Amen. Thanks be to God.
I want to share something related to these words of God.
Great.
On November 28, 2002,
I was preaching the gospel with others to a leader of a Christian church,
when around a dozen cops burst into the room.
Some had guns, some had batons,
and they screamed at us to put our hands on our heads, and to face the wall.
They searched every one of us,
and took over 5,000 yuan and a bunch of other things.
Two of the younger sisters were terrified,
so I whispered to them,
"Don't be afraid. It'll be okay. We just need to trust in God."
Some officers immediately ran over to me and beat me with their batons.
They completely ransacked everything, the entire place.
A sister had been hiding in another room.
One officer barged right in and violently dragged her out.
Another noticed she was very pretty and just started to grope her.
She couldn't fight him off and just screamed.
Luckily, the landlord stopped them, and then they left her alone.
The police's disgusting behavior just enraged me.
Then they put us all into a van and took us to the police station
where they handcuffed us,
left us in a hallway for two days, no food or water.
They later tried to force info on the church out of a brother.
When he wouldn't talk,
they pinned him down, down to the floor
and forced dog feces into his mouth.
It was more than his spirit could endure.
Seeing him tortured, made me infuriated beyond belief.
The police were devils, not human beings!
Yes.
I said a silent prayer to God,
asking Him to guide us to bear witness and endure through Satan's tortures
and to stand firm.
Amen.
We spent the third night
being interrogated at the County Police Bureau, one by one.
The vice-chief of the bureau tried to tempt me,
"Tell us who your church leaders are and where the church keeps all of its money
and then you can go home.
Your family needs you back home safe.
If not for yourself, then do it for them."
My heart was tempted a little.
I thought,
"If I just tell them a couple unimportant things,
maybe they'll just let me go.
I wouldn't have to suffer anymore.
I could go back home and look after my family."
Just then, I remembered God's words:
I came back to my senses.
Wasn't I thinking about betraying God?
I realized I'd fallen right into Satan's trap.
If I worried about my flesh, family, sought comfort
and became like Judas, betraying God and selling out my brothers and sisters,
it would have brought down God's hate and offended His disposition!
- That's right. - Sure.
I prayed to God, saying,
"Even if they cripple or kill me, I will never betray You or be like Judas."
- Amen. - Thank God.
Seeing their "good cop" routine fail,
the police showed they are all devils inside.
One officer took the heel of his shoe and stamped on my big toe,
and ground down with all his might.
An unbelievable flash of pain hit me and I couldn't help but cry out.
My clothes were soaked with sweat.
I just kept praying to God to help me through my pain,
asking Him to protect my heart,
to give me all the faith and strength to not give into Satan.
Thanks be to God.
When the officer stopped,
my big toe was crushed, blood was everywhere.
my toenail, the whole thing had come clean off.
The police hadn't gotten anything out of me,
but they weren't through yet.
They sent me, another brother and one sister to the SWAT team division
for more questioning.
When we got there,
the police made us all strip down,
we were completely naked,
then they cuffed our hands and feet.
They forced us to do jumping jacks to humiliate us.
Lots of cops gathered around us to watch,
pointing and laughing.
I felt less than human.
Each time I jumped, the flames of rage and fury grew inside me.
If I hadn't been through it myself
I never would've believed that the "people's police"
could torture us in such evil, vile and inhuman ways.
I hated those devils, those beasts.
As God's words say:
Amen.
We believers don't break the law or do anything to hurt anyone.
All we do is preach God's gospel so others worship Him,
receive the truth, can be freed from Satan's grasp and be saved.
But the CCP won't let us believe in God and walk the right path,
not to mention preaching the gospel.
It does all it can to hunt down, arrest and brutally torture us,
desperate to kill all God's believers.
Now faced with this truth,
that the CCP is rotten to its evil core,
how it hates the truth and opposes God.
I hated and rejected it with all my heart.
I would stand witness, cast shame upon Satan and finally defeat it.
Amen.
The cops, they questioned me again four days later,
wanting info on the church.
I wouldn't talk, so they dragged me and the other brother out to the yard.
Our hands and feet shackled, with black bags over our heads,
they hung us from a big tree in the middle of the yard.
Deranged, they released tons of ants to swarm onto the tree,
which climbed up all over us and bit us all over.
It felt like they were biting my bones, and I wished I would die.
