Kamran Karimi was born in Iran. He leads The Voice of Freedom, a ministry dedicated to reaching people for Jesus in the nation of Iran. Since 2003 he has been ministering to the Farsi Speaking Muslim world through his television program. On today’s podcast, he talks about how to reach a nation that is closed off to many people in the West.
Show Notes:
Today, my guest is Kamran Karimi. He was born in Iran, but now he leads The Voice of Freedom, a ministry dedicated to reaching the Farsi Speaking Muslim world. His ministry has heard many testimonies of Muslims whose lives have been impacted by Jesus Christ.
The fastest growing church in the world is in Iran. The leadership of the church is 60% woman.
Website: http://www.thevof.org/
Book: In Allah They Trust
Tell us about your background? You were born in Iran, how did you come to live in the United States?
How did you get saved? Kamran shares about how he got saved through a combination of seeing a friend named Richard who got saved, watching a preacher on TV, and going to the church of Pastor Bob Yandian.
How did you get started in ministry? The moment Kamran got saved, he was called into the ministry to reach Muslims.
For many people in the West, the nation of Iran is somewhat of an enigma. Tell me about the country of Iran.
Your ministry helps people in Iran who are struggling with prostitution, drug addiction, and poverty. How do you help people with these issues?
Poverty: The official unemployment rate in Iran stands at 11.9 % – UN World Drug Report
According to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Iranian Resistance, “10 million people in Iran are living under the absolute poverty line.”
Drugs: “2.2 percent of Iranian adults are addicted to drugs, the highest rate in the world.” – UN World Drug Report
Prisoners: “Iran executes the second highest number of prisoners in the world annually, without right to fair trial, behind only China” – Amnesty International
Prostitution and Sex Slavery: 84,000 woman each year are sold into prostitution and sex slavery.
Since 2009, Iran was listed as 1 of 12 countries in the world with the poorest record of human trafficking.
In Tehran, there are an estimated 84,000 women and girls in prostitution, and an estimated 250 brothels that reportedly operate in the city.
As a result, child prostitution has risen 635%;
Dozens of Iranian girls flee their country and are brought to Arab countries, promised freedom,
But upon arriving they are in deeper slavery then when they left.
According to government officials, most of these girls are raped within 24 hours of their departure and used in the sex slavery trade. Other girls are sold into prostitution under the guise of a short-term marriage known as Sigheh.
Tell me about your underground church planting movement.
How do you reshape a culture?
Listen to Daniel King the Evangelism Coach on the Evangelism Podcast
Transcription:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Cameron Karimi was born in Iran. He leads the voice of freedom, a ministry dedicated to reaching people for Jesus in the nation of Iran. Since 2003, he’s been ministering to the first seed speaking Muslim world through his television program on today’s podcast, he talks about how to reach a nation that is completely closed off to many people in the West. Jesus said, go into all the world and preach the gospel. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord. Welcome to the evangelism podcast with dr. Daniel King, where Daniel interviews, full-time evangelists, pastors, missionary, 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. Well, I love Muslims and Muslims love me today. I am with a special guest who has a great heart for reaching the Muslim world. Cameron, Jeremy, me, welcome to the podcast so glad you could join me.
