The Heavenly Man (24 page)

Once I spoke in the West and a Christian told me, “I’ve been praying for years that the Communist government in China will collapse, so Christians can live in freedom.” This is not what we pray! We never pray against our government or call down curses on them. Instead, we have learned that
God is in control of both our own lives and the government we live under. Isaiah prophesied about Jesus,
“The government will be on his shoulders.” Isaiah 9:6.

God has used China’s government for his own purposes, moulding and shaping his children as he sees fit. Instead of focusing our prayers against any political system, we pray that regardless of what happens to us, we will be pleasing to God.

Don’t pray for the persecution to stop! We shouldn’t pray for a lighter load to carry, but a stronger back to endure! Then the world will see that God is with us, empowering us to live in a way that reflects his love and power.

This is true freedom!

There is little that any of the Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu countries can do to us that we haven’t already experienced in China. The worst they can do is kill us, but all that means is that we will be promoted into the glorious presence of our Lord for all eternity!

The Back to Jerusalem missionary movement is not an army with guns or human weapons. It isn’t a group of well-dressed, slick professionals. It’s an army of broken-hearted Chinese men and women whom God has cleansed with a mighty fire, and who have already been through years of hardship and deprivation for the sake of the gospel. In worldly terms they have nothing and appear unimpressive, but in the spiritual realm they are mighty warriors for Jesus Christ! We thank God that he
“chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” 1 Corinthians 1:27–29.

God is calling thousands of house church warriors to write
their testimonies with their own blood. We will walk across the borders of China, carrying the Word of God into the Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu worlds. Thousands will be willing to die for the Lord. They will see multitudes of souls saved, as well as awaken many sleeping churches in the West.

Hundreds of Western missionaries spilled their blood on Chinese soil in the past. Their example has inspired us to be willing also to die for the Lord wherever he leads us with his message. Many of our missionaries will be captured, tortured, and martyred for the sake of the gospel, but that will not stop us.

God has not only refined
us
in the fire of affliction for the past thirty years, he has also refined our methods. For example, we’re totally committed to planting groups of local believers who meet in homes. We have no desire to build a single church building anywhere! This allows the gospel to spread rapidly, is harder for the authorities to detect, and allows us to channel all our resources directly into gospel ministry.

Some people have challenged the fact that we are sending missionaries outside China. They say we should stay in China and win our own country before we go out. To this illogical argument I respond with a simple question, “Then why does your country send missionaries? Is everyone in your country saved?”

If we stay in one place and refuse to advance until we’ve completely finished the job there, we’ll never be able to impact the world with the gospel. Surely God’s way is for us to be winning our home at the same time as we’re sending new workers to the ends of the earth! Believe me, our vision to reach the world does not mean we’ll stop or slow down our efforts to reach all of China with the gospel!

The two will take place hand-in-hand.

In fact, I believe the best way for the Chinese church to remain strong is to keep it motivated to reach out to the nations of the world. When believers focus on serving the Lord and reaching the lost, God blesses them and the church remains sharp. When we become self-centred and critical of each other, Satan has won already and the church will become a blunt, useless instrument.

We knew from the beginning that there is a high price to pay for this Back to Jerusalem mission. I’m not just talking about money! I’m talking about the many Chinese who will be martyred and suffer as this vision unfolds. Many will go on one-way tickets, realizing they’ll never return to China to see their loved ones again.

We also realize Back to Jerusalem will cost a lot of money, but even though our churches are so poor, we have already collected tens of thousands of dollars to support our missionaries. Like the Macedonian church, many Chinese believers have given literally all they own,
“Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability.” 2 Corinthians 8:2–3.

The Chinese church is willing to pay the price.

Since my escape from China in 1997, I’ve been responsible for the training and implementation of the Back to Jerusalem missionaries.

When the first batch of thirty-nine missionaries left China in March 2000, thirty-six of them were arrested. They didn’t lose their vision however. They went back home, prayed, and found another way to get across the border.

Little more than a year later, the number of Chinese house church missionaries outside China already exceeded four hundred, serving in more than ten countries. The floodgates are beginning to open.

