Our special neighbor this time came from far away from Iran Here he is Afshin Javid Afshin Javid was born in the south of Iran from a Shiite Muslim family He joined the Hezbollah for three years And sent to America to spread Islam there But God has another plan for him This is our neighbor's story Hi, this is me Daniel, your neighbor. Let's start. Hi all neighbors that I love and I love.
Back again in Daniel, your neighbor. And this episode is a bit special. But most certainly if you want to support us, don't forget to click the subscribe button or maybe you can give super thanks or you can be part of our tribe by buying our official merchandise. Here is the QR code. and you can directly bring it to our online shop so that you can post it later if I use our merchandise and don't forget to tag us at Daniel Mananta Network.
Now, what is for sure today as I said earlier, a little special because we have someone from Iran who lives in Daniel's house. And of course, all of this is in English, so please turn on the subtitle too if you want to listen to it. If you want to listen to this in the form of a podcast, please do so.
Well, and you guys are a little bit difficult to understand, well, you can watch it on YouTube to see the subtitles. Anyway, let's just go, this is Afshin Javed. How are you? Wonderful, thank you.
How do you find Indonesia? Ah, it's gorgeous. I love Indonesia and of course the culture, makan-makan. Okay, which makanan then? Which makan-makanan did you...
Any kind of nasi goreng, any of that. Ayam, nasi goreng, ayam. Alil the fried stuff. Alil the fried stuff.
I mean, I love everything. I love the spices. I love the variety.
Wow. It's amazing, yeah. Is this the first time you were here in Indonesia? Probably 50, 60 times now. I have lost.
What? 50, 60 times? Yeah. Aliready? Yeah.
Oh, wow. okay because actually you know that's funny I don't know why I've been yeah I've met a lot of I've met a lot of Christian Iranians we we actually help a few of our friends Javed and Zainab they they you know we love when they cook for us we love the food it's it's beautiful I've never been to Iran but I I can I can taste a little bit of Iranian food from them. And then we have Ramin Parsa.
I've met him in Israel. He's on the show as well. Oh, wow.
In Daniel Tetangga Kamu. And you're like the second Iranian that I'm interviewing here in Daniel Tetangga Kamu. So, you know, thank you so much again for agreeing.
It's my honor. Yeah. So, Afshin, I want to know more about you. Thank you. You were in Hezbollah for three years.
Correct. And then you were in Malaysia and you were in prison. Correct. In Malaysia. Your story is just so mind-blowing because in prison...
in Malaysia, you met Jesus. Absolutely. Yeah, I know. Right? As a Hezbollah, it's like, man, when you talk about the most, unlikely place and the most undeserving uh person to meet jesus and and yet it's just that we flip that perspective you You know, like Jesus can meet you anywhere.
Please tell me more about yourself, like about your childhood, and how can you end up in Hezbollah? Well, I was born in the south of Iran. And I was born, and then it was already a desire for a revolution because Shah was very westernized, you know, pro-west and everything. They had their political issues and the background, but the reality is Shah believed in modernization of Iran in a way that most Muslims felt that it is against the ways of Alilah.
And so my father was part of the movement against Shah. My grandfather was a Muslim leader, built mosques and orphanages. So I grew up in that environment. And then the revolution happens in 1979. I have one of the things that really, you know, those key moments that changes your life. I remember sitting on my father's shoulder and it was a curfew.
You couldn't go out. And then an officer pointed in actually M16 in my father's face and said, go back into the house. And my father said, Fi sabi lillah, for the cause of Alilah, shoot me. And so that really was a moment.
And that word meant a lot to me because my grandfather, every time he did something, he would say, for the cause of Alilah. And so I grew up learning that for the cause of Alilah, you should give your life, you should give all your finances, you should give all your energy, you should do anything for the cause of Alilah. Now the revolution happens.
The war starts and we are the first city and we lose everything in half an hour. So we are now moving out and I'm wondering why would these guys attack? And what I heard from older people in my family that because we wanted to be Muslims, the infidel have attacked us.
America and other countries are helping Iraq to attack us. Yeah. And so because of that, I was like, okay, if they have a problem with me being a Muslim, I want to be a really good one.