Kamran Karimi (01:17):
Good, Danielle. I appreciate you being with you and I love your heart for the people that you always are reaching and everywhere that I, you know, see you reaching out to, obviously you have a heart for reaching people and evangelism. So I think this is going to be a good podcast, a good time
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:35):
Together. So brother Cameron leads the voice of freedom, which is a ministry dedicated to reaching people for Jesus in the nation of Iran, since 2003, he’s been ministering to Farsi speaking Muslim world through his television program. And he was born in Iran. And so I wanted to ask you, tell us some about your, your background. How did you become a Christian? How did you end up here in the United States? Well, basically
Kamran Karimi (02:04):
I became a Christian in 1991. You know, I came to America in 1978, just a few months before the whole hell broke loose in Iran where the revolution took place. You know what I mean? I remember being in Iran. I was ninth grade, 15 years old, and my parents had told me if you get good grades, we’ll send you to America that year in 78. And my sister had just got married and moved to America with her husband that lived here before her. And so anyway, I got good grades in 78, July of 78. I migrated to U S Dallas, Texas. And and then right after that, everything just broke loose in Iran, the revolution, the major demonstrations that even the bloodshed that took place to the point that Shaw left Iran. And then not long after that in 79, early part of 79 Khomeini in and established Islamic Republic of Iran through that revolution and flew past 42 years now or so that tyrannical regime has been dominating the nation. But at the same time, this is really good. Actually. I always say that the, the you know, the best evangelist of all time that went to Iran was Ayatollah Khomeini, because he revealed and exposed the true nature of Islam in such a way that he pushed everybody into the arms of Jesus. They ran to Christ
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (03:37):
Because of the radical policies under his, his regime. People started looking for a new solution. And so, so you were, you were born in Iran and were you born to a Muslim family? Yeah,
Kamran Karimi (03:52):
I was, I was, my family were, you know, Muslims, you know, my mother was more of a nominal, but my dad was a practicing, you know,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:00):
What’d you say he was a devout Muslim and practice
Kamran Karimi (04:03):
Every day. You know, in Ramadan he fasted in, you know, what have you. And he was very you know, found fundamentalist so to speak, you know, so I was raised in that, around that I should say, of course I left the nation when I was 15, you know, but up to 15, I’d experienced a lot of that around me.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (04:24):
Yeah. And so then tell us, how did you become a believer? How did you meet Jesus
Kamran Karimi (04:29):
Came to the States, you know, about 1991 is when really things began to take place in my life. But prior to that, I had some what I call significant, like a defining moments that really kind of got my attention, didn’t commit to the Lord, or did know how to commit to the Lord. In fact, the first encounter with me happened to any Iran actually we had a two-story home, which we at least at the second story to this couple that were a Syrian Iranian Assyrians. That means they’re a Syrian Christians. Okay. Beautiful couple, just really wonderful people. Then I remember we had one line, one phone line in our home back in those days. So phone rang one day. This is really just touched my heart phone, rang my mom, my mother, it was for him. So my mom asked this is Google, you know, call mr. [inAudible]
Kamran Karimi (05:24):
Cause there’s a phone call for him. So I got him, he comes down and I’m just sitting there doing my thing. I’m about maybe 12 years old at this time. And what happened was he get up, gets off the phone and he’s sad. And my mom kinda inquired. He says, well, mr sandwich, I was the, what happened? You’re sad. What happened? He said, well, that was my mother. It was wintertime at the time. And she was asking me to she, that she needs the winter coat and we don’t have all the money. And neither you know is my wife and I in agreement because, you know, we limited funds, you know, we’re not in agreement to spend the money. So my mom turned around and told him, he said, why don’t you just go and then buy it for your mom. He’s your, she’s your mom, buy it for your mom? And don’t say anything to your wife. And I never forget his response. That was just like a Mack truck that hit me when, when I heard that. And I wasn’t even listening necessarily on their conversation, but he says, mrs. Scary me. We don’t do that. That’s the line.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:23):
Wow. So, so you had an encounter with someone who wanted to call the laws of God. Yeah,
Kamran Karimi (06:29):
Exactly. I mean, he was a Christian and, and there was a difference in there. I mean, the way he expressed that it really impacted me. So that was my first, you know, I didn’t say anything about that to anybody. I just kinda kept that he’d really was significant enough that I kept it in my heart. And then I migrated, it came to America and and I remember in college days I had a college roommate that had some Iranian college roommate that had foster a foster family that you could I found out, obviously they were Christians, they were practicing Christians. They were evangelicals there. You could tell they were full of the Holy spirit and they had this potluck dinner. And of course in college
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:13):
Food always talked. So of course invited us to there
Kamran Karimi (07:17):
Like dinner, if you will look like this thing that, that was there. So we showed up and it was actually a Bible study. And I don’t remember them. I don’t remember the topic that they were talking about, but that right there, you know, the word says, the Bible says that the word of God does not return void. And I believe whatever that was shared, that in that potluck dinner, you went for the food, but we got heavenly manner. If you will. Something deposited into my heart that I haven’t forgotten that couple. I don’t know. I think the last thing was David’s if I’m not mistaken, but, and I remember him, he was like a stocky guy and a older kind of guy, but super beautiful people want it w there was this aura around them, this beautiful spirit. So that was another like a defining moment or one of those
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:02):
Highlights of me being
Kamran Karimi (08:04):
Exposed to Christianity, a real Christianity, because everybody calls themselves Christian in America practically, but that was a difference. There was something different about this family that really marked me as far as that goes, and then fast forward to 1991. This is when I remember I had actually in 2000, I had had a friend of mine that, you know, I was in car business at the time I was managing a dealership in Tulsa, a big dealership. And he, this other friend of mine was also managing a different dealership. And I used to see him in the nightlife, you know, going to the clubs and stuff like that. And I run into him and be partied, so to speak. And then I have saw Richard vanished from the whole nightlife scene. And I had heard that Jesus or Richard got born again.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:54):
Wow. So he partying,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:56):
Oh, you heard that there was a difference in his life. I heard he was born again.
