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Join together. Yes. Raise the roof. Come on. Lift your voice. I praise in the valley and praise on the mountain. I praise when I'm sure and praise when I'm doubting. I praise when I'm numbered. I praise when I'm surrounded. Because praise is the water my enemies drown in. As long as I'm breathing, I've got a reason to pray. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord, O my soul. I praise when I feel it. I praise when I don't. Oh, yeah. Oh, I praise. It's because I know you're still in control. Because my praise is the way I feel. It's my way of sound. Oh, my praise is the sound that brings Jerry cool down. Oh, as long as I'm breathing, I've got a reason to pray. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Oh, I will be quiet. My God is alive. How could I keep it inside? Praise the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Come on, declare it. Oh, I praise because you're sovereign. Praise because you reign. Praise because you rose and defeated. Oh, I praise because you're faithful. Praise because you're true. Praise because there's nobody greater than you. Oh, I praise because you're sovereign. Praise because you reign. Praise because you rose and defeated the grave. Oh, praise God, you're faithful. Praise God, you're true. Praise God, there's nobody greater than you. Praise the Lord, my soul. Praise the Lord, my soul. I will praise the Lord, my soul. And praise you, my soul. Be quiet, my God is alive. How could I keep it inside? Be quiet, my God is alive. How could I keep it inside? Be quiet, my God is alive. How could I keep it inside? Be quiet, my God is alive. How could I keep it inside? Praise the Lord, my soul. Praise the Lord, my soul. I will praise the Lord, my soul. My sovring king, you will never go away. Oh, even in the shadows, gentle Father, rich in love, we love you. Your name is our salvation, Jesus, the King of kings. Yahweh, we love you. Yahweh, we love you. Your name is resurrection. Your name is everything. Yahweh, we love you. Yahweh, we love you. So unto the great I am, with everything I have. Unto the great I am, I'm singing. How great is your name. Unto the great I am, with everything I have. Unto the great I am, I'm singing. How great is your name. So great, so great, guys. Seated in glory, high up on holies. Hear the heavens echoing. All of creation bows down. Worship to the King above all. Sing that again. Seated in glory, high up on holies. Hear the heavens echoing. Lift your voices. All of creation bows down in worship to the King above all. Praise to the one who was and is. To come forever He is lifted up All honor Glory and praise How awesome Is the role God almighty The name Above all names You deserve The praise We want forever More The earth and heaven's Role How awesome Is the role God almighty The name Above all names You deserve The praise Now and forever More The earth and heaven's Role How awesome God almighty Above all names More The earth and heaven's Role How awesome Is the role God almighty The name Above all names You deserve The praise We want forever More The earth and heaven's Role How awesome Is the role The name Above all names You deserve Glory and praise to the King of kings, the Lord of lords, kings and lords, forevermore. Honor, glory, and praise to the highest name, the great I Am, whose kingdom stands and never ends. Honor, glory, and praise to the Lamb of God, who conquered sin, defeated death, and He rose again. Honor, glory, and praise to the highest name, the great I Am, whose kingdom stands and never ends. Honor, glory, and praise to the one who has and is to come, forever He is lifted up, all honor, glory, and praise. How awesome is the Lord God Almighty, the name above all names. You deserve the praise now and forever. The earth and heavens roar, how awesome is the Lord God Almighty, the name above all names. How awesome is the Lord God Almighty, the name above all names. You're so awesome, God. Saints and angels. Bow before your throne, elders cast their crowns before the Lamb of God is seen. You are worthy of it all, you are worthy of it all, from your own things, and to your own things, you deserve the glory. Saints and angels. Bow before your throne, and all the elders cast their crowns before the Lamb of God is seen. You are worthy of it all, you are worth of it all, from your own things, and to your own things, you deserve the glory. Sing up holy hands before Him, just worship, worship. Father, we honor you today. We've gathered here as your people, blessing the nations of the world and in this city and the church, the body of Christ. But worshiping collectively. And together with what's going on around your throne. We honor you today. We honor you today. We bless you, Father. We bless you, Father. Just with solemn moment, just with hands lifted, we just, in His presence, just honor Him. Just honor Him. Just a moment in His presence. You've been worshiping out of your heart, true worship. Holy Spirit, have your way in the gathering of the believers here today, we pray. In your holy name. Amen. And amen. Wow. Thank you, worship team. Thank you for worshipers. Those of you that in the upper and the lower elementary, they are being released to go to their classes. If you could take just a moment, they may be joining us online, say hi to someone sitting next to you. We're about to welcome Owasso campus to join us this morning. This is our only way to be able to be one church in two locations. And so we're glad. We're glad that you're able to be a part of this today as we prepare our hearts to hear from our guests today. Marzia and Marizadeh will be joining me in just a moment. Let me just say, it's an honor to be able to share the beginning of our conference today with this special time. It was our way of being able to connect with both campuses in doing that, so she was over in the Owasso. She was able to be with us at the 9 a.m. and able to be with us at the 11 a.m. We wish we could be both places simultaneous, but this is the best thing that we can do to be able to share that time together. So as soon as they let me know that Owasso has joined us, they are with us, so come on guys. Let's welcome Owasso. Could you do that? Welcome to Owasso campus. Thank you guys for letting us do this. As we just said, our speaker was able to be over there with you at the 9 a.m. and now here at the 11. So going back and forth, about, I think 2014, I first got a hold of her book. I don't know how I got a hold of her book, but read it "Captive in Iran," and when I read that book, I said to myself, somehow, somehow we've got to hear this challenging story and testimony, and our theme this year is Stand, and our theme for the conference is Anchored, and I'm praying that her word today. We'll establish you and cause you to stand boldly in the gospel. After spending those nine months, nearly nine months in one of the worst prisons of Iran, boldly sharing the gospel, the Lord has opened doors really around the world right now to share the truth about what's going on over there, as well as to cause Christians to be bold in the kingdom of God. Would you give me, come on Owasso, help me. Come on. You're welcome. You're welcome. Would you welcome Marzia Amirizadeh. Come on up here and join us, and have a Claremore Owasso welcome. God bless you. