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The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun by: Brother Yun, Paul Hattaway

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Rating: - I am a citizen of Heaven!

I like this book because it is a true story that is amazing and has consequences for everyone because it is true! The point is that this man Yun is an ordinary Christian, living a normal Christian life (according to the New Testament), yet extraordinary miracles have been done through his obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. The title he gained, Heavenly man, comes only from an incident where he declared to the arresting authorities that he was not a citizen of this ot that village on earth, but a citizen of Heaven! I find that a basis for all the rest that is told, that this man Yun put his entire identity in who he is in Christ Jesus, not his earthly life of poverty and persecution.

The story is actually miserable an frightening in that it concerns toture and imprisonment and separation from family (though never friends or the Lord Jesus!) in Chinese and Burmese jails. The experience, however, brought foreth faith in the only One who could affect the situation of not only Yun, but those tortured souls around him in prison. This faith in God went ever deeper as the pain of torture and separation from family progressed, yet God did ever greater miracles through Yun, from Healing others of incurable illness, to the miracle of Yuns escape from the most secure prison in China. That alone makes this book worthwhile, a massive embarrassment for the communist government of China, and yet Yun encourages everyone to pray for them , not that they might be removecd, but that they might experience Gods love even as they oppose His truth through persecution of His Church in China. That gives a deep insight to Yuns tranformed character in Christ Jesus, and also his understanding that God will allow the persecution until it has achieved HIs purposes for China and the rest of the world.

Yun goes on to comment on his experience of the west (as he is now a refugee in Germany, also by the grace of God with his family also given asylum), where persecution against the CHurch happens through words and not actions (for the time being at least). This gave me a deeper insight into Gods purposes for us in the west who seem so luke-warm compared to believers such as Yun, who suffered broken legs a terrible illness from the unclean prison conditions. Okay, God did that amazing healing of his legs in the moment of his miraculous escape (the doors opened in front of him in that maximun security jail, and he stepped into a waiting taxi!), but our faith needs to be tested like Yuns. This book is a challenge to every believer to get excited about what God IS doing in the world right now in our time. It looks like we are in for something more like the New Testament if what is written here is becoming the pattern worldwide!

Rating: - ************A few more stars, this will blow your socks off!

I like this book because it is a true story that is amazing and has consequences for everyone because it is true! The point is that this man Yun is an ordinary Christian, living a normal Christian life (according to the New Testament), yet extraordinary miracles have been done through his obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. The title he gained, Heavenly man, comes only from an incident where he declared to the arresting authorities that he was not a citizen of this ot that village on earth, but a citizen of Heaven! I find that a basis for all the rest that is told, that this man Yun put his entire identity in who he is in Christ Jesus, not his earthly life of poverty and persecution.

The story is actually miserable an frightening in that it concerns toture and imprisonment and separation from family (though never friends or the Lord Jesus!) in Chinese and Burmese jails. THe experience, however, brought foreth faith in the only One who could affect the situation of not only Yun, but those tortured souls around him in prison. This faith in God went ever deeper as the pain of torture and separation from family progressed, yet God did ever greater miracles through Yun, from Healing others of incurable illness, to the miracle of Yuns escape from the most secure prison in China. That alone makes this book worthwhile, a massive embarrassment for the communist government of China, and yet Yun encourages everyone to pray for them , not that they might be removecd, but that they might experience Gods love even as they oppose His truth through persecution of His Church in China. That gives a deep insight to Yuns tranformed character in Christ Jesus, and also his understanding that God will allow the persecution until it has achieved HIs purposes for China and the rest of the world.

Yun goes on to comment on his experience of the west (as he is now a refugee in Germany, also by the grace of God with his family also given asylum), where persecution against the CHurch happens through words and not actions (for the time being at least). This gave me a deeper insight into Gods purposes for us in the west who seem so luke-warm compared to believers such as Yun, who suffered broken legs a terrible illness from the unclean prison conditions. Okay, God did that amazing healing of his legs in the moment of his miraculous escape (the doors opened in front of him in that maximun security jail, and he stepped into a waiting taxi!), but our faith needs to be tested like Yuns. This book is a challenge to every believer to get excited about what God IS doing in the world right now in our time. It looks like we are in for something more like the New Testament if what is written here is becoming the pattern worldwide!

Rating: - God using people, People Used by God!!!

Reading this book will change your life forever. If you want to strenghen you faith in God or find out about Chinese Church Persecution this is the book for you. After you read the book you won't feel God just wants you to go on with life, but that he wants to use you in ways you've never thought possible.To devote your whole life to him and want to give everything that you have to him, So that HE CAN USE YOU!!!This book will Bless you.