Kamran Karimi (09:00):
So the next thing that I basically happens from here is, but two years later from this incident, I walk into the,uwalking at,uin my workplace one morning and there’s Richard, they, they, the dealership I’ve hired him to be a manager alongside of me. And now I’m looking at Richard. I was surprised to see him there, but I look at him, he’s the same Richard physically, but there was something significant, different, significantly different about him. And that got my attention to the point that I began to observe him. I begin to listen to the way he operated and everything. And I remember the first thing he said to me, when that, that first day he says, you know, Cameron, I’m going to tell you something. He wasn’t necessarily Bible thumping me, but you know, he began to talk to me. He says, you didn’t come when he said, God wants to make a covenant with you.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:48):
So he was planting seeds into your life.
Kamran Karimi (09:50):
He began to relationally reach out in such a way where before that, even through some other relationships that were even closer to me than then Richard and I were they tried to stuff Christianity down my throat. And I ran further and further away from Jesus. When through these relationships, it was more of a religious thing that they were doing. And it was just, it wasn’t, there was no life in it. They way they’re approaching me. But then Richard comes in and there’s definitely something different about him. And it got my attention and that begin to observe every move he made. And every action he took, as far as that, you were watching him, Oh yeah, I was watching him and he says, God wants to make a covenant with you. And he wants to bless your life. And I had never heard anything like that. Really. Prior to that, those people that I’m talking about, the old said, well, you know, you know, God doesn’t want you to prosper. God wants you to be sick. God wants you to be broke. You learn, you learn.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (10:49):
God’s angry with you. He’s mad at you. Well, why do I want your Jesus? And Richard says, God wants to make a covenant with you. And bless you. That’s really the blessing of Abraham. That’s exactly. Right. In fact, I was pondering on that just before I was coming here right now.
Kamran Karimi (11:04):
And, and that’s, that’s what got my attention to the point that I literally observed him for about a year. And I continued in my old way, still partying and this and that, but I don’t remember one night in 1991 August,uI came home from a party and I’m looking at myself, I’m washing my, you know, my face and brushing my teeth about to go to bed,uhigher than a kite, if you will. And,ulooking at myself in the mirror. And I said, God, if this is what life is all about, it’s not worth living. And I turned around and said, you know, God, if you’re real, please make yourself real to me. And I’ll never forget. I went to live in my living room, turned the TV on before I went to bed. And there was images of desert storm war where United States was,usending the scuds into Baghdad. And that literally scared the out of me.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (11:54):
Wow.
