You cannot succeed.

You can pass stricter laws against apostasy.

You can increase surveillance and monitoring.

You can imprison and torture and execute converts.

You can block websites and ban apps and confiscate Bibles.

You can do everything in your power to suppress Christianity.

But you cannot stop the Holy Spirit.

You cannot chain the wind.

You cannot lock up the truth.

I say this not to mock you, but to plead with you.

You are fighting against God himself.

The prophet Isaiah saw this day coming 27 centuries ago when he prophesied that Egypt and Assyria would worship the God of Israel together.

It is written in scripture.

It is ordained by God before the foundation of the world.

The Middle East will be reclaimed for Christ.

And all your efforts to prevent it will fail, just as Pharaoh’s efforts to hold the Israelites failed.

Just as Rome’s efforts to destroy Christianity failed, just as every attempt throughout history to stop God’s purposes has failed.

I pray that many of you who are reading these words, who are religious leaders and government officials yourselves, will have the same encounter with Jesus that I did.

I pray you will have the courage to follow the truth wherever it leads, even if it costs you everything you have built.

I pray that one day we will be brothers in Christ, worshiping together, serving together, building God’s kingdom together.

Finally, I want to share my vision for the future.

The hope that sustains me and millions of other believers throughout the Muslim world, the dream that keeps us going through persecution.

I believe with every fiber of my being that we are witnessing the beginning of the end of Islamic dominance in the Middle East.

Not through political change or military conflict or western intervention, but through spiritual transformation, one heart at a time.

Within my lifetime, I am only 37 years old now.

I believe we will see countries that are currently 99% Muslim become countries with significant Christian populations, perhaps even Christian majorities in some regions.

I believe we will see mosques converted into churches just as churches were once converted into mosques.

I believe we will see Christian leaders in government positions, in universities, in media, in every sphere of society throughout the Middle East.

I believe the Bible will be freely available where it is now banned.

I believe the gospel will be proclaimed openly where it is now suppressed.

I believe the house churches that now meet in secret, in fear will one day meet in freedom and in public buildings.

The believers who now whisper the name of Jesus will one day shout it from rooftops without fear.

The children who are now being raised Muslim will one day raise their own children as Christians.

I believe ancient Christian communities that were nearly wiped out.

The Assyrians who are my people by blood, the cops in Egypt, the Calaldanss in Iraq will be strengthened and will grow.

And they will be joined by millions of Arab Christians, Persian Christians, Turkish Christians, Kurdish Christians, people from every tribe and nation in the Middle East, worshiping Jesus together in unity.

I believe this not because I am an optimist by nature or because I am naive about the difficulties ahead.

I believe this because it is prophesied clearly in scripture.

I believe this because I see it beginning to happen with my own eyes every single day.

I believe this because I know the power of God cannot be stopped by human opposition.

No matter how fierce or well organized, the road ahead will not be easy or quick.

More believers will be persecuted.

More will be imprisoned.

More will be killed for their faith.

More families will be torn apart.

The darkness will fight fiercely and violently against the light because Satan knows his time is short.

But the light will win.

It has already won at the cross of Calvary where Jesus conquered sin and death and hell.

We are just watching that victory unfold in human history.

One soul at a time, one family at a time, one city at a time.

Personally, my greatest remaining pain is my family.

I haven’t seen my children in over 5 years now.

My oldest son would be 14.

My second son 12.

My daughter 10.

I do not know if they are being told I am dead or that I am insane or that I am a traitor or simply that I am gone forever.

I pray for them every single day without fail.

I pray that somehow in ways I cannot imagine or orchestrate, they will one day understand why I made the choice I did.

I pray they will encounter Jesus themselves and find the truth that set me free.

I pray especially for my wife Zara.

I do not blame her for her reaction to my conversion.

She was acting according to everything she had been taught her entire life.

Everything her culture had programmed into her.

She believed she was protecting our children from a corrupted, dangerous father.

I pray that God will reveal himself to her as he revealed himself to me.

I pray that one day, whether in this life or the next, we might be reconciled not just as husband and wife, but as brother and sister in Christ.

I even pray for my parents, for my siblings, for the extended family that rejected me and declared me dead.

