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Back to Jerusalem Movement-Answers to Key Questions
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2008-06-10 13:57:27, 조회 : 4,717 |
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Back to Jerusalem Movement-Answers to Key Questions
글쓴이 : 인보라 조회 : 152
Back to Jerusalem Movement-Answers to Key Questions
Answers to Key Questions
A-1. Why is the Chinese Church sending missionaries outside China? Shouldn’t you be focusing on your own country first?
Some people have challenged the fact we are sending missionaries outside China. They say we should stay in China and win our own country before we consider sending missionaries out. To this illogical argument we respond with a simple question, “Then why does your country send missionaries? Is everyone in your country saved?”
If we stay home and refuse to advance until we have completely finished the job there, we will never be able to impact the world with the Gospel. Surely God’s way is for us to be winning our home at the same time that we are sending new workers to the ends of the earth! Our vision to reach the world does not mean we will stop or slow down our efforts to reach all of China with the Gospel!
The two will take place hand-in-hand.
We believe the best way for the Chinese church to remain strong is to keep it motivated to reach out to the nations of the world. When believers focus on serving the Lord and reaching the lost, God blesses them and the church remains sharp. When we become self-centered and critical of each other, Satan has deceived us and the church will become a blunt, useless instrument.
A-2. It’s obvious that house church leaders such as yourselves are completely committed to the Back to Jerusalem vision, but has the vision reached the normal believers in China yet?
We’ve been working and praying hard that the vision to complete the Great Commission will become the vision of all believers in China. We have no problem getting our believers involved with evangelism. After they get saved they automatically have a burning desire to witness and reach the lost, and then when they read the words of Jesus they have a desire to take the Gospel to every nation.
The problem has been in how to implement strategies that will enable Chinese believers to move outside our nation as missionaries.
The believers in our churches understand the importance and the responsibility of Back to Jerusalem, but they don’t know what to do about it. That is the next step. Almost no one in our churches has ever been outside China so it is a large step for them to take in their understanding.
In 2000 many house church leaders left China and attended a Back to Jerusalem meeting in a Southeast Asian country. For almost all of us it was the first time we had left China. This country where our meetings were held is a Buddhist stronghold, where the overwhelming majority of people don’t know Christ.
This trip deeply impacted us as we saw hundreds of temples, multitudes of lost souls worshipping idols, young boys proudly walking down the roads as trainee monks, and a complete absence of Gospel light everywhere we traveled. In China, of course, there is still tremendous spiritual darkness in many places, and areas where Buddhism is strong, but nothing so concentrated as what we saw all over that nation.
We all returned to China changed people. Now that we had seen the need with our eyes and felt it with our hearts, missions ceased being a theory and became a stark reality in our lives and ministries. We all returned to our churches with a new urgency and burden for Back to Jerusalem.
For several years we have seen how God is directly calling our church members to be missionaries. One sister received a dream from the Lord in which the word “Tamang” was shown to her, and she saw herself preaching the Gospel to a group of tribal people.
She has no idea what this word meant, and prayed earnestly for the Lord to reveal more. About two years later she was given a small prayer booklet that contained information about the unreached people groups of Nepal. She wept as she read a profile on the Tamang people, a Buddhist tribe in that country! The picture of Tamang people in the booklet showed exactly the same physical features and dress that she had seen in her dream. She has now gone to Nepal as a missionary to the Tamang people.
There are many similar testimonies of how God is calling people to certain countries or ethnic groups by divine revelation.
We are praying with tears in our eyes for ways to get our churches involved more directly in the Back to Jerusalem vision. We are training our leaders inside China in meetings where we share the vision. They then take the vision back to their house churches. Materials are being produced to help people gain a better understanding, and we are seeing more and more Christians with a burden for worldwide mission.
A-3. Where did the Chinese Church get the figure of 100,000 missionaries to be sent outside China? Is it a "real" number, or just an indication that you would like to send a large number of missionaries?
Christians need to understand that this number is not some fixed numerical goal that we have. It is merely an indication of the minimum number of missionaries we plan to send out. This number was first arrived at when many leaders of different house church networks met together to pray and discuss Back to Jerusalem. At the time we estimated that together we have approximately one million people ‘full time’ Christian workers in our churches. We believe the very least we should do is give a tithe of these leaders to foreign missions. That is how we first arrived at the figure of 100,000.
