Addressing the Spirit of Poverty - Part 2 — Jackie Pullinger

A couple of weeks ago we were being interviewed by some local civic leaders because they heard that the government might offer us some land where we could help our poor people have a place to live and grow up in Jesus and get trained so they can go all over China and Asia with good news for the poor.

And the locals were very upset about this and they said we don't want drug addicts near us. Nobody wants drug addicts near them. So they came with all these objections and so we told them a few stories and I said why don't you come and meet some of our people because if you could come and meet them maybe you could make up your mind if you'd like people like this to live by you.

God’s Work Among the Poor and Addicted

Well they came to a place that we have where we've got 150 people living in some bungalows. We're a bit squashed and it's so good what God is doing there. You know after all this time in Hong Kong I don't know why it's now but God's actually doing what I've asked and I haven't even known what I've been asking.

I keep praying the prayer especially at revival conferences because I find in revival conferences I'm in tension the whole time. And my prayer is God can you work quickly? Could you please quicken the whole thing?

Quickly, please quickly, please quickly. And then I think well will God really do it quickly? Because after all Jesus had to grow up for 30 years you know. So I've been saying God can you do it quickly?

Will you do it quickly? And he is now. I mean God is working in a deeper place in our people's lives that I've ever seen it's happening more quickly. I don't know why they're allowing God to heal them in deeper places quicker than we've ever seen before.

And it's so sweet and everybody who goes to visit them they're so touched. Up comes this little man to these district board members and this little man his mouth is shaking and every time he talks his lip quivers and he says that's my mum to me.

I don't like being called mum but he and I don't remember the guy and he says I've known her for 25 years and he said I never used to listen to her but these people have loved me and I've just come off drugs and he looks a bit small but two weeks before that he was 70 pounds.

I mean he was nearly dead and now the guy has got shining eyes and there are tears rolling down his cheeks and he's telling the district board members how wonderful Jesus is and he looks marvelous too I mean he doesn't look frightening you know.

He's put on about 20 pounds but he's still not very big and they went around our houses and they met men like him and then they sat down and they had the same question. Now where does your money come from?

And we said well we pray for it. Yeah but actually from where? We said well actually that's it. You know we don't have any place or people in the world who have a regular amount. It's always a surprise it's wonderful and sometimes the police arrest hawkers you know for selling unlicensed food and they impound the food and give it to us you know because it goes off.

One time how nice we got 10 pounds of cow stomach. Anyway thank God you know. Lately we've been getting all the past shelf date delicatessen food from the top shop in Hong Kong you know. So it's past use by day so you know we get delicatessen food and cow stomach and well the guys like cow stomach anyway so we were telling them stories and we got lots of stories about how God provides.

Lots of stories and after about an hour all these important officials they had caught it. I don't mean they caught the language but they caught the spirit and they were saying by the end of the afternoon we must pray about it.

They're not Christians any of them and then one of them came up to me and he said if you come and move near us I'd really like some of your men to work for me and they were the ones that they were frightened of but you know it's a very strange thing what touches people in Hong Kong more than anything else is this money business.

I suppose because it's the opposite spirit to the one that Hong Kong was built on and Hong Kong was built upon enterprise competition and greed and using people for making money and what seems to be one of the greatest signs and wonders for people in understanding God's heart is that there are actually people who don't think money is a great deal and we don't think money is a great deal.

I mean we don't. When people talk about ministry with the poor they often think it's something to do with money and I must tell you it's nothing to do with money at all. You may need to use some but that's beside the point.

Contentment in God’s Kingdom

If we're serving a God who can put it into fishes mouths because we're living in the world but it's never where we start. Blessed are you who are poor. Yours is the kingdom of God. Jesus says don't worry in Matthew 6 don't worry about what you shall eat what you shall put on don't worry about your clothes don't worry about your body care.

He says your heavenly father knows that you need these things now he says don't worry because he knows we worry but he says for Christians you don't have to worry because we are in the kingdom system now the kingdom system is the first two chapters of Genesis or the last two chapters of Revelation.

