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Author’s Introduction
“For God speaks once, yea twice, yet
man perceives it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the
bed; Then he opens the ears of men and seals their
instruction.” Job 33: 14-16
The Risen Lord Jesus is visiting
the Muslims through dreams and visions in fulfillment of
Joel Chapter 2, which proclaims that in the Last Days the
Holy Spirit will be poured out on all peoples, and young and
old alike will experience dreams and visions.
At the same
time, on a number of occasions over the past 20 years, the
Lord has been directing me to nations through the divine
agencies of dreams and visions to preach Revivals among the
Muslims, specifically in the Holy Land, on the Arabian
Peninsula, in Egypt, in the Philippines, and more recently
in Iraq and Pakistan.
Since the first edition of “The Jesus
Visions,” the phenomena of dreams and visions outpoured in
the Middle East have increased—I would almost dare to
say--exponentially.
We can hardly keep pace with reports of
dreams and visions of our Lord Jesus! An article published
in “Mission Frontiers” magazine reported the following,
based on questionnaires completed by over 600 Muslims who
had placed their faith in Jesus:
“Though dreams may play an
insignificant role in the conversion decisions of most
Westerners, over one-fourth of those surveyed stated quite
emphatically that dreams and visions were key in drawing
them to Christ and sustained them through difficult times.”
According to the dictionary, a dream is
defined as “a sequence of images, passing through a sleeping
person’s mind,” whereas a vision is simply a “mental image.”
A typical “Jesus dream or vision” with innumerable
variations is usually described by Muslims as a peaceful
face that they somehow recognize as Jesus. Often they
encounter a compassionate figure in a white robe, calling
them to come to Him. Sometimes His hands and arms are
extended wide, or Jesus reaches toward them in love and
invitation. Many dreams are preparatory experiences to
encourage Muslims with the possibility of following Jesus.
Other visions or dreams are “epic” experiences of such
magnitude that the person knows unquestioningly that he or
she is destined to walk the lonely path of faith, even
martyrdom, with Jesus.
Some, but not all, of the names of
the persons in this volume have been changed to protect
their identities.
Why is the Lord favoring Muslims with an
extraordinary move of the Holy Spirit, often preceding
traditional methods of Gospel activity, and aiming straight
at their hearts through dreams and visions?
Although Muslim
lands have been closed to traditional Gospel preaching, it
is time for the Lord to fulfill his promise to the patriarch
Abraham to bless the descendants of Ishmael. While it is
also the set time for the Lord to favor the descendants of
Isaac and Jacob with the restoration of their homeland, he
is concurrently remembering his faithful promise to the
other side of Abraham’s family, the Arabs.
It is difficult
to keep pace with the move of the Holy Spirit in Iraq,
despite news reports that paint a bleak picture. Behind the
scenes, the Lord is moving into the vacuum since Saddam’s
topple with dramatic power conversions and the planting of
many new churches. Iraqis are experiencing dreams and
visions of Jesus!
As it is written,
“I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of
them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto
a nation that was not called by my name.” (Isaiah 65: 1)
Truly the Lord Jesus is pleading with the Arabs in the night
watches, “Behold me! Behold me!”
Recently in Jerusalem a
young man stopped me in the market to thank me for preaching
the Gospel in our open air banquets at “The Fountain.” He
said, “I can trust you. I want to show you something.” He
took a team member and me to a shelf where he was carefully
hiding a Bible, which he stroked lovingly and kissed before
hiding again. With joy shining from his face, he told us
that Jesus now lives in his heart. He had read the entire
Bible, including the New Testament, and could not put it
down because of the power of its words. But he was tormented
by fears of what would happen if he openly declared faith in Yesua al Fadi (Jesus the Savior). One night after praying
fervently for three hours, he said the Holy Spirit had given
him a dream. He saw a beautiful olive tree, solitary,
thriving in the middle of a vast desert. The olive tree
pulsated with a heart full of the brightest light he’d ever
seen. Upon awakening, the man said, “I am so proud of my
dream that God gave me, because it confirmed to my heart
that my experience with Jesus is true.
” I said, “Can I offer
an interpretation of your dream?”
“Yes, please I am waiting
to hear!” the young Arab man beamed.
“I believe the olive tree, a great symbol in the Bible, represents
yourself in this instance. You are alone in the desert,
meaning that you are a pioneer among many isolated believers
who are standing alone for Jesus in Islam. But your roots go
down deep to receive sustenance from the hidden resources of
the Water of life, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Word. The
heart you saw on this tree is your own heart, which is
filled with the blazing light and glory of Jesus, THE Light
of the World!” I added, “Many others will take refuge under
your branches as you trust and grow in the Lord. You have
not chosen Him, but he has chosen you that you should bear
much fruit for His glory!”
The young man was greatly
encouraged. Tears filled his eyes. Part of every believer’s
ministry in these days of Holy Spirit outpouring should be
to interpret the dreams of Muslims and seekers. Many
religious persons are indeed zealous for God, but they often
need a believer with understanding to explain the Way more
adequately. When dreams are granted to divinely chosen
persons, the revelations usually begin when their knowledge
of God is sketchy. It was so with Abraham, Jacob and Joseph
in the Book of Genesis and with Solomon in 1 Kings 3: 5.
