Amidst the shouts of ‘Death to America’ and ‘Death to Israel’, there are remarkable stories of Muslims turning away from Shiite Islam and towards Jesus Christ.
According to an Iranian Church worker who spoke on condition of anonymity, forty years after Iran’s Islamic revolution, there’s another spiritual revolution underway.
We live in a time that’s very special. More people have come to faith in Iran in these forty years than in the previous 1400 years. So, there’s a once in history moment where we have many Iranians coming to faith in Jesus at a rapid rate.”
Frontiers Alliance International (FAI) is producing a documentary called Sheep Among Wolves to introduce the Iranian church to Christians worldwide.
“What’s taking place in Iran right now is spectacular,” says FAI founder and director Dalton Thomas. “It’s the fastest growing church in the world that owns no buildings, has no 501c3’s, that owns no property, that has no bank accounts; that has no centralized leadership; that has no denominational leaning and yet it’s multiplying like crazy … What the Lord is doing there is staggering.”
The evangelism results in intense persecution that Thomas says leads Iranian believers to seek prayer but not in a way you may think.
“Typically, the way we pray is we expect that they want us to pray for the persecution to end and they say, no, no, don’t do that. Persecution is growing the church. When the persecution stops, the growth stops. What we want is the Gospel to spread far and wide and deep in Iran.”
With Iran and the US on the brink of war, Thomas says it’s important to see what’s happening behind the Iranian veil.
“When Muslims from Iran come in contact with the Man from Nazareth, something beautiful happens. And when they realize that they have been bought and saved and purchased with Jewish blood; prophesized by Jewish prophets in a Jewish Bible something crazy happens; something beautiful happens and that’s what we’re seeing take place in Iran.”
Thomas believes one day the world may wake up to find Iran’s church growth in the 21stcentury rivaling that in China and Korea in the last century.
We hope so. Pray for the Body of Christ in these Muslim countries!
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”Assemble and come, all you nations, and gather together all around. Cause Your mighty ones to go down there, O LORD. Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; for the winepress is full, The vats overflow—For their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!” (Joel 3:11-13).