reflect the mind of Christ

 It is choosing to speak light into the dark, even when my emotions haven't caught up yet." 

Renewal, I've come to learn, is not an event. It is daily cooperation with grace. So tonight, as I quiet my thoughts once more, I whisper what has become my daily prayer. Renew my mind, Lord. Not just so I can think better, but so I can live freer, love deeper, walk stronger, so I can reflect the mind of Christ, not only in what I believe, but in who l am becoming. And if you walk with me through these pages, I hope you feel it too. That quiet stirring, that invitation. Because the God who authored your soul is also the one shaping your mind. He is not finished. He is not in a hurry. And he is not discouraged by your process. One repeated truth at a time. He is forming something new in you. A mind marked by clarity, peace, resilience,  and hope. This is the miracle already happening even now. Not by might, not by striving, but by the gentle repetition of truth again and again until it becomes who you are. 

 

Chinese Characters for "Lord Jesus Christ"

 Chinese Characters for "Lord Jesus Christ"

The phrase "Lord Jesus Christ" in Chinese is written as 耶穌基督 (Yēsū Jīdū). This phrase consists of two main components that convey significant meanings in Christian belief.

Breakdown of the Characters

Character; Pinyin; Meaning

耶穌 Yēsū Refers to "Jesus"

基督 Jīdū Means "Christ," signifying "the Messiah"

Significance of Each Character

耶穌 (Yēsū): This character represents Jesus. The pronunciation is close to the original Hebrew name "Yeshua," which emphasizes the connection to Jesus' Jewish roots.

基督 (Jīdū): This character means "Christ." It is derived from the Greek word "Christos," which translates to "the anointed one" or "Messiah." This title reflects Jesus' role as the savior in Christian theology.

Cultural Context

The use of these characters is significant in Chinese-speaking Christian communities, as they encapsulate the identity and mission of Jesus Christ. Understanding these characters helps believers connect with their faith in a culturally relevant way.

The Lamb of God Hidden in Chinese Characters

Abstract

The Chinese invented the ancient Chinese characters nearly 4500 years ago. They invented the characters independent of the ancient Sumerian and Egyptian writings. The earliest forms of the characters, ‘wen’ (wen), were pictures of objects and symbols. The ancient Chinese combined the ‘wen’ to make up compound characters (compound characters) in order to express complex ideas. Analysis of these two forms of the ancient Chinese characters that are associated with the sheep suggests that the Chinese recognised the spiritual representation of the sheep as the source of truthfulness, kindness, beauty, righteousness and eternity. These attributes are the same as those of God’s sacrificial Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Introduction

Border Sacrifice (Border Sacrifice)

Long before the birth of Moses (1500 BC), in the ‘Legendary Period’ (preceding 2205 BC), the Chinese were already offering sacrifices to ShangDi (ShangDi) at Mount Tai in Shandong Province, at the eastern border of China (Shang Shu).1 HuangDi (Shang Shu), the emperor during the Legendary Period, as recorded in the Shi Ji (Shi Ji), built an altar so that a sacrifice could be made periodically to ShangDi. It was a tradition that only the worthy emperors, who also functioned as high priests to ShangDi, were allowed to perform the most magnificent sacrifice (Most Magnificent Sacrifice). ShangDi is frequently referred to as ‘Heaven’ (Tien, Tien) in the book of Shang Shu (Shang Shu) and Shi Ji (Shi Ji), and less frequently in Shi Zing (Shi Zing). The name ‘Tien’ was introduced by the Zhou people who overthrew the Shang dynasty in 1122 BC. It was during the reign of HuangDi that inventions such as currency, music, clothing, boats, wagons, a political system, and Chinese characters were all attributed directly or indirectly to HuangDi.

Abstract

The Chinese invented the ancient Chinese characters nearly 4500 years ago. They invented the characters independent of the ancient Sumerian and Egyptian writings. The earliest forms of the characters, ‘wen’ (wen), were pictures of objects and symbols. The ancient Chinese combined the ‘wen’ to make up compound characters (compound characters) in order to express complex ideas. Analysis of these two forms of the ancient Chinese characters that are associated with the sheep suggests that the Chinese recognised the spiritual representation of the sheep as the source of truthfulness, kindness, beauty, righteousness and eternity. These attributes are the same as those of God’s sacrificial Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Introduction

Border Sacrifice (Border Sacrifice)

Long before the birth of Moses (1500 BC), in the ‘Legendary Period’ (preceding 2205 BC), the Chinese were already offering sacrifices to ShangDi (ShangDi) at Mount Tai in Shandong Province, at the eastern border of China (Shang Shu).1 HuangDi (Shang Shu), the emperor during the Legendary Period, as recorded in the Shi Ji (Shi Ji), built an altar so that a sacrifice could be made periodically to ShangDi. It was a tradition that only the worthy emperors, who also functioned as high priests to ShangDi, were allowed to perform the most magnificent sacrifice (Most Magnificent Sacrifice). ShangDi is frequently referred to as ‘Heaven’ (Tien, Tien) in the book of Shang Shu (Shang Shu) and Shi Ji (Shi Ji), and less frequently in Shi Zing (Shi Zing). The name ‘Tien’ was introduced by the Zhou people who overthrew the Shang dynasty in 1122 BC. It was during the reign of HuangDi that inventions such as currency, music, clothing, boats, wagons, a political system, and Chinese characters were all attributed directly or indirectly to HuangDi.

Confucius (philosopher and compiler of the Chinese Classics, 551–479 BC) considered the sacrifice to ShangDi so important that he made this statement, ‘He who understands the ceremonies of the sacrifices to Heaven and Earth … would find the government of a kingdom as easy as to look into his palm!’ 2 The sacrifice was called the Border Sacrifice and was moved from Mount Tai to Beijing in the 15th Century AD. The Chinese honoured ShangDi so much that the Temple of Heaven (Temple of Heaven) in the Forbidden City in Beijing, was constructed in the most magnificent architectural design. The Heaven-Worshipping Altar (Heaven-Worshipping Altar) was a great, three-tiered, white marble altar of ‘Heaven’, 75 metres in diameter, surrounded on each level by white marble railing. At each level the marble slabs were arranged in concentric circles, in ever increasing multiples of nine. In the very centre of the top tier was placed one circular stone called the Heavenly Heart Stone (Heavenly Heart Stone). The monumental undertaking of its construction was completed in AD 1530. During the Border Sacrifice the emperor often offered an unblemished bull and sometimes a beautiful sheep. The Border Sacrifice was not terminated until the Manchus were deposed in AD 1911. The details of the Border Sacrifice were recorded in the collected statutes of the Ming Dynasty (Ming Dynasty, AD 1366). These statutes were published during the Ming Dynasty as a result of two search committees that sought to determine the true nature of the ancient Chinese sacrifices. Faulty notions that were mistakenly added by previous emperors were corrected.

ShangDi and Yahweh

ShangDi is the supreme god of the Chinese. He is the Creator of the universe and earth, and the emperors were to obey the mandates of Heaven in order to rule the Chinese people with love, compassion and justice. Only the emperors that had done good deeds, acquired prestige, and had moral character were worthy to offer at the HeavenWorshipping Altar (Shi Ji) The Chinese Classics such as the ShangShu, Shi Ji, Y Zing, and Shi Zing (These classics were written in BC; at least a thousand years before Christianity came to China in about AD 620)3 revealed attributes of ShangDi that are consistent with that of Yahweh, the only true God of the Hebrews. First, ShangDi is the Creator of the universe, including humankind (Y Zing and Shi Zing). Second, the Y Zing gave the order of creation starting from heaven, then earth and all living things, and finally man and woman. This order of creation is the same as that of the book of Genesis. Third, ShangDi is just and demands the highest moral standard from the emperors and His people (Shi Ji and Shang Shu). Fourth, He is a personal God that seeks to communicate to His people through the high priest, the emperor. The emperors were to inquire from ShangDi about His blessing to the Chinese people. No personal benefit was asked by the emperors during the offering to ShangDi at the Border Sacrifice.4 Fifth, ShangDi is a spirit and the making of statues was strictly forbidden (Shang Shu). Sixth, ShangDi desires animal sacrifices, especially the bull and the lamb (Shi Ji and Shi Zing). For a detailed review of some of these attributes see James Legge5 and Zhofeng Wang.6

The blockage of the way to heaven

Humanity had disobeyed the rules of ShangDi. According to the ancient text of the Zhou dynasty (1122–781 BC), humankind’s sin resulted in an order given by the God of heaven (God of heaven) to His officers, Zhong and Li, to block up the way between heaven and earth.7 Since ShangDi is the Creator and a loving God, it would be reasonable that He would prepare a way to bring His alienated beings back to Him. Perhaps the answer to this question lies in the Chinese understanding of the spiritual representation of the sheep.

