Discipleship

July 10, 2019

The Church is rather poor in intentional discipleship, but the Lord has an answer for this lack. I’ve heard firsthand of two situations recently, one in Europe and one in Canada, of numbers of Iranian Muslims coming into churches wanting to know Jesus, without any evangelistic initiative on the part of those churches. Could this be a sign of the harvest to come – soon?

We know that the Muslim world is significantly under-resourced with Christian evangelism, which is concerning given its size (1.6+ million). Yet we’ve learned through David Garrison’s study (A Wind in the House of Islam) about how movements of Muslims to following Christ have been accelerating globally in the last 20 years compared to the previous 14 centuries. We’ve heard countless testimonies of Jesus personally appearing to Muslims who’ve had no contact with evangelists. We’ve heard of unprecedented conversion rates in the Middle East as a result of political/economic instability, the extremism of ISIS and the availability of evangelistic satellite TV and Internet programing. We’re experiencing an answer to prayers for the 10/40 window in the immigration of Muslims to Western nations where they can freely hear the Gospel.

The Lord is saying, “Heads-up. Prepare to disciple!”

So how do we prepare? Let’s begin with prayer.

Thank You Lord that these are the days of Matthew 28:18-20 for Your church in the fields of Islam.

  • Thank You for entrusting us with Your authority to do the work You’ve assigned to us.
  • Help us see discipling as our privileged assignment as we go about our daily lives where you’ve strategically placed us.
  • Spirit, we need Your courage, sensitivity and love to welcome the nations represented in the Islamic world into our churches, homes and other spaces.
  • Help us to love sacrificially, to invest in people with our time and our lives, even giving up our privacy and personal entertainment time.
  • Give us power by Your Spirit to impart faith in, and understanding of, the God who IS love – who demonstrates this love in the relationship within the Godhead, and who loves all people.
  • Pray for churches and their leaders:

  • To embrace the changes necessary to become a home for these new members of the family to experience belonging
  • To make prayer for Muslims a priority (see https://lovingmuslimstogether.outreach.ca/mosque)
  • To work together with other churches to share resources and demonstrate that Christ’s followers love one another
  • To identify spiritual gifts (e.g. hospitality, prayer, teaching, helps) and appoint teams to develop strategies to minister to Muslim converts
  • To understand that Muslim converts must renounce Islam in order to embrace the fullness of Christ, and establish teams to take them through deliverance prayers (Mark Durie, Liberty to the Captives: Freedom from Islam and Dhimmitude)
  • Pray for Muslim background believers to discover their ministry assignments within the Church, which may include evangelizing and discipling Muslims.


About Leslie

Leslie knows by faith and experience that our heavenly Father puts His prayers in our hearts and then listens to our hearts’ cry as we pray them back to Him. We hear God, and God hears us.

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No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion.

Nelson Mandela

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength and all your mind. And your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus