The Heavenly Man (3 page)

My life was dominated by my struggle with haemophilia. If I cut myself, the blood would not stop flowing for a long time. I seemed to be forever wrapping my feet and hands in old rags to stem the bleeding.

Because of the incredible pressure she was under, my mother became mentally ill. During the daytime she seemed quite normal but at night-time we often heard her talking to herself, laughing and crying. She would sometimes talk to the wall as if it was another person.

After my mother believed the gospel, the peace of God gradually conquered her and restored her sanity. This was a powerful witness to our family and neighbours.

I first came to Jesus because of my terrible physical affliction. My neighbour, a Christian lady, gave me a simple promise: “If you believe in Jesus, he will heal you.”

At the age of 18 I committed my life to Jesus Christ.

The very first night as a believer I was taken to my first house church meeting. The Public Security Bureau came and we all had to escape on foot through the darkness. This was my very first introduction to what it would be like following the Lord!

A few days after I was baptized I received a clear vision from the Lord while I was sleeping. A person led me to a lake that contained perfect crystal-clear water. I was told to wash my hands and feet because I had been totally wounded by my sickness. In the vision I dipped my scarred hands and feet into the water and I saw how my skin was completely healed and renewed. When I awoke the next morning I discovered my skin was like a newborn baby’s skin! What had happened to me in the vision actually happened while I was sleeping!

I have never suffered haemophilia again to this day.

Because of this great miracle the Lord was very real to me. Even though our lives were difficult and we faced persecution every day, I committed myself to follow Jesus regardless of the cost.

Two other young women came to the Lord at the same time as me. We attended meetings together. These were in different parts of the district so we often had to walk more than an hour to get there. After the meetings I often had to walk home by myself. This was quite dangerous because it was so dark and there were evil men and wild dogs out late at night.

God worked a great miracle to protect and help me in those early days. Many nights as I walked home I could see a light about ten metres ahead of me on the path, as if someone was carrying a lamp, showing me the way I needed to take. In the pitch dark I often lost my way, but then I’d see the light, like a small star, showing me the way to get back on the right path. The light wasn’t constant; it just appeared whenever I was heading in the wrong direction.

Because of many experiences like this, my faith grew quickly.

Every day from morning to late evening I read the Word of God. When I had to work in the fields I wrapped my Bible inside my clothing and took every opportunity to sit down and read. At night-time I took my Bible with me to bed and laid it on my chest.

In the beginning, reading my Bible wasn’t easy because I had only received three years of education. Furthermore, my Bible was in the traditional Chinese script, while I had learned to read simplified characters. I found a dictionary and painstakingly looked up one character at a time as I advanced through the Bible.

Finally I finished reading through the whole Bible, so I started to memorize one chapter per day. After 28 days I had memorized the whole Gospel of Matthew. I quickly read through the three other Gospels before proceeding to the Book of Acts and started to memorize it.

One morning at around 9 a.m. I was reading the first chapter of Acts. I started meditating on the verse in Acts 1:8,
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

I wasn’t sure who the Holy Spirit was. I ran and asked my
mother. She couldn’t explain. She simply said, “I’ve already told you all I can remember. Why don’t you pray and ask God for the Holy Spirit just like you prayed for your Bible?” My mother was illiterate and so she had a shallow knowledge of the Bible. She had learned only to recite a few verses she’d heard from other believers.

This was a defining moment in my life. I had a desire for God’s presence and power, and now I realized how important it is to know God’s written Word.

I prayed to the Lord, “I need the power of the Holy Spirit. I am willing to be your witness.” After the prayer God’s spirit of joy fell upon me. A deep revelation of God’s love and presence flooded my being. I’d never enjoyed singing before but many new songs of worship flowed from my lips. They were words I had never learned before. Later I wrote them down. These songs are still sung in the Chinese house churches to this day.

I began to wait on the Lord for his guidance, and a wonderful thing happened. One night around 10 p.m. – before my parents had gone to bed – I had just completed a time of prayer and had memorized Acts chapter 12. As I lay down on my bed I suddenly felt someone tap my shoulder and heard a voice tell me, “Yun, I am going to send you to the west and south to be my witness.”

Thinking it was my mother speaking, I jumped out of my bed and went to my parents’ room. I asked her, “Did you call my name? Who tapped me on my shoulder?”

My mother said, “Neither of us called for you. Go back to sleep.” I prayed again and climbed into bed.

Thirty minutes after again lying down I heard a clear voice that urged me, “Yun, you shall go to the west and to the south to proclaim the gospel. You shall be my witness and will testify on behalf of my name.”

