Report by Jack Wellman in Christian Crier (www.patheos.com): God is reaching Muslims by dreams.

In the last couple of years, dozens and dozens of men and women have reached out to us to ask what their dreams might mean. Recently, many of these have been Muslims who dreamt about Jesus, and now they want to know more about Him. In most Muslim countries you can lose your life for having a Bible or witnessing for Christ, so God is sending His Spirit and implants dreams in some to draw them to Himself.

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” John 6:44

It should be noted that some of this was fulfilled in the New Testament church where several people had visions that were sent by God, so it’s nothing new if someone who is not a believer has a dream about Jesus, and then comes to faith by means of it. And, from my experience, it is happening with increasing frequency. They have a dream or several dreams…some have had visions; then they contact someone to find out more about Jesus; and finally, they hear from Scripture about Christ. As we see in the New Testament church, it takes the Spirit of God, with the Word of God, given by a person of God, to birth a child of God.

Dreams and Visions

Over the last 2 years, we’ve received dozens and dozens of reports and received messages where Muslims have had dreams or visions of Jesus. Here are a couple of actual messages received this year, but I have changed their names to protect their identity for obvious reasons. One message came from Abdullah who lives in Iran, which is one of the most closed nations in the world, and perhaps one of the most hostile toward Christianity. Abdullah wrote:

“Greetings, I’m a Qurani Muslim, in Iran. I respect Christianity, I read the Old Testament for many years…however, I had a dream last night and it’s really strange, I dreamt of me in the desert alone and I was starving. A long walk alone and I found someone with plenty of food and drinks but I couldn’t reach him because he was surrounded by many people. But they let me pass and called me “lucky” I didn’t understand but they were pointing at my chest, when I take a look at what they were pointing at, I found a very huge cross tattoo in my chest. And I felt so happy and warm inside, and I had this feeling like I wasn’t Muslim in that dream So my question is, “can someone in Christianity feel like that in his sleep? And what does it mean?”

I am no interpreter of dreams. That is a God-given ability because “interpretations belong to God” (Genesis 40:8, 41:16; Daniel 2:28), but this man’s dream sounded like Jesus was calling Abdullah to Himself, with the cross on his chest, and a special feeling inside. Possibly the food and drinks were sources about the Bread of Life and the Living Water that made him into a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17), and why he didn’t feel like a Muslim in the dream. The tattooed cross on his chest…and over his heart, may represent that new birth (John 3:3-7), or God’s given him a new heart…not a heart of stone, but of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19, 36:26; Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 8:10). Again, I am no interpreter of dreams and don’t have that God-given gift, but some of the things in this dream seem to point to Jesus Christ.

Jesus is Calling

One of the most fascinating experiences in dealing with people who contact us is former atheists and Muslims who hated everything there is about Christianity, so how could God reach such people? It is apparent that sometimes it is by dreams. The Apostle Paul went from being the destroyer of the church to a missionary, planting churches, so God can change any human heart He desires (Proverbs 21:1). Even the most unlikely (in our eyes), God may use dreams when no human witness is available or bold enough to witness for Christ, and so we received a message from Muhammad (not his real name). He wrote: 

“My name is Muhammad. I live in Qatar. I wanted to know why I was having a dream about Jesus. He stood in a boat and waved to me to come to Him. I looked for dreams and visions on the Internet and found one. Then, I asked a man on a website (WCWTK) what this dream of Jesus means. He told me it could be from God and that he is calling me to Jesus. I wanted to believe but had fear, but after knowing why Jesus came, I wanted Him and He is my Savior now. He loves me so I do not practice Islam anymore. Now, I want Jesus alone. I know this dream was from Him, so thank you to your website, I know Jesus more and why He called me…and why the cross.” 

This man put his trust in Christ after contacting us several times, but even though we may have helped him discover Who Jesus is, it was God Who saved this man. Just like Saul who tried to destroy and kill Christians, he became a believer and was willing to risk his life for the church.

Conclusion

God is still using dreams and visions to reach those who cannot otherwise be reached. I’ve only included two examples of these dreams today, but these are very much like the rest of them. In fact, there are some things that show up in almost every one of these dreams…Jesus of course and a desire to know more about Him, the cross, and a feeling of peace, warmth, and love. God will move heaven and earth to ensure that anyone who is seeking Him, can find Him. Jesus is calling people from every tongue, tribe, nation, and people…and calling them to Himself to be a people who were not once a people, but now are the children of God (1 Pet 2:10). Like Abdullah respected Christianity, we need to respect other people’s religions and respect the people themselves. These are among those whom God is calling…a veritable multi-colored patchwork quilt. If God is calling someone to Christ, then nothing can stop this call…not hostile nations or people, not time or distances, and in some cases, not even a lack of a witness. God is God and He can do as He pleases, and nothing is too hard for the God-of-the-impossible.