What Can We Learn From The Church In China? || January 20, 2011

I find myself frequently inspired by the testimonies of other Christians. Whether it be current Christians in their experiences today, here or abroad, or even as far back as the apostles and the early Church, what they encountered and went through.

I came across someone today that I hadn't previously heard of. I wanted to share some stuff with you from his story. He's a Christian in China, and I believe I have a series of videos on my favorites list on my youtube channel about the underground Church in China that's certainly worth watching through to really give us an idea of what it's like when our faith really costs us something. As I watch videos such as those, and read stories such as his, it really makes me stop and ponder.

You know, sometimes we just don't realize how good we have it so far. It makes you wonder when you look at the Church, the examples you can find in the churches here and in areas with persecution. You really have to wonder if it's, spiritually speaking, really worth it to have it so easy, when the Church is so much asleep. I'm not saying in any way that I wish persecution on us. That's certainly not something I wish to experience, especially in the manner which they experience it, but you really see a difference in how God moves in the Church when we really have something on the line, something at stake, and follow Him anyway. Like what Jesus said, that we must pick up our crosses daily and follow after Him. People in these countries and people in the past who have dealt with such resistence to their faith have had a huge change in their lives spiritually, a huge difference. You could really see God working through them.

This man here, I haven't read his book yet with his testimony in it, I've only just come across it today. I just read a page on a website, and it talks about his book with his testimony. It's got where someone is talking about various things the man has said, so this is basically a collection of things he said that I'd like to share with you. The link is: http://www.moresureword.com/brotheryun.htm.

The following was taken from the page linked above...


Brother Yun memorized a chapter a day from the Bible shortly after he began following Jesus. Here are a few of the things that I remember Brother Yun saying:

My first official certificate of ministry was an arrest warrant.

My first vacation house was a Chinese prison.

To succeed as a servant of God you must be willing to die for Christ.

We want to bring the gospel from the Great Wall of China to the West Wall of Israel.

Man can put you in prison, but no one can isolate you from the presence of God.

Jesus hears every individual voice of His sheep.

Your prison is Real, but Jesus is the TRUTH…stand up and walk out!

No matter how real your problems are, they are no greater than the truth of Jesus Christ.

When speaking on his prayer life, Bro. Yun said, He speaks in a way we can understand.

It doesn’t matter what others say Jesus is, YOU must know who Jesus really is for yourself.

Before I traveled 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 pursuit of more possessions will never bring revival. 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 Biblical 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. 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 - from THE HEAVENLY MAN, p. 295-297

Brother Yun's book, THE HEAVENLY MAN, is an amazing story of God’s miraculous provision and sustaining power in the lives of some truly heroic believers in the Chinese house churches. Brother Yun describes not just his own remarkable miraculous experience but I will never forget how Bro. Yun told of the training certain missionaries receive from their efforts:

Each 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 [sic] windows without injuring themselves.

This is not a normal seminary or Bible College! (p. 290)

To me it is no wonder why their lives are filled with the awesome power of the Holy Spirit and the rapid spread of the gospel in the house Churches of China. Their hearts are set on the spread of the gospel no matter the cost to themselves. This is a far cry from most American Christianity, especially the health, wealth, gain-is-godliness gospel.

I would encourage everyone to read Bro. Yun's THE HEAVENLY MAN. We all need such a look at what being a Christian means in many parts of the world. Brother Yun's book is truly the sort of eye salve that can help all of us see more clearly what will make a difference, and how that difference is made by the Power of Christ IN us.

With a heavenly calling, no difficulties can destroy your future.

If I am going to be a Christian, I want to be the BEST Christian.

You may be locked in prison, but never allow the prison to be locked in your heart.

It was pain, but it wasn’t suffering. (spoken in regard to his receiving electrical shock torture in prison)

When you share the gospel, you are promised God’s presence.

The American church is too much like a Supermarket, you always want the best “deals.”


Wherever you are, any time the gospel is being shared (school, work, wherever), God's presence is with you, and He's helping that word to be spread and shared. Even if that word is not being well received by the person you're speaking to, it very well may be that someone else is nearby, hearing everything you're saying, and perhaps the fertile ground is in their heart. Perhaps that's the person God is really working on and putting conviction on. You can't always necessarily see the results, and it may not happen at that moment, but perhaps the seed has been planted and will sprout later on. But no matter how the situation may play out, and no matter where we are, who we're talking to, as long as God's word is being spread, His presence is there as well.

Again, I haven't read this man's book and I don't know all of the details just yet, but I fully intend to read it now. It sounds very interesting and very thought provoking. But like I said, I've had this thought before and it keeps coming back to me when I see what fellow Christians have and are going through. Right now we might be laughed at. People might make fun of us. There are forms of persecution here in the west, but very few of us, if any of us, have ever had to go through the extent of what so much of the Church has gone through in so much of the world. I really believe there's a lesson in this that we can take, if we will.

There are videos on places such as youtube, if you'd want to research what the Church in China and other places throughout the world have to go through simply to follow their faith and live as Christ would have them live to share their faith. It really makes you stop and think about what's important, and how much more could we really do if we were willing. There are so many who have so much more on the line, and are willing to lay it all down.

What I wonder, and I include myself in this, because I really want to try to do more, is how many of us are really willing to lay it all down as well.

If it really came down to it, and we were to find ourselves required to lay it all down, to put it all aside in the name of Christ... We need to ask ourselves to really consider, Are we willing? Would we give up everything, if it came to it?


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