Throughout the Middle East

After serving eight years throughout most of the South American Continent, the Holy Spirit sent us to the Middle East several times to offer spiritual strength and guidance to pastors who were navigating through the new, swelling tide of Islam.  Beginning in 2005 through 2011, we organized and implemented several Church-leadership conferences where virtually all the evangelical pastors of some Middle Eastern countries participated, and various pastors from others did too.  We met in many places, including in secluded locations in Baghdad, in a private mountain hotel bordering Iran, in a remote hotel in the oldest city in the world, Jerash, Jordan, in an exclusive hotel in downtown Amman (with members of the National Assembly), and the Palestinian-controlled West Bank in Israel - including church leaders from Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, and Iraq.  These conferences made a way for pastors to freely exchange information that was particular to their given area, along with spiritual direction and encouragement for the days and years ahead.

As a result of the leadership position God gave us, the Spirit of the Lord helped us answer many spiritual questions throughout that era for many faithful pastors and church leaders.  Along with teaching the Word of God, we expounded on scriptures dealing particularly with the issues of Islam throughout that time and years ahead. 

Several years after our last trip to the Middle East (trips lasting two to four months each), the former President of the Evangelical Churches of Iraq, Nabil Sarah (currently living and teaching in the Dallas area), told me that "everything" I sensed that the Spirit of the Lord showed me to tell them throughout my time in the Middle East, about what they should prepare for "had proven to be true."  I could not find the words to express my joy in knowing that they had truly benefited in meaningful ways from our time there.  I'd go back again tomorrow if the Holy Spirit told me to go, but my time there is done.  


Some interesting facts about our journey around the world (it's not over yet):

1.  Of the thousands of pastors and church leaders we spoke to, the vast majority probably had much more of formal education than me.  Formal education can be beneficial, but it is not God's priority in qualifying His candidates for sending someone to speak for Him.  He has more wisdom than all the world combined a trillion times over.  The love of His Word, humility, willingness, a genuine pursuit for righteous and holy living, and faith are all critical to Him sending anyone.

2.  The most intimidating place He ever sent me was to Oxford, England, where I was overshadowed for days by dozens of scholars with PHD's (some with more than one or even two PHDs), who were speaking on Islam's past, present, and future influence in the world.  I learned a lot of important facts that would help me while working among so many churches in predominantly Muslim countries, but the most important thing I learned was that God "resists the proud and gives grace to the humble" (James 4:67).  Oxford is not the go-to place for the humble.

3.  Immediately after returning from preaching and teaching in the Amazon jungle regions of Brazil, we had meetings scheduled in Bolivia. In Santa Cruz, I was being interviewed by a popular Christian-radio commentator who asked me where the most difficult place I ever preached or taught the Word of God was.  He knew that I had just returned from deep in the Amazon and fully anticipated my answer to be there, but it was not.  I told him the most difficult place I ever tried to preach or teach the things of God was in the pulpits of the United States of America, and any place else where Christianity had been free to roam for a significant period of time.  Because of our no-holds-barred handling of the Bible in America, we have so corrupted, diluted, and convoluted the gospel message, and love to have it so.  It is indeed, the most difficult place to proclaim truth that I've ever been.  That commentator was surprised at my answer, but I think he understood what I was trying to convey.  More importantly, I hope some of his regular audience, consisting of tens of thousands of evangelical Bolivians, understood too.

4. The quietest response I ever received after making a simple proclamation of the need for salvation was while on an airplane.  I was flying in an Airbus 320 (largest two-engine passenger plane) when one of the engines suddenly made a loud explosive noise mid-flight and stopped working.  Everyone on the plane gasped and then went totally silent.  I interrupted that silent moment by suggesting that if anyone onboard had not met Jesus Christ as Savior, now would be a good time.  It became even more silent.  It wouldn't surprise me if at least a few out of the couple of hundred folks onboard gave it some thought.  I wasn't aware of anyone taking me up on it, but I did get a few mean stares.  We made an emergency landing in a relatively small city somewhere near Paraguay (don't remember where); and the plane that was sent the following day to rescue us caught on fire in mid-flight and had to turn back.  That gave me a few days to share the gospel of Jesus with a few English-speaking passengers on the ground.  Maybe God had a divine plan for one of them.

