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[00:00:17] The Missional Life: All right. Welcome back to mission live podcast today. We have Muhammad Faridi on the show. Muhammad is president of Iranian Christians international author of the book forsaking my father's religion, as well as an inspiring voice in the mission to reach the world with the gospel of Muhammad. Welcome to the show.

[00:00:32] The Missional Life: Welcome.

[00:00:33] Mohamad Faridi: Thank you.

[00:00:33] The Missional Life: You haven't always been a Christian. So could you tell us about your upbringing in Iran in a devout Muslim family and how that influenced your worldview and beliefs.

[00:00:46] Mohamad Faridi: was born in 1984 during the war between Iran and Iraq. And when I was born, including my two brothers, they called our generation the generation that was being born and raised in the midst of war. They called our generation the generation of war. It's like we have Gen Z's and we have millennials and this and that, but we were the generation of war.

[00:01:11] Mohamad Faridi: And I saw my family sending off my uncle. To war to defend the country and to protect Islam from the Sunni Saddam Hussein and his regime. And he died in that war, became a martyr for Islam, shed his blood, sacrificed his life for the sake of Islam. Our family was greatly honored as a result of that.

[00:01:35] Mohamad Faridi: His mural was painted. On the wall of the mosque in our neighborhood, and then the street that my grandparents lived on, it turned to our last name. Therefore we were honored, we were lifted up as a family of martyrs, and my uncle's brother, which is my dad, and the rest of the family, they will get scholarships and other things to, you know,, it had its own perks of, because of being a family of martyrs.

[00:02:00] Mohamad Faridi: And Growing up in that kind of environment, the least that was required from us was to do the Sharia of Islam, to follow the path of Allah and His self claimed Prophet Muhammad. And fasted during the month of Ramadan for one month. We prayed five times a day. We Shias combine the five types of prayer to three, but it's five times.

[00:02:25] Mohamad Faridi: 17 different times we face Mecca and recite the Shahada of Islam, recite the two chapters of the Qur'an. And we're trying to, I was trying to be a good Muslim go to the mosque, memorize the Qur'an, and try to learn about Islam and the beauty of Islam and how to be a good Muslim. I wanted to be accepted.

[00:02:46] Mohamad Faridi: I wanted to be pleasing to God. To please Allah wasn't the easiest task. No matter how much he did for him, he never was satisfied with you. He never was. It never was enough. And not only that was the message in the mosque and from the Islamic doctrine, but it was the same in our home. My dad, it was very hard to please.

[00:03:07] Mohamad Faridi: It was almost impossible to please him. If the score was in its school 20 and we would get 19 and three quarter. We were always humiliated as a result. And that was the Sharia of Islam. If you did everything right and then you fall, you had one mistake or you miss a prayer, they always blamed you and condemned you for that one prayer that you missed.

[00:03:30] Mohamad Faridi: And all the fasting you did, if you failed and you missed forgotten and then sip of water, then you just ruined the whole thing. So this was my upbringing. We are Shia Muslims. Grown up in this type of environment. They had the ways of okay, to add more points to the scale of the good deeds.

[00:03:53] Mohamad Faridi: You need to go to the mosque, pray, fast, all of that, but there is the mourning for the dead to communicate with the dead to connect to Allah in order to receive His favor. Allah has these mediums in Islam, these Imams, these Prophets, that supposedly they are, they have a special places with Allah. And if you connect to them, they connect you to Allah.

[00:04:19] Mohamad Faridi: If you, if you earn their favor they will earn favor for you with Allah. But they're all dead. So we mourned ritually for the dead Imams of the Islamic Shia branch of Islam and a man would gather special times, special seasons. Man would gather in a shrine, in a mosque, in a house and you recite eulogy to that dead Imam and then you chant their name to connect to this dead person that has favor with Allah, to get connected to Allah.

