By Yang Li, Jiangxi Province

My mother passed away when I was a little girl, and so I had to bear the heavy burden of household responsibilities from a young age. After I got married, my responsibilities became so burdensome that I could barely breathe under their weight. Having had my fill of the arduousness and misery of life, over time I became depressed and dejected, quiet and reserved, and I frittered away one day after another. In 2002, when some brothers and sisters shared the gospel of Almighty God’s work in the last days with me, I happily accepted it and then brought my husband and children before God along with me. From then on, brothers and sisters would often come to our house for gatherings and we would fellowship on God’s word, sing, dance and praise God; this brought me incredible enjoyment and I no longer felt depressed or worried. My children said that I seemed to be getting younger and more cheerful all the time. We would often read God’s words together as a family and, through His words, we came to understand many truths, as well as God’s urgent will to save mankind. I traveled all over, spreading the gospel and bearing witness for God in order to repay God’s love and enable those who had, like me, undergone Satan’s torment to come before God and be saved by Him as soon as possible. I never imagined that, because of this, I would become the target of the CCP government’s cruel persecution …

On the 23rd of November, 2005 at around 7 p.m. while in a gathering with two sisters, I suddenly heard a violent rapping at the door and, realizing that it might be the police, I hurriedly gathered up all the books of God’s words. Just as I had expected, the front door was kicked down very quickly; five police officers burst in frantically and surrounded us. The head officer shouted: “There’s no escape! Search the place!” In no time at all, the entire contents of the house had been upended in a dreadful mess. They then seized all of our bags and a book of hymns, and proceeded to handcuff us and escort us to the police station. I was extremely frightened in the face of this display of force and desperately called out to God for protection. At that moment, a passage of God’s words came to mind: “You know that all things in the environment that surrounds you are there by My permission, all planned by Me. See clearly and satisfy My heart in the environment I have given to you. Do not fear, the Almighty God of hosts will surely be with you; He stands behind you and He is your shield” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Utterances of Christ in the Beginning, Chapter 26). God’s words gave me immense strength and faith, rid me of my timidity and instilled within me poise and groundedness. That’s right! All events and things are in God’s hands and the police are within God’s grasp and orchestrations as well. With God as my strong support, there was nothing to be afraid of. I just had to focus on seeking God’s will and relying upon God so I could stand witness in whatever situation I may encounter.

At the police station, ten officers from the Municipal Public Security Bureau and the local police station took turns interrogating us in groups of two. They demanded to know our names, addresses and who the leaders of our church were. When we wouldn’t provide any answers, their frustration turned to rage and they handcuffed us to iron tiger benches. Seeing the fierce looks on those cops’ faces struck a bit of fear in my heart; I wondered what kind of nasty tactics they would use on us and I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to stand my ground. Seeing that I wasn’t talking, one of the officers said in an unctuous tone: “It’s getting really late. Just tell us your name and address and we’ll send you right home.” My mind was very clear then because I had God’s protection, and I thought to myself, “This is one of Satan’s tricks. If I give them my name and address, they’ll certainly go and search my house, which would be incredibly damaging to the church.” As such, no matter how those awful policemen interrogated me, I wouldn’t say a word, but only prayed to God that He would bestow me with the right words to say. The next day, they came back asking the same questions and, again, I didn’t say a thing. That evening, a female officer dressed in a rather unbecoming outfit came in, glared at me and fiercely asked, “What’s your name? Where do you live?” I didn’t respond to her and so she yelled at me angrily: “You people just eat your fill and laze around, not bothering to go make any money. Why the hell do you want to believe in some God?” With that, she strode over to me and began kicking my legs and feet with her high-heeled shoes while yelling, “Practice faith my ass! If you don’t give me an honest answer, I’ll have you killed!” My legs and feet hurt unbearably and I was overcome with a wave of weakness within my heart, not knowing what they would put me through next. I hurriedly supplicated to God, asking that He safeguard my heart. After concluding my prayer, my fear subsided. Because their interrogation had failed to yield any answers, the police sent the three of us off to a detention house.

