I can’t tell you his name but today we will call him John. He is working in a restricted access country in the Middle East with a Muslim majority. He works with Muslim background believers.
Questions:
How did you end up going to this country.
How are you reaching Muslims?
- International Schools
- Monthly Seminars
- Book Translation – Sleeping Teachers
- Coffee Shop
- Church
- Holy Spirit Conference
What are some testimonies of Muslims who you have been able to reach with the love of Jesus?
What are some of the challenges of working in a restricted access country?
Why is Jesus different than everyone else?
How does healing and words of knowledge and other gifts of the Holy Spirit help bring Muslims to Jesus?
Why is it important to be motivated by love?
Quote from Daniel King: Our goal is not to win an argument, but to win a soul.
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
What is God doing in the Muslim world? Today I interview a missionary in a restricted access nation. And it’s so secret that I can’t even tell you his name.
Evangelism Podcast Host (00:15):
Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Welcome to the evangelism podcast with Dr. Daniel King, where Daniel interviews, full-time evangelists, pastors, missionaries, and normal everyday Christians to discover how they share their faith, their powerful testimonies, and amazing stories that will inspire you to reach people with the good news. And now here’s your host, missionary and evangelist Daniel King.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:50):
Hey, welcome to the evangelism podcast. This is Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. We have a special guest, but I can’t tell you his name. So we’re just going to call him John. He’s working in a restricted access country in the middle East that has a Muslim majority. He works with Muslim background believers and he leads Muslims to Jesus brother. Thank you so much for being on the evangelism podcast.
John (01:18):
It’s great to be here with you, Daniel.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:21):
So tell me, how did you end up working in this country? We’re not going to tell everyone what country you’re working in, but it’s a country that has a Muslim majority. How did you end up going there?
John (01:34):
Well, I was in some live God Bible school back in 79 in central Florida. And speaker George Verwer https://georgeverwer.com came and was speaking in our chapel service and that whole service, he talked about this particular nation and how that it was the largest unreached nation in the world. And the reason was, was because so few were willing to pay the price to go there. And when he said that something inside me leaped up and I, and I just said, Lord, I’ll go. And that was the beginning.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:05):
And so how long have you been there now?
John (02:09):
Well, over the last 34 years, most of the time we’ve been in this nation live there and have done many things.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:18):
Tell me some of the types of ministry that you are able to do.
John (02:24):
We pastoring an international church and also we are involved with book translations, which we have we believe that this is very, very important and effective. We do seminars in every month in a different city of that country. We also have, have a school it’s online as well. I saw him international school of ministries in the language of the people. And so we use that we have annual Holy spirit conferences where we invite a brethren believers from all over the nation to come. God has done awesome things in those conferences. And so there’s many ways that we’ve been working to reach that nation.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:10):
And so it is a Muslim majority nation. And of course, many of the people there are Muslim. How are you reaching Muslims with the love of it?
John (03:21):
Jesus. Yeah. Yeah,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:25):
‘Cause, it’s, it’s, it’s a challenging in some countries. Like if you were to be working in, in Mexico, you’d be able to put up posters and flyers and invite people to come to a meeting churches aren’t very open, but in the country that you’re working in, which is restricted access you, you can’t be open about it. But you want to show the love of Jesus to people.
John (03:54):
Let me give you a couple quick testimonies. Some years ago, maybe five years ago, the Lord had put it on my heart to get our people to write five names on a card and five names of five people. They felt were the most open to the gospel. And we would begin to pray for the people that they’d come into contact with on a regular basis. And then I would teach them how to pray over those people. And we would continue to pray and target those people, carry them in our wallets or purses, whatever, and pull them out and just pray for them until we seen, we would see change on my card was my neighbor and we’d become friends and I prayed regularly over him. And eventually we became really good friends and I would slip in a testimony now.