[00:04:52] Mohamad Faridi: You self flagellate, beat your chest, beat your face, beat your back with chains. And you get a sword and cut your head and to imitate and identify with their death. And I remember one of these times of mourning, nine days in a row, I beat myself so much in these ceremonies. Punished my body, humiliated my body in order to earn Allah's favor, earn to gain this that I am doing something for Allah to be pleased, to be pleasant to Him.

[00:05:23] Mohamad Faridi: Nine days in a row, I beat myself so much that on the tenth day, I was, my body was so physically crushed that I couldn't get out of the bed and go and do it more and beat myself more and sacrifice, shed my own blood more. And that, that, that morning, I never forget the sense of guilt that came all over me again.

[00:05:45] Mohamad Faridi: That even though I did it nine days in a row, the tenth day, which is the most important day, I failed again. What type of a Muslim I am? I will never be good enough, never measure up. And this sense of guilt, this sense of condemnation was always with me. I always was at a brawl with myself to satisfy.

[00:06:05] Mohamad Faridi: The desire to be accepted, to be, to be pleasing to God. And finished high school living like that every day, every week of my life like that. And finished high school. It's mandatory to serve the military service. I went to the military service, and I was part of the revolutionary God of Iran, which is a religious sect of the army branch in Iran, which is their job is to protect the Ayatollah and the regime inside Iran.

[00:06:31] Mohamad Faridi: Export Islam to the other, other parts of the world. So I was part of this religious mil military learning about how to keep the culture of war alive in my heart and how do I fight in the way of Allah, fight in the, in the way of Allah kill, in the way of Allah. And that's how I how I was trained.

[00:06:54] Mohamad Faridi: And little bit more about the training in the Army. There is a movement going on called On the Path to Light. We, they took us to, from Tehran, they took us to the western southern part of Iran, which borders with Iraq, where, where my uncle died, where tens of thousands of Iranians gave their lives in the in the pursuit of jihad and marched for them to climb the ladder to paradise.

[00:07:21] Mohamad Faridi: In that area, when they took us there, it was like a mission trip of familiarizing us to the culture of war, to the culture of martyrdom, to culture of shedding your blood. And part of the training was that, of course, you have to connect this shaheeds to this martyrs to connect to Allah. Part of the training was they put us in empty tombs and graves of those martyrs that they died 20, 30 years ago.

[00:07:50] Mohamad Faridi: They put us in the, in their empty tombs and graves during the night that we can fight the fear of death and be willing to be sacrificed for Allah and willing to sleep in those graves for the sake of Allah. And that's how I was brought up as a muslim.

[00:08:06] The Missional Life: . And I'm hearing this, I'm contrasting that experience with the grace of God and the acceptance that comes from God. So tell us a little bit how you pivoted from that sort of lifestyle and how did you encounter Jesus in the midst of such darkness and such striving to be accepted?

[00:08:25] Mohamad Faridi: I was right after the military service and seeking Allah to know what he has for my life. And of course Islam doesn't offer you much. There's no hope in Islam. There's no guarantee of salvation in Islam other than dying for Allah for the sake of Allah and Sacrificing your life for the sake of Allah.

[00:08:49] Mohamad Faridi: That's the only guarantee and I was battling with all of this. I was I was increasingly depressed hopeless about my future and what, what, what is going to happen to me in all of them in the, in the midst of all of this, I have a friend of mine who is one of, one of, one of my oldest friends and we grow up sometimes we went to school together and, and when I went to military service, my friend had his feet were flat, so he was medically exempt.

[00:09:19] Mohamad Faridi: Military service. So when I was away, I didn't know what he was doing with his li with his life. And his name is Rasul. Ironically the na, his name is means the Apostle Rasul is the title of the Self Claim, prophet of Islam. I have his name, Mohamed. My friend has Rasul. So he has his, the title of the Self Claim, prophet of Islam, and I have his name and Rasul and Mohammed are getting together and after my military service to see what he's doing and getting caught up and rasul is changed.

