Sid Roth - Jesus Gave This Iranian a Strong Warning About America
Sid Roth: Welcome, Holy Spirit. Welcome, Rauch HaKodesh! You are awesome in this place, and we're just starting. My guest, Ramin Parsa, was raised under an Islamic regime. Ramin, tell me some of your earliest remembrances, and what life was like under such an oppressive leadership.
Ramin Parsa: Iran is the ancient Persia, and Persia was the nation that actually helped the Jews 2,500 years ago through Cyrus the Great. But fast forward when Islam showed up in 600 A.D., they took over Iran and the entire Middle East and North Africa, and basically, they forced Iranians to become Muslims, with the sword. And many times throughout the history, we had ups and downs with the Islamic regimes coming to power, going down, until 1979 when we had an Islamic regime come to power, and the Shah, the King of Iran, was the last monarch, and it was replaced with the Ayatollah, with Islamic regime, ruling with Islamic law. And life became hell for people. They executed tens of thousands of people; important people, people who had very important jobs, they were murdered and killed and executed. Millions fled, almost eight million people have fled Iran since the beginning of revolution. Right after the revolution, there was a war with Iraq, a million people died in the war. So this great economy, the Persian economy, was collapsed, and the regime caused war and destruction just in the matter of a year, the nation was destroyed. And so I was born in that situation. I was born in the middle of the war with Iraq, and I still remember, I could hear sirens and the bombings. But I grew up under the rigorous Sharia law. I heard evil things about Jews, based on Islamic teachings. The teachings of Islam say to kill the Jews and Christians, not to be friends with Jews and Christians. So I grew up under that. In the school, everything was Islamic, in our textbooks we had caricatures of Israeli soldiers killing these Palestinian babies, and the babies crying, of course, was a draw, caricature, it was not real. But they wanted to sow the seed of hatred in our hearts toward the Jews and Israel. So I grew up in that environment. When I was 10 and 11, going to school, you know, 11 years old, I saw with my own eyes people being executed with a crane in the middle of the street. And for weeks, I was traumatized; I had the nightmare, I couldn't eat, I was completely traumatized, seeing people in front of me dying, as a young boy. So I saw that. They told me these are infidels, these are criminals, these are evil people, until it happened to myself. When I was 16 years old, I was arrested and tortured by the Islamic regime in Iran for no reason. I was going to a wedding, and I was in a car. Some of the people in the car had a little bit of alcohol, and based on Islamic law, it's forbidden to have alcohol; to buy it, to sell it, to drink it, to possess it. And my only crime was, I was in that car. And they took us to confinement. They took all our clothes off, bare naked. They poured cold water on me, and they began to beat us with this thick, electric cable, and torturing us, naked, we're facing the wall, sitting up, sitting down. If you couldn't do it anymore, if you couldn't sit up and sit down, they would beat you. They'd throw us into a room; no food, no water, no restroom. It was a taste of hell. And that's exactly when after I came out of that prison, I began to question Islam. I said, "What kind of religion is this? What kind of justice is this"? And my mother said, "No, Islam is good, these people make it look bad, these radicals". I said, "Okay, fair enough". I began to study the Quran and the Hadith this time, and deliberately to see, what is the message? What are the things that the regime in Iran does is according to Islam or is contrary to Islam. And I began to read the Quran and the Hadith, because, you know, we are Persian; we don't speak Arabic, we don't understand Arabic, and we only read the Quran and prayed in Arabic just to get points to go to heaven. But this time, I began to read the translation, and I saw so much evil things in the Quran, in the Hadith, talking about killing the Jews, killing the infidels, beheading them. And these are the stuff that I heard. And I could not accept or believe that this ideology came from the God who made the stars and the moon and the sun, and all that is in the world. So I lost my faith in Islam, gradually. But at the same time, I knew there was a God. At night when I was asleep, you know, in Iran, I was in the South of Iran, in Shiraz, we were to sleep in the backyard, and looking at the stars, going to sleep, and I saw the stars. And I was asking myself a question as a teenager; who made this whole world? If there's no God, then who made this world? If there is a God, who is He? But I knew it wasn't Allah, it wasn't the God of the Quran and the Hadith.
Sid Roth: Ramin, at age 19...
Ramin Parsa: Yes, Sid?
Sid Roth: You're flipping the channels, we know, but that we call it "channel surfing" here, and what did you see?
