In Daniel 2:44 we find this statement: “During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered.”
Long before Jesus came, Daniel foretold that God would set up a Kingdom. After the Babylonian Empire, there would be the Medes and Persians. The next kingdom would be the Greek Empire and then the Roman Empire. The new Kingdom, however, would be different from all others. It would be built during the reigns of those kings and their kingdoms which failed, but it would be a Kingdom that would never fail. There have been more kingdoms and empires after the fall of the Roman Empire and each one of them eventually fell. Every man-made kingdom has failed. Yet, the new Kingdom — God’s Kingdom — is still being built. This Kingdom came with Jesus and has not failed, nor will it ever. Jesus’ promise was that: “The gates of hell will never prevail against the Church.”
According to Daniel’s interpretation of king Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, God’s Kingdom would break all other kingdoms, seen as a rock striking Nebuchadnezzar’s statue of different empires — a small beginning, but in the end with a dramatic result. It would outgrow all other kingdoms and never end. It is indestructible and permanent. Since this Kingdom is to continue while all other kingdoms come and go, where is that Kingdom now? It is here now and fulfilling prophecy every single day. It is already indestructible and is showing every evidence of being a permanent fixture. You and I belong to this Kingdom if we are followers of Jesus. We belong to His Kingdom yet live in another one at the same time. To an extent we can function in both, but we only have citizenship in one — the eternal one. The allegiance we have is of another kind and to a different agenda. One realm lasts, the other one does not.
This explains why the House of Blessing does what it does, and it should explain why all of us do what we do. We, created in the image of God, can hardly wait until we are joined physically and in our glorified, incorruptible eternal state. But until we do, we live our lives as awake, focused, and ready for the imminent return of our KING.
The first story that came in from the House of Blessing this week was from Zahedan, Iran. This city is located very near the eastern border of Iran with Pakistan. Below is an email I received from brother Aylout (with minimal editing).
Peace be upon you, my brother Jack. How are you? This is Aylout Eban. We are most grateful and thankful to God for the progress that has been made. We raise our hands to God and thank Him for every blessing that He has provided us. The Word of the Lord has been exalted as it should be, and it will continue in its supernatural effectiveness until the Lord returns. Together with a couple of the brothers, I met a man by the name of Haj Jawad and I gave him a Bible to take home and examine for himself. He took the Bible because he wanted to learn about the miracles associated with the Book and what it is that has caused such a powerful move among the sheikhs and the people, bringing about such faith in Christ and the birth (salvation) of so many of them. After reading and studying for himself, he decided to take his friend, Sheikh Habibullah, aside so he could share with him what he himself found. When he got him alone, they began to read, read, and read some more. After reading for about an hour and a half, Sheikh Habibullah told Haj Jawad, “I am not going to join you in this. I will remain in the religion of Muhammad.”
One thing that was not mentioned earlier is that this man suffered from psoriasis. After the sheikh said he was going to continue following the way of Muhammad, he went to do his ablution (the act of washing one’s self) in preparation for the next scheduled prayer time. As he put water on his hands, the skin on his hands began to regenerate. Every time he put water on his hands, new skin appeared. He took his shirt off, touched his chest with water and the same happened. As he examined himself, he found that he was totally cured. He shouted at the top of his voice to Haj Jawad, “Come and see! I am cured! Look!” Haj Jawad was stunned at what he saw and asked his friend, “Do you see? Do you see the miracle of the Book and its Author?” “Yes, I believe! I believe in Jesus and the Lord of this Book!”
Aylout, servant of the Lord
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After reading Aylout’s report of what happened, some might ask why the sheikh was healed by the water he was using to wash his hands in preparation for the Islamic prayer time. It wasn’t, however, the act of preparation for Islamic prayer, nor the water used for this purpose that healed the man. Sheikh Habibullah and his friend Haj Jawad had been reading the scriptures previously for about 90 minutes or so and it was like the Lord was asking him, “Are you sure you still want to continue following Muhammad’s ways?” The Lord was giving him a chance to see reality. And, he saw it for the Truth it was, and he accepted.
One of the results of this event is that the sheikh insisted on taking the Gospel and translating the entire New Testament from Farsi into the traditional Aramaic spoken by most of the people in that region. All out of his new found love for Jesus. Praise God!
A second report was passed on by brother Omar. This is the story he had to share:
Peace be upon you, my brother Jack. We met a sheikh a few days ago named Sheikh Raji. Aylout, Dhurgham and I went to see him. After spending time with us studying the Scriptures, he decided it was time to declare his faith before everyone in his mosque, which was located in Zabul, Iran.
