A 22-year-old woman returned from China to North Korea with the purpose of sharing the Gospel with friends and family. She was arrested after one and a half years when she was discovered to be distributing Bibles and hymnals.
She was cruelly punished as if she was a terrorist, being required in one instance to sit in one position for 24 hours without moving. However, by a miracle of God she was not executed. He still had more work for her. One day a prisoner was sent to her in the same prison. The new prisoner was a spy for North Korea in China, who was trapping North Korean defectors. The former undercover spy had tried to defect from China to South Korea, but was caught. The new prisoner asked the 22-year-old Christian if God existed and if He could forgive her because she regretted what she did to others. The Christian, who had only been trained for 4½ months in China, led the spy to Christ. Then to help her she wrote down some Bible verses on paper for the former spy.
Witnessing in North Korea is generally very secretive. Christians in North Korea do not pursue the open sharing of the Gospel as it leads to immediate incarceration, beatings, torture and possible martyrdom. There are two added factors that cause Christians to act in secrecy. They do not mind to lose their own lives but if they are discovered in their faith they will give a death sentence to three generations of their families—their fathers and mothers, their grandparents, their uncles and aunts and their children. Government spies are sent to trap them. Many of those professing Christ openly are government spies and agents who want to trap underground Church members. The mere mention of the Name of God is enough to prompt an investigation if not a conviction. For fear of electronic surveillance, all Christian speech is conducted in secret places, sometimes far away in fields or very quietly, so as under one’s breath.
North Koreans take a long time to create trust with another person before they share their faith. Yet evangelism goes on, a word here and a word there. God’s Word does not return void and has great conviction. The power of the Holy Spirit is with those who witness if they are true Christians.
Within the concentration and death camps the proclamation of the Gospel is more open. Death by execution or starvation is presumed to claim its victims. Prisoners feel if one is dead already one should share that there is eternal life giving others hope for eternity; there is nothing left to lose. Some North Korean Christians prefer to meet their fate in the death camps finally being able to speak freely of Jesus Christ their Lord, and the gift of God giving eternal life to those who believe.
“For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him.”748
“But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.”749
Then there are those who are especially called by the Lord. They will go out in secret, doing witnessing and missions work by faith, and trusting the Lord for their needs.750 Some will give up their jobs and security, preaching the Gospel across their country. It is inconceivable to our minds that some young people or older people would give up their home, job and comforts of life to share the Good News in such a deadly, torturous, and brutal country. They trust the Lord and they do not love their own life unto death.
Thus we must learn from the underground Church in North Korea to trust God again and afresh. We must do the work while the night has not yet come in countries where persecution is not rampant. God is able to do abundantly above what we can ask or even imagine.751 We trust so much in wealth and freedom instead of putting our full confidence in the Lord. We rely on fancy tools and not on the Holy Spirit of God absolutely! We deny the power of God in our lives.
May we choose to seek the filling of the Holy Spirit to receive the power of God to witness and preach with boldness. If God then requires it He will provide the power of the Holy Spirit for us to suffer for the Gospel.
We need to change our lives to meet more as the body of Christ, to gain a deeper understanding and reverence for the Word of God, to repent of worldliness, to repent of seeking pleasures and wealth and to repent of our idolization of Christian leaders. We must learn to walk in the Spirit so as not to fulfill the lusts of our flesh752 and to trust God afresh to be a part of His growing Church.
An underground Church leader in North Korea explained how the Lord is preserving His movement. He said: “People ask me, ‘How are Christians surviving in North Korea?’ They have a secret. They survive through God’s intervention, protection and miracles. They are starving much physically but they cannot live without reading God’s Word, praying and praising God. That’s the secret to their survival!” This is how the North Korean Church survives: They trust a God of the impossible!
How needful it is for us today to not trust in the arm of the flesh753 or the plans of men754 but in God who does what is not humanly possible. May we agree with the underground believers that say: “We truly believe in a God of miracles. Amen!”
748 Philippians 1:29
749 Philippians 2:17-18
750 Luke 12:22
751 Ephesians 3:20
752 Galatians 5:16
753 2 Chronicles 32:8
754 Jeremiah 17:5
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Principles For The Gathering Of Believers ( - )
Read freely the free ebook Principles For The Gathering Of Believers in text and pdf format. We need revival in our countries like what we see in the underground house Churches in China. Learn the following from this volume: Prepare for coming persecution in non-persecuted countries. Learn Principles of how to gather as the Church from the Book of Acts and current underground Churches.Access resources that will help your gathering or house Church meeting. Experience personal revival and the Spirit’s empowerment. In response to reading the Principles book consider starting a fellowship group under the Headship of Jesus Christ in your local area. Access also this free christian ebook in many other formats. Learn more at Gospel Fellowships.