The Heavenly Man (16 page)

In 1989 the Holy Spirit’s power exploded all across China in many different ways. Fewer people wanted to join the Communist Party, while more people wanted to join the Christian church.

Between 1978–89 most believers were elderly farmers, but from 1989 many educated students and government workers started to follow Christ. Even a number of experienced Communists turned away from empty Marxist ideology and decided to accept Jesus.

Even in my own village the gospel greatly prospered. Several Communist Party members withdrew their Party memberships, believed in Jesus, were baptized, and started to preach the gospel! Many sinners found salvation and the sick were healed. The power of the gospel became the subject of conversation among the villagers. Everyone seemed to be gripped by the awesome power and reality of God. Even the neighbours who had mocked my wife during the years I was in prison repented and became strong believers. They were deeply sorry for the way they had persecuted my family.

On the night of my arrest in 1983, I had shouted, “I am a heavenly man! My home is Gospel village.” This was now true! By the grace of God our village truly became a gospel village.

The authorities knew many people were being saved and great miracles were taking place at this time, but they decided to stay in their police stations instead of persecuting the house churches. They were afraid to touch us because they knew a mighty power was in operation. They knew it would be foolish and dangerous to oppose God’s people.

Our co-workers had never received any seminary training, but they were truly filled with the Holy Spirit. Every time they preached the gospel people were amazed at their teaching and the name of Jesus spread.
“When they…realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13
.

All Christian leaders were so busy we didn’t even have time to eat properly or even meet with our own families. Everywhere there was a Macedonian call to come and preach the gospel. It was an amazing season when we just tried to keep up with God and tried to bring in the harvest while it was still day time.

On one occasion I was invited to lead special meetings in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. Great miracles took place. The blind could see, the deaf could hear, and the lame walked. People who desperately needed the Lord surrounded us. They even touched my clothes hoping to receive healing from the Lord. Finally, it took six or seven strong co-workers to carry me away from the crowd and out of the meeting.

In Anhui Province more than two thousand people gathered for a meeting. Four people, who were considered demon-possessed by everyone who knew them, were brought to the front of the meeting while I was speaking. For years nobody had been able to control them. Doctors and specialists had tried to cure them, but they only grew worse.

One of these men was a terrible scourge to the church. He frequently tried to murder the pastor and demanded that the pastor bow down and worship the demons inside him. He was considered dangerous so the police handcuffed him during his worst spells. The believers had been praying for this man for some time, but he was no better.

When we prayed for these four afflicted people in Jesus’ name, three were instantly set free. The man with the murderous spirit, however, put up a great struggle. We continued to pray fervently for his deliverance until four o’clock in the morning, but he just continued to curse and shout out threats. He especially wanted to kill me. The powers of darkness inside that man taunted me by saying, “You say you have power over demons, but you can’t cast me out! This is my home and I’m not going anywhere!”

For hours we used every technique we could think of. We prayed many different kinds of prayers, but nothing worked. Finally, out of sheer frustration, we all gave up. We sat down and said, “Lord, we can’t do anything.”

Suddenly, while we were all sitting down in defeat, the Spirit of God came upon us and the demon-possessed man started shaking uncontrollably. We jumped to our feet and laid hands on the man. Immediately the demons left him.

We learned a lesson that morning. When we arrive at the end of our own strength it is not defeat, but the start of tapping into God’s boundless resources. It is when we are weak that we are strong in God.

During this time people’s hunger for God was incredibly intense. Unless you’ve ever been in such a situation it’s difficult to explain what it’s like. In some areas the power of God was poured out with such intensity that people came under the conviction of the Holy Spirit while walking to the meeting place. They would kneel down on the road and repent of their sins.

The needs were so great we didn’t know what to do next. Brother Zhang Rongliang and his co-workers asked, “What shall we do? Every place has invited us to lead salvation and healing meetings. We’ve become like candles burning from both ends.”

One day I heard a clear voice say, “Go to the wilderness and pray. You must pray and then preach. Pray first and then preach.”

