Interview with Al Fadi (CIRA International)

well hello everyone this is al-fatih and you're with us here in a very very very special livestream I know we do a lot of special editions on Sundays but this one is more special than ever as you can see of course the reason why my guests the way he's dressed up can tell you a whole lot about how special this occasion it I've been now advertised him for this occasion for the last week or so I gave many hints that my guest is going to be from Saudi Arabia at least we can say someone who was born and raised there like me and today he is a servant of the Lord and you know I remember my journey to Christ it took about 12 years of people reaching out to me witnessing to me planting seeds but you know the first time I left Saudi after graduating from college I heard for the first time ever something about born-again believers and that was strange to me and it took like I said a journey of 12 years to finally get it and it was in November of 2001 that I accepted the Lord but the funny part is I thought I was alone the only ex Muslim accepted Christ and the only expose ylim from Saudi who came to know the Lord but the Lord was so gracious to me firstly introduced me to Arab Christians and then slowly and gradually ended up connecting with other believers from the Gulf area and then finally with believers from Saudi and finally I connected with my brother here my brother Nasir as you can see nasser al Kitani in 2015 and it is my honor and my privilege to introduce to you our dear brother Nasir Al Qahtani I'm gonna let him share a whole lot about what he does in his ministry in due time during the interview but I can tell you that he is a former jihadist is a former jihadist who now serves Christ with zeal and he serves Christ in full time by making disciples and I love his teaching by the way and his desire to help the believers grow and mature in their walk he loves to equip the church and he loved to preach the Word of God let's stop right here I turn it over to my brother brother welcome oh thank you brother it is such a joy and an honor and a privilege to be with you here tonight and I as you know I my story's very similar and for a long time I thought I was the only one also and it was a blessed blessed day I still remember that almost five years ago when I was introduced to you and and they told me you were from Saudi and I was like wow what from my country and I actually met a sister from our country that same day too and I remember you know calling my wife in tears like it's happening it's happening the thing that we prayed for for so long like our people are coming to know Jesus amen amen my brother I love your heart and I love your wife's heart you guys are two warriors for Christ so brother take your time you know let's enjoy this time there's a lot of people that have been waiting for this and a lot of people have been praying for this and a lot of people who will be encouraged by this cheer with us your journey you know how did you grow up you know what was it like when you were a Muslim and you know what you know opened the door for this discussion about Christ and and just just your journey in ways that will help people realize the challenges and also the easiness of reaching people like ourself and just for for for the records you know Nasir comes from the eastern region of Saudi I come from the western region for the nicer guys you know and there's a little bit of rivalry between the yeah so how was it like growing up right you know I grew up and as you said in the the eastern coast of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia you know not not a lot of people know that I think outside the region you know people tend to think of Saudi Arabia as you know a hundred percent Sunni Muslim right most people who know anything about Islam know there's another faction group within Islam she i'ts she had people and there are quite as a minority but a sizable minority within Saudi Arabia who are Shia and in that Eastern Province is actually where many of them are but the city that I I grew up in a Jew Bale was actually sort of like the the soon wanted like the Sunni strongholds cooked in the Shia region and we took pride in that and I remember growing up you know this being reinforced not just by by within my family from my father in school and the preaching on fridays and the mosques that we had to hold the line we had to be the best of muslims sort of like nobody used this language but almost i could say in christian language to witness to all the these these Shiites people around us that maybe they might come and become Sunni also and so I just remember from the very young age this being impressed upon me that that people are watching you they're watching your life and you know of course we're as Muslims we know we know that god is watching their angels watching everything you do is being recorded everything you do is going to be weighed judged on the last day and so all this pressure what do you do as a young person well you is that I'm gonna do my best I'm gonna I'm gonna try to live a perfect life I'm going to try to whatever the best things I can do for God I'm gonna do them and that included you know as you know I grew up in the in the 80s in Saudi Arabia and there was a war going on at that time in Afghanistan and it was we considered it a holy war that it was Muslims fighting non-muslims and as I was hearing the preaching and teachers at the time I removed from them talking I'm in elementary school and I thought wow you know if I die for a law in Jihad like this is like the best thing I could ever do with my life and so from a very young age I thought okay well then that's what I want to grow up to do I want to grow up in some way I want to be able to who's my life give my life for God and for my religion so that I can do the best thing for him so that I have the highest guarantee if there are any that I could be in paradise when I die that was my childhood no it's amazing brother you know I tell people about this and they think were joking but you know I don't know how he felt about it but I had this eagerness actually is this this willingness to like my life meant nothing to me actually I felt like so excited about doing it you know was it was it the same kind of emotion this absolutely brother I I every time I hear you share your testimony I feel this I relate absolutely to that and I know that and and I think that's what's hard for people you know outside the region to understand is is you and I were actually not an anomaly you know the fact that there are today you know very dangerous organizations terrorist organizations coming from that are filled with leadership from our country and they're actually from our generation because there is a whole generation that was brought up this way and and taught to think like this and we're see where sadly the world is reaping the fruit for the things that were being preached and taught to us when we were young I know so what happened when you decided that this is the path you want to take how do you go about trying to do that right so you know I tested the waters a little bit with my parents and you know I had some friends you know I was you know 12 13 years old I had some friends that were a little bit older than me 14 15 16 years old and some of them were already like getting permission from their parents to leave the country go into Pakistan get trained by the thought live on there and then go into Afghanistan and and fight in jihad and so I would sort of like bring up the topic like oh my friend Yasser he's gone he's went to go do this and see what my parents thought and you know my parents thought this was crazy my mother especially if you know oh you know I weep for his pair that he went and did this thing and so I thought okay my my parents are not going to be on board with my plan so I can't I can't share it with them so I started doing is talking to some people that I knew and again I got 12 13 almost 14 years old and I'm making plans to sneak away from home get smuggled by a human trafficker over into Pakistan to get training how to shoot a gun so that I can then go over the border into Afghanistan and and fight the Russians right I mean just create I would think about it now it's like Ludacris kind of thing but that was the plan that I was making and God had other plans for me amen amen so what was your family by the way like from your perspective were they so devout like you or were you probably among the few in the family that felt that way within my immediate family I would say I was I thought I was the most devout I mean I was in the mosque praying you know as as often as I could you know you know even the early morning prayers I was just couldn't wait to get out of bed and and rush to pray you know during you know we just ended the drama um during this time of year like when I was growing up like I would spend half half my time in the mosque like I just wouldn't leave I would just sit there and just reading the four on over and over and praying and praying extra prayers just trying to do all that I could and and the rest of my family wasn't quite that extreme but but like I said like I the message I was getting or these are the things you must do in order to please God in order to have a chance at an eternal life in Paradise and so I'm whatever I got to do I'm gonna do it amen and did you have I mean like in my case my friends were the ones who are encouraging me they were they encourages you know and some of them when some of them were saying you know you should do it you know at least I don't know if they went or not they were chicken probably but nevertheless some did it some wanted to encourage me to do it in your case did you have any immediate close Network friends that were on board with what you're doing I I had a few that absolutely knew what I was planning they supported it they were ready to to leave to do the same thing with me we were gonna do it together and you know and I was actually one of my circle of friends one of the ones who was actually encouraging others who were more on the fence like no you should do this you know are you a real Muslim or not right do you wanna do you want to be in heaven or