It's different. It's either before the curse or when you're freed from the curse and we get experience it now freedom from having to worry about where stuff will come from and freedom from having to earn our living now.

This is true. I don't know if you believe this but the good news is this for any of you here this is good news. You don't have to earn your living anymore. Christians do not have to earn their living.

None of us need to work because we need money. They are not connected. We are allowed to work and sometimes we get money for what we work but we've got a hundred full time people who receive no salary and they work very hard and receive no salary but they are very rich in other ways.

We have people in our outreach houses and we don't support our outreach houses by the way we promise to share what we have from time to time. But the outreach houses are in poor areas of Hong Kong and they feed the poor that live near them and they look after the addict families that live near them and I'm always saying to them if we've got a collection of clothes here because people give us their old clothes or their old furniture you can come and collect these but far better give your own clothes away because that's what touches the poor.

It's not if you give out of the church pool it's if you give your cloak when they asked for your coat. It's if you give your lunch not the church's free one. That's what brings the gospel. You don't need to earn your money now.

Freedom from the Fear of Poverty

This is something that many of us in Hong Kong need to be freed from especially men having to earn a living because every other person in Hong Kong is enslaved to the father's wishes their earthly father's wishes.

And usually it's something like this their fathers have been poor they have come from China or they have been refugees and they must earn to bring the family up a notch so they can have a better way of life.

And some of us here have inherited this. Maybe our ancestors have been poor and have worked hard and we have then a fear if I serve God I'm going to be poor again and it's a fear that we must have dealt with otherwise.

It means that men are not free to do the job that God says we should do. Whether it's working in a family in the church or on a farm it makes no difference. We must be free to hear what the father says we should do otherwise we're serving the other system because we must have money and because we think that security of house security of job, security of education is going to fulfill our needs.

And it's a lie and it's a result of the curse. And it's still worshipping the enemy who promises the splendor and wealth of the kingdoms of the world if we will worship him. If we can be set free from the spirit of poverty we can hear our father saying you can now waste your life ministering to the poor in Winnipeg or Edmonton or Sri Lanka or whatever.

Or maybe he'll say I want you to drive a taxi not for the money but so that you can sing over the people who sit in the back. I know Mark wouldn't like that. But whatever we need to be free to hear what God is saying so that we are not serving to get the money so that we are not serving the wrong system now it might mean that we'll do jobs for money from time to time like Paul did.

And Paul was free to tent make and free to un-tent make. And we need to be that free to tent make and to un-tent make but not to serve the world system free from having to be rich or poor. This is Paul's experience in Philippians 4.

Paul’s Contentment in Every Circumstance

He says I have learnt to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need. I know what it is to have plenty. I have learnt the secret of being content in any and every situation whether well fed or hungry whether living in plenty or in want.

I can do everything through him who gives me strength. When I was visiting the refugee camp we later came to run one which was a wonderful privilege. There was an old man there who had come in the boat with his daughter and his daughter got married and I learnt that the daughter was trying to cheat her father and she planned to they had separated their registration which meant she and her husband planned to emigrate without her father because her father was he had Parkinson's disease and he couldn't walk and often I found him on the bed and he was wet because he couldn't walk to the toilet.

So I bought him a walker. Now you understand we're dealing with we're living in a country we're dealing with people where there isn't a government handout. Do you understand? We don't get paid for not working.

There is now a minute government handout for people who don't have jobs. But if those people live with us they lose it. And so I bought this man a walker and I used to walk with him to the toilet and it took nearly an hour to get there because he only could walk very slow.

It was very hard for him to go and so I would walk him there and walk him back and sit him on the bed and pray with him tell him about Jesus. And then I would say I'm so sorry but anyway Jesus will come and sit with you when I've gone.

That's all I have to give you. And one day I was in the clinic in the refugee camp and they brought the man in and he had a slight scald on one arm and so I said to him what happened. And he told me the story.

There was a kettle boiling on his bed because they have to cook on the bed and it came to be boiling. And you know he couldn't move very well and he put out his hand and it spilled over. But I looked at him and I said if that kettle fell on you you should be burnt all over.

