Lynn Green

Category: Middle East

  • When we pray – The continuing miracles among Muslims

    When we pray – The continuing miracles among Muslims

     

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

    I have just returned from a notable prayer event in Rome.  I would never  have expected that Egyptians, Syrians and others from the Middle East would call together both European Church leaders and leaders of Immigrant congregations to pray for this needy continent.  I was so blessed by the commitment of scores of Egyptians and the many others from the Middle East, who sacrificed time and finance to invest in three days of intensive prayer meetings.

    There is no doubt that the great flood of immigrants from the Muslim world into Europe over recent years has provided opportunities for the gospel like never before in history. 

    That, combined with militant Islam showing such an ugly face, has led to a ripening harvest.  It is probably best if I explained that statement in the words of a prominent Church leader from the Middle East. These are some of the things he told us:

    “These last six or eight years have destroyed Islam.  The damage is beyond imagination.  Muslims are destroying Islam from within through their cruelty”.  Here are some statistics he gave: A recent gallup poll in Iraq returned an amazing result:  Thirty-two percent declare they are no longer Muslim. That means ten million people in Iraq alone!  “In Egypt the best estimates are that four million Muslims have become followers of Jesus over the last fifteen years or so.” As he said, “These are not a small number of conversions, but huge movements.  This has never happened before in history, and these numbers are not guesses, they are accurate“.

    This pastor was invited to Iraq to speak in churches.  When he arrived, government authorities turned up at the airport to greet them.  Wherever they went, they were taken by government limousines with over sixty bodyguards. Iraqis are keen to hear the gospel but recognise there is a risk for people to proclaim Christ openly.  As he taught on being a disciple of Jesus, a very senior Muslim theologian attended and asked for time with the pastor.  Actually, the conversation was not as encouraging as the pastor expected, but he did get a clear opportunity to present Jesus. Two weeks later, the Iraqi pastor of the Church he visited, phoned to say this same senior theologian had accepted Jesus. He now wanted to invite the visiting pastor to return, to come to the centre of Shia Islamic education to talk about the divinity of Christ. This is without precedent!

    Whether it is Iraq or Turkey or Syria or amongst immigrants in Jordan, Lebanon or further afield in Europe, we consistently hear stories of God’s remarkable power drawing Muslims to Himself.  We heard of countless miracles including children who had died being raised from the dead as a witness to the truth of the gospel. 

    She expressed her forgiveness and her love for them and her commitment to pray for them.

    It is not all a wonderful sense of triumph.  If you read the International press, you would know that Christians have been subjected to terrorist attacks throughout the Middle East. Last year two Muslim terrorist machine-gunned a wedding party as they exited their Church.  They killed several and amongst them was a little girl who was holding her mother’s hand.  The mother was wounded in the leg. A short while later she was interviewed on television from a wheelchair and the journalist asked what she felt towards the men who did this.  She expressed her forgiveness and her love for them and her commitment to pray for them.  The pastor who told the story said,

    “When that four minute interview was aired all over Egypt, it did more to proclaim the reality of Jesus then most of the preaching in the last five hundred years.”

    Yes, these are remarkable times. These are also times of high risk and as many have said ” With these vast immigrant movements into Europe, it will be changed one way or another—either  being more subject to Islam or seeing the great harvest of Muslims coming into the kingdom of God.” 

    I intend to continue to support and cultivate this prayer movement to the best of my ability and draw these dear intercessors together with others that I am working with. I have no doubt that concerted prayer has already made a huge difference and will do more so in days and years to come.

    Lynn Green

  • A Taxi driver and a Dream

    A Taxi driver and a Dream

     

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

    A True Story

    Last week, A., who is on a church planting team in the south of Middle East got into a taxi. She was on her way to her team mate’s house. As she got into the taxi, she asked the Lord if she should engage the taxi driver in conversation or not. She felt like the Lord said to go ahead, so she launched out with a bold question, “Do you ever hear God speak to you?”

     The taxi driver replied, “Yes, I’ve had many dreams that I feel are from God. There is one that I had recently. I was walking through a vast desert and I was so thirsty and I didn’t know where to find water. I kept walking and up ahead it looked as if there was a person in the distance. I kept walking towards him, hoping he could help me. As I got closer, this person got bigger and bigger until I realized it was God in front of me. I stopped in front of him and knelt down. As I knelt down a spring of water came up out of the ground for me to drink. I was so thirsty and I just kept drinking from this fountain that God miraculously provided.”

    A. asked him, “do you know what the dream means?” He said no – so she invited him into her team mate’s house who was a married man. The man on her team was able to sit down with the taxi driver and begin to explain to him what the dream meant. The taxi driver was shocked and amazed. He got so excited that he asked if he could come back to understand more. The team can’t wait to see what God has in store for this young man – praise the Lord for yet another dream in which God is leading people to Himself all over our region!

    with you for the Kingdom,

    M.

