It was more than ten years ago that the Lord first began speaking to me about the role of the Chinese in His end-time global purposes.

I was invited by Pastor Ernest Chan, a well-known American Chinese leader, to speak at a large conference he was hosting in Los Angeles in July 2001.  Many Chinese believers would be attending from all over the world. I was seeking the Lord about what to share in the meeting when He asked me a question.

“What hinders My kingdom from being established in the Middle East, David?”

Having been born and raised in Egypt, a Muslim nation, I knew very well.

“It’s the fear of persecution and the fear of death,” I answered.

“Yes, but I have a prepared a people,” He continued, “a remnant of My body who have no fear of persecution or death.  It is the Chinese people and they will have a very special role to play in seeing the end-time destiny of the Jews and the Arabs being released.”

I was stunned by this revelation.  My heart has always been for my people, the Arabs, and through my journey in Canada, God had also given me a heart for the Jewish people.  But I had never seen any connection between this and the Chinese.

When I shared what the Lord had revealed to me in the meeting that night, the presence of God came in an unusual way.  It was as if we were all captured in a divine moment of sovereign revelation.  In fact, Ernest was so stirred that he immediately encouraged the people to sow into printing one million CDs of this message, to be shared throughout the Chinese world. On the spot, all the money was raised.

But when we went to the professional company who was producing the CDs of the conference, the recording of my sharing was completely blank!  All you could hear was my voice praying at the beginning, then silence throughout my message until I came to the closing prayer.  As soon as I said “Amen” the recording began again.

We assumed it was an equipment malfunction, so my friend and pastor Gideon Chiu, who had been videotaping the meeting on his camcorder, suggested we could take the audio from his tape.  But when we looked at the tape it was the exactly the same story:  just as I began my message, the tape went blank and the recording never resumed until just after I finished.

My first thought was that this was warfare from the enemy.  But then the Lord spoke to me clearly saying, “It is not the time for this message to go wider yet, David.”

So I left this conference knowing there was something profound about the destiny of the Chinese, but I wasn’t sure what, where or when the next step would be.  A few months later, Pastor Ernest invited me to join him for some meetings he was having in Asia that November.  I prayed and I felt the Lord said to go.  Before this though, I was scheduled to speak in an international conference in Israel.

Then September 11th happened.  The airline schedules were in chaos and all the new airport security measures were causing huge delays.  It was not an easy time to be an Egyptian flying to Israel.  So I asked the Lord if I should cancel my trip.  But He answered that I must go because there was someone I was supposed to meet there.

At the conference I had many meetings with many people, but at no time did I get the clear sense “this is the person” I was supposed to meet.   So I came home mystified.

A few days later, Pastor Ernest called, saying he had received a message from Taiwanese pastor who had just met me in Jerusalem and wanted me to speak in his church during the November trip.

Suddenly I remembered this man – he was supposed to leave back home before I arrived, but the post 9-11 airline problems had delayed his return by a couple of days.  So he “happened” to be there while I was speaking.  After my sharing he asked to meet with me, but because he didn’t speak English we had to communicate through a translator.  When he told me he was from Taiwan, I mentioned I would be traveling there in November and he had asked if I would speak at a leaders meeting at his church.  I didn’t think much of it – he seemed like a very nice man and I thought maybe he was the pastor of a small church who would like me to encourage his leadership.

“David, do you know who this man is?” Pastor Ernest continued.  “Pastor Nathaniel Chow is the founder and apostolic overseer of a movement with more than one hundred daughter churches worldwide. He is one of the most respected and trusted leaders in Taiwan.”  At that moment I realized the Lord was up to more than I could understand.

I will never forget this meeting in Taipei, which was a gathering of the movement’s leaders from all around the world.  As I began to share about the destiny of the Chinese, suddenly my translator (who I later found out was Tony Tseng, the president of Good TV, the only 7×24 Chinese Christian TV station in the world) started weeping to the point he could no longer continue. The rest of those present were also so overcome that they came out of their chairs weeping and travailing and lay across the altar and the platform calling out for the destiny of the Chinese.

As I watched this scene unfold, the Lord spoke to me that the day would come when He would gather the Chinese people to worship and seek His face, waiting on Him for His steps to see the destiny of the Chinese fulfilled.  And when they did, this would benefit not only the Chinese, but God’s end-time purposes for the Middle East and for the body of Christ globally.

The Journey Begins

I believe that we are now living in the days when the destiny of the Chinese is coming into collision with the timings of God.  In 2009 the Lord opened the door for the first Chinese gathering in Vancouver, Canada during Rosh Hashanah. One thousand believers gathered to worship and wait on the Lord without man-made agenda or schedule.  The Chinese are masters at planning and scheduling, but for this gathering they chose to lay aside these natural talents to allow His Spirit to completely direct the meetings.  And the Lord honoured their obedience by His manifested presence.  And He used this gathering as a seed to birth the first global gathering of the Chinese in Hong Kong in May 2010.