Kamran Karimi (11:55):
You know, you’ve really scared me to the point that I flipped the channel. And when I flipped the channel, it was, it went on this next channel was like a Christian. I don’t know what this meant, who this man was, what you were saying. But the peace of God came all over me that Friday night. And then the next day I go to work and Saturdays were our busy days. And at the end of the day, Richard reaches out to me. He says the camera, why don’t you go to church with me to tomorrow? You know? And so he insisted, and finally, can I consent it? I went to church with him. And when I walked into that church, there was like 2000 people in this church. And they were all like Richard hands raised up in heaven. It was a charismatic word of faith church, Bob. Yandian great.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:41):
This fellowship. Yeah. Great. [inaudible]
Kamran Karimi (12:44):
Worship was amazing. I said, man, I didn’t even know you could do this in a church. I’d never seen a church that worship so freely. And then the next thing that happens is pastor Bob comes up and begins to share. And he began to share that you have heard, it said that you should love your neighbor and hate your enemies. But I say unto you, Jesus is talking. You should love your enemies. Bless those who, despite who they use you. And that that’s totally
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:12):
Outside of Islam
Kamran Karimi (13:15):
Totally. That’s what got my attention. And I remember saying to myself, well, that’s a new concept. You know? I said, how do you do that? How do you love your enemies? And that marked me. And I tell you Daniel, when I heard pastor Bob share, and I’ve said this to him, a couple of different times that I ran into him. And I thank God for that man of God. His words were like this glass of water, this cold glass of water. I’m holding in my hand right here for a man that’s been in a desert all his life. Those that those words were like soothing my heart. Wow. And he got my attention to the point that I wanted to keep going back with Richard. So I did that for four months and God began to move in my life. Even though I had not committed those first four months from August to December, I’m not committed to the Lord, but I tell you what, every time I went to church, I got something out of what he was saying.
Kamran Karimi (14:08):
He had a way of community. I remember telling myself that man talking about pastor Bob really does believe what he’s saying. You know, it came across that way. Whereas before when I had there, others make comments about Jesus, there was no conviction in it. There was no convincing in it. You know, there was no faith in it, but I could sense the presence of faith coming through his words. And it really began to touch me. And the Lord began to just really touch me in my business where I was. And we’re like a past seven, eight years in the car business that I was at an always reaching for these goals and everything. And always come in short. And I was a hard worker dedicated to my work and all that. But in those four or four first four months, everything I desired and dreamed about God did.
Kamran Karimi (14:54):
And I knew it was Jesus doing it. That got my attention. So I’ll never forget that this was a defining moment in my life, December of 91, sitting in my living room crying because of the goodness of God that he had shown me, tears running down my face. I said, God, I know there is more to this. I don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing in my life. And I know there is more, whatever that more is. I want it. I was really crying out for salvation. I wasn’t ready for a relationship. Okay. I didn’t know. I couldn’t word it that way, but that’s what it was. And I tears running down my face. I cried out to God that way turned the TV on. And flipping through the channel. I came across a Christian program and there was this man on TV, showing miracles, taking place in his ministry.
Kamran Karimi (15:43):
And people are saying how they got healed, this, that, and all that. And I’m just like totally skeptical about what’s happening. Got my attention completely. I’m thinking it’s skeptical. This is I’m being skeptical. I think he’s like like staging all this stuff. But I remember telling God, I said, God, if these miracles are real, please make it real to me. And that was the most amazing thing question or that I asked, I believe or statement I made immediately after I said that that man’s program ended he’s back in it. Those clips ended. He came back into the studio and he pointed his finger at the camera. He says, there’s a young man you’re watching right now would have knowledge began to flow. And he says, you just told the Lord. If these miracles are real to make it real to you, well, God’s going to make that real to you. Jesus is going to make that real to you. And I’ll tell you what he verbatim quoted at me and my hair in the back of my neck was standing up. And he said that doesn’t the presence of God came into my
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:48):
Listening to the Holy spirit in saying what the Holy spirit, absolutely what you had just said.
Kamran Karimi (16:52):
And that got my attention to the point. And he says, not you people at home. We’re going to take communion here in the studio. You at home, take communion with us. Not even know what communion was, but I do know this. I had been to church a few times. There was a little bread some juice that we took. So I went and ran into my fridge, grab some bread, got some juice. And Danny went up, put that bread in my mouth. The glory of God showed up in my living room. Wow. Then tire in our atmosphere changed. I knew someone greater than myself, walked in the manifest presence of God showed up and I was scared. So you actually
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:29):
Got saved taking communion right there.