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for your presence, and we ask you to talk to our hearts today with the power of the Holy Spirit, and help us to get closer to you, to understand you, and to understand your will in our lives. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Pastor Glenn. It's a great honor for me to be here, to share my story, and to tell briefly what's going on in Iran, because the news unfortunately doesn't share the truth. It's good to hear from someone that is connected and know what's happening in Iran. There are lots of stories in both my books. I encourage you to read them. My first book is "Captive Inquiry." Iran that Pastor Glenn mentioned that. It's about my imprisonment with my friend that we were in that prison, Evin prison, the most notorious prison in the world for torturing, executing, and killing lots of innocent people. And we shared our story and also a lot of other stories that how God changed the life of prisoners through our prayers, through miracles, through dreams and visions that he would give me in prison. And also, as I mentioned, I shared, we shared the stories of other women that how they were innocent and the government ruined their lives because of, you know, these Islamic rules. And the second book I encourage you to read is "Love Journey with God." I shared my whole journey from 1999 that I gave my heart to Jesus. And I shared a lot of other stories of myself that how God in all these years built my faith and helped me to build a personal relationship with him to understand his love, his purpose for my life. And I also shared how it is like living in a country under Sharia law, Islamic rules. How it will impact your life, especially being a woman, because there are a lot of misogynists against women in Islamic countries. And also I shared lots of my poems. God gave me that gift to write poems to him. I encourage you to read them because it's, we don't, in one hour, maximum one hour, we don't have much time to share lots of amazing stories, which is not about, you know, about me. It's about God's work in my life. And I always say at the beginning of my talk that I give all the glory to God because he is the only one who deserves the glory. I am just a vessel in his hands that he decided to use my life story for a purpose. He allowed me to experience pains and sufferings for a reason. So also beside that, there are a lot of other stories that I want to share with you. That can educate you, educate your children about what is true Islam. Because unfortunately, in Western countries, in America, I remember the first time I heard this sentence was in America. That an American told me Islam is a religion of peace. I didn't know what to say. I was shocked. I didn't know whether to cry or to laugh, because the truth is that Islam is not religion of peace at all, period. If anyone, any politician say such a thing, there is a benefit behind that or they are, you know, misunderstood that. Because I live that with those Islamic rules. People like me live that. And I see in Western countries, they try to shut the mouth of people like me who experience living under Islamic rules through creating, you know, terms like Islamophobia. But they cannot close the mouth of people like me. Because people like me live that, and I have Islamotrauma by living under those Sharia laws, what Islam did to my life and to the lives of many Iranian people and Muslims. We call them Muslim. They are just nominal. Millions of them are just nominal Muslim. When I say Islam is not religion of peace, Islam is evangelicalism. It's all about punishment. It's all about hate, revengeance, misogyny. But that doesn't mean that all Muslims are evil people or terrorists. Because in a country like Iran that I grew up, millions of Iranians like me, they were just born there. And when you're born in a country like Iran, from the first day, they call you a Muslim. Everywhere you go in universities, in government, getting, a job or at school, they fill the form for you and they call you a Muslim. But millions of Iranians do not practice Islam at their home. Like my family members, we never practiced Islam. We were not devout Muslims. We never, my parents never taught about hate or hate any countries, any people. They shared lots of stories. My father, I remember about before the revolution in 1979 that the Americans, many foreigners, would travel to Iran. We had great freedoms. But unfortunately people didn't appreciate that and they lost it. And my fathers, my parents had neighbors, foreigners, and they would share amazing stories about their friendship with me, how kind they were. And my father's relative, some of them were living in America and sometimes they would travel to Iran. I always was curious to know about America, how it's looked like, from my childhood. But when you go to the school, there is a system of brainwashing that starts at the age of seven. And in Iran, unfortunately, I was not lucky. I was born a few months before the revolution in 1979. I was not lucky to see any freedoms in my life when I was born there. And it started with a group of minority young people who were brainwashed by radical Muslims, who were brainwashed by Marxism. And they came to the streets, they looted, rioted, set fire to things. Is that familiar to you? And then they supported a radical Muslim, Khomeini, come to power because he was a good liar, promising false promises to people. And then they lost their freedoms for more than 47 years. That Iranian revolution was a good lie. And then they lost their freedoms for more than 47 years. And then people are suffering. And people like me, who were born at that time, we started suffering. Because when you go to school, as I said, there is a system of brainwashing. And I remember from every morning, when you go to your school, they force you to stand in lines and to say, death to America, death to Israel. There were many children like me, we had no idea why we should say that. Where is America? Where is Israel? Where is Iran? Where is Iran? Where is Iran? They forced us to demonstrations. We would lose grades, and there would be punishment against us if we refused to do that. And for them to create a show to show to the world, look how many Iranians are supporting the regime. It's a big lie. Because I know many of my people hate this Islamic regime, like my parents. And at school, there is a, specific classes, they call it Quran classes. And they usually put a radical Muslim in charge of that class to teach Quran to students. And it's all about punishment. They teach us how God will punish us if we disobey the Islamic rules. And they would describe different kinds of tortures to us. And the purpose was creating fear in the minds and hearts of children to make sure they followed Islam. They forced us to stand in lines and do Islamic prayers every day. And at the streets, when we would go to the streets as a woman, I always had lots of stress walking in the streets of my country. Because they had their security forces with a big van waiting for women to get arrested, to be beaten up in front of other people, just for crazy reasons. Not having Islamic dress code, having part of your hair out of your scarf, having nail polish, having fancy