That night, it was snowing heavily and freezing cold. Those maniacal cops confiscated all the winter clothing we had in our bags, forcing us to wear nothing but a single layer of thin clothing, leaving us trembling with cold the entire ride. When we arrived at the detention house, they took us down into a gloomy and terrifying underground prison ward. Occasionally the sounds of cursing and cries of other inmates would float down, making my hair stand on end—I felt as though I had entered into some kind of hell on earth. The three of us were shoved into a cell with about twenty other inmates, from which wave after wave of rancid stink emanated. The cell was lined on either side with cement sleeping platforms and all the inmates sat around a long table threading light bulb filaments. As soon as we entered, the officer said to the head inmate: “Make sure to give them a nice welcoming!” The head inmate, a drug convict, wasn’t even thirty years old; as soon as she heard the officer’s orders, she knocked me to the ground with vicious kicks before I had even had time to get my bearings. It hurt so much that I was rolling on the ground screaming. After that, they tore off all our clothing, dragged us into the bathroom and forced us to take cold showers. The bone-piercingly frigid water sent my whole body into convulsions and my teeth chattered nonstop. My entire body was in unbearable pain as if I had been slashed with a knife and I lost consciousness very quickly. When I came to, I realized I had already been dragged back into the cell. When the head inmate saw that I was awake, she still didn’t ease up on me, but continued to kick and punch me. Only after she had exhausted herself did she throw me off to one side. The two sisters came and held me closely, their tears falling onto my face. Feeling very weak in my heart, I thought to myself: “Why won’t God just let me die? As soon as I die, I’ll be free, but if I go on living, who knows how those demons will beat and torture me, and whether or not I’ll be able to withstand it all.” The more I thought about it the more distressed I became, and the tears came streaming down my face. In the midst of my suffering, God enlightened me to think of a hymn of His words: “You will surely, under the guidance of God’s light, break through the stranglehold of the forces of darkness. You will surely not, in the midst of darkness, lose the light guiding you. … You will surely stand firm and unwavering in the land of Sinim. Through the sufferings you endure, you will inherit My blessings, and will surely radiate My glory throughout the entire universe” (Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs, Song of the Overcomers). My heart was immediately flooded with warmth—God’s promise and His love moved me deeply, allowing me to realize that, even though Satan was inflicting its cruelty upon me, as long as I sincerely relied upon and looked up to God, God would surely lead me to overcome the oppression of the dark forces and come into the light. The suffering I was going through was valuable and meaningful; it was a blessing from God, and it was suffering I had to go through in the process of pursuing the truth and gaining God’s salvation. It was also a strong testimony to God’s defeat of Satan. Satan was tormenting and torturing me in an attempt to get me to deny and betray God; only by staying strong in my devotion to God, bearing all the suffering that I should bear and standing witness for God could I strike back at Satan’s conniving plot, humiliating Satan to bringing glory to God. Once I had thought through all this, I deeply repented to God and made a resolution: “O Almighty God! You have suffered more than any normal person could bear in order to bring salvation to us, such deeply corrupted people. You have made such painstaking efforts for us and Your love for us is truly too great! I should repay Your love, but today, when faced with a trial, when I should have born testimony before Satan, I chose to escape. When I suffered in the flesh just a little bit, I became negative and resisted, wanting more than anything to die and be done with it all. How cowardly and lacking in conscience I am! From now on, no matter what adverse circumstances I may face, I pledge to stand witness for You.” I felt my faith strengthen at that moment and I grasped my sisters’ hands firmly, willing to keep on living to bear witness for God.

