Testimonies of Muslims Receiving Dreams and Visions from God
The Importance of Our Outreaches
The past 6 years that I have been serving with ICI, we have faithfully gone on the streets in the Middle East to treasure hunt the lost. The majority of these trips have taken place the last 2 weeks of the month of March, during the Persian New Year (Newruz). During these 2 weeks, over 300,000 Iranian tourists travel to Istanbul to celebrate this holiday away from the Islamic oppression inside Iran. Newruz is the biggest Persian holiday that predates Islam so it is a non-Islamic celebration. One of the biggest customs during Newruz is the exchange of gifts. God gave me a word years ago, what better gift to give Persians during Newruz than the eternal redemption through the Gospel of His son.
Over the past 6 years, we have gone 16 separate weeks for street evangelism and Bible distribution, and we have directly handed out 32,000 New Testaments. If we count all the tracts, electronic Bibles, and other materials we have surpassed 120,000 GIFTS we have put in the hands of Muslims.
Even during the pandemic, we did not take our mission lightly. In March of 2021, in the midst of all sorts of travel restrictions and world-wide shutdowns, we went. God opened the borders of countries for us to be able to share the Gospel. Before we depart for these types of outreaches, we fast and pray that God would give dreams to the people and bring them across our paths. He has never failed anyone, nor has He failed us. God is always faithful. The following stories are some of the answered prayers.
The Bread of Life
One day on a cold morning on the streets of Istanbul, we approached an Iranian woman to gift her a Bible hoping to share the good news of the Gospel with her. When we said hi to her, happy Newruz, we have a gift for you, she looked at us in amazement to see what we were talking about. We said “Here you are, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.” As we handed her the New Testament, she was very surprised. She said, “As a matter of fact I was with a Christian friend yesterday.” Explaining this she burst into tears. She continued, “There in her home was a loaf of bread. I wanted to eat from it. But, my friend said, ‘Sorry, you can’t. My priest has prayed over this bread.’ What she said broke my heart, and I thought to myself, ‘Why can’t I eat from it. Why am I so undeserving.’ Last night with a broken heart, I went to sleep. Jesus Christ appeared to me. He brought me a whole loaf of bread. It was complete. He said, ‘My daughter, eat of this. You can have all of it.’ And now you strangers, meet me here not knowing any of this and giving me a Bible.” We said to her, “We might not know you, but the God who appeared to you does. He has sent us here to tell you about the REAL bread.” One of our pastors said to her while opening the very Bible she was receiving, “Do you know what Jesus has said about himself? I am the bread of life.” He showed her the verse in John 6:35. The pastor asked her, “Do you want to eat of the bread of life? Do you want to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?” With tears in her eyes she said, “Yes. I do.” We led her to the Lord and connected her to our online church.
The Warning Dream
We were standing with backpacks full of Bibles in the courtyard of a large Catholic cathedral on the busiest street in Istanbul. This specific spot is a tourist attraction. Many Muslims come to it to see some beautiful and historical paintings, to light a candle, and to offer up some prayers for their unanswered situations. This place has become a strategic place for our team to evangelize to Iranians. When we see them come inside the courtyard and go up to the church, we give them a gift. My favorite thing to say to them is, “Since you are visiting a Church, don’t you want to know what it is all about. Here are the sayings and the doings of Jesus Christ. Receive it. It is free. It has changed my life and if you read it, it will change your life, I promise.” Only God knows how many thousands of Scriptures we have distributed in this very spot, and how many people we have led to the Lord right there.