not like this is what you got to do and so I was actually one of the ones putting peer pressure on some of my you know my closer friends and then what happened I mean did you try to find a way to go like you said to Pakistan for this training right so I was all set up to go I had a plan all of that and it was the the summer of 1990 and you know my mother is originally from the United States and so she has you know had a lot of family there and so every few years my dad we take us back to the u.s. just to see let my mother see some of her family visit all of that and we just so happened that our scheduled time was that that summer and so we went and I have planned as soon as I get back to back home I'm gonna implement this plan and right at the end of the summer when we should have been going back to Saudi Arabia Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait from Iraq and now we have this war in the Gulf and right now as we said earlier that's that's where I'm I was living was in the Gulf just south of Kuwait really no not a long drive away definitely close enough to the action that you know Iraq you know was was launching missiles into Saudi Arabia one of those missiles hit not only in my city but close to my neighborhood close to our home and so suddenly we were like you know travel shut down we were trapped in the United States of America which you know in my mind was the Great Satan I'm like trapped in Satan's Kingdom and I can't get home and now what am I gonna do how am I gonna die in Jihad when there's you know when I'm stuck in in the middle of the US and that just totally disrupted my plans yeah I mean I really with you that was those who are really sobering times especially the fact that of course to have someone who is the leader of Iraq that supposedly was part of the Union the Arabic basically coalition a friend you know a neighboring nation invade you it kind of like sent like these wrong signals everywhere and everybody began to watch their back it's like what's gonna happen next who's next now you know and I remember the government of Saudi try to take like proactive measures just to prevent such an idea from taking place because the all the signs were right there right that this guy was crazy enough to do it you know right and it was so odd because you know we were so used to like you know that we had the war in Afghanistan it's easy who do we root for right we written for the Muslims when I talk and Iran were fighting like we know who we root for we root for a dog because those are the even though it's a majority Shia country it's ruled by a Sudanese so we root for him like we want them to win all right now a Sunday nation is invading another Sunni nation and going to war with another Sunni name like what in the world is happening like if that lets the end of days like everyone's going crazy and it was very hard to make sense of it right so what happened I mean obviously part of your family was still there so what happened at that at that time when greatest invasion took place so you know my father was was still in Saudi my my mother and myself and my siblings I'm the oldest we were stuck in the US and so I you know suddenly when I was 14 instantly became you know tried to become the man of the house take care of my family take care of a special I was really concerned about my younger brothers and sister like if we ended up becoming trapped in the US for an extended time I was really concerned that they might become corrupted by their time in America like I felt secure for myself that I was you know strong Muslim I wasn't going to be tempted or swayed by you know the satanic influences of the culture of America but I was really concerned for my younger siblings and so I started to become like the that we have the motel wa in in Saudi you know the religious police I was like the religious police and our house to make sure like even though we're not in home you got to pray your prayers and at the right time and you know I want to see you you know continue to study the Quran and all I wanted to keep them all very pure and as time went on and it became clear to me that we weren't going back home anytime soon I I really went through a little bit of a crisis myself because I didn't want to be in America I was okay to come and visit see things be reminded why the Saudi Arabia is such a blessed country by God everybody knows the right religion you know kind of gave me like a little pomp of you know self righteousness before going back home but I didn't want to be I didn't want to live here I didn't want to be trapped here and I began to wonder you know what what is why is God allowed this to happen to me doesn't he know I was ready to give my life for him why why has he sequestered me in this evil nation it was very difficult yeah and you know I want to welcome of course everyone to this special edition of let us reason with me here a dear brother in the Lord and of a special guest from Saudi Arabia he's a former Muslim like myself a believer in Christ and a servant of the Lord his name is nostril gathon II as you can see and of course we thank our moderators for the wonderful job they're doing and we encourage all of you to leave us questions we're paying attention to the questions of course periodically we will interact with those especially if you want it for my brother here but let's keep it also respectful and I assure you that we're not here to antagonize anyone I know some might comments about our dress we're dressing up this way for a special region a reason of course we are both from Saudi and we want to honor our culture of course but also we want to show that the Lord is working in a powerful way even in the least expected areas what here to cause any trouble or antagonize any way in fact we welcome any questions from our Muslim friends and this is you know a wonderful opportunity for you to interact not just with me but also with another brother in the Lord's from Saudi so so what happened next brother I mean I remember you know when the war between Iraq and Iran took place in the 80s I was excited you know I felt like you know the Sunnis are gonna decimate you know the enemies of Islam but then invaded you know yeah when Saddam invaded Kuwait it was confusing to me it's like you know what's going on here so Debray did did that really play any factor into your thinking now you know I think at the end of the day the the conclusion I came to which is the conclusion I think most of the world came to was that he was a crazy guy and I decided well he must not look this is typical like we all fall into when someone from our group behaves in a way that we can't accept we we find some way to remove him in our minds at least from that group so suddenly I stopped thinking about Saddam Hussein as a Sunni Muslim like he's not a real him he's not a real Muslim he's not a real Sunni and therefore there there's your explanation why he's behaving in this way why he's leading his nation in this way and and that was sort of how I I reconciled that yeah so what was next brother what what happened after that well you know what are you gonna do you're trapped in the u.s. you're surrounded by infidels and you know you got you have two choices you either have to you know start a war against them or you you have to bring them into Islam another way and I decided you know that I wasn't prepared to start jihad by myself against America and you know and I also you know I don't know how you felt about this but you know the United States really stepped up in Saudi Arabia to defend our country in the Gulf War that's right and so I kind of felt like well maybe God is gonna bless them for that and then I showed you like the the incredible amount of self-righteousness and pride I had even as a young man that I thought well maybe God has brought me here as one of the best Muslims has brought me to America so that I can evangelize them so that I can meet I just had this image in my mind there was going to be this great harvest of Americans flocking to Islam and America was going to become a Muslim country and all of this and maybe like I for such a time as this Here I am I I can I can communicate well with Americans my English is good I can explain Islam to them in a way they can understand it and accept it and so I decided that's this must be God's will this is what I'm going to do and so I began to basically evangelize for Islam you know to you know my fellow students and teachers and neighbors and everyone that I came into contact with and you know a lot of people just thought I was crazy but I did start to see over time and and my dad actually blessed what I was doing my dad heard you know shared all this with him and with some of my uncle's back home and they said oh yeah I think this is God's will for you and they began sending me you know books and and audio cassettes to listen to that try to train me and Islamic apologetics it's like kept practicing and practicing and as a the more I practiced the better I got and I started to see some fruits from my efforts I started to see you know regular American people you know born and raised some some are born and raised in the church some born you know outside the church but but abandoning their prior beliefs and you know becoming Muslims and I thought okay this this is my destiny is is to be here and and preach Islam and so that's what I did for several years Wow you know I remember when I was trying to witness about Islam at least my hope was that I would bring people to Islam because you know the value of setting captives you know that's the way we think about it that they are slaves and you set them free and therefore now they're entering Islam and you are going to get mansions in heaven in your case you did get those mansions I thought I was oh my I thought I was like if my my pride level was here once I started to see Americans renounce like in some of them you know like I said grew up in the church so they were renouncing Jesus as their Savior that's something I I carry a lot of painting with me to this day about that that they were renouncing Jesus and becoming Muslim and at the time I thought I'm like there's no way no I don't know of anybody else that's doing this and having this kind of