After being detained in the detention house for twenty-one days, the police escorted me to the County Public Security Bureau. They strapped me to a tiger bench and interrogated me. Because I steadfastly refused to utter a single word, that night they handcuffed me with studded handcuffs and hung me from the iron grating of a window, leaving my body dangling in the air so I could just touch the ground with my tiptoes. An officer spoke to me arrogantly, saying, “If there’s one thing I have, it’s patience. I’m going to make you beg to me and tell me who your leader is of your own accord!” With that, he left the room, slamming the door on his way out. Not long after, I began to feel a bone-piercing pain in my wrists that left me in unspeakable suffering. In that moment, I suddenly thought of a hymn of God’s words: “Have you ever accepted the blessings that you were given? Have you ever sought the promises that were made for you? You will surely, under the guidance of God’s light, break through the stranglehold of the forces of darkness. You will surely not, in the midst of darkness, lose the light guiding you. You will surely be the master of all creation. You will surely be an overcomer before Satan. You will surely, at the downfall of the kingdom of the great red dragon, stand up amid the myriad throngs to bear witness to God’s victory. You will surely be resolute and unwavering in the land of Sinim. Through the sufferings you endure, you will inherit the blessing that comes from God, and will surely radiate God’s glory throughout the entire universe” (Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs, Song of the Overcomers). With tears in my eyes, I sang the hymn over and over. The more I sang, the more energized I became and I could feel the powerful life force of God’s words that fortified my heart and gave me staunch faith that God would certainly lead me to overcome the oppression of the dark forces, and help me endure all this cruel torture to stand firm in my witness. With the encouragement of God’s words, my physical pain dissipated and I actually felt myself draw closer to and become more intimate with God. I felt as though God were right by my side, accompanying me. His words moved my heart and I resolved that I would stand witness to satisfy God and would absolutely never capitulate to Satan!

After that, I was brought into the interrogation room where the first thing to come into view was a whole set of different implements of torture: A row of police batons, large and small, were hanging in a row on the wall, and next to the wall were leather batons, leather whips and a tiger bench. A few officers were right in the middle of beating a twenty-something male inmate with electric batons and leather whips. He had been badly cut and bruised and was mangled to an almost unrecognizable extent. A female officer walked in just then and, without saying a word, proceeded to kick me several times before grabbing me by the hair and slamming my head against the wall, which made a terrible thudding sound. My head was spinning, I felt dizzy and my head hurt so much I thought it would split open. As she beat me, she viciously snarled: “If you don’t come clean today, I’ll make sure you don’t live to see another day!” Two other male officers chimed in, threatening: “We’ve summoned officers from all the surrounding police stations. We’ve got all the time in the world to question you, one month, two months…. However long it takes to get the answers we need from you.” Hearing them say this, plus thinking of the cruel tactics those low-lives had used on me before as well as the scene that had just transpired with that male inmate, my heart began to race and wave upon wave of fear and dread washed over me. All I could do was pray to God urgently. In that moment, God’s words guided me, “When people are ready to sacrifice their lives, everything becomes trifling, and no one can get the better of them. What could be more important than life? Thus, Satan becomes incapable of doing any more in people, there is nothing it can do with man. Although, in the definition of the ‘flesh’ it is said that the flesh is corrupted by Satan, if people truly give themselves over, and are not driven by Satan, then no one can get the better of them—and at this moment, the flesh will perform its another function, and begin to formally receive the direction of the Spirit of God” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Interpretations of the Mysteries of “God’s Words to the Entire Universe”, Chapter 36). God’s words gave me a path of practice. I thought, “Indeed, Satan has seized upon this weakness of mine, my fear of death, to make me betray God, and God is using this situation to test the sincerity of my faith in Him. If I really think about it, my life is in God’s hands, so why should I fear Satan? Now is the time for me to bear witness for God; only by offering up my life and not being constrained by death can I break free from Satan’s influence and stand witness for God.” Having thought through this, I no longer feared death and decided to offer up my life to satisfy God. When one of those evil policemen saw that I wasn’t afraid, he yelled with rage, “If we don’t teach you a lesson now, you’ll think we don’t know what to do with you!” and then they immediately locked me back up with the studded handcuffs, hung me by them high up on the iron grating of the window, and began to prod me with an electric baton. A strong electric current instantly surged through my entire body, causing me to continually shudder and convulse. The more I struggled, the tighter the handcuffs closed around