We have noticed that many Westerners tend to be very excited and motivated by numbers, but we are not. Our goal is not to send 100,000 missionaries out of China. Our goal is nothing less than the completion of the Great Commission so that the Lord Jesus Christ will return for His bride, to bring all of human history to the moment in Script-xure where “loud voices” are heard in heaven, proclaiming, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.” Revelation 11:15
That is our goal and purpose! We are willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill this vision and be obedient to the calling.
If it takes more workers than 100,000 then there will be more workers, if it takes less than 100,000 there will be less. More than likely, the figure of 100,000 is a conservative one. We are concentrated on getting the job done in the power of the Lord. The details of how this happens we leave up to the Lord.
In March 2000 the first group of 36 Back to Jerusalem missionaries left China. These were all men and women who had been in fulltime ministry for the Lord for many years, with much fruit. These were not new believers, or young people looking for something to do! No, these were all battle hardened warriors of the Gospel who have proven God faithful and experienced much hardship. Almost all of them had been arrested for the Gospel, imprisoned, beaten, slandered, and tortured.
It was actually difficult to keep the numbers of that first group down to just thirty-six. House church leaders shared the vision for Back to Jerusalem in just a few leadership meetings, and immediately people jumped up with their arms raised, proclaiming, “I will go! I am willing to go and die for Jesus!”
In some meetings over half of the people in attendance insisted on being among the first Back to Jerusalem workers, and in the end we had to settle the number at thirty-six and tell the others to wait for the next opportunity.
A-4. When thousands of Back to Jerusalem workers leave China and go all over the 10/40 window, do you have any plans to keep track of them?
Of course! These structures are being put into place right now. We realize that our workers will need spiritual and physical assistance as far as possible. They will need pastoral care to help them remain spiritually encouraged and walking closely with the Lord.
Our plans are to track the workers that are sent from our house church networks. We understand there will also be other Chinese missionaries going out to the nations (and they have already started to go) who are not linked to our fellowships. We pray a great blessing from the Lord on all of them! Because the Back to Jerusalem vision is a call for the whole Church, there will obviously be many different workers from different backgrounds going out for the Lord, but as far as the ones coming from our church networks, yes, we certainly do plan to track them and do everything possible to help them as they complete the Great Commission.
We also believe some missionaries will need to go back to China from time to time, to report to the Church what God is doing through them. We have found this to be extremely important in our house churches. It encourages the sending believers, and helps mobilize new workers for the vision.
We have plans for certain locations to serve as key centers for the training and administration of Back to Jerusalem workers. Plans are already underway for a secure headquarters for the movement, and prayer centers where 24-hour intercession will go forth asking the Lord to bless the work and remove all demonic hindrances.
A-5. What about security? What plans do you have to protect Back to Jerusalem workers?
We are told that many Western missionary organizations pull their workers out of a place as soon as there is any sight of trouble. Advance will be very slow with such a mentality! If self preservation is so important then there is no point going in the first place. God is always looking for children who are willing to die for Him if necessary. The countries in the Back to Jerusalem vision do not welcome the Gospel and there will be certain trouble when anyone attempts to take it to them. All the way through the Bible there was trouble when God’s people proclaimed the truth. Elijah was called the “troubler of Israel” 1 Kings 18:17. When Paul and Silas appeared before the authorities in Philippi their accusers said they “are throwing our city into an uproar.” Acts 16:20. Indeed as you read through the Book of Acts it seems every time Paul preached the Gospel there was one of two reactions: revival or riot!
We understand that there is a time for caution and a time to escape, such as when the Apostle Paul was placed inside a basket and lowered over the Damascus city wall to escape those who wished to kill him (see Acts 9:22-25).
But there is also a time when Christians should march forward regardless of danger. Consider the courageous words of the Apostle Paul when he said, “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” Acts 20:22-24
Making trouble is inevitable for any believer who truly wants to obey God. Anyone who wants to avoid conflict and maintain the status quo will not achieve much for the Lord. The structures that keep countless millions of people enslaved to sin and Satan must be confronted before they will crumble, and when you confront evil there will always be trouble.