In the first Hong Kong gathering, the Lord focused on uniting the five thousand Chinese, attending from Asia and around the world, into one Body as a prophetic sign of His desire for the greater Chinese Church. As the remnant who attended obeyed and waited on the Lord together, He released a spirit of repentance that broke through traditional barriers between streams and nations and caused the hearts of all those present to be knit together as one true family.  At the end of the gathering, all those present stood and declared prophetically, on behalf of the wider Chinese Body of Christ, “The Chinese are one family!  The Chinese have come home!  Back home to the Father!”

The next year, the Lord released another call for believers, from Asia and around the world, to gather in Hong Kong during the Feast of Pentecost, June 8-11, 2011.  And He gave this promise from Jeremiah 32:39: “I will give them one heart and one way.” Twelve thousand believers from more than thirty nations responded to this call. During the gathering, the Lord challenged the Chinese to lay aside their own agendas and plans and surrender their lives unconditionally to Him. His desire was that this act of corporate surrender would become a seed through which He might restore the miracle of one accord (divine unity) into the Body of Christ worldwide, preparing the Bride for her end-time mandate and hastening the Lord’s return.  As all those present stood and covenanted by faith, I believe a beachhead was established in the spirit realm for the sake of the body of Christ worldwide.

In 2012, fifteen thousand believers from many nations once again met in Hong Kong for the “Kingdom Come” gathering, August 1-4, 2012.  Before God’s Kingdom can be established in the world, first He must secure His rule and reign over a remnant of His Body.  And the Lord used the Chinese as a prophetic seed for the whole Body as they declared His Supreme Rule as King of kings and Lord of lords over His Bride, from every colour and tribe and nation.  Then Chuck Pierce, standing on behalf of the Western Church leaders, presented a key, inscribed with Isaiah 22:22, to the leaders of the Mainland Chinese church.  This was a prophetic symbol of the West acknowledging and affirming the role God is giving the Chinese to lead the next wave in the Church.

The Road to Jerusalem

If we look at the bigger picture of the Church since Christ came to earth, we know that its foundations were laid by the Jewish people – the twelve apostles and faithful early converts.  There were no Gentiles in the Church at this time.

But when the Lord opened the door for the Gentiles, it brought the Church into a whole new dimension of our journey; the phase of taking the gospel literally from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.  This phase, led primarily by the Western Church, has lasted almost two thousand years and was primarily evangelism and missions-oriented.   But the next and final stage of the Church I believe will be the Church returning from the ends of the earth to Jerusalem and it will lead to an unprecedented outpouring of the Holy Spirit and world-impacting revival,

Many people speak about the “back to Jerusalem” movement and the Chinese Church has recognized this is a part of their destiny as a people.  But what does this term “back to Jerusalem” actually mean?  One view is that it’s about preaching the gospel in the Middle East.  And there is truth in this as we will always have a mandate to preach the gospel everywhere we go and to see the lost saved.

But I think there is another angle that we may not have fully understood. I believe that the Lord is also entrusting the Chinese to lead the nations into the convergence of the end-time Kingdom.  What do I mean by that?  The Church worldwide is going to make its way “back to Jerusalem” in the spirit realm, reclaiming all the Lord originally intended His body to be.   And through this journey, God will confront the principalities and powers that have kept the Church captive for centuries.

Shaking the Idols

The Kingdom of God was never meant to just be a teaching, it was meant to be the living reality of the Church.  But in order for God to birth this unshakable Kingdom among and through the Body of Christ, first He must shake the kingdoms of this world and set the Church free from the powers that have defiled His name.

The financial meltdown that began on Rosh Hashanah 2008 and left the economies of many nations de-stabilized is a first sign of this shaking.  God is determined to set His people free from the control of Mammon so that through the Church, He can birth a new economy based on His laws and principles.  It will be the economy of the Josephs and the Daniels.

The increasing turmoil in the Middle East in the last few years is another major sign of the clash between kingdoms. Egypt is shaking and so are Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey to name a few.  Why? Because these are the nations that were the birthing places of many ancient strongholds, the habitations of powerful spirits that are still ruling in the earth today.  And God is looking to confront these spirits, like the spirit of the prince of Persia and the Babylonian system which, fueled by the power of human initiative, seeks to build a name for itself.  And He will also confront the spirit of religion that we see warring over the land of Israel, as well as the gods of Egypt.