The spiritual symbolisation of sheep

The Chinese have recognised the spiritual symbolisation of a sheep in their society for centuries. For example, the filial act of a young sheep to kneel down in order to suck milk from its mother’s udder is used even today as a reminder that the Chinese people are supposed to humble themselves and respect their parents. There are general agreements among Chinese scholars that the sheep represents truthfulness, kindness and beauty. Besides these attributes, the sheep or the bull (representing loyalty) were the sacrificial animals to be offered to ShangDi. Emperor Tang, the founder of the Xia dynasty (1787 BC) disguised himself as the white unblemished sacrificial animal to take upon himself the sins of his people such that ShangDi would forgive them and send rain to stop the seven years of drought. The rain came in response to Emperor Tang’s humble actions on behalf of his people. Thus, the ancient Chinese understood that the sacrifice of the unblemished sheep and bull would take away their sins.

Did the ancient Chinese believe that the way back to heaven was through the sacrifice of the unblemished and kind sheep? In this paper we show that the ancient Chinese comprehended the importance of atoning for their personal sin, before a just and righteous Creator, through the act of sacrificing an unblemished lamb or sheep.

Materials and methods

Source of ancient Chinese characters

There are about three thousand ancient Chinese characters. They are the Bronzeware characters (characters found on bronze vessels, bronze vessels), and Oracle Bone characters (characters found on animal bones and tortoise shells, Oracle Bone Characters). The characters used in this analysis were taken from dictionaries published in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. The dictionaries used include Gu Wen Zi Lei Bian8 (Gu Wen Zi Lei Bian), Gu Zhuan Wen Da Zi Dian 9 (Gu Zhuan Wen Da Zi Dian), Shuo Wen Jie Zi10 (Shuo Wen Jie Zi), Chang Yong Gu Wen Zi Zi Dian11 (Chang Yong Gu Wen Zi Zi Dian Chang Yong Gu Wen Zi Zi Dian), Jin Shi Da Zi Dian12 (Jin Shi Da Zi Dian), Jin Wen Bian13 (Jin Wen Bian) and Jia Gu Wen Zi Dian14 (Jia Gu Wen Zi Dian). The majority of the characters were taken from Gu Wen Zi Lei Bian15 and Jia Gu Wen Zi Dian.16 Others were taken from the remaining dictionaries and were identified by either the names of the sacrificial vessels where the characters were found, or by the authors of the books.

Definitions of characters

The meanings of the characters were obtained from Mathew’s Chinese-English Dictionary, 17 and where necessary were taken from Chang Yong Gu Wen Zi Zi Dian18, Jia Gu Wen Zi Dian19, Shuo Wen Jie Zi20 [a book composed by Xu Shen (Xu Shen)] and the Chinese Classics. Xu Shen21 had access to the Lesser Seal Characters and was the first person to attempt to analyse Chinese characters to determine the true meaning of the ancient pictograms (pictograms) and ideograms (ideograms) in 86 BC. His catalogue, the Shuo Wen (Shuo Wen), was published in AD 120. Although modern Chinese scholars who study the Bronzeware and the Oracle Bone characters differ in some of their interpretations from Shuo Wen, this book is still their standard guide. The Bible verses are taken from New International Version (1984).22

Age of the Characters

The ages of the Chinese characters were classified according to the dynasty where the characters were found. The Bronzeware characters were dated as Shang (Shang, 1766–1121 BC), Early Zhou (Early Zhou, 1122–1002 BC), Middle Zhou (Middle Zhou, 1001–879 BC), Late Zhou (Late Zhou, 878–771 BC), Spring and Autumn (Spring and Autumn, 770–501 BC), and Warring States (Warring States, 500–255 BC). The Oracle Bone characters were dated as Phase I (Phase I, 1324–1266 BC), II (II, 1265–1226 BC), III (III,1225–1199 BC), IV (IV, 1198–1192 BC), and V (V, 1191–1123 BC).

Choice of Chinese characters for analysis

Forms of Chinese characters

We chose both the Bronzeware and Oracle Bone characters to tell a complete story about the spiritual symbolisation of a sheep for several reasons. First, this methodology is inclusive. It includes characters that are found only in Bronzeware or Oracle Bone inscriptions. This is particularly important because the Oracle Bone characters were inscribed for the purpose of divination. That is why many Oracle Bone characters were difficult to interpret because they were largely used for names and places. Hence, it is a biased source of characters. Second, some of the Bronzeware characters contain additional parts compared to the Oracle Bone counterparts. This is important because scribes found it necessary to include additional parts to convey complex ideas. Often multiple forms of the same characters were invented. Perhaps some were invented by different persons at different places. However, it is our supposition that the scribes at different times and places were still using the same system to invent characters because the additional parts and the alternate forms created did give a better understanding of complex ideas. Third, the shapes of the Bronzeware characters were close to the original shapes of the pictures.

The Chinese characters have changed over time. The Greater Seal Characters (Greater Seal Characters) were developed around 800 BC by a court historian, Zhou (Zhou). However, Confucius stated that the Chinese scribes at his time became ignorant and began to make numerous mistakes in the writing. Therefore we excluded the characters that were invented after 500 BC from this analysis.

Classes of Chinese characters

The Chinese characters were classified into two great classes: the ‘Wen’ (Wen), simple pictures, and the ‘Zi’ (Zi), compound characters.23 Characters from the first great class are most ancient and basic and are called pictograms. These pictures were subdivided into Xiang-xing (Xiang-xing , pictures) and Zhi Shi (Zhi Shi, indicative symbols). The Xiang-xing characters were invented to portray the pictures of objects. For example the character for sheep (sheep), mouth (mouth), and fish (fish) were such pictures. The Zhi-shi are symbols such as above (above) and below (below).

The compound characters are subdivided into Xing Sheng (Xing Sheng), Jia Jie (Jia Jie), Zhuan Zhu (Zhuan Zhu) and Hui Yi (Hui Yi). The Xing Sheng (Xing Sheng) are phonetic characters where one part gives the sound of the word and another part indicates the picture of the subject. Take for example the ‘Zi’ mother (Zi). This ‘Zi’ is pronounced as ‘ma’ (ma), although ‘ma’ is a horse. The left part indicates it is a woman (woman). The Jia Jie means one ‘Zi’ but has multiple meanings (Jia Jie). For example the ‘Zi’ “ Zi” ‘means to come. But the original meaning was a crop (crop), and was borrowed to become a verb, to come (to come). The Zhuan Zhu (Zhuan Zhu) are multiple characters that have the same meaning and sound (Characters that have the same means and sound). For example the ‘Zi’ ‘ Zi’ and ‘ Zi’ both mean to change. Finally the ideograms (Hui Yi, Hui Yi) are most interesting. This class of characters was invented by combining two pictures or symbols to communicate complex ideas(Communicate complex ideas). (To combine) means to combine (to combine); (Pictures and Symbols) means pictures and symbols; (Meaning of Word) means meaning of word (Meaning of Word). A combination of two, or more pictures, or symbols together result in a new character with a new meaning. For example, this character (Good) means good, and consists of a woman (Woman) and a man (Man). For a complete review of the classes of Chinese characters, please see Lai Ming De.24 Our analyses of the Chinese characters were those of the pictograms (Pictograms), and ideograms (Ideograms) because they are artistic and communicate meaningful ideas.

Systematic analysis of Chinese characters

It is our opinion that the ancient scribes used a systematic methodology to invent or to expand their characters. It has been reported that Cang Xie (Cang Xie), the inventor of the Chinese characters, was displeased by some of the ways the characters were invented before him. He wanted to develop a system of writing that could be used by all the people and would especially preserve the Chinese history.25,26 Although Chinese Scholars believe that the ancient Chinese characters were created by more than one person at different times and places, they believe the same system was used by all ancient scribes after Cang Xie. Therefore, any special interpretation ascribed to a ‘Wen’, simple pictures and symbols, should hold true for all ‘Zi’, compound characters, with which it is associated. Hence, we will present characters that are associated with the sheep to tell the story of the Lamb of God.

