Henan, China

Testimonies from the House Churches

God’s Wrath Leads Many to Repentance

The persecutors of the church in Henan have done unmentionable things to the believers, but they haven’t always had things their own way. Some government officials who ordered a crackdown on the church were suddenly struck with cancer, while the family members of some persecutors began to die in accidents. The officials knew they were being judged for their actions against God’s people.

There was one well-known official whose actions against believers had been particularly brutal. He showed no mercy or remorse, and treated Christians like animals undeserving of compassion. The one person this official loved dearly was his young daughter. She was the apple of his eye. One day he returned home to find that daughter had suddenly become insane. For weeks she was unable to respond normally to her parents or anyone else. Leading doctors and psychiatrists were brought in to treat her, all to no avail. The official’s daughter could only say one sentence during this time. Constantly, day and night, she declared, “You should stop persecuting the Christians! You should stop persecuting the Christians!”

Finally, realizing God’s wrath had fallen on him, the official decided he wouldn’t persecute God’s people any more. On the same day he repented his daughter was fully restored to sanity.

Man Dies For Mocking God

In 1995 three female evangelists traveled to Xinye County in southern Henan. Just one week later 1,100 people had repented at their preaching, and numerous people were healed of sickness. During one meeting, an unbeliever came up and cursed the sisters at the top of his voice with vile and disgusting remarks. The women tried to ignore his filthy display. After the meeting concluded, a group of unbelievers came up and asked how the three could continue without retaliating, and how they even appeared to have compassion in their eyes for the vile man. They responded, “We leave this man in the hands of God.” At the exact time they said these words, the blasphemous man fell to the ground and died. This caused the fear of God to fall on the people who had witnessed this judgment, and many more people repented and accepted the Lord.

Frozen by the Lord

The official Three-Self church in 1997 conservatively estimated 160,000 Christians living in Henan’s Zhoukou Prefecture, although house church sources say there are probably in excess of a million believers in the prefecture. Much of the growth in Zhoukou has been due to signs and wonders, and unusual events drawing unbelievers to Christ.

In 1995, five local ruffians came to disrupt a Gospel meeting. These five were renown thugs, feared by all the people in the area. They shouted obscenities and challenged everything the preacher said. They then started to savagely kick and beat him with a stick. The relatively newly-saved preacher prayed ‘Lord, you have to answer my prayer now, or I’m going home.’ The moment he prayed, ‘In Jesus Name, I bind you’ –  all of these five men immediately knelt down on the ground and placed their hands behind their backs as though they had just been bound by a tight rope.

Soon, five of the man’s relatives came and tried unsuccessfully to lift them up. The young preacher said, “God has bound them, and even if you come with a crane you won’t be able to move them.”

All of this was witnessed by hundreds of people. The fear of God fell on them and they shouted, “Please let them be free! Please let them be free!” The preacher ignored the men, and continued sharing the Gospel, carefully explaining the way of the Cross to the captivated audience. When he finished, he said, ‘Get up in Jesus Name!’ The men immediately stood up and were free.

The bound men later reported that while  bound they were unable to move any of their body parts, yet their hearing and minds remained unaffected. God graciously allowed them to hear every word the preacher spoke! More than 100 people, including these five men, repented and were saved because of this sign and wonder.

God’s Video Screen

When some house church preachers visited one district, a strange occurrence happened. While they spoke, the crowd was able to see images of what the preachers were speaking about at the time. Witnesses said it was as though a slide projector or video was playing in midair, even though the evangelists were employing no such device.

When they spoke about the crucifixion, everyone present – believers and unbelievers alike – saw a gripping image of Jesus hanging on the Cross with His Blood flowing down. When they said, “Jesus was born in a manger” they saw a picture of a manger in front of them. This continued for more than four hours, and was witnessed by more than 1,000 people. Almost everybody repented and dedicated their lives to follow Jesus Christ. They said, “God is real and lives among you. What can we do except thank Him and believe in Him?”

Tongue-Tied Officer

During the Cultural Revolution, in Henan, there was a police officer who severely persecuted the believers. He spoke vile and threatening words against God’s people and was always busy making plans for more arrests.

One day this man stuck his tongue out and was unable to put it back into his mouth!  He visited many doctors but nobody knew how to help him. One doctor told him he should seek a Christian for prayer. He visited the home of one of the Christian leaders he had persecuted. The family was afraid to see him.

When the Christians saw his tongue was sticking out and he was unable to say anything intelligible, their fear of this man was changed to pity.    The believers realized this man wanted them to pray for him, but they knew if he was healed he would go straight back to persecuting them. Therefore they told him, “There is no way we will pray for your physical healing unless you give your heart to Jesus Christ and believe in Him! And after you receive Christ, you need to agree that you will come to our meetings regularly, and learn to love and serve God with all your heart.”

The officer was commanded to kneel down and repent. Immediately God healed his tongue. This man became a believer and  stopped persecuting the believers.

This incident was the start of a great revival in that village, when many families came to know Jesus. This man is still a Christian today.

School-Children Have to Praise Jesus

The revival in Henan Province has affected the lives of millions of people.

Xixia County is located in southern Henan Province. In Hongqiao Village, the Gospel had been preached there with great power. Revival affected the entire area as people lived under the awesome reality of God’s presence every day. Relationships were restored, stolen goods given back to their owners, and everywhere meetings took place as people hungered to learn more of God’s Word.

Even the students in the government school couldn’t help but sing Gospel songs during class time. There was no way to contain the children's infectious joy. The atheist teachers were amazed, for when the students in one class started to sing, the students in the next classroom also spontaneously joined in worshipping the lover of their souls, Jesus Christ. Because the teachers and school administrators couldn’t contain the children’s desire to worship, the Public Security Bureau were brought in. Over 300 of the Christians in Hongqiao Village were arrested. The entire population of the village is just a little over 1,000 people!

The three hundred who were blessed to suffer for the Lord became even stronger Christians, and they all committed themselves to full time ministry! Now practically every soul in Hongqiao village has been saved.

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