At that time many leaders received a burden to start training new converts. We had focused on evangelism but now we decided not only to win souls but also to nurture them and see them grow as disciples of the Lord.

In April 1989 we started intense training programmes. Many of these Bible schools took place inside caves that were cut into the side of hills.

When God starts to move, the best we can hope to do is go along for the ride. All man-made plans and strategies
become futile and worthless, and are swept away like an umbrella in a mighty hurricane.

* * *

A short time after my release from prison I kept my promise to the late Brother Huang, and I paid a visit to his parents. It was three-and-a-half years since Huang’s conversion and execution. They still had their son’s “blood letter”.

I told them, “Although your son’s body is dead, his spirit is alive and he is with Jesus in heaven. His words to you in this blood letter are also alive. Today I’ve come to tell you about your son’s last request. He said you must believe in Jesus!”

Both of Huang’s parents were Communist Party members and people of high social rank. I could see the Holy Spirit was touching their hearts, but they knew it would cost them greatly if they were to become Christians.

After talking with them for some hours they stuffed a roll of cash into my pocket and thanked me for coming. I pulled the money out and put it on the tea tray.

I told them, “I don’t want your money. I want your souls! Now in the holy name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth I command you to kneel down and accept Jesus as your Saviour!”

Huang’s parents immediately dropped to their knees, and tearfully confessed their sins before the Lord.

To this day they have closely followed the Lord.

From the time of my release from prison in January 1988 until the middle of 1991, churches all across China invited us to preach the gospel. The Lord used me to share his Word in many far-flung areas, and many sinners came to Christ. From morning to night we were too busy to eat properly. We woke early in the morning to spend time with the Lord, and then worked hard all day preaching, teaching, and travelling, before collapsing into bed around midnight. Before the sun rose the next morning we would be awake, preparing to repeat the whole process again.

On the rare occasions we were at home we had to work hard in the fields, catching up with many jobs that had been neglected during our absence.

At the beginning of 1991 the Lord warned me from
Revelation 2:3–5,
“You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.”

I was burned out in the ministry.

In May 1991 a season of strong persecution again came upon the house churches. One night as I lay down in bed my wife suddenly awoke from a dream. Her heart was pounding and she was frightened by what she had seen. She exclaimed, “We must grab our Bibles and leave now!”

I calmed her down and asked her to tell me her dream. Deling said, “It was windy and rainy outside and I felt so lonely in my heart. I was pushing a bicycle along a muddy path. Two bags of your favourite Christian books were on the bicycle, making it almost impossible to progress up the hill.

“I struggled with all my energy, but I was getting nowhere. When I became exhausted and ready to faint I came to a small road. I pushed the bags of books onto the sidewalk and rested.

“Yun, the Lord has showed me that if you do not obey his leading you will be taken to a place you don’t want to go. God is warning us. Let’s leave now while it’s still dark, so we can flee from those who want to harm us!”

I told my wife, “Look, the time for the wheat harvest is almost upon us. Let’s wait a few days, then we’ll go.”

I felt my logic was sound, and I tried to make Deling see my point of view, but she told me, “If you won’t listen to me you will surely find trouble. You’ve become so stubborn in your heart and you always try to be a hero. You no longer listen to other people’s advice. You need to repent and pray that God will purify your heart.”

At that time the Holy Spirit even spoke to me from Matthew 2:13,
“Get up…take the child and his mother and escape.”
He told me to leave right away, but I didn’t listen to his warning.

Because I’d been operating in my own strength for months, I was physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted. My spiritual eyesight had grown dim and my hearing dull. Pride had sprung up in my heart like a choking weed. Instead of obeying God’s voice, I reasoned with human logic and based my decisions on my own wisdom.

My co-workers had warned me not to stay at home, but I didn’t heed their advice. I wasn’t waiting upon the Lord with a pure heart. This was the root of my failure. I was tired, overworked and backslidden in my heart.