Immediately I got up and told my mother what had happened. She told me to go back to sleep and asked me not to be so excited. She was concerned I was losing my mind again!

I knelt down and prayed to the Lord, “Jesus, if you’re speaking to me, then I am listening. If you’re calling me to preach your good news, then I’m willing to obey your call on my life.”

Around four o’clock the next morning I received a dream from the Lord. I saw the same loving old man who had given me the bread in my previous vision. As he walked towards me he looked into my eyes and said, “You should face the west and south to proclaim the gospel and be the Lord’s witness.”

In my dream I also saw a large meeting with a multitude of people. The old man radiated great authority before the crowd. He told me, “You shall be my witness to them.” I felt inadequate. In the meeting a demon-possessed woman came toward me. The old man said, “You should lay your hands on her and cast the demon out in Jesus’ name.” In the dream I did so. The woman struggled as if she was in the throes of death. Then she was completely set free from the demonic forces that controlled her. All the people were amazed because they had never seen such things before.

Suddenly in my dream a young man came out of the crowd and asked, “Are you brother Yun? Our brothers and sisters have been fasting and praying for you for three days. We hope you will come to our midst and preach the gospel to us. We desperately need you to come to our village.”

The young man told me his name, age, and home village. I was moved and told him, “I shall go to your place tomorrow.”

At daybreak I hurriedly called my parents and told them
I was going to preach the gospel because Jesus Christ had commanded me to do so. My mother asked me where I intended to go. I told her, “Last night the Lord spoke to me three times. He told me, ‘Go west and south to preach the gospel.’ I will be obedient to the heavenly call.”

I knew that the dream I’d received was from God, so I was confident that things would happen just as they had been shown to me. I told my mother, “After I leave today there will be a young man come from the south. He is 24 years old. He will be wearing a white shirt and grey trousers with patches over both knees. Christians in his village have been praying and fasting for three days. They need me to come and witness for the Lord. This morning I met this man in my dream. I promised I would go with him to the west and south.”

My mother didn’t understand what I was talking about, so I told her plainly, “A young man named Yu Jing Chai will come to our house today. Please stay at home and welcome him. Don’t let him leave until I return home.”

That morning I left my home village and started walking toward the west. When I crossed a bridge I met an old Christian man whose name was Yang. He asked me where I was going. I replied, “This morning the Lord spoke to me three times. He wants me to preach the gospel to the west and south.”

Brother Yang’s heart was deeply moved. He said, “Right now I was on my way to see you. I was given the job to come and take you to the west, to Gao Village, so that you can share the gospel. The brothers and sisters there have heard how you prayed and received a heavenly book. We want you to come and share its words with us. We’ve been fasting and praying for you for three days. They sent me to come and take you to our midst.”

When we arrived the whole village was busily working in the fields, as it was harvest time. But when Brother Yang told them, “This is the man you’ve been praying for,” they all put down their tools and ran to us.

We went into a house. I sat down on the floor and everyone crowded around me. I was quite nervous because I had never spoken to a group of people before. Thirty or forty people were all staring at me, searching me with their eyes, and longing to hear God’s Word. They were so hungry for the truth. There were already a few Christians in Gao Village but the majority of people had not yet believed.

I sat there with my eyes tightly shut and held the Bible up above my head. I declared, “This is the Bible. The angel of the Lord sent it to me in answer to my prayers. If you want to get a Bible, you will have to pray and seek God as I did.”

They all looked at me in astonishment, with their mouths wide open. The way God had provided my Bible caused great wonder among them. They wanted me to teach them. At that time I didn’t know what it meant to preach. I could only recite the Bible from the chapters I had memorized, so I recited the entire Gospel of Matthew out loud, from chapter 1 to 28.

I didn’t know if the people understood what I was saying or not. In order not to lose my place or forget anything, I recited what I had memorized quickly, like a flowing river.

When I had finished I was filled with the Holy Spirit and sang some Scripture songs that I’d never learned before.

When I opened my eyes I saw how God’s Word had captivated everybody. The Holy Spirit was convicting them of their sins. They all knelt down and repented with tears flowing down their cheeks. That night, even though I was just 16 years old, I learned that God’s Word is powerful. When we share it with a burning heart, many people are
touched. At that first meeting, thanks to the power of God, dozens of people had given their hearts to Jesus.

They pleaded with me to stay and continue to read the Bible. I told them, “God told me I must also go to the south to be his witness.” This didn’t please them and they wouldn’t let me go! Therefore I stayed and recited the first twelve chapters of the Book of Acts to them. I promised that after I’d memorized more of the Bible I would return to their village and recite to them what I had learned.

