Iran (MNN) — Iran frees nine believers from a Muslim background who were serving five-year prison sentences for their involvement in house churches. The freedom is conditional for now; a review of the believers’ case is pending. Iran’s Supreme Court questioned the legality of the convictions in November.
Developments like these show the Lord has not forgotten about Iran. “The good news is God is way ahead of all of us. He’s already meeting the people through dreams and visions,” Heart4Iran’s Mike Ansari says.
Iran has one of the world’s fastest-growing church movements. “People in Iran are hungry for the Word of God, for the truth,” Ansari says.
“In the West, you have a choice to have your own life. Islam is the main culture in Iran, and your life is forced within it. You cannot have an individual identity outside of the realm of Islam and the social rules,” he continues.
“When we bring the Word of God [into Iran], we are allowing these people – for once in their life – to think for themselves. We present it to them, but we let Holy Spirit do the rest of the work.”
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Representative photo
(Photo courtesy of Heart4Iran)
Fatima’s story
Fatima requested a Bible from Heart4Iran after the Lord got her attention through a vision. One day, as Fatima returned home from the mosque, she noticed a strange light in one of the rooms. “It was bright, and I felt that there was a dove in my house. The house smelled like daisies; it was amazing!” she tells Heart4Iran.
As if led by an unseen hand, Fatima went inside and turned on the TV. She flipped through the channels and found one called MohabatTV.
“I started watching a movie about Jesus. I noticed Jesus was being beaten, and he wasn’t defending himself, and I said, ‘Oh, my gosh, He’s so much like our Islamic prophets that were persecuted, and nobody did anything!’ I started weeping, saying what an innocent prophet Jesus is, just like our Islamic prophet,” Fatima says.
“I started talking to Jesus. Little by little, I began asking, ‘well, who is this Jesus?’ I picked up the phone, and I called MohabatTV [to find out],” she continues.
“Slowly, after some time, I gave my heart to Christ.”
Soon, Fatima’s husband noticed she wasn’t pursuing Islamic activities with vigor anymore. “My husband and I thought that going and doing God’s (Allah’s) work was giving us purpose,” Fatima says, describing the activities she used to do on behalf of her mosque.
“After ten years of going head-to-head with my husband, he finally came to Christ. Your Bible came in at a good time because now he is a believer as well, and we are reading the Word of God.”
Header image courtesy of Heart4Iran.
