Pray for Muslims on the Night of Power

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Christians are persecuted to greater or lesser degrees in all Islamic and Muslim majority states and regions. This arises from the Quran promoting Muslim superiority and supremacy, while decrying Jews and Christians as corrupted peoples who are not to be befriended or trusted. Unifying and rallying his followers, Mohammed protected his power and his Islam by making apostasy and blasphemy capital offences and by demonising non-Muslims. These factors lead to the persecution of Christians and are the main reasons why evangelising Muslims has historically been so difficult.

Furthermore, Islam is imperialistic and because non-Muslims are bulwarks against Islamic advance, it decrees they must be converted to Islam, subjugated or eliminated. Islam was ascendant for a millennium, advancing from the Arabian Peninsula west across North Africa and north into Spain, as well as north through the Holy Land and into Persia.

Islam later advanced from Asia Minor north through the Balkans and west into Europe, laying siege to Vienna in 1683. Then post-Reformation Europe gained the ascendancy and forced an Islamic retreat, the disintegration of the Caliphate and the liberation of numerous subjugated peoples. By the end of World War 2 Islam was fractured, weak, backward and under Western mandates in many places.

Islamists believe that only reformation - a return to strict Quranic Islam - will enable Muslims to regain the ascendancy. Since the 1970s, Saudi Arabia has been investing its petro-dollars in the global dissemination of strict Islam, reviving ! and radicalising Muslims around the world. Islamic jihad a nd religious persecution have consequently escalated. However, that is not the only trend in Islam. The irresistible and irreversible globalised trend towards openness, due to developments in information and communication technologies, is generating a counter-trend: Muslims are secularising, demanding liberty and turning to Christ in unprecedented numbers.

Thanks to radio, satellite and Internet technologies, Muslims in Islamic states can now hear testimonies and witness from Muslims who have converted to Christianity. These media are also enabling a growing number of local and global prayer networks to pray strategically for the persecuted church and the Muslim world. We need to be praying for this counter-trend to gain the ascendancy!

We are right now in the most spiritually important last 10 days of Ramadan 2007 (2-12 October). Islamic tradition has it that the 'Night of Power' falls within this period. It is most widely considered it will be the night of the 27th d! ay of Ramadan: Tuesday 9 October (in 2007). Muslims believ e that the angel Gabriel first spoke to Mohammed on that night and that every year on its anniversary the gates of heaven are opened wide, angels come to earth and Allah is especially merciful and attentive to prayers. Millions of Muslims around the world stay awake through the Night of Power, seeking his mercy. [See http://www.30-days.net/reveal/power/ ]

So please pray through this week and especially on the night of Tuesday 9 October - the Night of Power - that as Muslims seek God's mercy, the God of the Bible (a God they do not know) will indeed graciously and mercifully answer their prayers.

'I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation not called by my name, I said "Here am I, here am I."' (Isaiah 65:1)

PLEASE PRAY FOR GOD TO:

• answer the prayers of all those Muslims earnestly seeking divine mercy and forgiveness of sins; ma! y the one true God reveal himself - through dreams, vision s, the Word and Christian witness - as their one and only Saviour.
  
  
• profoundly bless those ministries that are reaching and seeking to reach Muslims around the world; may resistance be overcome, obstacles removed and finances flood in, so that the gospel of truth, grace and mercy may indeed flood the earth, advancing the knowledge and glory of the Lord. (Habakkuk 2:14)

Elizabeth Kendal is the Principal Researcher and Writer for the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC) www.worldevangelical.org/rlc.html. This article was initially written for the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis mailing list. Elizabeth can be contacted by e-mail at rl-research@crossnet.org.au.