Ramin Parsa: When I was 19 years old, I flipped the channel, I came across a channel, they were talking about Jesus, that He is the Son of God, that He died for us on the cross, that He rose from the dead. And I said, "No, this is too good to be true," because when I was a Muslim, they told me Jesus didn't die, He's not the Son of God, He did not rise from the dead. He's not the Savior. So when I heard this version, I said, I thought all of them were the same, I rejected that. But one week later, again, I came across the same channel, heard about Jesus, that He's a Son of God. He died for me on the cross, He rose from the dead. Again, I said, "No," because I was antagonistic toward religion as a whole, because of my experience with Islam. But again, I heard on the third time that Jesus is the Lord, He is the Messiah, He loves me. He died for me. He rose from the dead. And at that moment, I said, "Jesus, if this is true", I had this genuine conversation with Him, I said, "If this is true, if You are truly the Son of God, if You died for me on the cross, if You rose from the dead, I ask You to come into my life. Show me. I want You to show me. I want You to prove to me". And it was not in a proud and arrogant way; very genuine, wanted to know the truth for myself. And the moment I say that, a heat went through my hand. It went through all my body. I start shaking, and I start crying. I felt a love I'd never felt before. I felt a peace I'd never felt before. I felt a 500 pound of weight was lifted off my shoulders. I began to feel love, even for the people who beat me, tortured me. I began to forgive everybody, anybody who had ever hurt me. And I felt this supernatural love. I knew, I felt the presence of God in my room. And I was completely transformed. I was full of love. I began to speak with tongues, there was words coming out of my mouth. I didn't know what I was saying, but it felt good. I went to visit my mom; we were living separate. I went to visit her. The moment my mother saw me, she said, "What happened to you"? I said, "Why"? She said, "Your face is shining," because before, I was grumpy, sad, sour, and depressed. And this time, she saw me smiling, she saw a glow of light over my face. And I told her what happened to me. And she didn't have a bad reaction, since He had helped me. And my mother was suffering from a chronical disease, and I didn't know even have to put my hands on my mother, I didn't know I have to pray in the Name of Jesus, but because when I was a Muslim, I prayed five times a day, and I cried out to Allah... not even once he answered us. But the moment I say the Name of Jesus, He showed up in my room, He touched me, He saved me. I knew, I had this confidence that He hears me. So I put my hands on my mother, I prayed in the Name of Jesus. And my mother got healed from this chronical disease that the doctors say is very dangerous. And mother got healed to this day she has been here.
Sid Roth: Ramin is a former Muslim, and now he is leading many Jews and many Muslims to Jesus, by demonstrating major miracles. Be right back.
Sid Roth: Ramin's love for Jesus compelled him to witness to Muslims. For safety, he fled to Turkey, then he was deported to America. Ramin, what did God tell you as you were headed to America?
Ramin Parsa: Sid, when I became a believer in Yeshua, in Jesus, I was full of fire. I was walking with Him; I was talking to Him all the time. I had this intimate relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. When I was coming to America, in the airplane, that excitement turned into concern. The Holy Spirit told me, "Be careful when you go to America. Don't lose your fire"! I didn't understand what He meant at that time, because I thought America is a Christian nation; I thought everybody walking in the street or in the Bible, everybody's praying in tongues there. And it was my first time. When I came to America, after a few months, I realized what He meant by that. I saw people taking Christianity as just a part of their lives, or it's just one of their religions, or some people don't even read the Bible, they don't even go to church, and they go when it's convenient. And I see people losing their life in the Middle East for being a Christian. They don't clap for you. They kick you out of the house sometimes, they disown you. They even, in many cases, they put you in prison, they kill you, they torture you. And here I am in America, and the Lord spoke to me, to keep my fire, to keep going. People thought I was crazy, because I was talking to people about Jesus, going out. I began to go to hospitals, pray for the sick people, floor by floor, going to the hospitals, room by room, sharing my testimony, praying for sick people. In one incident, I prayed for a man who had lost his leg because of alcohol. And I came to his room, I said, "I'm from Iran, I was a Muslim, and I believe in Jesus, I'm a Christian now. Can I share my story with you"? He reluctantly said, "Yes". I began to share my story, just what I shared with you, and after I finished, he said, "Yes, I want to give my heart to Jesus". And I prayed with him. His daughter began to cry. She said, "We have been praying for him for 16 years to become a believer. And it took God to bring an Iranian from Iran to share the Gospel with him, to become a believer". So God is working. And miracles are for today. God still does signs and wonders.