sunglasses. So, women like me who grew up under these Islamic rules have many scars from our childhood. I never forget one story at my middle school, that one of my classmates, she she had a thick eyebrow. she did her eyebrow as a result of that the manager came to the class grabbed her with her hair and dragged her all around the school and called her a whore can you believe that I witnessed these kind of brutalities from my childhood it's not just being in prison before I go to prison I lived under these harsh rules of Islam which impact every part of my life they arrested my husband they tortured him to death for false accusation of drinking wine he got 80 lashes I never forget his back they peeled off his skin and they tortured him to death they heated his head to the wall it was an intelligent young guy very smart wanted to be educated and to make me happy they ruined his life he passed away as a result of all those tortures so my story here I'm standing not to talk about myself this is one example of millions of stories of Iranian people who are suffering because they lost their freedoms they didn't appreciate their freedoms they didn't stand up for that and now still they are suffering I'm sure you read the news these days what's happening in Iran it's a big news on January millions of Iranians came to the streets they protested against the regime they called the return of Prince Pahlavi the son of the former Shah why because they understood they made a mistake and they apologized for that and they called for his return and the regime came to the streets with machine guns and started killing people killed, the news says, 40,000 people. But believe me, it's much more than that. Because I was in prison in 2009 during another protest. I witnessed how many people got arrested, tortured in prison. The number is much more than that. Every day they are executing tens of young people, athletes. And for people like me, who lived these traumas, every day when I opened the news, it's like living in my traumas every day. Because I experienced that in prison, the execution of my soulmates, the execution of my best friend. So they shoot at people, they black out the internet because they didn't want the news comes out. They went to the hospitals, they shoot at the head of those injured. They killed protesters. Their only crime was demanding freedom. They arrested nurses. These are real stories. And they tortured them. They raped some of them because of treating those protesters. Some nurses dared to take people in their homes because they wanted to help them. And one story is Saleha Akbari. She was a nurse. She decided to treat those people. She was a nurse. She was a nurse. She was a nurse. She was a nurse. She was a nurse. She was a nurse. She was a nurse. She was a nurse. She was a nurse. She was a nurse. She was a någon from the OooQ heard protesters at her home. They raided at her home when they found out. They arrested her. They tortured her to death. The gang raped her. And then they sent the pictures of raping her to her her husband. Her husband could not bear, and he committed suicide. So these are real things that are happening. Human beings cannot do do that. Only people who are possessed with demon can do these kind of things. And I experienced that, the evil nature of these people in my entire life living in Iran. There are tons of stories like that, horrible stories. They removed the womb of women because they raped them and they don't want to have their parents have evidence of that. Many women's bodies are missing in Iran. People were saying they dumped a lot of them in mass graves and still families cannot find the body of their loved ones. These are real stories. There are tons of names. I shared on my social media. You can follow me and check lots of stories and films what's happening in Iran. And people, are fighting with bare hands. And finally, after years, because Iranians at different times came to the streets, protest against the regime, and no one would hear their voices. Finally, the world could see that there is a big difference between the Islamic regime and the Iranian people. And finally, America and Israel stood with Iranian people. And Iranian people are tanking them. There are hundreds of thousands of Iranians in the streets of Western countries, that they loudly tank President Trump, tank Israel for standing with them. Why? No one likes war. But people know that America and Israel, they are not their enemies. Their true enemy is the Islamic Republic regime. And they know they are targeting this Islamic regime, these evil people, not them. My sister's friend, when they were talking over the phone, my sister is in America, and she told me, she said, her friends are saying that we don't mind even by accident get killed if they are throwing a bomb on these, their facilities, their military bases, because we want to know that our children live in freedom. So they are willing to sacrifice everything to get back their freedoms. And that's, as I said, my story is just one example to stand here to share with you what happened to me, not because of me or having sympathy, for me, but to understand the reality of who are these people and why we must stand with Iranian people, with Israel, with America, with the government. So for me, from my childhood, I was finding, trying to find the truth. I was so thirsty and I could not find it in Islamic rules. I tried it because I was so desperate to find the truth. I started reading, reading Koran and praying Islamic prayers for two years, but it didn't bring a change to my life, but at least it opened my eyes to the truth. When you read the book of Koran, it's not I say that. There are lots of verses in that book that I have a list of them that you can see that what Koran says about infidels who are infidels, Christians, Jews, any people, people of other faith in their eyes are infidel and it says I'm not going to code the verses, but I have the list here. It says to slay the unbelievers whenever you find them. Muslims must not take the infidels as friends. Any religion other than Islam is not acceptable. Maim and crucify the infidels if they criticize Islam. Terrorize, and behead those who believe in scriptures other than Koran. There are on and on verses here which is in the book of Koran. So how you can say this is a religion of peace? There is a book of Al-Nisa in Koran which is all about women and teaches men how to beat their wives. So how you can say that Islam is religion of peace? There is no peace in that. And I lived under these Islamic rules. I experienced that in my entire life. But since I was so thirsty in that situation, I was so desperate to find the truth. But no one can stop God to reach out to people, even dictators. And God reached out to me through my dream. And my first dream was about a white horse that he showed up. Please read the details in the book. We don't have much time. There are lots of details to each story. I share that he revealed his amazing love to me and he revealed the true face of Islam which I could not believe that it was unbelievable how much God loves us and that dream really changed my life but still I didn't know about Jesus and it was a few years after that that one of my friends who has converted to Christianity told me about Jesus