Results

Sheep as a blessing from ShangDi

The character for sheep (sheep) is a picture of the front view of a sheep (Figure 1). It shows the two horns and a mouth and a nose.29 The Chinese character for blessing (blessing) is also written as (blessing). The left part ‘ left part’ is the radical (the ‘ABCs’ of the writing) for ShangDi. Thus the Chinese perceived the sheep to be a blessing from God.

Figure 1

Figure 1. Yang, 7247. A sheep. This figure shows the variation of the forms of the picture of a sheep. The pronunciation of the character Yang, and the definition of the character, a sheep, was taken from Mathew’s Chinese-English Dictionary.27 The number refers to the identification of the character that can be found in the body of the dictionary. The pronunciation of the character is the modern Chinese ‘Pin Yin’. The number on the upper right hand side of the ‘Li Zi’ character is the tone of the character. The Chinese characters are pronounced with 5 tones. The tones are divided into 1, low; 2, half-low; 3, middle; 4, half-high and 5, high. This character is a picture of the front view of a sheep. It shows the two horns and a mouth and a nose (Shuo Wen Jie Zi, Shuo Wen Jie Zi).28 Some characters that were not dated were noted with the kind of sacrificial vessel on which the characters were found. The Oracle Bone Characters were classified according to Phase I to V (Phase I to IV). The Bronzeware Characters were classified according to the dynasties such as the Shang (Shang) and the Zhou (Zhou).

Sheep as a sacrificial animal

The emperor was very particular about the selection and the preparation of the sacrificial animal in order to please ShangDi. The evening before the sacrifice was to occur, the bull, or sometimes a sheep, was thoroughly inspected and cleansed. The Chinese offered a bull and a sheep as sacrificial animals to ShangDi, and also to their ‘worthy’ ancestors. A sheep, viewed as gentle, together with a bull, an animal that represented loyalty, were used as sacrificial animals (Figure 2 and 3).

Figure 2

Figure 2. Gao, 3282. A lamb. This character consists of a sheep and fire. It is a sacrificial animal, a burnt offering.30

In Figure 2 the sheep is above the fire, suggesting it is a burnt offering.34 The burnt offering is specially offered to ShangDi. In Figure 3 a bull and a sheep together make up a character to mean offering. However, the sheep is found in additional characters that mean to offer. Perhaps the sheep is more popular because of the broader spiritual meanings it symbolises. The pavilion-like building (Pavillion-like building) in front of which the sheep is offered, in another character for sacrifice (sacrifice) is most likely the temple of God because of the three layers of the building. The Temple of Heaven as shown in Beijing’s ‘Forbidden City’ is the most beautiful and tallest, and its roof consists of three levels. Other forms of the building, consisting of one to two levels, may also represent the temple of the ancestor since the lamb was frequently offered to the deceased ‘worthy’ ancestors.

Figure 3

Figure 3. There are at least six characters that mean sacrificial animals.31,32 Two characters that are not listed in this figure are (Character, Character). In each case it is a bull or a sheep or both. The meaning of the second character (B) was taken from Wang Yan Ling.33 The building-like picture in the fourth character (D) is a temple.

Sheep as the bearer of sin

The character for to offer, to blush, to feel ashamed (to offer, to blush, to feel ashamed, Figure 3C) expresses the need to lay hold on a sheep with one’s own hand (hand ) to atone for personal guilt of wrongs committed against ShangDi. There are two forms of the character. The lamb with two hands should simply mean the offering up of the sheep to someone, and the other form that shows a single hand laid upon the head of the lamb should mean shame. In another lesser seal character, meaning sincere, true, to bear, to perform [ seal character = temple (temple) + sheep (sheep) + rod (rod) + hand (hand)], there is the suggestion that the sacrificial sheep did not struggle during the sacrificial ceremony, but quietly submitted itself to the punishment that was inflicted with a rod in the hand.

Sheep as the means to resolve conflicts

A sacrificial sheep that represents blessings and bearer of sins also means reconciliation to the Chinese. The character (To Harmonise, To Harmonise, To Harmonise) meaning to harmonise and to adjust suggests that the kindness of a sheep can calm down two fires (Figure 4).34 The centre of the two fires (fires) is replaceable with word (word), sheep (sheep) and a big T (T). The big hand (big hand) written below the sheep, and in between two fires suggests that a person is trying to harmonise the two fires with the help of the meekness and the kindness of a sheep. Each character for fire could represent a person as is shown in the character blaze (blaze). The Oracle Bone character is written as (Oracle Bone). Notice that the person (person) is later changed to two fires. The big T that replaces the word and the sheep is similar to the radical for God (God) and could represent....

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https://answersingenesis.org/jesus/the-lamb-of-god-hidden-in-chinese-characters/

The primary Chinese character for Jesus is written as 耶穌 (Yēsū), a phonetic transliteration used across Mandarin-speaking populations. Beyond this modern label, many linguistic scholars and theologians point to ancient characters like 義 (Righteousness), which visually depicts a 'Lamb' (top character ) over 'Me,' ( bottom character) as evidence of early spiritual concepts mirroring Christian doctrine. Understanding these characters requires a look at both modern linguistics and ancient etymological theories.

To understand the full scope of this topic, we must first analyze how the modern name of Jesus was established in the Chinese language.

The Modern Transliteration: How to Write Jesus in Chinese

Key Takeaway: The name 耶穌 is a phonetic rendering chosen by early missionaries to approximate the sound of 'Jesus' in local dialects.

To understand the Chinese name for Jesus, one must look at the phonetic construction of the characters used today. While modern scholars often look for hidden theological meanings within characters, the standard name 耶穌 was primarily a linguistic bridge.

When determining how to write Jesus in Mandarin, early Protestant and Catholic missionaries prioritized sound over semantic depth. They sought characters that mimicked the Latin Iesus or the Greek Iēsoûs.

The Phonetic Choice of 耶穌

The choice of 耶穌 (Yēsū) allows the speaker to replicate the sibilant and vowel sounds of the original name. While the characters were chosen for their sound, the literal meanings of the individual components provide an interesting, if coincidental, linguistic backdrop.

Character ;Pinyin; Meaning

耶 Yē Often used for 'yea' or phonetic sounds

穌 Sū To revive or wake up

Although 穌 (Sū) carries the meaning "to revive," its selection was largely based on its phonetic value rather than an intentional attempt to embed the theology of the Resurrection into the name itself.

Regional Variations

While the characters 耶穌 remain standard across written Chinese, the spoken realization varies significantly across the Sinitic languages. In Mandarin, the name is pronounced Yēsū, whereas in Cantonese, the pronunciation shifts closer to Ye-sou.

These variations highlight the complexity of adapting a Chinese name for Jesus within a logographic system. The primary goal was to provide a recognizable identifier that could be unified in print while remaining accessible to the diverse phonetic landscapes of Protestant and Catholic congregations.

With the modern name established, we can now explore the deeper, ancient theories surrounding the 'Gospel in Hanzi.' 

The Gospel in Hanzi: Hidden Symbolism in Ancient Script

Key Takeaway: The character for Righteousness (義) is often cited by theologians as a visual metaphor for the Lamb covering the individual.

The Mystery of Righteousness (義)

The study of Etymology within the Chinese writing system often reveals a depth that goes beyond phonetic representation. Proponents of the "Gospel in Hanzi" theory suggest that the Chinese character for righteousness Jesus researchers point to is found within the structure of 義 (yì). This character is frequently analyzed through its Oracle Bone Script origins to uncover potential biblical parallels.

From an objective standpoint, the hidden gospel in Chinese symbols is viewed by some as a remnant of a primitive monotheistic belief system. They argue that the ancient Chinese understood Righteousness not as a personal achievement, but as a state of being positioned under a higher power. This narrative approach to linguistics suggests that the script itself acted as a vessel for spiritual preservation.

