A CHURCH OF THE PEOPLE
After the missionary activity of the 19th century, it was native Chinese believers who carried on the torch of revival into the 20th century
China has been fertile ground for the reviving work of the Holy Spirit. The 1908 revival in Manchuria and Honan under Jonathan Goforth produced many converts, among them John Sung.
He had come to the Lord after hearing his father speak about the sufferings of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. Although only aged nine, he fell to his knees, along with many others in the congregation confessing his sins. Sung recalled that he wept so much that it soaked right through his jacket! After a time studying in the West, he was back in China, preaching with authority and fire.
Wherever he went in the 1920s, Sung experienced mass conversions. His passionate love for Jesus and for holiness won through, melting the hardest hearts. He was so eager that he would sometimes leap into the crowds as he spoke! Healings and deliverances blossomed and many churches were revived.
Another of God's anointed instruments was Pastor Hsi. He had been a follower of Confucius and an opium addict and his wife had demonic problems. But God invaded his life as he read Mark's Gospel. He was converted and filled with the Holy Spirit, finding instant freedom his from addiction. His wife was powerfully delivered and soon he was out evangelising. He was given the nickname Hsi "Sheng-mo" ("Conqueror of Demons"). Under his ministry many people were awakened in their faith and a large number of new churches were planted.
Watchman Nee, whose books have brought life and inspiration to millions, was another whom God used to fan the flames of revival. Many claimed they could see the crucifixion re-enacted before their eyes as Nee spoke. Converts would restore stolen property and rebuild broken relationships. Seekers came in their thousands. At the height of his ministry, Nee was the travelling apostle for a network of churches containing millions of members.
Yet God's breathings of new life were not limited to famous preachers. Often revival would break out spontaneously among ordinary peasant folk who sensed their own fruitlessness. They cast themselves on God in desperate prayer for holiness and a new baptism of fire. In many places throughout China small, localised revivals of great power broke out through the fervent prayer of two or three old ladies.
One eye-witness of such a revival records: "It began in a small Bible class, where the heathen women unexpectedly started to confess their sins, and spontaneously found new life in Jesus. Others, including pastors, followed, also publicly confessing their sins. Lives were transformed, opium addiction broken and idols put away. Enmities that lasted for years were put right. Hopeless individuals have become humble men and women of prayer, and great soul-winners." In 1930, Western missionaries were beginning to say that the door was closing in China. Anti-foreigner feeling ran high and many missionaries had to leave. War with Russia, then with Japan, followed by civil war between Nationalists and Communists, shut the land off from outside Christian aid. Many feared that the church would not survive.
Yet God had used the first four decades of the century to instil in His faithful ones a deep hunger and thirst after "power from on high". They had known revival and they knew how to pray for a revival. They wanted and expected revival. So the Chinese church entered theCommunist era anointed. Anointed for burial, certainly, for unnumbered millions were martyred. But also anointed with the Holy Spirit for endurance.
It is small wonder that today the Church in China is growing at a rate of thousands every year and now numbers an estimated 20 million!
This article has been extracted from Revival Fires, available online from the Jesus People Shop.
Source: Colin Whitaker: Great Revivals, Marshalls 1964.
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