Displaying items by tag: Middle East

For three weeks in November, a team will be traveling along the refugee trail through Europe. They will be posting first-hand stories and sharing from their experiences as they travel from Greece to Northern Europe. They hope that their account of travelling alongside the refugees will inform us all how to pray more specifically and continue to advocate for the Syrians and other peoples from the Levant region. People can follow along, through the stories they will post online and pray with up-to-date insights by clicking on the ‘More’ link. Syria remains a nation in devastation as war and violence continues.

International news outlets tell us that the Syrian crisis has created a lost generation of children. But we can pray that this generation will be found by Jesus. Mission agency Cry Out Now has prepared a 30-day prayer guide to help us pray for Syrian children. Its vision is especially that other children will pray for them. God sees children’s faith when they pray; often it is very powerful! Our God is a God of hope, and His desire is that out of the turmoil and chaos of the Syrian crisis, He will have a people that belong to Him.

Syria needs to be rebuilt. The economy needs to be re-established. New jobs and new opportunities need to be created. Business people from China see this as a golden opportunity to do business and make money, an opportunity to sell their products, technologies and services. The risk is high, but they are willing to come. Are Christians willing to say yes to this challenge? Are believers willing to say that we will take the risk, step out in faith and see a nation restored? This is the moment and the opportunity to help in the reconstruction and rebuilding of lives and communities, while having the opportunity to share God’s love in Syria’s time of need.

"Who is like You, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, doing wonders?" Exodus 15:11

We often hear of the encouraging revivals of the past, when God did amazing things way back then, in the Great Awakenings in USA, the Welsh revival, the Korean revival, etc.

However, God is still at work today as well doing great and mighty things around the globe, and it is encouraging and inspiring to hear about what He is doing here and now.

The following is a PrayTV Studio production in which Gregg Healey, a prayer leader in Connecticut, interviews Pastor Khaled Ghobrial of the Arabic Baptist Church in Boston. Pastor Ghobrial shares how God has used and is still using the united prayers of the church in Egypt to change the course of that nation since 2011. The link below is a playlist with five segments that constitute the entire interview:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoJ7NaibJ99D3PhnRnmvZYGGg9wDVmzoF

Background:

* Egypt is a country of 90 million people with 85%  Muslim and only 15% Christian.  Christianity came to Egypt in 42 A.D. through the Apostle Mark who wrote the Gospel by that name. The original inhabitants of Egypt are the Coptic people (equivalent to the Native Americans in USA, or the Maori people in New Zealand).

* The Arabs invaded Egypt in 639 AD and brought Islam. Since then, the church in Egypt has been under various degrees of persecution throughout history. This drove the Church to its knees in prayer. As you know, biblically and historically, pressure and persecution causes the Church to thrive, while prosperity and times of ease often cause the Church to slumber; thus the pressure on the church in Egypt fuelled her prayers.

In this video:

* In the 1980's a prayer movement started and had five stages of growth. The stages included:

1. The Church in Egypt learning from the prayer movement in Korea.
2. The charismatic movement influence and a new understanding of the the centrality of prayer and intercession in revival.
3. A crisis that fuelled the prayer movement.
4. Learning from the prayer movement in Uganda.
5. Growing in unity across denominations and generations on a national level, and having a united vision for revival and a great harvest in Egypt. The church cried fervently, "Lord, make your name known in our land!".

* The Church in Egypt continued to suffer persecution under former President Mubarak.

* The Church continued to pray fervently, in unity, that the Lord would expose and displace the darkness and shine the light of Christ.

* In 2011, Egypt had a revolution that toppled President Mubarak. In its essence, it was like the French Revolution where the masses revolted against a corrupt regime. God had answered the prayers of the Church and exposed darkness!

* The Church continued to pray fervently and on 11/11/11, a united, multi-Church prayer meeting took place in Cairo with 75,000 in attendance. It was a 12 hour prayer meeting for Christ to be known and magnified in that land!

* In 2012, the revolution was hijacked by the Muslim Brotherhood, and a Muslim Brotherhood President named Morsi, came to power. The Muslim Brotherhood vowed to remain in power for decades if not centuries.

* The Church was disappointed and confused as to why after all these years of prayer for revival, God allowed the Muslim Brotherhood to take power.

* Despite the disappointment, the Church in Egypt continued to pray in unity, fervently crying out, "Lord, expose darkness, come with a mighty move of your Spirit in our land!"

* Only one year later, 33 million mostly Muslim Egyptians took to the streets demanding the ousting of President Morsi. Some world newspapers, including the  Huffington Post, called it, "The largest demonstration in the history of mankind." For 33 million Muslims in a strongly Islamic country to reject Islamic rule is historical and unprecedented. The US equivalent of that would be millions of Americans rejecting secular humanism, and realizing that it does not make sense.

