Dreams, Visions Moving Muslims to Christ
JERUSALEM, Israel -- Several years ago, Ali took the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca known as Hajj.
"Of course when I went to Mecca I was going there in order to pay hommage to the Kabba and to fulfill the requirements in Islam," he recalled.
But the trip became more of a spiritual journey than he could ever imagine.
"That night I saw Jesus in a dream. First, Jesus touched my forehead with his finger. And after touching me, He said, 'You belong to me,'" Ali recalled.
"And then He touched me above my heart," he continued. "'You have been saved, follow me. You belong to me,' he said."
Ali's story in Mecca was told and dramatized in a DVD called "More Than Dreams."
"I decided I'm not going to finish the Hajj, the pilgrimage. Whatever it takes, I'm going to follow that voice," he explained.
The film documents and dramatizes Ali's story and several other Muslims who came to faith in Jesus through a dream or vision.
"We're seeing that all around. We're hearing about people that have never even thought about Jesus as savior," Tom Doyle, with e3 Ministries, said. "They're content Muslims and they're having dreams over and over."
Doyle and his wife Joanna take the gospel to the Muslim world. He's also the author of the upcoming book, Dreams and Visions: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World?
"I think our God is a fair God, that He's righteous and just, and people are seeking and they don't know where to go," Doyle said.
"Maybe they don't have a Bible, maybe there's no missionary in the village," he said. "He'll get the message to them somehow."
The phenomenon of dreams and visions has surfaced throughout the Muslim world, from Indonesia to Morocco.
"In the church if you ask how many people came to Christ, 80 percent will say, 'I saw Him in a dream,'" one woman in central Asia told CBN News. Her identity is being protected for security reasons.
A Christian friend challenged her to ask God to speak to her personally.
"So I decided to ask Him," she said. "The next day ... in my dream I saw Jesus ... I decided to come to Him."
Hazem Farraj hosts "Reflections," a satellite program for Muslims. He said he often gets feedback about dreams and visions.
"I had one lady write me ... she said, 'I turned on the television and there you were ... the words that were coming out of your mouth were so peaceful I fell asleep,'" Farraj recalled.
"She said, 'When I fell asleep I ended up having a vision of Jesus and I saw the Lord,'" he continued. "She said, 'As soon as I looked over I knew that Christ was the sacrifice, the son of the God."
Doyle said the dream or vision is usually the start, not the end, of a Muslim's conversion.
"Nobody goes to sleep a Muslim and wakes up a Christian, but it knocks down the false barriers that are inherent in Islam," Doyle explained.
The Doyles said beneath the current revolution in the Middle East, there's a spiritual earthquake.
"As things heat up politically and spiritually within Islam, man, the Holy Spirit is moving even more powerfully," Joanna said.
"This is the time when hearts are open, people are desperate, governments are changing," her husband added. "Everybody's foundation has massive cracks in it and Jesus is the answer that can come in and fill that need."
Many veteran missionaries to the Muslim world say dreams and visions, along with satellite television, are introducing Muslims to Jesus in unprecedented numbers.
They add that more Muslims are coming to Jesus than at any other time in the 1,400-year history of Islam.
The Doyles want believers in the West to join this spiritual revolution.
"Not everybody is going to go the Middle East. But they can pray," Doyle said.
"And no government, no leader can block intercession around the world," he said. "So we need to pray as believers that God would continue to push the gospel out to the ends of the earth."
*Originally published June 29, 2012.
