Home of Grace for Christ Workers (English)

Travail for the Great Revival
“If I Perish, I Perish”  Esther 4:16

Dear Sisters:

Let us look Isaiah 66:7-8:”Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such a thing? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons.” “Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery? Or, shall I who gives delivery shut the womb?” says the Lord. Yes, nothing is impossible for Him! Because He said “Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass. “act and who can reverse it?(Isaiah 48:3, 43:13) Continue reading →

Run away from sins, be holy and useful to Him

Dear sisters,

First, allow me to bring you greetings and peace on behalf of all the coworkers at the Home of Grace in the United States. Let me also express my gratitude to the Chairperson of this conference for this opportunity to share. May glory and praise be given to our God almighty!

The first topic that I would like to share with you is “Run away from sins, be holy and useful to Him”

“Behold, the LORD’s hand is not so short that it cannot save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.” (Isaiah 59:1/2)

“Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.” (2 Timothy 2:21).

“Run away from sins, be holy and useful to Him” must precede revival and is the foundation of revival. It is also a must if any of us here were to receive His grace. There is nothing else more important! We need to be holy, because He is holy. “? Without holiness, no one will see God”, nor can we be used by God ( Hebrew 12:14). Our work has to be holy. Our service to Him has to be holy. Our family has to be holy. Most of all, ourselves have to be holy. Or else, God will hide His face from us and be angry. All our effort and labor will be in vain. Today, as we wait on the eve of the second coming of our Lord, Satan is trying his best; he is also on full speed to destroy, attack, tempt, poison and engulf God’s children, specially every one of those who are serving and useful for Him. We must be doubly alert and guard ourselves with close attention. Or we could easily fumble and be hurt and not even know it.

“I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues;” (Revelation 18:4). Let us listen carefully, because this is the voice from heaven. Babylon is the world of sin and Satan is the king of this world. He has already laid out snares of sins to trap men so that they can’t escape. So when God’s voice calls to shake us, wake up and run quickly from the net that traps us.

1. The snare of lust: Paul warned us: “Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18). Samson was a judge selected by God. Time and again, he was greatly moved by His spirit. He killed a lion with his bare hands and killed one thousand Philistines with a single piece of donkey’s jaw bone. But he could not conquer his own lust. He repeatedly gave in to the lures of his temptresses. In the end, he lost God’s presence and the power that God gave him. He brought great shame to God’s name. Dear co-workers! We are women that serve God. In our marriages and families, we must be holy. We must bear witness for Him. We must not only keep ourselves holy in body and flesh, but in thoughts and spirit. God’s workers should not carry on extramarital affairs, should not have any improper relationships in secret, should not live with someone without being married to the person. The scripture warns us: don’t lie to yourself. God cannot be slighted. A person reaps what he sowed. Therefore, among our co-workers, or fellow believers, regardless if of the same sex or not, we must remain blameless and holy. Many of God’s great servants fell victim and became captive to their own lust in spite of their great spiritual gifts and work. As a result, they lost everything and were totally ruined. Satan swallowed them alive. How heart-wrenchingly sad!

2. The snare of money-loving: “the love of money is the source of all evil. Many strayed from the truth due to their greed for money. They then pierced themselves with anguish.” For the love of money, Judas sold Jesus and became a man of eternal damnation. Achan, due to his greed for gold, silver and beautiful mantle, deceived and then tried to hide his sins. His actions caused the defeat of the entire Israeli camp by the enemies. He ended up perished along with all his possessions. In the past, I have witnessed the ruin of many Chinese who went oversea. They were tempted by “gold” and fell into Satan’s trap. Some even lost their lives. What tragic endings! We need to follow Abraham’s example when he met King of Sodom. He would not take one piece of thread nor one shoe string from the king. As servants of God, we need to be at all time and in every situation, never to sway, never to be tainted, never to take anything that can be considered as bribe, and to refuse any material gains that are even vaguely improper. Let us sever ourselves from all forms of greed.

3. The snare of the idols: The scripture said “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; ?.For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.” (Deuteronomy 5:8/9). Co-workers and believers in church and Christian groups often develop emotional attachment that is unhealthy or abnormal. Somehow they are drawn to each other or become each other’s idol. They are tainted; they then even sin and create scandals. Some worship their spiritual leader to the extent that he or she then becomes their idol. Similarly, we should deter other believers from worshiping us or put us onto a pedestal, because in the end we could potentially become their idol. God will not tolerate any deed or behavior that takes away His glory for ourselves, or puts ourselves in his position.

I recall my own similar failure in the past. This happened about 15 years ago while I was still in China. On the surface I was diligently traveling all over and fervently serving God. Outwardly, I was busy; inwardly I neglect to dwell deeply within Him. I began to drift. I started to show off myself and became idol for other Christians. I began to place my work and accomplishments as my idol. I further put certain individual young co-workers as my idol. As a result, I brought about great spiritual loss to myself as well as to many others. I sinned greatly against God. Praise Him; it was only due to His mercy that in time He brought me back to the “City of Refuge”. I retreated back to His bosom; set aside all of my work, stayed still and reflected on my deeds. In the light of the Holy Spirit, I saw myself covered in filth. I knelt before Him and painfully repented and was cleansed. I have a touching understanding of the deadly and devious scheme of Satan to contaminate Gods’ servants.

My co-workers! We are surrounded by many painful lessons. We must recognize that “idol” is what God abhors most. We must thoroughly destroy “idols’. We must want brokenness of our old selves. We must make invisible of ourselves. We then must love and follow Him with our whole heart and whole being. We need to follow the beautiful example and testimony of Apostle John that ?/span> He shall increase, I shall decrease?/span>. Let us, all through our lives be ?/span>only Jesus, forever Jesus?/span>. Only Jesus deserves all of our praises and adoration. Hallelujah!!

4. Snares of the World: We know that Demas, who was once the co-worker of Paul, left Paul for Thessalonica because of his love for the world. We learn that Lot nearly lost his life along with Sodom simply because he loved the world and was attached to Sodom. On the path to follow Jesus, many fall into traps of various sins of the world. The love of God is no longer in them. They no longer want to follow God. Consequently, they are often forever lost from God’s team? These are all our lessons! Today, many youth are deeply entangled in the maze of lewdness, violence, mysticism, ill-guided and ghostly websites and computer games. They have wasted their valuable times, health, schooling, even to the point of giving away their precious future. Some became affected by insomnia, depression, and can’t work or go to school. The vicious scheme of Satan! This is very much like drug addiction or gambling. Once you are hooked, it is very difficult to escape. They are in Satan’s bondage daily and surrounded on all sides by evil spirits. The consequences are hard to imagine. What can this world give us – only transient satisfaction of our fleshly needs; in exchange is emptiness, is chasing after the wind, and is pain and catastrophe! Therefore, the Scripture said “Do not love the world. If a man loves the world, the love for God is no longer in him”. Dear sisters! Are we still in Satan? bondage? Are we lack self-control? Why don’t we look on Jesus Christ our Savior? He will save us! He will free us! In the name of Jesus we are more than conquerors! Hallelujah!

5. The snares of gluttony and addiction to drinks: This is another of Satan’s trap. He wants man to seek only luxury and pleasure of this life. Man ended being absorbed in the limits of his own “sweet” small family. He lives a life of worldly comfort for himself that is completely devoid of eternal meaning. He is selfish and self-serving. He does not care about the life and death of others. He is totally ignorant to and insulated from the great commission, spreading of the gospel, church, and God’s work. The Scripture said “While they are saying “peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.” (1 Thessalonians 5:3). Time is running out! We must wake up and do what is good and right. We need to thirst for God’s words, be alert in our prayers, fervently saving the lost souls. We need to get away and be free from the boundary of our “self”.

