Liu Zhen Shandong Province
I’m
Liu Zhen, aged 78 this year. I’m an ordinary Christian in the Church of Almighty God. Thank Almighty God for choosing me, a rural old woman
looked down upon by the worldly people. Since I accepted the end-time
work of Almighty God, I prayed and listened to the recital of God’s word
every day and had meetings with the brothers and sisters. I felt very
happy in my heart and lived in the happiness I had never had. As I was
old and my legs were stiff, I couldn’t go out to have meetings. So the
brothers and sisters came to my house to have meetings for my sake.
Whether it was cold winter or hot summer, they never missed the meeting.
Even if it was windy and snowed, they persisted in coming to visit and
take care of me, an old woman. I was greatly moved by that. I saw that
God’s love for man is so great! In my contact with the brothers and
sisters, I saw that they were so different from the worldly people. What
they lived out was forbearance and love. They all could open their
hearts to each other and treat each other with sincerity, without
barrier or distance, and being dear as family members. That made me
become more certain about Almighty God’s work. As I understood more and
more truths, I knew that man should perform the duty of a created being.
So I told the church that I wanted to perform duty. But because I was
old and couldn’t perform other duties, the church arranged for me to do
hosting at home. I really thanked God for giving me according to what I
could do. Before I began to do hosting, the brothers and sisters
fellowshipped with me, saying, “There are principles for doing hosting
in the church. Extravagance and waste in meals are forbidden. One
principle is that everyone can eat his fill. We’ll just take pot luck
and must not expend too much.” Since then, the brothers and sisters all
had ordinary meals at my house. They ate what I ate at usual times and
never asked for special treatment. And they often helped me do chores.
Sometimes, I saw that the brothers and sisters worked very hard outside
in performing duty, so I specially cooked some nice food for them. Then
they fellowshipped with me that I should perform duty according to the
principles. This made me truly see that the brothers and sisters in the
church were really different from the worldly people. I got along very
well with them and felt greatly released both physically and mentally.
Also I gradually recovered from the former diseases. So I was more
grateful to Almighty God for his grace and keeping for me.
However,
good times didn’t last long. The brothers and sisters in the village
and I were reported by a wicked person. The evil policemen arrested the
brothers and sisters and asked the village secretary to send me to the
police station as well. At the station, an evil policeman asked me, “How
do you believe in God? Why do you believe in God?” I said, “In
believing in God, we’re taught to be good, not hitting or scolding
others or getting angry. It’s very good!” The evil policeman said with a
sarcastic tone, “You won’t get angry when you get back!” At that time, I
didn’t understand what he meant by saying that. He then asked, “Who
preached the gospel to you? Is there anyone else in your family who also
believes?” I said that in my family only I believed. Seeing that they
couldn’t get anything out of me, they released me that very day. I
wondered when I came out, “How could the evil policemen release me so
easily?” Only when I got back home did I know that after I was taken to
the police station, my family spent 3,000 yuan buying off someone, and
so the evil policemen released me. My daughter-in-law had a big row with
my son because of that, and she even threatened that she would drink
pesticide to kill herself. Only then did I understand the meaning of the
word that evil policeman said. The evil policemen were simply bad
through and through! My harmonious family was thrown into chaos by them,
yet they convicted me of “disturbing the social order.” They were
simply talking nonsense and imposing a charge upon me willfully! The One
we believe in is the only true God who created the heavens and the
earth and all things. Today when Almighty God comes to save us, he
requires us to live out the likeness of a man and not to speak or do
things against Heaven or conscience or do things against humanity and
morality. We won’t touch even a single needle or thread of others. How
could we possibly disturb the social order? Satan is too hateful! It
always venomously slanders others and frames good people. Since the evil
policemen knew from the informer that I was doing hosting, they didn’t
let up on me. Later, they called me to the police station to question me
again, and they even threatened me, “Tell us your church leader and all
the ones having meetings with you. Otherwise, we’ll put you into
prison!” I said straight out, “What shall I say? I know nothing about
it!” The evil policemen were fuming with rage, but thanks to God’s
keeping, they didn’t dare to do anything to me and sent me back home.
After
the evil policemen released me, they still didn’t loosen their
surveillance on me, attempting to throw a long line to catch big fish.
From then on, being afraid to get the brothers and sisters into trouble,
I didn’t dare to contact them any more. Since then, I lost the church
life. Without the church life, I felt empty and lost in my heart.