Some people think the gods of Egypt are long gone. But they didn’t vanish – they just took on new names in our modern culture: Freemasonry and the New Age.  Both of these systems find their roots in Egypt. That’s why the Freemasons have adopted the obelisk, the pyramid, and the “all-seeing eye”.  Have you ever wondered why many of the major financial centers of the world have an obelisk? It’s because the Freemasons took them from Egypt and erected them in these places so that they could exert spiritual control over all the financial systems of the world.

Now in our Western rational mindset we think, “What are you talking about? An obelisk is just a statue.  What kind of power is in a statue?” Well, if you want to know the power, go back to I Samuel 5 when the Ark of the Covenant went into the temple of Philistines. There was a god in that temple in a statue form called Dagon. And when the Ark of the Covenant entered the temple of the Philistines that statue, Dagon, fell down. Why would a statue fall down if it’s just a rock?  After all, a rock can’t think or see.  So why did it fall down? It fell because there was a spirit inhabiting that statue and in the presence of God, there is no power that can stand.  So down Dagon went, bowing before the Ark. The next day the Philistines found him and pushed him back up.  But when they returned, what did they find?  Dagon was not only bowed down, now he was broken too.

Isaiah 19 is a prophecy about Egypt and the end times. And the first line of that prophecy says that the Lord is coming on a swift cloud and the idols of Egypt will tremble.  And the ancient “gods of Egypt”, these spirits that have tried to exercise their rule through governmental and financial authorities, are being shaken.

Establishing an Unshakeable Kingdom

But it is very important for us to remember that this battle, the clash of the kingdoms, is not something you and I can face on our own. This battle is the Lord’s and all we need to do is align ourselves behind the Commander-in-Chief.   God is looking for a people, a remnant from throughout the nations, over whom He can reign and rule.  And the Lord will use humble, broken people, who don’t care about their reputation, but only care about the Name of the Lord being honoured and the Kingdom of God being established.  And through these people, He will confront these spirits.

That’s why I believe at this hour, the Lord is calling the Church to another standard because He wants to establish His Kingdom over our hearts. He wants to reign and rule in His Church.  And for that to happen, we have to make the decision not to tolerate any more defilement in our lives.  No more mixture in our hearts, no more mixture in our thoughts.

If you have been enduring a time of shaking in your life, don’t be discouraged.  This is the preparation of the Lord for you. He is shaking you not to destroy you but to prepare you for the unshakable.  So count it all joy and don’t look back. If you are alive in this hour, it is because the Lord has a purpose for you. You are called to be part of His overcoming Kingdom.

The V-Formation

And I believe that it is because of God’s plan to establish His overcoming kingdom that He has destined the Chinese to take the lead in this hour.  The Chinese Church has been shaken, tested and tried, even to the point of death.  Yet they have remained steadfast and faithful, unswerving in their absolute devotion and surrender to the King.   And as they have embraced humility and brokenness for His sake, now the Lord is raising them up with an authority to birth a pure seed of the establishment of the Kingdom on behalf of the whole body of Christ.

But that doesn’t mean that the rest of us, especially those of us from the Western Church, can just sit back and watch them run.  Often we have heard the moves of God described like a relay race; one runner finishes his leg and passes the baton on to the next.  And this is a true picture when we are talking about one generation releasing the torch to the next generation as they pass away from the earth.  But in the accelerated times in which we are living, we are not only seeing one move in a generation, we are seeing many.  And so perhaps a better way of looking at these leadership transitions in the global body is to look at the V-formation that is common among the Canadian geese.  A whole flock of geese fly together, but there is one goose which is positioned at the very front of the V, to take the full force of the wind resistance and make it easier for all those behind him. But of course, facing that wind is exhausting, so after a period of time the lead goose will move back into the formation while another goose will take his place at the head of the V.

And that’s how I see what God is doing right now with the Chinese.  For a long time, the Western church has been positioned at the front of the V, leading the charge through many moves of God over centuries.  And I believe the Lord is saying, “Western Church, you have done well and you have broken through again and again for the rest of the Church worldwide.   But now I have specially prepared another part of My body, the Chinese, to take the lead for this leg of the journey.  And they will have the faith and perseverance needed to stand strong in the face of the resistance that is coming.”

This kind of shift in leadership takes a certain amount of humility and grace from both parties.   First, the Western Church, which have been used to leading for a very long time, has to be willing to acknowledge the hand of God upon the Chinese.  And we have to understand that, though our position may be changing, that doesn’t mean that we can leave the flock.   We need to remain in the formation, flying together, supporting the leadership of the Chinese.  At the same time, the Chinese have to have the humility to honour what the Western Church has sown, because honoring the fathers, those who have gone before us, is what keeps us in the flow of continuous blessing of the Lord.