The Sacrificial Lamb

Central to this decoding is the 羊 (yáng), representing the lamb. In ancient Chinese culture, the lamb was a symbol of purity and was frequently used in sacrificial rites. When analyzing the gospel in Hanzi theory, the placement of the 羊 is crucial to the internal logic of the character's construction.

The following table deconstructs the components of 義 to illustrate how the Lamb of God is perceived to interact with the individual in this ancient script:

Component; Symbolism

羊 Lamb of God / Purity

我 The Individual / Me

義 The Lamb covering the individual

In this structural breakdown, the 羊 is positioned directly above 我. To proponents of this theory, this visual hierarchy represents the "covering" of the sinful self by the innocent sacrifice. This provides a stark contrast to modern transliterations of "Jesus" (耶稣 - Yēsū), which focus strictly on phonetic matching rather than the ideographic depth of Righteousness.

Beyond individual righteousness, some scholars point to larger historical narratives, such as the Great Flood, encoded within the script.

Biblical Narratives in Hanzi: The Ark and the Creation

Key Takeaway: The Chinese character for boat (船) consists of radicals meaning 'vessel,' 'eight,' and 'mouth,' which many link to the eight survivors of Noah's Ark.

The Character for Boat (船)

In the study of ancient Chinese biblical parallels, the logogram 船 (chuán) is often cited as a profound example of embedded narrative. When analyzed through its constituent radicals, the character breaks down into three specific elements: 舟 (zhōu), meaning a vessel; 八 (bā), the number eight; and 口 (kǒu), which signifies a mouth or, figuratively, a person.

Scholars supporting the "Gospel in Hanzi" theory argue that this combination is not coincidental. They point to the Genesis account of the Great Flood, where Noah's Ark carried exactly eight people—Noah, his wife, their three sons, and their wives—to safety. The presence of these specific components within the standard character for a large ship suggests a secret gospel in Chinese characters that predates the formal introduction of Western scripture to the region.

The Creation of Dust

The theme of human origins provides another analytical bridge between Genesis and Hanzi. The character 造 (zào), which means "to create," is frequently examined for its structural relationship to the biblical account of man's animation. It is composed of the radicals for 土 (dust or earth), 口 (mouth or breath), and 辶 (walking or movement).

This morphological structure aligns with the narrative that the Creator formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed life into him, resulting in a living being capable of movement. This perspective suggests that the ancient Chinese biblical parallels found in such characters represent a shared primeval history. By dissecting these symbols, researchers attempt to decode a theological framework hidden within the evolution of the Chinese script.

While these linguistic parallels are compelling, they must be examined alongside the historical arrival of Christianity in China.

Historical Context: From the Nestorian Stele to Matteo Ricci

Key Takeaway: Christianity has existed in China since the 7th century, providing over a millennium of linguistic evolution for the name of Jesus.

The Luminous Religion of the Tang Dynasty

The history of Christianity in China began in earnest during the 7th century. A Persian monk named Alopen arrived at the imperial capital of Chang’an in 635 AD, marking the first recorded presence of the Gospel in the Middle Kingdom.

Under the Tang Dynasty, these early believers established what they called Jingjiao, or the "Luminous Religion." This era is famously documented on the Nestorian Stele, an 8-foot-tall limestone monument that preserves early Chinese Christian translations and theological summaries.

During this period, the Chinese character Jesus was often rendered through phonetic approximations that sounded like "Yishu." These early attempts at Hanzi theory focused on capturing the sounds of Syriac or Persian, creating a linguistic bridge between East and West.

Jesuit Contributions to Translation

Nearly a millennium later, the arrival of Matteo Ricci in the 16th century revolutionized the way Christian concepts were written. As a Jesuit scholar, Ricci sought to synthesize Christian doctrine with traditional Confucian values to reach the ruling elite.

Ricci’s work focused on refining the modern transliteration process. He moved away from the obscure phonetics of the Jingjiao era and helped standardize the terminology that would define the history of Christianity in China for the next several centuries.

The Jesuit era introduced a more sophisticated approach to early Chinese Christian translations. By selecting characters with auspicious meanings, they ensured the name of Jesus was not just a foreign sound, but a title that carried spiritual weight within the Chinese script.

Understanding this rich history leads us to our final thoughts on the enduring power of these linguistic connections.

To see a visual breakdown of how these complex strokes form spiritual narratives, watch this insightful demonstration of Chinese calligraphy and its biblical parallels.

Now we can watch : The Gospel Mystery Hidden in Chinese Characters

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A STUDY IN FAITH

 Chapter The Eleventh 

A STUDY IN FAITH 

One cannot grow in Righteousness. He may grow in Righteousness Consciousness, but he already is the Righteousness of God in Christ. 

One cannot grow in sonship. One may grow in sonship consciousness and learn to enjoy his privileges and rights in the family. 

We can grow in Grace. Grace is the first fruits of love. Grace is love bearing fruit. 

"I am the vine; you are the branches." The vine is love, the fruits are grace. 

We are the grace of God unveiled. We are sons of God, and as such we grow in fruit bearing. 

We increase in usefulness. We can grow in gentleness, in tenderness. In the beauty of the Master. We may grow in love. 

Our love at first has little selfish streaks through it. It is marred again and again, but we keep studying the Word, keep fellowshipping with the Master, keep walking in love until by and by love gains the absolute supremacy in our lives, so that we only do love things, say love words. 

We are growing in love, We steadily move on up in our growth until we actually believe in love. We believe that love is the solution of every problem in life. We believe that love is better than force, better than going to law, better than the whip, better than argument, better than fighting. 

We believe that the love way is the sure way, the success way. 

When Jesus said, "I am the way," He meant He was the love way. This new way is the best way. We grow in knowledge of our Father and of our rights, of the finished work of Christ: 

Then we take wisdom to use this knowledge. We do not grow in wisdom, for Jesus has been made unto us wisdom. 

We grow in the ability to use knowledge wisely.

You cannot grow in Redemption. You may grow in the knowledge of what that Redemption means. 

You may grow in fellowship. You may grow in faith. Your fellowship will be measured by your personal sharing with the Master and with one another the riches of His grace. 

Faith is a tender plant. It cannot stand the harsh winds of Sense Knowledge. It cannot be crowded out of its seat and out of its place without suffering. 

lt must be fed continually upon the Word of God and upon our acting on that Word 

Simply reading the Word, meditating on the Word, will not build faith. It will build a capacity for faith, but faith is only built when that Word becomes a part of our daily use, our daily conduct-a part of our daily speech. 

As faith grows, Satan's dominion over us wanes. Circumstances are less formidable. Fear is destroyed. As your faith grows, you begin to possess your rights in Christ. You begin to take what belongs to you. 

At first, you take the things over that you have merely hoped for before. You have hoped for money, now by faith you have it. 

A second thing, you begin to enjoy what you formerly "mentally assented" to. 

You have said, "Yes, by Ilis stripes I am healed, but I am sick." You have agreed with the Word, but vou have not acted upon it ..you have merely assented to it. Now you have reached the place where you no longer hope for it, but you look up and say, "Father, I thank Thee that I am what you say I am.' 

What you have mentally assented to, you now possess. 

Believing is possessing. What you assented to for years, you now enjoy. Faith grows in the atmosphere of confession of the Word. 

We are not speaking of confession of sin. It is our confession of what we are in Christ, what Christ is in us, and what the Word is in our lips. 

The Word in your lips becomes a living thing, just as the Word in Jesus' lips could rule the sea, the winds and the waves (even the fish in the sea), so His Word now in your lips will take the place of Christ on earth.

There is a sick one. The Word in your lips now will take the place of Jesus. If Jesus were here, He would say, "Son, you are healed." You say, "Son, by His stripes you are healed." You are using His Word. That is your confession, that His Word now has become the healer in your lips 

There is another one who is held in bondage by Satan. You remember what He said,"They that believe shall cast out demons." Fearlessly you speak the Word, "Satan, in Jesus' Name leave this person. Go off into the abyss where you belong." 

You are quoting the very words of Christ. Your lips become the pulpit of Jesus Christ. 

Faith grows with this confession. Faith is no greater than your confession. 

Everytime you break the silence caused by fear with an open confession of the integrity of the Word, and you act on the Word, you destroy the very roots of fear and unbelief in your life. 

Fear and unbelief grow with confession, the same as faith grows with it. You confess that you are sick, and unbelief grows in you. 