Yeah. Yeah. So that was my journey.
But on a personal level, I also had from my family a story that they told me that I was sick and I was supposed to die. But they prayed to Alilah and they said, we will dedicate him to the eighth Imam if he is healed. And I was healed. So they shaved my hair at the age of five.
So they did not shave my hair till five. And then they shaved and gave gold and dedicated me to the eight imams. So I had all of that come together. And I had this desire that I wanted to serve God.
I wanted to serve Alilah. I wanted to be a really good Muslim. Muslim means simply submitted to God.
Yeah. So I wanted to be a good Muslim. I owe Alilah my life.
I have been dedicated and I want to kind of despite all the western desires, I want to stand up to them. So these are all going on. You want to attack them because look what happened to me and my family.
We lose everything. And by the way, sorry, I want to clarify the Islam mostly in Iran, Shah. Correct.
Not Sunni. Not Sunni. And what is the difference then in Shah itself?
So there was an argument that arose after Prophet Muhammad passed away. There was no clear direction by record, you know, because Alii was a cousin to Prophet Muhammad and also the son-in-law married his first daughter Fatima. So, and he was one of the first converts and a general.
So, when the Muslims said when Prophet Muhammad died, he would have wanted Alii to be the next caliph or the next leader. And then there were others who said, no, the mother, the father of Afshin, the most beautiful, beloved wife of Prophet, the nine-year-old, should become because he's the older of the tribe. So, tradition. Right. So, you have Sunni.
which comes from sunnah, which means tradition. Right, okay. And then you got Shahs, who went after the belief that Alii should have taken place.
So Shahs are about 10% and the Sunnis are the larger. And the Shah, like in the tradition and the rituals and everything? Very similar.
Okay. The same book. same things but these guys have imams and they have 12 of them uh sunnis have four khalifas yeah the same hadith the same war on you know all of it okay a little bit uh the style we stand in prayer is a little bit different uh they pray the same amount she has do two sessions uh the noon and the afternoon together the the sunset and after sunset together. Okay.
But Sunnis do it completely separate. Alil the, yeah. Yeah. Otherwise, the fasting is the same.
Alil the eats are the same. Right. Everything is the same. Right.
So in the end, when you, now you have that stance now, you know, you, and in Iran, I spoke to Ramin. In every school in Iran, you have the American flag and the Israel flag. So you get to step on them. and maybe you get a bonus point if you spit on it.
That's how you brainwash the kids even since the beginning because you put them in schools. So you grew up with that. You want to fight the infidel so-called.
the infidels and you want to serve God and then yeah how did you end up in Hezbollah again? So I can tell from Ramin that he was a little bit younger than me. I can now see my own age because by the time they put flags on the schools and everything else was much later actually but we did hate so that's a little bit later. But yeah, so at some point, I, in my own personal journey, wanted to pray, and I prayed, and I fasted, and everything.
But I never felt Alilah is satisfied. I didn't know if He is or not. And I wanted to be sure that He is satisfied with me.
So I just kept going further. At age 12 and a half, I volunteered to join the Basij, which is Hezbollah, and Iran. 12 and a half? Yeah.
Oh, wow. So they ask you to control women covering their hair and all this kind of things, you know, making sure everyone keeps the rules and everything. And so that's what I did till 14, 14 and a bit, 14 and a half. And then I felt still not enough. We were part of this, you know, those people that, you know, when Masih Amini, there were...
group of people that were beating people and all the sick yeah i was part of that the the police uh well the religious religious police right the religious police so you're 12 and a half to 14 while you were 12 and 14 you can go around if you see someone who's not wearing a covering a hijab then you're free to punish them bring them to jail uh so yeah if they survive the punishment oh man yeah You want to make a lesson out of them. Wow. Because Amr ibn Maruf and Nahya is one care.