my wrists; it was so painful that I thought my hands were about to fall off and my entire body was wracked with excruciating pain. Those two evil policemen kept taking turns torturing me with the batons which were making constant crackling sounds. Every time I was tased, my entire body would spasm and quake and I slowly began to go numb. Gradually, I began to lose consciousness and, finally, I blacked out. Some time later, I don’t know how long, I was awoken by the cold. That pack of wicked officers, seeing that I was only wearing a thin layer of clothing, had intentionally opened all the windows to make me freeze. A frigid wind continually blew in from the window; I was so cold that my body had grown stiff and I could feel myself losing consciousness again, but then I had the clear thought: “I cannot break down. I must stand witness for God even if it means my death!” Just then, I envisioned the Lord Jesus being crucified to save mankind: The Lord Jesus was beat to a bloody pulp and then nailed to the cross to complete the work of redemption of mankind. If God could give up His life to save mankind, why couldn’t I repay just a little bit of God’s love? God’s love encouraged me and I prayed to God: “Oh God! You have given me this breath that I breathe, so should You wish to take it away, I willingly submit. It would be my greatest pride and honor to die for you!” I then gradually regained full consciousness. Thinking of how Peter, Stephen and other disciples had died in martyrdom, I couldn’t help but quietly sing this church hymn that I knew well: “By God’s disposing and by His arranging, I meet adversity and undergo trials. How can I lose heart, how can I hide? God’s glory comes first. In adversity, God’s words guide me and my faith is perfected. To God I give my utmost devotion, what matter if I die, God’s will is higher than all. Unheeding the future, not reckoning gain or loss, I ask only that God be satisfied. I bear resounding witness and bring shame down on Satan, to God’s greater glory. I pledge loyalty to the death to repay God’s love, I praise Him with my whole heart. My eyes have seen the Sun of righteousness, truth reigns supreme on earth. Righteous and holy is God’s disposition, worthy of mankind’s praise. I love Almighty God with all my heart, I love Him forever” (Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs, I Ask Only That God Be Satisfied). The more I sang, the more moved and encouraged I became and my voice was choked with tears. I could feel God by my side, listening intently as I confided in Him. I had a feeling of warmth in my heart and I knew that God had been propping me up with His mighty hand all along so that I wouldn’t fear the cold or dread my own death. In my heart, I made the following resolution: No matter what kind of torture and suffering may lay in wait, I swear on my life to stay loyal to the very end and stand witness to repay God’s love!

On the morning of the following day, a policeman aggressively threatened me, saying, “You’re lucky you didn’t freeze to death last night, but if you don’t talk today, I’ll make sure your God can’t save you!” I chuckled to myself, unperturbed. I thought, “God is the Creator of the heavens and earth and all things, He rules over everything, is all-powerful and full of authority. ‘For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.’ My life is also in God’s hands; if He wanted to save me now, wouldn’t it be the easiest thing for Him? It’s just that He wants to use you, you demon, to do service for Him.” Just then, the wicked policeman prodded me again with his baton and a strong electric current surged through my entire body, causing an excruciating pain that made me struggle and cry out involuntarily. That policeman just laughed uproariously and said: “Go ahead, scream! Call on your God to save you! If you beg me to save you, I promise I’ll let you go!” Hearing the monstrous audacity of that officer’s words filled me with the utmost rancor and I silently prayed to God: “Oh God! How savage the devil Satan is! It slanders and blasphemes You; it is Your irreconcilable enemy and is particularly my sworn enemy. No matter how Satan tortures me, I will not betray You. I only wish that my heart may be gained by You. These demons can harm my flesh, but they can never destroy my resolve to satisfy You. I would that You bestow me with strength.” That heartless and maniacal cop jabbed at me with his baton relentlessly; when the first electric baton ran out of batteries, he switched to a new one and continued tasing me. I lost count of how many batons he went through in total. I felt that death was closing in on me and that there was no hope of survival. Consumed with negativity and despair, I could only desperately call out to God, entreating Him to protect me and save me. In that moment, a passage of God’s word came to mind: “God’s life force can prevail over any power; moreover, it exceeds any power. His life is eternal, His power extraordinary, and His life force cannot be overwhelmed by any created being or enemy force. The life force of God exists and shines its brilliant radiance regardless of time or place. Heaven and earth may undergo great changes, but God’s life is forever the same. All things may pass away, but God’s life will still remain, for God is the source of the existence of all things and the root of their existence” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life). God’s words imbued me with limitless strength and immediately gave me incredibly strong faith in the midst of my weakness. I thought to myself: “Yes, I believe in the one and only Almighty God. God’s life is