Ministry had become an idol. Working for God had taken the place of loving God. I hid my condition from those who prayed for me and carried on in my own strength, until God decided to intervene in his mercy and love.

I was still getting up every morning at five o’clock and praying with other church leaders, and I was still reading my Bible every day, but I was doing these things out of obligation and habit, and not from a willing heart flowing from my relationship with Jesus.

Earlier in the year the central government had announced plans to arrest all house church leaders who refused to join the Three-Self Patriotic Movement. A law was passed that made all house church gatherings illegal. This allowed the authorities to prosecute us to the full extent of the law.

Four days after Deling’s dream, plain-clothed PSB officers ambushed me outside my home. They bound and arrested me. Every three or four days they had been coming to my home looking for me, but I’d missed them as I was always coming from, or going to, a meeting somewhere.

Because of disobedience and disrespect for the Lord, my wife, and my co-workers, I went to prison for a second time. The Lord saw I was exhausted in the ministry, so he graciously allowed me to rest in him behind bars for a while and learn about inner spiritual life.

If you are a servant of the Lord, let me encourage you to please, please, humbly watch that you don’t slip into the same error I did. The Lord God jealously desires us for himself. He is the lover of our souls. If we ever put anything before our relationship with Jesus – even our work for Jesus – then we will be ensnared. If you are burned out, stop! Rest! Your lamp needs a constant infilling of the Lord’s oil or your light will be snuffed out. Remember that
“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it…. Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!” Isaiah 30:15,18.

At my trial I was charged with “seriously disturbing the social order”. The judge sternly warned me, “Today we are sending you to the Da’an Prison Labour Camp. We’ve heard that you can turn the world upside down. We know you preach Christianity everywhere and within a few days you convince people to follow your teachings. If you do this in Da’an, we’ll be forced to teach you a lesson you’ll never forget.”

My co-worker Brother Chuan and I were sentenced to three years each. Guards handcuffed us and made us sit between two other criminals. We were put into a vehicle and sent to the detention centre, to be held for several months before being officially sent on to the prison camp.

I had already realized my sin and pride had caused me to fall into this situation. After arriving in the detention centre I repented with many tears and threw myself on the
Lord’s grace and mercy. He forgave me and increased my faith.

When I entered the prison the Holy Spirit spoke the following Scripture to my heart,
“Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened. But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.” 1 Peter 3:13–16.

All new prisoners, at least for the first few days, are “welcomed” to prison with severe beatings and torture. This is especially true of those who’ve been in prison before. It isn’t the guards who do most of these beatings, but the prison cell leaders. It is a way for these brutal men to exert their authority and show newcomers who is boss. The guards stand aside and do nothing to prevent it.

I was prepared to receive a beating, but one of the prison officers heard that a Christian pastor had been admitted. He planned to rescue me from being beaten, so he came and asked, “Are you the one who believes in Jesus?”

I replied, “Yes! Do you also believe in Jesus?”

“All my family believes, but not I,” he responded.

I told him, “You’re the head of your family. Why don’t you also personally believe in him?”

He smiled but refused to answer my question, saying, “I’ll talk to you about this at a later time. But now, tell me what I can do for you.”

My heart was filled with thanksgiving. I told the kind officer, “If possible, please loosen my handcuffs. They’ve already cut into my wrists.”

He then asked, “Would you like me to pass a message to your family? I’m willing to help you.” Within two days my family and some co-workers were allowed to visit me, through God’s blessing and the help of that officer. I thanked God. This was a very different welcome to prison than my first experience in 1984!

In October 1991, five months after my arrest, the PSB sent a special team of armed guards to take me and several other prisoners from the detention centre to the Da’an labour camp, which is located in Ruyang County in the north-west part of Henan Province.

When we arrived, the chief guard said, “This is the big trouble-maker, the counter-revolutionary leader Yun.” Prison officers gathered around me and asked, “Do you know Xu Yongze, the head of the counter-revolutionaries? Do you know the pastor called Faithful Hen?”

I replied, “Those men believe in Jesus!”