So you teach them to do the good things and you try to do, cause them not to go the wrong path. And that is done through fear and force. We were young, but also, you know, zealous. Yeah. So we hit people and...
you know all these kind of things so um but i didn't feel personally still satisfied i didn't feel god is satisfied you know so at age 14 and a half i volunteered to walk on landmines and i wanted to die so then i'm a shaheed yeah martyr yeah and then and then for sure allah is it's going to be satisfied like well done yeah as i was driving i was on the bus going you My father stopped the bus and said, how do you have a 14-year-old dead? Because you have to be 15. I had lied and said my parents are dead and I'm 15. So they pulled me off. My grandfather finds out.
He says, you don't need to die for Alilah. You can go to United States and convert the Christians into Islam and Alilah will be pleased with you. So that's how you want to serve.
Alilah in a way bigger scale now. Absolutely. Like you want to make sure that all those Americans convert to Islam.
Yeah, because I'd already tried everything. I was praying five times a day. I was reading the Quran more than most people.
At the most dedicated point of my life, I was reading the Quran once every 10 days, cover to cover. That's, wow, that's crazy. 114 surahs.
That's great. Okay. Wow.
So, and I still wasn't feeling, I had a heart and this is what most people don't understand in the West, you know, and for your Christian audience today, you may be very interesting, you know, because as a Muslim, I believed in the one God that creates everything. Yeah. And as a Muslim, I wanted to please Him.
Yeah. I wanted to give Him all my life. Of course. There is something within every human being, if you are to listen to it, that we know that there is a higher being or a higher purpose. Yeah.
Now, I don't care what you call it. What do you want to call that higher desire for that purpose? I know it's God. Yeah. He placed it there.
So as a Muslim, I was really desiring to please Alilah. But the religion of Islam... Is a religion that Alilah is God, He's the Creator, He wants you to do righteous things and everything else, but there is no personal relationship between Alilah and you that is physical or tangible. Not that there isn't. You pray, He hears you and everything else, He sees your action, He knows your heart, all of that.
But there isn't like... or he comes and speaks to you because the word answers who are we that allah would speak to so these kind of things but within me i long to hear our have some sort of a sign and know he's pleased with me which i had not so at a time that um in that journey i had you know joined the hezbollah my last job before i came out of iran or volunteered on the landmines and everything else and everything was to bring people to the execution and hang them no when you were 14 years old 15 by then 15 15 15 years old and you're you're You bring someone to... And we put a rope around them and pull them up.
Why? Is it because they go against... The government said they are infidels.
So we didn't... You don't even know. Okay.
Wow. So it was... But I was on that path of wanting to please Alilah.
But I'm willing to die for you. I'm willing to kill for you. To kill as well.
Okay. Wow. Forgottu lufi sabi lillah. Kill or murder for the sake of Alilah. It's written in the Quran.
are on and it's just so surprising that this is when you're still 15 years old because they want to make sure that you're this is normalized like you know people dying you kill people you know it's it's all normalized um you know um i mean today a 15 year old is considered young but in the cultures all of it you know at the age of puberty you were considered a man you Yeah, true. So, I mean, people used to marry. I mean, today, you know, you got a 40-year-old that sits, you know, man that plays games.
But I assure you, you would have shown any, your grandfather such a thing. You know, your grandfather would have had a heart attack or beat the guy back to senses, you know. Afshin, when you went to the US, you were sent when you were... I wasn't, I came out. You came out.
Went to Pakistan. Okay. From Pakistan, I acquired some illegal passports, 30 of them, and went to Malaysia.
Okay. Yeah. And so...
Oh, so you never end up to the US? Yeah. And the path to United States in Malaysia, I got arrested because of the...
The illegal passport. Yeah. So, and not having legal documents, actually.
Okay. So, and then I ended up in jail, and then in jail they found out that I... I'm a Muslim and I'm quite studied in Islam.
I had studied Islam for 12 years. So they asked me to become the leader in the mosque. So to teach because I could read Arabic, I could teach it and everything.
So I started doing that. I was praying and fasting and everything else. And during this time when I'm doing that, and so I have an encounter.
with a spirit, a demonic spirit, that comes into the room as I'm meditating in the Qur'an and I'm like, no problem. Alilahuakbar. Alilah is great and I'm going to, you know, say the name of Alilah and he's going to run away. Yeah. And so I say, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, you know, Awzubillah minash shaitanirrajim.