Kamran Karimi (17:32):
Wow. That’s exactly what happened. And I heard the Lord, I actually heard this in my heart. I was scared. I closed my eyes. And when I closed my eyes, I could see Jesus standing in front of me. I was scared to open my eyes because maybe he’s actually standing in front of me. That’s the way I thought I’m seeing him. I’m just really perplexed with this experience. And all that had happened like this, you know, and what happened was the Lord says, Cameron, he calls me by my name. He says, not only does miracles raise your name. Absolutely. He says, not only are those miracles are real, but I have called you to take my saving presence and healing presence to this generation and to your people. And the moment he said to your people, I knew he was talking about Muslims. And I said, Lord, you don’t know
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:15):
The moment you got saved. God called you into ministry, right?
Kamran Karimi (18:19):
. I said, Lord, you don’t know these Muslims. He says, Cameron, I created them. Of course I know them. He says, the only thing is they don’t know me. And I’m going to prepare you and send you to them. So you can introduce me to them. And that was the defining moment where everything shifted. Prior to that, I read the Bible. Didn’t make any sense. Now I’m reading the Bible and it’s speaking to me. And the living word of God became alive inside of my heart. I got born again. That was my experience. Begin to pray in this heavenly language. After that, you know, things began to really expedite in my life. And then like, what nine months later from there I found myself going to Bible school, Victoria, B VBI and all that hungry for the word of God. I mean, I would spend hours in the Bible, devouring God’s word prior, even to the Bible, it really transformed your thinking.
Kamran Karimi (19:13):
That’s it always say this Daniel, you know, to those that may be watching or hearing this where’s that goes, I’ll say, if you ever see Jesus, you’ll never be the same. You know, Jesus wants to manifest himself and I’m not talking about physically seen him with your physical eyes on you could that’s happening in the Muslim world a lot where people are seeing Jesus appeared to them in visions and dreams and supernaturally encounters. But the reality of it is as however he reveals himself to you. When you have that encounter, you’re marked forever. You are completely something shifts in your life. And the key about it is there’s a lot of people don’t have that encounter. And the key is they’re not even, they think it’s just for select few. That’s not the case. Jesus wants to manifest himself to everybody and wants to reach out to everybody.
Kamran Karimi (20:03):
You know, I’ve got a message I shared, which is part of my testimony and then show examples of different people who have these kind of encounters like apostle Paul or job, or or Moses, you know, where they encountered God face to face and everything about their life changed as far as that goes called encounters with God, as far as that goes. So, you know, I really believe God wants to encounter every single person on this planet. If we get simple enough, as far as opening our hearts and say, God, however you pleased to come into my life, open myself, come. And I believe when we are sincere like that, Jesus shows up
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:41):
Amen. Glory to God, what a beautiful testimony. That’s so awesome. Let’s shift the conversation a little bit and talk about the nation of Iran, which you’re, you’re called to. And I was looking at your, your website a little bit and it was showing some, some statistics about the needs there in Iran and into the people here in the West, I ran is a little bit of an enigma. It’s very difficult for us to understand it. It’s been closed since the revolution in 1979 and even often viewed as an enemy of the United States. But all the people I’ve met from Iran have been beautiful people and wonderful people, very warm and very hospitable. And so I think if you ask people in Iran, if they wanted to be friends with the United States, I think most of them would say, absolutely
Kamran Karimi (21:30):
Any of them. I say 99% of them would say yes.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:33):
Yeah. So, so tell us some about Iran and about the needs there and in what your ministry is doing to meet those needs.