  • Ramadan and a Pyramid of rocks in the Desert

    Ramadan and a Pyramid of rocks in the Desert

     

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

    Ramadan is well underway with all its intensity and contradictions. Muslims who take their faith seriously will fast from before dawn to after sundown.  Their fast also means not drinking any liquids.  Not eating during the day is one thing, but not drinking when desert lands are scorching hot—now that is really sacrificial!  (The timing of Ramadan is calculated by the lunar month, so that means that it moves forward a few weeks each calendar year.  In recent years it has fallen at the hottest time of the year, but now it is moving towards cooler months.)  On the other hand, the Ramadan fast signals the time of the year when more food is purchased and consumed in Muslim lands than any other time of the year.  So, although fasting is a sacrifice, the hours of the night are often marked by gorging on rich foods. 

    Lest Christians become judgmental, we can remember that we have turned Christmas into a season of feasting and drinking.  It seems to be a characteristic of human nature that religious sacrifice is usually paired with over-indulgence.

    SUPERNATURAL CONVERSIONS 

    For the past 25 years or so, Ramadan has also been marked by millions of Christians praying for Muslims to come to know who Jesus really is.  Though they revere Him as a great prophet, it usually needs a spiritual encounter with Him for Muslims to know Him as the Son of God.  Researchers have confirmed that the Ramadan prayer commitment has coincided with an unprecedented number of Muslims turning to Christ.  The majority of those seem to turn to faith in Jesus because of a dream or a vision or some other supernatural event in their lives. 

    A BUS RIDE THAT CHANGED HISTORY

     It started with a very slow bus ride across the Sinai Desert.  I was a member of a group of about 15 Christian mission leaders who were meeting in Egypt.  We were from all around the world and we generally moved our regular meetings from one continent to another.  We had planned to meet in Cairo with Egyptian Christian leaders and then to travel to the Red Sea for our last few days together. 

    The bus that arrived to take us across the Sinai turned out to be small and under-powered, so all our luggage had to go on the roof rack.  On that particular day, a very strong wind from the east was blowing across the desert, so we ended up fighting an unrelenting headwind all day.  (At one point the wind was so strong that it broke the restraints and a few suitcases, including mine, were scattered across the desert.  I found myself sprinting across the desert to retrieve underwear, socks and various bits as the wind attempted to blow them back to Cairo.  Among the bits was my treasured and irreplaceable travel alarm/filter coffee maker.  It took quite a while for me to forgive the driver who failed to adequately secure my luggage!)  Since the bus was small and seriously underpowered, progress was frustratingly slow and we decided to work through some of the agenda items for the business part of our time together.  It must be said that, like so many meetings of Christians, we always planned worship and prayer into our times together, but the business agenda seemed to expand and take up the vast majority of our available time.

    This time it was different.  No one could be heard in the noisy little bus unless they had the microphone that was usually used by the guide.  Because of that, most of the usual jokes and other interruptions were excluded.  It seemed almost miraculous that we had dealt with all our business by the time we reached our destination.  What a surprise!  We were left with the best part of three days with no agenda.

    So we worshipped together and asked the Lord what He wanted us to do.  It was so clear to the group that God had worked in our circumstances to give us time to pray for the Middle East. 

    GOD SPEAKS WHEN WE LISTEN

    There were about 15 of us and we were together in unity and prayer for Jews, Arabs and other Muslims.  The Spirit dealt with us about our attitudes—our tendency to take sides in the disputes of the Middle East.  We made a commitment to be “two-eyed”—seeing both sides of the conflicts, especially the deadly hatred between Jews and Arabs.  In principle, we all knew that God loves people without regard to race or gender or ethnicity or nationality, but in practice we often strayed from that divine plumb line.

    A COVENANT ON THE THIRD DAY

    For many of us in that group, the Muslim world was both overwhelmingly large and discouragingly unresponsive to the Gospel.  But God called us to be willing to give our lives, as He directed us, to reach Muslims and Jews.  To mark that challenge from the Holy Spirit, we went a few miles inland into the Sinai and then began to gather large rocks.  We made a pile of rocks like a pyramid and then stood around it in a circle and solemnly declared that we, and our families, were available to God to reach those who seemed to be so far away from knowing the true Jesus.

    OUR LIVES WERE NEVER THE SAME

     We had no idea how the Lord might respond to our commitment, but we knew He was calling us to it.  Much came from our agreement with God.  For me, it confirmed that I was to go ahead with the Reconciliation Walk in the late 1990s.  That was an astounding, life-changing, perspective-shaping event over three years, from late 1995 to mid-1999.

    All of us knew that we were to pray for Muslims and my dear friend, Floyd McClung took a lead in a project to pray during the Ramadan fast each year.  With his staff and his global network of friends, he produced the first 30-Days Prayer booklet for the following year.  Since then, the initiative has grown far beyond our expectations, but more importantly, the seemingly impenetrable barrier keeping Muslims from knowing who Jesus really is began to crumble.

