Mission group Frontiers reports on God's miraculous work in Islamic communities world-wide. Frontiers concentrates on reaching unreached parts of the Muslim world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This article is taken from the latest issue of their magazine 'Connected' and includes an interview with David Garrison, author of 'A Wind in the House of Islam'...

"The Lord says: 'It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.'" (Isa 49:6)

Muslim men praying

So many of us in the West view Jesus as our own personal Saviour and Friend, our Lord and God, but we forget that he is so much more! Even if we long for our friends and family to know the grace and redemption that we have experienced in Christ, we can still have far too narrow a view of what God's plans are for us and for the nations.

This verse above and the testimonies below help us realise once again that we serve the God of all the earth, the Creator of all things, and the Saviour of all mankind. If the news about the Islamic State, Boko Haram, Al Shabab et al frightens and depresses you, we hope that this article will bring you an incredible sense of hope.

See, I am doing a new thing! (Isa 43:9)

When Frontiers was founded in the early 1980s many of our field workers were inspired by books like I Dared To Call Him Father and The Torn Veil, wherein one brave Muslim shares the story of how they came to faith in Jesus. Many of us then grew in faith as we saw several new believers gather together to follow Jesus in the countries where we were working.

In the last few years, however, our faith has risen to new heights because of the many places in the Muslim world where the number of churches is growing exponentially. We no longer merely talk about new believers or new churches; we now talk about whole movements to Christ (David Garrison's definition is 1,000 baptisms or 100 churches started in one people group). We no longer simply pray for the ones and twos; we now pray with expectation for hundreds to believe. These are exciting times: far from the eyes and the interest of the world's popular media, God is on the move in the Muslim world in extraordinary ways.

Something is happening - something historic, something unprecedented." ~ David Garrison

An Unprecedented Move of God

David Garrison travelled over a quarter of a million miles, meeting and interviewing about a thousand Muslim background followers of Jesus. He wanted to find out their stories and, in particular, what God had used to bring them to faith.

From his painstaking and thorough research, and with extensive input from leading missiologists, he wrote a book entitled A Wind in the House of Islam (reviewed here). Here are David's answers to some key questions.

The nine 'rooms' of IslamWhat is The House of Islam?

David: The House of Islam, 'Dar al-Islam' in Arabic, is the name Muslims give to an invisible religious area that stretches from West Africa to the Indonesian archipelago, encompassing 49 nations and 1.6 billion Muslims. This area can be categorised into nine rooms: West Africa, North Africa, East Africa, the Arab World, the Persian World, Turkestan, Western South Asia, Eastern South Asia and Indo-Malaysia. Movements to Christ have occurred in each of these nine rooms.

What is happening in the Muslim world today?

David: From one end of the Muslim world to the other, Muslims are having dreams and visions and seeing specific answers to their prayers. Many talked to me about how they tested God and said, "If this is real, I'm going to pray and, if you're really there Lord, I want you to hear this." And Jesus began to reveal himself. They came to realise that to follow Christ was to follow a living Lord, and that realisation was the real turning point.

I believe, through the research I have done, that somewhere between two and seven million Muslims have come to follow Jesus just in the last two decades, which is staggering! God is at work in the Muslim world, frankly, in ways that we have never seen before.

There are now more Muslims turning to Christ than at any point in history."

69 movements have happened in the last 14 years, from West Africa to Indonesia and everywhere in between. One of the most striking examples is what's happening in Iran today. We're seeing that, following the Islamic Revolution, many people have become disillusioned with Islam. They are turning to all sorts of things; not necessarily to Jesus, but certainly tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Iranians in the last few decades, have come to faith in Jesus Christ.

Why are so many Muslims turning to Christ?

David: There are several contributing factors: God is giving Muslim-background believers increasing boldness to talk about their new faith with their friends and family. There are many more cross-cultural workers these days willing to go as families to these difficult places to share the gospel with Muslims. Prayer is making a substantial difference. The 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim world during the month of Ramadan has now been going for 22 years, during which time more than 80% of all these movements have occurred. The Word of God is being translated into the heart language of many Muslim peoples and being produced in video and audio format.

Why did you write the book?