If you confess that you have been prayed for and have not received your healing, you are confessing that Satan had made the Word of God ineffective 

And we know. "that nothing is impossible to the Word of God" in our lips. That is a literal translation of Luke 1:37, "No Word from God is void of power." 

  It makes no difference what the environment is, what the association, the limitations, the mental attitude of folk; here is the Word that liveth and abideth, the Word that cannot be broken, the Word that said, "Let there be" and there was, and the sun, moon and stars leaped into being. 

The Word has not lost its ability. Its ability is measured by its Author's ability. 

His Word is full of creative ability now. He lives in His Word. His Word has given life to creation; to man, and to the animal and vegetable creation. 

"In Him was life (that was the Word) and that life has become the light of men." John 1:4. 

You understand that faith, in the sense we are using the Word, is letting the Word of God function through you. It is the Word of God doing business. 

Matthew 19:26 "And nothing is impossible to Godl." 

Mark 9:23 "All things are possible to him that believeth." 

There has come the union of man with God. God's ability has been linked with man's inability and has swallowed it up. His very weakness is God's opportunity, "When I am weak, then am I strong." 

"Nothing shall be impossible unto you." God is speaking in person to you. Just as food rejuvenates the body: so the Word rejuvenates faith in our spirits. 

When will we ever learn that He and His Word are one. He is the surety of the New Covenant. He watches over His Word. He lives in His Word. His ability is in His Word. 

It is Jesus speaking through your lips when you use the Word. Let us think of the vine for a moment again. You are the branch, the miracle bearing part of the vine. 

You and the vine are one. 

You are the miracle part of the body of Christ. The fruit grows on the branches. Love fruit, healing fruit, grow on the branch. 

We are sharers with Him and the bearers of His fruit. 

Your fruit bearing is the measure of your confession. Your confession determines your faith life, so hold fast to your confession in the face of all opposition. They cannot conquer you. You are the unconquerable one. 

Remember that your lips give expression to your faith. Your words are your faith. You say,"I believe; I have." Then you thank Him for it. 

You do not need to see or hear or feel. The Word is your evidence. 

He says you are, and because He says you are, you are. 

WHAT I CONFESS, I POSSESS 

It took me a long time to see this truth. After I saw it and thought I understood it, I still could not act upon it. 

Christianity is called "the great confession." The law of that confession is that I confess I have a thing before I consciously possess it. 

Romans 10:9-10 giveş vou the law for entering the household of faith. "Becausc if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Tesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thv heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt he saved: for with the heart man believeth unte righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." 

You sce, with the heart man believes that Jesus is his Righteous-nes, and with his lips he makes a confession of his salvation. 

You notice that confessiom of the lips comes before God acts upon our spirits and recreates them. 

I say, "Jesus died for my sins according to scripture, and I now acknowledge Him as my Lord," and I know that the instant I acknowledge Him as my Lord I havc Eternal Life. 

1 cannot have Eternal Life until I confess that I have it. I confess that I have salvation before God acts and recreates me. The same thing is true in regard to healing. I confess that "By his stripes I am healed," and the disease is still in my body. 

I say, "Surely He has borne my sicknesses and carried my pains and I have come to appreciate Him as the one who was stricken, smitten of God with my diseases, and now I know that by His stripes I am healed." (Literal translation.) 

I make the confession that "by His stripes l am healed"; the disease and its symptoms may not leave my body at once, but I hold fast to my confession. 

I know that what He has said He is able to make good. 

I know that I am healed because He said I was healed, and it makes no difference what the symptoms may be in my body, I laugh at them, and in the Name of Jesus I command the author of disease to leave my body. 

He is defeated, and I am a victor. 

I have learned this law, that when I boldly confess, then, and then only, do I possess. 

I make my lips do their work. I give the Word its place. God has spoken, and I side with the Word. 

If I side with the disease and the pain, there is no healing for me. But I take sides with the Word, and I repudiate the disease and sickness. 

My confession gives me possession. 

I want you to note this fact. Faith is governed by our confession. If I say I have been prayed for and l am waiting now for God to heal me. I have repudiated my healing.

M confession should be this: the Word declares that I am healed, and I thank the Father for it, and I praise Him for it because it is a truth.

You remember Philippians 4 :6 -7 "In nothing be anxious; but in every thing by praver and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be madle known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard vour hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus." 

Why must prayer be made with thanksgiving? That means that I know the thing is done. I asked for it and now I have it, so I thank the Father for it. 

The seventh verse says, "And the peace of God which passeth all understanding will fill my heart." 

I am not worrying any longer. I have it. I am not going to get the money I need...I have it. It is just as real as though it were in my pocket. I am not going to get my healing...I have my healing because I have His Word, and my heart is filled with rapture. 

Your confession solves the problem. 

A wrong confession hinders the Spirit's work in vour body. A neutral confession is unbelief. It is just as bad as a negative confession. 

It is the positive, clear cut confession that wins. "I know in whom I have believed." 

''I know that no word from God is void of power or fulfillment." "I know that He watches over His word to make it good." 

These are the confessions of a victor. 

I want you to notice several facts about the relation of confession to faith. 

Your confession is your faith. If it be a neutral confession, you have neutral faith. If it is a negative confession, it is unbelief dominating your spirit.

Unbelief grows with a negative confession. A confession of failure puts failure on the throne. If I confess weakness, weakness dominates me. If I confess my sickness, I am held in bondage by it. 

These negative confessions are acknowledgments of Satan's do-minion over God's tabernacle. 

Your spirit always responds to your confession. 

Faith is not a product of the reasoning faculties, but of the recreated spirit. 

When you were Born Again, you received the nature of the Father God. That nature grows in you with vour acting on the Word, and your confession of the Father's perfect dominion in your body, and it causes your spirit to grow in grace and ability. 

You remember that your confession is your present attitude toward the Father. 

In some special testing that may come to you, vour confession is either in the realm of faith or in the realm of unbelief. Your confession either honors the Father or Satan...either gives Satan or the Word dominance in your lifc. 

Now you can see the value of holding fast to your confession. Your confession either makes you a conqueror, or it defeats vou. You rise or fall to the level of your confession. 

Learn to hold fast to your confession in the hard places. John 8:36, "If the Son has made you free you are free indeed." The Son has made you free, now stand fast in that liberty. 

Gal. 5:1 is of vital importance to every believer."For freedom did Christ set us free; stand fast therefore." 

The time to make your confession is when Satan attacks you. You feel the pain coming in your body, You repudiate it. You Command it to leave in the Name of Jesus. 

Romans 8:31-37 "If God is for us, who is against us?" Your Father is for you. 

Disease cannot conquer you, nor can the author of disease. Circumstances cannot master you, because the Father and Jesus are greater than any circumstances. 

You have learned that in whatsoever circumstance or condition you are, to rejoice in your continual victory. 

Chinese Christian's church in China (the heavenly man,Yun)

 don't you open the iron door?" He told brother Sue. Sue looked at him with eyes of fire and said three words, "You must escape." 

   The next morning, May 5th, 1997, at just before 8:00, the busiest time of day in the prison, when every guard was at his post, Yun shuffled out of his cell on legs that had been black and useless for 6 weeks, carrying a piece of toilet paper around his waist on which he had written scripture verses from the Gospel of John and First Peter. 

He reached the first locked iron gate. 

At that exact moment, another Christian prisoner named Mushing was being let back in from sweeping the courtyard and the gate swung open. Yun walked through it. The guard escorting Mushing turned his back to answer a ringing telephone. 

Yun picked up a broom leaning against the wall so he would appear to belong there and walked down the stairs. At the second floor, a guard sat at his desk,  staring directly at the corridor. Yun walked past him. The guard's eyes were open. He looked straight at Yun. He said nothing. He saw nothing. God had blinded his eyes. The first floor gate, normally the most heavily guarded of all, was standing open. There was no one at it. 

Yun walked through it and into the courtyard. 30 armed guards were in that courtyard. Not one of them said a word. 