[00:09:46] Mohamad Faridi: He's different. He acts different. He's just, something was very strange, very odd about him that day. He was mellowed out and that piece that was coming out of him started bothering me. And it just felt like that he's playing an act. And I asked him, what is going on, Rasool? What has happened to you?

[00:10:07] Mohamad Faridi: What's, what's the situation? And then he said he became Christian and I've never heard of somebody at that moment. I never heard that somebody could become Christian as Muslims. If you know the doctrine of Islam, it's always about destiny. It's all always about Allah has predestined everything for you.

[00:10:26] Mohamad Faridi: It's Calvinism to the second degree. The second power. God somehow mysteriously, Allah of Islam has mysteriously planned this life for you and you come into it without a choice and you go out of it without a choice. Therefore, everything is ghaza, everything is, is destiny. You don't break out of this. You don't, it's, you, I'm born a Muslim, you die a Muslim.

[00:10:53] Mohamad Faridi: And then this guy says I became Christian. It just didn't compute in my Muslim mind. And I start arguing with him and trying to correct him and after about a couple hours of heated discussions and ups and downs, he just was like, didn't you ask the reason, you know, the change that is with me? What, didn't you want to know?

[00:11:12] Mohamad Faridi: I just told you it's Jesus. And then he presented the gospel. That Jesus was bruised for your sake. He was beaten. He was caught. He was wounded. His blood was shed. He was, he gave up his life for your sake. And if you believe in that, you will have eternal life. That is the one best thing I've ever had, ever heard in all of my life.

[00:11:40] Mohamad Faridi: Everything I was trying to do, As a Muslim, everything that was burdening me, everything that was put upon my life in order to do to gain salvation, have eternal life, He said it is already finished. It's already been done for you in the person of Jesus Christ. And if you believe in it, if you accept it, you will have eternal life.

[00:12:15] Mohamad Faridi: Out of desperation, I fell on my knees. It was the Word of God, the truth of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and what He has done for me, that pierced my heart. My heart was torn apart before a holy God and fell on my knees, and I begged Rasool, What do I need to do?

[00:12:36] The Missional Life: did that. Decision than to follow Jesus. How did that affect your relationships there with your family and your other friends, and then also that purpose, because you said earlier you were struggling for purpose. And so, how did that decision begin to change the coming months and years of your life.

[00:12:52] Mohamad Faridi: Well after my experience, if you would call it the conversion these are terminologies later I learned, but that moment, I just knew that Whatever Rasul is sharing, it's absolute truth. And I just needed to come out of the burden of works and and the Sharia and the religion. And then I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

[00:13:16] Mohamad Faridi: I received peace for the first time in my life after 21 years and a half. A supernatural peace, a supernatural calmness came into my life. And that brawl that I had with myself, that I had to please God, it was gone. It was done away with. It was gone away. Because I knew that God is pleased with me. It just, it just, I knew it.

[00:13:39] Mohamad Faridi: That it's over. The war was over. The fighting was over, the, the jihad was over, and that moment after my conversion or receiving Christ as my Lord and Savior I knew as a good Muslim that I was what is The punishment for somebody that betrays Islam, it becomes a traitor, it becomes an apostate, apostasy is punishable by death.

[00:14:06] Mohamad Faridi: So I under the Sharia of Islam, it is very, very clear under the Islamic doctrine in the Quran, in the Hadiths, according to Islam, it's very clear that if you leave this tribe, you are worthy to be killed. And whoever kills you is rewarded because has cleaned up this planet from a filth like an apostate.

[00:14:35] Mohamad Faridi: And that was my I knew that these are the things. So I went, I tried to live my life as a hidden, silent Christian. I was trying to

[00:14:48] Mohamad Faridi: try to just figure this thing out. Before make any sorts of big moves or announcements. And after I went to church for the first time in my life in my, in my Muslim mentality, church was an unclean place because Christians gathered. And so I was going there and then I had a supernatural encounter with God inside the church.