and it was the first time I could hear that Jesus is the son of God. But still I could not believe that, how it's possible. I started doing more research. I prayed and I asked God to show me the truth about Jesus. And more miracles started happening. More dreams, which I share tons of them in my second book, a Love Journey with God that how he was communicating with me step by step. And showing me the truth about himself. And I gave my heart to Jesus because I knew that he was there with me. knew that he is the truth. But still I had some doubts about, you know, reading Bibles, lots of questions. What is the Holy Spirit? But one day when I was praying to God, talking to him, that really changed my life. It was the time that I was baptized by the Holy Spirit. I was praying to him in my language. Suddenly I was baptized by the power of the Holy Spirit. A fire came on me. I raised my hand without control and I started worshiping in other languages that I never learned. I felt the presence of God all around myself in my room. I could not understand what languages I was talking to him and praying to him, but I could fully understand what I was telling to him. And I could not, it was not on my control. It was so powerful. I could feel a big circle, and my forehead was burning like someone sealed me. And then God gave me a quick vision. I could see Jesus right in front of myself in white robe beside a big golden throne. I could not believe my eyes. My face was full of my tears because it was the first time I could feel the presence of God in my life after years and years searching. And it took four hours from late at night until early hours in the morning. And God shut my mouth, removed all my doubts about Jesus. And I dedicated my whole life to Jesus. I remember I was on fire after that. I wouldn't care where I was living. I shared the message non-stop with my friends, with my family members. There's each longest stories for each family members, how I reached out and what happened. But God was using me. And he had a purpose to meet me in that strong way. But that just was the beginning of my journey with Jesus. I experienced his love, but he took me to many trials, many pains, and many sufferings, which at the beginning, I was questioning him. I was crying, complaining. I could not understand it. Why this is happening to me? Why? I went to poverty for years. I was living in a wealthy family because of the jealousy of my brothers. My life story is more like Joseph's story, what happened to him because of his brothers. The same thing happened to me. And I asked lots of whys. But God, again, through my dreams, told me there is a purpose. I am building you, my child. And then when I learned that, I told God, God, do whatever you want. Take away everything from me, but not your presence, not yourself. And he tested me with everything. I tell people that my life story is very similar to the greatest command in the Bible that Jesus told us in Mark 12, verse 30 to 31, that love your God with all your hearts. With all your minds, with all your strength, and then love your neighbors, love your enemies. If you are not building your strong personal relationship with God, the first verse, you're not able to go to the second command. And it's not like that easy that I tell God, I love you. I'm done. No, it's not that easy. He takes you to trials. He gives us instructions, which are other verses. For example, one verse he tells us, you must pick up your cross every day and follow me. In Matthew 10, verse 37 to 39, he says, anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Anyone who loves their sons and daughters more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross, follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it. And whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. So there is a tough instruction here. He says, you need to put me above everything in your life. And when I said yes to God, I was thinking it's that easy. I didn't know it's not that easy. And when the trials started, step by step, he took away my families. It was so painful. My father that I loved so much, I was separated from him for 20 years. I said yes to him and I said, take it away. He took away my wealth and I went to poverty. I experienced many hardships and I said, yes, Lord, I will follow you. He touched every corner. corner of my life. He wanted to test me that if I am going to follow him or not. But I'm telling you, besides being difficult, but this journey is very sweet. That's why I called in my second book, All My Sufferings and Pains, Sweet Pains. Pain is not sweet. No one likes pain because it makes people bitter. But when you understand the purpose of God for your life, when I look back and see that all because of all those sufferings, I got to know my Savior, Jesus Christ. I got closer to him. I say, thank you, God, for doing that in my life. Now I understand the purpose. And that's why now I say, take away anything, but never, your presence. Because I don't want that precious things that I received. It's a treasure. And I always tell people the reason I follow Jesus is not because I have a fear of going to hell. I don't know what is hell, how it's look like. It's not because of practicing a religion. It's because of love. I am so in love with him. And I don't want to lose that love. That's the reason that I follow him. And that's why I'm telling you that first, what you need to focus is building your relationship with him. And that's not going to happen in churches. The churches is amazing. You must come to have a fellowship, to get a teaching. But what's happening behind the scene in your private is more important. Are you building that relationship or just going home and forget? That relationship is not about him. So it's a living with him is a relationship. And the second thing is forgiving your enemies, which is again, it's difficult. And God, later, when I started my ministry in Iran, I went to Turkey in 2005, because I was thirsty to learn more about Christianity. And I could not learn it in Iran. There are many underground churches. And with my My friend, we, after getting the training, we returned to Iran, and we started our ministry by distributing Bibles. We distributed 20,000 Bibles in Tehran and a few other cities. It's not, when I say that, it's not that easy. There are tons of stories that how many times we were so close to get arrested. But God, each time, would show himself, his presence, and saved us each time. Once we were transferring thousands of Bibles in a van, every time a smuggler, a Christian smuggler, would bring a few thousand Bibles to us. And we were in the streets, going to our home, and we stopped in the big traffic, and the police officers were checking all the cars, and we said, we are done. They are going to kill us immediately, seeing thousands of Bibles in that car. And we didn't know what to do. We started just praying. And suddenly, a big miracle happened. There was just one car in front of us. A big fight happened between the police officers and the driver. And as a result of that, they said, go, go, go. And we were shocked. We said, wow. So, our God is awesome. He's alive. He gives us the power. So, many times like this happened because he wanted to show us, it's not about you. It's about you. When