A CHRISTIAN who was jailed in Iran was told that if Christians would simply agree to stop evangelizing, all the prisoners would be freed. Church leaders point to this as evidence that Christians in Iran follow the instructions of the Lord and share their faith.
“One imprisoned female Christian, though facing health challenges, says she has had the opportunity to lead three people to the Lord, including a criminal on death row, making her trial worthwhile.”767
Pastor Irani, whose hair has turned white in an Iranian prison addresses the Christians in Iran with a letter:
“Despite the pressure and difficulties in prison, I am pleased to share, what is like a fountain, my Christian joy with you in the new special days to come. And I know that you, who are the saints and spiritual children of God, are acquainted with this joy. As a minister of God, I allow myself to announce you to be happy. Know that all the happiness that we have on earth is the first fruit of that great joy provided for us in heaven. The Father provides. I understand your worries at a time of reported persecution, which forced some of you to flee abroad. However, please pay attention to what God says in Matthew in the Bible: ‘Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?’”768
Another Christian Pastor Farshid Fathi has been detained in prison since December 2010. He was charged with possessing religious propaganda. The evidence presented by the regime was that Pastor Fathi had Bibles printed in Farsi, that he had unlawfully distributed Bibles, and that he possessed Christian literature. The regime argued that his Christian activities were equivalent to actions against national security. Pastor Fathi is presently serving a 6-year sentence in Iran’s notorious Evin prison. His crime is being a Christian and freely exercising his faith. Pastor Fathi has a wife Leila and two children, Rosana and Bardia. They suffer with him.
Under an oppressive regime—such as Iran’s government— believers who share their faith can be reported for apostatizing from the Muslim faith. Yet there is a Holy Spirit boldness in many in the underground Church to share their faith publicly and daily with other Iranians. Believers share their faith with people in the buses, taxis, in the shops, and even when stopped at a red light. The openness in many hearts for the truth is such that some Iranians, when given the truth of the Gospel, want to accept it right away.
They do not hold any special crusades, rallies or any type of evangelism outreaches. All the Iranian believers go about their daily lives, sharing the Gospel with many they come across. Because none of them are foreign missionaries they blend right in with their country and culture and are therefore able to share their faith naturally in daily life.
An example of this boldness and obedience to the Holy Spirit is that of a Christian whose car was stopped at a red light in Tehran. The believer felt led of the Holy Spirit to get out of his car, knock on the window of another car and give the driver a New Testament. They also exchanged phone numbers and, shortly after that, the man who received the New Testament believed on Christ. When he met with the man that gave him the Scriptures, the new convert testified that he had felt an overwhelming desire to follow the believer’s car and for 20 minutes had driven behind the Christian throughout the streets of Tehran not knowing why. This is the way the Holy Spirit is working and drawing many to Christ by what we would call miracles and impossibilities. This is the normal working of God’s Spirit to bring men to Himself through Jesus Christ.
A Christian taxi driver demonstrates another example of this boldness. He has a cross dangling from the front mirror in his taxi. He has a Bible on the seat next to him. He realizes and knows that his livelihood, his freedom and even his life are at stake. Yet, he says: “How can I not share the great salvation through Jesus Christ?”
In Acts 1:8 we are reminded that this is the work of the Holy Spirit. When we deny the power of God to witness through us, we become the salt that has lost its savor.769 We can return to God in repentance and ask Him to endue us with His Holy Spirit. His power will become evident in our lives if we follow in obedience and in dependence on Jesus. In the Book of Acts God’s power was revealed by His angel and by the Spirit to guide the deacon Philip:
“Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, ‘Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.’ So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means ‘queen of the Ethiopians’). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, ‘Go to that chariot and stay near it.’”770
May we seek such direction of the Lord daily in our circumstances to be a witness for Christ.