everlasting and supernatural, and God’s life force transcends everything and conquers all. All that is comes to be through God’s words. All aspects of man, including his life and death are subject to God’s arbitration. My life, even more so, is in God’s hands and so how could Satan possibly exert control over my mortality? Take, for instance, how the Lord Jesus called out to Lazarus, whose body had already begun to rot in his tomb, saying, “Lazarus, come forth” (John 11:43) and Lazarus emerged from the tomb, risen from the dead. God’s words possess authority and power; He created the world with His words and He uses His words to guide every age. Today, God is using His words to save and perfect us. I mustn’t interpret things according to my notions and imagination any longer, but must live according to God’s words. Today, if God doesn’t permit me to die, no matter how savagely Satan acts, it cannot take my life. As long as I can bring honor to God, I will die happily and willingly.” Once I began living according to God’s words and stopped worrying about my own mortality, a miracle took place: No matter how that wicked cop tased me, I no longer felt any suffering or pain and my mind was crystal clear. I was sure that this was God’s protection and care⁠—it was God’s mighty hand propping me up. I truly experienced firsthand the awesome power of God’s words, as well as the supernatural and extraordinary nature of God’s life force. God’s words are the truth and the reality of life. His life force cannot be suppressed by any force of darkness. No matter how the policemen inflicted all manner of torture and cruelty upon me, taking turns meting out their cruel punishment, I was able to endure all of it. This wasn’t my own ability, but was entirely God’s might and authority. If it hadn’t been for God’s words giving me strength and faith, I would have broken down long before. I had the profound sense that, when my flesh was at its weakest and I was plunged in the depths of suffering, God was always by my side, supporting me with His strong and powerful words of life, and safeguarding me at all times, so that my faith grew stronger within me and my resolve was hardened.

That night, they used a different torture technique on me. They handcuffed me in front of the window, exposing me to the frigid outside air and then they watched me in shifts to make sure that I didn’t fall asleep. As soon as my eyes would begin to droop, they’d slap me across the face. I hadn’t drunk a drop of water or had a morsel of food in two days, my entire body was devoid of strength, and my eyes were so swollen that I could barely open them. I felt a kind of inexpressible misery wash over me and wondered how much longer the torture would go on. The bone-chillingly frigid wind blew upon me continually and I shivered constantly with cold. The police, clothed in knee-length parkas, lounged with legs crossed in chairs before me, awaiting my surrender. In that moment, it was as if a scene of demons torturing someone in Hades was playing out before me, and I couldn’t suppress my rage: Man was created by God and it is natural and right to worship Him, but the lowly, shameless, CCP government does not permit people to worship the true God. In order to establish a zone of atheism in the world and achieve their diabolical goal of controlling people perpetually and making them follow and worship them, they aggressively resist, disrupt and destroy God’s work, using every despicable method at their disposal to cruelly persecute Almighty God’s followers. That old demon has perpetrated the most monstrous of crimes⁠—it should be cursed and damned! Suddenly, a hymn of God’s words came to mind, “For thousands of years this has been the land of filth, it is unbearably dirty, misery abounds, ghosts run rampant everywhere, tricking and deceiving, making groundless accusations, being ruthless and vicious, trampling this ghost town and leaving it littered with dead bodies; the stench of decay covers the land and pervades the air, and it is heavily guarded. Who can see the world beyond the skies? How could the people of a ghost town such as this have ever seen God? Have they ever enjoyed the dearness and loveliness of God? … Why put up such an impenetrable obstacle to the work of God? Why employ various tricks to deceive God’s folk? Where is the true freedom and legitimate rights and interests? Where is the fairness? Where is the comfort? Where is the warmth? Why use deceitful schemes to trick God’s people? Why use force to suppress the coming of God? Why hound God until He has nowhere to rest His head? How could this not incite fury? Thousands of years of hate are concentrated in the heart, millennia of sinfulness are inscribed upon the heart—how could this not inspire loathing? Avenge God, completely snuff out His enemy. Now is the time: Man has long since gathered all his strength, he has devoted all his efforts for this, to tear off the hideous face of this demon and allow people, who have been blinded, and have endured every manner of suffering and hardship, to rise up from their pain and turn their backs on this evil old devil” (Follow the Lamb and Sing New Songs, Those in Darkness Should Rise Up). I sang the hymn over and over in my heart. As I sang, the blood boiled in my veins and a fiery wrath welled inside of me; I vowed on my life to forsake Satan, that old demon, and I cried out in my heart: “You demon! If you think I’m going to betray God and abandon the true way, you’ve got another thing coming!” I knew clearly that it was God that had bestowed me with strength, that Almighty God’s words had bolstered my spirit.

