Untie it and say, “The Lord has need of it”

I have just returned from a prayer journey in the Middle East. It was so encouraging, and a profound privilege, to be of one Spirit with the believers there, to hear accounts of what the Lord is doing in the harvest fields of Islam and to sense how the attention of heaven is focussed on the Middle East!

While praying in a specific location, we sent a photo of the site to some intercessors. One of them noticed that in the photo there were some donkeys tied up, and it reminded her of Jesus’ instructions to His disciples to obtain a mount for His triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Lk 11:30-31). He sent them into a village where they would find a colt tied up, one on which no one had ever sat. They were to untie it. If someone challenged them, they were to say, “The Lord has need of it.”

She texted this to us as a declaration, and it immediately reminded us of Genesis 16:12, in which God tells Hagar her son Ishmael will be a “wild donkey of a man.” Perhaps this description fits the onager, an untameable wild donkey that used to roam throughout the Middle East and is one of the fastest land animals, being clocked up to 70 kmh (see Job 39:5-8 NASB). Perhaps for Hagar, a slave, learning that her son would be free as an onager was not as negative as it sounds to us today.

Only a small proportion of people called Arab are physical descendants of Ishmael. Yet Muslims everywhere identify as his spiritual descendants similar to how we call ourselves children of Father Abraham. The “donkey” that God said would be free has been captured and enslaved by the rigid and harsh system of Islam. We found it very meaningful to declare, “Untie the ‘donkeys’ and let them go, because the Lord has need of them!” I’d like to invite you to join us in making this declaration and calling them into freedom.

Lord Jesus, we appreciate that You have many ways of speaking to us – through words, pictures, history, biology, text messages and so on. Help us be alert in our spirits to Your voice, even when it comes to us in an unfamiliar way.

Lord Jesus, Your earthly mission was to set captives free and proclaim the Father’s favor (Lk 4:18-19). We praise You for focusing Your favor on the harvest fields of Islam at this favorable time! We, Your disciples, say to the evil one who has captured and enslaved Ishmael’s spiritual descendants,

• Untie them and let them go, because the Lord has need of them, now!
• Untie them from the identity of slaves of Allah so they can become friends of Yahweh!
• Untie them from the lie that to leave Islam is to abandon God!
• Untie them from the bondage of rituals and works as the path to success!

Jesus, as those whom You have set free, redeemed and seated in the heavenly realms in You (Eph 2:6),

• We call forth the captives into the glorious freedom of the sons of God!
• We declare over them that You love them, and that they are able to hear and see You and respond to You in faith!
• We call them into the fullness of their true identity in You!
• We welcome these new believers into the family by faith, and fully embrace Your work in them.