paper machine, I was, at times, anxious, at times tired, at times frustrated, and at times I wanted to quit. Here I was sitting in this classroom learning about a machine that has never existed and was in the process of being built. I didn't have any previous experience of this type of work, so I was hesitant about some of the stuff we were learning. If fact, the people they hired at that time were required not to have any prior experience, because they didn't want us to take the time to unlearn some of the things we could have learned on a different machine.

It was a brand new design with a new concept of production and the company wanted to start with everything new, including us, the associates. Paradigms are hard to break and they can cause problems, unless one is ready to relinquish their own personal beliefs and support those of a more correct way, once new light has come.

During that time of training, I don't think I have ever been as restless and as uncomfortable as in all my previous years put together. But I continued knowing that my job position was secured and what it was I was hired to do. I sat there and went over and over the basics of paper making time and time again. The "Subject Matter Experts" wore us out with it.

There was a tremendous amount of information we had to learn and absorb. We had to know it inside and out, backwards and forwards, it was absolutely critical to our own facilities success. So much so that it was said they invested over one hundred thousand dollars each in the training and preparation of those first forty-two associates!

Once classroom education was over, for the most part, and the machine now almost operational, we had to slowly approach the actual operation of it. For the most part it was part time on the job and part time in the classroom. You don't build a hundred million dollar machine and then let a bunch of anxious little children out to play on it. No, there was a testing time for our knowledge. A time where we had to know by experience that what we had learned was applicable to the actual operation of the machine.

It was, to say the least, a very tedious time consuming process of moving from the classroom to the floor and learning to operate that thing without the supervision of the SME's, but we did get there and we did produce. Eventually out producing every other paper making machine in the world, running at a faster rate of speed than ever believed capable and when I left they were still pushing for more.

Yes, although, painstakingly difficult at times, the training and "learning curve" did pay off. We, who were once the new kids without a clue, were now the best paper makers in the world. We were hired to do a job, and being without the experience required to do the job correctly, we were put in school to learn that job.

To learn every aspect of the paper machine we could. To know every part and function, even though we weren't initially allowed to run it, until the SMEs decided that our training and schooling was complete.

So we had to prove ourselves, little by little, that we were capable of doing the job and doing it right. Even though the machine was ours to run we were held back from it, until the time was that we could confidently produce to the expectations of those who were our trainers.

We must of necessity become mature in our knowledge of God and of Our Lord Jesus. Once this has taken place the machine will be ours to run. The estate has already been given to us, we are in "The Promised Land", it is only as we learn of it, that we are able to fully operate and appreciate it.

We own the machine, we have already been hired, we are in the land. It has all been given to us, in Christ. There is nothing that is being withheld from us. We should not be looking for the land, we should be learning to live in and through it.

Learning to live in "The Promised Land" of the Spirit. The Kingdom of God has arrived, it came with Jesus and when He died, He made it available to all. That's the mystery, it is already here. It is an extension of Heaven itself. It is just sitting here waiting for us to go in and possess it. Christ in you, the hope of glory!