success and so I thought I was fantastic ya know I mean it's interesting you mentioned this by the way next week I will have a brother who converted from Christianity to Islam and then 12 years later left Islam and came back to Christianity as a born-again believer now did you ever in the course of your discussion with some of these of course in our mind all Americans at least were Christians or maybe some Jew raised you know and even if they say they're atheist in your mind okay so they were Christians and they claim there is no God but it doesn't matter did you ever hear anything about born-again believers because that's really the the the alarm bills you know basically start ringing in my head when I heard this a couple of times is like what is that I mean a lot of these people right I don't know I like I want it's possible that somebody used that language I never picked up on it if they did you know Christians were like like you said I thought everyone in America was was Christian you know America is a Christian nation so that in my mind meant everyone that their American their Christian and you know based on the things that I saw coming out of America and the media and all of those things I thought okay this is what Christians do they you know sleep around they love to drink alcohol and do drugs and worship money and all of these things these are all you know Christian values but I did start to see that some of these you know Christians live differently than the rest they you know they didn't use foul language they you know didn't allow they didn't permit themselves to watch or listen to that I thought were unholy and they were very you know thoughtful kind loving and I didn't understand what was so different about these Christians than than everyone else and you know I was really drawn to them because of that like I thought these people are so close you probably have the same thought when once you met these people are so close to Islam if I could just get them to draw this wrong thinking about the Prophet Jesus like it would be there would be great there would be great Muslims and so those are actually the people that I tended to focus on and try to have you know religious conversations with were these people that I saw that were living their life differently than the culture and you know they did use a lot of language that I didn't fully understand the born-again thing wasn't something that stuck out to me but what did stick out to me is not so much what they said but how they live their life how they spoke to me how they they were respectful towards me even when I wasn't the same honestly like I I would say I look back very disrespectful things about their beliefs very disrespectful things about the Bible and their view of Jesus and they still most of them were extremely loving towards me extremely kind towards me and that got my attention amen now you know before we continue here just a quick question if you don't mind being in the east you know in Saudi did you come across Westerners given that it's close to the oil company and oil fields and other things that were taking place I remember in Jeddah you know I only met with like two British families that was it you know but not as as much as when I went to a round Co to visit some of my friends and cousins and where I met a whole bunch of them of course right you know Aramco is very close to where I grew up and you know my father worked in the oil industry and we I didn't know a few Americans but we really very close to them you know like I said I I had such a high standard for myself and that included who I spent time with and so I wasn't really interested in spending time with people you know who weren't Muslim I wanted to be around other Muslims and yeah like I just I had no no interest in a relationship with them I just want to make a quick comment I'm sitting into the moderators there is this Sam Weller who has been making a lot of annoying comments so please put this person in timeout because we don't need these antagonistic comments right now we're focused on being positive and we don't appreciate that kind of stuff all right brother so what happened after that you know now that you're in the u.s. now - you were a witness and you're bringing people to Islam yeah I'm sure you felt so excited probably about the area and you felt like you're doing the right thing you know yeah oh yeah I thought I was so wonderful but I was I could I felt like given enough time and if the person was intelligent enough I could win anyone to Islam that that's it that's what I thought and so what happened was because of that arrogance I met a wonderful Christian woman that I fell in love with and I decided you know what I'm gonna marry her and I'm not even gonna wait for her to become a Muslim I'm gonna marry her while she's still a Christian and after we get married then I'm gonna you know start putting the pressure on her and actual it'll be harder for her to leave anyway and so I can put that pressure on her and she'll become a Muslim and that was my undoing yeah I mean I agree with you I mean I remember I had the same thoughts and many of my friends have the same thoughts you know simply because at the end of the day you care about your children right you know you want your children to you know to be securely you know raised up Muslims without any intervention whatsoever so how did it go tell us about that so you know you know it had some practice this wasn't my first time you know trying to talk about Islam with an American person who had no background in it no context for it and so I I had learned through trial and error where the hot-button topics were how tell like what would be the the point like what could I say that would turn them off or turn them away and so I avoided all of those things while you know we were we were dating and then became engaged you know when she would ask questions about you know my beliefs as a Muslim I would explain to her just you know the basic things that I felt like she needed to know like Muslims we believe in one God you know we believe that God has sent you know many prophets we you know believe Muhammad was the last one we believe in all the books that God sent before which includes you know the torah and the psalms and the gospels and you know and i we believe in Jesus we love Jesus we think Jesus is great and and that that's where I would stop I wouldn't tell her anything more than that so you know I can just imagine from from her perspective I was portraying Islam almost like it was an Eastern denomination of Christianity you know right and you know brother we were really genuine about our feelings towards Christianity that's what we know about Christianity were not really exaggerating we're not lying this is how we believed Christianity is all about exactly but and waited until after we were married before I began to say you know but you need to know the the Jesus that I believe in the things that you say about Jesus are not right you know he's not the Son of God he wasn't and half divine fully divine none of that he was a man a holy man but he was still just a man and he did not die on a cross God would never allow that to happen to one of his prophets he got rescued him I explained to her the whole Islamic perspective on that and so I said you know when when you're praying in Jesus's name or praying to Jesus I said you know what you're doing is I all the tree you're idolizing one of God's prophets and that's wrong and you need to stop doing that and you know the best thing you could do is become you know a muslima and here's all you have to believe in and and that there's one God and Muhammad is His Messenger and just drop all this extra baggage about Jesus which I would say to her you know you know it doesn't make sense anyway like the Trinity and all of this and you know you know I would I would do it in a such a subversive way like you know there's contradictions in your Bible like you don't have to tell me yes or no like I know that you know that and don't you see the Quran is this perfect book and there's no contradiction rhinette and it's a miracle and all of these things and just began to apply pressure you know softly at first but then stronger and stronger as time went on and it put not surprisingly a huge strain on our relationship on our marriage and yeah like she began to wonder like what what have I done and and marrying this you know super gives out what what what do you think was going on in her mind you know her friends probably at you in the dating period a courtship or whatever you know were they influencing her to move away did you feel any tension at the beginning or was it after the marriage that she began to question or decision yeah I I would say you know her her family was a little concerned with the right reasoning for that when she told them the name of the guy that she was dating like I don't know where's this guy from you know who is this right and then they weren't really excited about the marriage and then after the marriage they were really weren't excited when they began to see how I was trying to influence her and I I know that there were people in her life Christian sexually in her life that said you know you made a mistake God's gonna forgive you for for marrying this guy you know the Bible says you shouldn't be unequally yoked you know God would forgive you if you just divorced him and just forget about this guy and start a new life and that did sit right with her and she loved me and God spoke to her actually through a message that was being preached at her local church that you know what she had dead was wrong and marrying an unbeliever but God could still work in this situation but it was going to be hard and he had an aunt we were a missionary yeah exactly and she had an aunt who was a missionary for decades in Brazil and her aunt said to her you know you may end up waiting 20 30 40 years for an officer to come to Christ are you are you prepared to take on that burden of interceding for him of praying for him daily of being a witness and a light for Jesus in your home no matter what it costs you are you willing to accept the consequences of the decision that you made and you know her answer was yes I'm in it