Sid Roth: Ramin, how did you get such a love for the Jewish people, and Israel? I mean, growing up in a culture where you're told constantly, "The Jews are your enemy. Kill the Jews, hate America"! Growing up with that kind of hate, how did it reverse to such love?
Ramin Parsa: It was a Love of God, Sid. When I began to read the Bible, first I began to read the New Testament, because in Iran, it's illegal. Eventually I found it online, I began to read it, and the first five chapters of the Book of Matthew made me weep and cry, because, I saw the contrast, that Jesus is saying, "Love your enemies. Pray for those who hate you, and spitefully use you," in contrast to what I heard in Islam, to kill. And to kill not even your enemies, those who don't believe in Islam. And when I saw the love of the Messiah, the war that was so supernatural, was so simple, I was touched. And later, I began to read the Old Testament. And when I read the Old Testament, I saw that my own kings, the Persian kings, helped the Jews. Cyrus, he proclaimed that Jehovah, the God of Israel, is the only true God of heaven, in Ezra, Chapter 1. I read that Darius, after the lion's den with Daniel, he proclaimed that the God of Daniel is the only true God, everybody must fear Him. Then I read in the Book of Ezra, Artaxerxes. He gave gifts from his own treasury for the House of God in Jerusalem. And of course, Xerxes, Esther's husband, was a Persian who actually saved the Jews because of the intersession of Esther and Mordecai. But when I saw those things, of my ancestors, to help the Jews, they loved the Jews, they helped the Jews, and I was born an hour away from where Cyrus is buried, where Xerxes and Artaxerxes are buried, when I saw the love of my Persian kings, my ancestors for the Jews, I began to have the same love. And not only that, I began to realize that my Savior, the Messiah is Jewish. I didn't know He was a Jew when I was a Muslim, I thought Jesus was an Arab, I thought He was a Muslim. We thought all of them were the same family, but then I realized that Jesus is the Lord from heaven, the life-giving Spirit who came in the flesh, who gave His life for me. And Sid, it was so supernatural, it was so amazing to understand the love of the Messiah. When I was realized that, I was a broken, depressed Muslim boy. And for the King of the Jews to come into my humble abode to save me, that tells me a lot about Jesus. And He put a love in my heart for the Jewish people, who gave us the Bible, the prophets, the oracles of God, and gave us the Savior, the Messiah.
Sid Roth: He really took this far. He loved the Jews so much, tell me about your wife, and where you live.
Ramin Parsa: I met my wife in 2020, she's a Jewish Israeli. I met her, we felt love for Israel. So who could have done that? Only God, only Jesus could have done that, that an Iranian ex-Muslim and a Jewish Israeli now coming together. And now we felt to go to Israel, she was born and raised there, of course, in Jerusalem, and we moved here to help the nation of Israel. And we moved here in March of 2023. And just a few months later, we have this war, and we began to help the Jewish people, and to testify to them. And they can see, this is a sign and a wonder that an Iranian ex-Muslim now is here helping them and praying for them and loving them. And they see the Love of God, that this is supernatural.
Sid Roth: You illustrate this by your very life, the Love of God. How many Jewish people that because of what happened recently, don't even have a home, are you feeding?
Ramin Parsa: Yes. We are feeding 1500 Israelis every single day. We have so far fed around 37,000 Israelis, 37,000 meals to 1500 Israelis every day since the beginning of the war. And when they see, they come to the kitchen, they see we're working, we're cooking, we're packing, and when they hear my story that an Iranian guy, who used to be an enemy from an enemy country now is here cooking for them, cleaning, giving them food, they see that this is a sign. And I don't even have to try to share with them, they asked me, "What happened? What's your story? What are you doing here"? and it's an open door for me to share my testimony with them. And there's a rabbi who comes to make sure the food is kosher. And he heard my story, he was so touched by it, he said, "I want to take a picture with you. I want to show this video to my wife. I want to share with her that I met an Iranian who is now helping Israel". And it gives him hope that not everybody hates them. Now millions of people in Iran said, "Come in to Yeshua, to the Messiah," and they start having a love for the Jewish people. In the Middle East, the people who love Israel the most are the Persians, the Iranians, because they are waking up to their national heritage, and millions of Iranians coming to Messiah. It's the fastest-growing church in the world, underground church is blooming. Millions are coming to Jesus. They realize Islam was a lie, and they're coming to Messiah of Israel, the King of the Jews.
