Sid: It seems to me that when a Jewish person or a Muslim or a Hindu has an encounter with God they become red hot for Jesus, but that’s normal. That’s what, I have a normal guest her name is Evangeline Weiner, and Evangeline we’re featuring your book this week “The Calling of a Generation.” And the thing that I love about your book is that it’s so jam packed with faith that I don’t think someone can read this book without having a complete paradyne shift in their understanding of the supernatural. But the stories you have in here for instance, tell me a bit about Kamran the Shiite Muslim.
Evangeline: Yeah, well Kamran he grew up in Iran and his heart, you know he was; he wanted to basically be everything that he could be in the Muslim faith and…
Sid: I’ll tell you what, before I started interviewing you I caught up with Kamran and let’s go to that interview now.
Sid: I’m in the studio with Kamran Yaraei. Kamran you were raised in a nonpracticing Muslim home in a Muslim country, Iran. And at twelve you had to take over the family business because you’re father was seriously injured but at fourteen you had an unusual dream.
Kamran: Yes, I had this dream that this angel came to me and started to walk toward me with this very large crown and he started to tell me some godly advice. Love God, search for God and in the very far distance in the dream I saw something that I believe it was God. And when I woke up I had this urgent desire in my heart to pursue God.
Sid: But the only option and correctly me if I’m wrong but the only option in a Muslim country to pursue God would be through…
Kamran: Allah.
Sid: Right through Islam.
Kamran: Yes.
Sid: It’s very similar in Judaism, you know if a Jewish person wants to pursue God in Israel in particular the only thought they have is well, Orthodox Judaism. So you pursued God but you didn’t find what you were looking for, why?
Kamran: Yes, I couldn’t find what I was looking for. For so many years I tried to pursue God through what Islam told me that I could find him and to each place, mosque. How, you read Koran and you listen to those preaching in the mosque and you need to be a very good person and good family man, good son to your parent, good brother to your brothers and sisters. And I tried all of them, but my heart was not satisfied and I would go talk to this religious leader and I would tell them that, what could I do to get close to God? And they would tell me practice, practice, five times a day, but I couldn’t.
Sid: So at twenty-nine you decide that you are going to come to the United States and you renounced Allah.
Kamran: Yes, in my quiet time I prayed to him and I said, “From now on I am done with you because I wanted to be your friend and you don’t want me to be your friend, I’m done with you.
Sid: And a great miracle happened to help you come to the U.S. tell me about that.
Kamran: I went to Cyprus to get my Visa and at the lobby at this hotel I was just staying I saw this book that’s called (Angelic Holief)? Means Holy Bible. For the first time I saw that book and I use to read Koran, Islamic book, but Bible I never had any access I just heard about Jesus. I asked the person in charge and he gave me the book and I go to my room and I start to read this Bible for the first time; which I use to think that it was corrupted. I took this corrupted Bible to my room and I started to read it. But Jesus showed up in my room as I was reading the Bible and He stood in my room, I could see Him, actually He jumped out of the Book and I saw Him standing in my room and He started to speak in my language and He told me how He’s going to help me to go to U.S. And I asked my heart, I said “Can I pray to this Jesus? This Jesus is a prophet to Christian people, but I have my belief and then that old anger came up and I said, “Jesus all other prophet and that religion never helped me, if You can help me, please help me. And I go to the embassy of the United States and I get my Visa in less than five minutes.
Sid: That sounds unusual to me, it sounds miraculous to me.
Kamran: Yes, but still I went back to Allah and I said “Allah, that you so much, it looks like you’re doing something here, “I gave the credit to Allah.
Sid: So you get to the United States, you have a miracle; you give the wrong god credit, and then you ended up in a church service, tell me about that.