I'm I'm in it and she began to not only pray for me a day late but she began to mobilize hundreds and then thousands of people of believers to intercede for me on a weekly basis she got a whole mega church in North Texas praying for me and then when we moved to Missouri she got another mega church there to pray for me by name week after week after week that God would reveal himself to me that he would reveal the truth to me amen brother amen and by the way I want to make a mention Mohammed even jars congratulations for making a decision to enter into the kingdom and follow our Lord brother Jamal mentioned that to me we were delighted let less your brother were here to serve you in any way shape or form brother how did your family react to you when you were exploring the idea of marrying of course an American you know in their line of course they know she's Christian but how did they react some families are okay other fact I don't want to make it like a blanket coverage here respects some families can go really nuts I mean honey it's a big big tribe and I know they probably didn't like the idea already having an American involved in the genealogy right for sure for sure and you know I I know that you know my marriage had already been semi arranged from when I was you know young of who you know my first wife would be and you know how it we not to go into that but you know as you can't gather more wives you know sometimes you get a choice sometimes you don't and it's about it's not about you it's about what's good for the family but you know unfortunately you know my dad couldn't say a whole lot to me at least that's was was my feeling because he said an example he married an American woman now my mother even though she was born and raised in the u.s. she became a Muslim right before he married her and and so she he's still married a Muslim woman I went a step further and marrying an American who was still a Christian but again you know I if anyone said anything to me I'd be like come on like how many Christians have I led to Islam like back off I know what I'm doing I'm you know I God God is with me he's guiding my steps this is gonna be great you know you can pick my next wife that'll be fine you know but this one this one's for me next one all right man I like your thinking okay so and we have a lot of people here that are going to be taking some ibuprofen right now so you got married she's questioning now her decision asked she should actually I'm sorry to say this and by the way I know her he's a wonderful godly woman so even I look at like what were you thinking in a race but but of course we praise the Lord for that so so did adlet attention add to the tension between the two of you or don't just ignore the fact that she's thinking this way get over it you know well you know when I when I met her you know outwardly she seemed like a pretty nominal Christian you know she wasn't attending church anywhere I didn't really see here you know she didn't really pray a lot in my presence you know you know her Bible was usually on the on the bookshelf you know not you know in her hands and so I really thought this is going to be an easy conversion but you know as I began to challenge her faith in trying to bring her to Islam what I actually ended up doing was was pushing her into a position where she really had to make a choice of whether Jesus is really her Lord or not he's either the way the truth and the life or he's not like she had to make that decision and so in my pressuring her it actually kind of forced her to hold stronger to Jesus to kind of cling to Jesus and then I watched her behavior begin to change as she did that I I watched as she began to attend a local church as she began to you know intentionally you know read her Bible daily you know she see her praying daily and at first I didn't like this but then I thought you know she's just kind of exploring more of the religion that she was raised with and I know that there's no life there and so I know that's a dead end and so I'm gonna let her do that sort of spin her wheels and then as she kind of discovers all the problems in Christianity as she's now really walking in it more it's gonna be that much easier for me to then take her and bring her into Islam and so that's sort of what I was was waiting for I'm during that time so how did she take that resistance on your part of course and at the same time the pressure coming from you to move to the other direction right it was so hard on her I mean we had so so many you know conversations that quickly turned into arguments that we quickly turned into heated arguments and usually ended you know in tears especially for her it was so so stressful so so hard and you know I look back now with you know such sympathy for her her strength and clearly the Lord was with her and strengthening her daily to be able to pour all that pressure and she's you know like I said she's praying for me in earnest and she is a gathering other people to pray for me consistently and from her perspective she's not seeing any result you know I'm just as hardened to the gospel I'm still just as certain that that I'm right and she's wrong as I was on on the day that we met what she didn't know and couldn't know is that inside me as as you know one year of marriage turned into two years of marriage you know two years of all of this prayer for me that there was a real you know battle going on inside my heart and I was feeling I've heard like I've heard this from other Muslim background believers I was starting to feel like spiritually attacked in a way I don't know if you ever you know experience it's like thoughts coming into my mind that I I never would have thought about and I later learned that these are actual verses from the Bible that were just coming into my mind things I had never read to my knowledge nobody had ever shared them with me but but these these you know verses and these pictures from the Bible we're coming into my mind things like you know you know Nasser what's your what are you doing when you're going down and and prostrating yourself before God and you're praying and doing all of these things you know for God you know and God's not a fool God sees all God knows that when you come up from that when you rise up from your prayers all the wickedness that's inside you is still there nothing's changing in you and and you're all your good deeds are like washing the outside of a cup but it's not touching the inside the inside of this cup your life is still just as dirty and in need of a cleaning as it was before you did any of these these good deeds and what are you gonna do about that when on the day of judgment you have to stand before a holy God and give an account not only for the things that you did outwardly but for all the the junk that was in going on inside you all of the the secret sins the hidden things that you think you got away with because nobody else knows God knows and he's not mocked these are the types of thoughts that were coming into my mind and it wasn't so much pushing me to abandon Islam or pushing me to become a Christian what what I now know was the voice of the Holy Spirit what he was doing was he was just simply showing that you know if Islam is true you who think you're the best of Muslims actually you're not that great and actually you're as deserving of Hell as anyone who's ever lived and so you know good luck with with trying to cover up all of your sin with all of these good works how many how many prayers does it take to get into heaven like what is that a hundred thousand a million right where is the threshold where you think your good deeds are ends hey gonna obligate God who made heaven and earth and everything in them that he should he should be obligated to allow you into paradise like nothing there's nothing we can do to indebt yourself to him and I started to feel like I'm the one that's in debt and I'm only becoming more in debt the longer I live which was incredibly difficult for me emotionally amen and brother you know because I know you know major part of your story I'm just salivating for the next part now so so you know share with us what steps were taken by your wife at least at this stage right so again outwardly I look like just as a devout secure you know Muslim man as I ever have been and inwardly I'm all you know torn up I'm at war with myself because I feel like I know what the truth is and the truth that I believe in is now condemning me and so what hope is there for me and I became so depressed and no one knew this but God and myself and began to wonder again I started to drift back to you know the lessons of my childhood and think you know what the only help from for me is to die in Jihad that's it the die is a martyr and I started to think like how could I do that where what where would be the the simplest easiest way that I could get myself killed for God without hurting my family that was where my thought process is and by this point you know we had our first daughter was born and I you know thinking about her her and you know it was just so so difficult and in the midst of this you know my wife finally you know felt like it was time to invite me to come to her church which you know I'd always been resistant to not interested in that at all and she just felt like prompted that she should invite me and she did and I said yes and she was I think probably surprised by that but in my mind I already felt so condemned inside I thought you know what's what's the harm like I'm curious what goes on in these Christian churches and so you know I'm gonna go to hell anyway might as well find out what they do in there and and who knows maybe God would bless me and allow me to convert somebody in this church to Islam if I find someone who's open-minded I know you can relate to that and yeah I did it I went to church and you know we can get into that you know and a little bit if you want but you know I I thought was the most satanic stuff I had ever seen an American Western Church just for culturally just so different right I had no context for the things they were doing and why they were doing them but I was so drawn at the same time to keep coming back because of the love that I experienced there from the