The officers brought out my file and said, “Don’t try to trick us. We know you are a partner in crime with those men.”

The first few days in the labour camp I wasn’t allowed to speak with anybody, and nobody was allowed to say a word to me. The other prisoners thought I must be a very bad person, perhaps a murderer or rapist. I was beaten severely.

The men in that place badly needed the gospel. The camp contained many ill and malnourished prisoners. Some were so sick they just lay down all day, hoping to die.

During the first few months the guards watched me closely, but I never discussed politics. The Lord allowed me to see the other men through his eyes of compassion. I prayed for the sick and shared the gospel with my fellow prisoners whenever I had the opportunity.

I was able to do this by making the guards think I was a
skilled masseur. While I massaged the sick prisoners I secretly shared the gospel and prayed for them. In this way many received the Lord Jesus with tears in their eyes and were healed from their infirmities. Soon every prisoner and guard knew I was a believer in Jesus and that his power to save and heal was available to them.

One day I was sharing the gospel with a group of prisoners. The joy of the Lord was in my heart. Several guards commented, “Look, this criminal is even happier than we are, and we are free! Let’s ask him to sing a song for us.” I sang my favourite hymn, “Let the world know I have a Saviour. His name is Jesus.”

Each time the prisoners returned to their cells they taught their cell mates the songs I’d taught them and the words they’d heard me speak. These men were desperate to grasp any spiritual light they could, because of their hard daily lives and hopeless situations. They felt they had no future hope or joy, so they cherished the Word of God like a priceless pearl.

One day the prison director got a sore neck, so he asked me to massage it for him. I spoke to him, and soon he realized I wasn’t the kind of person my file indicated. He told me, “You don’t act like the person the PSB warned us about. We’ve watched you closely for months. All the guards and prisoners have a good impression of you, so we’ve decided to let you become the leader of your cell. You’re responsible for the morale and behaviour of the other prisoners, and for making sure they do their work properly.”

The prison leaders’ attitude towards me changed for the better. They transferred me into the front office of the labour camp and gave me a variety of tasks. Some of my jobs included organizing the educational programmes for the prisoners, and selecting and broadcasting music over the
prison loudspeakers. I became the prison librarian, and I even helped edit the reports sent to the government to show how the criminals’ lives were changing for the better.

I’d hardly ever attended high school. My father’s sickness meant I had had to stay at home and work, but now the Lord had promoted me. I was working in four different departments: management, education, administration, and sanitation! There were some university graduates among the other prisoners, but the Lord placed his favour on me and caused me to be promoted.

My first two prison terms were very different experiences, yet they seemed to fit together as God’s plan for my life. The whole experience was like a much-needed Bible seminary for me. I learned more of God’s character and he taught me how to be a living witness for him. I wasn’t persecuted or tortured as I had been during my first imprisonment.

My first four years had been like Joseph when he was thrown into prison, slandered, and persecuted. But my second term was like Joseph when God exalted him and placed him in a position of influence and authority. I learned the true meaning of the Scripture,
“No one from the east or the west or from the desert can exalt a man. But it is God who judges; he brings one down, he exalts another.” Psalm 75:6–7.

Let me clarify, however, that I wasn’t totally free to do whatever I pleased! My co-workers were not allowed to see me. Only people with official written permission from the authorities were allowed to visit the prison camp. Many of my fellow believers were being hunted by the PSB at the time so they couldn’t risk applying to visit me.

I received very little news from the outside world. I wasn’t allowed to send or receive letters. Despite these restrictions the Lord did a wonderful thing to help me!

Along the outside of the prison wall was a line of small
shops. These shops had tiny windows in the wall that allowed prisoners to buy food and other small items from them.

One day I noticed one storeowner had a Three-Self Church hymnbook on the counter behind her. I asked, “Oh, can I please see that book?” She sternly replied, “You don’t need to see my book. It’s none of your business.” She hid it below the counter.

This woman was a believer who attended a Three-Self Church. She thought all prisoners were bad people, so didn’t believe I could possibly find her hymnbook of any interest.