WHAT GOD IS DOING IN IRAN PART 1

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This post follows my earlier post “What is God Doing in Iran?“. If you have not read it, I suggest you do so before reading this one. There is no doubt that God is converting Iranians supernaturally through dreams and visions and the movement is now widespread. I mentioned the following Scripture in the previous post as this  prophecy about Elam (Iran) in Jeremiah 49:34–39 is fairly unique. It foretells both judgment (the sword, dispersion, destruction of leadership) and restoration “in the latter days.” This is one of the few places where Elam specifically receives that kind of dual prophecy.

“I will terrify Elam (Iran) before their enemies and before those who seek their life. I will bring disaster upon them, my fierce anger, declares the Lord. I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them, and I will set my throne in Elam and destroy their king and officials, declares the Lord. “But in the latter days I will restore the fortunes of Elam, declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 49:37-39

 Jesus is appearing to many Iranians in visions and dreams resulting in many converts to Christianity. Reports have indeed circulated widely, especially from missionaries, Iranian Christian networks, and ministries that serve believers from Muslim backgrounds.

What’s known with reasonable confidence is this:

  • Christianity has grown rapidly in Iran over the past two decades — one of the fastest growth rates in the world, despite official restrictions and persecution.
  • Many Iranian converts—both inside Iran and in the diaspora—personally testify that their first awareness of Jesus came through a dream or vision.
  • These stories are hard to verify scientifically, but they are consistent across numerous independent testimonies, including from former Muslims who later joined underground churches.

From a theological standpoint:

  • Scripture records God sometimes revealing Himself through dreams and visions (e.g., to Daniel, Cornelius, and Paul).
  • Many Christians understand these modern experiences as ways God personally draws people in regions where the Gospel is suppressed and other means of hearing about Christ are restricted.
  • Others are more cautious, viewing such accounts as sincere experiences best tested against Scripture and the message of the Gospel itself.

In simple terms:
Yes — numerous reliable witnesses describe such encounters among Iranians, and the resulting conversions are widely documented. Whether one sees that as “Jesus personally appearing” or as God using visions to awaken faith, the movement toward Christianity in Iran is real, large, and ongoing.

 Growth & Scale of the Underground Church

  • Estimates vary, but most credible sources place the number of Christian converts from Islam in Iran between 300,000 and 3 million. This movement is regarded as one of the fastest-growing in the Middle East. (buzzbeatmedia.com)
  • The U.S. State Department, academic studies, and the World Watch List provide more conservative figures:
  • Between 250,000 and 300,000 ethnic Christians remain in Iran, largely from recognized Armenian and Assyrian communities. (buzzbeatmedia.com)
  • Open Doors estimated about 800,000 Christians in total for 2026. (opendoors.org.au)
  • Iran Alive Ministries, an evangelical network, puts the number of Muslim-background believers around 2 million and suggests the real figure may be even higher. (mbcpathway.com)

2. Nature & Dynamics of the Movement

  • House churches are the core expression of the movement—small, unregistered gatherings that meet in private homes. These meet without legal protection and face relentless surveillance and risk. (buzzbeatmedia.com)
  • Digital evangelism plays a pivotal role. Converts often come to faith through satellite TV programs, encrypted messaging apps, and online Bible studies—tools that offer relative safety and privacy. (terreneglobe.com)

3. Dreams & Visions: A Common Testimony

  • Numerous testimonies report Iranians encountering Jesus through dreams or visions—often described as deeply personal and transformative experiences. (aquinas.ac)
  • A survey referenced on social media notes that 25–27% of Muslim-to-Christian converts in the Middle East cite dreams or visions, with the figure rising to 40% in Iran. (x.com)

4. Persecution & Government Response

  • The Iranian regime views the movement as a serious threat, frequently prosecuting converts and targeting underground leaders. Arrests of Christians have increased dramatically—up sixfold between 2024 and 2025 in Tehran alone. (religionnews.com)
  • Despite the dangers, the underground church remains resilient, continuing to expand through digital discipleship tools, mentorship, and discreet gatherings. (transformiran.com)

Summary Table

TopicInsight
Scale of MovementEstimates range between 500,000 to 3 million believers, including converts
Form of ChurchPredominantly underground house churches and online platforms
Dreams & VisionsUp to 40% of Iranian converts cite visions of Jesus as catalyst
Government PersecutionLegal repression and arrests are increasing, yet the church persists

In short: While precise numbers are hard to verify, the evidence points to a significant movement of Persians discovering faith despite persecution. The prevalence of dreams and visions in these conversions echoes patterns seen throughout Scripture—miraculous, personal encounters that awaken faith where traditional evangelism struggles to penetrate. Hallelujah!

GOD IS REACHING MUSLIMS BY DREAMS

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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.

SUPERNATURAL CONVERSION OF MUSLIMS

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How often, do we mistakenly believe the church in the west has to send missionaries to the unreached people groups of the world, otherwise they will never hear the gospel and get saved.

Those of you who have read Heavenly Man by Brother Yun, realise that after Mao came to power in China, Christian Missionaries from the west were deported or killed. The Chinese church went underground, now with its total dependence on God. Has God built His church through forty years of persecution under Mao? Yes! emphatically Yes! He has, and much like the early church, they experience all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, including the miraculous.

Well the same is true in the middle east, Muslims are coming to Jesus without coming into contact with missionaries from the west. God is not waiting on Western workers to reach the peoples of the world!

God always takes the initiative. He is always seeking ways to reveal Himself in the darkest corners of the earth.

live-as-christian-die-as-christian

Nik Ripken in his book, The Insanity of Obedience – Walking with Jesus in tough places, reveals that more than 90% of Muslim background believers had come to faith without the help of an outsider or a believer from another culture.