It'll go and didn't. It didn't go. It came closer. Okay. And I was like, what?
Oh, I should say my shahada, you know, that I believe in Islam. So I believe in Alilah and Prophet Muhammad and so on and so forth. And it came closer.
I started reading and reciting the Quran. It came closer. At this point, I was feeling that someone is like choking me, but from inside. And I couldn't breathe. And at that point, I was like, God help me.
And the moment I said, I said, God help me. I said it in Farsi, Khuda, the alpha. You know, so in the moment I said that, I heard a voice, an audible voice, like you hear my voice. And the voice said, bring the name of Jesus. And I didn't really think about it.
I didn't ponder. I felt like someone is drowning and has offered me a rope. I'm not going to be picky about the color. I just said, yeah, I just opened my mouth and I said, Jesus, if you are the truth, show me yourself.
And before I was finished with that sentence, that spirit had ran away. Now, that wasn't a moment of celebration, but a confusion. Because wait a minute, Jesus is a prophet. Alilah is God, Alilah is the greatest, Jesus is one of the five great prophets, but Alilah, humanity.
So how is it that this spirit is more afraid of the name of Jesus than the name of Alilah? Yeah. And that was confusing to me. Then I remembered our teachers would say, never ask questions. Because if you ask questions, you go crazy or become an infidel.
So I said, forget it. I want to... to forget tonight yeah ever happened in the morning i gave the azan you know i was the one that called but as soon as i said allahu akbar then i heard a voice this time inside me saying then why would jesus help you and i jumped literally and i was like wait a minute and i got so scared i thought actually i should study more or on yeah because i have to fight these boys and i should read them more on and this and that And it didn't work because every time now I open the Quran, the name of Jesus jumps off of the pages.
Wow. And I had never realized that the name of Jesus is mentioned more times in the Quran than the name of Prophet Muhammad. Isa al-Masih. Yeah. Yeah.
And so I'm like seeing all these things and I'm not, I'm like, what's going on? What? God is God. And it became so confusing.
I just prayed and fasted and said, Hey God, you know, there is one God. Only one God. So if there is one God, it's like a mountain. You may climb different way, but there is one God. So I said, show me the way I will follow you.
Show me the truth and I will believe. Whatever it is. And I prayed for that for two weeks. And I was hoping for some sort of a sign and nothing.
And at the end of the two weeks, I was so frustrated because I had lost that intimacy with God because I wanted to pray. at least i didn't feel him but i had no doubt in me yeah i had no questions in me i my only question that time was is he pleased with me or not but now i'm like which what is the truth what what does he want from me And so before I knew the rules of Islam, I said, these are the things he wants. But now, why would you confuse me with the name of Jesus? And then two weeks of prayer, nothing.
And I got so mad at God. And I said, God, you know what? Alil my friends go have girlfriends party.
I pray. Well, while they were doing these things, I read the Quran. My childhood, I wanted to serve you.
I would just sit there for hours, reading over on. Wow. I loved you. Yeah.
And you are able to see my heart. What does it matter what name I call you? Hmm.
And if it does matter, then tell me, but you came, you confused me with the name of Jesus. Yeah. And now you refuse to show me the way, the truth.
So how do I do that? So from now on, I'm going to go live my own life. And when I die, if there is a God, if there is a judgment, they said you are just. And if you're just, then you cannot judge me because this is your doing.
Wow. And if you judge me for what you have done to me, then how can you call yourself just? And if you're not just, what does... matter if I follow you or not.
You're unjust God. And so at the end of that I saw a man stood in front of me that beamed like light. And the moment I saw him, I knew he's holy and he's just.
And I knew two things about myself, that I'm not holy, I'm not just. No matter how many good things I've done, no matter how much I have prayed, no matter how much I have fasted, how much I have read the Quran, how much I have talked to God, I am not just or holy, but he is. So, and I thought to myself, you have questioned God, you have blasphemed, you have said you will decide for your life according to the Islamic theology, you have elevated yourself equal to God, because human beings cannot decide for themselves.
And if you're equal to God, then you have committed shirk, which is the unforgivable sin. Shirk is when you say there is, Alilah has a partner, someone equal. Hmm.
