God is near to those who call on Him, and China is a nation crying out. During some of the darkest years of repression and suffering, a man Liu Zhenying, known to most as Brother Yun and Deling, his wife, were two of the many voices crying out to the God among them. Until recently, Yun was one of China's most sought after house church leaders—both by people who wanted to hear the Gospel and the police who wanted to stop him from speaking. His story starts with a hungry, uneducated boy from a poor village and continually reminds its hearers that God moves mightily in the lives of those He equips as messengers.
Often referred to as "Heavenly Man", Brother Yun came to know Jesus through his mother. At a time when she was ready to hang herself due to poverty and her husband’s terminal cancer, Yun’s mother remembered the words of a missionary she had known before the communist persecution began; ‘Jesus loves you’. On telling her family these words, they decided to pray for their father all night long.
Within a week he was completely healed. After God healed his father, Yun became zealous for Christ, but wanted a Bible. Most people had never seen one; his mother could only remember a few verses. He fasted and prayed until he received a vision that God would give him the bread of life and make him an evangelist. Late one night there was a knock on their door and two men handed him a Bible, then left. They were identical to the men in his vision. He read it through, then started memorizing it. He would quote the book of Matthew and the Spirit would fall on the people in conviction. By the time he was 16 he had led over 2000 people to Christ.
Yun's life has been one marked with incredible suffering, but he would be the first to note the fellowship of sharing in Christ's sufferings. Hearing the events of his life is like hearing the words of the apostle Paul. "We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything" (2 Corinthians 6:8-10).
During one of the times he was thrown in prison, Yun was treated with unspeakable cruelty. The guards clubbed and kicked him ruthlessly, mocking him for his beliefs, and encouraging the other prisoners to contribute as tormenters. Many of his cellmates who were suffering from painful skin diseases and parasites would take their infected sores and rub them on his face. They stole Yun's clean blanket and gave him their blankets stained with pus and blood. His body was so weak from fasting and torture that the prisoners took bets on when he would die. Yet one day, much to their surprise, Yun stood to his feet and proclaimed in a loud voice, "This day the Lord has mercy on you and offers you an opportunity to repent and receive forgiveness of your sins." As if a bomb had dropped among these hardened and sinful criminals, they fell one by one on their knees, and with many tears received Jesus as Lord.
Also in prison, Yun endured a total fast (no food and no water) for 74 days. Prison officers even attempted violence to stop his "hunger strike". During another term, he miraculously escaped from Zhengzhou Maximum Security prison (from which nobody had previously escaped) when heavily guarded doors were left open and prison officers unknowingly allowed him to walk across the yard and out of the main gate. He claims that it was as if he was invisible, that the guards stared straight through him. Some lost their jobs subsequently for the embarrassing 'mishap' - apparently, the according to "The Heavenly Man" official investigation by the Chinese Government concluded the following: Yun received no human help in his escape. These reports have been confirmed by numerous prisoners who occupied the same prison cell as Yun during his incarcerations.
The deep sense of God's calling on Yun's life, and the intense need around him for the hope of Christ, keep Brother Yun sensitive to the opportunities God gives him whether in prison or in church. Moving from city to city, or from cell to cell Yun continues to preach the truth of Jesus Christ with diligence and obedience. Yun's entire life is a cry of his love for Christ.
When you actually read his story in “Heavenly Man†by Paul Hattaway, you are confronted by his devotion. But I am also deeply encouraged by a man who has seen so many miraculous victories in ministry and yet readily admits his shortcomings and bows in repentance for his sin. On one of his preaching trips, an elderly woman approached him with a message. "Yun," she advised, "you should not only love the Lord, but you from now on your should love and stay with your wife also." This admonition, he admitted, cut deeply. Though they have been married for over 20 years, Yun and Deling have spent less than a third of these years together because of his imprisonments and work in spreading the Gospel. Even as others urged him to keep ministry as a higher priority, Yun knew that God was calling him to repent, and put his family above his ministry.
In the life of a man who has endured unspeakable suffering and persecution for the sake of the Gospel, God is still at work destroying idols and images of all that He is not. Yun readily admits the danger of ministry becoming elevated above God Himself. And he admits that even this idol, God in his mercy destroys. "The Lord God jealously desires us for himself," writes Yun. "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."(1)
The stirring song of God at work that has resounded in those whose hearts are truly committed to Him is resounding in the life Brother Yun. His voice continues to cry out, "Jesus is truly worth knowing. He is worthy to receive our whole lives."
Yun has been out of China and living in Germany since Sept. 2001. After visiting a church in England for the first time he confessed that, "Before I traveled to the West I had absolutely no idea that so many churches were spiritually asleep." He said the first thing is to return to the Word of the Lord. His challenge for the Western church is to get back to basics, then join hands in partnership to establish God's kingdom throughout China and all the way back to Jerusalemâ€. ---Written by Jill Carattini