6. The snare of the false teaching: The Scripture warned us: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

We have apparently seen the rapidly approaching end of the world. Satan therefore is trying his very best to deceive us with his treachery. He uses false and heretic teachings to bewitch the children of God. They add or delete God’s words, perplex people by words that appear or sound to be true but were in fact false. They twist or falsify His words, and also jumble up the truth. All of such deeds were done to entice and mislead God’s children onto the wrong path. Satan also uses “great miracles” and “supernatural happenings” to bewilder and lead many to go astray from the truth and follow other gospels. What treacherous and horrid fraud! Dear sisters! We must build ourselves on the most holy truth. We need to pray in the Holy Spirit and keep ourselves in His love incessantly. We need to look up for His mercy until eternity. Our sisters need to rise, aggressively equip ourselves to be the warriors of truth and prayers. During these treacherous last days of the world, stand up courageously to defend the truth. Be good witness for Jesus!

Isaiah exclaimed “Depart, depart, go out from there. Touch nothing unclean; Go out of the midst of her, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord.” (Isaiah 52:11)

Jesus woefully sighed about Jerusalem “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.” (Matthew 23:37)

Dear sister! Jesus Christ and His salvation are our only ” Refuge”. His words are our fortress. We can only flee into Him in order to be out of death and into life. That is the only way to escape from the tempting snares of Satan. Only then can we enjoy peace and rest in Him. We must be persistent in reading the Scripture daily in His spirit. Pray in His spirit. Let our lives bond tightly with Him. Let our every thought, words and deeds be yielding to His will and not man’s. We are women that carry on His great commission. We need to keep ourselves clean and blameless. Escape from the wretches of Babylon. Depart from the path of evil and sever ourselves from all sins.

“And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness?.” (1 Peter 2:24). God’s words are the evidence of our victory. Cross is the secret strategy of victory. Prayers are the weapon for our victory. We need to learn the prayers of David: “Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me in the shadow of your wings.”(Psalm 17:8)

“From the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” (Psalm 61:2).

When we offer such prayers, we will escape from sin, be holy and fitting for His use! His cross! His cross! May it forever be our glory!

Rebekah
A message on the Women Conference
In Nigeria of Africa (8/23/2007)

Mary’s Testimony of Psalm 16/4
“The sorrow of those will increase who run after other gods”

I had been thirsty for my mother’s attention since I was a child. I desired to get all of her love. Therefore? I had been very jealous of my younger sister since she was born. When I was about 14 years old, I believed in Jesus Christ. But I still desired my mother’s love more than the love of Jesus. When I could not get enough attention from her, I would lose my temper and cry unreasonably. I would not stop crying until she came to comfort me. Sometimes she was tired of my crying, and she ran away from me. Then I would lock myself in my room and cry bitterly on my bed. I was helpless and angry, and I felt like in the hell. I even rubbed off the skin of my face purposely to make her felt guilty of ignoring me. Once I really went to the mountain and wanted to kill myself in the river. How I tortured myself and my mother when she was a god in my heart.

Later a nurse became my new idol. I met her in the hospital because I was sick all the time. Her name was Lotus Lee. She was very pretty and pure just as a lotus. She was also good at looking after the patient so that every one liked her. She was calm and kind, and was quick to respond to the needs of the patient. How I admired her. Whenever I went to hospital, I desired to see her. I missed her as soon as I left the hospital. If I did not see her for a few days, I felt empty.

Even after God called me to serve Him as a missionary, I could not love God wholeheartedly. The love and care of co-workers and believers in the hard time became my comfort. They became other gods in my heart. When I was in the labor camp, God used some of my group leaders to treat me kindly. I was so grateful to them that I put God behind me. I loved them dearly as my mother and older sisters. I always desired to tell them what was in my heart. They were always in my heart. How I should have given thanks to the Lord and poured out my heart to Him. But I had other gods in my heart.

For many years God could not be the only God in my heart. Our Lord is a jealous God. Therefore, there was no peace but darkness and misery in my heart. Finally, I could not bear it any more. I fast and cried to God every morning to cleanse my heart and get rid of every idol in my soul. Every morning I prayed to God to set me free from any bondage of things, people, or materials. God was so merciful and faithful. He purified me completely before I realized it. Hallelujah! I no longer desired anything in my heart except Jesus Christ. But I still look up to His grace even now. I press on toward the goal more and more everyday. Follow the example of Paul to regard all things as rubbish. Work out my salvation with fear and trembling. Amen!

Mary’s Short Testimony
“The sorrow of those will increase who run after other gods”
Mary’s Testimony of Psalm 16/4

REBORN

O how wide and long and high the love of Jesus Christ is! What love He came to search me, this dying and lost sheep. What a sinner I was! I worshiped idols, resisted the gospel, and loved darkness and hated light.

I was born in China. My father was a very rich man. My mother was his third wife. She devoted herself to Buddhism and my younger sister and I also followed her. When I was eight years old, I burned my flesh to the idol by using incense. This left three holes on my left arm.

When I was fourteen, I was dying of malaria. One night, I woke up, my heart was beating very fast and I could not speak. All of my house members got up. Groups of servants were sent out to get a doctor. My mother was rubbing my cold feet anxiously. I looked at her and thought, “How she loves me, but she cannot go with me the way I must go now.” The fact laid before me was, ‘Death’ is not the end of everything. You are forced to go on a dark and unknown way. You have to go by yourself and no one can go with you. How dreadful it is! All of my sins were before my eyes. I asked sincerely from my heart to Buddha for help. But there was no response. I began to question in my heart, “Could these Beddhas be false gods?”

What a surprise that Mrs. Wu appeared before my bed at this moment. She was a friend of my mother and she was a Christian. When she heard that I was dying, she came to see me at once in such a cold winter night. In spite of that I had always resisted the gospel she preached to me. She told me. “You must believe in Jesus, the only living God, you will go to heaven after you die.” I thought that if she was cheated, I would also be cheated. She continued, “If it is not the time for you to die. Jesus will heal you if you believe in Him.” I thought, what a joke! I was getting worse and worse, I was dying. It was impossible for me to be healed. She told me again, “If you believe in Jesus, you will have peace in your heart.” What? Peace? That was what I desired the most at that time. I nodded my head and gave it a try. She knelt down at once and prayed for me loudly. As soon as she called on the name of Jesus Christ, suddenly it was as if a big rock roll out of my heart to the floor. “Peace” filled my heart. I fell asleep. Jesus Christ saved me from the edge of death. He redeemd me from the curse of sins by sacrificing Himself and shedding His blood on the cross. He gave me peace, He healed my illness and He gave me eternal life.

However, after I was reborn, I only wanted Jesus to bless me more and more so that I could enjoy my life. I had never thought about repaying God’s kindness. In fact at that time, I felt the most dreadful thing was to leave every worldly thing behind to become a missionary. But Jesus made me to offer myself to Him and clearly called me to leave everything of the world and to follow Him.

When I was in university, one night I attended a revival meeting. The speaker asked us to dedicate ourselves to Jesus. I was not moved. But when I saw my younger sister responding to the calling, I felt I had to do the same. Because I did not want to fall behind my younger sister and lose face. Then, I dedicated myself to Jesus against my own will. In 1949 when I graduated from the university, God clearly called me to be a full-time missionary.