Okay. So I've committed that. Now I see this holy man standing there.
Wow. God has come to kill me. And I ran to the corner, just put my head up in between my arms and just cried.
Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me, forgive me, forgive me. And no matter how many times I said, forgive me, I didn't think he will forgive me. I had never seen God forgive.
I mean, I had read the Quran. And I had, there is no example. I mean, we say in the Quran, 114 times, Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
In the name of Alilah, who is most gracious, most merciful. But there is no story that somebody was a sinner and he forgave. No, we die, we... wait for the day of judgment, al-qiyamah, the day that you are raised, and he will judge you.
And only Alilah knows. Alilahu alam. Only Alilah knows.
So, I... had never known by example the forgiveness of Alilah. And I needed that forgiveness then. I couldn't wait till the day of judgment.
I felt like condemned right there. And in the middle of that hopelessness, I felt a touch on my left shoulder and the voice says, I forgive you. And I just felt like the words just went inside me and instantly...
Yeah. And suddenly changed the direction. Changed.
And something just shifted and all the things that I knew was unholy was taken, all the guilt was taken and I felt lighter. and I was like I'm forgiven and I was like wait a minute I know I am forgiven but how can that be only God can forgive he just forgave me I feel forgiven but In Islam, I have to wait till the Day of Judgment. He is God, but He's a different God than the one that I studied about. So I said, who are you that forgives me and I feel forgiven today? And He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
And I was like, wow, that means so much. I mean, teach me the right path, the straight path. But it's a direction.
But he says, I am the way. I never thought the way is a person. We thought the way is the direction.
Where, right? Not the who. I am the truth.
I thought truth is a measurement. Is it we measure to see? Is it through or not?
But he says the truth is a person. And life is a source. But he says life is a person.
And all these three is the same person. And I'm like, I know it's really big, means a lot, but I don't understand. I've never heard these words. I don't know what it means. I know it means something big, but I don't know what it means.
What does it mean? What is your name? And he said, Jesus Christ.
And I felt, hit the ground. He said Jesus Christ or Isa Ali-Masih? He said in Farsi.
In Farsi? Isa Ali-Masih. Isa Masih. We don't...
And the Arabic say Isa Ali-Masih. Yeah. We don't have the Ali in Farsi.
Ah, okay. Isa Masih. This is crazy. It's crazy.
So you never, when he said, I am the truth, I am the way, I'm sorry, I am the way, the truth and the life. That was not in the Quran, is it? No. Because of course, as a Christian, you see that in the Bible a lot.
Absolutely. But I never, I didn't even know Bible exists. You never even...
Yeah, of course, in Iran it was banned. Of course, yeah. No, no, no, no.
It's not the fact that it is banned. Every Muslim grows up with this idea that there is no Bible. So there is no Bible. Alil of it is gone.
I didn't know Bible exists. Wow. So much less when I read it or know that it was written there.
Then you read it and like, aha. Yeah. Wow.
Afshin, if that all still happened in prison? Correct. I'm in my cell and I was in, after my prayer, I had just gotten so desperate with God. And so I got mad at him.
Then he appears, he says this. And I'm like, wow. And I just... What happened afterwards? I fell, I cried for about two hours, and he just stood there.
And after two hours, he says, look up. And I look up, and I see like a screen, and I see people of all nations and all ages and generations, and then I see their sin. And I said, whoa, I live among all these sinners. And he says, Afshin, how easy did I forgive you? I said, oh, very easy.
As easy as drinking water. No, no, no, no. Even easier than drinking water. And he says, I can forgive every one of them, but who's going to tell them?
I said, I will. He says, go. So I literally ran out of my cell, went to the mosque, which was in jail, which I was the leader of. And when I got there, everyone, oh, Prophet Afshin, what are you going to teach us about the Quran, about the Hadith?
I said, no, no, no, no, no, forget Alilah, forget Muhammad, forget the Quran, I just saw Jesus Christ. And he said he can forgive everybody, as easy. Yeah.
As drinking water, even easier. And I thought, because every Muslim looks for forgiveness, so I had the good news for them. I thought I'll go tell them and they'll follow me.
