Introduction
Introduction
This book tells the story of a most unusual move of the Holy Spirit that took place at an orphanage in the Yunnan Province of China. The Adullam Rescue Mission in Yunnanfu was the home to children, mostly boys ranging in ages from six to eighteen, who had been beggars on the streets in the city, or who were orphans and had been brought to the home when one or both parents died. Some were children who for one reason or another had run away from their homes in more distant parts of this or adjoining provinces. These children were baptized in the Holy Spirit and received extraordinary revelations and visions from God.
When the children arrive at the home, they are uneducated and undisciplined. Before coming to us they had often been part of gangs, surviving by begging and stealing, and had learned to live by the laws of the street.
In the Adullam Home, the children learn about the Bible and hear the gospel. Those coming into the home have always been open to the teachings given and some were doubtless already converted when the Holy Spirit began to move in power, while others had a very good knowledge of the main themes of the Bible.
All those who received the Holy Spirit knew enough about the faith to believe in one God and to understand they could only be saved by the blood of Christ. They prayed to be filled with the Holy Spirit and spent time seeking the Lord. We did not see any one of them specifically seeking any of the visions or manifestations that they received day by day as they waited on Him. Throughout all the weeks of this move of the Spirit they prayed and praised the Lord, and sought to bring glory to His name alone.
The Lord treated all the children impartially. The oldest and the youngest, the first arrivals and the most recent comers, the best and the worst – their heavenly Father blessed them all equally with His wonderful heavenly gifts.
This giving of the Promised Spirit was clearly a love gift of grace which had nothing to do with ‘works´ or personal merit. It was not something that was worked up. It was something that came down. It was not the result of character building achieved on a human level. It was a blessing of God freely given from above.
No natural explanation
There is no natural explanation for the experiences of these Adullam children, because:
1. These wonders could not possibly have been the product of the children´s natural minds. Such uneducated, mentally untrained, unimaginative boys as these could not have imagined such things themselves.
2. These spiritual experiences, visions and revelations could not have been the working of the subconscious mind. Many of these children were too young, too ignorant, or too recently rescued from their own godless background to know the Bible teaching on these subjects.
3. They cannot be explained by the psychology of mental suggestion from others. We ourselves had never seen such visions, never been in meetings where they had occurred, and never even read or heard of visions like the ones that were given to these children. These experiences were new to all of us.
4. They did not get these things from one another. When the power of the Lord fell among us many children were filled with the Spirit at the same time. Children in different rooms sometimes had the same vision simultaneously. There was no possibility of comparing with one another.
5. There is no natural explanation for the fact that the content of the visions was in complete harmony and had numerous details in common. Even the most simple children, who could easily be confused on cross questioning, whether questioned on their own or in groups, gave as clear and consistent answers to questions covering great numbers of details as could possibly have been given by any eye witness.
6. Neither can these experiences be explained as any sort of mental excitement, religious frenzy, natural emotion, nervous state, nor any sort of self-produced condition. The Holy Spirit came in power upon normal children in a normal state of mind free from all the conditions just mentioned.
The true Church is supernatural
Supernatural visions and revelations are foundation stones upon which the Church was established and upon which it stands. The whole Bible, Old and New Testament, is a supernatural revelation from God.
In the Old Testament, God spoke to His people in a number of ways. He revealed His will by directly inspiring the prophets, bypassing their minds. He appeared to men and women and spoke to them in a ‘voice´ with ‘words´ as, for example, He did with Moses, speaking to him as one person speaks to another, face to face (Exodus 33:11). God also revealed Himself in dreams, in visions and in various kinds of supernatural revelations. Angels brought messages to men and women and were continually active as God´s ambassadors in carrying out His plan of redemption on earth.
The New Testament likewise claims to be a superhuman revelation. Paul said of the gospel he preached:
‘I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.´ (Galatians 1:12)
His writings in his epistles were part of this supernatural ‘revelation from Jesus Christ´.
Without the help of the Holy Spirit and without the kind of visions and revelations that were given at Adullam, there would be no Christianity at all. The true Church only continues to exist today because supernatural manifestations just like these were a natural part of its life from its very beginning and indeed were the reason for its vigorous growth. When Herod wanted to destroy the baby Jesus, the wise men were ‘warned in a dream´ (Matthew 2:12). An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream (Matthew 2:13); a man from Macedonia appeared to Paul in a vision (Acts 16:8-10). When Paul was praying in the temple at Jerusalem he fell into ‘a trance´ and saw Jesus, who spoke to him, giving him directions for his work (Acts 22:17). Peter also fell into a trance while praying on the roof of the house. He saw a vision and heard the Lord in what seemed to be an audible voice (Acts 10:13-15). Cornelius had a vision of an angel in broad daylight (Acts 10:1-3). The whole book of Revelation, which is a record of visions given in the Spirit through the ministry of angels, was given to John as a supernatural revelation when he was ‘in the Spirit´. Paul either died and in an ‘out of the body´ experience went up to heaven or was caught up to heaven in a vision like our Adullam children and saw Paradise. He had so many of these supernatural revelations that the Lord had to send him a thorn in the flesh to keep him humble (2 Corinthians 12:1-3).
Angels also had a large part in the work of the first Church. The early disciples were directed in their work by the angels and, in this way, were often protected from imminent danger. An angel told Philip to take the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, where he met the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40). An angel appeared to Paul encouraging him and warning him about the future (Acts 27:23-4). It was directly as a result of an angelic vision that Cornelius and his whole household were saved and then baptized (Acts 10:3). When Peter was in prison, an angel rescued him, unchaining him and then instructing him to get dressed, after which he opened the prison doors and the locked city gate before leading him out into the street (Acts 12:7-8).
But more powerful than all these supernatural interventions was the work of the Holy Spirit. He came as the Lord had promised He would when Jesus returned to His Father.
That first Church did not read prayers. Neither did they say prayers. That first Church prayed to God from their heart, and God directly and supernaturally answered. When the disciples were in danger they got together and prayed to God. This was not formal praying; it was not a passionless, carefully worded prayer meeting to impress human ears. Everybody prayed at the same time: everybody cried to God in a loud voice. This was a special prayer meeting to find an answer for one great need.
When God answered, everybody knew it. The Holy Spirit shook the house in which these people were praying, and everyone was ‘filled with the Holy Spirit´, with a mighty superhuman power. Then they went out with the fire of God in their very hearts in the very face of death.
The early Church had a living God. Through the Holy Spirit Christ lived among them. He worked in them and through them supernaturally through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
‘Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another the ability to speak in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.´ (I Corinthians 12:7-10)
This is the promise of the living God. Christ said that if He should go away it would be better for His people, for they would experience His presence closer to them than ever before. He promised:
‘But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.´ (John 16:7)
‘…anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.´ (John 14:12)
If ever there was a living God, if ever there were angels, if ever there was a wonder-working Christ, if the Holy Spirit was ever given, if the Bible is a supernatural revelation from God, then we should expect to experience the trances, visions, revelations and working of the Holy Spirit that were given at Adullam. They are normal experiences in the supernaturally founded, supernaturally filled and supernaturally directed Church of the New Testament – the only Church the Bible is interested in.
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