Hence if Muslims are coming to Jesus (and they are), and if these conversions are not currently aided by Western workers (and they are not) then exactly how are these conversions happening? This question is of course crucial.

It was discovered that for Muslim Background Believers (MBB’s), there are three major components in their journey to faith in Jesus.

DREAMS & VISIONS

First most experienced dreams and visions which set them on a spiritual pilgrimage. In talking to hundreds of MBB’s, they heard repeatedly of a period of time lasting three to five years when dreams and visions were present and life-shaping in their pilgrimage to Jesus. It was very common for them to hear a voice without a body speaking to them and they knew it was Jesus or on occasions thought it was the angel Gabriel (Gabriel is significant, because it is believed that he gave the Qur’an to Mohammed). It was common to see a bright white light. A strong desire to get and read a Bible was common (Qur’an refers to Jesus as the “Word of God”).

It is interesting, to many Muslims, dreams and visions are not considered to be miraculous events; they are in fact quite common. What is miraculous, is how God breaks into those dreams and visions and overtime leads the seeker to begin a spiritual pilgrimage. The dreams and visions are not salvific. The dreams allow God to get the recipients attention and eventually lead them to Jesus.

Strangely, when these dreams and visions begin, a Muslim will typically turn to the mosque for answers and explanations. This is of course, the natural place a Muslim would seek answers. Typically, a first question to a spiritual leader in the mosque was “What do these dreams mean? Interestingly, spiritual leaders in the mosque invariably affirmed that the dreams and visions are from God, and they will often tell the seeker that the instructions in the dreams need to be followed. Strangely also, is that when God begins to break into their consciousness through these means, Muslims begin to visit and pray in the mosque like never before. The males may grow a long beard, change the way they dress, become a conservative practitioner of I slam.

The next steps are radical and usually involve the seeker asking questions of their Muslim spiritual leader that he cannot answer to their satisfaction. Questions such as, “How can I know God loves me?” and “How can I be sure I go to paradise when I die?” The answer from the Muslim leader to both questions will be, “Well, you can’t know that.” Often the seeker will be harshly commanded to stop asking such questions and to simply submit to Islam and obey the Qur’an. At some point, unanswerable questions like these will lead to frustration. And often, within three to six months, the seeker will leave the mosque and look for answers elsewhere. In most cases the seeker will never return to the mosque.

ENCOUNTERS WITH THE BIBLE

Always as part of the MBB’s spiritual quest, there were dramatic encounters with the Bible. Often these encounters were miraculous. Bibles are simply not available. In some cases, Muslims simply began to dream about the Bible (God’s Word), but still have no idea where to find one. In Central Asia, one seeker, who had been attempting to find a Bible for months, went to an all male market and there, a stranger simply appeared in the busy marketplace and handed him a Bible. The stranger simply said, ” the Holy Spirit told me to give this to you”. He then disappeared into the crowd. In another case, a seeker having been told in a dream to get a Bible, wandered through a bookstore filled with green Qur’ans. There at the back of the shop was a single blue covered book which he was drawn to, it turned out to be a Bible, which of course he purchased. Another female Muslim seeker shared her dream about a Bible with her family and discovered that her father was also a seeker who shared his bible with her. Nik and his team heard many stories like these and because of the miraculous way these seekers obtained their Bibles they treated them as prize possessions and read the voraciously. Most had read their Bibles through multiple times even up to twenty one times before coming to faith in Christ. What this meant is that most MBB’s have a profound knowledge of Scripture before making their faith decision. Nik concluded that “Where there is no Bible, there is no salvation” .

The centrality of Scripture to this salvation process is so important. The dreams and visions even required that kind of encounter with the Bible. And that kind of encounter is indispensable to the conversion process. This of course poses a big problem for the seeker who cannot read and there are many Muslim women who are illiterate. Fortunately, there are Christian radio stations able to get there signal into Muslim countries and report some success but no doubt God is also using MMB’s to witness to them.

ENCOUNTERS WITH IN-CULTURE OR NEAR CULTURE BELIEVERS

After dreams and visions, miraculous encounters with the Bible then third, there are encounters with in-culture and near-culture believers. These encounters often take the form of “divine appointments” where someone simply appears on the scene to provide guidance, counsel and instruction.

In Scripture, these kinds of encounters happen frequently. Philip’s meeting with the Ethiopian eunuch, Ananias role with Saul to become Paul and many others. How did the Ethiopian eunuch have the Isaiah scroll? Likewise, how do Muslim seekers get a Bible, but miraculously.

Nik also discovered that Western missionaries can be a negative, as they can fear persecution and avoid it at all costs. Also, dreams and visions are not the norm for most missionaries so would they be able to discern what God is doing. Moreover providing a Bible is no problem which would deprive the MMB of God’s miraculous provision. If an outsider provides everything for the seeker what is left for the Holy Spirit to provide?

It is obvious that God is perfectly able to draw people to Himself and our task is not to co-opt this process but to prayerfully discern what He is doing and join Him as insrructed. Much like Philip with the Ethiopian eunuch, God brings him into the story miraculously at exactly the right time and takes him out again just as suddenly and miraculously.

This is obviously not the only way God works but clearly we see that He needs to be directing the work. Our role is supportive, in league with Him. One role in particular, that Nik saw God use MMB’s to initiate, was to start churches particularly of the Book of Acts variety.

Bring on the persecution Lord, if it means we get to experience YOU more, to know You love us, and are providing what we really need to build our relationship with You. Give us a hunger for Your Word like these MMB’s we have read about.

It is great to know, You are constantly reaching out to the lost. Help us Lord to get in step with You.