    UNPRECEDENTED PEOPLE MOVEMENTS

    Dr David Garrison’s extensive research demonstrates that, prior to about 1992, there were virtually no large movements of Muslim-background people into faith in Jesus, but since then there have been scores of such people movements.  (He used a parameter of more than 1000 people from any particular group.)  AND, the momentum is growing each year.  Prayer really does change things!

    BUT WHAT ABOUT THE JEWS?

    During those three days in 1992, we prayed extensively about both Jews and Arabs and Muslims in general.  The Lord clearly spoke to us to make our commitments to be two-eyed and to be available to reach Muslims and to get the 30 Days prayer movement going.  It was clearly His initiative and His time. 

    Since then I have been asked from time to time: “Why don’t we have a similar annual season of prayer for Jews?”  My usual reply is, “Great idea!  If you have that on your heart, you should do it.”  Floyd had a clear Word from God to encourage prayer during Ramadan.  There is no way it could have become what it has, except that it was God’s initiative in God’s time. 

    More prayer is also needed for Jews.  Who is God speaking to about that?  How does he want it done?  All I know is that His heart for the Jews is one of unrelenting love. 

    STAYING TWO-EYED

    Recently, we have been in another season of conflict between Palestinians and Israelis and most of the press reports are very critical of Israel, while a few news outlets are more pro-Israel.  The conflict, the photos, the reports all provoke us to take sides—to become one-eyed.   I will always remember the depth of God’s dealing with us in the Sinai and I recommit myself to pray and to hold fiercely to vision from both eyes!

    It is not too late to order 30 Days of Prayer booklets.  Information is available at:
    www.30daysprayer.com

     Lynn Green.

  • Jerusalem and Gaza

    Jerusalem and Gaza

     

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

    As the national anthem of the United States of America is sung at the opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem, the death toll on the border between Gaza and Israel mounts.  I have been watching the ceremony and reports on the border deaths juxtaposed on two different screens.  Commentators generally give away their political leanings in the first one or two sentences of their report and those watching the embassy ceremony convey their approval via thousands of “likes” and “loves” on Facebook.

    As I take it all in, my heart is torn.  I have walked the streets of Israel and Palestinian territories, have been invited into homes for tea, met with mayors and local dignitaries and have been hosted by the Chief Rabbi and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem on the same day.  After all that, I cannot take sides and am convinced that God does not take sides.  As He said to Samuel:

    “I look on the heart…”  People are neither condemned nor redeemed on the basis of their race, nationality, gender nor any other group identity.  

    He knows each of us so intimately that he says the very hairs on our heads are numbered.

    I can assure you, as I am sure you would expect, that there are wonderful, kind people on both sides of the border and their most fervent hope is that there would be peace for their children.  There are others, on both sides of the border, who are fervent in their desire to wipe “the other” from the face of the earth.  Tragically, the latter has grown faster than the former in recent years.

    Is there any way forward?  Well, I have a wish.  It is not yet a hope and certainly not a confident faith, but it is a clear wish and that is a good place to start.

    I wish that systematic fear and racial hatred would be eradicated from Israeli life, especially from the military training, which all Israelis have to undertake.  Friends who have been in the military tell me that every young person is taught to hate and fear and feel superior to Palestinians.  I can understand how that could seem to be expedient for military service, but it is so destructive in the long term.

    I wish that Palestinians could learn that they have massive resources and that they can live for positive, achievable purposes rather than for vengeance and for retaking the land.  People, especially young people, are our greatest asset and the Palestinians have lots of them!  From the late 1940s until today, Singapore and South Korea represent what can happen to a nation that is poor in other natural resources, but rich in people.  Both were poverty stricken at the beginning of the 1950s, but both set their sights on making the most of their people and are numbered in the top thirty most prosperous nations in the world.

    The Palestinians are highly gifted people, with an unusually high percentage of very intelligent citizens.  They could accomplish so much if they turned their focus from victimhood towards creating a better future for their children—EVEN IF THE POLITICAL SITUATION DOES NOT IMPROVE.

    This is hard for the Palestinians because they have embraced Muslim leaders who use their religious texts for fanning the flames of hatred.  The current Grand Mufti of Jerusalem has quoted a saying attributed to the Prophet Mohammed:

    “The Hour will not come until you fight the Jews. The Jews will hide behind stones or trees.  Then the stones or trees will call:  O Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.”  This kind of thinking is a manifestation of a very deep evil.

    In light of all this, can my wish begin to be a real hope?  Can it become a confident faith?  With God all things are possible!  Later this week, millions of Christians will begin 30 Days of Prayer to coincide with the Muslim fast of Ramadan.  (I will write more about that soon.)  When we listen to God and then pray as He leads us, it changes history.

    This volatile, dangerous, long-standing conflict can change!  Let us listen, pray and obey and then see what God can do.

    Lynn Green.