Go Up To the Mountain

“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are you ways my ways’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.’” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Since I had already been called, I had been considering where I should go to be trained by the Lord. Two choices were laid on me. One was Home of Grace for Chrit’s Workers on a mountain in Hangzhou, and the other was the Devotion Seminary in Shanghai. The one on the mountain was newly established by the Lord’s servant, Uncle Chang. Life on the mountain was very hard. There was no other textbook except the Bible on the mountain.

At that time I thought I should enter the best seminary in China to learn some Greek or Hebrew or music and piano so as to be an outstanding missionary. How could I go to this desolate mountain? All my heart wanted was the Devotion Seminary.

I prayed for evidence of God for confirmation. But I did not get the evidence I prayed. God clearly stopped me from going my own way. Finally, God used the Lord’s servant, Uncle Chang, to push me to take His way. One day at dusk, Uncle Chang came to me and strictly ordered me to follow him to at once to the mountain for training. When we went up the mountain, I was shedding tears just as a wild donkey that was being forcibly pulled up to the mountain, because I was taking a way that was totally contrary to my natural taste. Blessed are those who fear and obey Him.

The House of God

“‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.’ He was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.’” (Genesis 28:16-17)

1. Be Filled With the Holy Spirit

Before I came up to the mountain, Home of Grace for Christ’s Workers I thought I loved the Lord very much. However, as soon as I arrived, it was as if I had been under a spiritual X-ray. All my hidden sins were exposed completely. I could only repent in dust and ashes.

Everyday everyone gathered together for Bible study, prayer, and confession. The Holy Spirit worked so mightily that the wind of the Spirit blew and the rain of the Spirit poured down abundantly! Many people were filled with the Holy Spirit. Some of us felt strange and were scared.

Afterward the Lord began a work of “thirst” in our hearts. We were so thirsty to be filled with the Holy Spirit. At the same time we emptied our sins more thoroughly. If we offended people, we wrote to confess and say sorry. If we owed someone, we made restitution. Thus we found out it was true that “ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you will find.” Pretty soon, one night when we were outside praying together in a circle, my younger sister and I were filled with the Holy Spirit almost at the same time. She was singing spiritual songs, and I was like a person who had too much wine. I felt that Heaven was open. I was sitting in the arms of the Lord and was filled with the Lord’s love. I was bursting with joy, and I started to dance with my hands for joy. I felt like Heaven was on earth. I tasted the grace of Heaven in spirit. Actually, there are many places in the Bible where being filled with the Holy Spirit is mentioned. We should return to being the humble children, who confess completely and purify themselves according to the Lord’s words. Then we boldly seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

However, we should never remain in the enjoyment of being filled with the Holy Spirit; rather, we should “eat” the whole Bible so that God’s words will be stored in our hearts abundantly. We should make every effort to become workers who have been transformed by the Word, the Spirit, and the Love of God so as to be an instrument that is after God’s heart and mind. How pity that we thought “being filled with the Holy Spirit” was the highest level in spirit. Therefore, we did not make every effort in seeking the truth and love (after we were filled with the Holy Spirit). As a result of it, most of us fell or withdrew in hardship and temptation.

2. The Word of God is Full of Power

One Saturday I followed one small group to practice gospel preaching. I looked around. There were soldiers fully armed; I was a little scared. Suddenly the leading brother asked me to preach because I had just been filled with the Holy Spirit. I was so scared, and I didn’t know what to say. Therefore, I simply closed my eyes, because I thought if I didn’t see the soldiers, I might not be scared. Then, I spoke softly with a trembling voice. “It is very good to believe in Jesus. All of you come to believe in Jesus.” Suddenly, I remembered two days ago, I read one sentence from the book of John. I recited that Scripture without adding or subtracting: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” As I spoke of God’s Word, immediately I was filled with the Holy Spirit. My entire body was lifted up and my feet were ascending from the ground. Hurriedly I held on to a bamboo pole beside me which was used to display a flag of the cross. I thought if I ascend into the air, the soldiers would arrest me. They would assume that I practiced sorcery to deceive people. When I finished preaching, I opened my eyes and the crowd gradually left. One soldier came to ask me: “Then how can one believe in Jesus?” I could not answer him, but invited him to come up to Home of Grace on the mountain the next day, Sunday. That soldier did come up to the mountain. He talked to Uncle Chang after the meeting. Tears was all over his face when they finished talking. That day he had repented and was saved. Later, I learned that he was a section chief and was soon to be transferred to another place.

This incident made me realize no matter how weak and useless I was, as long as I proclaimed God’s words, I had power to get hold of people. The word of God is the Spirit, the powerful hammer, and the sharp double-edged sword. Nothing is impossible with the word of God. Thousands of sentences of man’s words — filled with philosophy and maybe pleasant to listen to — are not as good as a sentence of God’s word that will bless and benefit others.

3. Know My Entrustment

“Do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will.” (Ephesians 5: 17) During that time, two young sisters were moved by the Holy Spirit to pray together for the work of Home of Grace for Christ’s Workers in the middle of night. Unexpectedly one winter night, they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They Holy Spirit sent them to go to America to set up a Home of Grace. This information gave everyone a great shake-up. My spirit was awakened. Most of us were busy with other things. These two sisters understood the heart of God so that they aimed their prayers for God’s work. God’s heart was zealous for His work. He wants to use this ministry to raise up billions of workers on the earth who are after His heart, to work together to accomplish His commission before the end of time.

Then I was moved and began to seek for God’s will earnestly. When I prayed in the morning, I poured out everything before the Lord and only desired God’s will. He made me know my entrustment was Eastern Europe. There was neither wind nor rain; the Lord made my heart clearly understand His mind, and at the same time He made me recall that I once asked Him one question: “Are those who are born and grow up in the atheistic countries destined to perish? Don’t you love them?” Now the Lord answered me. He not only loves them, but He is also sending me to preach the gospel to Eastern Europe where countries are ruled by atheists. Moreover, God used the Scriptures of that day, 1 Chronicles 11 and Romans 1 to speak to me. He wanted me to follow the example of Paul to understand the Lord’s heart and to go through fire and water without hesitation to preach God’s words.

The Lord’s love compelled me. Though I am the least, I dedicated myself willingly as the poor widow who was grateful and put all she had to repay the Lord’s goodness to her. Since that time, I have been praying for Poland everyday, because the Eastern Europe Home of Grace will be in Poland. At that time, my heart secretly determined: “Even if I need to crawl, I will crawl to the entrusted land that God gives me.”

My daughter has been healed
Testimony of Anna Wong

“I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come up to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2/1-4)

Since I was revived in 1990, I realized how important it was to bring up my daughter according to the word of God. When my daughter was two or three years old, I had a burden to teach her to intercede for the whole world. But how could I do that? She was too young to know so many names of the country. Nor could she memorize them. The Holy Spirit taught me to help her to memorize the name of each continent. Therefore, every night before she went to bed, I taught her to pray like this, “Let people in America, Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia believe in Jesus Christ. And let everyone on the earth repent and be saved. Let them be reborn. Amen!” I prayed with her like this every night. Pretty soon she could memorize it all by herself. If she did not say this prayer, she could not fall asleep. How amazing it was!

When my daughter was three or four years old, she had an illness in her hands. I brought her to the doctor. The doctor said she had the illness of “rich man’s hand”. All of her fingers would be infected. If she touched water, then the infection of her fingers would be worse. She must keep her hands dry all the time. There was no medicine to cure it. I thought it was so hard for her to keep her hands dry all the time. It was also impossible for a girl not to do any housework. How suffering it was for her to have this kind of illness? No one would dare to make friends with her when they saw her hands. I felt very sorry for her. Sometimes she was better, and sometimes she got worse. My husband and I could only leave it with God completely by faith.

