God is calling people to get ready for Jesus to come. Are you ready to get ready? Are you ready to answer His call? When He calls you, it may be difficult to fully understand the call.
I received that call a few years ago to a very specific group — the Muslims. In the beginning I was even skeptical, and I prayed to confirm His call to me. God answered my prayers, as He always does. Then, I received an invitation to travel to the Middle East for a period of time to do field research. I asked myself, “Am I ready for this? Am I even ready to get ready to witness to a Muslim?” Maybe you are reading this article today, and you are feeling the same call to the Muslims or another people group around the world that lives next door to you, and you don’t know how to start. I hope that this small part of my journey can put some light on your call.
I Need to Get Ready
First, I thought, if God is calling me to be a witness for the Muslims, I need to get ready. I decided to pray and fast during Ramadan based on Paul’s text in 1 Cor. 9:20 that says, “To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews” (ESV). I wanted not just to do it, but to make the experience a learning process that would allow me to contextualize appropriately a conversation with a Muslim about his/her spirituality and surrender to God. Like Timothy Tennent says, “Christians must assert a more robust missiology, rooted in the entire cannon and relevant to the countless circumstances people face every day.” Following Tennent’s proposition, I should start a conversation with a Muslim with some openness and common points.
Praying and Fasting
The first “thing” that happened is that I re-discovered prayer again in my life and this alone was just wonderful to me. The key was that I had a clear goal with my prayers; I then had a motive, true and real for a huge purpose — His will to the Muslims. Clifford Lee Hedges makes a clear example of this statement in his research showing the increasing effectiveness of outreach prayer when the prayer is intentional and focused in a goal.
During my fasting I experienced a closer relationship with God. Fasting during the day helped me to have better conversations with God, and God started doing things in my life that confirmed that every person should have the mission to preach and make disciples of Jesus in all nations. This showed me again that I must be “exposed” to the Word of God in prayer. This not only was the right thing for me to do personally, but is now even more needed in our world today. If we do this, our world view will change and adapt better in contextualization as we place ourselves in situations where we base everything on the Word of God. At the moment we do this, we become a “Jew for the Jews” or a “Muslim for the Muslims” with the correct approach.
Bold Living
While praying during Ramadan, I praised God and asked for forgiveness to be clean before Him, and this enabled me to get ready to talk with Him and listen to Him. I tried to follow what Barry Peters says: “Experienced missionaries among Muslims know that many conversions come not from winning theological arguments but from God’s intervention through dreams and healings.”
I started asking the Lord to send dreams and visions to the Muslims I met in order to save them through Jesus — He is the Way (John 14:6).
During Ramadan, I met an Imam that lived close to the church I was serving, and he explained to me how Muslims seek salvation and how they live for God. He further explained how salvation requires you to have faith, or better said — if you really believe, you will do good deeds, according to the Surah (chapter 103) in the Quran. Here, I'm not presenting the worldview of Islam based in the Quran but what an actual Muslim lived and felt. You will find this happens often. The system of Islam is notably different than the way a Muslim lives and practices life. In the same way the theory of what you can learn about atheism will not be enough to get ready to witness to your co-worker at your job, school or in the community.
This story is one chapter of many of what God has done in my life to get ready for His service; and I found blessings and unique realities that I will share with you in my next article in getting ready for His Mission and Second Coming.
Are You Ready To Answer His Call?
God is telling you today that it is time to Get Ready…are you ready to answer His call? Why not pause right now and prayerfully ask God to show you clearly His call for you and to help you get ready!
Bibliography cited:
James W. Sire, “The universe next door: A basic worldview” Catalog, InterVarsity Press, 2009.
Clifford Lee Hedges, "Increasing Evangelistic Effectiveness through Intentional Prayer at Oakland Baptist Church,” King George, Virginia, 2014, p.39-42.
Timothy C. Tennent, Invitation to World Missions: “A Trinitarian Missiology for the Twenty-First Century,” Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2010.
Barry Peters, "The Role of Dreams and Visions in the Apostolate to Muslims and Its Application in Cross-Cultural Ministry." ST Francis Magazine, vol. 2, no. 1, June 2006.