I have been genuinely touched to see how much God has deposited this heart to honour in the Chinese.  When Chuck Pierce presented the key to the mainland Chinese leaders in August 2012, their response was to fall on their knees, thanking the Western Church for their sacrifice in sending missionaries, men like Hudson Taylor and thousands of others, who gave their lives to see God’s purposes being fulfilled among the Chinese.   They also repented for their historic sins of rejecting, persecuting and even killing these missionaries.  And then they declared something truly beautiful:  “As God now gives us the privilege to lead, we will rise up and bring a fulfillment to everything the Western spiritual fathers and mothers had hoped for and longed to see.”  Then they turned to the Western Church leaders standing on stage with them and said, “Please walk with us. We need your wisdom, we need your support, and we need your love. We are one family.”

God’s Sovereign Plan

So I believe God has uniquely positioned the Chinese, through their faithfulness and humility, to lead in the Church in this part of our end-time journey – from the ends of the earth back to Jerusalem.  But the Chinese also possess a key something beyond their freedom from the fear of death that qualifies them for this journey: an equally fervent love for the sons of Ishmael and for the sons of Isaac.

The Chinese Church loves the Jewish people in the same way that they love and feel called to the Arabs.  And in His wisdom, God has even positioned the Chinese in the natural realm, to have major favour among the Arabs as well as respect among the Jews. So the Chinese are able to go where the Western Church cannot. They are able to stretch their arms wide to embrace not only the sons of Ishmael and the sons of Isaac, but also the Western Church, bringing the whole Body together into one family.

The Restoration of All Things

Acts 3:21 tells us that a time is coming before the return of Jesus when the Father will restore everything.  Every promise will be fulfilled, including the one spoken in Haggai 2:9 that the “glory of the latter house will be greater than the glory of the former.”  I believe one of the next major restorations we are going to witness as the Body of Christ heads “back to Jerusalem” will be the fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles – God dwelling among His people in a way unprecedented since the days of Solomon.

And I can see how again, in His sovereign wisdom and timing, the Lord is raising up the Chinese to be forerunners in this for the whole global body of Christ.  What I am witnessing today among the Chinese defies description. Their humility and complete abandonment to the will of God, is allowing the Lord to speedily bring them into unity one with another and alignment with his Headship.  And the presence of God that I have experienced when I am among the Chinese I believe is a foretaste of the glory that is the Bride’s inheritance in the last days.  And I trust the Lord will use this deposit of His presence among the Chinese to provoke jealousy in the rest of the Church, causing a remnant in every nation to begin to cry out to the Lord to prepare them also to be a resting place for His glory.

Wise Men from the East

Two thousand years ago, wise men from the East followed the signs pointing to the coming Messiah. Today, as part of their eternal destiny the Lord is once again raising up “wise men from the East” as forerunners to trumpet a call to the Church worldwide to recognize the signs of her soon-returning King.

In the global “chess board” of God’s end-time purposes, the Lord is now surprising His opponent by moving His “Chinese piece” into a strategic position, a spiritual “checkmate” that will assure His victory at the end of the game.

To the Chinese believers:  the Spirit is calling you to embrace your destiny – you have been brought into the Kingdom for such a time as this.

To all the Asian brethren:  the time has come for “wise men from the East” to walk in humility and brokenness together as one so that you might to fulfill your mandate to awaken the global body to the hour in which we are living.

And to the Western Church:  God is asking you by faith and humility to join with the Chinese believers as they lead the whole body of Christ in this new journey, from the ends of the earth back to Jerusalem.

May God grant the grace for us all to walk together as one man in complete submission to the Headship of Christ, bringing pleasure to the heart of the Father and the fulfillment of His purposes for the Bride worldwide.

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David Demian was born in Egypt to Coptic Christian parents.  In 1984, he left a successful career as a medical doctor when he obeyed the call of the Lord to begin to prepare the Bride for the Second Coming. His passion to be a friend of God, first and foremost, has led him on an amazing journey in life and ministry. In 1988, he and his wife Ruth, a Canadian medical doctor he met in Egypt, came to Canada for the birth of their first son. Though they intended to return to Egypt a few months later, God clearly directed them to stay in Canada.  Today they still live in Vancouver, BC where they raise their family of seven children and Ruth continues to practice as a physician.

For almost fifteen years, under the umbrella of Watchmen for the Nations (a relational network of hundreds of ministries in Canada) David facilitated a journey among a remnant of the Canadian church to stand in the gap to redeem the destiny of the nation.  He began traveling to China in 2006 after a group of leaders, who had attended a Canadian national gathering, shared their longing to see the Chinese walk in the same redemptive journey for their people that they had experienced in Canada.  Today David’s main focus is walking with leaders in China and other Asian countries, helping them to facilitate their own journeys to see the redemptive destinies of their nations released and the Bride of Christ prepared for Jesus return.