Sid Roth: Okay. God warns you, when you came to America, "Make sure you don't lose your fire"! I want you to pray a prayer over everyone that is feeling. I'm going to lead them to the Lord in just one minute, and then I want you to pray that the fire of God that is on you will overtake everyone that's...
Ramin Parsa: Amen.
Sid Roth: ...open to this prayer. Repeat out loud...
Ramin Parsa: Amen.
Sid Roth: ...and mean it to the best of your ability, this prayer, because it's a prayer Ramin prayed, it's the prayer that I, as a Jew, prayed, and it's a prayer that will make the difference between you receiving the fire when Ramin prays for you, or not. Repeat after me, out loud. "Dear God I've made many mistakes. I'm so sorry. I believe the Blood of Jesus washes away my mistakes. And now that I'm clean I accept you, Jesus, as my Savior. Live inside of me. I make You Lord over all of my life. Amen". Ramin, pray.
Ramin Parsa: Amen, Father, in the Name that is above all names, in the Name of the Yeshua, the Mashiach of Israel, I pray, Father God, for all of those who are watching right now this program. I pray that You set them on fire for you, Lord, let them burn on fire, and let the whole world watch Him. Lord, I pray that the fire be like, Jeremiah said, that "The fire is shut up in my bones". I cannot be silent, the Word of God. I pray, Father God, that you baptize them with fire and with the Holy Spirit, that there would be flaming fires proclaiming Your truth and Your love, they will proclaim the Gospel, Father God, they would not be ashamed, they would not be held down and shy. I pray in the Name of Yeshua they turn into men and women of prayer, Father God. Prayer warriors, that they would be on fire and not ashamed of the Gospel, as Paul said, "I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of the Mashiach, because it's the Power of God onto salvation". I pray in the Name of Yeshua that they would proclaim this Gospel from the rooftops, Father God, and be bold. And confirm those proclaiming, Lord, and confirm those sharing of the Gospel with signs and wonders, and miracles, Lord, with undenying miracles, Father God, that no one can deny that this is not true. I pray for the Power of God to fall on them, Lord. I pray You baptize them with the Holy Spirit and fire, with the evidence of praying in tongues, that they would become flaming fires, Father God. Bless them in the Name of Yeshua, make them zealous for Your good works, Father God, and use them for the Kingdom of God, for the Glory of God, for this end times harvest, in the Name that is above every name, in the matchless and mighty, and holy and precious Name of Yeshua, Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Amen.
Sid Roth: We have a minute left. I'd like you to share the airplane story.
Ramin Parsa: I was on a mission trip in Mexico in 2018. I was invited there to share my testimony with a lot of young people, because there was a suicidal spirit there. And I went there, I shared my story. On the way back, our plane crashed, it was Aeromexico Airlines, it crashed, 103 people on board. And I had no place to go, except to the same Lord who saved me in Iran. And I called on the Name of Yeshua, Jesus. I began to say, "In Jesus' Name," both in English and in Spanish, and I don't speak Spanish, but it just came out of this, this boldness came over me. And I called in the Name of Jesus. And Sid, the whole airplane burned to the ground. Not one person died. And the Lord, Jesus Christ, He saved us from the plane crash. The plane burned to the ground, it's documented and confirmed. Search online, "Aeromexico plane crash". And Jesus Christ saved from imminent death. And many people came to know the Lord, they gave their heart to Jesus. There was an atheist on the airplane who heard the Name of Jesus, who saw how we were saved. In the hospital, I prayed with him, he gave his heart to Jesus, a young man. And people began to face death in that moment. And they were crying like a baby. And that's when many of them received Jesus, many of the passengers received Jesus. And His Name is above all names. His Name saves, it's Yeshua, that means the Savior, Jehovah, the Savior, the God of Israel who saves. And He always answers our prayers. Every time you're in trouble, call on His Name. The Bible says this poor man cried out to the Lord, and He heard him, and delivered him from all his fears. Amen.
Sid Roth: And you know while Ramin was sharing, again, the spirit of knowledge came upon me. And I'm telling you, there are people watching right now, if you would stand up, if you have a back problem of any kind, or a neck problem, stand up. Bend over, move your head, you will see, you are healed!