The agenda of the kingdom of darkness is alive and very real. Satan’s work is evident in the war torn country of Iraq, where an estimated 275,000 Christians still remain in the region. That’s a far stretch from the estimated 1.5 million Christians who populated the area in 2003. Iraqi christians are being kidnapped, tortured, beaten, raped and persecuted simply because their beliefs don’t align with the radical extremists group, ISIS. One man in particular, who only identified himself by the name ‘Gabi’ recalled his horrific experience after ISIS soldier kidnapped him and two other men while on a bus, traveling from the city of Aleppo.
They started beating and kicking me and afterward they scourged me for an hour.
‘Gabi’ was then sent to a nearby village four days later to be beheaded. Miraculously, the ISIS leader spared his life by asking him to pay jizya, tax imposed by ISIS on non-believers.
But, amidst the horrific persecution of Iraqi men and women, the gospel and ministry of Jesus Christ still reigns supreme. Though a dozen or more Iraqi Christians flee each day from ISIS’ populated territories, many families are determined to make it back to their homeland. Approximately 100,000 families are returning to their respective villages and repopulating the desolate areas they once called home. What’s even more profound is the impact this mass migration has made on influential Christian groups and organizations in the United States. The worship group from Bethel church in Redding, California, Bethel Music, hosted a benefit concert on November 4th, 2017, to raise money for the brave families making their way back to their homelands.
Our greatest weapon against the enemy is love. The kind of love that destroys yokes, bondage and enslavement. The kind of love that personifies Christ and His light in the midst of all of the darkness. It’s through acts such as these, the power of this important weapon in our arsenal is reiterated. The Apostle Paul wrote in the second chapter of the book of Timothy about how the folly of those who are against Christ will not stand, “Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.”
It’s through these expressions of love and courage that we will not only cancel out the demonic assignments set out by the enemy but we have an amazing opportunity to potentially change the course of a non-believers life by being a representative for Christ for those who are lost.
ViZion United, LLC 