The Iranian people are erupting in protest against the oppressive Islamic theocratic leadership. While driven in part by economic concerns, the protest may also be a rebellion against Islamic tyranny.
For a number of years now, we have been called to pray for defeating the demonic stronghold of Radical Islam in Iran.
The stronghold began to form through the mullahs, the religious leaders who specialize in Islamic law and traditions.
Then in 1979, it coalesced around the Supreme Leader of Iran, Sayyid Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini. After his death in 1989, the role of Supreme Leader passed to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
For Shia Islam, an Ayatollah carries authority as a “sign, testimony, miracle from Allah.” Source: Oxford Islamic studies
For details on what is happening, please review the news services.
Media Analysis
Here are some analyses and commentary which appear to confirm the protests are aimed against the Islamic theocracy itself.
Fox News
The Wall Street Journal
Frontpage Magazine
An Answer to Our Prayers
Besides reading the above articles which analyze the present events in Iran, I also reviewed the prayer assignments I have been given since the Islamic terrorist attacks of 9/11 against the United States of America.
(To study these assignments in depth, please read my book, Prayer Strategy for the Victory of Jesus Christ: Defeating the Demonic Strongholds of ISIS and Radical Islam)
I have concluded that the protests in Iran result from spiritual dynamics set in motion by those prayer assignments.
Discerning this relationship has provided great encouragement—our prayer work for Iran has, in fact, affected the national leadership and its suffering people.
Discernment also provides guidance for our call to keep cooperating with Jesus in the work He is doing within Iran in the present crisis and opportunity.
I believe the Holy Spirit is calling us as intercessors to cooperate with Him in dismantling the demonic stronghold of Radical Islam in Iran.
How We Can Pray
1. Keep Praying that a Great Wave of the Holy Spirit in Iran will Continue Bringing Muslims to Faith in Jesus Christ.
During the Fall and Winter of 2013, the Lord often called us into praying for the unraveling of the demonic stronghold subjugating Iran.
In the December 2013 Discerning the Times, I wrote the following prayer point. If you wish to read the entire article, please click here.
Let us pray for a great wave of the Holy Spirit to move through Iran and bring Muslims, including the mullahs, to faith in Jesus Christ.
Since the Iranian Christian community is so persecuted and subjugated, ask the Father to send Jesus to Muslims in visions and dreams. May our Father use signs and wonders and angelic visitations to present Jesus to the people.
I offer here a quick reminder why we need to pray in this way.
Surely the Triune God of Grace loves the people of Iran more than any of us ever will—why would He want or need us to request this from Him?
The reason is in the mystery of the dynamic of divine-human cooperation: The Lord of the universe has chosen to work through our prayers.
I believe the unrest in Iran reflects exposure of the oppression and lies of the Islamic theocracy. It may well be that God has sent a wave of the Holy Spirit in order to bring the Iranian people to faith in Jesus Christ.
Confirmation from an Intercessor
As I was writing this piece, I received a remarkable confirmation from an intercessor which confirms revival is a dynamic stirring these protests. The intercessor sent me the following article. I quote an excerpt.
Similarly, writing for the Daily Wire, Ryan Saavedra stated that, “The media initially ignored what was going on in Iran, likely because it reflected negatively on former President Barack Obama, whose Iran nuclear deal was supposed to help Iran’s economy, and because the Trump administration’s response was night-and-day better than Obama’s response in 2009…So, again, the liberal media has been taken to task for its unfair coverage of the Iranian protests, and rightly so. In fact, it would be hard to find a greater contrast than that between the courageous protesters and the cowardly media.
But there’s something else going on in Iran that could well be playing an important role in the rising Iranian discontent.
It’s something that has been building and growing under the surface and behind closed doors. And it remains one of the best-kept secrets in the world, despite occasional media reports in the last few years: Iranian Muslims are converting to Christianity at an unprecedented pace, perhaps by the thousands every day.
I’ve heard this firsthand from Iranian converts. I’ve heard it firsthand from Christian leaders who have worked with these converts inside and outside of Iran. And I’ve heard it from missiologists whose job it is to track such things.
And it’s reminiscent of the conversion of tens of millions of Chinese behind the cover of the Bamboo Curtain. Missiologists were reporting it for years before the rest of the world found out about it. Now, it is an open secret, leading to headlines like this, from April 14, 2014, in the UK Telegraph: “China on course to become ‘world’s most Christian nation’ within 15 years. The number of Christians in Communist China is growing so steadily that by 2030 it could have more churchgoers than America.”
Source: What No One Is Telling You about Iran, by DR. MICHAEL BROWN
I believe our call to prayer is to keep asking that the mighty move of the Holy Spirit will bring Muslims in Iran to faith in Jesus Christ.
2. Keep Praying That the Death Curses Spoken Against America and Israel Will be Broken and Turned to the Blessing of Knowing Life in Jesus Christ.
For years the Lord has led us to pray that those who chant the curses of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” will be blocked.
