Posted by godwordistruth on 21 September, 2008
From his diary, John Sung revealed the key to the 1931 revival in Nanchang, China . In any true revival, he confirmed the vital works of Holy Spirit in convicting men and women of their sins. John Sung wrote then: “Suddenly, I felt deeply touched to speak on sin and salvation”. God must prepare the hearts of his messengers in a revival.
This distinct aspect of the Holy Spirit’s work in convicting all sinners before God is clearly stated by our Lord Jesus Christ in John 16:8 – 11 : “And when He is come, He will reprove the world concerning sin, and concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment: concerning sin, because they believe not in Me; concerning righteousness, because I go to My Father and ye see Me no more; concerning judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.”
It is evident that John Sung was convinced that for evangelism to be effective, God must send the Holy Spirit to open the hearts of men and women through the clear preaching the Gospel. John Sung was sure that those“who have not been touched by the Holy Spirit are not aware of sin.’ and those “who are not aware of sin cannot accept salvation from the Lord”
This is an important point in any effort to evangelise to sinners. It is not about the making the message more “seeker friendly”, toning it down to the “unchurched” or “pre-believers” and relying on the man-made method to claim “decisions for Christ”. God centred evangelism is toward sinners and must faithfully declare the Truth as proclaimed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the Spirit of Truth who will show sinners their sinful and lost state and point them to their only hope and Savior.
John16-13-15 “However when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak from Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak; and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are Mine; therefore I said that He shall take of Mine, and shall show it unto you.”
“I have come to understand more clearly than ever that the Lord did not come to teach us or set an example. Indeed He came to take away our sins and die for sinners. A sense of great guilt burned within me as I recalled that my past sermons were ineffective for lack of emphasis on confession and salvation. Henceforth, I shall be a fisher of men! The Lord will only glorify the teachings of those who spread His Truth. As the Lord loves me, He allowed me to experience the many weaknesses of the ministry workers and showed me the path to church revival. I knew in the past that the Lord had come to cleanse our sins, but I knew not that He had come to do just that. A miss is as good as a mile indeed! One who is truly born again can spot sin with ease and repent because he knows what sin is. He will surely be concerned for the salvation of those around him.” Pg 119 “The Journal Once Lost”
Posted in Born Again, China, Gospel of Jesus Christ, John Sung, Sin, The Holy Spirit, Truth, preaching, repentance, revival | Tagged: China, Evangelism, Gospel, Holy Spirit, holyspirit, preaching, repentance, revival, salvation, seeker friendly, sinners, sins | 1 Comment »
Posted by godwordistruth on 31 August, 2008
William E. Schubert in his book “I Remember John Sung”.wrote this account of the NanChang China Pentecost when the power of the Holy Spirit came mightily during a John Sung led revival meeting.
Holy Spirit Fell on All Present
(NanChang, China – March 1931)
“That evening, instead of the six or eight or ten coming, there were 250 to 300 present in the Baldwin School chapel. The place was filled. Dr. Sung had us sing some choruses about prayer. Then he told us to pray. But nobody prayed. It was rather embarrassing at first. Then two little high school girls stood up and began to pray at the same time. I can still see their double braids. We had never had that; never more than one person prayed at the one time. ……….
Just then the Holy Spirit fell on everybody. All began to pray at once. There was no rushing wind, and there were no tongues that I know of. But God spoke to everyone in Chinese, and it seemed the natural thing to pray in Chinese, with utterance beyond what I had ever experienced. God spoke to me in Chinese, and I prayed in torrents of Chinese.
At first, Dr. Sung was very much surprised, and not pleased. He called out for us to stop: “We don’t want any fanaticism here.” I don’t think he had ever been in a place where all prayed at one time, though later in his meetings it often happened. Later, it became common, and still is practised in Taiwan and among most evangelical Chinese groups everywhere. But at the time we had never seen or heard it before. The whole outburst was unplanned and spontaneous — a moving of the Holy Spirit. But that night in March 1931 Dr. Sung stopped us.
He asked all to go to their rooms and pray quietly. He said, “Now I’ll pronounce the benediction.” But as he prayed, the Holy Spirit fell the second time, and everybody began to pray a in chorus again. Again he stopped us: “You didn’t understand; I didn’t say to pray here.” I later asked him why he stopped us, and he told me, “I didn’t want the missionaries to say `That crazy Sung made all the students crazy.”
Then, as he began to pronounce the benediction again, the Holy Spirit fell upon the whole congregation the third time. So he finally let us go on, and the spontaneous prayer must have continued forty-five minutes to an hour. Christians got under conviction and confessed their sins. There were about seven or eight communist students, who later confessed that they had been paid to come there to school to cause trouble.
These communist students were in the center of rows, scattered throughout the audience where they could make the most disturbance. When they got under conviction, they tried to get out, but the Christian students wouldn’t let them out of the rows. The Christian students had been praying for them. I can remember seeing the Christian students beating their own knees for joy when the young communists got so under conviction. All the agitators could do was to stand up and beat their breasts and cry out, “Oh, my unspeakable sins.” They all became earnest Christians.’
Posted in China, John Sung, Pentecost, Sin, The Holy Spirit, prayer, revival, tongues | Tagged: China, Chinese, Holy Spirit, holyspirit, Pentecost, prayer, repentance, tongues | Leave a Comment »
Posted by godwordistruth on 26 August, 2008
God in His grace will see to it that the Gospel of Jesus Christ will be transmitted and preached by His messengers to every tongue and tribe in the entire world before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ at His 2nd coming. God raised up one of the greatest evangelists of all time to reach out to the Chinese people in China and those scattered outside of China.
William E. Schubert in “I REMEMBER JOHN SUNG” said, “Dr. Sung was probably the greatest preacher of this century. I have heard almost all the great preachers from 1910 until now, including R. A. Torrey, Billy Sunday, Henry Jowett, the great holiness preachers, the Methodist bishops, including Bishop Quayle, even Harry Emerson Fosdick, who set a great example of the homiletic art, though I did not agree with him, and finally Billy Graham. Yet John Sung surpassed them all in pulpit power, attested by amazing and enduring results, …..”
Today, many Chinese churches outside of China (in South East Asia and Taiwan) had their original roots through the ministry of this worthy servant of the Lord: John Sung Shang Chieh (traditional Chinese: 宋尚節; simplified Chinese: 宋尚节; pinyin: Sòng Shàng-Jíe; (29 September 1901 – 18 August 1944) was a faithful Chinese Christian evangelist who was greatly used by the Lord in the revival movement among the Chinese in Mainland China, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia during the 1920s and 1930s.
Our Almighty and Everlasting God has been merciful and gracious to the Chinese. He sent His servant John Sung to shine the glorious light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to reach millions of Chinese. John Sung sowed a lasting legacy of faithful believers who have reaped more than hundred folds many times over.
Though, I was came into this world long after John Sung has passed away, I came to know the Lord through the ministries of faithful believers who came to the Lord through the preaching of John Sung in the past.
Thank You Lord for John Sung !
Asian Awakening
I Remember John Sung
John Sung My Teacher
http://articles.christiansunite.com/article2573.shtml
Posted in China, Gospel of Jesus Christ, John Sung, The Holy Spirit, revival | Tagged: Asia, China, Chinese, Evangelism, Evangelist, Gospel, John Sung, salvation | 3 Comments »