(Note: Zabul is north of Zahedan in the previous story. Zabul, however, is very close to the border of Afghanistan, rather than Pakistan. The driving distance is about 131 miles or 211 km).
Sheikh Raji was so anxious to prove to the people in attendance that the impossible can be achieved by faith that he brought 15 pomegranates, put them in front of the people and then asked God’s blessing upon them. He then opened them and asked the people (at least 250) to come forward so he could feed them one by one. The sheikh gave pieces of the pomegranates out to the people until every last one of them had been served and satisfied. The people couldn’t understand how the amount of pomegranates did not decrease, no matter how much was taken. How is this possible? Sheikh Raji explained to them that this was a blessing from the Lord and confirmed his faith in Jesus. He continued by telling them it had been a grave mistake that he had been teaching Islamic theology for the last 35 years. The people were quite astonished by this miracle and after hearing more passages from the Scriptures, the people submitted to Jesus as their sheikh had, and their longing to hear more grew. They were baptized in the nearby river. My brother Jack, we will be going to Afghanistan very soon. Please pray for us.
Omar
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A third report I received from the House of Blessing came from brother Abdelrahem. He shared the basic details of this incredible story below:
Peace be upon you, my brother Jack, and upon all who follow Christ. Today we visited a new mosque and met Sheikh Talaat. We shared the Gospel of Christ with him, with Sheikh Raji testifying to his own experience. Aylout and Omar were also with me at the time. While we were sharing withTalaat, people began to gather in the mosque, 50, then 100, and eventually the number reached nearly 700. While they were gathering, Sheikh Talaat made his decision to follow Christ. Next, he declared his faith before the crowd of 700 seated before him, saying: “We are not going to pray in the way we usually do. We are going to follow the way Jesus teaches us. I urge you to follow Jesus also, just as I have since seeing the truths in the Bible and the miracles recorded on its pages.” This immediately caused a ruckus and a great deal of anger. Amidst the shouting, a man with a device on his throat caught my attention. I decided to bring him up front to the platform so I could pray for him in front of everyone. These people, in the land of Persia, brother Jack, in one of the most difficult and dangerous places on earth, are actually a tolerant people (not the Shiite leadership) and accept the love of Jesus. The danger to our lives, however, is great, as well as it is to theirs. But, that doesn’t matter; what matters is spreading His word.
The man was obviously in great pain. I asked him to prostrate himself, to put his head on the floor, and then stand up. If he did, he would be healed. Then I thanked Jesus for what He was going to do. Hayel, Arshid, and I prayed with the man. Aylout translated it all to the people in their language. I gave the man some chapters to read, but before he did, I put oil on his head and throat. When he began to read, he did so without touching the device (the device is an electrolarynx, which is often used when someone has had throat cancer and does not have a working voice box). When the people saw what had just happened, they began to shout. The crowd had also grown to where people were standing outside the entrances.
As the man continued to read, there was an echo of what he was reading outside. The people were so astonished they began to praise Jesus, saying: “We believed in Muhammad, but no one has ever been healed like this!” The people immediately declared their faith and submitted to Jesus. Praise God!
Abdelrahem, servant of the Lord forever
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It is amazing how quickly people in spiritually starved areas accept the Truth once they see it. Most of the Middle East has been deprived of the Truth of the Gospel for hundreds of years and have no knowledge of who Jesus really is. Once they hear the real story and see the power of the Gospel displayed before their eyes, they want nothing else but to serve the One that died to set them free. And, they are making their decision by the multitudes today. The people in Zabul continue today with their prayers and begging for forgiveness. The flocks of people coming to the mosque have not stopped.
Abdelrahem says that Jesus’ favor is obvious at this point in time as they minister. The Lord knows that the belief and faith of the elders is strong and that they are willing to sacrifice whatever is necessary for the sake of the Gospel. He also repeatedly says that we are very, very near the return of Jesus for His own.
In conclusion, I have received word that, due to the faithfulness of God’s people, many more thousands of teaching booklets have been printed and are being distributed. An order has also been placed for 100 Bibles including both Old and New Testaments, 80 of them in Farsi and 20 in Arabic. For those that don’t know, the complete Arabic Bible has 2,000 pages. I don’t know how many pages it takes in Farsi.
Thank you all, and above all, please continue to pray, pray, and pray some more. The House of Blessing needs our prayers for their protection and for their success in reaching the multitudes. For anyone having any questions, feel free to contact either one of the email addresses below.
Forever in His Service,
Jake (aka Jack) 541 408-2779