people and I thought I was sort of in disguise you know I didn't dress like this I dressed like an American and so I thought you know it's a big church nobody here knows I'm a Muslim I didn't know they were all praying for me and so I thought they'll just assume I'm a Christian too and I can just sort of spy on what they're doing here maybe get some good pointers on how to share Islam with with Christians better from attending and so that was where my mindset was but but week after week I was being exposed to the gospel in a very real and deep way and so every week was another opportunity for the gospel to come and now the gospel wasn't just my own life challenging me and the truth that I believed in challenging me now the gospel was challenging me week after week and the Holy Spirit was challenging me week after week no sir why why why will you not even consider the claims of Christianity why are you so quick to to dismiss all of it all all of this stuff and finally after several weeks I reached a point where I thought you know what I feel so torn up maybe I don't know what's true I know that God knows the truth even if I don't and so if God holds all truth and he can reveal any truth to anyone at any time I'm gonna pray and ask him to show me what the truth is and you know as a Muslim when you pray a prayer like that you don't really expect anything like you know I'm not a Who am I I'm not a prophet you know God doesn't care about me really as an individual he's not paying attention to some little prayer in my heart but but that's what I was so desperate I did it anyway I was like reaching you know drowning person you reach for anything floating in the water and so I reached out and as soon as I had you know that that silent prayer in my heart you know God you know reveal to me this whatever the truth is I want to know and I want to know it from you I immediately had a vision and so what that was like for me so I'm sitting you know and the probably the very back of this church and the pastors preaching and I'm not listening to him anyway I'm tuning him out but then suddenly everything that was before me was wiped away it was gone and it was like I was transported to this rocky hill looking down at a man who was so have been so brutally brutally beaten if I knew him he was unrecognizable to me and he was old to a piece of wood to a cross and I knew somehow I knew that this is is a seven Miriam this is Jesus the Son of Mary that is being crucified in front of me I thought oh my goodness is this what God is this really the truth he really crucified and why and why would allow that like all these thoughts going through my mind and I watch as he the crosses lifted up and he's he's on the cross hanging there bleeding struggling for breath and I'm just watching him and I look at I look him in the eyes and looking in the face and I see that he sees me he's looking at me and he's not just looking at me he's looking through me he he sees all of my junk all of the hidden things in my life it's all laid bare before him and I feel this wave of shame and think he'll so disgusted by me I feel like God is looking at me right now I'm it's like almost like I'm on the last day and here's my whole life being way by Jesus while being on the cross and yet he's looking at me not with disgust which is what I expected he's looking at me with this fierce love the that is he's fighting for every breath on the cross as if he's fighting at least in part for me and I didn't understand what what that meant or how that could be but I knew that now that I was I was not just looking at a prophet being crucified I knew that in some way God was present in that man on the cross and then what he was doing there wasn't about him and about me me and I watched as this darkness after several hours this darkness began to cover everything and it was like it was being gathered up around him and it was it was as if all the the darkness the sin that was in my life that was in you know all of humanity was being gathered up and being placed upon him while he hung there on the cross and I watched as it was as it was being put on him it wasn't overcoming him he was overcoming it he was breaking its power he was nullifying it bit by bit by bit until there was nothing left and and I watched was he cried out that it was finished and then he seemingly died there the cross in front of me and I thought what in the world now because how can God die and then I I heard his voice very much alive saying to me the reason I did this was because you and all the people that were meant to be my children were snatched away from me and you sold yourselves to other powers and to other rulers to other Kings and to get you back to bring you back to myself to buy you back this was the cost Timman and this was the price that I meant for you for all of you but for you knew Nasser you know but you have to choose whether you will surrender yourself back to me whether you will give yourself back to me now I have made a way for you but you have to choose to take the first step now and then as soon as he had servants to me the vision like was suddenly gone I'm still absolutely sitted in the church again I the rest of the sermon you know I missed the the closing song I even missed the invitation but this the pastor of this church god bless him he wouldn't dismiss the congregation every week he this was his Heather he wouldn't just congregation without giving people one more chance to surrender their life to Christ that he would just ask everyone to bow their heads close their eyes and he say if you want to receive Jesus right now nobody else is watching but God you can pray this prayer after me right where you are and Jesus will hear you and Jesus will rescue you and I found many in that moment with my head bowed eyes closed and these words coming out of my mouth that I never twenty years as the little one I never thought I would say these words confessing Jesus Christ as my Lord as my God as my Savior asking him to forgive me to wash me clean to accept me as his son and as soon as I prayed that prayer I mean I was so nervous because I thought other people might hear me and but nobody heard me not even my wife who was sitting next to me heard me nobody knew what had just happened but I immediately felt something almost like a fire fall upon me and I felt as if I was just wrapped up in this amazing presence that was just pure peace and runoff and belonging it was just the most amazing thing I had ever felt and I knew that was God's response to my prayer that he said yeah you can be mine now you belong to me now I haven't marked you and I was born again I don't know even at that point in my life I had ever heard that that phrasing or not but for sure on that day the man who walked out of that church was not the same man that welcomed and it changed my one area brother hallelujah Amen brother of course I understand you know and I remember the day when I got baptized brother I mean I never cried tears like I did that day I mean it's almost like it was cleansing me from the inside out and we praise the Lord for that so your beautiful wife is here by the way she's doing a side discussion you know answering questions you know they're there asking questions and she's stepping in and they ask her if you beat her if you be trans or Muslim she defended you so I'm glad I'm glad she's just stood up for you so brother I wasn't physically abusive but I was very emotionally abusive and I put a lot of pressure on her and trying to to make her become a Muslim and you know things that I've had to ask her forgiveness for and and repent of yeah of course well I mean that's even worse I know I know but but the gay and I want people to understand you know what NASA was doing what I was thinking about doing I mean we felt we're serving our God you know I mean it's not like we're doing it because we want to be mean people in fact if you ask Nasser in those days he will tell because I love my wife that's why I'm doing what I'm because I wanted to become a father of Islam so I mean sometimes people think like there is a mean spirit behind it well today we know that but back then we weren't thinking along these lines so brother tell us a little bit if you don't mind I mean I don't put you in a spot but what was happening behind the scenes also through your wife's own ministry to bring you to Christ the prayer and things like that that were taking place I think people will be encouraged to hear just maybe a fraction of that but well you know my wife knew that if I was gonna come to Jesus it was gonna take a miracle and she knew that for if she wanted to see a miracle it was gonna take a lot of people praying and so she wasn't content to just ask people at her church to pray for me she she was out there recruiting people to pray for me if you you know smiled at her at the grocery store she was gonna introduce herself she was gonna ask if you knew Jesus as Lord if you didn't she was gonna share the gospel with you but if you were a Christian she was gonna tell you about her situations ahead pray for my husband Nasser he's a Muslim here let me write down his name because you're gonna freak that was my favorite part right now the name in case you didn't know how to say it right right pray pray pray and it was two years of that kind of mobilizing I to this day I don't know how many thousands of people were praying for me but I did after get to meet a few people and they some of them have confessed to me like like Nasser we prayed for you but we had like almost zero faith like anyone who knew you like had almost zero faith that they were ever gonna be a change because I was so hard-hearted and I was yeah a little faith huh well I mean we definitely in drive people nuts man I mean we come from a very good background yeah they give up on us you know yeah but I am so thankful for her prayer ministry of course and she's not a prayer warrior but but I wanted you to mention that so people know that you know what it's not just talking sometimes sometimes you have to trust the Lord sometimes you have to recruit prayer for years because that's what it takes I mean it takes a lot of labor and you know your wife has been fortunate to see the fruit and the result of