Standing Firm Through Unimaginable Trials
“Abandon your faith!” the Communist police officer shouted at Mizhong Miao. The officer’s fist slammed down on the table. Miao replied quietly, “Jesus is the Savior of my life. I cannot obey your order.” Only seven weeks after his conversion from atheism, Mizhong Miao became a preacher of the Gospel. This is a common occurrence in underground churches in China.
Believers there don’t wait for theological studies but begin right away to tell about their first experiences with Jesus. Miao had been arrested for spreading what the police called “the poison of imperialism.” They beat him—and he prayed. While they beat him, a supernatural joy filled him. He felt the Holy Spirit surround him, and nothing the Communists did could make him deny Jesus. He was sentenced to five years, but was later given another ten years for preaching in the slave labor camp.
Miao’s wife, abandoning all hope of ever seeing him again, divorced him. When he heard the news, he was very sad. Then he remembered these words from Psalm 73:25: “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.” He composed a hymn and sang it. Miao continued to preach to his fellow inmates. Then came a terrible winter, with temperatures close to zero.
An epidemic swept through the prison. Out of 1,300 prisoners, 1,050 died. Miao was pronounced dead and taken to the morgue, but his spirit was alive. In the morgue, surrounded by dead men, he prayed and saw an angel, dressed in white, whose face shone with God’s glory. The angel blew upon him. Immediately the sickness left him, and he felt better. He knelt and thanked God, then he left the morgue.
The prison doctor saw him walking around and cried out in fear. He thought Miao was a ghost, just like the disciples did when the resurrected Jesus appeared to them. But Miao said, “Don’t be afraid. I am Mizhong Miao. God restored me to health. He sent me to show you the way to God.” The doctor knelt and said, “Your God is a reality.”
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After fifteen years, Miao was released from prison and continued to work secretly in the underground church for another eighteen years. At his release, he told the authorities, “Suffering did not diminish my faith but only intensified my relationship with Jesus.”
We are hard pressed on every side but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
2 Corinthians 4:8–9.
Date: 24th September 2022
Title: “SUFFERING DID NOT DIMINISH MY FAITH”
Martyr: Mizhong Miao
Location: Mainland China: During the Red Guard Era 1966–1969
Source: Jesus Freaks
Author: DC Talk and Voice of Martyrs
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