“No human could have made this up!” This was the reaction of my Muslim friend when for the first time he read some of the teachings of Jesus with me. We started meeting regularly to look at the Bible and soon, together with some of his friends, he came to faith in Jesus and was baptised.

Many of us have found that inviting our Muslim neighbours and friends to read scripture with us is the most effective way of leading them towards the Saviour. Rather than merely giving them answers to their questions and objections we’ve found that pointing them to God’s answers revealed in the Bible allows them to hear directly from Him and respond.

Jesus, describing the ‘good shepherd’ in John 10, says, ‘his sheep follow him because they know his voice.’ We have to believe that Jesus has his sheep in every Muslim community and our desire, as Christ’s ambassadors, is to position people in a place where they can directly hear his voice and choose to follow him.

Slowly, through exposure to God’s word, many Muslim people are falling in love with His revelation in scripture. Together with a few friends we’ve been meeting regularly in a local mosque to read printed extracts from the Bible with the men there. One of the main religious teachers in that community recently described these times as ‘the best thing I’ve ever done’. He later told us, “My students have started complaining I’m using the Bible too much in my teaching!”

Frontiers teams right across the Muslim world have found that exposing their spiritually open friends to the words of God, and encouraging them to invite their family and friends to discover his word with them, is having a big impact. You may have heard of ‘Discovery Bible Studies’ (DBS); a helpful set of basic questions anyone can use to lead a simple Bible study (see details on our Inspire page). When a group follows DBS they read scripture, discuss it, practise retelling it to one another and encourage one another to obey what God is asking them to do.

We’re hearing more and more encouraging stories of small groups of families and friends throughout the Muslim world gathering to read the Bible together.

We’re seeing God transform lives, and sometimes whole communities, as they put into practice the things He reveals to them. As people begin to live a life trusting in Jesus and encouraging one another to walk in obedience to Him, that’s how disciples are made.

What’s especially exciting to hear is how these groups are rapidly reproducing in so many areas. As people fall in love with God’s word they go out and share the things they’re learning with trusted others and new groups form and multiply. I recently met with some workers in an Asian country who, in the last ten years, have seen a movement grow to many thousands of housel fellowships! This movement has even spread to a number of other countries. We’re living in extraordinary days as we see the Lord respond to the prayers of His people and moving in areas of the Muslim world in ways that we haven’t seen before.  

However, the fact remains that of the 1.7 billion Muslims in the world the vast majority have still never met a follower of Jesus. That’s why we’re passionate about sending people to continue taking hold of the amazing opportunities God is putting before us in these days.