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.