On the fifth day, my hands were engorged with blood, numbed and badly bloated from the handcuffs. I felt as if my body was coming apart at the seams, that thousands of insects were devouring me from the inside out. There are no words to describe the pain and agony. I prayed nonstop in my heart, begging God to give me the strength to overcome the weakness of my flesh. Time passed excruciatingly slowly and, gradually, the sky began to darken. I was thirsty and hungry, I was cold and shivering all over, and had been sapped of every last ounce of energy—I felt that I wouldn’t be able to take it much longer. If this continued any longer, I would certainly die of starvation or thirst. It was only then that I understood what that evil officer had meant when he said, “I’m going to make you beg to me.” He was trying to use his despicable tactics to force me to betray God. I couldn’t fall for his tricks; I had to rely upon God. As such, I called out to God again and again: “O Almighty God! I beg that You instill me with strength, so that I may rely upon You to overcome Satan’s cruel punishment and torture. Even if it means my death, I mustn’t betray You and become a Judas.” At that moment, God’s words enlightened me: “Man’s life originates from God, the existence of heaven is because of God, and the existence of earth stems from the power of God’s life. No object possessed of vitality can transcend the sovereignty of God, and no thing with vigor can elude the domain of God’s authority” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life). God’s authoritative words gave me faith and strength. “It’s true,” I thought to myself, “God is the source of my life: As long as God doesn’t withdraw this breath from me, no matter how Satan tortures me and doesn’t allow me to eat or drink, I still won’t die. My life is in God’s hands, so what do I have to fear?” At that moment I became ashamed and embarrassed at my lack of faith in and understanding of God. I also realized that God was using this difficult environment to instill me with the following truth: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). I thus prayed to God: “Almighty God, Ruler of all! My life is in Your hands to manage and I am willing to submit to Your orchestrations and arrangements. No matter whether I live or die, I will accept all Your orchestrations.” After finishing my prayer, I felt my body become suffused with strength and I didn’t feel as hungry or thirsty as I had. It wasn’t until 8 p.m. that night that one of those wicked cops returned. He pinched my chin and, with a sinister grin, said to me, “So how’s it going, enjoying yourself? Are you ready to beg to me and tell me what I want to know? If you don’t talk, I have plenty of ways of dealing with you!” I closed my eyes and ignored him, and this sent him into a rage—he hurled insults and profanities at me as he grabbed me by the collar with one hand and viciously slapped me across both sides of my face with the other. I could feel my face swell up instantly, and it burned with pain. The wicked policeman’s savagery allowed me to clearly perceived his demonic essence; I hated him even more and felt even more driven to not capitulate to Satan’s tyranny. I became steadfast in my resolve to stand witness and satisfy God. In that moment, I no longer cared about my fleshly pain, but glared furiously at the policeman, thinking to myself, “You think you can force me to betray God? Quit dreaming!” With God’s guidance, my heart was filled with faith and strength; no matter how the officer beat me, I never gave in to him. In the end, it was only after the officer had completely exhausted himself that he finally stopped.