What happened? And he said when the kettle tipped towards me he said I called on Jesus and he said a man came and he lifted me up to the other side of the bed and I just got a little splash on my arm.

You know that man he was not poor and in knowing him I was made rich. Nothing much in this world except everything that a man yearns for intimacy with a saviour who will lift you and carry you. He is Paul.

And we see that Paul is in need sometimes and he has plenty sometimes. And he said whether I am well fed or whether I am hungry I am content now. This amazes me because it would seem to me that if we have the good news of the kingdom why should we be in need until I understood what Paul was talking about.

You see Paul is free from the fear of poverty. Paul is free from the need to be rich. Paul is free from the need of being poor. Now I know a group of people that work in an Asian country near me and they are a mission who are dedicated to the poor and I tell you I feel awful being around them because they are under the spirit of poverty.

They only allow their people to have two skirts each. But it is a cheat because I know they have got five dresses at home. They just don't want to have more than the people that live around them. But it is like playing a game.

They walk around looking like martyrs. It is not happy to be around them. And I find that when I am around them or they come and visit me I cheat. I walk instead of taking taxis. Now I am quite happy to take taxis from time to time.

I am happy to walk miles from time to time. I don't have to do either all the time. You see I don't have to be poor. I don't have to be rich. And many of us who are under the spirit of poverty feel we have to be either.

And that is the problem. You see Paul's contentment was nothing to do with whether he was well fed or hungry. His contentment was knowing God which is why worship is where we start. His contentment is nothing to do with his circumstances.

And if our contentment is in our relationship and our intimacy with him we can be well fed or hungry. And we are just well fed or hungry. And sometimes when we are hungry there will be miracles of bread multiplied and sometimes for some reason not.

I mean Paul could work miracles but it seemed that he still was shipwrecked he still was flogged. He was still in circumstances that many of us would question. If many of us were in the circumstances that Paul was in we would probably say I must be doing something wrong.

And you know just as Gary was saying about some of the Old Testament comments on poverty. So it is today when we see Christians going through hard times we actually criticize them they must be doing something wrong for them to be suffering like this.

Well they may come and rich times may come and we can enjoy either. We do not have to be rich. And I know some people who feel that we must be rich if we are the children of the Father. And I know other people who believe that because we Christians we are under this sentence of having to have less than everyone else especially poor missionaries.

And so we have this extraordinary phrase which has grown up in the church which goes something like have you heard the call well rubbish. Oh God this is not a few poor people who have to go off to the ends of the earth.

This is a universal commission a call that some people hear it is a privilege we are all allowed to share and there will be wanting times and there will be times of plenty. And if we are free from the spirit of poverty we can thoroughly and greatly enjoy both.

And I am happy to take taxes and I am happy to spend my last penny on my friends. Both are a privilege neither are a sentence. One of the things that John Wimber talks about which he observed when he was doing his research on church growth was what he calls the redemption and lift.

Redemption and Lift in Christian Mission

And this is a comment on societies in the world where the gospel is preached and people respond to Christ you can actually see that they are not as poor. Their lives become ordered water is brought into a place education, facilities they begin to be able to live better in a personal life.

And so a community gets more prosperous. And many of us can trace back this as our own inheritance. Especially certain Christian groups in this country will find that they are living at a fairly good standard now because of the honourable holy way of life of their forefathers which will bring some kind of prosperity.

But what John Wimber observed historically is that when people have come upper class so to speak they have been set free from poverty and they begin to enjoy a better way of life. The problem is that they get stuck and that that generation then will not move and possibly the generation that are born after them are born into middle class and they are on their way up too.

They do not want to go back down and I am determined to beat redemption and lift. Why? Because the other way that Jesus addressed the spirit behind the curse of poverty was by voluntarily becoming poor that we might through his poverty become rich all the wrong way round.

He addressed the curse of poverty by becoming poor for us that we might become rich and this is my challenge to you tonight. But it is voluntary. It is voluntary. I am happy to live simple and take taxes from time to time because this is what Jesus did for me.

