Prayer before the trip. “Rahab the whore lives within a Chinese wall”
Rahab knew about God and believed in His Word about the people of Israel. She believed in what God had done for His people. In fact, she was a believer. Rahab believed that people behind the wall (Chinese wall) will be conquered by God’s people. She brought excitement to the whole city…
Chinese land. The border
We got to China from Khabarovsk City by Amur River. It took 1 hour 20 minutes by motor boat. China welcomed us with serious and friendless faces of border guards.
But despite these, the only thing that occupied my thoughts was the scripture from the Book of Joshua 1:3: “Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses”. The very first step I made on the land of China was the proclamation of this scripture! Each new step was a proclamation of God’s will on the land of China. I was afraid to miss even a step, a moment to release God’s will on China.
“… through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations” (Romans. 1:5). This scripture was constantly on my lips. Now my feet are trotting the land of China!
It was a fulfillment of the Embassy of God Church missionary vision for China! 14 years ago when I first heard about the Embassy of God Church missionary vision to go to different countries including China and the Arab world, it seemed to me a phantasmagoria of fantasy. But here it is, reality: a representative of the apostolic council of the Embassy of God Church now (with grace and apostolate) is in China…
We arrived as a tourist group from Khabarovsk City. In addition to all the questions such as “What is the purpose of your trip? How much money do you have with you? Can you show your belongings? Have you ever been to China before?”, my passport was studied for a very long time and carefully. Even an interpreter was sent to help border guards. It seemed like they were looking for something but couldn’t find it … So, we are in China!
Restaurant “Khabarovsk”, Fyuan City
During dinner, one Chinese waitress felt sick: she had stomach ache, so she could not serve dinner. She sat down next to our table and just kept her hand on her stomach. I invited her to sit down near me. She understand Russian language, which was a great help for me. I offered to pray for her, saying God would heal her if she invites Him, the Healer, into her life. I helped her repent in prayer and to be reconciled with God. When I prayed for her healing, she immediately felt better. She started to cry with delight in front of all her colleagues (waitresses) with immediacy and emotion so characteristic of Chinese people. She cried out that she was healed, and after the word “Amen” she felt better.
Immediately all who were in the restaurant took notice of us. Chinese women started not just to watch us but walked beside us. They also were looking for an excuse to speak to us. One even began to pretend that she had a stomach ache … In the end I just started to beckon them to me one by one: “Kun!” (It means “girl” in Chinese). They were ready: they came up to us and asked “Amen!”, asking me to pray for them too. This situation reminded me of the story of the Samaritan woman, whom Jesus met at the well and who caused great movement in her city after Jesus talked to her.
One of the Chinese women, who could not speak Russian, was so blessed by the touch of the living God during the prayer, that she started to talk of a church with a cross, using her fingers. I explained to her as simply as possible that I want to go there and I got up to put on my coat. Immediately she got permission to have some time off work, took a taxi and took us to the other end of town to a Methodist church, where the evening service was already finishing.
Methodist Church, a service in Fuyuan City
The service was about to finish. There were about 200 people in the hall. Even so we could not go unnoticed: all participants came to say hello to us and have a chat. We became the focus of attention.
The service was held in a large, bright room, with a total capacity of about a thousand people, including the balcony. There are rooms there with double beds for students of their Bible school, dining room, several halls, locker-room for the choir with a wardrobe, room for classes and much more.
After the service, concerned Chinese Christians brought us fruit, which was so delicious, and right there in the hall we tried the gifts of the Promised Land.
God’s presence and awe confirmed His will and His hand in all that happened …
Chinese fur shop
At the end of our meeting a car was already waiting for us outside. A driver, who was a parishioner of the church with his wife, took us to their fur shop, where their three daughters (believers and baptized, as they called themselves) had been trading.
It was just an amazing and extraordinary event. Right in the store in the city center we began to sing psalms together with that Chinese family, then we joined our hands and prayed for China. The Chinese has prayed with us, led a prayer about something important, and his daughter occasionally echoed “Amen” in agreement with her father in prayer.
After taking pictures, pleasantly amazed by what was happening, we went to the hotel.
The first night in China without sleep
We went to bed at midnight saturated with God’s wonders and gratitude for what we have seen. But at 3:30am, we all woke up at the same time with a thirst to pray for China and for all the great things God would to do in this country…
That night I experienced a great yearning for the move of God among people who have abolished communion with GOD by law and the letter, as if they can exclude themselves from the power and influence of God’s Words. I understood that the system can become a wall that hinders relationship with the Source of Life. The law can take the place of God and all this is the way religions arise. I saw the pain of Jesus walking alone among the people who ignores Him, justifying themselves that they live according to the Word, the law, the Bible, but actually without God Himself … He was walking along the streets alone! In the dream I began to understand the scriptures:
“He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.” (Matthew 19:8)
“And Jesus answered and said unto them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.” (Mark 10:5)
“But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD. And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee. Now therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them.” (1 Samuel 8:6-9)
In my dream I saw a time when there was no commandment and law, and God Himself was the Living Word and the Law for the people. What peace and harmony was on earth! But because of the cruelty and sinfulness of man, God gave them the law to protect them from themselves. But it was not so from the beginning. People rejected God this way, He was not allowed to reigned over them, they left Him and replaced His commandments, destroying relationship and communication with GOD completely… It became clear what Apostle Paul meant by writing, “Wherefore the law was our school master to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Gal.3: 24) and “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” (Rom.6: 14)
God did not want us to exchange the living communion with Him with only the act, when knowledge will replace real communion and relationship with GOD – it is a dead religion without the Spirit. “Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life” (2Kor.3: 6).
It became clear that a living relationship with God, His presence and manifestation of His kingdom in everyday life are essential keys required for the awakening of China.
Sportswear shop
At the center of the city are strings of small and large stores. Business and trade are mainly from Russia. Trades are usually busy until the shipping yard closes for more than six months. People sell everything possible – whatever products you see on the shelves of China! Passing through the windows and talking with ordinary Chinese traders, who see you as a potential buyer, one does not expect to see in a communist country anything except different goods. But in one of the shops, the unusual familiar thing catches my attention – the psalms in Chinese language, which conveniently hangs among sports suits, so that the owner was able to read the Psalms to the Lord during communication with customers and trading.
We rejoice: The living God is the Lord of China!!!
Dragon has fallen down
During the evening prayer on our first night, we were praying earnestly for the liberation of China from all idolatry.
The living God has already visited the land of China and His desire of communing with His people in the land is becoming a reality thanks to the right doctrine and bearers of God’s presence. Today, China needs prayers and support of the mission that God has initiated in the spirit. The dragon has fallen!
Joshua of Our Time
First time when God sent 12 elders to see the promised land, only two believed and accepted the call of God and accepted His will concerning the land. Also we, as spies, who have a mission to China had strong feeling that someone that’s part of this missionary trip would return to China to lead the people after God and become Joshua of our time…
In fact, there were representatives of the government of Jesus on earth on this trip: a member of the Apostolic Council of Pastor Sunday Adelaja’s Embassy of God church – Pastor Aleksandr Korman, Regional Pastor and Head of the Far Eastern Alliance of the Embassy of God Churches -Alexander Pankratov, leader of the alliance prayer ministry – Alexei Gostev; social pastor (the president of the NGO that has the third highest level of influence in the Khabarovsk Territory) – Tatiana Pankratova, the administrator of the “Awakening” church – Valentina Lavrenchuk and the pastor in the Muhen village – Lubov Lipatova…
Thanks to God for the honor of serving in his army of the last days!
With love from China
Pastor Alexander Korman
