Greatest Christian Revival in Church History Happening in China

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
9/25/2008

The greatest revival in the history of the Christian Church has been going on for the last 50 years in China, making it perhaps the greatest in the history of Christianity, a Chinese Christian leader told 600 Episcopalians at Church of the Good Samaritan in Paoli, PA recently.

"Under Mao Tse Tung there were 800,000 Christians. Unofficially today there are more than 130 million," Brother Yun, known as "The Heavenly Man" said through an interpreter.

Many think this is impossible in China, but God is doing a miracle that not even the Government can stop, he said.

Yun said he became a believer in Jesus Christ when his father was supernaturally healed of cancer.

"I received a call to serve the Lord and to preach the gospel during the Cultural Revolution in China. As a result, I was arrested and ended up in prison several times.

"A powerful missions movement is growing in China. The Underground Church is growing. We are taking the gospel into the darkness of Asia all the way back to Jerusalem. The movement is called 'Back to Jerusalem'. We are reaching into the strongholds of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism, breaking through with the power of the Gospel of Christ." www.backtojerusalem.com "There are two billion unreached peoples in five countries between China and Israel that has 50 million unevangelized Christians." Yun said that what is happening in China is that one million people a month come into the Kingdom of God. "Americans will not be the majority in heaven. The serious message God has given the church is to pack heaven with people. It is not enough just to sign a fire insurance policy.

"There are 8,000 vested missionaries in China. They are p[reaching the gospel, feeding the hungry, improving the health care system and building new schools. God never intended his church to be a bunker but a lighthouse."

Yun said that God is doing miracles as a sign of His presence. He told the story of a man who had died, and was placed in a morgue. When he went there, he had to rebuke the spirit of unbelief among relatives before the man was brought back to life. He left the morgue. "We are seeing the power of God at work in China as we have never seen it before."

Yun said he got the call to preach the gospel late one night when he heard God call and say, "stand up and be my witness to the gospel." Yun heeded that call.

A short man with an alive face, Yun met "the living Jesus" when he was 17. "My mother said I was hearing voices in my head. I said I heard a voice calling me. I shared my witness about Jesus. My father was dying of cancer and he was miraculously healed by Jesus. I kneeled down and told people to call on the name of Jesus. My father got up and said, 'I have been healed'".

"People came to me with their sick animals and God's Spirit moved and the animals healed. These people came from animistic backgrounds and when they saw their animals being healed, they confessed Christ."

"Other parts of China wanted to hear the gospel, so I moved from province to province preaching the Good News. But you pay a high price for obedience."

Yun said the state finally considered him a counter revolutionary and threw him in prison. "My whole team and I was chased down by authorities, surrounded, captured and sentenced to life imprisonment and ultimately death."

In prison Yun saw the misery men were living in. "I told them I was the heavenly man and I was put here to preach the gospel. 'You are a preacher we have been looking for, for many years,'" the prisoners said. "God took me to prison. They asked me to sing and talk about Jesus and many became believers of Jesus. I was persecuted by the guards. I stopped eating and drinking. Nails were placed under my ankles, but I was united with Christ. They brought people from death row to my cell. They were discouraged. There was no encouragement in their lives. They were criminals, but the Holy Spirit worked in wonderful ways."

Brother Yun said that whenever he found bread in his pocket, he broke it and gave it to the men to eat. "It just kept multiplying. There was always some left over."

Yun was finally released from prison after four years. In 1988 he went back to his village after refusing to sign a statement stripping him of all his political rights and agreeing to join the Three-Self Patriotic Church.

Looking back he said, "I didn't suffer for Jesus in prison. No! I was with Jesus and I experienced his very real presence, joy and peace every day. It's not those in prison for the sake of the gospel who suffer. The person who suffers is he who never experienced God's intimate presence."

END