Kamran Karimi (21:41):
I want to say this concerning the closed doors in here on, even though the natural doors are closed because of this regime, that’s in Iran. That is about to, I believe it’s going to be uprooted very quickly. It’s already begun, okay. Even though the doors are closed, but the open, the people’s hearts are open to the gospel, you know, the fastest growing church right now in the world. I’m not sure if you are aware of this or not. It is taking place in Iran, the fastest growing church in the world, faster than the church in China, it’s taking place in Iran. And what’s amazing about this. The it’s the leadership of the church is 60% women glory to God. And it’s very decentralized leadership, as far as that goes. Meaning like there’s not a building, this is all underground movement. And, and women that have been in prostitution, which is a huge thing that’s going on in Iran because of the unemployment and the pressure and all this stuff that’s going on there. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:39):
I read that the official unemployment rate in Iran is that 11.9%
Kamran Karimi (22:45):
Official that the government has released. But actually it is a whole lot higher than that.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:50):
According to the foreign affairs committee of the national council of Iranian resistance, 10 million people in Iran are living under the absolute poverty line. So that is very, very good.
Kamran Karimi (23:02):
And those, those numbers are little, a few years back. So with the sanctions that’s been put on Iran recently through president Trump and all that, that’s really bringing this regime to its knee. It’s even higher numbers than that. I know I feel for my people because of the sanctions, but I believe it is a necessary thing to take place in order to, for them to rise up, see the people have to rise up and overthrow the regime and that’s about that’s what’s happening. And there’s been demonstrations and protests. People are rising up and doing that. And I believe more importantly, I believe that the church in Iran is rising up in their spirit and using their God, given authority in prayer to bring about what I call a, an awakening, a revival and a reformation in Iran.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:55):
So some of the issues there would be poverty and then also drug addiction and prostitution. There’s 84,000 women each year sold into prostitution in insects
Kamran Karimi (24:11):
Even more. Now those are a few years old, the rates numbers. Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:15):
Wow. And so what is your, your ministry doing to help people that are drug addicted, who are caught up in, in the sex slavery?
Kamran Karimi (24:25):
Well, the th th I believe this with all my heart, do you want me to the way the Lord said it to me back in 2001, we launched this ministry in 2000, in a one the Lord spoke to me, he says, I want you to get on television. You know, I was in California at my sister’s house, flipping through the channels, came across in the Iranian television station. And I didn’t even know there was an Iranian station in America. This was based in California. And the Lord says, I want you to get on that network and preach the gospel to Iran.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (24:53):
And so your program is called the voice of freedom. And now, which is the most aired into Iran,
Kamran Karimi (25:00):
All of Iran, all of Europe and all of North Africa and even parts of North America,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:05):
Just I ran into it’s all Farsi speaking
Kamran Karimi (25:08):
Signal carries through that whole region of middle East, as I’ve got calls as far East, as Seoul, Korea, Iranians, and Seoul, Korea have reached out to me.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:18):
Wow. That’s amazing. And so you are, are airing this program. How often does it air?
Kamran Karimi (25:25):
We, we broadcast six days a week. It’s a half hour show and it repeats three times a day and people get it via satellite, satellite television. Yeah. You know, 99% of Iranians have satellite television because that’s the only source of entertainment they have. Therefore we have a captive audience.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (25:41):
And so then you’re hearing testimonies from people who are watching the program. And what are they saying to you?
Kamran Karimi (25:49):
One of the most predominant results that we’ve seen as a result of this, these programs that are being aired is people are being delivered from suicide. You know, many, many, many testimonies have come to us that they were on the verge of suicide. And they came across our program. And the spirit of God just literally invaded their hearts and led them away from committing suicide. As far as, and now they’re disciples of Christ. They gave their life to Christ. You know, because of see, the thing is because of the circumstances in Iran, the oppressive circumstances, unemployment that we were talking about, prostitution, drug, addiction, really, all of that is a result of hopelessness. I always say this when you steal people’s hope and Iranian regime has clearly done that. Why? Because they want to control the, they want to control the regime, the control, the population.
Kamran Karimi (26:46):
So they don’t rise up against them, but it’s too late already. I could truly say it’s too late. But because of that, what happens is that hopelessness drives people into those different behaviors that really, they don’t want to do that. But because of the circumstances they’re in, they’re trying to escape the hopelessness. And ultimately it leads them to it tries to lead them into committing suicide. And we have seen so many different testimonies come to us that I was on the verge of basically hanging myself or cutting my wrist. And then I came across your program and I heard in my heart what you were saying, and I received
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (27:29):
You’ve Christ in your words are giving hope. That’s it. They’re talking about the hope that comes from Jesus Christ.