[00:15:13] Mohamad Faridi: I was wrapped in the cloud of the glory of God and this amazing love. Poured over my life, poured over my body, my mind, and I just inside myself two times I heard, you're home, you're home. I just knew it. This is the right path, the right thing. I found what I was always wanted, what I always craved for, what I always worked for.

[00:15:44] Mohamad Faridi: This is the place. This is the people. And then after the encounter with God inside that church, Rasul, my friend, bought me a New Testament in Farsi and told me that this is a living word of God is going to speak to you. Took the gospel, took the New Testament home and started reading it. And it was the living word of God that was reading me, not me reading it.

[00:16:09] Mohamad Faridi: It was the word of God reading me and telling me everything. And after coming to the conclusion that this is absolute truth, this is the need for every human being on the planet earth, no matter what circumstances they're in. I start talking about it and then, of course my family my dad, but he was a very abusive father by default.

[00:16:32] Mohamad Faridi: But as a result of this, he had more reason to abuse even more and he violently chased me and started beating me up and then I ran away from home and I was four months away. From our home and slept on the rooftops and on the doorsteps of the people. And after I got sick and tired of getting beaten by cockroaches and other creepy things on the streets of Tehran, I finally decided to call my friend and tell him I don't have a place to stay.

[00:17:02] Mohamad Faridi: And then he invited me over to their home.

[00:17:03] The Missional Life: That's incredible, incredible. So. Fast forward. How did you go from being on the streets of Tehran to coming to the United States and beginning to get involved with ministry and, and now even leading ministry how did that all take place? Can you share some of that?

[00:17:22] Mohamad Faridi: So after three years of being active as a believer in the body of Christ inside Iran, underground church, Distributing, thousands of Bibles and New Testaments all over Iran. Distributing CDs and the DVDs about Christianity all over Iran. And being very active in regard to evangelism, discipleship inside Iran. Things were coming to a very dangerous place, not for me only. For my family and I wasn't it is, it's hard to fathom, but I wasn't, or I could say I'm not so concerned about my life in regard to safety, it's I have done a lot of wicked things as a Muslim, wanted to do a lot of wicked things as a Muslim, putting myself, my life for a false God in a lot of danger putting my body in a lot of danger for a false God.

[00:18:22] Mohamad Faridi: And sometimes it's hard to communicate this with especially Western Christianity. That I wasn't as, as, as concerned for my life, because I knew where I was, who I was. I wasn't trying to save my life, as Jesus says, and lose it forever. He got my life. I wanted to lose it for his sake. And and I was living that life inside Iran.

[00:18:46] Mohamad Faridi: God only knows how many Revolutionary Guard soldiers, armies, army generals, I have, I have directly evangelized inside Iran. And this, the threats were surpassing me to, was reaching my family and I didn't want to put, put their lives in any more havoc, any more trouble that I've already done.

[00:19:11] Mohamad Faridi: So the church many of the church members, many of the believers I was working part of being their networks of the underground church inside Iran, they were arrested kidnapped. Thrown in jail and it was just a circle was getting tighter and tighter by every day. So I decided the the Bible says if, if you're, if you're persecuted in the city, go to the another and I did, I wanted to do that.

[00:19:34] Mohamad Faridi: And but at that time, you know, eight the tremendous persecution on the underground church of Iran. I tried to go to the other cities and the believers and their family members would say please don't come around here. We already have enough, enough trouble and at that moment I decided to leave Iran and then went to Turkey and sought asylum inside of Turkey and then eventually God's supernatural provision,

[00:20:02] Mohamad Faridi: Just brought me to America.

[00:20:07] The Missional Life: You know, we've had different former Muslims on the show, but I've never really heard it said about being on the streets and doing. church underground. What is that like to distribute gospels and how do people know where each other are?