After some time I myself could memorize the names of every country in the world, and the 48 cities of the ministry of Home of Grace for Christ’s workers. As my daughter grew older, two of us would join together to intercede for the whole world and the ministry of Home of Grace. Very soon she could pray for some part of it by memory. But after I returned to Taiwan, my heart became cold to the things of God. I loved the world. I stopped interceding for the whole world. In fact, I did not pray at all during that time. After I was restored again, I started to pray for the whole world and the ministry of Home of Grace. Usually I would pray loudly for the whole world by memory, and she would join me and shout, “Amen!” But I was so involved with my teaching job that I did not have time to intercede for the world with her. One day, her fingers started to have infection. It was getting worse and worse. Even both of her hands were infected. I was so worry and did not know what to do. I quickly brought her to the Lord. We prayed the Lord would shine upon us and search our hearts. Had she touched any things that were unclean in the eyes of God? Or had she done anything that she should not have done? We earnestly prayed that the blood of the Lord would cleanse all of her transgressions. Then she went to bed. But a thought came to my mind, “Was it because she had not prayed for the whole world and the ministry of Home of Grace?” The Holy Spirit put a clear burden in me at once. I was to write down the name of every country on the world for her to pray. And I knew I had to write them neatly in a large print. I was to post it on the wall of her room after I finished it. It was about 12 o’clock midnight. I was very tired. But I was pushed by the Holy Spirit to do it immediately. When I finished it, it was 2 o’clock in the morning. Then I post it on the wall of her room according to the conviction in my heart. At that time I did not understand why the Lord wanted me to do it. But I prayed to God for a sign. I prayed, “O Lord, if you truly want her to pray faithfully for the whole world and the ministry of Home of Grace, please help her to do it. Lord, please heal her completely as a sign.”

Next morning as soon as she got up, I admitted my sins to my daughter. It was my fault that I did not help her to continue to pray for the whole world. I also told her what God had put in my heart about the cause and the cure of her illness. God wanted her to pray for the whole world and the ministry of Home of Grace. To her it was a very difficult thing. She was a very impatient person, and she only knew very few words at that time. But she promised to do it because she wanted to be healed as soon as possible. Her illness had given her a lot of pain and inconvenience.

It was very hard for the first few days. Every night we spent a very long time to go through the name of every country. It was about two weeks later, one day she came back from school and told me happily, “Mommy, look, this finger has scab!” I could hardly believe what I saw by my eyes. I thought if a wound got scab, it meant it was getting healed. At first, there were only one or two fingers healed. Pretty soon there was no more infection on any of her fingers. Then all the scab was gone, her hands were healed completely.

I could not describe how shock I was about her healing. For the first time I realized how zealous our God was about every soul on the whole world and the ministry of Home of Grace. God even earnestly desired a little girl to pray for the whole world and the ministry destined by Him. When we aimed our prayers at God’s desire and prayed for it faithfully, even the dead would come back to life. (The doctor had said that there was no cure of my daughter’s fingers.)

God will answer our prayers for the whole world and the ministry of Home of Grace in His time. Does not it take only a little time, “till the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest.” (Isaiah 32/15) Let all the glory and thanks be given to our only true God. Amen! I am convinced, “Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.” (Joshua 21/45)

*Home of Grace for Christ’s Workers is a world-wide ministry. It is to provide retreat centers for God’s servants to regain their strength in Jesus Christ.

Anna Wong’s Testimony (September, 2002)

I. Revived

Thanks and praises be given to our loving Father! In 1990, God revived me through reading the Bible. He used servants of Home of Grace to teach me how to read the Bible in detail by a method of Comparative Bible Study. I had felt so content in my soul since then.
How much I had been changed since I pay attention to God’s words! I used to love window-shopping and buying clothes most. I could walk for 4 to 5 hours in the mall and look at those beautiful clothes without feeling tired. But ever since I ate God’s word I had lost all the desire of window-shopping. I even felt it was quite boring. I became very interested in opening the Bible and reading God’s words. My husband always wanted to take me to the shopping mall on the weekend. But I told him, “I am not interested in it any more.” He was so shocked about my change. Once I went with my older sister to a big department store. I did not even lift my eyes to look at any of the beautiful clothes in the store. My older sister kept on asking me, “Are you sure that you do not want to have a look in the store?” But I had lost interest in it.
This change was not from me. I was changed because I had found a treasure much more precious than this world. That was the Lord Himself which means the word of God. Nothing I had desired before could be compared with God now. The word of God has made my heart content. I no longer hunger or thirst for anything of this world. I used to love reading the Chinese Newspapers. I could spend the whole day reading through every page of it. But now none of these could attract me! All day long I enjoyed talking to my Lord. I was so happy to pray and meditate on the scriptures I read everyday. When I was walking, I poured out my heart to my Lord. I myself could hardly believe this change. I became so thirsty and hungry for God’s words all day long. How I loved His word! I was so willing to share what I read and heard in the meeting of Bible Study with people over the phone. Every verse and every precious insight from Comparative Bible Study was imprinted in my heart. I did not even have to open the Bible when I shared with people. But I had never been familiar with the Bible since I was reborn. It was so amazed that this kind of Bible studying could imprint God’s words in my heart. I did not care how people would think of me. There was nothing in my heart except sharing this treasure with everyone. How I desired more and more people come and taste the goodness of God’s words.
But as soon as I was blessed, Satan came to attack me. My daughter was getting sick with high fever all the time so that I could not attend Bible Study in the morning. I was so scared and worried about her. Sister Mary then called me to share with me the insight of the scriptures we read everyday. Then she prayed with me. She told me that this was a spiritual war. Satan always prevented us from paying attention to God’s words. It wanted to stop us to love God wholeheartedly. Mary advised me to resist Satan, standing firm in faith. Some sisters and brothers had burden to pray earnestly for me. Praise the Lord! God helped me to break through this barrier. He took away all my fear.
Satan was not discouraged. After that it put doubts in my mind. I was doubtful about the method of Comparative Bible Study. Was this method from man or from God? God was so merciful to me. He used a sister to help me. She told me, “If this method is from God, He will teach you how to use it for Bible studying.” At that time, I always depended on the speakers to feed me insights from Comparative Bible Study. I did not know how to read the scriptures in comparison. But in a very short time, God really opened my eyes. I could see the wonders in the Scriptures when I used Comparative Method. I was confirmed by God that this method of Bible studying was from Him.

(1) Be Holy

What had helped me most from Comparative Bible Study were: (1) seeking holiness; (2) intercede for the whole world. After I read the Bible carefully by myself, I came to a complete awakening. I realized why I could have sunk into sins again after I believed in Jesus. If a Christian does not read the Bible and pray, he cannot take root in Jesus. How can he have victory in Jesus? How can he fight against the devil? I had never known that a Christian had a battle field to fight. Nor did I know how important it was to be holy. I had no idea that as a Christian I must hate sins or keep myself away from sins. I had never heard about that we must attack the power of sins. I was so ignorant about how the devil would pursue our spiritual lives. Seldom had I heard any servants of God expose and attack the power of sins so boldly as Home of Grace. What I had heard in church was usually on the level of knowledge or theory. Therefore, I did not know what to do when I really faced temptations or seductions in secret. I could only surrender to the Prostitute. How sad I sank into sins again. I was so ashamed to ask help from anyone because I was a Christian. Satan came to accused me of my sins. I lost all my faith and strength; and I could only cry bitterly in darkness. Though I felt ashamed whenever I sinned, I could not stop it. I really did not know how to come out of it. God reached down from on high and drew me out of deep waters. He cleansed me and healed me by the Holy Bible. Servants of Home of Grace guided me to read God’s words carefully everyday by Comparative Bible Study. Day after day, and little by little, God’s words made me alive.
I know there are many Christians have been secretly swallowed or defiled by the evil spirits just like me before. How I mourn for them. I pray that as long as I live God will use me to snatch back Christians who have been swallowed by Satan. May God use me to help people to be saved, to have victory and to be holy by THE WORD OF GOD. May God’s word be regarded as the highest on the whole earth.

