Book Report The Heavenly Man

I. What is the main idea or thesis of the author?

This is the story of Brother Yun, whose real name is Liu Zhenying. Yun is a leader in one of the Chinese house church networks in Henan Province in Northern China. There are really two purposes for this book. The first is to tell Yun’s story, a story full of persecution and supernatural power. The second is to promote the cooperation of the Western Church with the Back to Jerusalem Movement which is a small but growing missions movement of the Chinese house churches to reach the unreached peoples between China and Jerusalem which happen to fall on the historic silk road.

This is not a typical book to be read for this type of study. However, it is a clear example of supernaturalism working in the church today in a house or simple church setting. Since this is the focus of my study, I felt it would be useful to take a look at the realities of what this actually looks like.

II. What is my interpretation of the author’s thesis?

Since this was not a typical book I felt I needed to focus my reading. To do this I developed six basic areas I would look for as I read this book. All six are related to supernaturalism in a simple church context. The are:

1. Find different forms of supernaturalism,
2. Look for how different worldviews affect our view of supernaturalism,
3. Note How the Chinese house churches interact with and respond to supernaturalism,
4. Notice how the Chinese brethren view scripture and how this affects their view of supernaturalism,
5. Note how supernaturalism affects ministry, strategy and the flow of the gospel and church planting,
6. Look for triggers to supernaturalism and barriers to supernaturalism.
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Here is what I have learned.

Find different forms of supernaturalism. God’s creativity doesn’t seem to be limited. He does what is needed and doesn’t seem to care that some people will insist that is it impossible. After all, it wouldn’t be supernatural otherwise.

Look for how different worldviews affect our view of supernaturalism. The Chinese worldview is affected by the Enlightenment through communism; however the underlying worldview is Animist/Taoist/Buddhist. They don’t seem to be predisposed, by default against supernatural power, which amounts to unbelief, so they encounter much more that we tend to.

Note how the Chinese house churches interact with and respond to supernaturalism. I think the thing I am most impressed with is their utter obedience. There is no rationalization; if God speaks to them through supernatural means they obey. They also take supernaturalism as a given, it is just part of being a Christian.

Notice how the Chinese brethren view scripture and how this affects their view of supernaturalism. They seem to have never heard of the doctrine of cessation. It is probably a good thing. I can just see someone trying to explain it to them, and what a great laugh they would get out of it. More than likely they would feel a need to pray for the poor soul that believed such nonsense.

Note how supernaturalism affects ministry, strategy and the flow of the gospel and church planting. Miracles happen and when they do it is not uncommon for people to come to Christ and churches to get planted. However, this is not always true. Some miracles are just for the believer, such as getting out of prison, escaping persecution, direction, etc. They do set goals on occasion, whether this is under divine direction or not is sometimes not mentioned. But, in general they are not setting goals and objectives, marshaling resources, reasoning through what step to do next. They just follow the Lord, and incredible things happen.

Look for triggers to supernaturalism and barriers to supernaturalism. Some of the triggers seem to be the following, trust, a clean heart, obedience to God’s call despite the seeming ‘illogical nature’ of such, past obedience to supernaturalism, fasting and intense prayer, desire for God’s presence and power, a close personal walk with Jesus, etc. There is a theme here and it is faith.

III. What would a serious application of this book look like?

This is actually the serious challenge. We, as western enlightened rationalist, find interacting with God’s supernatural power very difficult. Our worldview keeps getting in the way. We tend to question, doubt and hesitate instead of obey. This, in reality, is lack of faith, which Jesus and the New Testament writers make clear is a hindrance to God’s power being displayed. We are the losers in this.

Further, I think we have substituted obedience to God’s supernatural voice with a business model of doing ministry. We write goals, make plans etc. instead of following the Lord of the Harvest into the harvest. I believe we are inadvertently telling God how he ought to do ministry. This book has been a serious challenge to me to reevaluate how I approach ministry and how I respond to God.