This is the main reason house church Christians in China have been persecuted for decades. They are not persecuted just because of their faith in God. If they chose, they could all settle down in a Three-Self Church, worship God each Sunday, and live relatively stress free lives as long as they keep their beliefs to themselves and don’t try to share them with others.
The reason house church Christians are arrested and imprisoned in China is because they cannot keep still. They cannot possibly keep their mouths shut because Jesus has revealed Himself to them and they have been radically changed from the inside out. They understand how the prophet Jeremiah felt when he said, “If I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” Jeremiah 20:9
Western Christians often ask us why we think there is persecution in China and other countries and not in the West. There are several different things to say about this, but one question we would like to ask is this: “Do you boldly preach the truth of God’s Word to sinners inside and outside your churches?”
If you do, you will soon find out there is persecution wherever you are. “Those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” 2 Timothy 3:12. This Script-xure does not say “might” be persecuted, but “will” be persecuted. If you are not being persecuted, the problem isn’t with God’s Word. Perhaps the question should be asked, “Are you truly desiring to live a godly life in Christ Jesus?” Persecution may take a different form in one country from another, but there will be persecution.
As the Back to Jerusalem vision unfolds, we know there will be many troubles, but “A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones; not one of them will be broken.” Psalm 34:19-20
The Muslim and Buddhist nations can torture us, imprison us, starve us, but they can do no more than what we have already experienced in China for many decades. Thousands of young men and women will go as missionaries who are not afraid to die for Jesus. They are not afraid to bleed, as they know their bodies are merely temporary tents to be used in the Lord’s service and that one day they will be in paradise where there is no pain and no tears. They are not only ready to die for the Gospel, they are expecting it.
A-6. Have the house churches experienced much success reaching Muslims and Tibetans inside China? If not, why do you think you will succeed outside China?
The Chinese house churches have only really started to obey God’s call to win the minorities in China in the last few years. There were evangelists trying to reach minorities before then, but overall the large majority of house church work was targeted to Han Chinese communities within our country.
It was actually when a Western brother came and taught the house church leaders that there are more than 400 unreached minority groups in our country that we began to pray and target them more seriously. God gave us a great burden for their evangelization, and hundreds of new teams have been formed that have already gone, or are currently in preparation, for ministry to the minorities of China. Actually we have already started to receive good reports of breakthroughs among Muslims in Xinjiang – in some parts of southern Xinjiang God has used house church workers to win many Muslims to Christ. This usually happens in the Muslim communities after God confirms the preaching of the Word with miracles.
Some people have said the Muslims in China hate the Han Chinese so much that we can never lead them to Christ, but God is proving that to be wrong. If we go to them in true humility, and in the power of God, they see that we are different and many Muslims come to Jesus.
The Tibetans and other strong Buddhist groups are in one sense even more difficult to reach with the Gospel than Muslims because Buddhists have absolutely no concept of a Creator God, or of personal sin. Yet we have many evangelists working among Tibetans. Just in Lhasa City alone, the capital of Tibet, we have almost 100 house church evangelists reaching out. While it is true that not so many Tibetans have believed, a few small Tibetan fellowships have been established, and God is teaching our workers how to pray and work more effectively. They have learned that successful strategies used in other parts of China will not necessarily work in Tibet, so they are seeking God for revelation about how to win the Tibetans. When God gives the key, the door will open!
We don’t consider reaching the minorities of China as a separate vision, but as a part of the Back to Jerusalem vision. Many lessons our workers learn in reaching Muslims and Buddhists within China’s borders will prove valuable as we reach Muslims and Buddhists outside China.
A-7. Do you think miracles will be an important factor in reaching the nations?
You need to understand that miracles are not something we should seek after in themselves. Miracles are not a toy for us to play with. They are an integral part of the Gospel. We are not called to follow miracles, but the Bible says signs and wonders will follow us when we preach the Gospel (see Mark 16:17-20). The miracles therefore act as evidence that the message is true. When we tell people that Jesus is alive, and they see him heal a cripple or deliver a demon-possessed person, they will easily believe the message!
Among China’s house churches we estimate as many as 80% of believers first come to Jesus because they receive a miraculous healing or deliverance from the Lord. They give their lives unreservedly to God in response.