Each Back to Jerusalem missionary receives training in several main subjects. These include:

1. How to suffer and die for the Lord. We examine what the Bible says about suffering, and look at how the Lord’s people have laid down their lives for the advance of the gospel throughout history.
   
2. How to witness for the Lord. We teach how to witness for the Lord under any circumstance, on trains or buses, or even in the back of a police van on our way to the execution ground.
   
3. How to escape for the Lord. We know that sometimes it is the Lord who sends us to prison to witness for him, but we also believe the devil sometimes wants us to go to prison to stop the ministry God has called us to do. We teach the missionaries special skills such as how to free themselves from handcuffs, and how to jump from second-storey windows without injuring themselves.
   

This is not a “normal” seminary or Bible College!

If you ever visit one of the places where we are training our Back to Jerusalem missionaries, you will see how serious we are to fulfil our destiny in God. You may see people with their hands handcuffed behind their backs, leaping from second-storey windows!

Nothing less is required if we are to break down the walls that separate Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists from knowing the sweet presence of Jesus.

* * *

When the elders of the Sinim Fellowship heard how God had miraculously allowed me to escape from China, they
appointed me as their “Authorized Representative”, to speak for the house churches around the world.

The elders of the Sinim Fellowship drafted the following letter for me:

My first experience of a Western church was an interesting one! A Lutheran church was located near the refugee detention centre in Germany. On Sunday mornings I attended the service to be with other believers on the Lord’s Day, and to try to pick up some German by mimicking the preacher’s words.

After what I was used to in China, I found these church meetings strange indeed! I sat on the front pew of the huge, old building, right in front of a high platform that the minister, fully arrayed in ecclesiastical robes, climbed on to in order to preach. He always looked directly at me when he spoke. Despite the size of the sanctuary, the congregation consisted of just a handful of grey-haired old ladies.

The pastor and the old ladies seemed to like me. Although we couldn’t communicate verbally, we smiled at each other. I had the impression the pastor thought it was cute that a poor, smiling Chinese man came and sat in his church every Sunday morning.

* * *

Some time later I was again sitting on the front row of a Western church, but a very different scene from the Lutheran
church in Germany. I was about to speak in Times Square Church in New York City.

My eyes were as wide as saucers as I took in the amazing scene before me. A large multi-ethnic choir, arrayed in robes, swayed and sang to Jesus with all their hearts. Behind me several thousand New Yorkers declared the praises of God from the depths of their souls.

Of the hundreds of churches I’ve been honoured to preach in throughout the Western world, I would have to say Times Square Church is one of my favourites.

It has an atmosphere of grace and fire that sweeps visitors off their feet, and a spirit of truth and receptiveness that makes people’s hearts supple and eager to hear God’s Word.

When I’m at that big church, in the centre of New York, I can close my eyes and feel as if I’m back in China again.

* * *

About six months after my arrival in Frankfurt I was granted refugee status by the German government and was given a travel document. Some Western friends visited me. We prayed to discern God’s purposes in bringing me out of China and how we could work together for the glory of God.

We also sought the Lord for wisdom about how to bring my wife and children to Germany, so we could start our new life together. In May 1999, Deling, Isaac and Yilin travelled through south-west China into the country of Myanmar (formerly called Burma), where they were to stay for what we expected to be a short time until the necessary paperwork was prepared to bring them to Germany.

The Lord opened doors for me to share in many churches in the West. I travelled with my faithful Scandinavian friend, who translated for me wherever I went. This is the same
brother I met in Guilin City years before, when God bonded our hearts together to serve the Lord.

Over the next few years we travelled extensively in Europe, Asia, and North America, challenging God’s people to pray for and to partner the Chinese house churches, so that together all of China will be reached, and we will see the kingdom of God established all the way back to Jerusalem.

I visited my family frequently in Myanmar, but getting them out of that country proved far more difficult and painstaking than we first imagined. Because of the delays my family settled into a room at a Bible school and my children started to attend a public school.