(2) Pray for the whole world

I usually heard servants of Home of Grace talking about their ministry regarding 48 locations of city of refuge and of Levites’ towns. I did not know what it meant. But I thought it pleased the Lord to care about the soul of the whole world. They always reminded us to pray for everyone to be saved on the earth. They also encouraged us to intercede for churches all over the world. Repeatedly they reminded us of I Timothy 2/1-4, “I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come up to a knowledge of the truth.” But how could we do that since there were so many countries and countless people? (Later I found that they had divided the whole world into 42 regions for intercession and for their ministry. There were 6 cities of refuge scattered over 42 regions. The principle of division was according to the population of each area. This was based on scriptures of Numbers 35.)
One day Mary showed me how to intercede for everyone and for the whole world. First, she gave me a piece of paper which listed every country on the earth and locations of 48 cities. She explained to me that I only needed to read through the list by faith, from the first country to the last one. It was just like sending a telegram to God. Secondly, she taught me to write down names of every relative and friend of mine on a little prayer book. I was to pray for each one by names to God everyday. In this way I was praying for everyone and for the whole world. It was quite reasonable to do, I thought. From that day on, when my daughter was taking a nap in the afternoon, I started to pray reverently to God for everyone and the whole world. It was so amazing. When I started to practice it as a child, the Holy Spirit became my teacher. The Holy Spirit taught me how to pray for each country. He also taught me that I should pray more for places that had touched my heart. At that time I had special burden when I prayed for India and Africa.

(A) Preach to the whole world

Before long I received an unexpected blessing. I had an unusual dream. In my dream, I saw countless people praying on their knees at a big open space. Everyone was praying for inheritance. (Inheritance means to preach gospel and to snatch souls for the Lord.) They were so earnest in prayers that their voice shook the heaven and the earth. Their prayers sounded like thundering. The Lord Jesus radiated standing in the center of them. He was giving orders and assigning inheritance to them. He told this one to go over there. He ordered that one to go over here. Everyone had got his inheritance, and they had all left for their inheritances. There was only one sister and I left. I thought it was terrible, only two of us were left here! At the end, even this sister was sent by the Lord, and she was about to leave. I was left alone. I felt so ashamed! Then I asked the Lord softly with shame, “O Lord! O Lord! How about me? Where should I go then?” I heard a very gentle laughter, the Lord said, “As for you, you go to everywhere all over the world!” Then I woke up in a surprise. What did it mean? I was very confused. But I knew this was not an ordinary dream. I shared it with Mary as soon as possible. She told me that the Lord wanted me to preach gospel for Him to everywhere all over the world.

(B) My sister was saved

There was another blessing when I started to intercede for everyone and for the whole world. One of my older sisters was converted to Jesus Christ! She was the third one in my family. She had been seeking the Lord for a long time. But she was discouraged by her environment. She did not have faith in Jesus because she thought her prayers had not been answered. Since I started to intercede for everyone, I put her name on my prayer book. One day she came to my house and asked me to do something for her. Then she left for her home. Later that night she called me and she cried so hard over the phone. I asked her what had happened. She told me that she almost died in a terrible car accident. When she was driving home, she dozed off on the highway. Within seconds she found herself in a high speed was going to hit the fence of that highway. She cried to Jesus, “Save me!” at the most critical moment. Jesus truly saved her from death. Her car was completely crashed but she was not hurt at all. That night she prayed with me over the phone to accept Jesus as her personal savior. Praise the Lord! When I finished that phone call, I clearly heard the Lord said to me, “You see! When you pray for the whole world, the Holy Spirit works powerfully wherever you pray for. Those who you intercede will be saved.”
This is a big gift that God gave me when I first started to learn to intercede for everyone and for the whole world. I was encouraged a lot. Maybe I will not have a chance to see any effect of intercession for the whole world. I truly believe that the Holy Spirit will work powerfully to convict the soul of everyone. The whole world will be on fire for gospel if we are willing to pay a price of intercession. The effect of intercession is beyond our imagination.

(C) My Daughter intercedes for the whole world

Since I was revived in 1990, I had learned to bring up my daughter according to the word of God. When my daughter was two or three years old, I had a burden to teach her to intercede for the whole world. But how could I do that? She was too young to know so many names of the country. Nor could she memorize them. The Holy Spirit taught me to help her to memorize the name of each continent. Therefore, every night before she went to bed, I taught her to pray like this, “Let people in America, Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia believe in Jesus Christ. And let everyone on the earth repent and be saved. Let them be reborn. Amen!” I prayed with her like this every night. Pretty soon she could memorize it all by herself. If she did not say this prayer, she could not fall asleep. How amazing it was!
When my daughter was three or four years old, she had an illness in her hands. I brought her to the doctor. The doctor said she had the illness of “rich man’s hand”. All of her fingers would be infected. If she touched water, then the infection of her fingers would be worse. She must keep her hands dry all the time. There was no medicine to cure it. I thought how was it possible for a girl not to do any housework? How suffering it was for her to have this kind of illness? No one would dare to make friends with her when they saw her hands. I felt very sorry for her. Sometimes she was better, and sometimes she got worse. My husband and I could only leave it with God completely by faith.
After some time I myself could memorize the names of every country in the world and the 48 cities of refuge and the Levites’ towns. As my daughter grew older, two of us would join together to intercede for the 48 cities of refuge and the Levites’ towns and the ministry of Home of Grace for Christ’s Workers. Very soon she could pray for some part of it by memory. But after I returned to Taiwan, I backslid and was captive to Babylon. I stopped interceding for the whole world. In fact, I did not pray at all during that time. After I was restored again, sometimes I would pray for the 48 cities of refuge and the Levites’ towns. Usually I would say those places by memory, and she would shout, “Amen!” Then I was so involved with my teaching job that I forgot to intercede for the world with her. One day, her fingers started to have infection. It was getting worse and worse. Even both of her hands were infected. I was so worry and did not know what to do. I quickly brought her to confess to the Lord. We prayed the Lord would shine upon us and search our hearts. Had she touched any things that were unclean in the eyes of God? Or had she done anything that she should not have done? We earnestly prayed that the blood of the Lord would cleanse all of her transgressions. When we finished praying, a thought came to mind, “Was it because she did not pray for the 48 cities of refuge and the Levites’ towns?” And I had a clear burden to write down on papers all of the places of the 48 cities of refuge and the Levites’ towns. And I knew I had to write them neatly in a large print. I was to post it on the wall of her room after I finished it. It was about 12 o’clock midnight. I was very tired. But I was pushed by the Holy Spirit to do it immediately. When I finished it, it was 2 o’clock in the morning. Then I post it on the wall of her room according to the conviction in my heart. At that time I did not understand why the Lord wanted me to do it. But I prayed to God for a sign. I prayed, “O Lord, if you truly want her to pray faithfully for the 48 cities of refuge and the Levites’ towns, please help her to do it. Lord, please heal her completely as a sign.”
Next morning as soon as she got up, I admitted my sins to my daughter. It was my fault that I did not help her to continue to pray for the whole world. I also told her what God had put in my heart about the cause and the cure of her illness. God wanted her to pray for every location of the 48 cities of refuge and the Levites’ towns. To her this was a very difficult thing. She was a very impatient person, and she only knew few words at that time. But she promised to do it because she wanted God to heal her as soon as possible. Her illness had given her a lot of pain and inconvenience.
It was very hard for the first few days. Every night we spent a very long time to go through the names for every location. It was about two weeks later, one day she came back from school and told me happily, “Mommy, look, this finger has scab!” I could hardly believe what I saw by my eyes. If a wound got scab, it meant it was getting healed. At first, there were only one or two fingers healed. Pretty soon there was no more infection on any of her fingers. Then all the scab was gone, her hands were healed completely.
I could not describe how shock I was about her healing. For the first time I realized how zealous our God was about the work of the 48 cities of refuge and the Levites’ towns. God even earnestly desired a little girl to pray for the ministry destined by Him. When we aimed our prayers at God’s desire and prayed for it faithfully, even the dead would come back to life. (The doctor had said that there was no cure of my daughter’s fingers.) The ministry of the 48 cities of refuge and the Levites’ towns is truly a work that will be accomplished by God. No one can hinder it! Nor can it be destroyed by anyone! God will set up this ministry on the earth in His time. Does not it take only a little time, “till the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest.” (Isaiah 32/15) Let all the glory and thanks be given to our only true God. Amen! I am convinced, “Not one of all the Lord’s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.” (Joshua 21/45)