I tell you to do something. Something it's me and I give you the power and I protect you and God gave us the victory and I remember at that time um there uh our pastor after we distributed 20,000 bibles they were in the UK who were smuggling the bibles to us he met me in Dubai and he said Marzi we heard that um some of truth some of connections in the parliament they had a security meeting and they were saying that there is a big Christian group in Iran they are distributing bibles we need to find them and arrest them but they had no idea it wasn't the big Christian group it's just two girls with two backpack and God really protected us even when we got arrested they didn't know it was us and we were so active we started home churches we were evangelizing every day and finally it was the time to go to prison and it was 2009 that my friend and I got arrested they sent us to the most horrible jail for 14 days that we had to sleep on a cold concrete floor we had to cover ourselves with blankets that were full of urine they called us dirty Christians for months because in the eyes of radical Muslims anyone who convert from Islam to any other religion are in fiddle and dirty and they must be killed I remember in the first court the judge told us your charge your biggest charge is apostasy which is punishable by death I was shocked. I said are you serious? He said yes and I said why don't you show this in your national TV to tell people how you killed them and I said you're fighting you're not fighting with us you're fighting with God who is behind us and he got so mad at me because of talking boldly in front of him because they they have the face of evil. It is even hard to look at their faces. And I remember how much fear I had. My body each time in each courts, in each interrogations was shaking. But God didn't allow me to look weak in front of them, which goes back to the verse, to the promise that Jesus told us, whenever you got arrested and goes to trial, don't worry about what to say. Just open your mouth and I will give you the word. I truly experienced that. There were many times that I was thinking, it's not me. The power, the way that I was talking to them, I would hear my voice and I was telling myself, Marzi, you are in a big trouble. But inside myself, I knew that how much fear I had, but God didn't want me to look weak. And that's the reason that I'm telling you, we should never turn our eyes to God. We should never turn our cheek to evil. We should never negotiate with terrorists. This is not the language. The language should be the language of power in front of those people. But yes, as a Christian, still, Jesus told us to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us. And he tested me in that prison many times when I was insulted by these evil people. And God taught me how to forgive them, how to pray for them. When they insult me, not to insult back. But when you must stand strong, then that's a different story. I remember in prison, they transferred us after 14 days to another prison, Evan Prison, which is notorious for torturing, executing a lot of innocent people. And they, because of our story, many prisoners were interested and shared our story with many prisoners. Many of them gave their hearts to Jesus because of our prayers, because of the miracles that Jesus was doing among prisoners, because of the dreams that God would give me. And as a result of that, a miracle would happen. And they could see there is a big difference between their faiths and our faiths. They were so desperate because many prisoners wanted to spend time with us. I remember my interrogator once said, he threatened me and she shouted me. He said, you need to shut your mouth in prison and not talk about Jesus. You're brainwashing our young generation with your fake religion. And I said, are you kidding? It's Islam that you are brainwashing my people with that. Why these young people, instead of being in universities, these innocent people are in prison. You are ruining their lives. He said, we will cut your tongue. If you do not stop. And I said, go ahead and do that. As long as I'm alive, I will find a way to talk to people about Jesus. You can't stop me. So this is our God. This is not me. This is the power of God in us. And they could see that. They forbidden us to go to any facilities in prison because they could see how many prisoners wanted to spend time with us, to hear from us. They were so desperate. And there is a facility for prisoners would go use the library, other things. I remember the first day I went there and we had to go to the manager room to introduce ourselves and to say what is our charge. And I went there and there was a radical woman sitting there. And she asked me, what is your charge? I said, I'm here because of the name of Jesus. I'm a Christian. As soon as I said that, she got me. She said, I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. I'm a so outrageous. And she shouted at me and she said, get out of my office. You're infidel and you must be executed immediately. I don't know who let you here. I was shocked by her reaction to my charge. And I said, do you know what? I'm here because of the name of Jesus. And I'm so proud of that. I'm not a criminal, but I never forget. That day when I left her office, my tears was coming out because the way that she insulted me, it was unbelievable. And God would remind me the verses in Bible at the right time. And I remembered at that time, he reminded me first Peter, that he says, rejoice when you suffer because of the name of Christ. If you're insulted because of my name, you're blessed. For nine months, I didn't have Bible with me. But God, and I had a hard time to remember verses of Bible, but God at the right time would remind me the right words that I needed at that time. So I saw many miracles in prison. At the same time, I witnessed firsthand the brutality of the Islamic regime against my people. I experienced tortures of my soulmates. I experienced their execution. Once they put me in a cell, intentionally with the murderers. And they knew that they are going to execute one of the prisoners. And they wanted to show me what will be the cost of our resistance. And after I built the friendship, they took one of the prisoners and executed her. I was shocked. I could not believe how easily they can kill people. And later they killed my best friend, which I built the friendship for nine months with her. They executed her. And the worst thing that they did, they never gave her body back to the family. And the reason that they do that, because they rape virgins before their execution. They believe if they send the virgin, kill, execute her, she will go to heaven. And by raping her, they avoid that. And this is happening in Iran to many women. But finally, because of lots of international pressures on the regime, many Christian organizations advocated for our case. I was lucky with my friend. And Pope from Vatican sent a letter to government on behalf of us. And finally, because of all these pressures on the regime, we got released. But God had a reason to send me to prison. And he also had a reason to bring me to America. And he always would tell me through my life, I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I remember before going to prison and