Book Review: The Heavenly Man

My dad had read this book years ago and when he told me about it I was immediately intrigued.  I always love reading stories of courageous Christians who have gone before.  We finally ordered the book and I have since been inspired, challenged, and convicted by it.

The Heavenly Man tells the story of a young Chinese boy by the name of Liu Zhenying (better

known by his Christian brothers and sisters as Brother Yun).  He was born into a poor farming family in 1958 as the 4th of 5 children in China's Henan Province.  When he was still young his father became very sick with cancer and was told by the doctors that he would soon die.  One night, after trying many unsuccessful ways to heal their father, Liu's mother heard a voice say to her "Jesus loves you".  Immediately she called everyone together and told them to pray to Jesus to heal their father.  The next morning he was found to be much better!  Within a week his cancer was completely gone.  This was the turning point in Brother Yun's family.  He, along with all of his brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, received the knowledge and love of Jesus into their hearts because of this testimony of healing power.  Blessed with the amazing ability to memorize whole books of the Bible in only one month, Yun began preaching and teaching to the people in the surrounding villages- he was 16.  Because of his boldness Brother Yun was soon a target on the enemies radar. I wish I could go into more detail about the persecutions he endured, the many times God miraculously intervened and set him free from the enemies hands, the way of faith that he followed and is still following to this day, etc. but time (and space) does not allow.  Although the PSB (mainland China's "police") tried repeatedly to kill him the Lord brought him through the fiery furnace even stronger than before.  Finally, he, along with is wife and 2 children, were able to escape to Germany (although it took several years of long hard work).  He now assists in operating a ministry called "Back to Jerusalem".  The goal of this ministry is to train and send out Chinese Christians to all the countries east of China to Jerusalem as ministers in some of the darkest regions on earth.  While no longer in his home country, Brother Yun continues to teach and to preach God's Word boldly and passionately.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to draw closer to Jesus.  Because of some graphic descriptions of the torture he repeatedly endured I would not recommend this book for young children.

Learning to delight in Jesus,
Hannah