II. Moved into Home of Grace

In 1993 all the co-workers in Home of Grace had a clear calling from God that they should go to New Orleans to set up the sixth City of Refuge. There was only one older brother had burden to stay in Baltimore. They asked me to pray for God’s will whether my whole family could move into Home of Grace in Baltimore. They needed someone to look after that older brother. I was so shock when I heard this big change. Who would teach me Bible if they all left? How I hated moving! I had so many stuffs in my house. This was terrible. I just moved into this flat less than a year. Did I have to move into Home of Grace? I thought I could do that easily without moving because I lived only few blocks away from Home of Grace. I went to tell my husband and a young sister in Jesus lived with us about it. None of them liked this idea. I could not make up my mind either. I tried to delay my decision on it as long as possible. I did not want to move until the last minute. Finally God intervened. All of a sudden, there were fleas all over my flat. Though my neighbor lived downstairs had a big dog, there had never been any flea. My husband, the young sister, my daughter and I could not rest day and night because of the flea. We asked the landlord to exterminate our flat thoroughly. But it was useless. Among four of us I was bitten the most by the flea. My daughter was the least. The flea bit me all over. I could only go to the doctor for treatment. The doctor told me that he could not guarantee my healing because the flea could be anywhere in my house. I was so desperate that I prayed to the Lord. I completely confessed my rebellion to God. That was why the flea attacked me the most. I had no excuse but to move now. In fact, I could hardly wait to move out of that horrible flat. Who could know God’s love and wisdom? Though I had moved close enough to Home of Grace, I was not in His destined place. God wanted me to enter into the place He chose for me. For there God bestowed His blessing on me. God used the flea to push me into His ministry of Home of Grace. From that time on I started to understand this ministry more and had a clear burden of it.

III. My Calling

In 1994 God called me to serve Him full-time in a dream. But before that I had knew my entrustment in a dream. It was like this: I was in a nursing home for Christians. All those who lived there were old sisters in Jesus. They were very weak and old. Each one had a container for spit beside her bed. I was there serving them and poured out the spit in their containers one by one. When I was pouring out the last container, that sister talked to me in English. She said, “You will return to your ‘hometown’ Beijing!” As soon as I woke up, I knew the first Home of Grace, Beijing was my entrustment.
One Saturday night the Young Adult Fellowship met in my house. One brother led us to sing a hymn, “I have decided to follow Jesus”. It was the first time I had ever heard that hymn. When I sang it, I was not touched at all. After the meeting, I cleaned up the house and went to bed exhaustedly. I had a dream: I was standing in the center of a group of people. Everyone was so happy and joyful. They were clapping and singing, “I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. The world is behind me; the cross is ahead of me. Never regret! Never return!” It was a farewell meeting for me to set off for the Lord. After the singing, there was a loud voice saying to me, “You come out NOW.” The word “NOW” was especially emphasized. Then I woke up at once. Let thanks be to God. I was not qualified to serve Him. But God clearly and truly called me.