Kamran: Actually before the church service I ended up having this friend, Christian friend for the first time in my life, they were very nice. And to make a long story short, they told me about this Jesus and the love of Jesus, the love of God and that God is love. And it made me very angry. They said, “God is love.” I said, “God is not love, I love him, but I never received his love.” And they told me about Jesus and He’s the only way and the blood of Jesus. That scared me really bad because as a Muslim blood makes you unclean, it doesn’t make you clean. If you have blood on your finger you have to really go wash yourself and I was picturing this real picture of blood all over me and that makes me clean, the whole thing didn’t make sense. But as I was talking to one of my friends I felt that it was very supernatural, I felt in my heart that I need to ask them “How can I pray to this, Jesus?” And I did ask, I said, “How can I pray to this Jesus?” And she told me the salvation prayer that we have here in the United State. I said, “I do not want to pray that prayer because I don’t believe that prayer, can I pray with my own language in my own way to Jesus? She said, “Yes.” And I started this long prayer what I remember it was nine years ago. I said, “Jesus, I do not believe you are the Son of God, but if you are I give You my heart.” “Jesus, don’t believe your blood has any power to forgive my sin.” But if there is any forgiveness through Your blood I receive it, why not?” Then I said, “Jesus, if you can build a relationship between my heart and the heart of God that you claim that He’s Your Father, I give You full permission from this moment on to do anything You want to do with my life, with my job, with everything, You have full permission. I was crying so hard, then I turned even physically, I said “Allah, I was afraid of Allah, I said, “Allah if I did something wrong here I ask that you forgive me, if he’s not your son, I want you to stop him from coming to me, I don’t want any wrong spirit to get to me.” And I always tell people, after that Allah and Jesus they had to face each other, and I was out of picture, I told them “Whomever is God, just come and claim me,” and Jesus came and He did claim me.
Sid: Well, you went to church three times, the third time, “Tell me what happened.”
Kamran: I was sitting in the very row, it was a very big church in Atlanta, I was late and the usher took me to the very first row and I didn’t want to sit there, but I had no choice. I’m very uncomfortable sitting between thousands of people. After ten minutes of preaching I see a man that’s standing behind pastor, I see Him with my own eyes and He had a rod in his hand and as the pastor was walking He was walking in the opposite side of the pastor and I said to myself, “Who is that?” A voice inside of me said, “It’s Jesus.” I said, “I mock that voice, something inside of me mocked what I heard, and I said, “No, and the moment I agreed with that mocking voice, that man Jesus walked inside of my body and I took a very deep breath and this fire came all over me and I’m crying and I’m shaking. As a Muslim, I always wanted to have supernatural experience and right here it was extremely supernatural and He touched my heart and I could not stop crying and shaking and fire was all over me and I’m sitting in the very first row. It got to the place that it made me very uncomfortable because I’m crying very hard and I said to whatever that was inside of me in that moment that I couldn’t understand I said, “Please do not do this to me,” I said, “Not now, meaning come back later.” In a matter of a second, the shaking, crying, fire all left, that supernatural experience just left in a matter of a second.
Sid: You left Islam because you wanted to be a friend of God and you couldn’t find this friendship in Islam.
Kamran: Yes.
Sid: Do you have this friendship now?
Kamran: Yes, you know talking about leaving Islam, people they think that I became a Christian. I can’t, I don’t want to say I just became a Christian, I have Christ in me.
Sid: Are many Muslim’s coming to Jesus?
Kamran: I heard in our country, Iran, I can say hundreds of thousands people they are coming to Jesus because this Jesus is performing a lot of miracles. He’s proving to people’s heart that I Am the only one who can forgive your sin, I already paid your price and you know what I’m the only God that can prove Himself to you right now, right here, challenge me like I did. “I don’t believe you’re the son of God, but if you are come and show me.” Many of my family members challenged Him and they all saw Him.
Sid Roth: This is Sid Roth; I’m interviewing Evangeline Weiner on her book “The Calling of a Generation.” And that testimony you just heard is one of many testimonies that are in this book. Evangeline as you thought about him, what was coming to mind?
Evangeline: Yeah, you know I just am reminded about just how much God wants to be a friend and to know each and every person personally. And you know even the other day actually I was in the train, I was on a train from Seattle to Portland, but I met a young man who was a Muslim and he was studying, he was an international student here. And we just were just talking about our just different experiences of God and stuff. And he had made a mention of his little brother who is nine years old and who had died and he said, that it was like a joyous thing. And I said, “Why are you so excited about him dying early?” Well, he said, “He’s lucky, he for sure made it.” And I guess there’s a belief that if you know, if your under ten that you have assurance of your salvation into paradise. And even that fact, that just makes me feel that much more of that Muslim go through life without feeling the love of God and feeling that they can even be assured of salvation. And you know I just want to say today to whoever is listening that God does desire to know you, regardless of your background, regardless of your religion of what you think or your circumstances of failure or successes that that God wants to know each and every one of us personally. And you know if you just ask Him and say, “God,” just like Kamran did, “God if you’re real, Jesus if you’re real, reveal yourself to me.” You know, I know that He’ll do that.”