* The Lord has once again heard the united prayers of His Church in Egypt and exposed the darkness in the land!

* In addition to the millions of Muslims coming to Christ, other amazing changes are happening in Egypt.

* The Egyptian constitution was re-written to provide Christians more rights and protection.

* Muslims recognized and expressed that the toppling of the Muslim Brotherhood government was the result of the prayers of the Church. They even asked the Church to continue to pray!

* In October 2015, the Egyptian Ministry of Education banned the teaching of Islam in Egyptian public schools, and substituted it with a subject called Virtue and Ethics. The US equivalent of that is for the US Department of Education to ban the  teaching of evolution and stop promoting secular humanism!

* On January 6, 2016, the current president of Egypt was the first Muslim president in the history of the country to visit the Coptic Church Headquarters. He apologized to Christians publicly on live television for their persecution, bombed and burnt church buildings, and he vowed to advocate for them and protect them. He is the best president Egypt has had since its independence in 1952. All this happened in direct response to the united prayers of the Church there!

* Lessons from the prayer movement in Egypt:

1. It takes time and persistence in prayer.
2. It takes individuals taking ownership and responding to united prayer. It is not someone else's problem.
3. Kingdom mentality, relational unity, and united prayer is key: focusing on what unites us, not what divides us.

This is what happens when Church leaders respond to God and walk in unity, consecration, and prayer!

What would happen if we all walked in unity and together mobilized the body of Christ in our region towards a united prayer movement, with a vision to see the glory of God in our midst and the subsequent outbreak of revival, where thousands of people reject secular humanism and embrace Christ?

As you know, the Scriptures contrasts for us people and generations who understood their times and responded to what God wanted them to do, and those who did not. It describes the "Sons of Issachar" in 1 Chron 12:32 as having "Understood their times, and knew what Israel ought to do." In contrast, Jesus wept over Jerusalem, because "They did not understand the times of their visitation" Luke 19:42.

We want to be people who understand our times and what God is inviting us to, which is nothing short of changing the spiritual atmosphere in our region in the same way that the Church in Egypt (and elsewhere) changed the spiritual atmosphere in their own country.

By PrayTV Studio

Pray for the Egyptian Christians to go from strength to strength and for similar movements of prayer to arise in other challenging areas of the world and especially in the Muslim-majority nations.

A Muslim who says he beat and killed Christians because of their faith and says he was miraculously healed from bullet wounds he received in one of those attacks has not only converted but become the pastor of a home church in an undisclosed Islamic country, according to Bibles for the Mideast.

Zakkir, a pseudonym, and his father lived to uphold the many religious rules governing their solidly Muslim country, one of the strictest in the Middle East. They followed Islamic ritual practices fanatically, and if they witnessed anything or anyone “out of order,” had no reservations about resorting to violence.

Zakkir’s father served in an often-merciless Islamic religious force known as Muttawa, while his son headed up an outlaw gang of angry young militants. All were fully committed to punishing anyone daring to defy the stern laws and practices of Islam.

“If anyone passed along the road by the mosque at the time of Namaz [Islamic prayer], our gang would stop and brutally beat them for not attending,” Zakkir said.

One day, he noticed some Christians distributing sample gospels and, he says, trying to convert several Muslims. The gang determined to put a stop to the evangelical activities.

“We attacked their office,” Zakkir said, “and killed three of them.”

Soon they were back at their post, stopping those passing by the mosque at the time of Friday prayer, insisting they come in. They pulled over one man in the midst of rushing his sick child to hospital.

“I dragged him out of the car myself,” Zakkir confesses. But as he did, the distraught father grabbed a gun from his glove compartment and fired off three shots directly into his assailant’s chest. Zakkir fell to the ground, and the man jumped back into his car and drove off.

Zakkir’s friends sped him to the hospital where surgeons managed to remove only two of the bullets, deciding that taking out the third, lodged in a dangerous position in his chest, would mean certain death.

He remained in a coma for several days, and doctors gave up hope for his recovery. Friends and relatives who had been by his hospital bed from the beginning gave up as well, leaving him alone in the hospital to die.

Meanwhile, Bibles for Mideast director Pastor Paul “just happened” to be visiting the country with several other missionaries at the time. While in prayer, he says he received clear instructions about Zakkir and his condition in a vision, even though the two had never met.

“Not only did the Lord ask me to visit him,” he recalls, “but He told me to bring him back with me from the hospital! We fully trust our Lord, so without any doubts we went. My co-workers suggested we take along separate clothes for him, since he would be in a hospital gown.”