Before I travelled to the West I had absolutely no idea that so many churches were spiritually asleep. I presumed the Western church was strong and vibrant because it had brought the gospel to my country with such incredible faith and tenacity. Many missionaries had shown a powerful example to us by laying down their lives for the sake of Jesus.

On some occasions I’ve struggled while speaking in Western churches. There seems to be something missing that leaves me feeling terrible inside. Many meetings are cold and lack the fire and presence of God that we have in China.

In the West many Christians have an abundance of material possessions, yet they live in a backslidden state. They have silver and gold, but they don’t rise up and walk in Jesus’ name. In China we have no possessions to hold us down, so there’s nothing preventing us from moving out for the Lord. The Chinese church is like Peter at the Beautiful Gate. When he saw the crippled beggar he said,
“Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!” Acts 3:6.

In a similar way, I pray that God might use the Chinese
church to help the Western church rise up and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s almost impossible for the church in China to go to sleep in its present situation. There’s always something to keep us on the run, and it’s very difficult to sleep while you’re running. If persecution stops, I fear we’ll become complacent and fall asleep.

Many pastors in Europe and America have told me they want to see great revival. I’m frequently asked why China is experiencing revival but most places in the West are not. This is a big question to answer, but some reasons are very apparent to me.

When I’m in the West I see all the mighty church buildings and all the expensive equipment, plush carpets and state-of-the-art sound systems. I can assure the Western church with absolute certainty that you don’t need any more church buildings. Church buildings will never bring the revival you seek. The pursuit of more possessions will never bring revival. Jesus truly stated,
“A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Luke 12:15.

The first thing needed for revival to return to your churches is the Word of the Lord. God’s Word is missing. Sure, there are many preachers and thousands of tapes and videos of Bible teaching, but so little contains the sharp truth of God’s Word. It’s the truth that will set you free.

Not only is knowledge of God’s Word missing, but obedience to that Word. There’s not much action taking place.

When revival came to believers in China, the result was thousands of evangelists being sent out to all corners of the nation, carrying fire from the altar of God with them. When God moves in the West, it seems you want to stop and enjoy his presence and blessings too long, and build an altar to your experiences.

You can never really know the Scriptures until you’re willing to be changed by them.

All genuine revivals of the Lord result in believers responding with action and soul winning. When God truly moves in your heart you cannot remain silent. There will be a fire in your bones, like Jeremiah, who said,
“His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” Jeremiah 20:9.

Furthermore, it’s only when we step out in obedience and share the gospel with people that we come to know God’s blessing in every area of our lives. That is why the Apostle Paul wrote to his co-worker Philemon,
“I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.” Philemon v. 6.

I’ve seen people in Western churches worshipping as if they’re already in heaven. Then someone invariably brings a comforting message like, “My children, I love you. Don’t be afraid, I’m with you.” I’m not opposed to such words, but why is it that nobody seems to hear a Word from the Lord like, “My child, I want to send you to the slums of Asia or the darkness of Africa to be my messenger to people dying in their sin”?

Multitudes of church members in the West are satisfied with giving their minimum to God, not their maximum. I’ve watched men and women during offering time in church. They open their fat wallets and search for the smallest amount they can give. This type of attitude will never do! Jesus gave his whole life for us, and we give as little of our lives, time and money as we can back to God. What a disgrace! Repent!

This may sound strange, but I even miss the offerings we used to give in China. On numerous occasions the leader of a meeting would announce, “We have a new worker who is
leaving tomorrow to serve the Lord.” Immediately every single person would completely empty their pockets of everything they had. With that money the worker would buy a train or bus ticket and leave the next day.

Often this money was not just everything we had in our pockets at the time, but everything we owned in the whole world.

Just because you have a church building doesn’t necessarily mean Jesus is with you. He is not welcome in many churches today. In Revelation 3:20 Jesus said,
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”

Often this verse is used as an invitation for salvation, but actually the context Jesus was speaking in was very different. He was standing outside the door of the church in Laodicea, knocking to get in!

