III.    DR. JOHN SUNG'S FIVE THREE-YEAR PERIODS

       The plan CHRIST revealed to John Sung included five periods of three years each, of which Dr. Sung told me in 1931.  The first, typified by water, was a preparatory time.  Jesus gave him a new name, "John," and he was to “prepare the way of the Lord."  This "Water" period began in November 1927, when he was brought back to China.

       The second period was the "Door" period, from November 1930 to November 1933.  It was during that time that the door opened for him to leave his own province, Fukien, and begin a wider ministry.  And it was during the beginning of the "Door" period that he was with us in Nanchang and told me all this.  I wrote it down in my pocket notebook, and it was fulfilled to the letter, as I later checked it from time to time.  The fact that this all came to pass in such detail is proof to me that Jesus did really appear to John Sung in New York and tell him these things.

       The third period was the "Dove" period, November 1933 to November 1936.  During this time the Holy Spirit was poured out on the church in China, and Dr. Sung himself had some 100,000 converts.  Many others of us were greatly blest in our ministry; altars were filled with weeping seekers who got up with shining faces to -go out and give an effectual witness.

       The fourth period was the "Blood" time, from November 1936 to 1939; it was during this time that Japan attacked China, and China bled as its soldiers stood up and fought, in the north, and around Shanghai and in Central China, before they learned guerrilla warfare.  Dr. Sung himself bled during this time, having fistula, and bleeding bowels, until he could no longer travel, and had to go into the hospital in Peking.  The last few times he preached in Indonesia, he had to sit down, and the very last time he lay on a camp cot and preached.

       Then he entered the fifth, or "Tomb" period, or "Sepulcher" time, during which he was shut up, in hospital or in his home in the Western Hills out from Peking, and people came to him, and he held three meetings a day, lying on his bed.  At this time China also was shut up tight by the Japanese blockade, which closed all the ports of China.