Gradually, I became distant from God. Every day I lived in fear and
apprehension, fearing that the evil policemen would come to take me away
again some day. Before, I listened to God’s word and the preaching and
fellowship every day. Now I had nothing at home. Not to mention
listening to God’s word and the preaching, I would be rebuked by my
family if they saw me pray or heard me mention “God.” My daughter-in-law
threw cold words at me all day long because of my being fined by the
evil policemen. My husband and my son scolded me any time they wanted.
All my family, who formerly supported me in believing in Almighty God,
began to strongly oppose and persecute me. This made me feel very
distressed and much oppressed mentally. I lived in darkness and misery I
had never had. Because I had no recital of God’s word to listen to and
couldn’t fellowship with the brothers and sisters, I felt very thirsty
in the spirit. I suffered so much that every night I tossed and turned
in my bed and couldn’t sleep. I often missed the happy time when I had
meetings with the brothers and sisters. At such times, I hated the CCP
government all the more. All these sufferings of mine were caused by it.
It made me lose the church life and unable to fellowship about God’s
word with the brothers and sisters and unable to perform my duty. In
misery, I could only pray to God silently, “O God! I’m living in
darkness and feel thirsty in the spirit. I want to have the church life
with the brothers and sisters. God! May you make a way out for me!” I
kept crying to God before him like that. God really heard my prayer, and
arranged for the brothers and sisters to visit me. A sister knew that I
often went to work in the cotton field. So she secretly came to the
cotton field to find me and fix the meeting time with me. Each time,
when others were having lunch, I would go to work early in the cotton
field and squat there to have a meeting and read God’s word with the
sister. When I saw the sister, I felt as if seeing a long-separated
relative, feeling especially warm, and my tears streamed down
unceasingly. I poured out all my grievances and miseries and my family’s
misunderstandings to her. She comforted me, and God’s word watered me.
Gradually, my state became better and better. Just like that, under the
persecution of the CCP government, we could only squat in the cotton
field to have meetings. One day, we read a passage of God’s words, “No
one among you is protected by law, but on the contrary you are
subjected to legal penalties. An even greater difficulty is that no one
understands you. Whether they are your relatives, parents, friends, or
colleagues, they do not understand you. When God ‘abandons’ you, you
simply cannot live in the world. Yet even so, people are still unwilling
to leave God. This is the significance of God conquering man and is
God’s glory. … Blessings cannot be gained in one or two days. You have
to pay much price. That is, you have to have a refined love, have a
great faith, and have the many truths God requires you to live up to,
you have to be able to stand with justice, not bending or swerving, and
have to have a heart that loves God without change even unto death, and
you need to have the will, have your life disposition transformed and
your corruptions cured, and accept all God’s manipulations without
complaint and even be able to obey unto death. These are what you should
achieve, are God’s ultimate purpose, and are God’s requirements for
this group of people.” (from “Is God’s Work So Simple as People
Imagine?” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) God’s words made me
understand this: The suffering today is what I should undergo. Believing
in God in China, one is bound to be persecuted and humiliated. This
suffering is slight and momentary, and it’s carefully arranged by God so
that I can better inherit God’s promises and blessings in the future.
Now, I have nothing to ask for, and I’m contented as long as I have God.
At the same time, I also saw that the laws set by the CCP government
are all deceitful. It claims freedom of belief yet actually it doesn’t
allow at all the existence of believers in God. The heaven and the earth
created by God are so large, yet in China believers in God don’t have a
footing. Whoever believes in God, satan will persecute him, arrest him,
and restrict his freedom. It simply attempts to exterminate all
believers in God and turn China into a region without God. I’ve seen
that it is too dark and reactionary! It is indeed God’s deadly and
irreconcilable enemy.
I secretly had meetings with the sister in
the cotton field all along. But as time went by, winter was coming.
Leaves on the cotton stalks all fell and the stalks would be pulled out.
No crops were available to cover us in the field. So I couldn’t have
meetings again. At the beginning, I could hold on to God’s word and
maintain a normal relationship with God. But without the supply of God’s
word, man’s normal state before God couldn’t last long. Not long
afterward, I fell into darkness again. I was overwhelmed with grief,
feeling as if suddenly falling from heaven to hell. Because my family
believed the policemen’s lies, they watched over me every day and
threatened that they would beat me if I still believed. At home, I
didn’t dare to pray. I could only pray secretly under the quilt when I
went to bed or when no one else was at home. Every day it was like that.