IV. Leave Egypt and Be Blessed

Before the eve of 2000, God had assembled many brothers and sisters in New Orleans for an overnight prayer meeting for the new Millennium. I also attended it. I was especially convicted to quit my teaching job so that I could serve God wholeheartedly. Everyone there encouraged me to do it as soon as I returned to Taiwan.
But when I went home I did not quit my job. I did not have enough faith to face the reality. If I really quitted my job, how could I face my husband? How could I ask him to be the only wage earner in the family? All my relatives would scold me if I did not earn any money to help him. I also thought about my self-esteem. I felt very ashamed to ask money from my husband for everyday spending. In Taiwan, people look down on housewives. I had been used to easy and luxury lifestyle for the past few years since I earned lots of money. How could I maintain my lifestyle without a job? I was so reluctant to give up this fat salary, $800 US dollars a month. I told God every good reason and my desire for not quitting my job. But the Holy Spirit kept on pushing me. Finally I went reluctantly to my boss for resignation. But my boss urged me not to resign. She was so nice to me and praised me. It was not of character for her. I did not realize that this was from the devil to stop me from coming out of Egypt. I was so foolish that I thought I deserved praising. I went home and told God at once, “Lord, it is not my fault. You see, my boss won’t let me quit!” But the Holy Spirit would not let go of me. Therefore, I went to my boss for resignation again and again. But each time my boss urged me to stay. This situation lasted for few months. I felt so relieved and happy. After all I did not have to resign from my job! I did not have to face so many problems.
But then suddenly in April, Sister Mary came to Taiwan. She had planned to go to Singapore for God’s ministry. When she stopped over in Hong Kong, the Holy Spirit clearly moved her to go to Taiwan one morning when she was praying. She had not plan to come to Taiwan and did not know why. But she obeyed God. That was how she suddenly arrived at Taiwan. When I met her, she did not mention anything about my job. One weekend I accompanied Sister Mary to Taipei to visit a small church. It seemed that no one was really interested in her sermon. But just before we were leaving, the Pastor urged us to come back again. Immediately, I thought it was impossible. First of all, Sister Mary was going back to America soon. Nor could I come since I worked.
Then we went back to Tainan Home of Grace. It was midnight when we arrived there. We still got up about 2 or 3 am to study the Bible. I was very sleepy. About 6 o’clock in the morning, Sister Mary told me that she had prayed about the invitation from Taipei. She solemnly told me that I should go up to Taipei every Sunday to help that pastor. I knew this was a serious matter. I told her that I would pray for confirmation when I went home. And there was a thought in my mind: Unless I quit my job, I could not go up to Taipei. After I went home, I prayed about it. I was clearly confirmed by the Holy Spirit, “This is the time to quit my job.” By the power of the Holy Spirit I had no struggling or fear. On the contrary, I had peace and strength in my heart. But I really did not know how God would do it? All of a sudden, many students dropped off from my class within the next few days. God had changed the environment. Therefore, I went to tell my boss that she should cancel my class since there were very little students left. I told her I must resign; I did not want her to lose money on me. But she insisted that I stayed and she would not lower my salary. She would put ads for new students for my class.
Few days later, when I was reading Exodus 12 and Jeremiah 15, the whole chapter of Exodus 12 revealed to me. It was not by miracles that the Israel came out of Egypt. I always thought my boss would never let me go even if there was great change in the environment. But the Lord told me it was by the Passover Lamb slaughtered that the Israel came out of Egypt. The Lord made me understand that He wanted me to depend on His grace completely. God also promised me that He would do wonderful and great things for me. When I received these promises, I was completely relieved. I was so joyful. But God instructed me that there were few things I must do as He commanded me. First, I must continue to pay attention to Bible study and prayers. This was the source of my strength and faith to do the following instructions. Secondly, God wanted me to announce the date of my resignation to my boss, and then leave her office at once. God clearly told me that the date of my resignation would be May 10. Thirdly, do not consult with people. I should not tell my husband before I did it. That day I was filled with the Spirit of joy. I was so happy that I felt I was going to fly when I was riding a scooter. Why was I so joyful? I could hardly believe it by myself. Should not I cry about quitting my job or worry about my future?
It was by grace and faith that I became very bold and had no fear any more. But I carefully followed every instruction as the Lord told me. I continued to read the Bible and pray every day as usual. I also went to see my boss and told her clearly that I had decided to resign on May 10. Then I left her office at once as God had told me. I did not give her a chance to persuade me to work for her. The Holy Spirit miraculously stuffed my ears and I did not hear anything she said. How amazing it was.
But I felt very weak on May 10. As soon as I got up in the morning, my heart was heavy laden. I thought I would suffer from now on. I thought about how my husband would humiliate me when I asked money from him. All my easy life was gone. I could never spend money as my heart desired. I must be ready to face all kinds of despite, humiliation, insults, and accusations. I determined to obey God even if I had to die. That morning I had to attend a Woman Fellowship. I did not tell anyone about my resignation. After that meeting, I was still heavy laden. When I was going to unlock my scooter, I found the lock was broken into two. This kind of lock was very strong and was designed to prevent stealing. It could hardly be broken even by a big hammer or a saw. How could it break into two by itself today? I just bought it recently. I almost broke into tears. “O Lord, don’t you know that I cannot earn any money from Today. It will cost me a lot of money to buy a new lock. Lord, don’t you understand my difficulties?” I had no choice but to buy a new lock in the afternoon before I went to work. I paid a lot of money for it. But when I came out of the store, a hymn welled up in my heart, “All chains have fallen.” My daughter used to listen to this hymn. I understood it at once. The Lord used this broken lock to tell me that He had broken every yoke of Egypt and Pharaoh on me by Himself. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Who else could bring me out of Egypt? Who could have such a great power and an arm to break all the iron locks and bronze shackles for me? All of my worry, self-love and self-pity were gone at once. I was full of joy and praise. Then I went hurriedly to finish the very last class.
When I was teaching in the classroom, I felt it was so hard to leave those kids forever. I had been with these students for more than 5 years. I loved them as my own kids. I always invited them to my home for holidays. Now I would not see them again. I was so sad that I was almost in tears. I thought they might be very sad when they heard that I would not teach them any more. At the end of the class, I told them sadly that this was my last lesson. But none of them felt sad, every one was laughing. I felt angry and upset. I blamed these kids in my heart, “How ungrateful they are.” They had no feeling at all. I truly wasted my time and my love on them. Therefore, after the class I took my scooter and went home without looking at them. But on the way home, one Bible verse came to me, “Not a hoof will be left.” Then I realized that it was God’s doing. God wanted me to leave Egypt completely without any attachment to the students. Hallelujah! All glory to the only wise and almighty God.
To obey God’s instruction I did not tell my husband before I resigned. We used to have dinner very late, because I got off from work very late. After I resigned, I could cook dinner early and we had dinner on time. My husband felt strange and asked me, “How could you come home early to cook dinner for the past few days?” I was very scared when he said that. I answered him softly, “I have quitted my job.” His face changed at once, and he looked terrible. He went to the balcony and stood there for a long time. Then he came in and told me, “You will drink the wind from the north-west.” (A Chinese sayings means you will have nothing to live on.) I dared not say a word. I ran back to the room and prayed to the Lord for strength. My husband could not sympathize with me. Did I really have to depend on him for every cent for the rest of my life?
When my parents knew about it, they scolded me harshly. They said I was crazy to give up such a fat salary. They scorned me as useless because I stayed home and did not work. God gave me strength to endure all of it.
During that time I had hoped that my husband would be promoted and have a higher salary in July. Did not God promise me that He would do wonderful great thing for me? I thought my husband would absolutely get a promotion this time. But every application for promotion was accepted except my husband’s. When I heard it, I was very upset. I did not understand the will of God about it. Then the Lord asked me, “Now do you still want to follow me?” I said, “You know it well. You know it well. I will follow you. I will.” This was a test for me.
At the end of July, I was sent abroad by God to do His work again. God not only provided me with tickets and money for the trip. He also blessed me richly in that trip. There were three of us for that trip. I was not the speaker. I only helped them with some chores. But God made people to give most of their offerings to me. When I returned home, I gave some of the money to my parents as a witness for Jesus. Then I gave the rest of the money to my husband, he refused to take it. He told me that I should keep it so that I could use it to preach gospel to the ends of the world. What a surprise it was! My husband even agreed to take care of our daughter and the housework when I was away for gospel preaching. Later, he became a co-worker of our ministry. He helped me to make contacts with people so that I could travel from places to places without problems. My parents were very against me because I served the Lord full-time. They usually put lots of pressure on me. This was my cross. God permitted it, and used them to test my heart. My husband usually defended for me before my parents when there were persecutions or troubles. Sometimes when I called him from mission field, he would comfort me. He told me not to worry about my parents; he would cover me up. Though he was not very happy about taking care of our daughter and the housework when I was away, he always did it in obedience of God. He even supported me with tickets and spendings for my missionary trips. He also helped me with money changing and many things regarding my ministry. I truly believed that God would remember him and reward him greatly for everything he had done to support His ministry.
In this way I had lived by faith for one year. I had lacked of nothing. I could even afford to go abroad for God’s works many times. It was out of my expectation that my husband would have helped me and supported me.
In 2001 the end of July, my husband successfully passed the evaluation in the university. He not only became a full professor but a director. The amount of salary raised by the university every month was exactly the amount I earned before I quit. It was not a cent more, or less. How faithful, wonderful and almighty our God is! Even my husband was so surprised that he was speechless. In addition to it, he was chosen as the best professor of the year in his university. He received a big prize and a huge amount of reward. But my husband was not eloquent at all; he could hardly express himself clearly. I witnessed to him: These honor and reward were from God. It was because he had been helping me with our daughter and the housework when I was away for God’s works. My husband agreed with me, nodding his head all the time, and said, “Amen.”
For the past few years there was a recession in Taiwan. Lots of people were either laid off or lowered their salary. But my family was blessed abundantly by God. My parents had been also blessed since I obeyed the Lord to serve Him full-time. Our love to the Lord and our labor in the Lord will never be in vain!
I was just an ordinary house wife. But the Lord has worked so much on me to mold me into His works. I believed God’s calling and His higher will are touching on the lives of tens of thousands of women. God calls us not only to be the wise and noble women, but also to be the women preaching good news. This does not mean to throw away our families. It means we must surrender to God’s higher calling completely. When we are very clear about the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we shall obey God to go anywhere He wants us to go for gospel preaching.
For the past few years, my co-workers and I have never gone any place by our own will. We have always sought carefully for confirmation from the word of God, the Bible, and environment for each trip. Willingly we have paid the costs of every missionary trip by ourselves. We have never depended on any organization. We look upon God’s provision wholeheartedly. We have seldom received any offerings because we usually go to new locations for opening up for Home of Grace. But we joyfully give offerings to the needy. Neither have we wasted any offerings given to God’s works. In His grace we simply serve God in a good conscience.
When there is a conflict between God’s mind and man’s. We must absolutely follow God’s mind. We must love God more than anything. I do not mean that I am very strong or I have conquered all the troubles. I know that I am the weakest of all. I am the least who will leave home for gospel preaching. But I have experienced how the Lord has helped me to overcome every trouble. Each time God is faithful. He even changed environment for me. Therefore, I could only obey His words and the Holy Spirit to go where He sent me and to do what He wanted me to do.
It is a pity that for the past few years I had not progressed in terms of spiritual life. I had so much failure and struggling in taking the narrow way. The main hindrance was the problem of “self”. I was reluctant to live for Jesus. I always regarded myself and my family as the first priority. When the Holy Spirit convicted me, I cried very hard. But when it was time to take action, I could not follow Jesus as Ruth, leaving everything behind to follow the suffering mother-in-law Naomi. Therefore, many who are the last now are ahead of me. I pray that the Lord will get rid of “Orpah” in my heart and change me into a real “Ruth”. I pray that for the rest of life I will go and stay where God wants me to stay. I will die where God wants me to die. I want to accomplish His will and make His heart content. I am convinced that God is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.