after I got released, God told me, next, you should be in America. I didn't know why. The ministry that we were working were in the UK. They insisted us to go to the UK. I said, no. I said, sorry. I respect you. You are my pastor. But I'm follower of Jesus, not you. He told me I need to be in America. I don't know why. So we moved to America. And since then, I started sharing about the persecution. I started sharing about the persecution. I started sharing about the persecution of my people, persecution of Christians in Iran. And I see that God sent me here, not just to enjoy my freedom and forget about what's happening in other countries like Iran, how the church, how Christians are suffering just because of being a Christian. So God wanted to use me to bring me here with a message for the churches in America to wake them up, especially what's happening these days. It scares me. It reminds me what exactly happened in Iran in 1979. They have targeted American children. These pro-Palestinian movements and all these protests, these are fake. These are just lies and deceptions to brainwash your children, to take away your Judeo-Christian values and replace it with Islam. I always tell Christians, tell people, that the danger of a radical religion like Islam is not less than missiles and bombs. It can be even more than that because it will infect the whole society. It will spread like a virus and it will stay for centuries. And it's hard to eradicate that. The Islamic Republic regime has already sent their agents to America, to all the countries, to Western countries. They infiltrated your political system, education, media for a purpose. Because when I was living there, they were saying, teaching us that we would destroy America within. And this is going to happen little by little. And it has already spread in America. So what is our responsibility as Christians? America and Israel are doing their job. Iranian people are tanking them. That finally they are helping them to get rid of this evil regime. But we as Christians also have a responsibility. It's not just coming to a church and enjoy our fellowship and then go home, forget about what we heard. We need to activate our faith. There are many things we can do, like prayers. It's a big tool. It's the spirit of God that we have the power. And I experienced that in prison, in different times of my life. We have that authority to pray. And I initiated a program through my ministry, NewPersia.org. You can read the details. That I asked Christians to pray for Iran. And I got that vision through the story of Joshua, that God tells him and his army that you need to march around the city seven times and declare the city under God's power. So he will bring down the walls. He gives him specific instructions, like to blow the trumpet, to take the Ark of Covenant, have seven priests in front of you. Why? So God could tell them, okay, sit there and pray, and I will make it for you. No, God wanted us to activate us. He tells us to pray. He tells them to march and play. And I got that vision for Iran, that Iran is surrounded with seven countries. I tried to find Christians in those seven countries to stand up against the darkness in Iran. Because there is a darkness. There is a curse over the country of Iran for so many years. They invited curse through the religion of Islam. They do witchcraft. But God gave Joshua instruction. How do you say this? How do you say this? How do you we can look at that, what we can do, I ask Christians, please print the map of Iran, put your hands and just pray, pray for Iran and declare Iran under God's kingdom. This is God's promise in the book of Jeremiah 49. He says, after killing the rulers and kings of Elam, which is the ancient name of Iran, I will set my throne there. And I don't believe just because in the Bible, that's God's promise. But also when I was in prison, I remember it was during another big protest in Iran. I was crying to God when I was witnessing how many people are getting killed, tortured in prison. I cried to him and I said, why don't you destroy them? And I had a dream and he told me, I am giving these people a chance to repent. But if not, I'm going to destroy them all. When I woke up, I understood that God is God of love. He gives a chance to everyone to repent, but is God of justice as well. And what's happening in the Middle East regarding Iran is God's justice against these evil people were possessed with demons. So I ask people, please pray for Iran. Pray for Iranian people. I found my ministry newpersia.org based on that promise and based on my vision that Iran is going to be a Christian country. Yes, it's possible. Yes, it's happening. A revival is happening in Iran. Just yesterday, I shared a video on my social media that Iranians started throwing their Koran to the rivers. Hundreds of Koran. I can watch that movie because they understood the roots of their problems. On the other hand, America and Western countries are embracing this religion. We need to wake up. We need to stand up for our values. Christianity is the foundation of America. When we say religious freedom, it's about Christianity. It's not about Islam and other religions. This is very dangerous. And as I said, it gives me a lot more trauma when I see what's happening in America, in Western countries. When I was moving to America, I was thinking I'm moving to a Christian country. But they know, the enemy knows how to use your religious freedom, to use it against you. If you go to their countries and dare to talk to anyone about Christianity, like Iran, they will kill you. But they easily come to your country because they know they can, take advantage of your religious freedom, build their mosques and brainwash your children. So we need to be vigilant and stand up to pray, to be active, to question your politicians, to make them accountable. They are not allowed to negotiate with these terrorists. We need to pray for our leaders to make a right decision because what's happening in Iran is not just happening in Iran. They have fun with them. They have fun with them. They have fun with them. They have fun with funded, organized, and supported their agents in our country, in America. We need to get rid of them. The Pope said that whoever prays wages war, God doesn't hear their prayers. It's nonsense. It seems the Pope, the new Pope, has not read the Bible. There are tons of stories in the Bible about how God used other nations to punish those nations. This is ridiculous. How many times did King David pray to God, consult with him, God, should I go or not to go? Should I fight against this or not? And God would tell him to go, and he would give him the victory. We should be vigilant not to be deceived by these kind of things. And these deceptions also, he's moving in churches trying to convince Christians not to stand with Israel. Why? Your Savior Jesus was a Jew. Paul was a Jew. Prophets of the Bible all are Jews, were Jews. Above 60% of your faith comes from the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. How you can deny that? They are chosen people of God. It's in the book of Romans 11 that God, God tells that we should not be arrogant because we are grafted into the covenant that God made with his chosen people. And he says they are our brothers and sisters. They