Of course, it didn't go very well. They followed me, but in a different manner, you know, like, ah! They were so new. Oh, wow. And so they actually, for the next couple of months, every...
time they tried to kill me and then another miracle would happen when i was sharing nobody knew why i have done but there is an emotional attachment as a as a muslim our identity more than a man more than i'm an iranian more than i'm from this family or that family more than anything they're muslim and so to leave that that's you you lose all of your identity and they couldn't you they couldn't figure out why I would want to do that. Of course, then I start telling them stories of what Jesus had done. But I didn't know if they are true or not because I'd never read the Bible. I'd never seen one.
So I prayed one day. And the next day in jail, someone walks up to me and gives me the book. In Malaysia. In Malaysia, yeah.
In a Muslim Malaysian jail. Exactly, exactly. In Pudu jail. And somebody just gave you a Bible.
Yeah, it says this. And I only spoke Urdu and Farsi. And the guy is an Urdu speaker and says, this is for you. No way.
This is what you wanted. I got so excited, I forgot to thank the guy. I went to my room. I kissed the book because that's what Muslims do, you know.
And I open it, and it's in a language I cannot read. And I was like, oh, okay. So maybe I should have been more specific. But I said, okay, you know what?
I prayed last night and I got the book the next morning. It's a next day delivery. So I'm going to pray for Farsi one.
And then God said to me, read it. I said, but I can't. He said, read.
I said, I can't. He said, read. And I was like.
I don't want to make God mad at me, that he thinks I'm disobeying, but I can't read. Maybe I should show him I cannot read. And I looked at the page and I could read. And when I read, I thought I've gone crazy because it's my story.
And I was like, okay. you definitely have lost your mind. So I went and I showed that verses that I had read to a guy who was in my cell.
I said, can you read from here to here? He said, yes. That guy spoke French and English and everything.
So he read it and I said, does it mean this? And the guy's jaw drops. He says, how do you understand English? I said, that's English? He said, yes.
I said, I don't know, I just do. And I was like. Huh! I had opened to Isa chapter 6, when he saw the Lord seated on the throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
Above him stood the seraphims, each with six wings. With two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, with two they flew. And one called to the other, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Alimighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. At the sound of the voices, the whole house was filled with the smoke.
And the doorposts were shaken. And I said, woe is unto me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among people of unclean lips. And with that, Shah flew unto me with a cold in his hand, which she had taken from the altar.
With it, he touched my lips, and he said, see, this has touched your lips. Your sins are atoned for, your guilt taken away. And then I heard the voice of the Lord, whom shall I send, and who will go for us?
And I said, here am I. Lord, send me. So I learned English in one day.
I have never studied English. Come on. Wow. Okay. When did you get out of the prison?
Oh, that was about a couple of months later. I just told people so many things about Jesus and so many miracles happened. And this is what I mean. My mom, my dad became a Christian because my dad's name is Muhammad. Okay.
My mom was such a dedicated Muslim and everything else. And I said, look, to all my Muslim friends, they're like, why did you become a Christian? I'm like, because Jesus appeared to me and they're like, oh, but you became an infidel. And I'm like, okay, okay, give me a moment.
My question is this to a Muslim, I said, and I was sitting here in one of the largest Muslim nations in the world population. My question is this, did Alilah, that you believe in, send Jesus? They say, yes, of course. How is believing in one of the prophets of Alilah becoming infidel?
And they're like, what? I'm like, according to your faith, did Alilah speak to Jesus? Yes. Did he give him words? Injil?
Yes. Was those words that God gave him, those were from Satan? Of course not. Astaghfirullah. Yeah.
So I said, how does believing in a prophet that you believe Alilah sent? is becoming an infidel. And they're like, what?
No. I said, if I worship cow, Then I understand. But I'm believing in a prophet you believe in.
I am believing in a prophet you believe that will come back. He's the only prophet amongst all the prophets that Muslims believe that is in heaven now. I said, you want to go to heaven?