He was the heir of everything in heaven. I mean he had a place with the father there is his throne everything you could want in heaven. And because of his great love for us he left heaven and came to a world that did not welcome him that did not love him that spat upon him that scourged him and it was because of his great love for us that he came in the flesh not shouted from heaven.

Voluntary Poverty and Generosity

And so what I long for in the world is Christians like ourselves who are in fairly good circumstances saying I have inherited this through my ancestors all through the grace of God all through whatever.

And now I choose to go back to the poorest of the poor because I have a God whose riches he says in 2 Corinthians 9 will always be enough to supply not only my needs but extraordinarily he says he will give us enough to supply the poor.

In fact he says you will be made rich so that you can be generous on every occasion. So I am going to ask somebody who was a refugee to share where she came from and where she has gone back to.

This is Yen. My name is Yen. I am born in Vietnam and I born in I have 4 sisters. I mean we have 4 children in Vietnam. I am the 3rd oldest and I think we are not very poor. I think we are rich I don't know but anyway this time my parents they work very hard to get money and they don't have a lot of time for us.

Sometimes I go with my mom and she do business she sell cigarette or sell stuff and I watch her and and it's 1979 then all the Vietnamese kick all the Chinese people out like Jackie say about the refugee and after we became to a refugee and after we take the boats to Hong Kong and I remember we are the one we come very late with little boats.

And after we leave in Hong Kong 2 years in a refugee camp and I remember the camp it's quite a lot of huge big camp and a lot of people live there and a lot yeah and a lot of people is inside and inside is quite confusing because all the parents they go out to work to get money because they try to have more money to get out to a better country.

And 2 years later we go to Switzerland. I never know why we go to Switzerland but after we went to Switzerland and I grow up there and visit school and I study and in this time finish the school I get to know Jesus.

And before I don't I was not Christian I always ask why I'm so poor why I'm so sad because in Switzerland they have only they are quite rich and they have family they have only 2 children or 1 children.

And since we come in Switzerland I get one more sister one more brother this means we are 6 and sometimes it's quite hard for me because we are such a big family and I feel like a little stranger. And it's funny after I became a Christian and after the Bible tells always God provide God is faithful.

And after I always start really? He is faithful? And after I start always complaining saying Lord why you let me born in here and why you let me to move from place to place and you let me grow up in Switzerland I mean a country is very rich and I feel sometimes I'm not worthy to have the money or to have all the social things to look after us.

And because my only my father work in Switzerland my mother is housewife and it's quite hard for one person work for family and it's 6 children. But anyway we grow up and and and I start always asking God why.

Yeah why I'm here in Switzerland and why I'm Chinese and and one way one time it's for 3 years ago I was in a conference in Germany and and I first time Jackie sharing and I mean what she sharing touch me but what really touch me.

I see the teenagers and from Hong Kong I find like wow they are drug addicts but they have insight more than and after after this meeting and I'm sure God put something in my heart. And after I start and God start to talking to me like what about go back to Hong Kong to surf the pool and after my pride come up and after I feel like no lord I find not fair you put me from a poor country in a rich country now you take me back to a poor country.

I find it hard I cannot do that. And after with the time he prepare my heart and inside of me I know like because I see my parents they work very hard for money and I say like I don't want that I don't want to be rich and empty inside.

I don't want because I know this is not what to have a lot of money this is not my goal. I want to go out to do to see miracle to see people to be safe to see Jesus. And and after I come to Hong Kong quite a lot a lot of things happen because they don't want to give me the visa and I get frustrated.

And anyway I come to Hong Kong and after I joined the mobile for 3 months and before coming I was very proud because I thought now I am nearly 5 years Christian I know everything. And after I come and joined the mobile they teach about the spiritual gift teach give you up like Paulie say or John say dying and I feel like wow I can do that so very hard but God teach me in this time.

Then I was in the girls house it means women they are drug addicts. After they come in the women's girls house first stage really I don't I want to go to boys house not to women's but I don't know why it happen.

But anyway I was there ok Lord it's your will. And after and I start to work because I was I don't know how to serve it's for me very new. And then my Cantonese is not so good my English is not so perfect.

