The Lord is Working in China!

This is Hans Schile from the Finishing Well Podcast.

On Finishing Well, we help you make godly choices about Medicare, long-term care, and your money. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Friends, in this segment, we're going to where the action is. You want to get fired up for your faith in Jesus Christ, then let me tell you, let me give you one word.

China. The Lord is working. There is a movement of the Holy Spirit of God. Thousands are coming to faith in Christ every week in China, and I'm sitting next to a man who has been impacted going way back to even Hudson Taylor. His name's Mark. He's actually from that neck of the woods, that part of the world, and he's my guest right now. Mark, God bless you, and thanks for hanging out with us a little bit here on Truth Talk.

Okay, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity. I have this opportunity to share what God is doing in China. I still mentioned about the China Inland Mission.

Actually, they worked in my hometown province before the communists came into power in 1949. Even though they had to leave the place, but the Word of God, the Holy Spirit is still working there. So, you know, dark times that, you know, when the pastors were arrested, the Bibles were burned, and missionaries kicked out from China, but the Word of God never stopped. So, my mom, she was only 16 years old. My grandmom, a Chinese doctor, you know, and when my mom was very sick, you know, and my grandmom tried everything to heal my mom, but nothing happened. My mom almost died, but in the last minute, she heard from her relatives, because China is very relational, you know.

If you have something good, you tell your good friends, you tell your family. So, and they, you know, and some of their family members told my grandma, believe in Jesus. Jesus can heal your daughter, you know.

Out of mother's love, my grandmom took my mom to this remote village. That's where the elderly Christians still remember the missionaries from China, taught them how to pray. They prayed for my mom. My mom was healed. That news, like, you know, this doctor couldn't heal her daughter, but Jesus healed her daughter. So, my grandma began to, you know, like, share the gospel wherever she visited her patients. And so, that's where the house church started in my hometown province. And to think that Hudson Taylor, a century ago, or whatever, went to churches and said, support me. And some churches said, are you crazy, Mr. Taylor? Why are you going to China?

There's needs right here. But God called them there. The China Inland Mission was started, and he actually learned the language. And now today, thousands have come to Christ. There's an estimated massive number of Christians there.

In fact, Mark, I'd love to ask you this. Someone told me once that there are Chinese Christians praying for us in America, that we would wake up, that we would have revival. Here in America, there's a lot of persecution, I know, too.

But what about that? Just like the hunger for God among Chinese Christians? I think God engineered the circumstances like persecution. It's like the winter time. The wheat has to die in order to produce a harvest.

You know, now it's the spring time, you know. I believe the early missionaries did amazing work, even during the Cultural Revolution, you know, in the 70s. And so many Christians were being persecuted. But, you know, as the seed died, and then, you know, 80s, when China began to open up, you know, there was such a harvest time. Also, the Holy Spirit work, you know, and, you know, you know, even though I grew up in a Christian family, like my mom, my grandmom, you know, but I was brainwashed in China, because the communists, you know, but 1989 happened, the Tiananmen students movement, the massacre, that event shook our faith in communism. So that year, I went to college, I began to ask a question, what is freedom? What is truth about?

Because we were taught communism was the truth, but we were lying to. So that's when I met another someone from this country, Texas, you know. Okay. Now, they say everything's big in Texas, but China is a lot bigger than Texas.

Right. You know, because he watched the young man was standing before the tank. God began to speak to him to go to China, share good news with the Chinese students. He was studying Chinese in my college. And when I saw him, he was so different, you know, the joy, I said, why are you so joyful, you know, anything good about it? And he said, because of Jesus. I said, Jesus, that's my mom, my grandmom, for people who didn't have good education, you know, but I said, no, in America, a lot of college students, scientists are Christians. So I told him that my mom, my grandmom, Christians, my grandma, my mom, they had been praying for me all these years, you know. And, but the Lord used another one from this country to share good news with me.

And because I, you know, my generation was so disillusioned with the government, you know, with the control. And so I was asking them, you're from America, tell me what is freedom? He told me the real freedom is from the truth. I said, what is truth? You know, little did he know that I was searching so hard.

I was studying electronic engineering, but I was not interested in that anymore. I was so interested in philosophy. And then we had a Bible study, you know, one-on-one, and we're reading book of John, Jesus said, you will know the truth. The truth will set you free. Later, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and life.

