Sunday, April 14, 2013

A Jesus revival among Muslims

A great revival is breaking out in the Philippines, and some of the people groups God is doing a great work in are different tribes of Muslims.

When we go to the Philippines, the only groups we specifically seek out are the ones we know have never heard about Jesus. They are the unreached. As it turns out, many of those people are Muslim. And, while Muslims consider Jesus a prophet of God, those we have met have never heard that Jesus is the Son of God and that He is the "way, the truth and the life, and nobody comes to the Father except through Jesus." (John 14:6)

When they hear the truth and experience the true love of Jesus for the first time, their lives are radically changed.

As I mentioned in a recent blog while we were ministering the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Philippines, during one of our services there were a number of Muslims present. The Holy Spirit drew them to Jesus and they fell on their knees in worship of the one true Savior. I reported that they went home and told their families about Jesus. Here is what has happened since that last report.

An Imam (Muslim pastor) was present at the service. He made the decision to follow Jesus. That totally blew me away. Someone who was trained in Islam and taught others, decided to abandon all, risk all, and follow Jesus. We talk about committing our lives to Jesus. This brother did so in a way few of us can imagine; at the risk of losing his family and his life.

Two of our Filipino pastor friends, who are part of LIA Philippines, traveled to a Muslim area to witness about Jesus just a couple of weeks after we returned to the U.S. They were surprised at the warm reception they received. They were even more surprised when they were told by a person that he had already received Jesus as Savior. The pastors, filled with joy and awe, asked how. The person said, "Through my father," and then showed a photo of his father with Martha. It was from the service we held two weeks earlier where the Muslims were present.

Families are now serving Jesus. Wives are testifying about how their husbands have changed and how they are treated so much better. They testify about how the men are better husbands and fathers since coming to Christ.

The revival has advanced to the point now where two mosques are being turned into houses of worship for Jesus. Praise God! We often hear how churches throughout Europe are being bought and turned into mosques, and now God is turning the tables in the Philippines.

In the two years we have ministered to Muslims in the Philippines we have noticed the key is not through aggression or through hate-filled speech. It's been through showing them the love of Jesus and telling them the truth, which is the Word of God.

An elderly man I didn't know told me on the plane the first time we traveled to the Philippines that if I preach the simply message of Jesus - that He was crucified and died on the cross and that God raised Him from the dead on the third day that we would see an untold harvest of souls. Whether he knew it or not, that was a great prophetic statement.

We don't get into any deep theological discussions while in the Philippines. We just simply preach John 3:16 and how Jesus is the only way to God and eternal life. We simply tell the people that Jesus loves them and so do we. We have seen hundreds and now thousands come to Jesus in a very short time. And, they continue to follow Him. They are becoming disciples and making other disciples of Jesus. That's the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).

That's why we fly 22 hours to the Philippines ... because Jesus tells us to "go and teach all nations" about Him. Nearly 45 percent of the world does not know about Jesus. We can't rest. We can't sit still and do nothing. We have to obey Jesus and go.

So many people here in the U.S. were praying for us while we were in the Philippines. Some said at times they felt like they were in spiritual war for us. They were. Satan didn't like what was going on. I'm sure there was plenty of danger all around us at times, but we never felt the least bit threatened. All we felt was the Spirit of God , and all we saw were souls being saved and fruit that remained from our previous trip. Nobody can ever convince me that prayer is not powerful. It is.

Again, thanks to all of our prayer warriors. Those 500 souls who decided to follow Jesus while we were there, and the hundreds more who have since then as a result of what God did during those 10 wonderful days we were in the Philippines, are as much credited to your heavenly account as they are to ours. But God gets all the glory. It is His Spirit who draws people to Jesus (John 6:44). To God goes all of the praise, honor and glory.

Please keep our brothers and sisters in the Philippines in your prayers. Some are risking everything to follow Jesus.

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