The two women traveled week after week to attend secret house-church meetings. They were tired and frustrated that no church existed in their own village.
After praying for months for a church nearby, one of the women finally said, “Maybe God is waiting for us to build a church. Why should he listen to our constant complaints if we are not willing to do something ourselves?”
So they decided to take a risk. The two women and their husbands built a church in their little village in the Anhui province of China. The government immediately threatened to tear the building down unless they registered with the religious affairs bureau. They complied, and fortunately their rural area was not as closely supervised as some of the larger city churches. They even dared to invite other house-church pastors as guest speakers without first acquiring written permission.
The women evangelized by visiting the local hospital and finding the patients that had no hope of recovery. Then they would pray and ask God to heal them. In one year, the budding church grew to over two hundred!
One of the sisters said, “We prayed twenty days straight for one man, and he wasn’t healed until the very end. The family started threatening violence against us, saying that we were angering the gods. You have to be willing to take risks for God.”
The gospel of Jesus Christ is controversial, plain and simple. Why else would the devil isolate Christianity as the number one religion on restricted nations’ hit lists? For example, Buddhists do not have the extensive Christian underground church system that is forced to exist in restricted nations. New Age meditation experts do not fear for their lives in persecuted countries. Christianity is controversial because it is powerful over the enemy. Satan does not waste his time on false religions. Are you a spiritual risk as far as Satan is concerned? Or do you play it safe? Are you a threat to his plans because of your faith? If so, expect controversy. But rejoice you are part of the truth!