[00:20:21] The Missional Life: How do you guys connect? Can you tell us some of that story?

[00:20:24] Mohamad Faridi: It's the Book of Acts. It is certain layer in the society that has been it, it's existing. You, you just don't know about it till you connect to it. And then there's some signs, there's some symbols that you look for and then you find them. Mine was that I had my new Testament on the dashboard of my car and people that they were believers or, other Christians, they would instantly notice it because it's not a common thing. It's not like a Bible, a Gideon Bible in a hotel room, randomly put there. It's something that inside an Islamic country, just certain people with certain signs, they understand it. And the fish was one of them. wearing of a cross around your neck.

[00:21:14] Mohamad Faridi: Or earrings that are crossed. Those ones are signs that would connect us. And then of course when you connect to an a church after they grow in trust and then they know you're not an a, a spy of the regime, then get connected naturally and supernaturally to other believers in other underground churches.

[00:21:37] Mohamad Faridi: And then you realize, my God, there is a. Print shops all over Iran and, and there's books being printed and distributed. All tracks being distributed. You just didn't know about it. And it's a lot of fun. It's a lot of risk, a lot of trust and faith walking with God and it's just an amazing thing.

[00:22:02] The Missional Life: You know, you shared your amazing testimony of coming to know Jesus and the freedom that came with that. Now for those that are maybe starting to hear the gospel that are from, you know, same background as what you have, what is the biggest deterrent for them to receive Jesus when they start to hear it?

[00:22:22] The Missional Life: Is it fear of family? What's the biggest pushback would you say?

[00:22:27] Mohamad Faridi: Technically speaking or biblically speaking, it's the same thing. It's the veil of deception of Islam that is over their mind. That has to be broken. What would you fear when you have Jesus when you have Jesus, you're invited, accepted to the family of God.

[00:22:42] The Missional Life: So reaching Muslims and sharing the gospel. And I know it's probably a little bit different if somebody is a former Muslim or somebody is of Persian , or Middle Eastern descent, then a Western are coming in. What can we do better as Christians in order to share the gospel where are we missing it?

[00:23:00] The Missional Life: And what are some of the better ways?

[00:23:02] Mohamad Faridi: I believe this with all of my heart because I've seen it all over the world practiced. The Western Christianity For the most part, especially to the Muslim world, comes across as puny, weak feminized, sissified gospel, and Muslims don't like it. They don't receive it. In an Islamic culture, you're you're male or female, and then everything is acquired.

[00:23:29] Mohamad Faridi: Everything is earned by fights, by wars. And you come across this Christians or missionaries that they come to the Middle East and they're all in hidings and doing prayers, prayer walks or whatever. And then they are giving so much stuff to Muslims in, in a hope that one day, This Muslim guy is gonna ask them what's the reason for all of this?

[00:23:55] Mohamad Faridi: I think that's the worst presentation of the gospel, 100%, the worst. If you want to tell them about the Lord, or you just, you believe God, you just need to know where you stand. It's just, you just need to let them know. And they like that, they honor that, because it's the culture of Wars and wars and, and all of the, it's just, they don't have this mentality.

[00:24:21] Mohamad Faridi: Oh, you come and maybe I get offended. The Muslims constantly offending on one another in a daily basis on, on anything. Oh, we don't want to be, we don't, we don't want you to feel what's, what's, what feeling left in all of Middle East. So that presentation of the gospel is very, very dangerous and very, very weak.

[00:24:44] Mohamad Faridi: And, and Muslims realize that weakness in the Christians and they don't want it. They, we, we have this lamb approach for the most part. But you need this line of Judo's approach in Middle East. You need some bold Christians such as the Apostle Paul. And you just tell them, you're a Christian, this is what you believe.