that who knows brother I mean some in in this situation let us pray for sister jolly her husband his name is Mohammed who still a Muslim she asked him for prayer for him we pray that the same thing will happen to him in her lifetime that she would see her husband embracing the Lord and following him but but you know folks at the end of the day it is the work of God you know today I preached from John chapter 6 verses 60 to 65 where the disciples some of Jesus's disciples have a hard time listening to him saying unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you know and obviously metaphorically speaking and they just couldn't stay with him and the Lord was saying you know what it's not up to you it's remember the law of the Father brings to me that will follow me so it takes the grace of God it takes the power of God the work of the Holy Spirit brother well that's amazing brother you know so what happened tell us you accepted Christ did your family find out back home did you share with them that they came across it somebody mentioned to them yes so I pretty quickly decided that you know I think nobody ever needs to know about this crazy vision that I had that I've decided to give my life to Jesus I think you know it would probably be better for everyone if I just kept quiet about it I continue to go through the motions of being a Muslim just for you know all the trouble that could cause not just for me but also for my family but fortunately God God had other plans and you know I after almost a week I finally had to tell my wife we still you know but weeping into her pillow every night you know praying for me to know the truth I finally had to share with her about my decision and of course she was very happy and she didn't really know the the culture very well yet at that point we were still pretty newly married and so she didn't quite understand that the danger that could happen to us to me to my family if it came out and so she you know thought wow this answer to prayer the miracle has happened our prayers have been answered the church needs to know and so she began telling people at church like Nasser has become a Christian now isn't that great and so like it suddenly becomes the talk of the church oh wow our that God has answered our prayer and as soon as I found out about that I thought oh no like my life is over now what's gonna happen and my family is gonna hear about this and I just determined I my family's gonna be so ashamed and but it would be worse if they hear about this from a rumor instead of hearing about it from me directly and so now the responsibility is on me I need to tell them and tell them quickly before they hear about it from from someone else and have to confront me and so it's terrifying thing as you know brother any others who are watching this now who have been through this you understand how terrifying a thing that is and it is I to start with the member of my immediate family that I thought would be the easiest which was my youngest sister and so I went and shared with her and you know remember I'm the the oldest brother and you know I'm almost like a second father to her she really respects me and and tries to live a life you know an obedience you know to my wishes and so I you know what is she gonna do except maybe he just reject me and so I share with her my story I share what happened and her eyes are just getting huge as I'm telling her all of these things and I'm thinking wow she must think I've lost my mind you know what is she supposed to be so ashamed of me she's quiet through the whole let's me share the whole story and finally at the end she says um I just have one question and I said what's your question and she said do I have your permission as my oldest brother to also follow Jesus and become a Christian and I just started to cry I couldn't believe it I couldn't believe it and what I what I discovered was that you know my wife had been sharing the gospel with her behind my back and you know other people in her life had shared the gospel with her and she was was pretty convinced at least mentally that you know that Islam was not for her and the Christian that Jesus offered a better life for her but she was so terrified of me my own sister was terrified of what her older jihadi brother would do to her if she left Islam that she wouldn't even consider making a step of faith and so finally that I had been removed out of the way she felt like a door was open that she could actually make a choice for herself and so she chose to give her life to Jesus it's amazing isn't it it's it's amazing that you didn't know but somehow the Lord gave you that courage to share with her and look what you uncovered Faisal over map amazing amazing and so then I shared with my my brothers my younger brothers who were twins and and one of them after you know hearing you know what what had brought me to Jesus and then asking a lot of really good questions most of which I didn't have good answers to and I was honest about that that I knew that that Jesus is the Messiah the son of God and he was crucified for our sins like that's all I know I'm still had to learn everything else I'm a baby Christian but I know that and he decided that was enough because it seemed to be enough for me and so he also chose to give his life to Jesus and then his twin brother decided that I was crazy I must be brainwashed from my Christian wife or something somebody cursed me some kind of you know satanic attack on me something like he he didn't want anything to do with his Jesus talk didn't want to have any kind of relationship with me unless I came back to Islam and and that was hard obviously but it was also the reaction that I thought I was gonna get from the other two so I was mourning the loss of that while still appreciating the fact that two of my siblings were now born-again and so then I shared with my parents and you know my mother you know grew up in America so she's pretty familiar with Christianity and all of that and you know she had a very almost Universalist outlook on it like you know Nasser I think Islam is the right way but you know you've done a lot of good deeds for God and I'm sure he's gonna forgive you for this and you know just keep trying to be good and keep praying and fasting and this kind of thing and he'll forgive you for this misunderstanding about Jesus which of course is not Orthodox Islam but that was that the attack that my mother took and then you know when I'm a scariest was my father to share and I just knew what a disappointment that was going to be for him and I was actually more grieved about hurting him with this news I mean I'm his oldest son you know nobody calls him by his first name everyone in his life even to this day calls him Abu no sir that's his identity and now the the young man that's his identity has done the most shameful disgusting disturbing thing that any child could do their parent and and I shared with him and he was so hurt so upset so angry but he didn't lay a hand on me which I feel like was was God's intervention in that moment and and he gave me a season to repent where he said he wouldn't tell any of the rest of the family back home because he was still I'm living in Saudi Arabia at that time and then when I didn't you know obviously go back to Islam then you know he couldn't keep the news back much longer and it began to come out and I I lost most of my relationships with my family back home yeah I mean you're preaching to the choir that's for sure and unfortunately you know I want our friends here to realize just the the depth of the loss that we suffer for Christ and I want him to be mindful of this when they reach out to Saudis and you know Gulf Arabs and Muslims in general to be gracious and appreciate the fact that they are count because sometimes they're really counting the cost when they are not making the decision on the spot it's not really about checking a box it's about bringing souls to Christ and we need to be mindful of that thank you brother for reminding us of this and I just want to once again thank everybody we're gonna continue of course you know if you don't mind brother for at least maybe another 10 15 minutes this is we're amazing of course we want you to talk about ministry on asking a few other questions about challenges but I want to thank of course the moderators I wanna thank everybody for here I only thank my brother Islam critiqued thank you so much brother your honor me once again to come to our livestream and hopefully we will be able to do the same together here soon there is a dear brother his name is Xia Hassan and and Xia by the way is is a former Muslim like us and he was kind of like you know giving you a shout out saying that your story almost like his so Xia if you are really open yeah I know you if you're open to come here and share with us but bring Brioni with you that's most important for me put the Brioni and you just share and i'll be eating it will do that but seriously if you're open for that idea to come and share your story I know your story is powerful brother we leave it out you know for you to pray about that so brother you know so that happened tell me about now your journey with Christ I mean at the same time you're dealing with the difficulties and the challenges mm-hmm how did you now begin to process that I mean in my case I'm like oh man did I make the right decision am I being punished by Allah because all of it happened within the first three months but are they thankful for the godly men and woman who discipled me of course but I mean how did you process all of this it was it was very difficult for me you know when as I started to watch relationship slip away as I started to you know realize all the things that I was giving up you know you know possibly giving up the the ability to ever return home for one you know let alone you know material things you know my inheritance my place in the family all of these things that I was giving it but then also relationships friendships you know that had you know been a part of my life for for you know ten years or more that I saw were slipping away and then also the added responsibility that you know I had been a part of leading one of my brothers and sisters to Christ and