I knew I just couldn't hold on, and I prayed to God to help me
so I wouldn't betray Him.
I asked for the strength and will to endure and push through.
Amen.
God's words came to me:
God's words left me so ashamed.
I'd never pleased God before,
and now that I finally had to stand strong against Satan,
I knew I couldn't betray God or break His heart
because of the pain I felt in my body.
Amen.
God is the true Creator and is above all things.
To save us all, He Himself became flesh and suffered humiliation,
hunted by the CCP and rejected by the world,
but still He expresses the truth for all of us.
God paid such a price for us.
What did my small suffering amount to?
I decided I'd be willing to die
to satisfy and glorify God.
Amen.
Thinking this, my strength returned.
This was how I leaned on God to push through this torture, minute by minute.
Thanks be to God.
After two more days, I was really at my breaking point.
It was early winter and raining outside.
I had on only a thin shirt and was hanging, my feet bare.
For two days I didn't eat or drink, and I hurt everywhere.
I was in agony and just wanted to die.
So I kept praying to God,
afraid the frailty of my body might make me betray Him.
Through my pain, I thought of the apostle Stephen in the Age of Grace
who had been stoned to death by a mob for preaching the Lord's gospel.
Before death, he asked God to take his spirit,
so I said this prayer to God:
"Dear God, I can't hold on and take this pain anymore.
Please take my spirit.
I'd rather die than do anything to betray You!"
- Amen. - Thanks be to God.
And then, an amazing miracle happened:
My spirit left my body!
I found myself on a wide grassy plain,
with the greenest grass and livestock as far as you could see.
I felt so much at peace
and couldn't help but sing out a hymn praising God:
Amen.
Thanks be to God.
I was completely immersed in such incomparable joy and peace,
a state of total release.
The pain, hunger and cold I felt, hanging in the tree,
all the pain I felt bitten by ants, all disappeared.
Thanks be to God.
When I came to, it was nighttime,
and the police took me down from the tree.
I was still alive, and what's more, my spirit was renewed.
This was God's almighty and wondrous protection!
Yes.
I thanked and praised Almighty God.
- Amen. - Thanks be to God.
I saw whether we live or die is up to God, and my faith in Him grew.
My resolve grew to stand witness for God.
Amen.
The next day, the cops questioned me more,
wanting me to sell out the church and blaspheme and betray God.
Indignant, I said,
"Almighty God is the Creator, the one true God who rules over all!
You say black is white and frame the innocent."
One big policeman got real mad and started beating me
with a bench like a lunatic.
Blood poured out from my mouth and I passed out on the floor.
They woke me with ice water, pulled me up and beat me again.
I felt so weak then,
but I thought of God's words:
Thanks be to God!
I felt so moved and said this prayer to God:
"They can beat me to death, but I will never betray You."
Amen.
After being tortured for days by the police,
I was covered in bruises and had severe internal injuries.
Even a week after, my urine was still red and bloody.
My kidney, the right one, was so badly damaged that it still hurts today.
A month later, the police still had no evidence,
so they made me sign my name to fake evidence, evidence they created,
before sending me to a detention center.
Three months later,
the CCP charged me with "undermining law enforcement,"
and sentenced me to a year of hard labor.
At the labor camp,
there was not enough food and I had to work over ten hours a day.
All the guards abused and insulted me,
used their cattle prods, locked me up alone.
Without God's care and protection,
those evil devils would have tortured me to death.
True.
On November 7, 2003,
I was released and I finally escaped that living hell.
Thanks be to God.
Though my body had suffered severe damage
after being tortured by the CCP, I gained discernment.
Thanks be to God.
I witnessed the CCP's demonic nature that hates the truth and God,
and I witnessed God's wondrous deeds, His almighty sovereignty.
- Amen. - Thanks be to God!
Then my faith in God grew stronger.
- Amen. - Thanks be to God!
I also tasted the power of God's words.
It was God's words that guided me along to see through Satan's schemes,
and when I was at death's very door,
God's words gave me faith and strength to go on,
until I defeated the CCP devils, and survived their tortures and temptations.
- Amen. - Thanks be to God!
This experience made me
reject the great red dragon, and it bolstered my faith to follow God.
Amen! Thanks be to God!
Thanks be to God!
This is God's protection.
Yes.