[00:25:05] Mohamad Faridi: You don't compromise. I love one of my friend, actually, this recently, not even a couple months, that happened. Kurdish believer, loves the Lord. He was a communist fighting Kurd in northern Iraq and western side of Iran. When he came to faith in, in the Lord Jesus Christ, he was talking just, this is, this is just a couple months ago here in Colorado Springs.

[00:25:26] Mohamad Faridi: These Kurdish people that they moved here, we loved on and we received them and, and now our friend, which is, speaks their language, is talking to them and they're dilly dallying about things and he said, listen, this is not something you can play with. If you have Jesus. You escape hell. Do you understand that?

[00:25:47] Mohamad Faridi: Right in their face. Oh, Jesus is gonna give you this. Oh, it's just a cherry on the top of the cream of this cake that you are. No, you're a rotten, wicked sinner, desperately in need of Jesus, desperately in need of salvation. And Jesus is the only solution. When the presentation of the gospel is correct, is strong, it would just resonate with who they are as Muslims.

[00:26:18] Mohamad Faridi: So I'm not saying to be rude. I'm not saying to not have love. This is not what I said. But this weak presentation of hoping that one day they're gonna ask these questions or we're just gonna love them. The Bible says the truth sets free, not the love. It's not the love that saves anybody. The love is the package, the truth.

[00:26:44] Mohamad Faridi: And the truth is Jesus. I am the truth. He said so I think that's what they need to hear That's what they need to know where you stand and why you stand there many of the missionaries They need to be saved first because they don't know what they got They have this wrong message wrong Jesus that we probably are there for humanitarian reliefs and other things God forbid

[00:27:07] The Missional Life: No, that's so good. And I truly believe that is a message that especially here in the United States, there has been a spirit of intimidation that's been going on now for at least. Probably two, three decades at least, and you know, God is love and God is not a weak God. Jesus is not weak.

[00:27:27] The Missional Life: , He is a strong God. And thank you for sharing that. That is something that, you know, the church really does need to hear, be reminded of. Especially in the time and place, you know, we look at the season, you know, He who has eyes, let Him see. He who has ears, let Him hear. Like we look and we, we are supposed to discern the times and the times don't call for a A timid Christianity, right?

[00:27:49] Mohamad Faridi: Once a timid Christianity

[00:27:50] The Missional Life: Sure. Right. The time is too short. So as you go and you share in Muslim neighborhoods, I know that you go to Muslim areas in, in Europe and different places. What's your approach, what can Westerners do and how can we, better engage Muslim but also how can we, you know, learn from this approach and apply it in our own lives and instead of being a little bit more indirect with, with people here

[00:28:14] Mohamad Faridi: Absolutely. Muslim or non Muslims, they all need to know what Jesus has done for them in the form of chapter 15 of the first book of Corinthians. Apostle Paul in the third in all first three verses explains the gospel. Death, burial, and the resurrection of Christ and the reason why. People need to hear that.

[00:28:38] Mohamad Faridi: And then it's the foolishness of the preaching of this very simple message that God honors and empowers with His Holy Spirit. So when you explain why you cannot save yourself, you're, this is how I describe it to a lot of Muslims, and I have seen a lot of good results. Hundreds, thousands of Muslims have been saved as a result of this very simple example.

[00:29:12] Mohamad Faridi: I give you the key to my home, and I leave for one week. You accidentally, that Muslim, that person, that stays in my home, accidentally, you trip over and you break my TV. And then I call you to check on you, and you tell me, Brother Muhammad, I'm washing your car. I'm like, why are you washing my car? What's going on with washing my car?

[00:29:40] Mohamad Faridi: Oh, sorry, I accidentally broke your TV, but washing my car has nothing to do with my TV. What, what are you doing here? I'm gonna clean your home. I'm gonna make sure your walls are clean your what cars are this is Thinking that that act will replace and fix this issue it absolutely not it will not now that is accidental So if I tell that Muslim that it stays in my home, it's okay It's no, no problem.