are fighting against the most dangerous enemies of the world that I know them. Why we should not stand with them? As a Christian, I'm not supposed to take a gun and kill, but I can do the right thing to stand for my values, to stand for my faith, to stand for my faith, to stand for my country and not to allow them to infiltrate to your church and brainwash your children. Because if you separate the roots from the branches, there is nothing. You can't separate Judeo-Christians. It's all together, and we must stand for that. We can march like Joshua in our cities. Go to the streets, simple things. Just march and pray. Stand up for your values. Stand up for your children. If you do not do that, I promise your children in future will ask you why you didn't do anything. Iranian children are blaming their parents because the majority of them were silent when this happened to Iran, and they didn't do anything. And now they are saying, you ruined our lives by being silent. So as I said, as a Christian, we have power. Spiritual power. And God gave us this power. We are not fighting against the flesh. But while the army, the soldiers are doing their job, we can do something as Christians to pray, to support them, not to be deceived by the lies of the enemy in our country. Because as I said, while Iranians are rejecting that, boldly standing against it, do you know what is the cost of that? They can get killed. They can be executed. But they are standing against it, and they are saying no to that. Why we should embrace such evil things to our country, to our homes? God is looking for the warriors, the warriors of faith, those who are ready to say, yes, Lord, I am ready to stand. I am ready to go. I'm ready to do whatever you want. I learned that. I lived like that. And I always said, my life is in your hand. Just tell me where to go, what to do. And you can read my whole story. You can see that. So be the warrior for God. God bless you. Two things I want to do today. First of all, I want to invite you to stand with me. You can't hear a story and a testimony of a sovereign God who reaches into a life and says, that one's mine. That one's mine. That one's mine. It brings a conversion in an environment that seems impossible. You can't hear that and the story of the call of God upon their lives to risk their life. You can't hear that and not want to rededicate or at least dedicate your life in the same way. My prayer today is that there's an impartation placed in this house in line with our theme this year and in line with the theme of this conference. That is to stand. Unashamedly and this conference of anchored that there would be every individual in this room that names the name of Christ that says, Lord, you've called me to be bold. You've called me to be the testimony of the gospel. And I dedicate my life to that. I am hungry to see souls come in the kingdom of God because of bold testimony. How many feel that? I believe today you're being challenged. So we're going to pray over that while you dedicate your life. If you're in this room and you've not given your life to Christ, if you've not said, Jesus, you paid the penalty, the price for my sin. If you are a nominal term used towards some Muslims in Iran are nominal, meaning they're not real Muslims. They're just in there. There are people in our nation that are nominal Christians. How many know what I'm talking about? They go to attend on a Sunday morning, but nothing's ever changed in their life. There is no transformation. There is no discipleship. If that's you today, I don't know of a better moment than for you to give your life to Christ. So I want to lead us in a prayer and then we're going to pray for the nation of Iran. Is that okay? We're going to take the time. Maybe God will burden someone in this room to start interceding for the nations like Iran. I believe give themselves to praying for the nations. We have Venezuelans in this room. Venezuelans, raise your hand. All the Venezuelans, give them a moment through the translation. We have a brother from Chile back there, but Venezuela suffered 20 years ago. Socialism and Marxism started coming in to that nation to offer free things. Right now that's happening in our nation with Islam. There in New York and in Minnesota and other places, there's a binding together and our young generation are embracing it because the church has not taught biblical worldview and biblical values. That's why we need to pray for deep of understanding because you'll be accused of being not compassionate enough when in reality it's a twist of biblical values and it's getting infiltrated into our Christian... universities and our seminaries. I'm well aware of that. Well aware of that. So there's a lot to be covered and prayed over. When we come to it in the scriptures, we're bold to speak of it even in spite of resistance. And so I'm praying for boldness today and I'm going to lead you in a prayer and I want you to give your life to Christ and dedicate your life to the gospel. Say this with me. Say, Heavenly Father, I accept that Jesus Christ is both Lord and my Savior. I accept that I commit my life to that call and to the gospel. Now right there, I want you to dedicate your life to him. If you need to make some things right with God, take that moment right now. I want you to just dedicate your life. Say, Jesus, I belong to you wherever there's been an idol, wherever there's been an idol established. I repent and turn from that idol. I don't care what it is, any idol that's taken the place of a commitment to Jesus Christ above everything. Lord, I pray over that right now. I pray for you. I pray for you. I pray for you. I pray for you. I pray for you. I pray for you. Now in this room, by the power of the Holy Spirit, I pray, Lord, not one person walks out of here without a full commitment to the call of Christ. Embolden your people in every work area, in every workforce, in every place. Embolden them, I pray, Father, in the name of Jesus. Now let's pray for the nation of Iran. There should be a map. Come up on the screen here and I want you to stretch your hand toward that nation of Iran and we're going to pray for that nation. You may not know much about it. You've heard more in the news, but let's pray for the church in that nation. Father, we pray for the body of Christ in that nation. We pray, Lord, for the mercy. I ask you to uncover every wicked and every unrighteousness and every area of evil that you would bring it to justice. Lord, I ask you for wisdom for the nation that the leaders of Israel, the leaders of the United States to know the right things to do and the right way to go. I ask you to uncover every wicked and every unrighteousness and every area of evil that you would bring it to justice. Lord, I ask you to uncover every wicked and every unrighteousness and the right way to go. I pray, Father, for the counsel of the right and the Holy Spirit counsel. And I pray right now, Lord, encourage the Iranians who want to be free from the evil regime. I pray, Lord, for the gospel to have free course. I pray that I hear of millions coming into the kingdom of God. Let that be so, Lord. Just as we've heard testimony today, I pray, Lord, that there would be boldness in the face of every circumstance. And I pray for open doors. For Christians to