 He walked past every one of them. He walked through the main gate of the Jung Joe number one maximum security prison which was also inexplicably standing open. He stepped out onto the street. He hailed a taxi. When he finally started cycling through the streets of Jung Joe on a bicycle borrowed from a Christian family, racing to a safe house while the entire city's security apparatus was being mobilized to find him. He suddenly noticed something remarkable. The pain was gone. His legs worked. He was cycling. Mushing later told investigators that when Yun passed him on the third floor, he was walking normally. The prison authorities concluded in their investigation that no human being inside the facility had helped Yun in any way. They were right. 

It was entirely the hand of God. The man they called the was healed and gone, and China would never hold him again. That same morning, Deliing held in a separate location, received a vision of Yun sitting before her, free and joyful, telling her to call a meeting. She caught a bus to Chuzhou and went on pure spiritual instinct to the home of a Christian leader she knew. 

 She arrived hours before Yun did. When he walked in the door and found his wife already there, already knowing he was free, they held each other and sang together from Psalm 126. When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. They had dreamed, and now they were awake. Yun spent months hiding in various safe houses across China, always one step ahead of the most comprehensive manhunt the  Police Special Branch (PSB) had ever launched for a Christian leader. The Lord began speaking clearly. It was time to leave China. Time to carry the fire of the Chinese house churches to the nations of the world. But Yun had no passport, no legal identity, and a criminal record that would guarantee arrest the moment he applied for travel documents. A Christian businessman felt God prompt him to give Yun his own passport. When they examined it, the problem was immediately apparent. The man in the photograph was balding, wore glasses, and looked nothing at all like Yun. He was also significantly older. 

On September 28th, 1997, Yun stood in a queue at Beijing airport carrying a passport that belonged to someone else whose photograph looked nothing like him, heading for a flight to Frankfurt, Germany. The night before, he had stayed up in prayer, and the Lord had whispered to him one instruction. When you enter the customs hall, say only what I instruct you to say. The customs officer took the passport, looked at the photograph, looked at Yun, and started to laugh. He held the passport up to   show the other officers. They all laughed. He took Yun into a side room and said repeatedly, "This isn't you. It looks nothing like you." Other passengers in the queue grew impatient and complained. The officer asked Yun to step aside. Yun said nothing. Every time the officer spoke, Yun simply looked at him with calm, steady eyes and said nothing. He prayed silently and waited. 

 And then the officer stamped the passport and said, "Go." There is no rational explanation for what happened next. At the X-ray machine, an officer watched Yun with clear suspicion while speaking into a walkie-talkie and then said nothing. On the aircraft, as the wheels lifted off the ground of the nation that had tried to destroy him for 23 years, Yun could not contain himself. 

 He began singing out loud to the astonishment of every passenger around him, songs of praise to the King who had set him free. 

Years later, a Finnish businessman would tell Yun something that made the hairs stand up on every arm in the room. That businessman worked for a telecommunication security company that had installed state-of-the-art voice recognition software at Chinese border points, including Beijing airport. The system used hidden microphones to match passenger voices against a database of wanted criminals. 

Yun's voice captured on so many recordings of illegal sermons over the years was certainly in that database. If he had spoken a single word, if he had said "I understand" or "one moment" or even "thank you" to that customs officer, the computer would have identified him instantly and he would have been taken away. The Lord had told him to say only what He was instructed to say. He had been instructed to say nothing. So Yun said nothing. And the voice recognition system listened for him and found only silence. 

Yun arrived in Germany and began a new kind of ministry. Carrying the story of the Chinese church to a sleeping western church that had largely forgotten what fire felt like. He traveled with his Scandinavian friend and translator to churches across Europe and North America. And what he found there sometimes broke his heart in a different way than prison had. He saw buildings full of silver and gold, carpets and sound systems and comfortable chairs and congregations that could barely stay awake. He sat in meetings where a thousand church leaders fell on the floor laughing after a comfortable word about God's love. And he remembered his friends dying in labor camps. And he wept not for himself but for the Western church's distance from the cross. He said to them directly and without apology, "You don't need more buildings. You don't need more programs. You need the Word of God that cuts like a sword, and you need the obedience to do what it says." When revival came to China, it resulted in thousands of evangelists sent out to the darkest corners of the nation. When God moves, you move. 

But Yun also encountered in the West something that shocked him more than any electric batten ever had. He discovered that Christians could persecute other Christians with words. A journalist he had never met, quoting an unnamed source published an article accusing Yun of fabricating his entire story, the fast, the prison escape, the smashed legs, all of it lies, the article said. It accused him of being a Judas who had betrayed fellow leaders to the authorities. Yun, the man who had refused to say a single incriminating word through years of torture, who had written his determination not to be a Judas in his own blood on the wall of a prison cell. This man was now being called a Judas by someone who had never met him in a widely circulated Christian publication. He said later that this new kind of persecution was no easier than the physical kind, just different. But he forgave from the bottom of his heart. 

 And within days, signed statements from Brother Su and other Cinnim fellowship elders poured out of China confirming every detail of Yun's story, silencing the accusation. 

Meanwhile, his family Deliing and the children had been making their own extraordinary journey. After Yun left China in 1997, they spent nearly 2 years in Myanmar waiting for paperwork to bring them to Germany. When the time finally came to leave, Yun received a warning dream from God.   Trouble awaited him at customs checkpoint. Deliing urged him to leave his falsified Burmese ID card with her. He ignored her. He ignored the dream. He walked into the customs hall at Yangon airport and was immediately arrested. He spent 7 months in a Myanmar prison where conditions made his Chinese prisons look comfortable. 100 men to a cell.  Prisoners with sentences of 350 years. Sentenced across multiple reincarnations in a Buddhist system that had given up on the concept of redemption. A plague swept through the prison, killing men every night, worms visibly moving under the surface of young skin. He lay unconscious for 5 days. He received a 7-year sentence and told the judge with a steady voice, "'Thank you, your honor,  for granting me a 7-year visa to remain in your country." But even there, God sent him. Five young Chinese men from Singapore and Taiwan serving sentences of life plus 50 to 100 years for drug smuggling had heard there was a Chinese Christian pastor in the prison and feigned illnesses to be sent to the hospital where Yun was recovering. They ran to him and he baptized them one by one under a bathroom tap, four of them at once, while a guard stood in the doorway, too stunned to say anything. 12 prisoners in total came to Christ. Men who had nothing left to lose, gave everything they had to Jesus Christ. And the transformation in that cell was so radical that even the guards noticed. 

 And then on September 18th, 2001, 7 months and 7 days into a 7-year sentence, the German embassy secured Yun's release. He landed in Frankfurt the next morning. On the flight from Bangkok, a fellow passenger handed him several newspapers. He looked at photographs of an aircraft flying into a tall building in New York. He had been sealed away from all news in a Myanmar prison. And so it was on an airplane somewhere over Asia on September 19th, 2001 that the heavenly man learned that the world had been changed forever one week before on September 11th. 

On the morning of September 19th, 2001, a man walked through the arrivals hall of Frankfurt airport. He had no possessions of any significance. He had no home of his own, no savings, nothing. But the clothes on his body, and a Bible he had memorized. He had been beaten with electric batons more times than he could count. He had been thrown into septic tanks and had worms crawl out of his skin. He had stood before judges and been sentenced across three separate prison terms to a combined total of more than 13 years. He had survived 74 days without food or water in a Chinese maximum security cell, sustained by nothing but the Presence of GOD. He had walked out of a throughout locked iron gates, past 30 armed guards in the most dramatic prison escape anyone in that facility had ever seen. 

Yun stepped out of the arrivals hall and found his wife Deling and Isaac and Yelin and more than a dozen German believers and Reinhard Bonnke the evangelist God had used to bring millions of souls in Africa to Jesus Christ, all there to welcome him. And this man, this broken, scarred, extraordinary vessel of God, went home to his small apartment, knelt with his family on the floor and worshiped. 

Yun often said in the years that followed as he carried the back to Jerusalem vision to churches around the world. That the worst suffering he ever endured was not the electric batons or the smashed legs or the 74-day fast. It was the visits from his family while he was in prison. 

It was the image of his son Isaac wearing the same clothes at every visit because the family had no money to buy new ones, shoes with holes in them, looking at the floor and saying, 41:26 "Daddy," the teacher told the class, "My father is a dirty criminal who deserves to be in prison." It was holding his children through the iron bars while a guard pulled them away, saying, "If you really loved your children, you wouldn't be here." He said it because he wanted people to understand something. The way of the cross is not a metaphor. It is not a song lyric or a decorative element in a church building. It is the actual literal costly surrender of everything comfortable and safe and familiar on the altar of obedience to God. It costs everything and it produces everything. 