[00:30:25] Mohamad Faridi: I, I'm not going to charge you for it. Does it mean that the TV is going to get fixed by itself? Of course not. I have to replace the TV and it's going to be at my cost, even though I have forgiven you. us, the story of us. And the story of the gospel. And that's not accidental. We intentionally have broken God's law.

[00:30:51] Mohamad Faridi: And now with religion, with praying five times a day toward Mecca, we're trying to pay for all of the lying and cheating and sins we have committed. And this act of righteousness, facing Mecca, speaking in Arabic, reciting to an unknown God, we're hoping that it's gonna fix our TVs. And it doesn't. But what did Jesus do?

[00:31:19] Mohamad Faridi: He came down. The wages of sin is death. We deserve to die. We know it. We try to cope with it in religion, and we know we deserve to die. And as a result, Jesus has come and paid the price that we deserved. And if we believe in that gift, we will have the eternal life. God is gonna take our sin, put it upon His Son, and punish Him for our sake, because He has to pay for the TV.

[00:31:53] Mohamad Faridi: He has to pay for that price. For the sin we have committed and he punished his son because he's a God. He's a loving God He couldn't just says oh, I look I'm gonna I'm not gonna see this TV That is broken that TV is broken that sin is committed and it needs to be fixed He just couldn't sweep it under the rug and Not see it, but he punished his son.

[00:32:26] Mohamad Faridi: He paid the price, but now it's up to you. You could not afford that TV. You couldn't pay with washing my car 150, 000 times. It wouldn't replace that TV because you couldn't afford it. You know, you cannot afford it, but God has afforded for you. But now he wants to give that gift to you. He wants to forgive you and replace the TV.

[00:32:51] Mohamad Faridi: But would you accept it? Many of them say yes.

[00:32:56] The Missional Life: I know we want to be respectful of your time. I do want to ask you, how do we as Christians here in the Western world, support and pray for Christians? There in the Muslim world. I mean, you kind of alluded to it earlier that you were willing to give your life so do we pray for safety?

[00:33:14] The Missional Life: How do we best support prayerfully Christians in that area? And can we also support financially or in other physical ways?

[00:33:24] Mohamad Faridi: Well the partnership with the Gospels it just not only will, will take the minister or the ministry or that mission organization forth, but Apostle Paul said that I want that the gift to abound unto you. So God has in His amazing

[00:33:44] Mohamad Faridi: kingdom has ordained this things that by us supporting the Gospel and the Gospel preachers. It's just going to provide for us. So that's the that's a really beautiful part of that. Of course financial support is important It is critical, not only for that organization, for you as a giver, as a person that is sending forth those people because you will The Bible says second book of Corinthians, Apostle Paul chapter 8, chapter 9, chapter 10, which constantly talks about money.

[00:34:19] Mohamad Faridi: The only issue he talks about, he says that Also that don't be deceived, whatever you sow you will reap. Meaning, if you sow money, you will reap money. Because you need to, then, God gives you to sow more money in those mission organizations. It's, it's not only to benefit you, but you're benefiting the gospel as a result you will reap.

[00:34:39] Mohamad Faridi: I think that's a very important reminder. The second thing, of course, we need, Safety is a thing, especially when you work with Iranian believers or Afghan believers. But you cannot pray against the will of God. How do I say that this because whoever lives a godly life will be persecuted. And that's the promise of the call to Timothy that if you live a godly life, you will be persecuted. And if you're not being persecuted, it's. Because you're not living a godly life. And all to say is You can't skip that completely. You say, okay, I'm gonna not have any troubles in my life.

[00:35:18] Mohamad Faridi: That's, that's foolish to think. But at least my troubles is for good reasons, not because of my mistakes. It's for the sake of the gospel. And I believe that in a time that we're living in, the prayer for safety is a good prayer, but We need a lot of strategic thinking and a strategic wisdom, godly wisdom for for the mission workers and for the people that are in charge of this type of movement to know constantly accessing this God's wisdom in order to take this sharing of the gospel and discipling after that to, to, to a level that is continually sustainable.