5.  One of the most memorable moments I ever had was while preaching as keynote speaker in the famed Sialkot Convention of Pakistan.  It was started by Praying (John) Hyde about one-hundred years before, and had continued almost every year since then.  It was a week-long event where traditionally, the many thousands of Christians throughout Pakistan migrated each year to hear and learn from their national church leaders, and to hear an international guest speaker.  I was honored to be invited seven years in a row, though the Lord didn't lead me to go but twice.  In one of those meetings, with 10 - 20,000 in attendance, I was teaching on God's desire to be worshiped in spirit and in truth rather than in religious form or cultural fashion.  When I spoke about uplifted hands, I taught them the significance of raising our hands to Him (sometimes) in worship.  This was not their custom at all, and at first, it was very uncomfortable for them.  As I continued on this theme, however, and stopped on a few occasions to demonstrate, some of them began to sheepishly lift their hands with me until finally, thousands did.  The release and new-found freedom could be seen on their faces and felt in the air.  Needless to say, I shed some tears in those moments as I saw so many discovered freedom of expression in their worship to God for the first time ever.

There are so many miracles and meaningful, memorable moments that I could share.  God has shown Himself mightily.  A book could not contain them all, I don't believe.  And it continues today! 

Update:
Right now, the Church in America and around the world is in a unique time - a very unique time.  We are at the tip end of this age, and God is dividing His own from those who are not His but merely profess to be.  There is a great mix that He is sorting out; and it's only just begun to show up.  There are still not many listeners to Truth yet.  Most of America's churches are much like the five condemned churches of the Seven Churches of Asia (Rev. 2-3): some, having forsaken our First Love; others are morally compromised; some are disqualified by the spirit of religion; still others that appear to be alive are dead; and finally, most boast of "having need of nothing," but are "wretched, blind and naked" spiritually.

There is a famine of the hearing of the Word of the Lord (Amos 8:11) that there is a famine of the Word of the Lord proclaimed.  So few are willing to hear, God is not willing to speak on a large scale right now.  We have no choice but to wait until He gives opportunity again; and that, He will surely do.  It is not easy to wait, but the present options are laborious, competitive, and bear little if any fruit.

As long as there is a single thread for American Christians to hang on to Christian faith and practice American style, we won't let go of our comfortable Christianity, grab hold of God's divine hand and learn what it really means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, individually, and together.

Beginning twenty-five years ago, we believe the Holy Spirit showed us that such a moment would come before the return of our Lord to receive His Bride.  We have put the vision before all - a vision of leaving where we are spiritually to go where He is.  There will be more division, then implosion of church norms, then building the Bride from the remnant.

We are in the first stage of that moment now - the stage of dividing.  The Church is dividing itself over four primary issues at this time: 1) whether or not to adopt the current cultural trends of immorality, 2) whether or not to give in to the pressures of WOKE-ness; 3) which side to stand on in the rising tide of antisemitism; and 4) which political candidate (s) to stand behind for a rescue that won't ever happen in our doomed society.  There is more division to come - much more.

The shaking of the world around us has begun in a way that we've never seen before, and the Christian world is so intertwined with the secular world that the Christian world is shaking too.  We are witnessing a two-fold judgment that is going to go a long way in separating "the sheep" from "the goats" among us.

The sheep are going to come out of forms, traditions, fads, Charismatic spirit-ism, and all other wayward paths of Christianity, and that remnant will begin to gather in smaller pockets everywhere, longing for nothing but Him.  Nobody's going to long for past experiences in faith, but for more of Him than ever discovered.  He will meet us there.  That's when I, and many others like me who are in waiting, will have the opportunity to "feed the sheep" the wonderful things pertaining to God and Godliness.  First, however, His own must grow weary of just "doing church."

We long to see that day of separation come even though we will all be ostracized, and many will even be persecuted.  The best part is that we will finally grow up together into His image, having forsaken ours!  It will be a glorious time when He will make us glorious!