The Script-xures point out that when a new believer both hears the Gospel and sees a demonstration of its power, their faith will be deep. That is why the Apostle Paul wrote, “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on man’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” 1 Corinthians 2:4
As Paul explained, when the Word of God comes to people not only with persuasive human words, but with a demonstration of the power and reality of God, their faith rests on God’s power and not on man’s wisdom. This is much better! In China new believers are often willing to endure tremendous hardship, torture and harassment, even when they have believed in Christ just a few weeks or months. When someone comes to Jesus because they experienced His power operating in their lives, they have no trouble believing Jesus is alive, because they have already met Him! If they were ever to deny Christ they would not only have to reject the theological aspect of God’s Word, but they would also have to reject their own experiences.
Therefore to answer the question, yes miracles are an important factor, but they are not something we seek in themselves, but something that happens automatically when the Good News is preached to the lost. We should not follow miracles, but miracles should follow us when we preach! This has been our experience all over China.
A-8. What are the biggest concerns you have that might stop or slow down the Back to Jerusalem vision?
There is some concern among those spiritual elders and intercessors in the house churches that the spiritual life of the present generation of believers is not as strong as in previous years. China is becoming economically affluent and there are opportunities and temptations for young Christians today that didn’t exist 15 or 20 years ago. The lure of the world is stronger than in the past. Young men and women who desire to live wholeheartedly for Jesus and the advance of the Gospel face a struggle to maintain such a single focus.
When we brought our concerns before the Lord in prayer, He clearly showed us that the house churches of China will remain in revival as long as they remain obedient to the vision to preach the Gospel back to Jerusalem. If we lose our first love and start to focus inwardly on our own needs, our spiritual life will surely shrivel up and die, but as long as we strive to obey God’s call to take the Gospel to the Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu nations then He will bless our churches and revival in China will continue. This principle is not only a spiritual one, but is true in nature also. A flower or plant that looks upward and outward flourishes and reflects the beauty of the Creator, but one that turns inward soon dies and its true beauty is never revealed to the world.
We encourage Christians and churches around the world not to focus inwardly on their own needs and desires! If you do, you will surely shrivel up and die. God’s principle is that when you look to bless the needs of others, then your own lives will be blessed.
When you make missionary activity to nations that have never heard about Jesus the priority of your church, you will not fail to be blessed and revived. A Christian or church that just seeks inward blessing all the time for their own pleasure and enjoyment is in danger of idolatry. Jesus said, “He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.” John 7:18
So many Christians are doing their own thing, and don’t know or even seem to care that God’s cloud and pillar of fire have moved on! Let’s decide to wake up and find out what the Lord is doing and see how we can get involved! The gap between just “doing Christian activity” and being a front line soldier in the Lord’s harvest is as wide as day and night.
When you are truly obeying the Lord’s call you please God, and when you are in step with the work of the Holy Spirit you begin to feel the heartbeat of our Loving Savior. Your work stops being a chore and starts becoming a natural overflow of the love of God that has been deposited into your heart.
If the Chinese Church settles down and stops preaching the Gospel then the fire of God that has been among us for so long with surely die down, but as long as we are true to our call, it will be impossible for the fire to die down! If a man picks a hot stick out of a fire and runs with it, the movement will fan the flame back into life. If he sits down and watches it long enough, the fire will diminish and finally be snuffed out altogether. The Christian life is one of action for Jesus, not inaction.
As more of our missionaries go to the nations with the fire of Jesus Christ in their hearts and a two-edged sword, the Word of God, in their hands, the believers back home in China will need to be praying for their missionaries every day. As reports come back of salvations, persecutions, and martyrdoms the Church in China will find their own zeal and commitment fanned into flame. We have seen this many times in our house churches. We send evangelists to all four corners of China and when they come back months later and share how the Lord used them, with testimonies of miracles and breakthroughs, their home churches are encouraged and challenged to win more souls and live more radically for Jesus.
A-9. Do you have a timeline for when you expect the Back to Jerusalem movement to be operating at full speed?
It has already begun, and is gathering momentum with each day! We do not have our own timeline, we just want to obey God’s will and leave the timing up to Him.