After that, the policemen kept an even tighter watch on me. They worked in shifts, keeping a close eye on me at all times and if my eyes even slightly began to droop, they’d beat me awake with a rolled-up magazine. I clearly understood that they were doing this to wear down my resolve and take advantage of my compromised mental state to milk me for information on the church. At that point, I was already extremely physically weak and was starting to become dazed. The combination of cold, hunger and fatigue was overwhelming to the point that I wished for death. I felt as though I couldn’t hang on much longer; I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to endure the pain and would unwittingly betray God. With this thought, I longed for death, thinking that at least if I died, I wouldn’t sell out the church and betray God. So I prayed to God: “Dear God, I can’t take it much longer. I’m afraid that I’ll give in and betray You. I pray that You safeguard my heart. I would rather die than become a Judas.” After that, I gradually began to lose consciousness, and in that daze my body suddenly felt very light, as if the cold wind had blown it dry. The handcuffs seemed to loosen around my wrists and I couldn’t tell if I was alive or dead. It wasn’t until early morning of the sixth day that I was smacked into consciousness by one of the officers; I realized I was still alive and was still hanging there by my handcuffs. That evil cop roared at me: “You’ve really done us in. Not a single one of us has had a good sleep, accompanying you in this little game all this time. If you don’t open your mouth today, I’ll see to it that you never open your mouth again!” Since all I wanted to do was die, I fired back at him fearlessly: “If you want to kill me or hack me to pieces, go right ahead!” That evil cop, however, just sneered and said: “So you want to die? No such luck! That would be making it far too easy on you! I’m gonna torture you nice and slow until you lose your mind, so that everyone knows that believing in Almighty God will make you go crazy, and then everyone will abandon your God!” When I heard him spew this demonic filth, I was thunderstruck and utterly speechless: This devil was incredibly ruthless and sinister! Immediately after that, the wicked cop ordered a subordinate to fetch a bowl of dark black liquid. My heart leaped up into my throat when I saw it and I urgently prayed to God: “O Almighty God! This wicked policeman is about to drug me to make me lose my mind. I beseech You to safeguard me. I would rather be poisoned to death than driven mad.” In that moment, God’s words floated up into my mind: “His deeds are omnipresent, His power is omnipresent, His wisdom is omnipresent, and His authority is omnipresent. … All things exist beneath His gaze, and moreover, all things live under His sovereignty. His deeds and His power leave mankind with no choice but to acknowledge the fact that He really does exist and holds sovereignty over all things. Nothing apart from Him can command the universe, much less endlessly provide for this mankind” (The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Appendix 3: Man Can Only Be Saved Amidst God’s Management). God’s words once again instilled me with faith and strength. I realized that God’s authority, power and deeds are all ubiquitous. He presides over the entire universe and, what’s more, He rules over the proliferation of all creatures in the universe. God is the eternal Ruler of all things and the power which He brandishes in ruling over all things is beyond the comprehension of a mere human. The life which God bestows upon man is not constrained by space or time. The devil Satan can only harm the flesh of human beings, but it entirely lacks control over our lives and our spirits. During Job’s trial, Satan could only torment Job and harm his flesh, but because God did not permit it to take his life, Satan was completely incapable of doing so. I thought to myself: “Today, the devils of Satan are trying to use their sinister tactics to destroy my flesh and get me to betray and abandon God. It vainly hopes to use drugs to turn me into a raving lunatic or a half-wit to shame God’s name, but what authority does Satan have? Without God’s permission, its every act is ineffectual—Satan is doomed to be defeated at God’s hand!” Realizing this left me with a sense of peace and serenity. Just then, that maniacal cop took hold of my jaw and forced that drug, both bitter and sour, down my throat. It quickly took effect; it felt like all of my internal organs were cramping up, squeezing against each other, as if they were being torn apart. That pain defies compare. I began to have trouble breathing and I took in big, deep breaths, gasping for air. I couldn’t move my eyes and I began to see double. Soon after, I lost consciousness. After some amount of time, who knows how long, I finally came to and seemed to vaguely hear someone say: “That bitch will either go insane or become a half-wit after taking that drug.” When I heard that, I knew that I had survived once again. I was very pleasantly surprised that I hadn’t gone crazy at all; rather, my mind felt crystal clear. This was certainly all due to God’s almightiness and wondrousness. I felt that this was Almighty God’s words working within me and that, once again, God had reached out His almighty hand and wrested me back from the devil’s clutches, enabling me to survive through this perilous situation. In that moment, I personally experienced the credibility and authenticity of God’s words and witnessed His supreme power and authority. What’s more, I saw how God is the Creator of all things, and the one and only God Himself, Ruler of all things. I saw how my life, my everything, including every last nerve in my body, are all under God’s control. Without God’s permission, not a hair will drop from my head. God is my support and my salvation at every moment, in every place. That day in the demon’s dark lair, Almighty God’s words displayed their awesome power, showing me how God creates life’s miracles time and again, and they allowed me to escape from the brink of death. I fervently sang Almighty God’s praises within my heart and vowed to rely upon God to stand witness throughout this life-and-death battle.

