Thank you for praying with us!  There was a noticeable difference in our interactions with people throughout this year’s Nowruz holiday week; the openness to the Gospel was extraordinary.  God is answering your prayers for Iran!

Intense intercession.  Intense training.  Intense proclamation.  This is a short-term worker’s story from one of our Intensives:

I’ve been a Christian since 1981.  When I was at the 9-day Intensive, I shared the gospel more than I have in my entire life.  With the help of some great teaching by the leaders and, I believe, leading from the Holy Spirit, I am coming to realize that I’ve been missing out… Missing out on the joy that comes from being obedient to the command of Christ to witness to others, to proclaim the message of Jesus.

What I experienced in those 9 days was a realization that, as a Christian in America, I had believed a lie.  The lie is that I can simply live my life as a good Christian and somehow people will notice and want to believe in Christ because of my example.  Or that I have to be good friends with someone to share Christ with them.  I believed the lie that I have to earn the right to proclaim the Good News, that I have to somehow build up enough relational capital before people will listen to me.  While friendship evangelism certainly happens over time, there is no substitute for boldly sharing the hope of Jesus with people on a regular basis. It should be a natural part of our lives, a natural part of MY life.

Of course, I’m probably not alone in being all-too-happy to embrace the idea that I don’t need to actually present the Gospel to people.  It’s comfortable, easy, safe, and almost rejection-free!  I don’t have to risk embarrassment, isolation, loneliness or the label of a religious nut.  However, the reality is that once I’m aware of a truth, I’m responsible to it.  I have to respond; will I acknowledge it and act on it, or will I find excuses, make justifications, and pretend I didn’t hear it?

Perhaps the biggest problem with ignoring the Lord’s command to make disciples is that it’s a totally inappropriate response to Christ and the way He lived and died.  He gave everything to save us; anything less than our complete surrender and obedience just doesn’t make sense.  He promises that we will experience His joy, peace and rest when we follow Him.  He says that He will be with us; He will provide the strength and power that we need.  If we ignore His commands, we lose the peace that would be ours through obedience.  As we choose comfort over stepping out in faith, our growth is stunted. We fail to experience a growing faith that comes through participation with Jesus in His plan.

Here are some of the things that shifted my paradigm:

• Five guys lost their jobs for using a router to share the Gospel at their jobs.  In contrast, I’ve often been afraid to even let coworkers know that I’m a Christian, let alone risk my job.
• Of all the Iranians we met, we either talked to them about Christ, handed them materials, or both.  Very few people refused to talk or take materials.
• People asked for materials before we even offered!  They had seen them from others and wanted their own.
• I shared my testimony with people over tea and they listened.  I believe this was a result of the Holy Spirit preparing hearts and me simply doing it!
• People asked for more materials to give to others.  This means that they told other people about it and they wanted to learn!
• Opposition increased and people tried to distract us from talking to Iranians or they warned Iranians not to talk to us.  This was a good sign that we were being effective and that the enemy wanted to silence us.

I noticed that in doing something a little scary, intimidating, or just uncomfortable forced me to make a decision.  I could try to figure out what to do on my own or I could ask Him for help.  I found myself talking to Him more, listening to Him more, and trying not to come up with answers on my own.  Rather than attempting to find solutions by myself, I could bring everything to Him: where to go, what to say, and who to approach.  I didn’t want to do anything on my own strength and power, but rely on Him.  As far as I was concerned, walking up to complete strangers and talking about Christ was impossible without God!

I pray that I was faithful to what He wanted me to do. Now that I’m back home in America, I’m tempted to come up with plans and strategies to implement what I learned.  Nevertheless, I want to be guided by Him, not myself.  I want to find answers in His Word.  I want to expect Him to come through, to do what I cannot.  I want to see God prove Himself faithful, to bring honor and glory to Himself through us.  I want to live in such a way that I rely on Him more and more.  I want to resist the urge to play it safe.

Interested in a hands-on introduction to Live|Dead Iran?  We invite you to join us for a short term experience.  Come and see how God can use YOU to directly impact Iranians for Jesus.