As I got ready to leave Gao Village a young woman came up and asked me, “You said you are heading south. Where exactly are you going?”

I told her, “There’s a man in the south named Yu Jing Chai. I promised him this morning I would go with him to his village.” This woman was surprised and asked me if I knew him.

I replied, “Yes, I know him.”

She asked, “Where did you meet him?”

I explained, “I met him in a dream that the Lord gave me this morning.”

She started to weep in front of me and said, “Yu Jing Chai is my brother!”

This sister had been the first believer in her family. She had then led her mother and brother to the Lord. Although they now lived in separate places, the three of them had been fasting and praying for me for three days. The Lord had put it all together as only he can. The Holy Spirit was working in such a wonderful way.

The people of Gao Village lovingly said goodbye to me with many tears in their eyes.

As I left the village to go home, something amazing happened. Gao Village is about six kilometres from my village. Most of the way is along narrow trails, so it can take up to
two hours to walk. Because I knew Yu Jing Chai was probably waiting for me in my house, I decided to run home so that he wouldn’t have to wait long for me.

As I ran I recited Bible verses out loud, and didn’t pay much attention to where I was running. Suddenly, even though I didn’t feel anything or notice anything happen, I found myself entering my home village without any time passing! What should have taken a few hours took just a few moments.

This experience is difficult to explain, but it was unforgettable. I believe God performed a miracle like that when he translated Philip in Acts 8:39–40,
“…the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away…Philip…appeared at Azotus and travelled about, preaching the gospel in all the towns.”

When I got home my mother was filled with joy. She didn’t even call me by my name, but called me Samuel. She cried, “Samuel, Samuel, the young man you told me about this morning, Yu Jing Chai, came to visit. He was dressed just like you told me.” I asked her where he was but she told me he had already left. I exclaimed, “Oh Mother, I asked you to make sure he wouldn’t leave! I promised him in my dream that I would go and preach the gospel in his village.”

My mother told me, “Don’t worry! Be patient and let me finish speaking. When this dear boy visited this afternoon I knew he was the young man you told me about this morning. His name really was Yu Jing Chai. When I asked him if his name was Brother Yu he was very surprised and wanted to know how I knew his surname. I then asked, ‘Are you Yu Jing Chai?’ He became frightened and begged to know how I knew his full name. I asked, ‘Have you come to ask my son to go with you to the south to share the gospel?’”

Brother Yu was astonished and asked, “How do you know?”

My mother explained, “Brothers and sisters have already fasted and prayed for three days that my son will come and preach the gospel to you. My son already promised he would go with you. But he went to the west this morning and will be home by sunset. Will you please sit down and have a drink of water?”

When Yu heard my mother’s words, he was so happy he turned around and ran home. He was in such a rush that he even forgot to take his straw hat! He promised he’d return at sunset to get me.

At that moment, right as the sun was about to set, Yu Jing Chai entered our yard. He was covered in sweat from the long run. He looked exactly as I’d seen him in my dream the previous night. I took his hand and told him, “You are Brother Yu, and you and others have been praying for three days for me to come. I met you this morning in my dream. Jesus loves you. I will come with you.”

We hugged each other and cried together. My mother no longer doubted my sanity. After she laid hands on us and blessed us we walked into the darkness toward his village to the south. When we arrived I again quoted all the Bible verses I had memorized to the people.

The fire of the gospel in our area started to burn that day. Not only did it burn to the west but also to the south. Later we encountered much persecution and suffering for the faith, but in those early days everything was sweet and wonderful.

God poured his Spirit out to many desperate souls. Like thirsty men in the desert, they gleefully drank in the water of God’s Word. Even though I was just a teenager, the Lord enabled me to lead more than 2,000 people to Jesus in my first year as a Christian.

In those early days my understanding of “the west and
south” was limited to those areas near my home village. Gradually, by the Lord’s grace, that territory has expanded over the years to include the whole of China and even to nations outside China.

* * *

When I first shared at Gao Village the Lord gave me Scripture songs to sing before the people. They wrote down the words so they could remember them.

One of the songs was taken from the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus tells us if someone strikes us on the right cheek, we should turn our other cheek to him as well. Another song taught how we are to rejoice greatly when we are persecuted for the sake of the gospel. Yet another song explained how we should never be like Judas and deny our Master.

After so many people came to Jesus at once, it caught the attention of the authorities. All the Christians in Gao Village were arrested and taken to the police station. The officers demanded to know, “Who brought the name of Jesus to you? How did you all come to believe in this superstition?”

The believers were filled with overwhelming joy. The only thing they would say was, “We won’t be like Judas! We won’t betray our Lord Jesus!”