Anna Wong

Triumph By The Cross

After I became a Christian, I often experienced “I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” Sometimes I drew back in my spiritual growth. It happens repeatedly in my life of seeking God. If I were like some of the Christians who sin without guilty and do not seek God, I will not struggle nor suffer. I have the desire to do what is good, but I have no strength to overcome my sinful nature. So I often sighed, “what a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” What a pity that I am a failure even though I have been a Christian for several years.
Through reading the Bible, I gradually understand that God’s salvation is perfect through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. “The gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” Why can’t I receive by faith? The reason is simple. Justification is the entrance and sanctification is the process. We must keep on seeking God. We need to crucify ourselves (all sins and weakness of our flesh) on the cross through the Holy Spirit by faith. Just as Paul said, “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.” (Romans 6:6-11) Moses lifted up the bronze snake in the desert. When anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived. Jesus must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life (Numbers 21:8-9, John 3:14-15). Just as Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, humbled himself to obey Elisha and washed himself seven times in the Jordan, his leprosy was cured. The change of life does not happen in one day. It happens when we cleanse ourselves with God’s Word daily and deal with our old self daily. Then I began to learn about God’s Word, and apply it in my life. Gradually and unconsciously, my life is renewed and changed by the Word and the Spirit of God. Although I failed, was discouraged or stopped growing sometimes, I insisted to keep on moving forward by God’s grace. As a result of it, I really experienced the power of salvation through Jesus. I have died with Christ, and I have lived with Christ. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the sinful nature and actions I want to put to death include my pride, arrogance, jealousy, hatred, greed, vanity, selfishness, evil and filth, etc. Meanwhile, I live by faith with the character of Christ – love, righteousness, holiness, honesty, peace, sacrifice, and humility. I cannot do it by myself through my own struggle or effort. Christ has completed the redemption on the cross. Only by faith can I accept, apply and experience that the victory of Christ has become mine. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! God makes Christ be my wisdom, righteousness, holiness and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). I also acknowledge the experience of crucifixion explained three times in Paul’s letter-Galatians (Galatians 2:20, 5:24, 6:14).
In fact, it is extremely difficult to learn the lesson of “death”. I cannot die thoroughly in my old self; I cannot live the new life in Christ. Why? Because I did not make up my mind before God. When I faced the struggle between the Holy Spirit and the flesh, I did not obey the Holy Spirit all the time. I did not determine to do good. Deep down my heart, I even liked sin, tended to sin, and clung to sin. How could I cut off sin when I did not hate nor leave sin that God hates? Jesus said, “the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” (Matthew 11:12) I realize that whenever I make effort to do good by the Holy Spirit and through Bible study and prayer, I can experience “sanctification by the Word” and triumph by the cross! On the contrary, whenever I am lazy, conceited, disobedient to the Word and the Spirit, I fail and draw back in spiritual growth. Even up to present, I am weak sometimes. But I give thanks to the Lord. His power is made perfect in weakness. “He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you.” (2 Corinthians 13:3) Therefore, we must insist on Bible study, prayer, and train ourselves to be holy consistently. Let us commune to God daily through obeying His Word, so our lives can grow daily. We must depend on the Holy Spirit, and resist sin without compromise even if we must bleed. We must renounce evil and overcome evil (Refer to Matthew 5:29-30).
When I recall my past, I see that God allowed me to experience a lot of failure and go astray. He wants me to see that nothing is good in my sinful nature! How corruptive is our old self. There is no other way of salvation except through Christ! So every triumph in life is from the grace of God. There is nothing to be boasted. If the branches are apart from the vine, they will wither, without bearing fruits. Apart from the Lord, you can do nothing! “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights…” (James 1:17a) Therefore, all my life I only boast the grace and the cross of the Lord!
The process of our sanctification is the process of obedience to God’s Word, just as Christ asked the Father to sanctify us by the truth. God’s Word is truth (John 17:17). How can you be sanctified if you are apart from God’s Word? Apart from His Word is apart from God. Depending on ourselves only brings sin, and sin become worse and worse until unsolvable. Today we have the promises of victory and sanctification in the Bible (2 Corinthians 7:1, 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24). We must make our effort to seek God. We must forget what is behind and strain what is ahead. We must not sigh any longer and must sing the triumphant song with Paul: “Thanks to be God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25a)
Before the Lord is coming, Satan uses all the ways he can to deceive and persecute the children of God. His purpose is to lead us go astray and betray the Word! We are encountering great tests! We must be planted in the Word of God. Keep the Word persistently by God’s grace, and guard it steadily (2 Timothy 1:13, 14). Never stop seeking the life for it cannot be accomplished once for all! Otherwise, you will fail as David, who sinned due to easy life in his palace. Let us remember the teaching of the Lord: “Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:36)
Let’s pray and ask God to help us keep His Word with alert all our lives, and abide in Him. Edify ourselves in His holy Word, and preserve us in His love often. Love what the Lord loves and hates what the Lord hates! Let us be like Paul, beating the body and making it slave, triumphing by the cross, sharing the Gospel as mission and debt. Let us lift up the cross all our lives, share the good news, and follow the Lord forever!

“In the cross, in the cross. Be my glory ever;
All my sins are washed away by the blood of Jesus.
In the cross, in the cross. Be my glory ever;
Depend on the Holy Spirit by faith. Crucify the old self.
In the cross, in the cross. Be my glory ever;
Look upon the cross daily. Live the life of Christ.”

A Letter to Pastor Thomas Wang
—— by Mary and her seven co-workers

Faithful servant of God Pastor Thomas Wang:

I am thankful that God gives me a chance to attend the meeting of GCOWE’95 regarding the AD 2000 & Beyond Movement. For years, my co-workers and I have been praying day and night for the spread of the gospel and the coming of the worldwide revival. Therefore, when we learned that God has gathered so many of his servants from so many countries for this meeting, we feel particularly grateful and excited. We pray many times a day for this meeting, hoping that a great revival that exceeds the one in the times of Acts will come through this meeting. May the full number of those who are saved come in to prepare the coming the Lord!

I understand that you will be so busy during the meeting that you can hardly have any chance to conduct a long conversation with people. Therefore, allow me to share with you our concerns and suggestions regarding the worldwide gospel preaching in a letter.