We have already seen how many important things have started lining up in ways that make the Back to Jerusalem vision possible. For example, until recently the Chinese government largely stopped its citizens from traveling abroad, except in a few privileged situations. This created a vacuum and deep desire in the hearts of Chinese people to go and see what the rest of the world is like. There is a tremendous hunger to learn about other countries, their people and cultures. The same applies to the Church in China. In recent years the travel restrictions have been gradually eased and now it is much easier for Chinese to get passports and travel abroad. These easing of restrictions will surely only continue in the future. We believe this as part of God’s sovereign plan to facilitate the Back to Jerusalem vision.
We believe the Chinese Church can succeed in bringing down the religious giants of Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism because the Lord has taught us how to work in a nation where there is great opposition and persecution to the advance of the Gospel. There has been great effort put into evangelizing some of the countries in the Middle East, for example, but without many results. These nations are paranoid and on guard against Christianity coming from America. They have sealed their front doors as tightly shut as they can against Christianity, and they closely monitor every activity of Westerners who come to their country. While they spend all their energy guarding their front doors, maybe the Chinese Christians will quietly slip in the back door with the Gospel!
The Lord has been training the Chinese house churches for the past 50 years through the sacrifice of blood, imprisonment, torture, suffering and hardship. Thousands have been treated brutally in prison, thousands more evangelists have been sent out across the country with nobody to rely on except God himself. They have seen numerous miracles and have learnt to trust Jesus in a deep way that could not be obtained any other way except through hardship and suffering. We are not saying we are any better than anyone else! This is not the issue. But we do believe the Lord has put the Chinese church through these experiences to train us to complete this specific task of taking the Gospel back to Jerusalem. We do not fear what man can do to us.
A-10. As the Chinese missionaries spread out across the 10/40 window, do they plan to work with local Christians in each country or not?
There are two distinct ways to answer this question. Firstly, the question is somewhat irrelevant due to the fact that the whole nature of Back to Jerusalem is to share Christ in places and among people groups where there is no Gospel witness. If there is no Gospel then by definition there will be no other Christians working in that place. Our aim is to have the attitude of the Apostle Paul, who said, “It has always been my ambition to preach the Gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.” Romans 15:20. If we enter a particular country, our desire will be to find out where the neediest places are, where there are no Christians, and to work there. We don’t want to get bogged down trying to light a fire where others are already burning. We want to go to the darkest, blackest regions where the light has never been seen before.
We are, however, aware that small numbers of Christians do exist even in countries like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Iran. Our intention is not to just “do our own thing” without consulting the existent Body of Christ. As the Lord leads, we do want to partner and work hand in hand with Thai, Indian, Arab Christians or whatever the case may be, if the result will be to see God’s Kingdom advance more quickly. We welcome true partnership. We need local believers to teach us their language and culture and many other things that will help us be more effective. For the local churches, perhaps we can share some of the fire and vision that the Lord has given us in China.
Therefore, we will try to work in cooperation with local believers as far as possible, but if our ministry aims are so totally different from theirs it may be necessary for us to respectfully agree to work separately.
We have several key principles that we believe God has taught us and which we plan to take into the mission field. For example, we refuse to be drawn into the spirit of denominationalism in any way. We are going to preach the Gospel and see sinners come to the feet of Jesus and experience a new life that He won for them on the Cross. We don’t want to be any part of promoting any denomination. We only want to promote Jesus and ask the Holy Spirit confirm whether Jesus is alive or not in the hearts of people everywhere. Nowhere in God’s Word does it say that if we lift up our church or methods or doctrine will the Holy Spirit bless us and bring revival. But Jesus clearly told us who we should lift up: “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” John 12:32.
Another example would be if some local church strongly desires to build church buildings. This would be incompatible with our vision because we don’t believe the world needs another single church building. They need Jesus, and they need to worship and grow in God’s grace with other believers within their own homes, according to the pattern of the first church in the New Testament (see Acts 5:42, 20:20, Romans 16:5, etc.)
Although we do have some strong convictions about how God’s work should be done, let us reiterate that even if our methods are different from other Christians’ methods, we will still strive and work to honor and fellowship all believers who have been bought by the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
A-11. How will you know if the Back to Jerusalem movement has been successful? How will you know when you have achieved your goals?