Kamran Karimi (27:34):
Absolutely. We are the voice of freedom. I call it that week. And I’m like, John, a voice crying out into wilderness prepared the way of the Lord. You know, what is it? We’re making it preparing a way into people’s hearts, asking them to open their hearts. So freedom can come in. I believe when Jesus comes in, freedom comes in. So we want to establish freedom. And just like, you know, I, you know, people ask me, so tell me about your ministry and what it’s all about. I said, well, six words. Describe the voice of freedom. What we do is be equipped nationals towards there. We established, or we reshaped cultures and we establish freedom, you know, on every one of those words I could preach for hours on, as far as that goes and teach on it, as far as that goes. But I really believe to answer your question about what are we doing?
Kamran Karimi (28:21):
We’re bringing the word. I believe everything starts with the word. When the Lord spoke to me back in 2001 about getting on the television network. And he said it to me is this, I want you to seed Iran with my word and believe me for a harvest of salvation. So I believe everything starts with a word. The Bible says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God. And the word was God. So when you plant the seed of God’s word into a nation, into people’s ears and hearts and eyes, that word doesn’t return void, and it will bring the harvest of the very word and you’re speaking into their lives. And we are seeing it. That’s why I really believe this, that this fastest growing church that’s taking place in Iran is a result of the words that’s been sewn into the nation. Not only just to our ministry, there’s a handful of other great ministries alongside with us that they are preaching the gospel into Iran. And we are seeing an amazing result.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (29:18):
Tell me about your underground church planting movement, because your goal is ultimately to plant churches across Iran.
Kamran Karimi (29:26):
You know, we started obviously with a television program. Are you able
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (29:30):
To talk about it it’s underground? Are you able to, yeah, we
Kamran Karimi (29:32):
Are. We’re not naming names and we’re not giving an address as far as that goes, but generally speaking, this is a, this is common for those that are in touch with missions, if you will. But generally speaking, the thing about it is this that, you know when, when we first started the television program, people would receive that half hour show and then they would respond. We were getting thousands of phone calls every week to the point, frankly, that I w I couldn’t handle all the phone calls, you know, that were coming in. So then they, the next thing that they said was I would hear this consistently through our constituents that were listening, watching, and they said, so what do we do next? We, we want more. So dad led into having us go like to Istanbul, Turkey and other places, Armenia in Dubai, different places and conduct like week long meetings to the point that it all ultimately reached extended to two week meeting.
Kamran Karimi (30:29):
And then what we did was we actually started doing these four months, what I call intensive trainings, and all of it was geared to helping those that would come to those trainings to first and foremost, find out who they are. Okay. The word of God, not only first healed them completely. They have to get free, you know, from all the mindsets that were contrary to the gospel. Okay. What Islam has placed in them where they’re reeling the, or unwillingly by them. But the reality of it was this, that the word was, has setting them free healing them. And then the next thing that we emphasized on about, for them to discover who they really are, that’s what we did in our training. And then I always tell him, I said, when you find out who you are after you’re healed, the next thing that I find you find out is what he has actually created you for what you’re supposed to do, your calling, you know, and in that process, when we went through that first training program, the next part of it was began to really emphasize that your purpose is to take this gospel and make disciples of the nations.