The police tortured me for six whole days and nights. Not having had even a morsel of food or a drop of water during that whole time, I was extremely depleted, and when they saw that I was nearly at my last breath, they locked me up in a prison cell. Those six days of torture were like a trip through hell, and the fact that I was able to survive was entirely due to God’s mercy and protection, and was an embodiment of the power and authority of His words. After a few days had passed the police came to interrogate me again. Because I had witnessed God’s wondrous deeds on several occasions, plus I had experienced firsthand how God is my backup and all things are in God’s hands, I felt calm and fearless in the face of another interrogation. In the interrogation room, I learned from an officer that they had already figured out my name and address and had gone to search my house. However, because my husband had long ago taken our kids and fled from home, they didn’t find a single thing. He then once again tried to force me to divulge information about the church, but since I still wouldn’t say anything, he became enraged and said: “You’re a leader and a tough nut to crack at that! Because of you, I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in six days and you still haven’t given us anything to work with.” Seeing that he wasn’t going to get anything out of me, he seemed to lose interest after that and carried out the rest of the interrogation in a hasty, perfunctory manner, and then all they could do was send me back to my cell. Seeing that God had prevailed and Satan had been vanquished left me indescribably elated—I thanked and praised God. I knew that the reason I had been able to stand witness before Satan was that God had guided me step by step, and God’s word had enlightened me time and again, investing me with strength, bestowing me with wisdom, and giving me the power to overcome Satan and not capitulate to its tyranny.

After being detained in the detention house for four months, the CCP government trumped up a charge of believing in a xie jiao and sentenced me to a year and a half in prison. I was sent to a women’s prison in March of 2006 to serve out my sentence. While in jail, even though I was treated like an animal and often saw other inmates being beaten to death for no apparent reason, with God’s safeguarding and protection as well as the guidance of His words, I managed to survive through a year and a half of torture and make it out of that hellish prison alive. After I was released, the wicked cops continued to dispatch officers to monitor me. They would often come to my house to harass me and, as a result, none of us in my family could practice our faith or perform our duties normally. Later on, thanks to the care and assistance of our brothers and sisters in the church, we were able to leave our house and move into a new house owned by one of the sisters. Relying upon the wisdom granted to us by God, we once again were able to perform our duties.

Undergoing the CCP government’s cruel persecution gave me a clear and thorough view of Satan’s demonic essence of brutal tyranny, sinister treachery, and maniacal resistance of God. What’s more, I experienced God’s supernatural and awesome vitality firsthand. Even though the wicked police subjected me to relentless beating and torture, cruel punishment and injury time and time again, seeking to rob me of my life, Almighty God’s words revealed their supernatural vitality, allowing me to miraculously survive. In the midst of all these difficulties and this persecution, I truly experienced how God is the source of my life and God’s grace and sustenance are at the root of my life continuing on. Without God’s mighty hand propping me up, I would have been devoured by those demons long ago. God accompanied me the entire time, guiding me to overcome Satan time and again and stand witness for Him! Though I was subject to the inhumane torment of those demons and my flesh suffered greatly, this was all actually very beneficial for my life. It allowed me to see that not only is God mankind’s life sustenance, but He also provides us with constant aid and support. As long as we live by God’s words, we can overcome any satanic dark force. God’s words really are the truth, the way and life! They possess the highest authority and most awesome power and can create miracles of life! May all glory, honor and praise go to the God of almighty wisdom!