John (04:45):
And then he was from a Muslim background Alavi, which says the Shia side of Islam and wasn’t real radical or anything, but he that’s that he and his family, four children, a great wife, they, they followed the Alavi teachings. But when one day in June that year that they had come to the Lord, they were sitting in my living room and I had been praying for families to come work with us in the church because we had no real families. And so one day we were sitting there in the month of June and the whole family is sitting there and the Holy spirit said, you were praying for family here. Here’s your family. And I’m like, no, no, no, I I’m talking about already saved already ready to, to work and labor with us and help us. And the Holy spirit said, no, that’s your job.
John (05:37):
And so I said, okay, we’ll buy by November of that same year, I woke up one morning and I felt the Holy spirit say today’s the day the baby’s coming. And I went into a coffee shop where we, that we have. And he came in and we were talking. And anyway, eventually I was ended up at his house and leading both he and his wife to Jesus and their whole family have now one of the strongest dedicated families in our church today. And soon after that, his partner in business, a cousin of his came to the Lord. And he’s been serving the Lord faithfully since, but can I give you a couple of testimonies? How we reach out how we will.
Speaker 4 (06:21):
So a lot of your advantage
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:24):
[Inaudible] is happening. One-On-One yeah. Building relationships with people over a period of time.
John (06:30):
Yeah. And I would say much, like we see in the new Testament with, with the disciples of Jesus, they were related, they were they worked together, you know they were people that we were in contact with. And so that’s who we’re called to be a witness to, you know one day I was at my barber and a guy I go to often and he’s cutting my hair in the middle of cutting my hair. He says, do you know anyone who could tell me anything about Jesus? And I was like, shocked, you know, he’s Muslim. And that’s it.
Daniel King (06:59):
Good question. I said, I’m ready to answer that question for sure.
John (07:03):
I looked at him. I said, well, as a matter of fact, I can, I teach the Bible, Oh, can you get me a Bible? He said, I said, sure, do you have one in your car now? I said, no, but I can get you one. I promise. And so after, after the haircut where we always sit out front and drink Turkish coffee and watch traffic go by and we’re sitting there and he goes, why do you only love Jesus? I said, I don’t only love Jesus. I love everyone. No, no, no. He says, why do you think Jesus has different? So different than everyone else? I said that I can answer you. So his brother who runs a kebab shop next door, he says to him, come over and listen to this guy. So he jumps over the wall and pulls up a chair. And the two of them are sitting there and they’re saying, tell me why Jesus is different.
John (07:47):
And so I laid out the simple gospel to them. And then at the end, I said, here’s another way you can tell Jesus is different than anyone else bring a sick person here right now. And I said, I’ll lay hands on them and pray for them in the name of, of my name. And I said, I guarantee you nothing will happen. And then I’ll let you lay hands on them and pray for them in the name of Mohammed or Ali or anybody else you want to. And I guarantee you nothing will happen. I said, but then let me lay hands on them in the name of Jesus, because that’s where the life and the power is. And right away, the brother says I’ve been having problems in my stomach. I can’t eat certain foods. And do you think Jesus would heal me? I said, sure.
John (08:30):
I reached over. I put my hand on his stomach, prayed up simple, direct, powerful prayer. And as soon as I said, amen, the barber guy jumps up and grabs his head. He goes, you’re not going to believe this. I said, what? I had a dream. He said two days ago, and you were in my dream and I saw you do what you just did to my brother. I’m like, God, you set me up. And it made me realize, anytime we step out, we’ll find out because of our obedience and our love for people that we’ll find God has already been there, orchestrating and setting things up for us. And so he was healed shortly after that shopping a couple blocks up the road at a supermarket and the owner sees me and he says, Hey, I hear you pray for people and they get better.
John (09:20):
I said, yeah, that’s right. He goes, well, we got a young man here. Who’s got severe back pains. Would you pray for him? I said, sure. So they called him in. He came in and we went to the back stock room and everybody gathered around and I said to him, I said, do you know why Jesus wants to heal you? He said why? I said, because he loves you. And he has a plan for your life. That’s so much better than the plan you have. Do you understand? He said, yes. And then I laid hands on him and prayed for him. And in the Lord touched him and healed him. It was so powerful. W I was out walking one day and went to my barber and he’s, he’s talking with some other Muslim guys in there and he comes to me.