Of course not all Western churches are asleep! Of all the strong churches I have visited in the West I’ve noticed one thing they all have in common: a strong and sacrificial commitment to missions among unreached nations. I’m not talking just about local outreach, or even attempts to start churches in other cities in your nation. I’m talking about a heart to establish God’s kingdom in the most gospel-starved and spiritually dark areas of the world, where nobody has ever heard the name of Jesus. When you start putting your time, prayers and finances there you will soon experience God’s blessing on the work of your hands.

The Great Commission has not changed. There are many churches trying to create a heaven here on earth, but until the Western church obeys the Great Commission and takes the gospel to the ends of the earth, people are just playing with God and are not really serious about the truth. Many churches look beautiful on the outside, but are dead where
it counts, on the inside. If you truly want to see God move, the two main things you must do is learn the Word of God and have the obedience to do what God tells you to do.

In Finland in 1999 I was asked to be one of the main speakers at a conference attended by about one thousand church leaders. The main speaker was a well-known American preacher. Every time he spoke it was about the love and goodness of God. During the prayer time everyone fell down on the floor and laughed.

After I spoke I commanded people to kneel down at the foot of the cross of Jesus, and they wept! Tears always come first before the Lord truly moves. He will never pour his blessing out on unsanctified and selfish flesh. The cross of Jesus must be at the centre of everything we do.

If you do these things you will see revival. Are you willing to give your all to God and to his service?
“Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.” Daniel 12:3.

Many Christians have also asked me why miracles and signs and wonders are so prevalent in China, but not so evident in the West.

In the West you have so much. You have insurance for everything. In a way, you don’t need God. When my father was dying of stomach cancer, we sold everything we had to try to cure him. When everything was gone we had no hope but God. We turned to him in desperation and saw him mercifully answer our prayers and heal my father. We reasoned that if God could do that then he could do anything, so our faith grew and we’ve seen many miracles.

In China, the greatest miracles we see are not the healings or other things, but lives transformed by the gospel. We believe we’re not called to follow signs and wonders but
instead the signs and wonders follow us when the gospel is preached. We don’t keep our eyes on the signs and wonders; we keep our eyes on Jesus.

Every house church pastor in China is ready to lay down his life for the gospel. When we live this way, we’ll see God do great things by his grace.

* * *

One of the most difficult things I have struggled with in recent years is being away from my dear mother.

When she was in her early 70s my mother suffered a paralyzing stroke that made her lose consciousness. After conducting a series of tests, the doctors declared her condition hopeless and said she would never recover. I was told her death was imminent but I was in prison at the time and unable to visit her.

She was taken back to our home to die. The believers gathered around and prayed for her. Immediately, in front of a room full of people, she regained consciousness and began praising God! She recovered her strength and visited me in prison. She told me that if it were not for God’s mercy I would never have seen her face again.

A few years later in September 1996, one year before I left China, I received a phone call while I was away preaching in a different province. I was told my mother had again suffered a stroke and was partially paralyzed.

I immediately left the meeting and caught a train to Henan. Arriving at the hospital, I saw my mother’s facial muscles were badly contorted and she appeared pale.

My mother opened her eyes and in a whisper told us she wanted to be dressed in white funeral clothes, as she was going to meet Jesus. During that visit, however, the Lord
clearly showed me her illness would not lead to death. I fervently prayed over my mother with great authority, rebuking the illness in Jesus’ name. She felt strength flow into her body and she got up out of bed and walked around the room! Her face became normal. When the doctors came into the room they were completely speechless.

In the summer of 1998, after I had arrived in Europe, my mother became gravely ill for the third time. On this occasion, everyone was sure she was going to die. Even my own family had given up hope, and dressed her in her funeral clothes. They even purchased a coffin and had it delivered to our house.

I had been so close to my mother all my life. We had experienced so much together, good times and suffering. When I received this news I was on the other side of the world, preaching far away in Switzerland. I called my home in China and asked for the phone to be placed close to my mother’s ear. I asked her, “Mama, are you listening? Jesus loves you, and he will heal you!”

As soon as she heard the words, “Jesus loves you”, she got up out of bed and started to dance on the floor in triumph! Once again, the Lord spared her and brought her back from the clutches of death.