Thus many seekers are given major clues about the Lord in
their dreams.
More mature believers must be willing and able
to teach them with compassion and understanding. A good
example of the teaching ministry in the New Testament was a
husband-and-wife team, Acquila and Priscilla, who expounded
the Gospel to a zealous man more accurately:
“Apollos was
instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the
spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the
Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to
speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and
Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded
unto him the way of God more perfectly.” (Acts 18: 24-26)
A
dear friend of our ministry, a former Muslim from Rajasthan
in India, envisioned a Cross moving toward him and growing
brighter and brighter in a dream. But he came to personal
faith in Jesus because a street evangelist also witnessed to
him.
We all need an evangelist in our lives. Although one of
my earliest childhood memories was a vision of the Lord
Jesus, who gloriously healed me, I did not repent of my sins
and receive Jesus as Savior until my Father explained the
Gospel to me several years later. Under great conviction, I
pushed forward in one of Daddy’s
Sunday services to make a public profession of Jesus as Lord
and Savior when I was five years old.
A Muslim man from
Pakistan wrote to me saying, “On 30 May, I again saw Jesus
in my dreams. In the beginning, I was not able to come near
to him, but this time I could touch him. He gave me a box
that I could not open after he vanished. Please send me some
information on what this dream means.”
Even though the
Pakistani man was in contact with Jesus through dreams, he
still needed an evangelist. I wrote to him explaining that
the box in his dream represented the treasure trove of
Christ—“in Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge.” (Colossians 2:3) Without revelation of the Holy
Spirit, the Pakistani could not open the box. We sent him a
Bible and Gospel literature including the first edition of
“The Jesus Visions,” whereupon he answered with a second
letter:
“I dreamed that a man was standing at a distance
with a book in his hand calling to me with open arms. But I
was afraid to go near to him. This dream has happened to me
twice this year. I inquired with a dream reader about this
dream, but he did not answer me. But, when I studied your
book, ‘The Jesus Visions,’ I thought to myself, ‘He must be
Jesus Christ!’”
Reportedly there have also been a number of
dramatic signs in the skies over Muslim nations. From the
West African nation of Mali, the following news report was
sent to my husband, European and West African Director for
The 700 Club television program.
“Face in the ‘Meteor”
“Life
in Mali begins to stir before daybreak. By sunrise, the
motorbikes, carts and cars are crowding the two narrow
bridges to cross the muddy Niger River from one side of the
capital city, Bamako, to the other. One recent morning,
those who were awake at 5 a.m. stared at
the still-dark sky and the last remaining stars. Vast
sections of Bamako have no electricity in the suburbs and
the population is accustomed to finding its way in the
gloomy, dusty nights of living on the edge of the great
Sahara Desert. But on this occasion, there was an unusual
light in the heavens.
“As the sky grew lighter, suddenly
over the horizon, people could see a large white light
moving south to north. It was surely not a comet or meteor,
because it seemed too large, too close and it was moving at
a speed that was easy to follow. Was this some kind of UFO
apparition, or an aircraft with searchlight? Nobody could
remember seeing anything like it in his or her lifetime. By
daybreak, the light in the sky was the talking point of
every conversation in the marketplace, the offices and
schools.
“A Malian evangelist began to hear from neighbors
who had seen the light that it held another puzzle. More
than one eyewitness confirmed that in the light they had
clearly discerned the features of a human face. But whose
face?
“One eyewitness had just watched the Campus Crusade
film, ‘Jesus’. For him, the face had the same features - the
kind, compassionate expression; the beard; and the
countenance of the person in the film. It was, without a
doubt, he said, the face of Jesus in that mysterious,
inexplicable light streaking across the Muslim nation of
Mali.”
Mali contains Timbuktu, the legendary “ends of the
earth” city. We must wake up and realize that the Gospel is
being preached in the uttermost part of the earth, and so
soon the Lord Jesus will return to Jerusalem!
When I share
the Gospel, I usually start by asking Muslims if they have
ever experienced a dream about Jesus. It is almost
inevitable that they have seen Jesus—amazingly—and so this
makes proclaiming the Gospel that much easier.
You can argue
doctrine all day with Muslims about the Virgin Birth and the
Resurrection and make little progress. But when Jesus
reveals Himself directly to the souls
of people, they are easy to convince that He is alive -- and
that He is not just a prophet, but Lord!
I am the evangelist
of the Empty Tomb! I have looked inside the tomb of Jesus of
Nazareth, and I have Good News-- it is empty! Religion
boasts many prophets, but they are all entombed in their
graves. Only the tomb of Jesus is empty, because He is alive
and very active in the Muslim world especially.
So Jesus is
calling many Muslims to Himself in dreams and visions
exactly as the prophet Joel predicted would happen in the
Last Days. He beckons, “Behold Me,” in the night watches.
Some are afraid. Some try to ignore Him. But He pursues them
relentlessly and mercifully in their dreams and also in open
visions.
In remarkable ways and on a seemingly unprecedented
scale in fulfillment of Bible prophecy, the Lord is showing
Himself alive! (Acts 1: 3)
Christine Darg
Jerusalem
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