John (10:03):
He says, I’m going to have an operation in five days because I’ve got these really bad back pains from carrying this meat and stuff, you know, he’s a big guy and turned around and walked away. Well, I walked over to him and I said, do you have pain right now? He said, yeah. I said, give me your hand. And he’s like, what? And while he’s looking at me with this curiosity, he gives me his hand. And I said, I pray for people and they get better. Oh, okay. So I just, they’re all staring at me. These four Muslim guys were standing there, all just staring at me. And I just prayed press in the name of Jesus. I command the pain to leave this back. And father, I pray for healing to flow into him right now. Let your Holy presence come all over Samir right now in Jesus name.
John (10:49):
And then I said, amen. I didn’t pray a real long prayer. And I said to him in a very short time, you’re going to see a big change. He said, inshallah. And I said, no, inshallah. I said, you’re going to see a big change. So I walked out two days later, I’m out walking with two of my girls. And I said, let’s check on Samir. We walked over. He standing in the doorway of his, his butcher shop and he sees me and he smiles and he says, Oh man, he goes, five minutes after you left, all the pain was gone. Please come in and sit down and have a tea. So I went and sat down and he’s telling me how he was checked out. And he was completely healed. And drinking this, he brought me a soda water, and then a guy comes in, he’s a truck driver.
John (11:34):
And it was delivering meat to him and stuff. Well, he comes in and they’re talking in Arabic. That’s the language in that particular area. And they come over and they said to me, the butcher says, he’s got pain in his back too. Would you pray for him? I’m like, I looked at the guy and I said it because he said his right arm was numb. He had pain that went all the way down his leg. And it was mainly in his back. And I said, do you want to keep this pain? And he looked at me like I was crazy, but Jesus was that way. You know, what do you want? Well, I want you to pray for me. I said, okay. So I said, give me your hands. So he gave me his hand. I prayed a simple prayer. And before I could finish this guy is like looking up and turning around and twisting around saying, well, who touched me?
John (12:20):
What did you do? And the butcher says, he can’t believe he says all the is gone. There’s healing in his arm. He said that he can feel again. And he was so excited and, and he was saying all of this, all of that. I said, Allah, didn’t do that for you. I said, Jesus did that for you. And so he runs out to his truck. He brings his wife. And this is in the butcher shop. And his wife, he says, she’s had problems with her throat. She can’t swallow many foods. Could you pray for her? I said, sure. As soon as I put my hand on her head, the Holy spirit came all over her. You could. And she started crying and she started to shake. She’s never been in a Benny Hinn meeting or anything. She didn’t know she was supposed to do that. She’s a Muslim background. This was so in the Holy spirit, came all over this woman and completely healed her. And the husband said, do you have a business card or something? And the butcher guy started laughing. He goes, this isn’t a business. He said. And then he kind of said, if you need anything more, you just tell me, I know how to get ahold of him. He’s my friend.
John (13:32):
But I believe in being a witness. And you know, when you, when you’re Jesus to a world that’s suffering, I don’t care what their background is, how deceived and what the darkness is. It’ll draw people in, open the door for you. And it’s love it’s based out of love for people. It’s not going to happen. If you, if you’re just trying to do Hocus Pocus, abracadabra, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about a genuine heart based love for people that starts with the Holy spirit. That’s that love that’s been poured out in our hearts by the Holy spirit
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:11):
Every year you do a Holy spirit conference. And it sounds like really your secret for reaching people is relying on the gifts of the Holy spirit. You’ve mentioned healing, words of knowledge God’s sending dreams and visions to people. Talk to me a little bit about why it’s important to be filled with the Holy spirit when you’re working in a difficult area.