This is an interesting question, and after thinking about it, we have come to realize our call is to do with nothing less than the evangelization of all remaining unreached peoples.
According to the Bible, the Blood of Jesus has “purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” Revelation 5:9. With more than five thousand unreached people groups left in the Back to Jerusalem vision, that means when the Lord helps us to achieve our goals, what would have been accomplished is nothing less than the fulfillment of the Great Commission.
Many people want to know when the end of the world will come. Some people talk about wars and natural disasters, others about global catastrophes. Many say you should watch what happens in Israel, because Israel holds the key.
We think it would be better to pay attention to the words of Jesus, because he was asked the very same question by disciples, “What will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?” Matthew 24:3
Jesus didn’t shirk the question, but first he mentioned a number of things that would happen before His Second Coming and the end of the age. He spoke about the deception of false prophets, of rumors of wars, of earthquakes and persecution of believers. “Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.” Matthew 24:6
What, then, was the final sign that would take place in the world before Jesus’ return? He clearly told his disciples, “And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:14. The Greek word translated “nations” in this verse does not mean political countries, but means ethnic groups. The plan of God is to give a clear witness about His Son to every representation of mankind, and once that happens the end will come.
Therefore, how will we know when we have achieved our goals? We will know because Jesus will have returned and the end would have come!
Until Jesus returns in all His glory and with his holy angels we plan to keep preaching the Good News to every person who has yet to hear it.
A-12. How will the Back to Jerusalem missionaries be financed?
We knew from the beginning that there will be a high price to pay for this Back to Jerusalem mission. I’m not just talking about money! I’m talking about the many Christians who will be martyred and suffer as this vision unfolds. Many will go on one-way tickets, realizing they will never return to China to see their loved ones again.
We also realize Back to Jerusalem will cost a lot of money, but even though our churches are so poor, we have already collected tens of thousands of dollars to support our missionaries. Like the Macedonian church, many Chinese believers have given literally all they own, “Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability.” 2 Corinthians 8:2-3
We are often asked how we are going to finance the Back to Jerusalem movement. The answer is simply, we aren’t! But we believe God will, and He has been so far. We don’t know where the finances will come from for all of these workers to be sent out and sustained while on the mission field, but we can tell you that we look to the hand of God for His provision and not to the hand of man. If someone wants to give to this vision, we are far more interested in seeing if their hearts are connected to us than we are interested in their gift.
Actually we are not concerned about where the finances will come from for Back to Jerusalem. It is the Lord’s responsibility to provide and not ours. For decades we have seen Him miraculously provide for the work in China, in thousands of ways that would fill many books if we ever wrote them down.
When we serve God it’s important to concentrate on the Lord and our obedience to His leading. When we do this we won’t be concerned and burdened in any way for we know the resources are always there to do what God tells a Christian to do. The problem comes when people are trying to do things He never told them to do!
The Chinese Church was greatly influenced by Western missionaries in the past like Hudson Taylor, who taught us, “God’s work, done God’s way, will never lack God’s supply.” He didn’t only teach these words, he proved them true by his life. We saw and learned.
When we obey the Lord’s leading the resources are always there, even in our most extreme circumstances. Elijah was isolated in the desert, with no food, but it was God who led him there…. “Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: ‘Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan.’” 1 Kings 17:2. When the Lord tells us to do something He always provides…. “So he [Elijah] did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.” 1 Kings 17:6
Soon after this experience, however, Elijah was intimidated by the threats of Jezebel and fled into the desert. The Lord didn’t tell him to go there, but the Bible records, “Elijah was afraid and ran for his life…a day’s journey into the desert.” 1 Kings 19:3-4. Elijah was depressed and complained to the Lord, “I have had enough, Lord…. Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 1 Kings 19:4. Even though God had never told Elijah to flee, He graciously provided for him anyway by sending an angel with freshly baked bread and a jar of water!
God will surely provide for all the needs of the Back to Jerusalem movement if we remain faithful to Him and obedient to His leading. The details of just how that comes about we will leave in the hands of the Lord. If He calls every rural Christian family in China to dedicate a chicken and its eggs to help fund the Back to Jerusalem workers, then that would be millions of eggs each month! If God chooses to provide through overseas believers with a heart for the vision, then that is up to Him.