I not only suffered being rebuked by my family but also had to endure
the gossips of the villagers. Facing all those, I felt extremely
distressed in my heart. I was very passive in the spirit and was
dispirited all day long. I felt that since I lost the church life and
was unable to see the brothers and sisters, it was painful even to live,
and there was no joy at all. In retrospect, when I was weak and passive
before, I had God’s word to comfort me and the brothers and sisters to
sustain and help me patiently. After I understood God’s will, I would
become spirited at once. But now, because of the persecution and
surveillance from the evil policemen, I couldn’t contact the brothers
and sisters and was tormented in the plight all day. Looking at my
listless state now, and thinking of my state before in the church when I
was full of vigor and vitality with the presence of God, I felt
miserable and distressed. Especially when I saw that my family didn’t
understand me, I was even more sorrowful and grieved. I knew that they
treated me that way because they were blinded by satan. Then, what
should I do to remove their misunderstanding about God? How could I make
them no longer hinder me from believing in God? Having no way to go, I
prayed to God time and again, asking God to make a way out for me, “O
God! My family have been deceived by the CCP government. May you help me
to testify your deeds so that they’ll no longer misunderstand you. O
God! May you inspire and lead me and make my family see your great power
so that they’ll no longer resist you. I’m willing to commit my family
into your hand. May you make a way out for us.”
God indeed
heard my prayer. After a period of time, one night I suddenly fainted in
front of the bed. My husband was terrified and flustered, not knowing
what to do. My son immediately dialed 120. The hospital heard that it
was an old woman who was very sick, so they refused to come. Then my son
dialed 120 of another hospital. The doctor said that the chance for me
to wake up was little and there was no need to do the rescue, and that
my family should be prepared. My son was unwilling to give up, so he
begged them earnestly. Having no choice, they drove me to the hospital.
Actually, they all had given me up in their hearts. They firmly believed
that I couldn’t possibly come back to life. However, with God there is
really nothing impossible. Thus, a miracle happened! After being in a
deep coma for eighteen hours, I gradually regained consciousness. All
people on the spot were shocked at that time. I mistook the doctors for
angels when I opened my eyes and saw them. I asked them where I was. A
doctor said that I was in the hospital. They hurried to examine my body
and said unceasingly, “It’s really a miracle….” A short time later, I
sat up and felt very hungry. A nurse hurried to feed me something. After
having some food, I felt I had much strength. I knew it was Almighty
God’s wonderful deed. God heard my prayer, and it was God who made a way
out for me. Sitting in bed, I couldn’t help singing hymns to praise God. The doctor asked me in surprise, “Auntie, which God do you believe
in?” I said, “The One I believe in is Almighty God, the only true God
who created the heavens and the earth and all things!” The doctor looked
at me in great surprise. Seeing me singing, my family were really
surprised and pleased. When I left the hospital and went back home, my
neighbors came to see me one after another. They said, “That’s
incredible! Clearly there was no hope for you to live, but you woke up
again. It’s really a miracle!” Then I testified God to my family. I told
them, “It was God’s great power. It was God who saved me. Without God, I
would have long died. It was God who gave me a second life. We humans
are all created by God. Our lives are bestowed by God. Man can’t leave
God’s leading. If man leaves God, he will die.” After experiencing that
matter, my family no longer opposed my believing in God. Furthermore,
God bestowed to me an unexpected blessing: My husband also accepted this
stage of God’s work. Now, I often have meetings and fellowship with my
husband, feeling very happy and peaceful and secure in my heart and live
in joy every day. I have really seen God’s almightiness and wisdom. I
thank and praise God from my heart!
In experience, I have truly
tasted that whatever God does is love to man. He allowed satan’s
persecution to come upon me and it’s even more God’s extremely great
love and salvation. Satan wanted to make me stay away from God through
its arrest and persecution. Little did it know that its persecution not
only couldn’t make me stay away from God, but instead it made me be more
certain that Almighty God’s word is the truth, the way, and the life!
It made me love God and be faithful to God all the more. As Almighty God
says, “Today God has again come to the world to do his work.
The first place he does his work in is the aggregate of dictatorial
rulers—China—the strong bastion of atheism. With his wisdom and by his
power, he has conquered a group of people. During this period, he is
hunted by China’s ruling party in every possible way and undergoes all
kinds of sufferings, having no place to lay his head and having no place
to stay. In spite of this, he is still doing the work he wants to do:
speaking and uttering his voice and spreading the gospel. God’s
almightiness cannot be fathomed by anyone. In China, a nation which
regards God as its enemy, God has never stopped his work but instead has
gained more people to accept his work and word, because God saves every
one of mankind to the utmost.” (from “God Is Sovereign over
the Destiny of All Mankind” in The Word Appears in the Flesh) From God’s
words, I know God’s eager intention to save man. No matter how many
difficulties and dangers there may be in the way ahead, I’m willing to
perform my duty properly and offer up my portion to satisfy God’s will.
from The Overcomers’ Testimonies
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