He and three other evangelists headed off to the hospital, found Zakkir’s room, and began to pray over his comatose body.

“At this moment,” Zakkir recalls. “I had a dream that Jesus Christ came to me and said, ‘I am your Lord and Savior, I have been wounded for you, and by my stripes you are healed. I choose you as one of my vessels to bring many to my fold.'”

He says the Lord then touched his wounds with His own nail-scarred hands.

“Suddenly, the remaining bullet jumped from my chest automatically, as I felt new blood flow through my veins,” he said. He opened his eyes to see four people praying over him.

“I thought they were angels of the Lord,” he says. Pastor Paul made clear they were simply servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that they’d been given instructions to come and pray for him. He also explained to him the way of salvation.

Zakkir hardly needed convincing. He got up, accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. The missionaries helped him into his ‘new clothes’ and then secretly whisked him away.

“No one knew about my escape with the pastors,” he explains. As only Jesus could work it, Zakkir now heads up an underground Bibles for Mideast house church in his country.

Zakkir said: “I am not worthy to be a pastor of our Lord’s church, for I was persecuting the church,” he says, sounding like the Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians. “But I am pastoring an underground church. We are taking care of the persecuted Christians who were former Muslims.”

Paul, previously known as Saul, had murdered and arrested Christians in Israel before his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus.

In 1 Corinthians 15:9, Paul said: “For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2017/09/modern-day-muslim-saul-story-from-underground-church/#ej8hGtRsPkQfxMsc.99

Pray: That Muslim radicals will encounter Jesus as this man did.

In countries where shame is used as a tool to change people’s behaviour, the love of Christ has a powerful effect. That’s what is behind Mohabat TV, a Christian satellite television ministry to Farsi-speaking people. Dr Mike Ansari says, ‘Mohabat is a Farsi word, meaning Agape love. Our audience is the Farsi speakers of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. When people talk about love, it really resonates through that culture. It’s a culture of honour, it’s a culture of shame. It’s a culture where love really speaks volumes, so what better name for our ministry than the love of the Father for His children?’ Mohabat TV strives to present the Gospel in a ‘non-threatening, non-political’ way; it partners with eighty ministries who supply programming, distribute Bibles, and help believers connect with each other.

In July many feared that Christians would not be able to return to Mosul (see ). However, they are cautiously coming back; and as they do so, so does the Mass. Father Luis Montes celebrated Mass at St George’s Monastery. The priest travelled to Mosul to record part of a documentary that seeks to show the reality of life for Christians in Iraq and Syria. ‘The experience of celebrating the Eucharist amidst so much devastation was awe-inspiring’, he said. ‘In this place, which has been attacked for being Christian, the contemplation of the mystery of the cross, which is renewed in Holy Mass, had so much power. Some priests later told the young people who accompanied me that they believed that this was the first Mass celebrated in the last three years within Mosul, which was among the areas hardest hit by IS. It’s really a gift from God.’

Nizar Shaheen, of Light for the Nations (a Christian programme aired in Muslim-dense areas), says, ‘I've seen many, many Arabic-speaking people turning to Christ, accepting Him as Lord and Saviour. It's happening all over the Arab world; in North Africa and the Gulf countries; in Europe, Canada and the United States. Everywhere, people are accepting Jesus.’ Also in the Middle East, Coptic priest Father Zakaria Botros is confronting Islam with an in-your-face style of television and internet evangelism. He reports Muslims turning to Jesus: ‘young and old, educated and not educated, males and females, even those who are fanatical.’ It is not uncommon these days to hear of Muslims encountering God as they slept. Around the world, many who have converted to Christianity say they have done so after dreaming of a person who they believe is Jesus Christ.

Saudi Arabia is one of the most unreached nations in the world. A partnership between Windows International, Saudi Advocacy Network and Pray for Saudi has designated 23 September as the international Saudi Global Day of Prayer. The group are dedicated to reaching Saudis for Christ, and know that prayer plays a crucial role. They are inviting Christians and prayer groups across the nations to unite and participate in a thirty-minute prayer slot. The vision is a circle of prayer from around the globe praying for Jesus to reach into the hearts of many Saudis and bring them to salvation. There will be live prayer times broadcast from different locations across continents. Resources and more information can be found by clicking the ‘More’ link.

Many have been praying that God would give dreams of Himself to Turkish Muslims even while they are persecuting Christians. We can praise God that He is winning hearts in hard places: Turkish Muslims are having Christian dreams, visions and healings. Pray for God to continue to draw Muslims to Himself as they seek forgiveness during Hajj (which ends on 1 September), and to speak to them in the weeks following as they reflect on their pilgrimage. See: