I first heard about it from an Egyptian pastor of a church in Cairo—that Muslims were converting to Christianity after seeing Jesus Christ in dreams and visions.
Then I heard the same thing from other sources—through the mission department of our church, professors at Fuller Theological Seminary, executives at The Outreach Foundation, Christianity Today, The William Carey School of World Mission, books, articles, and over a million reports on the Internet.
This well-documented phenomenon reflects a number of common situations:
• These conversions have been happening for decades.
• They occur in “closed” countries where the Christian Gospel is not known, and where converting to Christianity often results in persecution and death.
• The men and women who have these dreams or visions have never had contact with Christians before the dreams or visions.
• The dreams or visions come to men and women who are earnestly seeking to know and please God.
• The person in the vision—Jesus—wears white or radiates light.
• The dreams happen while they sleep; the visions happen while they are awake.
• After experiencing the dreams and visions, these Muslims go outside of their communities to seek out a Christian or obtain a Bible to learn more about Jesus.
• After deciding to follow Jesus, many of these former Muslims are persecuted, but they experience further dreams and visions of Jesus who encourages them to persevere in their faith in him.
Since 2002, a nonprofit group has interviewed many of these former Muslims who experienced these dreams and visions. Out of the interviews, the group has created a series of docudrama videos—More Than Dreams—that portray the following five people. You may click the links to view their stories on your computer:
Khalil—A radical Egyptian terrorist is changed from a murderous “Saul” to a forgiving “Paul” after Jesus Christ visited him in a soul-penetrating dream. This hater of Christians and Jews set out to discredit the Bible, but is transformed when Jesus appeared to him and changed his heart.
Mohamed—The life of this Fulani herdsman in Nigeria was greatly altered when Jesus appeared to him in several dreams. Though his father tried to kill him after his conversion, Mohamed survived and eventually led his father to faith in Christ.
Dini—An Indonesian teenager, let down by family, friends, and society, became a Christian the night Jesus appeared to her in a vision. Although her family persecuted her because of her new Christian faith, Dini’s experience with Jesus sustained her through difficult times.
Khosrow—A young Iranian man, depressed and without hope or meaning to his life, met Jesus Christ in a vision and surrendered his life to Christ. Persecution followed in Iran and even in Turkey where he and his family had fled. They eventually fled to safety in Austria.
Ali—This Turkish man, in bondage to alcohol and desperate to overcome his addiction, moved to Saudi Arabia where alcohol is forbidden. However, he still found alcohol there and resumed his drinking. Hoping to be freed of his addiction and be led in the way of a true Muslim, he made a pilgrimage to Mecca. To his surprise, he met Jesus Christ in a dream instead and followed him.
Although we in the Western World don’t tend to take dreams seriously and seldom experience God in dreams or visions, we really ought to, for there are many places in the Bible where God appeared to people in dreams and visions, and the words of both the prophet Joel and the apostle Peter, serve to remind us that:
“In the last days,” says God, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.” (Joel 2:28; Acts 2:17)
God is reaching out to people of all tribes and nations in various ways, but to those who are shut off and forbidden to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God is revealing Jesus Christ to them through dreams and visions.
To those who earnestly seek to know God with all their heart, God promises, “If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.” (Jeremiah 29:13, New Living Translation, 2007, NLT)
And Jesus confirmed this when he promised, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6, New International Version, NIV) (The term righteousness means “having a right relationship with God and with people.”)
Not only are some Muslims seeking God with their whole heart and finding God through Jesus Christ, but millions of people of various nationalities, races, and religions are searching earnestly to experience God intimately and profoundly. Some of them might be your neighbors, family, and friends—and even you.
God might not choose to reveal himself through a dream or vision, for he has already revealed himself through his Word—the Bible—and through his Holy Spirit, and his living body, the Church.
Just know that if you seek God with your whole heart, you will find him. If you hunger and thirst after a right relationship with him and with people, he promises to satisfy your hunger and thirst.
And as Christians remember and celebrate Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection this Easter week, millions of seekers around the world will find their lives gloriously transformed as they encounter the risen Christ and receive his gift of eternal life.
To old and new brothers and sisters in Christ, rejoice and find encouragement in the following assurance:
“All honor to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is by his boundless mercy that God has given us the privilege of being born again. Now we live with a wonderful expectation because Jesus Christ rose again from the dead. For God has reserved a priceless inheritance for his children. It is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. And God, in his mighty power, will protect you until you receive this salvation, because you are trusting him. It will be revealed on the last day for all to see. So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a while.” (I Peter 1: 3-6, NLT)
Grace, love, and peace to you.
****
Oh wow. I know a man in our church who prays for God to reveil Himself to Muslims when they go through the period of seeking God.
Amen! I have heard about these visions, and it always gets me excited! God works in amazing ways!!!
With a call to work with the Islamic faith, it truly touches my heart!
Thanks for sharing this Derrick. I have heard of this phenomenon myself. I find it absolutely amazing that God can and will work like this to get his message of hope and love across to a dying world. So that none will perish! Thank you Jesus for loving humanity so much.
Only our God, the LORD and creator of all there is, can work in such a wondrous way!!! When Christ wants to call someone one of His own He will do whatever is needed. I praise Jesus that there are so many eager new believers who hunger and thirst for the Word. We as fellow Christians need to do what we can to encourage and help guide them along in their faith walk with our Savior. We should pray a prayer of thanksgiving for our new bothers and sisters in Christ. May the LORD be with them.
This is an excellent post, Derrick, and timely. I’ve been aware of this for a long time, but have not researched or documented the phenomenon as you have done. I will watch these films. The Voice of the Martyrs is also an excellent ministry to the persecuted Christians in the Muslim world, as well as all over the world, of course. They know well what is going on there, as so many Muslims are becoming true followers of our Lord Jesus.
Whatever means the Lord may choose, each is always effective. God used this very method upon Joseph, husband of Mary, and Joseph always obeyed. It is relatively rare in the written NT.
Thanks.
[…] Muslims experiencing Jesus Christ through dreams and visions (dgcoy.me) […]
Thanks Derrick, i really appreciates what you have just posted. Praise Jesus for that…!
[…] Christ during the last 25 years than in the entire history of Christian missions among the Muslims. Many of these people came to faith in Jesus Christ after he appeared to them in dreams and visions. The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life reported that in 2010 there were 12.8 million […]
Thank you brother Derrick. Millions of muslims in Africa and around the world are having dreams and visions of our Lord Jesus christ. Lets all pray to the Lord that He will change our muslims brothers and sisters’ life for the glory of Most Holy and rightiest name.. Glory be to our Lord Jesus Christ…..All Glory and powers are HIS. Praise the Lord.
In year 2000 the Lord has given me dream as well of the signs in the sky a future events to come before His Second Coming. I call for Him many times to give me dream again but He has not given me dream am asking Him. Until one day a message came across to me saying “Pray for your brothers and sisters those who are lost and do not know God, for they too deserve HIS gift of salvations. And it is where His heart is in agony during HIS prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane where He cry blood for this lost souls”. The Lord fucos are on the lost and those who do not know HIM that they may have salvations, this is maybe the reason why He has not given me another dream because there are more people who still more deserving to have this visions and dreams that they may believe and be saved by God.
Thank you for your comments, Joe. Yes, God does not want anyone to perish, so he continues to reveal himself and his message of salvation to many people through visions and dreams. Let us pray that they will respond to those dreams by accepting Jesus as their savior.
Thank you so much for sharing these testimonies. I have a Muslim lady who is staying with us and we have been sharing Jesus with her and she is open.
We pray for this seed to be watered as she will be moving. Please pray for her. Her name is Farah.
Thank you, Linda. May the Lord use you in sharing the love of Jesus to her. Grace and peace to you. You are both in my prayers.
Faith never comes through out dreams ,it is normal for us to see Satan in our dreams in a different shapes,so how can we make sure that the jesus who comes in our dreams is not a Satan in a jesus’s shape,in order to deceive us⁉
Hi Ali, thank you for your question.
Sometimes a dream or a vision might be the spark that ignites our faith and inspires us to go on a spiritual journey that builds more faith and wholeness within us. From the many examples of Muslims experiencing Jesus Christ through dreams and visions, the common thing that they all had was an earnest desire to know God intimately. God honored them by revealing himself to them in the person of Jesus, filling them with joy, peace, love, grace, mercy, forgiveness of their sins, and the transformation of their lives. And when they were persecuted for their new-found faith in Christ, he provided them with the grace, love, and faith to endure such suffering.
This would never happen if such dreams and visions were initiated by Satan–for Satan desires only to destroy and lead people astray with fear, hatred, violence, sin, and all manner of evil. Jesus empowers us to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. Satan delights to have us hate God, destroy our neighbors, and despise ourselves. This is how we can know the difference between what is of God and what is of Satan.
I am praying that you will encounter the living Jesus Christ and experience the eternal life that only he can give.