Yeah. So don't you think believing in someone that is in heaven because he did it right. He is guaranteed there. would be a wise idea and they're like huh and i'm like forget that forget logic because god is not someone we see with our eyes and i know a lot of muslim friends of mine they come to me and said you believe in three gods i'm like no they're like yeah where is this uh father son holy spirit i'm like okay i can explain that no really you can yeah go ahead i'm like okay I'm Afshin. Afshin Javed.
Yeah. My father named me Afshin. My last name is Javed. Right? Okay.
Good. What am I to my father? A son.
A son. I said, I'm married. What am I to my wife? A husband. And I have children, six of them.
What am I to them? A father. Now, am I three persons?
No. No, same. Is my relationship with my children the same way with my father?
Do I treat my father the same way I treat my... No. Do I treat my father like I treat my wife? No. Do I treat my wife like my father?
No. Three different characteristics within the same person. God...
is the creator of everything. Like my father made me, he is a father. He has the heart of a father.
He has the mind of a father. He cares about us. He provides for us. He takes care of us.
He protects us. He has, he desires for you and I to succeed. Uh-huh. Do you think God does that? Yes.
Okay, that's like a father, but the best one. Uh-huh. I said, but he talks to you and I like a brother. He's just like Iko because we don't understand.
Uh-huh. I understand. So he calls himself a son.
So he'd be your brother. He can talk to you eye lover. But God is not, doesn't have body and lives here like me.
He's a spirit. Holy Spirit. He's everywhere. Only for you and I to understand, he gave these characteristics. So we understand.
It was to... I said, it's like when my kid came to me and said, Dad, how does sun work at three years old? So you can't just say, these are gases. You know, you say, oh, you know, and where does it come from?
behind the mountain yeah yeah till they raise you grow up a little bit more and then you say look actually it's not behind the mountain we are turning and this is what's happening and there is the stars and the galaxies and everything else so god is explaining to us like this so you and i can understand and when we see him face to face we will understand more let me go ah so my um And I said to my Muslim friends, okay, look, ask him yourself. And I have challenged them. I said, ask yourself. Say, God of heaven, the creator of heaven and earth, there is one that I believe you. And you hear my voice and you knew that I'm going to ask you this.
Did you send Jesus? Wow. If I believe in Jesus, whom you sent.
Will I go to hell? Do you think if somebody asked God and said, God, did you send Jesus? God would say, no, I don't know him.
No one would be fooled to say that. If I ask him, hey, if I believe in the one you sent, will I go to hell? He would say yes.
That would make no sense. And I go, that's true. I said, ask him. Ask him. Let him prove his love to you.
Wow. That's it. Wow.
That's so good. Thank you. Okay.
okay we're our time is limited yeah I have so many more questions we can come back I'll come back to Jakarta and we'll do this again we'll do this again yeah but definitely thank you Thank you so much. Thank you so much for this talk. I really appreciate it.
Usually we talk for another 45 minutes. Usually, you know, it's one hour and a half. But I think if God wants it to be 45 minutes, then so be it.
Well, I'm giving them a teaser. A teaser. But have it. I would ask one thing. We are working with people around the world, with the refugees and everything else.
And right now, our prayer is for all the Muslims that are suffering in Gaza and everywhere else. For me, as a Christian, Jesus commanded, wherever there is naked people that they don't have, give them clothes. If they are thirsty, give them water.
If they have hunger, give them food. If they are sick, then take care of them. So I would appreciate all of your audience to pray for us, remember us.
And if they want to reach out to us on our YouTube and support us, that would be wonderful too. Where can they find you? YouTube, Afshin Javid. Okay. Yeah.
Aliright. We'll write it down. Afshin Javid.
That's it. Then you can find. Kalian bisa menemukan Afshin Javid di channel YouTube-nya Afshin Javid. Dan di situ Afshin sendiri juga tetap. Melayani Muslim friends in Gaza and Christians in Gaza who are now experiencing difficulties as we know our brothers and sisters in Gaza what happened to them.
Afshin, I just want to wrap this up by saying thank you so much. I pray for your ministry to be even more impactful, more larger, and thank you so much for... Yeah, this is your 60th time to Indonesia. So you're practically an Indonesian. What an honor.
We'll meet you again very soon. Okay, thank you. Bye, Afshin.