now they were some gonna suffer too and we're suffering also and and what have I done and I'm ruined their lives also and you know all of these things and wondering you know like you you know when you came to Lourdes like wandering up I'm the only one I came to Christ in August of 1996 and and I didn't know anyone who was a former Muslim I knew some some Arab Christians and I and I had some that that reached out to me and in those first few years but they came from a Christian background and I never felt like they fully understood what I was going through and how I felt torn because you know I still loved my Muslim family I still love my people I still love my culture all of these things and it was a very difficult the first few years of trying to figure out you know Who am I now what is my identity what what what have I become what am i becoming and all of that and and the all of the answers ultimately for me were found in the Bible that very early on in my you know discipleship process and I say that with a little bit you know of a smile because you know there wasn't really any anyone any person that was actively disciple me even though I needed it and I wanted it I didn't know the language for that but but but God began to lead me to to study the scriptures to begin reading this Bible that I thought I knew that I had obviously missus judged in some way and I wanted to know what it actually said and and what's the truth that it teaches and so I just began to read the scriptures starting in Genesis and and reading through the the Old Testament reading the Gospels for myself reading that the Apostles letters and so forth and as it began you know to read about the read these stories yeah like I don't know if you had this experience at the fuddy but you know to recognize Wow I for some reason I thought the Bible was a Western book but actually it's a Middle Eastern book actually like almost everyone and all of these stories they're stories taking place in the Middle East with Middle Eastern people and you know drama with in Middle Eastern families that I can actually relate to and understand and I became so excited about the things I was discovering in the scriptures about God and who he really is and I discovered that the God that I thought I knew that I had grown up with is not the God of the Bible and to see what what God's love is really like to see what God's mercy and grace to how the Bible defines those qualities of God and then to discover my own identity in him how often you know I've saw in the New Testament that the words in Christ show up in wrote in relation to the position and identity of the believer and so that to reflect and meditate on all these things I'm seeing in Jesus can now be true of me as the Holy Spirit begins to transform me from the inside out and as I begin to to release and surrender more and more of my old identity so that more of Christ can live in me and it was just so amazing and what I quickly what everyone discovered around me is I couldn't shut up about these things like I just couldn't help it and so I'd be you know going to work and I bring my Bible with me because I just wanted to read my Bible during my lunch break and other breaks in and then people see you with a Bible at work here and even in America and they think you must be weird or you're a pastor or something and so then people are coming and asking me Bible questions and religious questions and so before I know it I'm leading Bible studies at my work and and seeing people come to Christ you know just through me just presenting the gospel and this is just the simple way that I understood it and and that of course you know God was working through all of that and one thing led to another and before long I began to be actively you know mentored and disciple by the pastor of our church and begin to have opportunities to leave Bible studies a church to occasionally you know preach on Wednesday nights and then occasionally on Sunday mornings and and yeah you got just began to develop that that teaching gift in me and that passion to illuminate God's Word and and to make it accessible for people and to help people to understand it especially in its middle-eastern context again I want to give a shout out to all of those who gave through the super chat thank you so much a shout out for Somali Christian TV I found out right now that you are a form of Muslim as well would love to connect I would love to connect of course brother you know each one of us have a calling each one of us has a style of doing ministry and sometimes sadly sometimes people to try to develop their own opinion about how ministry should be conducted now what is you know your style of teaching for instance or style of ministry how will you describe that in other words great apologetics is part of the Muslim wiring they're gonna ask you the tough questions they cannot wanna argue with you what is your style of handling this because I want people to be exposed to a variety of ways I mean I know my style I like to do it in a certain way how do you handle it right you know it would have been really easy for me because of you know the the life that I lived as a Muslim and I was sort of like you wired for apologetics and practiced like Islamic apologetics you know on the other side it would have been really easy for me to slip into that same role on the other side now right and but the Lord did not give me any permission to do that and I think he knew that I probably would have enjoyed it for all the wrong reasons instead what he challenged me to do was the thing that was going to be harder for me which was rather than than try to argue people into the kingdom rather than try to win people through information even even truthful information and not that I don't obviously I preached the Bible so I'm preaching truth all the time but primarily to practice an apologetic of love to love people to love especially people who may not like me very much may not like the the life that I'm living now and the stands that I've made but to love them anyway just as Christ loved me when I was preaching against him and so that that's sort of the the the path that God has led me on and you know we all have different roles in the body of Christ different different Kingdom strategies that God is executing through the body but that's that's that's the the road that he has paved for me to walk and and in that you know he's made it really clear that he doesn't want me to you know build you know a big ministry around myself or even my teaching even though I love to teach the Bible but you know my my main goal in in making disciples and in teaching the scriptures is not to get a lot of people to follow me but instead introduce as many people as I can to this Jesus who has so radically transformed my life and just be I'm almost I feel like the middle man just just almost like the the matchmaker I just want to get these two together Jesus and whoever this other person is that God has placed in my life I just want to set them up to get to know each other and then just let I just know once they fall in love with Jesus I can I can step back and let him work and let him begin speaking to them and so when I'm teaching the Scriptures I even have a gift for that I want to get people excited not to hear my teaching but to read the scriptures for themselves and excited about opening up their Bible and getting alone with the Lord and listening to the Holy Spirit as he is the ultimate teacher amen brother so just for the benefit of those if a few folks can hang out for another 10 minutes with that that would be great in case you know you're wondering when we will be closing I mean I would love to go on for hours but I want to respect the brother also on his time so brother so tell tell us a little bit about you know the type of ministry you do and I'll leave it up to you to decide what details you want to share but what is it that you're doing now now I would tell people Nasser is a computer engineer okay it's software you know involved with the you know computer software artificial intelligence and those kind of things so all that to say is I want to show you that Christ comes first in our life and I just want the world to tell you about the sacrifices that he made for the sake of serving the Lord all right brother rain yeah yeah I had a great career in software architecture for many years and was you know serving the Lord also at the same time and doing a lot of of ministry on on the side and in taking a lot of you know mission trips and that type of thing and about three years ago the Lord asked me to lay all that down and it was a lot easier then laying down Islam was for me it was actually that one of the easiest choices I ever made it was just to submit everything fully to God including my finances and all of that and just began I hate to say you know full-time ministry like it's a career because that's not how I look at it's a lifestyle that's you know about and you know this brother like it's just about trusting Lord to provide for you and just a new measure and you know we all have to trust the Lord for our to be not just our provider but to be our provision and so yes I've been doing that for three years and but even before that I was you know travel a lot you know as God invites me into places both all over North America but then also overseas and Europe and the Middle East and North Africa and you know I feel pretty comfortable in saying you know I don't really know what I'm doing except I'm just obeying the Lord as he invites me into things as he gives me you know as I pray and listen and try to be an obedient son he shows me places he wants me to go people that he wants me to speak to people that he wants me to invest in and I just try to walk that out on obedience and trust God is gonna do something with that and and all glory to him I just seen him amazing fruit everywhere that that I've gone with him I've seen many many Muslims coming to Christ which gives me the wonderful just beautiful experience to be the older brother and the Lord the spiritual father that I always wished that I had you know 25 years ago when I came to Christ and and to be able to be that for others and watch as I just teach people you know