No one comes to me except your father. That really got me, you know, that's the, you know, early 90, 1991, about this time. And I received Jesus into my heart. I, you know, that's the beginning of my new life.

Yeah. Because of that, my mom, my grandma, they're so grateful. They began to pray for America because someone from this country went to China to share gospel with me, disillusioned young man. That's why we have the gospel debt, you know, the Christians in China, we know we receive so much from missionaries. We need to pray for England, you know, where they send Hudson Taylor.

We pray for America, we send missionaries. Yeah. So what happened? You came to Christ. Now you are just on fire and I can hear your passion. It's inspiring me. But Mark, you're from China. You came to America. You really gave your life to Christ here. This, you know, someone American share the gospel with you, which your mom and grandma had been praying for you.

They said, pray, Lord, awaken young Mark to be saved. And you were saved, set free by Jesus. What happened next to where you are today? And now you're part of getting the gospel back to China. You know, tell us a little bit about how you ended up from that year where you came to Lord to now. You know, I think since I came to Christ, I found the new freedom in Christ.

I knew that's my countrymen, you know, they were looking for, they were searching for. So that's certainly the love of God compels us, you know. And I think Lord calling on my life, you know, I think that's the beginning of a campus revival in China in the nineties. And then in a 2000, you know, the China joined the WTO and a lot of business people coming to Christ because money cannot satisfy them.

They began to have a sense of purpose in their lives and use money to get behind the great commission. So I think God has blessed China all these years, you know, for a higher purpose to send our missionaries to the world, continue the great commission. That's our mission. You know, as a Chinese went to part of the great commission, you know, so, you know, I feel in America, God has been using this to be a sending mission. And I pray again that God will continue use this country, you know, to wake up again, another great awakening, release the young people to go to the mission field. We can work together in harvest time, you know.

Wow. Amen. So that's what you're about now, working to mobilize, to equip young people to go back to China, to lead people to Jesus. And what would you say to, goodness, there's some, listen, there's some great Christians in America on fire for God. They're reaching souls for Christ, but statistically it's like less than 10% of born again Christians in America are even telling others about Jesus. It's very sad. The church in America, we've kind of gotten a little bit soft.

We've kind of gotten a little bit comfortable. The church, when I hear things about the church in China, and it could be the persecution, it could be the other, you know, the hunger for God there. And I know no church is perfect.

Obviously, if you find one, don't join it because you'll mess it up. But Mark, what would you challenge Americans listening to this program about getting on mission with God, about going in the great commission? What would your challenge be to motivate people listening about just how this message is too good not to tell someone? You know, this is, you know, if we acknowledge Jesus is not our Savior, but it's also the Lord of our life, you know. If he's the Lord at all, he should be the Lord of everything, you know.

That's the great commission, you know. Go ye therefore, make disciples for all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and Son, the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, you know. Not only we are going, but he said the Holy Spirit come upon us, you know, empower us to be his witness, you know. And I believe that's how we grew as a disciple. We're doing our Father's work, you know.

That's where you experience the abundant life, you know, that Jesus has promised. I think American dream is good, but it's nothing can compare with the, you know, the Jesus dream, the kingdom-sized dream, you know. It's even the China dream, you know. But, you know, Lord, may your kingdom come.

A year will be done. I believe that's the only hope for, you know, every nation, you know. That's Jesus. No other name, you know, but the name of Jesus.

Over a billion people in China. Christ is coming there. People are being saved. The church is growing.

Mark is a big part of that. He and I are at this conference here, and we're networking with other kingdom-minded folks about how to reach the world. It's really not about my mission or my dream or the American dream, like you just said.

That's brilliant. It's about the gospel dream. It's about this gospel. It will be preached in all the world, and then the end will come. And there's still billions who have not heard the gospel yet. They need to be set free by the truth of Jesus. As we wrap up, our theme verse for Truth Talk and Truth Network is John 8 32.

You shall know the truth. The truth will set you free. Now, will you say that in Chinese? I want everyone to hear you because I want to get my show and all of our programming in Chinese in our app, you know, so people in China can listen in Mandarin and other languages. But say it in Chinese, will you? The truth shall set you free, or that verse, if you would. Amen. This is the Truth Network.