John (14:39):
Yeah, well, he’s called our helper and he was sent to us for a reason. And every year I teach, we have, we’ve done this for 17 years. Now, this Holy spirit conference, we believers from all over the nation to come. You know, the Holy spirit works in two ways. He works in us and he works when he comes upon us. And it’s clear, you know, when the disciples were filled in John, the first ones that were saved and when John 20, when Jesus breathed on them and said, receive the Holy spirit. Well, they did. I mean, obviously if Jesus said, do you receive the whole, you would. And he blew. He breathed on them. They received the Holy spirit, but then he telled the told the same disciples, wait for the Holy spirit, wait for this gift in Jerusalem. Well, that’s another work of the Holy spirit, the Holy spirit work upon us.
John (15:24):
And so the first one is for salvation and it has to do with developing those fruit of the spirit in our lives. But the second work is for empowerment for being a witness in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the animals parts. And so we, we want both, you know, it starts with that first work of salvation. We have the Holy spirit, but then we need that empowerment to be witnesses. And that’s our theme every year, the work of the Holy spirit in the life of the believer, the work of the Holy spirit in the life of the church. And I can’t get away from the, the, the need for us to understand that this has to work out of a love for God and a love for people because we, we tend to can things in the church. You know, we, we bottle it up and we sell it or we promoted, but the gifts work always best and more effective and powerfully when love is the motive in, in that love can only come from God.
John (16:21):
And so we, we teach about that. We talk a lot about that. And so, you know, every year we see many people filled with the Holy spirit for the first time. And we were I was just telling a story yesterday about while we were in the nation of Bulgaria and had right after the wall came down and had massive citywide revival. And we had groups come in, we had believers come from nine different nations that were 114 believers sent out in the daytime. We would send them out in small groups. And the rain of the Holy spirit was coming upon that nation at that time. And people were coming back with such wild testimonies of how God touched people, supernaturally, how the mute spoke for the first time. I literally, with my own eyes saw blind eyes opened and a young 10 year old girls seeing for the first time her father was a policeman that it stopped me for speeding the day before. And I invited him to the meeting and he brought his blind daughter and God touched her. This guy wept. I tell you, as he watched his daughter reading signs on buildings for the first time,
Daniel King (17:34):
Unique way to get out of a speeding ticket is like, do you have anyone sick in your family? Bring them, Jesus will heal them,
John (17:45):
Tell you, you know the love of God and the power of God, moving through, manifesting in gifts that bring healing in life. God’s not out to do Hocus Pocus. He loves people. He wants to heal bodies. He wants to heal hearts and in relationships and bring people to wholeness again. And so we have the answer hallelujah. And we, we need to step out more, I believe. You know, I, I just want to say this. We complicated. Well, we, we talk about reaching Muslims. You know, we want to get into all their arguments and try to win them. I don’t do that. I do everything to avoid the arguments. You love them. I love them.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:30):
Our goal is not to win an argument. It’s to win a soul.
John (18:32):
Yeah. And usually I’ll ask a simple question. Cause they say, they believe God sent Jesus as a prophet. I’ll say then why, why did he do that? Why do you think Jesus came? Why did God send him? And they usually say something like, well, he was bringing a special message or whatever, but I said, well, let me tell you why he came. And I opened up my Bible and I show him first Timothy, one 15. It clearly States God sent Jesus into the world to save sinners. And then after I read that to them, I’ll ask them this question. Was he successful? Or did he fail? Well, of course he was successful. How was he successful? How did he save sinners that opens the door to share the gospel? I believe Jesus. If you look at his life, he always controlled the dialogue. He led the dialogue. Even when the woman tried to distract him in some area at the well, he led the dialogue and we, as God’s people need to learn how to lead the dialogue and not get taken down some rabbit trail. And, and that’s the enemy’s tactics, but we’ve, we can love people, but we can be led by the Holy spirit and, and know how to reach people and with a simple gospel. Okay.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (19:49):
Another big part of your ministry is translating books into the local language. And I heard you call books, sleeping teachers. What do you mean by that
John (20:01):
Teachers? Yes. I told our people recently, I was so excited to get these new books into their language. And to know that these books are on their shelves in their homes, the homes of all these believers, I said, but I call them sleeping teachers. I said, these sleeping teachers, even though they’re in your home and on your shelf, won’t help you at all until you wake them up. I said, think about it. We’ve got these great Bible teachers anointed by God to bring revelation and treasures from heaven to us to equip us and help us. But they’re sleeping on our shelves. I said, you have the opportunity now to wake them up. And how do you do that? You just pull the book off the shelf, you open it up and you start reading and you can know, and you can be sure the Holy spirit will be there to help cause those words and that teaching to come alive to you and do equip you and help you to grow spiritually, which is God’s will for your life. And so I encourage our people to wake up the sleeping teachers, those great books, faith building books that we’re having translated into their languages.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:07):
So books are sleeping teachers. We have to wake them up and learn from them. That that’s a great way to spread the gospel is to do literature distribution. You’re working in a restricted access country. What are some of the challenges of working in that type of environment? One challenge is that we can’t share your name with anyone today, right? And also we can’t tell every one to go to your website to give money, because that would be sharing that when it works. All right. So, so what are some of the challenges of, of working in this type of nation?