Kamran Karimi (31:35):
And you can start right here, right at your own home, visit your very own family. Start with your family, your family members. It doesn’t come under detection. Absolutely. And they would go back and they began to reach out to their family members. We would tell them, I said, it all starts with praying for them. You don’t need to tell them that you’re praying for them. You don’t need to show it in front of them. You just, in your secret place began to stand. And we would show them like the Ephesians prayer, praying for, you know, a spirit of wisdom and revelation to come to them and all that. So we would, you know, challenge them to pray for their families. And then as they began to inquire of the change, that’s taken place in them. Now you had a platform to begin to share. What’s happened to you. I gave him your testimony, share your, your, your story. And as a result of that, the family would come to Christ. And then next thing you know, the family is reaching out to the extended family because family in Iran is very big. You know, it’s not just your immediate family, it’s your aunts and uncles and your cousins. And so once you reach one person,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (32:40):
Then you can reach the entire family. They start going and ,
Kamran Karimi (32:45):
They should have the house church movement. And then of course the other part of it was we emphasize on this as well. It all begins with prayer. You have to be grounded and we would teach them how to pray, you know, really emphasize on the baptism of the Holy spirit and praying in tongues, because, you know, you can pray in your natural mother language so long, so much, but we emphasize on praying the word as well as praying in the spirit, praying in unknown in our heavenly language. Okay. And as we pray in heaven, an average Bible says that we are praying the perfect will of God. So when we were targeting our family members, praying in tongues, Holy spirit knows how to reach them and bring him in and creates the opportunity for those to begin to ask questions. And then once the question is asked, now you have the opportunity to share the gospel with them based on your testimony. And what’s happened to you. We saw thousands upon thousands of people come to Christ. The point that next thing you know, when the next meeting we would do, we did about four meetings a year in different various parts of the world over there in the middle East. But next thing you know, they would bring their brothers and sisters and they would bring their mom and dads. And,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (33:53):
And it’s a whole family is being transformed. I heard you say that you want to reshape the culture of Iran. What does that look like? What would you like to reshape it into?
Kamran Karimi (34:04):
Well, you know, there’s a lot of in every culture that we have our own earthly cultures in every nation in America, we have our culture, you know, in Iran, we have our cultures, they’re all different from each other, but really ultimately is bringing heaven’s culture and giving it precedence over our natural earthly cultures. That’s really reshaping cultures, you know, in Hebrews 11
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (34:32):
To turn the culture into the heavens Kevin’s culture, correct? Instead of earthly color, which early culture is focused on, on making money, greed hate sometimes. But the heavenly culture is about giving, loving others.
Kamran Karimi (34:48):
I’d like to say this with a heavenly culture is founded upon the fruit of the spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, kindness, goodness. You know self-control. Those are the characteristics of the heaven’s culture. And when you establish that and in people’s lives, you are shifting society. You’re bringing heaven’s ways of doing things into a heart, into a life, into a family and into a society. And all that, you know, the scripture says in Hebrews 11, three by faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. Okay? Now that word was framed. That word over here says the world. The world is not talking about that. I studied that out. It’s not talking about the planets. It’s talking about eons generations. That’s what it’s talking about. That means families and generations were framed by a word, a word from God, God gave a word to Abraham and he reshaped his entire family.
Kamran Karimi (35:54):
Okay. So the key is this, that word altered is also means that word, a frame, excuse me. It was altered by the word of God was altered. It’s actually framed is altered. So shift reshaping takes place. When heaven’s kingdom comes, it takes precedence over your natural way of thinking your traditions. You have to make Roman. And we emphasize that quite a bit that you have to be willing. If he is Lord in your life, you have to be willing to even let go of your own tradition. If need ne I’m not talking about just company new reject in it, but you don’t give it precedence over heaven’s kingdom. Heaven’s culture. You know, that’s a really emphasizing and I’m showing it through the word to them that, you know, when the word of God takes precedence over every part of your life, that’s been changed to expects. That’s when things begin to reshape into the original plan, that’s why Jesus said, pray that your kingdom come on earth. As it is in heaven. See God fully expects us to have his kingdom established. How does that work? It happens in a life when the kingdom comes in a life and everything should shift and it starts with the word of God. And it starts with the characteristics that God’s word reveals to us.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (37:18):
Amen. Well, let’s finish with a word of prayer for the people of Iran. Dear heavenly father, we pray for Iran. We pray for the people of Iran. We pray that Jesus would be lifted up in the nation of Iran in that all of Iran would come to know you as their Lord and savior in jesus’ name. I pray. Amen. Thank you for being on the podcast. Thank you so much.
Kamran Karimi (37:43):
No for having me. I appreciate you, my brother, God bless you.
Evangelism Podcast Host (37:46):
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