 Because the man whose father was once dying of cancer in a mud house in a village of 600 farmers, the man whose mother had forgotten most of what she knew of Jesus after years of spiritual isolation. The man who prayed a 100 days on his knees on a stone for a Bible. 

 That man became by the sovereign grace of God. The authorized representative of the house church movement that by the year 2000 contained 58 million believers in China alone. That movement forged in fire and blood and prison cells and frozen fish ponds, produced a vision to send 100,000 missionaries from China through the Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu worlds all the way back to Jerusalem before the return of Jesus Christ. He was not a seminary graduate. He was not a theologian. He was barely educated. He  was a farmer's son from Nanyang County who knelt on a stone and cried out for a Bible. And the God of heaven heard him. 

There is one final image worth leaving with you. In the autumn of 1999, years before his escape from China, Yun stood at a grave site in Bergen, Norway, looking at an empty, unmarked lot where the grave of Marie Monsen had been.   Marie Monsen (in Chinese: 孟慕貞 or 孟瑪麗; born 1878 in Sandviken, Norway - 1962) was an evangelical Lutheran Norwegian missionary active in North and Central China between 1901 and 1932.

The Norwegian woman who had carried revival fıre into hıs province oT Hunan nearly a century earlier had been left with no headstone. Her grave had been forgotten. 

Yun stood there, a man who had been tortured in prisons that woman had never seen. a leader of a church that had grown from nothing into tens of millions because of the seed she had planted. And he felt something rise inside him. He turned to the Norwegian believers with him and told them plainly, "This woman  of God must be honored. You have 2 years to build a headstone. If you fail, I will send brothers from China, men who learned stone cutting in prison labor camps where they were sent for preaching the gospel, to build it themselves." 

On September 1st, 2001, exactly 100 years to the day since Marie Monsen first set foot in China, more than 300 Norwegian Christians gathered at that Bergen graveyard. A new headstone was unveiled,  paid for by the contributions of many churches and believers. It bore her name, her photograph, her Chinese name, and the dates of her ministry. And in the Chinese house churches, when the believers heard the news, they thanked God and wept. The seeds planted in tears are always always harvested in joy. 

This is the story of brother Yun, the heavenly man. Not because he was superhuman, but because he served a supernatural God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The God who opens iron gates. The God who heals shattered legs. The God who sustains a man for 74 days on nothing but the bread  of his presence. The God who hears a teenage boy praying on a stone in the dark and sends his word wrapped in bread. He is still that God. And the question he asked a generation of house church warriors in the caves of Hunan, he asks you now, will you go? 

If the story of brother Yun stirred something in your soul today, then you are exactly the kind of person this channel exists for. There are hundreds more stories like this one. men and women across the centuries who believed God so completely that they walked through fire and came out shining. And every single one of them is waiting to be told right here. If this story moved you, encouraged you, or reminded you of who your God truly is, please take your time, share thisstory with someone whose faith needs a spark today. Every share is a seed. You never know whose life might be set on fire for Christ because you passed this along. Stay with us. The best stories are still to come.

In scripture, believers often point to thousands of promises from God. One common count says there are more than 7,000. 

 Yet, many of us still wake up not knowing what to do next. Why is that? 

Because knowing God has promises is not the same as learning how to pour out our whole heart before him and wait for his direction. The Lord promises guidance to those who trust him, acknowledge him, and seek him. Proverbs 3: verses 5-6 says, "'Trust in the LORD with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge HIM, and He shall direct thy paths." 

 And Psalm 32:8 gives this beautiful assurance.  I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. 

 So today let us learn the holy secret of telling God everything. Not a polished prayer. Not a rushed prayer. Not a ....( Click here to read on )

SOME STUDIES IN THE RECREATED SPIRIT

 Chapter The Ninth 

SOME STUDIES IN THE RECREATED SPIRIT 

There must be a new appraach to the study of psychology. The teaching of Professor James of Harvard on the subconscious mind has made profound impression upon the minds of the students in this subject. 

Here is a quotation from Professor James, copied from "The Psychology of Orthodoxy," by E. L. House, (page 62.) 

"It (the subconșcious mind) is the abode of everything that is latent, the reservoir of everything that passes unrecorded or unobserved. It contains, for example, such things as all our momentarily inactive memories, and it harbors the springs of all our obscurely motivated passions, impulses, likes, dislikes, and prejudices; our intentions, hypotheses, fancies, superstitions, persuasions, convictions, and in general all our non-rational operations come from it. 

It is the source of our dreams, and apparently they may return to it. In it arise whatever mystical experience we may have, and our automatism, sensory or motor; our life in hypnotic and hypnoidal conditions, if we are subject to such conditions; our delusions, fancies, ideas, and hysterical accidents, if we are hysteric subjects; our supra-normal cognitions, if such there be, and if we are telepathic subjects. 

   "It is also the fountain head of much that feeds our religion In persons deep in the religious life, as we have abundantly seen - and this is my conclusion - the door into this region seems unusually wide open; at any rate, experiences making their entrance through that door have had emphatic influence in shaping religious history." 

   In the above quotation you notice they are unable to locate the subconscious mind, or tell what it is. They give it credit for doing things that only the human spirit can do. But they do not know that man is a spirit. 

     Dr. House states that the subconscious mind is greater by far than the conscious mind. He tells us the part that it plays in man. He tells us that it is the store house for memory. 

He quotes this scripture, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Here he comes very close to the real truth of the subject. We know that all the knowledge that has been gained down through the ages has come to us through our five senses (apart from Revelation Knowledge.) 

All students are conscious of the limitations of Şense Knowledge. Careful students recognize that there is a spiritualas well as a mental and a physical man. Few have realized that the spirit is the real man. 

They do not understand that when God created man He created him in His own image and likeness. 

"God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and reality." That is a striking statement, but it fits into the picture perfectly. 

Man has a mind that receives all of its impulses from the five senses. The mind has no creative ability. It cannot invent. It can experiment, as in chemistry, but it cannot develop anything that its senses have not already brought to it. 

The imagination can only build pictures out of the material the five senses have brought to it. 

The natural human mind has no creative element in it. 

The thing that first acquainted me with the limitations of Sense Knowledge was the fact that none of the heathen nations have ever needed a patent law or a copyright law. 

I knew that the people of India, Japan and China had as fine an intellect as any of the Anglo-Saxon races. I knew that the old Greek minds were on the same plane, if not above the modern natural man. 

I knew that the Arabic, and all of the vast armies of peoples in the East, have fine intellects. 

Why have they never created anything? 

Why were there never any inventorS or great scientists among them? 

They have produced Metaphysicians and Philosophers, but they have never produced a creative or an inventive personality. 

Then I saw this fact, the mechanical Renaissance started after Germany began to receive Eternal Life.

It spread into the Scandinavian Peninsula when they received Eternal Life. 

It gripped England, and she began to create and invent following the receiving of Eternal Life 

I noticed another thing, that the countries governed by State Churches, where there are no Non-Conformists, show little creative ability. 

For example, Spain, Northern Ireland, Portugal and Italy were far behind England, Germany, and the Scandinavian Peninsula. 

This awakened me. Slowly the truth began to dawn upon my consciousness. 

There had been no creative ability until Christianity had been introduced. 

This Eternal Life did something to the converts. 

Did it do something with their mind? No. The mind is not recreated, but is still subjected to the senses. 

I then began to study about the recreated human spirit 

As you know, the part of man that receives Eternal Life in the New Birth, is the human spirit. He possesses the same mind he had before he was Born Again. 

In Romans 12:1-2 a suggestion is made, "I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." 

I asked, "Apostle Paul, why do you want the human body presented as a living sacrifice?" The answer was, "Because it is the home of the fve senses." 

The five senses have been the tutors of the brain. The brain has no way of acquiring knowledge but through these senses. We have discovered that the brain has no creative function or ability. It can grasp the messages of the senses, correlate and classify them. It can arrange this knowledge so that it can and will be utilized to advantage. 

WISDOM 

The most startling thing that we discovered was that the brain cannot give wisdom. The five senses cannot give wisdom.

