These were the words of Brother Yun, the persecuted Chinese pastor at the heart of autobiography “The Heavenly Man”, to a packed conference room at the Christian Resources Exhibition on Wednesday.
“When I stepped from my airplane and landed in this country my prayer was immediately, ‘God may Your Kingdom come again upon this nation and may Your will be done in this nation and in the lives of the believers of this nation as it is in heaven,’” he told the audience.
The Heavenly Man documents Brother Yun’s escape from the Zhengzhou maximum security prison in 1997, when he claims the Lord told him to walk out of the prison, and upon obeying, he discovered each door open for him, including the main prison gate. He is believed to be the only inmate to have ever escaped from the prison.
He shared his experience: “Jesus walked into my solitary cell and He said, ‘Brother Yun stand up and walk out…I was so frightened and I said, ‘Jesus this is a top security prison, I have a lot of experience about prisons!’ But when Jesus takes action it is faster than your own thoughts. Immediately Jesus said to me, ‘Your prison is real but I am alive and I am the truth.’”
Brother Yun’s second book, “Living Water” is a collection of the messages he has preached around the world in church meetings, conferences, and during radio and television appearances.
“It brings a challenge to Western Christianity to return to discipleship and truly be disciples of Jesus. To be a believer of Jesus is the world’s simplest thing. Just believe in Jesus and you will receive eternal life. But if you want to follow Jesus as His disciple you have to get ready to pay a high price for that obedience,” he said.
“[You will] receive a lot of opposition, pressure, misunderstandings, complaints and pain into your life. Still, how many of you want to follow Jesus and carry your cross? That is the opportunity for transformation for our nation. It comes from here.”
In 2001, after years of persecution, arrests and numerous spates in prison for his faith, Brother Yun took asylum in Germany, where he continues his ministry. He likened his early years to being in a different kind of prison.
“When I came to this prison it was really hard for me to survive. I don’t know where I got the idea that God’s most powerful church is in the West, because they are the ones who sent the missionaries and the Word of God to my nation.”
Choking back tears, he continued, “When I went to the big cathedrals in Germany on Sunday morning I was surprised, such huge big buildings and only four, five, maximum ten people on Sunday morning worshipping God.