flood into that nations. And there may be those in this room that say, I will go, Lord. Open the door for the gospel in that nation. Burden us on how to pray. Let us see Jesus. You're seated on the throne and you're ruling in the nations and the affairs right now. Not just someday, but right now you rule in the affairs of nations. And any nation that refuses to kiss the sun will perish from the earth. Lord, we pray that the gospel of this nation to be bold with the gospel. We pray for our president and those who are in authority that we might lead a quiet and peaceful life. That many come into the kingdom of God, we pray. And if you agree with that, say amen. Amen. Wow. Give the Lord a praise. Thank you for this word today. Thank you, sister. Thank you for coming and being here, being bold to preach. You may be seated. I want to just give a moment. Just a couple of reminders. I want to, first of all, say that you, if there's a black book passed by, would you take a moment and fill it out? Norma asked me this morning, how did you know it was my birthday? And I said, because you put it in the black book. And if we don't know it's your birth address or your email, it's because you didn't put it in there. Okay. So help us to know a little bit about you. If you haven't updated, some of us who have been around here forever, we're not in the black book. Please don't let your name not be written in the black book. Okay. So help us with that. If you would, please do that. Well, I said the black book. I didn't say the book of life. I said the black book. Okay. And then if you're our guest today, there's a offering. I mean, there's a guest card right there in the front seat in front of you. If you fill that out and we'd love to have it, just drop it in the offering container. When you leave the building that way, we'll know you're here and we can say, thank you for coming. If you're our guest, I also want to give you a chance to worship. This is not for our guests today. This is for the regular worshipers here see, uh, we believe in worshiping with our tithes and offerings. So we give you a chance to do that. Every time we come together, there's a means on the screen. Uh, if you like to use a check, obviously it's in the seat back in front of you with pens and there's offering containers as you leave today. But most of us use the text to give. It's just an easy way to worship the Lord. You have worked this week and you've been given an exchange of your life, uh, finances, and you're coming to worship with that. And may the Lord richly bless you. I just want to pray over those who worship with their tithes and offerings each week and the missions. You guys have been so faithful to missions to be able to be a part of nations of the world. Uh, I mentioned Venezuela because we're praying for that. Open doors have come in that nation. Jerry and Teresa, you've labored there for so many years. You were supposed to be there last week and we're not, or a couple of weeks ago, not able to get in without a visa, but we're praying for that opportunity. Wherever there is, uh, things that are happening in the nation, keep your eyes open because you may not understand what all is happening when those things happen in the nation, but God's opening the door for the gospel. And there is great pastors and great leaders, not only among us from Venezuela, but right now are getting out of prison in Venezuela. So our hearts towards the nations of the world. Thank you for being a part of missions. So father, I thank you for the tithers in this house. I pray blessings upon them and increase upon every area. Those have a burden for the missions. I pray God that you bless them in every area. And we honor you in Jesus name. Amen. I know we've run over just a little bit, but it's all been right. Can you say, man, let's get caught up here right quick before we release you. So you'll know what all is going on this week. It's important. What's going on DLC family. My name is Teddy, and we are so glad that you're here with us this week. Let's check out just a couple of things happening for you and your family. ATI conference 2026 kicks off tonight. While registration is now closed, the night sessions in Claremore are open to everyone. Doors open at 530, with worship starting at six. Hope to see you there. Parents, don't forget our summers for family parenting seminars start Wednesday night, June 17th. For all info or to sign up for child care, visit dlcsignup.com or dlc.tv/slash/summer. ATI kids 2026, our famous anchor. Register your kids now on apostlicteams.com. The freedom celebration is right around the corner. This is one of our biggest events of the year, where we get to celebrate freedom and serve families in our community with a night of fireworks and fun. We need many volunteers for this big night. To see the need, visit dlcsignup.com and sign up to help us. That's all the announcements for this week. If you have a prayer need, please let us know. We would love to walk alongside you in prayer. But with that being said, have a fantastic week, DLC family. Amen. While you're standing, let me remind you that the children's events called ATI, kids is on the Owasso campus. And if you were over there this morning, you saw the ocean around you. Couldn't walk down the hall. They're taking over that center over there. Okay. So that's a blessing that tonight launches our ATI conference. We've been invaded again with Birmingham, Alabama. Wave at us, all you Alabamians. Wave at us throughout the building. Okay. And Florida has invaded us. Come on, Florida. Indians, wave at us. Where are you? Hold your hand up. All you Floridians, thank you for this long distance way. Altus, I heard you had invaded us. Anywhere here, wave at us. Scream at us. Altus, you're on your way, possibly. On your way. All the way from Chile, Mauricio. Come on now. We welcome you here. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone here. I'm looking around to see if I'm missing some particular group here. But thank you for being here today. You don't want to miss it. Come early. Get a seat. The registration is closed for the morning sessions, but the night sessions are powerful and are open. You can enroll your children for the VBS style, but you'll want to do that. And so you can even be there tomorrow. Now, every able-bodied man that can, I want to ask for your help. We have some heavy sofas out in the foyer, which we love. They look nice, but they're going to have to be moved into this room right over here. Okay. And then we've got some tables out of this room here. We asked them that we didn't want to set up the foyer for tables for the meals today because we wanted you to be able to come in and out. So we need some men to help us move those tables in here and set up chairs. I'm looking for the director. Who's going to direct me? Miss Jones. Who's in charge of that? Where are you? Where are you? Okay. They're in the 9 a.m. I don't see them. Maybe they're getting things ready. Okay. Here. Tony's here. Okay. All right. Somehow I thought you were going to abandon us. I'm glad you're here, Tony. Give Tony a hand. Okay. These guys will tell you what to do. God bless you. Love on one another. And you strong young guys, help us. Would you? Everyone from MOVE knows how to work out. They got the muscles.