In the West many Christians have an abundance of material possessions, yet they live in a backslidden state. They have silver and gold, but they don’t rise up and walk in Jesus’ Name. In China few of us have any possessions to hold us down, so there’s nothing preventing us from moving out for the Lord. The ministry of the Chinese Church is like Peter at the Beautiful Gate. When he saw the crippled beggar he said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!” Acts 3:6.
We can’t afford any big programs or fancy Gospel presentations. All we have to give people is Jesus.
In a similar way, we pray God might use the Chinese Church to help the Western Church rise up and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s almost impossible for the church in China to go to sleep in its present situation. There’s always something to keep us on the run, and it’s very difficult to sleep while you’re running.
We have seen thousands of times that even though an evangelist or missionary may be poor and uneducated according to the standards of the world, this is no deterrent at all. All that matters is if the hand of God is on that person or not. “When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.” Proverbs 16:7. We have also seen how the gifts of God on a Christian’s life can open remarkable doors and opportunities that result in God being glorified and His Kingdom expanded. “A gift opens the way for the giver and ushers him into the presence of the great.” Proverbs 18:16
We don’t know how the Lord will provide for Back to Jerusalem, but we are determined that our eyes will be focused on the hand of God and not on the hand of man.
We believe this vision is very precious to the Lord, and He will not allow people to participate in it who are not willing to walk in humility and dependence on heaven for their daily bread. “Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord.” Jeremiah 17:5
We have a deep realization that the whole Back to Jerusalem movement was given by God, can only be accomplished by the power of God, and will be funded the way God wants it to be.
A-13. Who Can Be Involved in Back to Jerusalem?
Please understand that the Back to Jerusalem vision is not only for the Chinese Church! It may sound like that as you read this book because we have been talking about the specific history, vision and strategies that God has given the churches of China to fill one particular aspect of this plan. But the vision of taking the Gospel Back to Jerusalem and fulfilling the Great Commission was given by Jesus two thousand years ago to Christians of all generations, from all nations. The invitation is open to all people who have been born again by the Spirit of God and burdened for the salvation of mankind.
We know there are many thousands of wonderful, loving Christians from all kinds of countries who are already reaching out to the lost Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu nations, and we pray for them every day and thank God for their ministries!
The Back to Jerusalem vision that the Lord has given the believers in China is just one part of fulfilling the Great Commission so that Jesus will come again for His bride. The Script-xure offers encouragement to all people irrespective of nationality of background. Jesus said, “I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 8:11
Not only is salvation offered to all people of all races and ethnic divisions, but the command of Jesus for His disciples to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth is given to all Christians. Some Christians have somehow thought that “missions” is “the West to the Rest.” But nowhere in the Bible does it say that missionaries have to be white! They don’t need to come from a wealthy country, nor do they need to have graduated from a Bible school or seminary. A missionary only needs to be someone who loves the Lord Jesus and has a passion to reach the lost world for him. That is the only qualification for missionary service. The same command of Jesus in Mark 16:15, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation” is, we hope, not only written in the English and Chinese Bibles, but in every language in the world that the Word of God has been translated into. Therefore, Christians in Africa, Europe, South America, Asia, etc. all have the same command from Jesus, irrespective of their social, political, racial, or economic circumstances, to take the Good News to the ends of the earth. All Christians who read God’s command will one day be held accountable for what they did about it.
We need to be careful not to think Back to Jerusalem belongs only to the Chinese Church. We Chinese believe we have a specific role that the Lord wants us to do, but Back to Jerusalem truly belongs to the worldwide Church. We will never achieve it unless we all pray and work together.
A-14. How can Christians best pray for Back to Jerusalem?
Please pray the fire and zeal to preach the Gospel will be ever present in the lives of Chinese Christians.
Pray the believers’ lives would reflect the character and integrity of our Lord.
Pray the Church would know God’s heart and His will so that we would be willing to obey the calling to take the Gospel back to Jerusalem and usher in the Second Coming of Christ.
Please pray those who are called by the Name of Jesus would have true unity in the faith. Pray God would break down man-made walls between us so we can fulfill this great vision God has given us.
Pray believers everywhere in the world will work and pray together to fulfill the Great Commission.
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선교운동소개
제4세계선교 