Some people tell me I am foolish to hope for this, that it is statistically unlikely they would ever convert.

But I serve a God who specializes in the impossible, who does what cannot be done.

If he could save me, a cleric who actively taught against Christianity and mocked those who follow Jesus, then he can save anyone.

Nothing is too hard for the Lord.

As I close this testimony, I want to invite one more time anyone who does not know Jesus to come to him today, right now, this very moment.

Not tomorrow, not next week, not when circumstances are better or easier or more convenient.

Today, because tomorrow is not promised, Jesus said in the book of Revelation, “Here I am.

I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me.

He is knocking on the door of your heart right now as you hear these words.

He is inviting himself into your life.

Will you open the door?

Will you let him in?

If you want to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you can pray a simple prayer like this, either out loud or silently in your heart.

Lord Jesus, I am a sinner.

I have lived my life without you in darkness and rebellion.

I have believed lies about who you are.

But today I acknowledge that you are the son of God, that you died on the cross to pay for my sins, and that you rose from the dead on the third day, conquering death.

I confess my sins to you, all of them.

Everything I have done wrong, and I ask for your forgiveness.

I surrender my life to you completely.

Come into my heart.

Be my Lord and my Savior.

Give me your Holy Spirit to live inside me.

Make me a new creation.

Transform me from the inside out.

I commit to following you from this day forward, no matter what it costs me.

Thank you for loving me.

Thank you for dying for me.

Thank you for saving me.

In your precious name, I pray.

Amen.

If you prayed that prayer sincerely, believing in your heart what you said with your mouth, then you are now a child of God.

Your sins are forgiven.

All of them wiped away completely as if they never happened.

You have eternal life that can never be taken away.

You have been born again by the spirit of God.

The old you has died.

A new you has been born.

Welcome to the family of God.

Welcome home.

Now, I encourage you to do several things.

First, find other believers.

Find a church or a fellowship or even one other Christian where you can grow in your faith.

You cannot follow Jesus alone.

We need the body of Christ.

Second, read the Bible every day.

Start with the Gospel of John.

Let God’s word transform your mind.

Third, pray constantly talking to Jesus throughout your day about everything.

Fourth, tell others what Jesus has done for you when it is safe to do so.

And fifth, be prepared.

Following Jesus will cost you something.

But I promise you from my own experience, he is worth it all.

To all the believers, all my brothers and sisters, the secret followers of Jesus throughout the Muslim world who might be hearing this, you are not alone.

There are millions of us.

We are your family.

We stand with you even if we never meet in this life.

We pray for you.

We share your suffering and we share your joy.

Jesus is with you right now, closer than your breath.

He will never leave you nor forsake you.

He will walk with you through the fire and you will not be burned.

Be strong and courageous.

Do not be afraid or discouraged.

The battle belongs to the Lord and victory is certain.

The darkness is fading like night before the rising sun.

The dawn is breaking across the Middle East.

The prophecies written thousands of years ago are being fulfilled before our eyes in our generation.

Egypt and Assyria and Israel will worship together.

The descendants of Ishmael and Isaac will be reconciled in Christ.

The Middle East will be blessed and will be a blessing to all the nations of the earth.

This is not wishful thinking.

This is not my personal hope or dream.

This is God’s promise revealed in his word and God does not lie.

What he has spoken will come to pass.

Heaven and earth will pass away but his words will never pass away.

I close with the words of the prophet Isaiah.

The words that began my testimony, the words that are coming to pass in our generation as we speak in that day.

There will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria.

The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria.

The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together.

In that day, Israel will be the third along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth.

The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying, “Blessed be Egypt, my people, Assyria, my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance”.

That day is coming.

That day is here.

That day is now.

And I praise God with everything in me that he allowed me to be part of this great work.

That he chose me despite my unworthiness.

That he saved me and is using my story to encourage others.

May Jesus Christ be glorified in the Middle East and throughout the entire world.

May his kingdom come and his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

May every knee bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

May the light of Christ shine in the darkness until the darkness is no more.

May the name of Jesus be lifted high in every nation, every tribe, every language.

This is my testimony.

This is my story.

This is the truth that changed my life and is changing the world.

This is the hope that anchors my soul.

This is the love that will never let me go.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

 

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