Reason No. 5: God’s Glory
A friend of mine, a missionary whose identity I won’t reveal, recently shared with me his conviction that the current surge in radicalism in the Arab world right now is a counter-reaction to the revival that’s unfolding—not vice-versa.
He believes that the seeds of the current revival really began once the Bible started to become available in the Arabic language, and that the enemy has attempted to quench this revival unsuccessfully through terrorism.
How counter is that to those of us watching from the West—whose first exposure to Islam was on 9/11 and who only now have heard about the dreams and visions awakening the Muslim world.
The Spirit of Jesus was on the ground first!
But as we look at the Middle East, it’s hard to believe that a land of such spiritual darkness can be home to such an incredible work. That’s because we forget two things: (1) God’s plan to get all the glory, and (2) our own darkness before Christ.
God is a God of love who is eagerly planning ways to reveal his power in the sight of all kinds of peoples and nations, so that everyone would acknowledge him (read Psalm 67). The Great Commission is the culmination of that vision—proclaiming the excellences of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light to the ends of the earth!
And though witnessing to Muslims may be daunting to us, were we not equally trapped in darkness before the Holy Spirit began drawing us to the cross? Were we any better off, spiritually speaking, amid the lies the American cultural religion told us? Did we come to God by some grant act of the intellect that only we were capable of?
No. We did not.
God is glorified in pouring out his love on stony hearts. He is glorified in making the seed take root and bear fruit on the thorniest of ground.
He is glorified in doing the impossible.
This is the God we serve. He sent Jesus Christ to the world, and now he has sent us to the world too—including to Muslims. Will we go?
For anyone seeking to support the work of reaching Muslims overseas and here at home, I strongly encourage you take a look at the work of Arabic Bible Outreach Ministry, as well as Frontiers and Gospel for Asia’s Muslim outreach. I also highly recommend Answering Islam and What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Qur’an as resources.
Though the nature of Muslim ministry is often sensitive due to security matters, let the Holy Spirit lead you to pray, give and go however he desires—and by all means, reach out to Muslims where you already live in the power, love and truth of the Spirit.
Alex Kocman is a former associate editor and writer for Christian Life News and Charisma News with a background in biblical studies. You can read his blog or follow him on Twitter via @ajkocman.