to obey Jesus and and to walk in their identity as sons and daughters of the king to watch them grow and watch that accelerate and develop in them and then to watch them go out and to begin to make disciples also as they fall so so passionately and contagiously in love with Jesus that they can help themselves I mean yes for me this is the the greatest thing I could ever be doing with my life yeah you know brother I would I ask this question if you don't mind because we have some funny people here that always like to raise this argument so when I told people that I'm a follower of Christ from sadi I was accused that I was never an Arab I was never a Saudi I was never a Muslim you know and the list goes on and on do you deal with these kind of you know funny arguments of course of course all the time all the time and so you know I don't know about you but I I keep a couple of photos of myself back in Saudi you can tell i'm in saudi that my phone that you know what i'm in in face-to-face conversations with people i pull them up and say you know come on i'm for ana so and and you know brother just to help those who are doubters are we the only two saudi believers not even we heard such a tiny fraction now praise God praise God you know I got the opportunity even this week to hear new testimonies from people who have come to Christ who you know both overseas you know here in the West or even back home in Saudi Arabia you know there are people like us who are following Jesus faithfully trusting him every day and it is an amazing day that we live in more and more of us are coming into the light amen brother and you know I've always been privileged to serve the Lord with my brother here sometimes at conferences and then he has his own Bible study I now started you know a small Bible study as well we have people that we both know we are working towards even doing more stuff together one of those a possibility and of course we say the possibility because we believe that we need to continue to pray for the Lord's guidance here to do a live stream Bible study at least on an average maybe once a month we don't want to make any promises yet but we're telling you join us in prayer for things like this brother any last-minute things you want to share with us and also I would like for you to also leave the wonderful people who are following us today and watching this or even those who will watch this livestream later on any advise any anything you want to share with them you know the there's a lot of people who claim to have the truth everyone who has you know any belief system whatever religion they claim to everybody thinks that their way is right everybody thinks that they have the truth but what I learned you know is that if God is the ultimate source of all truth then the best one you can go to like I say this to Muslims all the time don't don't become a Christian because I became a Christian don't even become a Christian because it's just something that you you see or or hear from me see God asked him to show you if you pray and ask him sincerely to show you and lead you into truth he's going to respond because that's actually what he what he when you're actually praying a prayer according to his will he wants to lead people into truth but he's not going to force anyone he's not going to to pressure you even though he has all the strength and power in the universe he's not gonna force you to submit your life to him even after all that he has given for you but he will respond to the sincere prayer of God please just guide me into what the truth is show me yourself where the truth is that's that's what I did I wasn't looking to leave Islam I had no desire to leave Islam I would have probably at the time would have told you I'd be happy if someone could just help me to feel like I'm a better Muslim so that I don't have this this torment going on within me but when I ask God to show me truth he showed me Jesus crucified and and that was the truth that I needed to see and believe in order to be saved and I believe that God is doing that already for many people has done that for others both since my time and even before me and I believe he will continue to guide people into his truth brother how can people follow you where can they go and watch you for instance and if they want to give towards your ministry or give to you how can they either do that or connect with you to discuss things like this I wanna make sure we are platform for blessing you as well so thank you bro anything you want to share that's entirely you know in your court right now I don't want our volunteer in for that not so sure if you wanted it to be out there or not no it's okay I'm quite alright with that I have a youtube channel that right now I've been live streaming twice a week and some some Bible teaching been going through the book of Esther and now Daniel you can either search for me you know with my name is ahsoka Thani and I'm the number one thing that comes up I think on YouTube right now with my name is Laura but you can also just go to the URL come and see dot church and that will also take you to my youtube channel amen amen and of course can they connect with you directly through those channels anyone else great I want to encourage you folks because we are accused usually of doing this to make money my brother left a career that makes him six to seven figures probably so I don't know what he was thinking when he left that career to do this you know because apparently he wasn't he wasn't happy with the money is making right you know you want to make more he lives my faith and we want you to bless him and you know these sacrifices are real these sacrifices are genuine these sacrifices show how much the Lord is the number one in our life and that speaks of course for both of us and many of you in here I cannot judge everyone I don't know all of you but I know some of you have been through a lot of sacrifices well thank you so much brother I would like for us to close by praying for our nation for the Saudi people or our just you know everyone who is laboring among them as well can you give us the honor of doing that hmm Holy Father we I thank you so much for who you are and that with all that you have you searched us out you rescued us my brother and I we weren't we weren't looking we weren't looking for you we thought we knew you and yet you came you searched us out you found us you marked us and you called us to yourself through your incredible audacious love Lord I pray that you would continue to do the same thing but multiplied for all of our people back home and Saudia God and the the Diaspora of of people from our country that are that are all over the world God and I know that that many are finding you outside the kingdom Lord but lord I pray that they would not only know you but they would fall radically in love with you that they would surrender all to you and be transformed from the inside out God Lord I pray for for all of the Muslim people God and especially coming off of this month of Ramadan God and so many have spent the last month just earnestly seeking you trying to please you God and I pray that you would visit them that you would pour out your love upon them that she would show them that that the hard work has already been completed on their behalf and the person of Jesus that the door is open that whoever wants can come to you now can be born again can be receive new life now and eternal life in the age to come god lord I just pray a blessing over over everyone and it's been in the chat everyone watching live everyone watching this after the fact God Lord let let them today let them even now have a moment with you Lord let them feel your presence let them know not only that you are real that you exist but that you desire relationship with them God you want them to be close to you and you have shed blood in the person of Jesus to make that possible yes law and I testify Lord that you knows my heart desire my brother's heart desire here for our people to be saved we can testify that they are zealot but their zeal without knowledge Lord so father we pray that you will open the eyes of the blind and just touch them by the power of your Holy Spirit so that they come tongue come to know you the only true Savior in Jesus name thank you my brother what a blessing listening and I hope this will be the beginning of more come in terms of teachings and other things that will be a blessing to the people in the kingdom and blessing for our believers brothers and sisters who are laboring and who have sacrificed also to come to know him and I pray for all of you who are here that you've been blessed through this please share this testimony with the people you feel like they need this kind of encouragement and the workers and the laborers who need to know that God is at work thank you my brother and thank you everyone and we see you again and by the way I have a couple of announcement maybe while I have you here guys tomorrow I have a very special edition about the psychology the psychology of jihad that manipulates the minds of young Muslims unfortunately given him the impression that they are going to heaven and we want this to be a show that will help you pray for them and labor hard to work with those who assume that there is a way to heaven by shedding their blood when in fact the Lord have shed his blood already and we have of course our dear brother Alex blah lagaya vish who will be doing another series with me on Wednesday regarding why we trust a Bible on Thursday I have a special brother that I asked him to come in and join me to talk about certain approaches to for apologetics among Muslims and on Friday we have Robert Spencer who will be with us as well and on Sunday next Sunday we'll have another special edition with Michael Westerfield and we will be talking about a psychology of Islam he talks about his conversion to Islam and coming back again all of these hopefully will be hopeful tools for you as you reach out to our Muslim friends thank you and god bless everybody take care [Music]

Channel: Nasser al'Qahtani

Views: 10,603

Keywords: Bible, Bible Study

Id: SwtPDrzON0Q

Length: 92min 54sec (5574 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 27 2020