The Heavenly Man

     Heavenly Man is a wonderful book based on the life of brother Yun, a Chinese Christian. Told to John, brother Yun tells of his entire spiritual life, from beginning to present. His inspiring accounts of his time spent in prison and being tortured will rouse any Christian’s spiritual fervor.

     Born into a poor family in the obscure Chinese province of Hunan, Yun was destined to being a farmer for the rest of his life- until God stepped in. In the midst of his father’s near fatal sickness, Yun’s mother remembered stories pasted down from her family of a God that heals. In desperation, Yun and his family called out to God and asked Him to heal their father. Their father is almost instantly healed, and Yun is hungry for more information about ‘This God that heals.’ His mother doesn’t remember anything else about God, but Yun learns that about the Bible, a ‘Holy Book.’ Miraculously, Yun receives the Bible from some anonymous travelers and instantly delves into the Scriptures. Memorizing one chapter of the Bible a day, Yun learns of Jesus dying on the cross to everyone. Yun instantly converts himself, his family, and most of his village to Christianity. After becoming somewhat familiar with the scriptures, Yun receives a vision to take the Gospel to other parts of China. With resounding success, he brings hundreds of people to their needs, asking God into their hearts. But the Chinese secret police, the Public Security Bureau, arrests Yun on charges of corrupting the peace. This time he is warned not to preach any more and is set free. But he starts to fulfill God’s purpose for him and continues to preach. He is continuously captured time and time again, but each time is either released or miraculously escapes. One time in particular, Yun is constantly beaten by the prison so much that he cannot get up. With blood dried all over his body, with most of his hair pulled out by the guards and with only thin, smelly and dirty rags to keep himself covered, The half-starved Christian Zealot goes to the Lord in one of the most serious signs of devotion to God - he fasts. For seventy-five days Yun fasts, spending all day every day earnestly praying to God. When his wife and mother are finally granted access to visit him, they don’t even recognize him. What they see is a frail man covered by thin, rags covered with dried urine and blood. He only has patches of hair on his head, and his ears are shriveled to the size of peas. Eating for the first time in two and a half months, Yun partakes in the Lord’s Supper with his wife and mother. Yun is eventually released a few weeks later, and instantly goes back to spreading the gospel. A few years later he is arrested again. But this time, he is sentenced to eight years in a prison camp eighty miles away from his family. Hauling human excretement, Yun calls this the lowest point in his life. For whenever his family would come to meet him, an iron-bared gate stood between them. All he could do was touch them and talk to them for the allotted time. What hurt him the most was his families financial situation. Whenever his family would come and visit him, his children were wearing shoes that had holes on the end so their fragile wouldn’t be cramped inside the shoe. Wearing tight clothes better suited for a toddler, his eight year old son told Yun stories of how the kids at school made fun of him for his father being in prison and for wearing clothes way to small. At this emotional part in his life, Yun had practically nothing; nothing except Jesus. He was released in two years for good conduct, and went back to preaching. After being captured again, Yun and some other important figures in the Chinese Church were held in the most tight and well guarded facility in all of China. Crippled from stun batons, Yun lay limply on the prison floor, praying to God. Then God told him to get up and walk out of the prison facility, and he did just that! The guards miraculously being oblivious to Yun, he simply trotted out of the prison. After this, he became one of the most wanted men in China. He and his fellow believers eventually decided that it would be better for him to leave China. As soon as he left China and went into Thailand, he was captured and sent to a Thai prison. Staying in a cramped cell with twenty other criminals, he tried to tell others about Jesus, but they couldn’t understand him. A lot of Yun’s fellow prisoners had been given life sentences, thus having no hope for the rest of their life. But another Chinese man arrived in the prison, thus almost instantaneously sparking a revival in the prison. Yun was eventually released, and then went to Germany, where he currently resides, always working for the Lord.

     Certainly an instant classic for Christians, Heavenly man is a must for any Christian’s library. All Christian’s should take Brother Yun’s life as an example for a devout believer of God’s Word.