I am better comfort in Swiss German or German. And after I must learn the languages the culture especially the culture make me very hard because I mean I understand the Chinese culture but something Swiss in me reject the Chinese culture.

And after sometime I get very frustrated with women because they treat you they mean like you are stupid and I don't like it. People think I am dumb or something. And after I get very frustrated I know they treat me.

And after I get angry I tell to God Lord why you put me in this house why in Switzerland my friends they never tell me I am stupid. They never tell me they never treat me they love me they care of me.

But after he told me only simple what about Jesus. And I feel very guilty because after I realize I don't know I realize in my life what I want to have what I am looking for in my life what I want to reach to have a lot of money to go in America for holiday or to serve Jesus to give all things.

And and he learn me to die. Really and sometimes for me very hard because my parents they are not Christian they will give me oppression because yeah and special to the woman they are a lot of older than me and they have a lot of experience.

And I find I am very like a little girl like I know nothing how they talking how they attitude and I find like Lord how can I love them. Because they reject you. But after I don't know and after I feel like God always remember me when I feel angry or frustrated he always remember me what Jesus do for me and I feel very guilty and I say like and he always ask me are you ready to love them.

And I say like I will. Because when I don't go who will love them.

Signs and Wonders for the Poor

So you understand we are all getting healed on the job. I want to finish by talking about some miracles and then I want to pray about the spirit of poverty. I believe that we do need to expect signs and wonders to be evidence in setting people free from poverty.

Now I can't see any other answer for a sick poor world. And I believe the greatest sign and wonder has yet to come. And I believe this great sign and wonder will be when Christians go. It's not happened yet.

I've been to so many missionary conferences that have got so many strategies of reaching the world by the year 2000 and I don't know why we keep inventing new strategies and new programs when we've not yet done the original strategy of Jesus which was love God with all your heart and soul and strength in mind and love your neighbor.

And we invent every other strategy but that and I think the sign and wonder that the world is waiting to see is when Christians are free enough from being enslaved to the world to be happy about sharing with our neighbor one by one and then going wherever it is that God says many of us are so unfree we prefer to stay.

We had when I became a Christian I had a large number of girlfriends who would not leave the church that I was in because there was such a lot of nice men around go while you're young you could meet a much better man on the job.

Whatever it is that we're afraid we're going to be deficient in by going God will provide much better. For if we're obedient we're afraid of missing out. There are many people who are afraid that they're not going to be around where renewal is happening.

It doesn't matter as long as we're around where Jesus is happening. And we have people that feel they've missed. I've missed all my friends weddings. I've missed all my, I've missed my nieces growing up.

I've missed all my sisters children. You know one year they were babies and the next time I saw them they were 14. I've missed all that. But this is what Jesus said. No one who's left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me in the gospel will fail to receive hundred times as much in this present age and in the age to come eternal life.

And I remember when I first heard that it was one of the many times I was having a meeting in the wall city which no one came to and a friend came up and she saw me looking despondent and we prayed and I had a message in tongues and this was the interpretation.

And I looked it up in scripture and I had never seen that it said if you left these for the sake of the Lord and the gospel you could receive a hundred times in this life and persecutions too in brackets.

So I said to God alright then I will have a hundred mothers a hundred fathers. I missed both my mother and my father dying by the way I wasn't there. I will have a hundred homes and I will have 300 brothers and sisters.

And you promised in this age I've missed being with them. I miss seeing their families. There's nothing. It's nothing you know because I've got much more than 300 brothers and sisters. My mothers and fathers are coming along quite nicely and we've got even the houses that we've been lent to stay in.

We're coming up into the hundreds. Now we're housing 400 people. I don't know quite how it works and I look at these people and I think God you are so kind in this age I get to see what you promised in this age and you know something none of my family were Christians when I left England and they all came to Christ without me there.

I think they came to Christ because I left people say to me sometimes I can't afford to serve God. I've got two children and I say well I've got 400. I can't afford not to. We are longing to see people who will believe for this age that the Lord can do miracles.

