Derek Prince - The Cause Of The Anti-Christian Power In The Middle East
This is excerpt from: The Power Of Proclamation
All right, now we're going to do in closing some things that relate to the Middle East, which is one of the areas that we pray most about. You might not have the same burden, but you can take the principles and apply them in your situation. I want to point out, first of all that the Middle East and North Africa is undoubtedly the hardest single area of the earth to penetrate with the gospel. And there's a very important reason and it's a reason that brings out the power of proclamation. You probably know that from every Moslem mosque there goes forth a proclamation five times every 24 hours which says, There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet. And, of course, Allah is not the god of the Bible.
Now, the Moslem calendar started about 627 AD so it's been going for more than 1300 years. And that proclamation has been made five times every day from every mosque for more than 1300 years. Let me give you a little calculation. If it was made daily for 1300 or plus years that would be 474,500 days. Let's say rounded off, half a million days. And it's made five times every day so that's 2.5 million times that proclamation has been made from every mosque. And you take the number of mosques and I imagine there must be at least half a million mosques in North Africa and the Middle East. You've got billions of times. Why is there such a tremendously powerful anti-Christian power over that area greater than any other area of the earth? What is the cause of it? It's that's proclamation.
You see, the power of proclamation - negative or positive. How can we overcome the power of all those negative proclamations? What do we have to do? Make the positive proclamation. So we're going to give you an example. Remember, just in case you say, Well, it's a hopeless task when Moses was confronted by the Egyptian magicians and they all threw their rods on the ground and they all became snakes Moses' snake ate up the snakes of the Egyptians. So, in other words, our proclamation overcomes every negative proclamation if we know how to make it. So we're going to make two specifically in regard to Israel and their land that are biblical. The first is from Psalm 25:3 from the New International Version. The scepter of the wicked shall not remain over the land allotted to the righteous.
What's the scepter of the wicked in this context? Islam. What's the land allotted to the righteous? The land allotted to God's people. The Bible says, no matter what politicians may say no matter what they may do the scepter of the wicked shall not remain over the land allotted to the righteous. Say that in faith. When everything looks exactly the opposite that's the time to say it. You're stretching out that rod and your snake is going to eat up the snakes of the magicians. And then Psalm 129:5-6, Let them all be confounded and turn back that hate Zion. Let them be like the grass upon the housetops which withers before it grows up. And I serve notice on all those who hate Zion, they'll never grow to maturity. They will never grow to full stature; they will wither before they have full grown. That's the Word of God and it's going to come to pass.
And finally, let me give you just one more passage about the restoration of Israel in Jeremiah chapter 31. And we're going to act on this. If we have time we're going to go through with it. At least we'll do our best. Jeremiah 31. It says in verse 7: Sing with gladness for Jacob shout among the chief of the nations. Proclaim, give praise and say: O Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel. the remnant of Israel. If you take those words it says sing, shout, proclaim, praise and pray. There are five things. Sing, shout, praise, proclaim and pray. Proclaim is one of them.
And then it says in verse 10: Hear the word of the Lord, O nations; and declare it in the isles afar off and that's Florida. He who scattered Israel will gather him and will keep him as a shepherd does his flock. That's what we say to the Middle East at this present situation. The same God who scattered Israel is gathering him and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock. Let's say that, shall we? He who scattered Israel is gathering him and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock. Now why don't we do what the Bible says? We've come to the end of the message. Why don't we stand up, proclaim, praise, shout and show ourselves happy. Come on, Carl, and help us to do some praising some proclaiming and some shouting.