THREE PREREQUISITES

When you endeavor to share Christ with a Muslim, you are truly stepping into battle. Many Muslims are seemingly against Christianity. For them, the Cross is a stumbling block. No other religion hates the Cross like Islam, and it is for this reason that you must be prepared, not only intellectually, but in spirit and in attitude as well, before taking up this challenge. There are three areas, therefore, which are simple and yet of paramount importance, that must be examined before moving on to the theological issues involved.

1. You must be filled with the Holy Spirit.

One of the most critical elements in witnessing to a Muslim is that one be Spirit-filled. Jesus said in John 15:26, "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of me." Success in witnessing is simply sharing the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God.1

I'm sure, however, that there have been times when you have shared the Gospel and not felt you were filled with the Spirit, but were then amazed to see the person accept Christ -- God in His sovereignty works in spite of all of us to bring people to Himself. Again, however, when you are sharing with a Muslim, you are in an intense spiritual battle. If you are not filled with the Spirit of the Lord, you will not be able to continue. I have been in sessions with Muslims where I felt I was going to have a heart attack. I sat with a guy from Lebanon at around 11 o'clock one evening. We were in a smoke-filled cafe and the discussion began to get really heated. The conversation kept going around in circles, back and forth, back and forth, until I though I was going to explode. At one point, I was so frustrated, thinking, "Why can't he understand?" and I literally felt like punching him in the face! I had to say to myself, "You must continue in the power of the Holy Spirit."

Satan would like to let you think that the people you share with are too far from the Kingdom to become Christians, but you've got to continue. And the most important factor in your being able to do so, is to be Spirit-filled.

2. You must be in prayer at all times.

You will have to pray the Muslim into the Kingdom of God, and apart from that, you should not even begin. Islam is based on one presupposition and that is that Christianity is false. The Muslims claim that Islam exists because Christianity was corrupted, and if they ever accept Christianity to be true, then Islam would have no reason to exist.

When you go witnessing, you mustn't go straight onto the field for sharing. When I go on campus, I always spend time first in prayer. The few times when I am extremely pressed, have no time at all, and am unable to do so, yet still, I go first in prayer. There is no other way! Muslims are the most difficult people in the world to evangelize, and there are going to be moments when you're so discouraged you want to quit. That is when you must start again, and first pray, again.

Part of the Muslim's religion is that he would never hesitate to persecute or even kill a person who leaves Islam to convert to Christianity. Four friends of ours in Egypt were prosecuted in court as "traitors to Islam" and were looking at five to ten year prison sentences. Citing a law prohibiting the defamation of any of the three religions -- Christianity, Islam and Judaism, they were accused of defaming Islam by converting to Christianity. Likewise, the people who assassinated Sadat, the late President of Egypt, did so believing that his peace treaty with Israel was an affront to Islam. Muslims are raised with this type of hostility -- not towards us personally, but towards our faith. You cannot enter into an evangelistic appointment of this nature unless you are filled with the Spirit and in prayer.

3. You must have love.

The mass media in the West has done an excellent job of ensuring hatred toward the Muslim people. When we think of Islam in the States, what do we think of if not Khomeini, the oil embargo, terrorism? There is no compassion, no concern for their need for Christ, no understanding that they are lost. At times, there seems only to be the pervasive stereotype of the "Muslim terrorist". Are we to say that nearly a billion of the world's people are terrorists? And even if they were, would this be reason enough to hate them? We need Christian love to combat these misconceptions and to restore our burden for those who are lost without Christ.

The second reason we need love is that only love will keep us from losing heart toward a Muslim when he rejects Christ. Without love, it is so easy to stop praying for him, to stop wanting to see him again. I have experienced several situations like this, in which I just did not want to see that person's face again. I remember a guy named Mahmood, in Tunisia. He grew up thinking, "Christianity is false.” All his arguments were sincere, but I was rejecting him because he was rejecting Christ. However, two years later, Mahmood prayed to receive Christ! Muslims do feel sorry for Christians, and they consider us misguided blasphemers. They believe they are preaching God, and want to bring us to the truth, by the sword if necessary. But through love, they can come to know Christ.

The third reason we need love is because it is the only thing with which a Muslim cannot argue. You can talk about Iran and Iraq, two Muslim nations fighting one another, and they will say, "What about Ireland, the Catholics and the Protestants!" You bring up the Bible, they bring up the Koran. You argue about Christ, they argue about Mohammed. Take any argument you like, and the Muslim will have an answer for it. Come up with unconditional love and acceptance, however, and there is nothing they can do except love you back.

None of this is new to you, but it must be emphasized before getting into the nitty-gritty of explaining the Gospel to a Muslim. These three things, being Spirit-filled, being in prayer and having love, are far more important than knowing all about Islam or the Koran. I know Americans who have led Muslims to the Lord with no knowledge of Islam and, while the more one knows the better, I doubt if there is anyone who can bring a Muslim to the Lord who is not Spirit-filled, who is not praying and who is not loving. With these three things, the Gospel will be proved to them.

Five Areas to Explain to a Muslim...


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