Giving to Neighbors in Need

I had learnt from scripture that we were responsible for our neighbours. And when I enquired of God what is my neighbour. Who is my neighbour. He showed me that it was the one I'd seen and some of us we prayed about this last night the one we'd seen just like the Samaritans saw the one that was in the street.

And so one day we got a phone call from somebody that told us about 5000 refugees. I beg your pardon I think it was 6 that were on an island near Hong Kong and it was just concrete on the island there was no shelter and there was no water and we the government was supplying them with minimal food.

But we heard that they were hungry and they were dehydrated. So I said to my friend well will you go and ring up Hong Kong government and find out how we can help. And she came back and she said well Hong Kong government says they are fed up with Christians.

And if there are 6000 people on this island they said for instance if you were to send oranges it would be no good sending 4000 because it would be a riot. You'd have to send 6000 and you'd have to do it every day not once off and you'd have to get your own boat to take the hours away from Hong Kong.

So my friend said to me shall we pray about it. And I said no you don't need to pray about things you're told to do. So we added up our money and we found that if we sent oranges for 3 days all our money would have gone and we have to feed 400 people a day.

That's the people that live with us that's not counting the people that we share with in the streets. So I said well will you telephone the government and say we'll start sending the oranges tomorrow.

And I thought like this you're going to feel really stupid if Jesus came back on Monday and you said well I was keeping this money for next week. How could you justify that if you've seen hungry people how can you keep money for next week.

So we found an orange wholesaler and they're very expensive in Hong Kong and we're not allowed to preach the gospel by the way because it was the Hong Kong government. So we laid hands on the oranges and we sent off these oranges and people got to hear about the oranges.

And so we started in our bank account. We started an orange account and money came in for the orange account and we bought oranges and laid hands on them and sent them out and in came money and it happened so fast that we began to understand the meaning of the phrase let your right hand know what your left is doing.

It was coming in and it went out and it was coming in and it went out and this went on for 3 or 4 months every day. And then they moved the refugees and we didn't need to do it anymore. And we found we had Hong Kong $100 ,000 left in our account which is for you what is about $18 ,000 Canadian I suppose left in our account.

So my friend said well what shall we do with this. And I said people gave it for the hungry. But by this time I had seen a newspaper about Ethiopia and the problem is I had seen the newspaper do you understand.

And if you have seen them and people were having to choose in Ethiopia whether to die in their village with their friends or take the risk of walking to town for food and dying away from their friends.

What a terrible choice. So we sent the $100 ,000 to Ethiopia because we had seen them. Why should we keep it for any other reason. It was given to us for the poor we could give it away for the poor. And so we found an unfair multiplication.

Christmas Hospitality as the Gospel

And our Christmas parties are famous. They started one year when people came to lunch at Christmas and Gary was explaining how his wonderful friend whom I know started to come to their Christmas meal.

Well when it happened to us we weren't expecting this. All these visitors turned up on Christmas day non-Christians. They turned up at Hangfoot Camp and we were going to have a gorge. We were going to stuff ourselves at Christmas and all these strangers came and I said what have you come for.

And they said lunch. And I said why. And they said you're Christians and it's Christmas. And I sort of realized that they would go to Disneyland you know on a bank holiday and they thought they ought to come to Christians on Christmas day.

So we gave them our lunch. And half way through the lunch we suddenly thought oh this is great. They've come to lunch. I mean that's the gospel. So the next year we thought instead of being taken by surprise we'll invite them.

So we invited everyone in Hong Kong to lunch. Of course we didn't know how many would come and the next year we only had 250 people and the next year we had about 500 people and the next year we had about 900 and the last year we did it we had 10 ,000.

We sent out buses to all the fly overs and we gave street sleepers written invitations come to lunch on Christmas day that's the gospel. And they would tell their friends and we would send a bus to the pickup point and you would just see miles and miles of street sleepers and grannies all these single old grannies that live alone they were queuing up and they would say to their friends Jesus healed my wrist and there's a bus coming tomorrow and you can get your wrist healed and lunch too.