the events recounted below happened in the course of yun and his family secretly leaving china for burma from which they were to fly to germany where they hoped, finally, to make a home together.
.my wife, whom i thank God for giving an honest and wise heart, warned me,
you shouldn't be so positive about this. God has warned you (in a dream) and you must heed it. make sure you leave your id card with me. if you take it you'll surely find trouble.
i rejected my wife's advice and ignored the dream..the previous few months had been a hectic time of ministry. i'd travelled to many nations and spoken in hundreds of meetings. my mother had recently died and i was still dealing with the grief and pain of her departure. i was burned out and needed a time of rest ..
in my sorry state, i had great confidence in my own 'strength' and 'abilities'. the Lord needed to teach me a lesson and humble me. he taught me that if we trust in any kind of resource except Him. I HAD PLACED TOO MUCH TRUST IN MY GERMAN PASSPORT.
(note: so true to life how i WILL NOT rely completely upon Him but run to trust in worthless, inane things. 'My people have committed two evils. they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters to hew out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. jer.2.13)
deep down in my heart i womehow believed my passport would protect me from harm and help me overcome problems.
when i look back on what happened in myanmar i fully realize one thing:
GOD WILL NEVER CHANGE HIS PRINCIPLES FOR ANY PERSON. if you disobey His principles then you will surely fall into trouble
because i disobeyed the lord, i fell into trouble.
the next morning i entered the customs hall at the yangon (rangoon) international airport, before boarding my flight to thailand. immediately i started to feel uneasy. the scene before me was exactly the same as in my dream. the very same officer as in my dream looked at my passport and told me to open my bags. he saw my burmese ID card and immediately his countenance grew serious. he took me into a side room and ordered me to wait. straight away i realized i was in the same run down interrogation room that the Lord had shown me in the dream.
because of the outbreak of war in shan state the airport authorities were on high alert for anything suspicious. when they found my false identity card, and realized i couldn't speak burmese or even english, they presumed i was somehow connected to the shan fighters. they paid no attention to my german passport because they were certain it was counterfeit.
as i waited in that lonely room my hear filled with grief and remorse and i began to repent to the Lord for my pride and disobedience. i cried out and sobbed great tears and prayed,
Lord, i'm sorry i paid no attention to Your warning.
i now accept whatever punishment You have in store for me.
this was the second time i'd been arrested because i was burned out and my ears were closed to hearing the Lord's warning, my second imprisonment in china in 1991 also came about because i was burned out and trusted in my own strength. i didn't learn my lesson well.
if you are a worker in god's kingdom, or ever hope to serve the Lord, let me warn you from the words i wrote down in my notebook that day while i was waiting in the airport interrogation room.
in large letters i wrote,
BEWARE! BEWARE! BEWARE! GOD'S WORKER MUST NEVER, EVER DISOBEY GOD'S PRINCIPLES!
those christians who have a public ministry are most in danger of falling into trouble, because they can easily be tempted to listen to the applause and praise of men. if you are a preacher, beware! you must cry out and ask god to help you listen only to His voice, not to the crowds of people who pat you on the back and place you on a pedestal. God's principles are often the opposite of our own. while we hope people will like and accept us, Jesus taught,
woe to you when all men speak well of you. luke 6.26
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