We followed Jesus’ guidance in our intercession. Instead of cursing them back, we prayed for the Lord to bless them by bringing them to Jesus Christ, their source of eternal life.
But we also acknowledged that those who speak death curses put themselves under Satan’s ways, which results in greater bondage and even death.
Here is an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal article I mentioned earlier which mentions these curses.
Iran has a peculiar habit of surprising Americans. It has done so again with the protests engulfing its major cities. The demonstrations began over economic grievances and quickly transformed into a rejection of theocracy.
The slogans must have unsettled the mullahs: “Death to Khamenei!” “Death to Rouhani!” “We will die to get our Iran back!” Imperialism has not revived the regime’s legitimacy, as the protesting Persians pointedly reject expending their meager resources on Arab wars: “Death to Hezbollah!” “No to Gaza, not Lebanon! Our life only for Iran!”
Those slogans, chanted by the people of Iran have reversed the death threats the mullahs and ayatollahs directed them to chant every Friday in mosques throughout Iran.
But the death curses of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” have rebounded upon the theocratic leadership.
How do we pray into this? I think God is using this surprising turnaround to remove those who have called for the death of America and of the Jews.
I believe he will remove the Islamist government through the Iranian people themselves.
The Lord promised Abraham, “…and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” Genesis 12:3 (RV)
Based on this promise, we can pray that the people of Iran will be blessed again as they bless, instead of curse, Israel and the Jewish people.
3. Pray That God Will Use the Words Spoken by Donald Trump in his United Nations Speech to Free the Captives in Iran and Institute a Just and Free Governmental Order.
The October 2017 Discerning the Times pointed out that the Lord could well be using President Trump’s United Nations speech as prophetic words to defeat evil and advance the Kingdom of God.
The unrest in Iran is a remarkable affirmation that God is indeed working through Trump’s spoken words. Our role as intercessors is to pray his prophetic words will shape reality.
I believe it will happen in much the same way that God used Ronald Reagan’s famous speech in Berlin. Reagan said, “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Source:Wikipedia
Affirmation that God is actually doing this came from what I found to be a most discerning article by Daniel Greenfield in Frontpage Magazine. In the article he discusses Trump’s speech to the UN about Iran.
Months before the protests that are shaking the Islamic Republic of Iran began, President Trump stood before the entire world at the United Nations and boldly declared that the terror regime would fall.
“The good people of Iran want change, and, other than the vast military power of the United States, that Iran’s people are what their leaders fear the most,” he correctly predicted.
As another day of nationwide protest begins, the Islamist thugs of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps face a choice between an outraged populace and a failing regime. Trump’s words in that September speech ring truer than ever.
“The longest-suffering victims of Iran’s leaders are, in fact, its own people,” he pointed out. “Oppressive regimes cannot endure forever, and the day will come when the Iranian people will face a choice. Will they continue down the path of poverty, bloodshed, and terror? Or will the Iranian people return to the nation’s proud roots as a center of civilization, culture, and wealth where their people can be happy and prosperous once again?” he challenged.
Source: Frontpage Magazine
I find the unrest in Iran no coincidence, but rather evidence that God is working through President Trump’s words to answer the cry of an oppressed people.
Our role as intercessors is to continue to pray into the dance of the Holy Spirit.
We can pray that President Trump’s words, which have cast a vision for Iran, will be made consistent with the Father’s purposes in the world. We can ask God to work through them.
I say this because the Lord uses words spoken into a kairos moment of opportunity to shape reality. We can explore that concept in God’s kingdom at another time.
But for now, the call upon us is to pray that God will continue to use the words in that speech.
Also, that God will add to them our words of prayer in order to break down the stronghold of evil and create a new reality within Iran.
As for the role of President Trump and how we need to pray for him, please review the article, Iran Protests Are ‘D-Day Landing’ in War on Radical Islam. Source: Clarion Project
The events in Iran are unfolding as I write. The situation is fluid and open to our participation in prayer and spiritual warfare. God is calling us to pray his will into the situation.
As always, it is urgent that you send your feedback to me.
In Christ, Brad Long
Learn More: Presbyterian-Reformed Ministries International
Thank you. Very helpful.
Thank you for this call for increased intercession.
Continue to concentrate praying for the growth and development of the house church movement in the Name of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Do no get involved with the distraction of President Trump and his interference which works at cross-purposes with the perfect work of the Holy Spirit. In the Name of Jesus I have been involved in this movement of God among the Iranian people for sixty years.
A book that has been useful to inform and equip much of my intercessions for congregations and individuals is, “Conquering the Religious Spirit”, by Tommi Femrite. I believe it may contain application helpful for this prayer for Iran.
Please pray the young Iranian believers would learn about tithing and honoring Israel, especially the messianic jews. As they do, they will align with God in such a way as to be able to overthrow the Prince of Persia, who rules Iran through oil money used to pay the army, and Shia Islamic rulers who are aligned with financial iniquity. It is a spiritual battle that hinges on financial iniquity, violence, and religous deception. Yeshua hu Adon, every knee Will bow!