God Bless

Rating: - Surviving heaven and hell in modern China

The 'Heavenly Man' gets his name from a time when he was being publicly arrested by the Chinese state police for preaching (an offence for which you can still die in China), and he refused to give his name and address to avoid incriminating others. Under pressure, he shouted aloud as a warning for the village to hear, "I am a Heavenly Man". This defiance and denial of the state and assertion of his individual rights only enraged the enforcers even more, but certainly saved a few others from capture that night. The Heavenly Man's true name is Liu Zhenying, and the brothers call him Brother Yun. He was born in a mud hut house in 1958 in Nanyang County, the southern part of Henan Province, China. His peasant farmer village is very small, only 600 souls, but Henan Province has 100 million, and has been widely influenced by his preaching and leadership in the persecuted house church movement. Brother Yun is currently in exile in Europe with his family.
This account of the way things are for the oppressed in modern China is not for the faint-hearted. It is a harrowing but inspired account of his life from his conversion at the age of sixteen (with the rest of his family), up to 2002. Almost every type of miracle is recorded here. Of course, whether the reader believes any or all of them will depend on many things, but most basically it will depend on whether your worldview contains any supernatural aspect. If you go so far as to believe that there is a God and that he can intervene by his Will direct, as opposed to just working through people, then you may be inclined to accept all that he says. He is a veteran of the Chinese state prison system. Under the almost incessant vicious treatment of the communists he was attacked bodily and mentally in torture and public humiliation. It is no surprise that it took miraculous powers to bring him through: without it he simply would not have survived physically or mentally.

His family and friends also suffered terribly. As China is an honour-shame culture, the absolute rights and wrongs of individual justice and truth are as often as not of no importance in determining your public treatment at the hands of the community and authorities. Being shamed, or the fear of being shamed, is often all it takes in terms of social control and compliance. (The other side of the social compliance mechanism is the Hebrew internalised justice-guilt culture, which 'Westerners' have...so we are eclectic Easterners really. Our jurisprudence is essentially Greek. In the justice-guilt concept what matters most is the actual truth of the case, not what people think or the circumstantial evidence. Our version of honour-shame is sadly exemplified in the debased hysteria of the screaming tabloids, peer pressure in the youth, and fashion victims. But all stable cultures require a blend of both elements.)

The risks of being a Christian in China today are all too evident. Brother Yun and his co-pastors quite rightly condemn the state-controlled 'Three-Self Patriot church' as an ineffectual and neutralised collection of infiltrated collaborators. It is a running dog, paper tiger type of church. They are called 'caged birds' that enable the communists to falsely claim that religious freedom exists.

Yun's conversion starts with the night vision of his mother, desperate in plight, as their father lies dying of cancer. She is converted instantly, and the next day they pray for their father who is healed. The family become Christians. Yun needs a bible (extremely difficult to get at that time), and almost fasts and prays himself to death. The bible is miraculously provided. He shares his faith and preaches. He is then plunged into a whirl of healings, miraculous escapes, supernatural dreams and visions, conversions of almost insane death-row prisoners, and escapes from prison that read like episodes from Star Wars.

The style in which everything is reported is so dry and plain that it seems that only Yun's simplicity saves him from being accused of fantasy beyond the normal reaches of fiction. He speaks as man consumed by the truth and the passion of his convictions. I myself believe what he says, and am one of such sceptic mould that I parse every miracle report and 'word' I hear with great care. If I reject what I hear most often it is on the grounds of 'good intention' and thin evidence: the person's motive may be good but the method bad. To me it clear that Brother Yun has only survived with his life through an incessant stream of miracles.

During his final arrest he broke both his legs. As a well-known escapee he was incarcerated in a maximum-security prison and his broken legs are tortured to cripple him for life. He is warned by God that he must escape very soon or die. At the right moment he walks out of the prison like the invisible man (on the broken legs, not realising that they have been instantly healed), and he eventually escapes to Germany. His family escaped via Burma (where he survives an unspeakably vile Burmese prison), and they now live in exile in the west.

Rating: - Inspirational stuff!

Wow! this book is so powerful, it has completely renewed my faith! Like others who have read this book, I also questioned my faith and my love for the lord. It has lead me to sign up for more information from the backtojerusalem.com website and also disappointed to find that I missed brother Yun's visit to the UK.

I have read so many books but none has touched me so deep as this, no wonder it was voted book of the year 2003! How God does work in mysteroius ways!

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