John (21:45):
Well, you know, every worker like myself missionary has to raise their own support and that’s difficult sometimes because in the age we live in what you do right now, it can be known five seconds later on the other side of the world. And so we have to be very careful and I’m even taking risks now with this broadcast podcast. But many times I’m just trusting the Lord of the Holy spirit to protect me and to cloak us, we’ve seen 150 missionaries kicked out of the country. I’m in, in the last two years. And even out of the city that we’re in, we’ve seen every missionary kicked out. We’re the only ones left. And I tell you I said to people in the God who brought me here will be the same guy who takes me out and I’m trusting him and he’s got me covered.
John (22:37):
And I, I believe that all the more reason we need to provide the materials like these books, the sleeping teachers, so that if an ever I am kicked out or forced to leave, we leave behind things that will help continue to equip and raise up leaders, you know, in those nations, in our nation. And so we’re focused on that. And so it’s challenging because we can’t do open evangelism. We can’t be too open. You know, where, where we’re at, about what we’re doing. We don’t have the word church written outside our church facility where we meet, we just, it’s by word of mouth people know. And we have a coffee house, coffee shop that we use as a front. And it’s a bridge to reach people with. It’s, it’s a way that we build relationships. And we’re, I believe we’re, first-class, we’re as good as Starbucks. And many customers come, we have many people come right in the center of our town and
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:46):
We’re able to, and you know, the people come in and they’ll say, I don’t know what it is about this place, but your atmosphere is wonderful. There’s such peace here. And it’s an opening door for us to walk through and begin to share the gospel with them, to introduce the Prince of peace to the people that come in for a cup of coffee. Yes. Well, for those who are listening, I would encourage you to begin to pray for the nations in the middle East, pray for the Muslim world, pray for those who are working in the Muslim world, they need your prayers, they need God’s protection. And I would encourage you if you know, someone who is working in one of these restricted access countries in the middle East, the Muslim majority world if you could help to support them. Sometimes it’s very difficult for them to ask for money.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:45):
Sometimes it’s very difficult for them to report with what God is actually doing, because even the reporting of it and showing pictures and, and sharing numbers would put their lives at risk. And so if you know, someone who’s is working one of these countries, telling people about Jesus, I encourage you to support them, find them and help them out because this is one of the areas in the world that, that desperately needs a witness of the saving power of Jesus Christ. Yes, brother. Thank you for being with me. Amen. I’m calling you John today. And so brother John, we appreciate you being with us. Thank you for being on the evangelism pod. Thank you for the privilege. God bless you and all those listening. Thank you so much for listening to the evangelism podcast. Could you do me a favor, go to Apple iTunes and leave the evangelism podcast with Daniel King a review and your review will help other people who are excited about evangelism to find this podcast. Thank you so much. And God bless you
Evangelism Podcast Host (25:55):
For more information about how to share your faith or to financially support our worldwide evangelistic outreaches. Visit King ministries.com. Again, that’s King ministries.com.
