International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted - Part 1 — K.P. Yohannan

Psalm 1017 reads, You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted. You encourage them, and you listen to their cry. As you may know, believers all over the world face violence, imprisonment, and even death because of their faith in Christ.

Throughout the entire month of November, would you join us in praying for the persecuted church? On this special edition of The Road to Reality, Dr. K .P. Yohannan will encourage us to commit to pray and fast for persecuted believers all over the world.

Understanding the Persecuted Church

I do thank God, and I'm deeply grateful for this very special time during this year. And every year, when we are reminded of the suffering church, and as you know, church, regardless of denomination or what name they go by, they look like everywhere we are thinking about the suffering brothers and sisters during this very special day, the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.

But like a lot of other things, I sometimes wonder, do we really understand what this is all about? What do we mean by, or what do we understand when we say persecuted church or persecution? Obviously, the word persecution helps us to think about the word suffering.

But how do you explain suffering in tangible terms? What do you mean by that? Well, again, if you take time to think, we immediately will say, well, K .P., suffering, it means physical suffering or mental suffering, you know, lack of food or misunderstanding and abuse and being put down and kicked out of schools and your house got burned down and possibly be martyred or killed for believing in Jesus.

The Global Scale of Persecution

So all these images and explanations obviously comes to our mind. And for me, when I think about the persecution, the people of God going through, several things comes to my mind. One is, it is reported that some 14 ,000 people are brutally murdered for their faith in Christ around the world.

And that's a lot of people when you think about 365 days, you divide that with 365, you'll see it is a non-stop thing. But keep in mind, this is only reported. And how much more suffering going on, that we don't have any understanding about.

For example, in my own life, not a week go by, I don't get half a dozen emails and telephone calls of missionaries being beaten up and abused, their legs broken and thrown in prison or all kind of stuff.

Their children get kicked out of schools, parents throwing out their children because they confess Christ as their Lord. And it's one thing, I'm sure you agree, it's one thing to hear these things and know these things.

It's an entirely different thing for us to think deeply and let that enter into our mind and our heart and make us respond to these kind of things based on our love for Christ and Christ's agony and His love for His body.

Stories of Faith Under Persecution

You know, I think about this sad story I heard about one of our missionaries in an unreached mission field and he went there and then, one day he was called desperately by some believers to visit one of the young person in the hospital.

And the story is that this son was poisoned by his own family members. They tried to kill him and his crime, he refused to deny his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Another story, family members pouring acid on the face of a young girl because she refused to deny Christ.

I personally know right now, at least half a dozen young people who never can go back home. They gave their life to Christ, they were given this option, either you deny Christ and come back to your old faith or you leave home.

You see, I don't know if I need to keep on telling you about what's going on. Obviously, you as a minister, a clergy or a pastor or a believer living in this free nation, we are bombarded with huge amount of information about the suffering of the people of God.

And by the way, please don't forget, 100 years from now, you are going to be with these precious believers from Bhutan, China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, India, Bangladesh, remote communities. You never heard their language, you never met them, you have no clue about their foods and how they live.

But one thing, they have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. They also experience the amazing wonder of being washed in the blood of the Lamb. And they are the sons and daughters and we are going to be with them.

How wonderful it would be, my brother, my sister, if in this life, we are able to enter into the lives, especially the suffering, brothers and sisters, in many of these countries and cultures. But you may say, well, what do you want me to do?

Seeking the Things of Christ

You see, what is our job? It is to seek the things of Christ. I am sure you agree. We are told in Colossians chapter 3, set your affections on things that are above, not on things that are here on earth.

If that be the case, the value and meaning that drive us to make decisions for our daily lives and what we plan for the future, everything depends on something much more greater than the present tense and our own little lives.

It must be things of eternal values. And that is the reason why we need to consider this. Jesus said, I was naked, you clothed me. I was in prison, you came to see me. I was abandoned, forgotten, forsaken.

You became my friend. That portion of scripture from Matthew 25, when you look at that, you know this is to come. And so now we must live our life looking at the suffering church, the persecuted church, knowing that actually Christ is suffering.

Entering Into the Lives of Suffering Believers

And how much time we actually spend praying for them, how much time we spend to think and enter into their world, not because you hear this on road to reality or read some book or somebody come after you, but rather you are searching out to find out what is going on.

You know, think about this. If your son or daughter, after finishing their high school or so, they went to another country to study or do business or whatever it is. And all of a sudden, you don't hear from them for a few months.

I'm sure if you are a parent or grandparents like I am, you get really worried. And you do everything in the world to communicate with them. No telephone works, no email works, nothing works. What do you do?

You will go to the end of the world to find out every avenue possible to find out where your son is, where your daughter is. If nothing else works, you will go to the embassy and say, look, we need to find out.

And then you hear that they got in an accident, they are in a hospital or they got in some unfortunate crisis, end up in jail or something like that. What you will do? I tell you what you will do. What I will do, we will sell everything we have if that's what it takes.

Walk or swim or take a bus or train or fly or whatever means to get there. Yeah, it takes 30 hours of air travel or journey through jungles for 3 -4 days, but we will. Why? Because it's our own flesh and blood.

Remembering the Suffering Church in Peshawar

Don't you think? The precious brothers and sisters in Peshawar, Pakistan, Sunday morning a couple of thousand people came to worship the Lord and hear from God's word. A couple of people walked in with bombs strapped on themselves and exploding these bombs and killing 80 -85 believers and hundreds and hundreds of precious, innocent, helpless people are wounded and suffering.

Think about the mental torture, the agony, the physical abuse and the destruction. Now the question is this, please understand me, I'm not trying to produce guilt trip or condemnation that you curse yourself for living in America or Europe.

Christ's Solidarity With Persecuted Believers

No, I'm trying to tell you Christ now sitting on the right hand of the Father when he saw his body, Stephen, one of his sons, being stoned, abused, lonely and alone. You read in the book of Acts chapter 7, Christ is not sitting.

No, he's standing up. And Stephen was given the amazing privilege to see the glorious face of Christ. And you read the passage, kind of give you a glimpse of the heart of Christ, how he feels for the suffering body, just one individual like Stephen.

The Destruction of Christian Homes in Orissa

Now you take that further, think about in the state of Orissa, just a few years ago, which I'm sure you heard about, some 4 ,000 homes, simple huts maybe, simple dwelling places, but 4 ,000 plus homes of these Christians, believers were partially destroyed, completely destroyed, burned down.

And never forget, meeting one of our missionaries, he and his wife said, they came and burned down our house, everything we had. Finally, when we came back to see what happened, they had to run, flee for their life.

They saw just partially burned one door frame standing up. Everything was completely demolished. That was a story of thousands of homes. They're crying. They gave up everything they believed in and gave up sin and living for darkness.

They now follow the Lord Jesus Christ. They became sons and daughters of the living God and Satan hates it.

That's Brother K .P. O 'Hannon on the Road to Reality. And he's been encouraging us to join churches all across the world in lifting up the persecuted through prayer. In addition to praying and fasting yourself, why not encourage your church to get involved in the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church by going to our website.

We have quite a number of free helpful resources from videos to church bulletin inserts and even some prayer ideas. That's waiting for you at roadtoreality .org. Again, we're online at roadtoreality .org.

You can also call us at 866-WIN-ASIA. Thank you for remembering to pray for the persecuted through the month of November. This has been The Road to Reality with K .P. O 'Hannon.