   We know that wisdom is the ability to use knowledge to advantage. From whence did this ability come? 

Then I saw that the recreated human spirit has access to wisdom and certain kinds of ability that the natural human spirit does not have. 

I saw that love is a product of the recreated human spirit. It was hard for me to realize that the natural human heart cannot produce a love similar to the love of the recreated human spirit. 

I saw that what we call natural human love is born of selfishness. Natural man is governed almost entirely by selfishness. His ambitions are born largely of selfshness. 

Then the question arose, "Why is it that the recreated human spirit has a new kind of love?" 

The answer was obvious. God recreated the human spirit by imparting His own nature to it. The recreated man has God's nature and ability. 

Then I understood 1 Corinthians 1:30, "Christ is made unto us wisdom from God." 

I saw that the key note of apostle Paul's prayer in Ephesians and Colossians was that we might have wisdom. 

I discovered that there are two kinds of wisdom. There is the wisdom that Satan gives to man; it is a cunning, subtle, devilish type of wisdom. We see it in the world today, manifesting itself in lving, deceit, and crooked dealing. 

No heathen country has God's wisdom or ability. 

Satan is a liar and the father of lies. When he gives to man his ability, it will be a deceptive, dishonest ability. 

Only in the recreated human spirit do we find God's wisdom and ability. 

WHAT IS SPIRITUALITY? 

It is a recreated spirit gaining the ascendancy over the reasoning faculties and ruling the whole man. 

The recreated spirit has been made anew with the Love Nature of the Father. 

Jesus said, "I am come that ye may have life, and have it abundantly." That Life is the Nature of the Father.

A man is recreated by receiving God's nature into his spirit, which makes him a New Creation and gives him a new self. The old self was selfish, but this new self is Love-ruled. 

This new life is like Jesus. It is the substance and nature of Jesus. It is Love's dominion over man. The Holy Spirit comes into the man's body and brings in more Love. 

Romans 5:5 "For the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit." 

When the Holy Spirit comes in, He brings the Ability of the Father and Son and builds them into us. Their very sufficiency, their strength and wisdom is built into us. 

He opens the Word and makes it a living thing to us. He reveals its depths and beauty, its riches and its grace. 

He has taken the great Substitutionary fact out of "theology" and made it a living reality in my spirit. My renewed mind is actually feasting on the fruitage of that Finished Work in my own spirit. 

The Holy Spirit now is doing the thing that Jesus promised He would do. He is guiding my spirit and my reasoning faculties into the realm of the Reality of the New Creation, and of my union with Christ. 

I begin to understand something of the reality of the Finished Work of the Master. My spirit catches gleams of the significance of the fact that He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High. He entered into His rest, and I am invited to sit with Him in the place of rest. I am invited to rest in His rest. Whata wonderful fellowship this is. 

Now I can see what it can mean to have my spirit in such close communion and fellowship with Him, so identifed with Him in this Love life, that I lose my consciousness of the past. I live only in the consciousness of my present, my new relationship with Him. 

Out of this new and wonderful relationship, faith begins to grow. 

Faith is not a product of the reasoning faculties. 

Sense Knowledge cannot produce faith, except what is known as Sense Knowledge Faith...faith in the things that the eye can see, the ear can hear, or we can feel or taste or smell. That is natural faith. That is the only kind of faith world folks have.

We have the new kind of Faith, the faith that Counts things that are not as though they were, and they come into being. We have the Faith that says, I have what I do not see, but I know that it is mine, and I possess it without seeing it .

This recreated human spirit that fellowships with perfect Love and with the Author and Finisher of Faith, becomes unconscious of the need of Faith or of having Faith. 

Just as Love becomes unconscious of Love, only conscious of the object of its Love, just so this New Creation has breathed into it the quiet confidence of the Creator. He has abandoned himself to Love, and out of Love has sprung his Living Faith. 

He begins to act Love, to do Love, and confess Love, and Faith's mighty ability becomes a conscious reality. 

Here are a few scriptures that may help us see the realities of this mighty thing... this New Creation thing. 

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 (I want to read a new translation) "For though we walk in the realm of the senses, we do not war according to the senses, (for the weapons of our warfare are not the senses, but are mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds); casting down sense reasoning and every high thing that would exalt itself against the Word of God. and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." 

When the recreated spirit takes the throne in us and begins to dictate to the reasoning faculties, then there is a chance for the Word to really gain the ascendancy in us. 

When we learn to cast down sense reasoning, that dominates all of those about us, and we stand there squarely by the Word regardless of criticism, regardless of the attitude of others, then we know that the Word is the Father speaking to us now. 

Here is another great Scripture, "Ephesians 3: verses 19 and20. This Scripture I have given to you several times in this book. I will let Him speak to us again through it. "And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge (that is sense knowledge), that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God." 

Really, that means to be filled with the fulness of the Father. 

That does stagger sense knowledge reasoning, doesn't it? That the Father would talk about our being filled in our spirits with Himself.

His fulness is made up of Love, the Master's Love; Wisdom that only a few of us have ever participated in; and of Grace that can put up with the most unruly and ungodly; Strength that makes us omnipotent in our spiritual life. 

To be filled with His fulness beggars description! It means to be overwhelmed with God. 

You remember in Ephesians 5:18. He said, "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is riot, but be drunk (or filled) in your spirit. 

He would have us drunk with Himself, just overwhelmed with Himself. To be drunk with Love! To be drunk with Grace and with all the sweet attributes of the Father, Himself! 

Well, that is ours. We may be filled with the very fulness, the completeness of the Father. 

Do you wonder how it can be done? Let me read you Ephesians 3:20, "Now unto HIM that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think, according to the ability of GOD that is at work within us." (Literal translation.) 

The heart almost stops. 

Can this be true, that the One who raised Jesus from the dead has come into these bodies of ours and brought into us the Ability that was exercised in that mighty miracle of the resurrection of Jesus? 

It is true, He has come in! He has come in with His ability, His wisdom, His love and grace. 

You remember I called your attention to Romans 5:5, how He shed abroad in our hearts the Holy Spirit. 

The One who brings Love into us has come in and He has brought in that fulness of Love. 

He has brought in what is told us in John 1:16, "OE His fulness have we all received, and grace upon grace." 

This is ours. We can never be cheap and small again, can we? We will never go back to the beggarly resources of sense knowledge. We will never go back to the shallow teachings of mere men. 

How shallow psychology looks now. It is the fruitage of sense knowledge. 

The religions of natural men are empty, sounding brass, and clanging cymbals. 

We have found reality at last.

The mysticism of sense knowledge once held us enthralled, but one breath from Him has driven the mists away, and we stand in the fulness of His marvelous Grace. 

We are New Creations now. We are living in the realm of God. 

I know a Scripture that fits into this description of the New Creation, it is Weymouth's translation of Romans 5:17 (3rd edition), "For if, through the transgression of the one individual, Death made use of the one individual to seize the sovereignty, all the more shall those who receive God's overfowing grace and gift of righteousness reign as kings in Life through the one individual, Jesus Christ." 

That is not after death, it is NOW. 

We reign as kings in this new realm of Life, and we bow to the sovereignty of Love. 

Spiritual death has held us in bondage through many years, but at last spiritual death has been Swallowed up in Life (Eternal Life, the nature of the Father), and now we take our place in the new realm and reign as the Sons of God. 

We reign as kings. We are not common any more. We no longer walk as mere men. We don't act as mere men. When we go into the Throne Room to present our needs before the Father, we go in as Sons.We have Love's ability to stand in His presence without any sense of inferiority. 

His great Grace has made us New Creations, and He has made us out of Himself. God the Father, through the Word, and by the Spirit's power, has recreated us. We are the products of Love We have Love's ability, we have Love's strength. We can do the work of Love. 

From today, I want you who read this book to look upon yourselves and to think of yourselves as the Sons of Love. 

Stand in front of the mirror and say to the man or woman you see reflected there,"You are now a New Creation, a partaker of the very nature of the Father. You have received the Father's overflowing Grace, and the gift of Righteousness, and now you reign as a king in this new realm of life." 

You have become a Master where once you served as a slave; an overcomer where the forces of the Evil One once dominated. 

You are now "in the Beloved." You are as near the heart of the Father as Jesus was in His earth walk.