On this particular evening, we were really busy. There were so many tourists and visitors. Bibles and tracts were flying out of our bags. Our group was talking to four different people simultaneously. A family of three (a father, a mother and their son) were in a hurry to get inside the Church, and they were stopped by us to receive a New Testament.The mother was very interested to hear what we had to say. She said, “We just arrived in the city, and the first thing I wanted to do was to go to a Church. We asked around and some people gave us the address for here.” We asked her, “Why did you want to go to a Church?” She answered, “Since I was a child, I have been having dreams. The most recent one was scary.” We asked her to explain it to us. She continued, “In my dream, I saw the world was burning. There were balls of fire coming from the sky and hitting the earth. Everything in front of me was in ruins. I turned around to run. Right behind me was a Church and a mosque. The mosque also was burning and in ruins, but the Church was standing. I took my family and pulled them to get into the Church for shelter. As I looked inside the Church, in the corner was a stairway down. There was a woman at the edge of the stairway showing us the path. She told me to get in, it is safe there. When I got close, I took a look inside this stairway. There was a beautiful garden. Many lush trees and flowers. I saw many people there who were healthy and happy. There was safety. I pulled my family inside that place. And right away I woke up.” One of our workers asked her, “Did you feel the urgency in your dream to rescue your family?” She replied, “Yes. I sure did.” Our worker said, “We feel the same about you. That’s why we are out here telling people about Jesus. He is our only safety.” She continued, “The world as we know will one day burn, and Jesus is our doorway to salvation. Would you open your heart to Him now and accept that?” She agreed with gladness and all the family came to faith all at once. They hugged us in tears and thanked us for showing them the way.
The Red Book
One evening, we got ready to go on the streets to evangelize. We filled our backpacks with the Bibles, stepped on the road, and gathered to pray. In a circle, hands on each other’s shoulders we prayed, “God show us who you are pursuing and grant us divine connections.” Then, we headed on the streets.
The group decided to go down to a tower which is a landmark of Istanbul. These types of places have been a gathering place for Iranian tourists and, for us, a fishing place for men! After a few minutes of walking, one of our team members by the name of Hamideh said, “We need to turn around.” We said, “But we have a plan.” She said, “The Holy Spirit is telling me to go back.” We all turned around.
After a few short minutes, Hamideh noticed a stranger on a bench on the side of the road and went to sit down next to her. The stranger seemed distressed. Her eyes were puffy and red. Hamideh held her hand and started the conversation just like this, “The voice of the Lord has brought me here to you. What do you want from Him?” The stranger stared into Hamideh’s eyes and said, “Is this even possible! The Lord has told you? How did you even know if I was Iranian?” Hamideh replied, “God is all knowing. I might not know but God does. God sees hearts.” She started crying uncontrollably as soon as she heard the name of Jesus Christ. In her crying she said, “Right here, I was talking and complaining to God. The past three days I have been coming here to go to this Church and every time the doors have been closed. Why am I not welcomed? Why, God, are you not seeing me?” She continued, “At the same time I was doing this, you came and sat by me and are saying these things.” Hamideh started to share the Gospel with her, by telling her how she was valued by God so much so that God gave up His son’s life for hers. The lady’s hands were shaking. She added, “Last night, I saw in a dream some messengers were sent to me to bring me a red book. The messengers told me in my dream that this book will give you peace. This book can save your life.” Hamideh pulled one of our “red books” out of her purse and gave it to her. The crying intensified, and the lady said, “This is the book. I swear to God. This is the book I saw in my dreams.” She kissed the Bible, and put it on her chest and hugged it. As she was holding Hamideh’s hand, she asked us to pray for her. Hamideh led her to the Lord, and she gladly received her Savior.
God Visiting Muslims in Dreams and Visions
I am writing these for you to know that God is visiting with Muslims. God appeared to Saul, but it was Ananias (the Church) who was sent to him that he might receive sight, be filled with the Holy Spirit, and baptized (Acts 9: 1-19). But if we don’t go, how will they ever hear the interpretation of their dreams and have a chance to hear the Gospel presentation? (Romans 10: 14-15)
Over the next 2 months, I am traveling to Europe to oversee the distribution of 200,000 Gospels of John in Farsi, which has been printed for a massive outreach throughout Europe. Right after that, we will be doing our annual Newruz Evangelism outreach in the Middle East.
We covet your prayers in these ongoing endeavors, and your financial partnership is a key in helping to put more of these “red books” in Muslims hands.
In Christ’s Service,
Mohamad Faridi and Susan Faridi