David: Firstly, I wanted to document these movements with historical accuracy. Secondly, I wanted to encourage Christians who are fearful of or feel threatened by Muslims to consider God's perspective. This is their 'day of salvation' and God wants to use us to love Muslims, to minister to them and to take the gospel to them. I wanted to show the ways that God is at work in the Muslim world, because clearly something is happening that we haven't seen before. The body of Christ worldwide can learn from the testimonies of the courageous men and women that I met. Finally, I hope this book will be an inspiration to Muslims who are considering another way, that they might find truth, forgiveness and a living relationship with God.

Testimony from the Horn of Africa

Man reading the Injil (New Testament)

One day someone gave me an Injil (New Testament) and it was in the Arabic language! I was astonished because I had been told that the New Testament had been corrupted, but this was in Arabic and God would never allow Arabic to be corrupted, as that's His language. So I took it home and began reading it that night.

When I went to sleep I had a dream. I saw a minaret that had a broken speaker at the top which someone was working on. Then suddenly the entire minaret shook. I looked at the base of the minaret and saw a man with an axe trying to destroy it. I woke up feeling very shocked because when I saw the face of the person chopping the minaret, it was me. I had the same dream four times that night.

The next day I went to the man who gave me the Injil and asked him what the dream meant. He smiled and told me, "You are going to win many sheikhs for Christ!" I went and told my parents immediately of my decision to follow Christ. I lost my job (I had been the leader of an Islamic centre, responsible for training 300 Imams) and my father tried to kill me. Despite this, I was able to see 400 sheikhs come to Christ, 300 of whom have been baptised so far.

Celebrating God's mercy

I hope you are encouraged and excited by what God is doing! If you want to read more Scripture in the light of these issues, we suggest that you revisit the book of Jonah, whilst considering that he was called to go to a very challenging place, as many Frontiers workers are. The book of Habbakuk speaks powerfully into a time when God's people were crying out for answers concerning the violence all around them.

And don't forget the book of Acts, where we see Saul, the terrorist, meet Jesus and be transformed into a wonderful Jesus follower and apostle! Let's pray for more Sauls/Pauls in our day!

LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, LORD. Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy. (Hab 3:2)

For more about Frontiers, check out their website: www.frontiers.org.uk or find them on Twitter and Facebook (frontiersuk).

STOP PRESS! DAVID GARRISON is coming to a church near you! Look up the dates and venues for David's forthcoming UK tour in June here: www.hopeformuslims.org

'A Wind in the House of Islam: How God is drawing Muslims around the world to faith in Christ', by David Garrison (WIGTake Resources, 2014, 328 pages, RRP $18.95, available on Amazon or direct from the book's website).

In the face of all the turbulence and strife in the Muslim world that we see on our TV screens and newspapers comes this unprecedented account of what God is doing in the world of Islam today. David Garrison, an American missionary and scholar who studied Arabic in Egypt, has examined a remarkable series of movements to Christ this century by Muslims.

He describes a ‘movement’ as 100 new church starts or 1000 baptisms in a two–decade period. Today, in more than 70 separate locations in 29 nations, new movements of Muslim background followers of Christ are taking place. Although the number of converts are relatively small within the context of the total world Muslim population, the results are extremely significant.

The author’s approach in exploring this extraordinary phenomenon has been to gather information from those directly involved and to present the experiences of individuals from their own perspectives. To this end he interviewed about 1,000 Muslim-background believers from the nine very different ‘rooms’ (geographical areas) where the House of Islam is significantly present. He describes how he interviews converts and seeks to find out why they converted. While acknowledging the weaknesses of this survey and his own biases he has sought to be as objective and accurate as possible. The whole issue of insider research is presented for the reader to assess.

This is a deliberately written book. It does not aim to be an academic treatise but a very readable and stimulating account of God at work. It also provides a good introduction to Muslim demographics and the history of (largely unsuccessful) mission to Muslims. The author seeks to explain why 84% of historical movements from Islam to Christianity have been seen this century and explores some of the barriers that hinder these movements today, as well as the errors of the past.

Above all, it is the testimonies of the new believers which are truly inspiring, especially because of the hatred, fear, deprivation and persecution they face. The author challenges those in the church to pray and get involved with the ministries and missions to Muslims.

Every Christian leader in the UK should read this book and communicate its truth to their congregations. It will put hope and joy in their hearts."

Dr Garrison has done us an extraordinary service in producing this great testimony of God’s activity in our time. The book is easy to read, and any Christian can get the obvious message that God is at work in the House of Islam. Every Christian leader in the UK should read this book and communicate its truth to their congregations. It will put hope and joy in their hearts.