[00:36:01] The Missional Life: It makes me think of, the verses, I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves, be wise as serpents and innocent as doves comes to mind.

[00:36:09] Mohamad Faridi: That's what we need. I'm just hoping and believing God for an amazing movement of real correct doctrinal materials that gets to the hand of the Iranian believers. It's a lot of random things being translated and pushed inside the church only for financial reasons, unfortunately.

[00:36:26] Mohamad Faridi: But some people. Put that aside because money motivates a lot of people to do a lot of things, unfortunately, in the body of Christ, in mission organization and world it's just about those things and not motivated by the kingdom and godly kingdom purposes. So just we need to pray about that, that we have that shift even among those mission organization believers.

[00:36:51] The Missional Life: speaking of organizations, , as we close, can you tell us a little bit more about Iranian Christians international? And can you tell us a little bit more about your book that you've actually read? We didn't have a chance to really touch on that, but forsaking my father's religion.

[00:37:02] Mohamad Faridi: Yeah, I wrote a book a short book called Forsaking My Father's Religion. It's available on our website. It's a gift from us to anybody that write us. It's called iranchristians. org. That's our website. And there's a tab it says free book and click on it and get a copy of our book. So that's the The story, whatever I've been shared, you can find it in the book.

[00:37:25] Mohamad Faridi: The other more important thing to talk about is my YouTube channel, which I'm documenting testimonies of Muslims. It's my first and last in the YouTube channel. Mohamed Faridi is the name of the YouTube channel. And I'm documenting something that has never happened in the history of human beings.

[00:37:48] Mohamad Faridi: They're all sorts of Muslim from all sorts of nations and backgrounds and sects. of Islam coming to faith from different languages. We had Saudi Muslims and Afghan Muslims, Iranians, Malaysians, you name it, Turks from Yemen. All of these people I'm documenting their testimonies. And listening and watching their testimonies, you get a lot of insight into Islam, a lot of insight in Muslim evangelism and outreaches to Muslims.

[00:38:15] Mohamad Faridi: That's now we have I've documented over 150 of those testimonies. That's available on YouTube at my YouTube channel, Mohammed Faridi. And then our ministry, it's laser focused on the Persian population of the world, which is Iranian and Afghans. And some in Tajikistan, inside Iran and Diaspora, inside Afghanistan and Diaspora.

[00:38:38] Mohamad Faridi: And we are involved in Bible distribution, the street evangelism inside Iran inside in Middle East. And we have surpassed over a million pieces of literature that we have printed and distributed all over Middle East, inside Iran, inside Afghanistan. After people getting saved, we are discipling some discip makers discipling some church leader church planters.

[00:39:00] Mohamad Faridi: And God's been faithful. I have, I've seen so many miracles. It's amazing. And we're just, it feels like after 43, 3 years of being in ministry just feels like we're, we're just getting started and best yet to come.

[00:39:16] The Missional Life: Amen. Amen. Listeners will have those linked in the show notes. And as we close, can you leave us with one final thought,

[00:39:25] Mohamad Faridi: God has been always on the move. You can move God. You can't be too impressive to God. Gods have been always impressed with what Jesus has done. And He is always on the move. It's like the waves of the sea. When the Holy Spirit moves, you just need to catch the wave. And not make your own waves. I believe that that is, this, that wave is happening in Iran, in Afghanistan, and we just need to be sensitive to that and catch those waves.

[00:39:54] Mohamad Faridi: We are as ministry, very sensitive to that, and I see that God is moving in Iran, and we're riding the waves of the Holy Spirit and seeing amazing things.

[00:40:02] The Missional Life: Catch the wave and ride the wave. Amen. Awesome. Well, how much, thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you.

[00:40:08] Mohamad Faridi: bless you guys.

[00:40:08]