God can use many ways to reach the lost, including dreams and visions. Here are a few real examples.
The Last Days
[1]God can use many ways to reach the lost, including dreams and visions. Here are a few real examples in part one of this series of articles on how God’s reaching people through dreams or visions. We’ve been living in the last days for the last 2,000 years, but it does say that in the last days some would have visions or dreams. Joel the Prophet wrote of the latter days when “it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions” (Joel 2:28). Of course, some of these occurred in the Book of Acts like with the Apostle Peter’s vision (Acts 10:9-16). Peter spoke about this happening in referring to Joel even before it happened to him (Acts 2:17). There were also the Apostle Paul’s visions (2 Cor 12:1-10; also see Acts 9, 17:23-24, 23:11; Gal 2:2).
It appears that God is still using dreams and visions to bring people to faith in Christ, but this is not the normative way to reach lost people but God can and apparently has used dreams and visions to whet a person’s interest in Christ and afterwards, they have a hunger to know more about Him. God may have to reach people with dreams or visions because in some places, you can die for sharing the gospel and in heavily populated Muslim areas, there are few Bibles and fewer witnesses still.
Contact Us
We receive hundreds and hundreds of emails through our “Contact Us” links every year, and in this special article, we want to share with you the many amazing experiences of those who contact us about dreams or a vision they thought they had. We will attempt to show how they came to know Jesus Christ and be saved after they had a vision or dream. We tried to find out why their dream or vision made them seek Jesus for the first time. We must be clear that no one can be saved by just having a vision or dream of Jesus or about God. They must hear the Word of God or read the Word of God and only then can the Spirit of God convert them into a child of God. Faith comes be hearing…hearing of the Word of God (Rom 10:17), and not by visions or dreams, so dreams are not enough to save anyone. God has used dreams in some cases to point people to Christ and to whet their appetite to know more about Him, but it’s rare in our experience at What Christians Want to Know (Telling Ministries [2]) to receive that many messages where someone has either had a dream or a vision about Jesus. In the last ten years, we’ve received more and more messages from people who knew it was Jesus; either in a vision or a dream, and we’re going to share some of these stories with you. The names of the people and their locations have been changed, although the actual nations may be the same.
It’s Jesus!
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I’m amazed that so many people from around the world had dreams or visions of Jesus and even more puzzling, how did they all know with 100% certainty that it was Jesus?! How did they know for sure without ever seeing Jesus or even knowing much about Him? How are they still so sure it’s the Lord!? They often describe it as seeing Him and around the Lord there is usually a very bright or white light, like a glowing luminescence that seemed to make them feel loved. For many Muslims, it’s their first real idea of Who Jesus is and what it means to feel loved for the first time. The Islamic faith would rather see their enemies dead than to pray for them (like believers are told to do), so Christian love is a radically different idea to them.
After people who have had dreams or visions contact us, they want us to interpret them, which is not something we can really do. Interpretations belong to God alone (Gen 40:8; Dan 2:28), but what these experiences did was to have them start to ask a lot of questions about Who Jesus is and how they can find out more about Him. Sometimes they want to know where they can get a Bible. The most often repeated experience with these predominantly Muslim men was a feeling of warmth, love, acceptance and a deep sense of peace. They might have known about Jesus as a prophet, but not as God or as the Savior. That’s a gigantic leap for Muslims to take, but God may still be using visions and dreams to draw lost souls to Jesus.
Dreams and Visions
There was a man who was often angry at those who would not submit to the Islamic faith, particularly Christians. He debated with them over and over again and saw them as the lowest class in society in Pakistan, mainly because they often were. He was one of their greatest persecutors, but similar to Saul, but God was going to change this man forever. Christians are often outcasts in areas where the Islamic faith is strongly entrenched. Frequently, believer’s lose their jobs due to their faith, lose their homes, their income, and sometimes, even their family disowns them…all for putting their trust in the Savior.
[4]Saint Paul Writing His Epistles by Valentin de Boulogne (public domain).
Humanly speaking, it seems impossible for someone so deeply entrenched in the Islamic faith can still be brought to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, but then I remember Saul who was converted and became Paul and in a case where God used a vision, but visions are not enough to save anyone. Faith comes from hearing the Word of God and believing in the Word of God…but sometimes it may be necessary for God to send a dream or vision to make them seek out more about the Word of God or to find out more about Jesus. It’s happened many times in the past, so I believe God could still be using visions and dreams today. He is God. He does as He pleases. I will never limit what God chooses to do, even if it’s by using extraordinary means.
The Hearing of the Word
Nothing happens that has no purpose, even a dream or a vision, but to be clear, we must be brought to repentance and faith in Christ and it is a gift of God (Eph 2:8-9). Salvation does not come by dreams or visions. We know from Scripture how they (and we) truly saved. It takes the Word of God and the Spirit of God to birth a child of God, but faith comes by hearing. Will you be that person by whom they will hear? We can’t depend on our friends, neighbors, or co-workers to have a dream or vision. We must go to them and proclaim Christ.
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Conclusion
In the next article, God’s Amazing Conversions Through Dreams and Visions – Part Two, we’ll read about the experiences of the many who had a dream or vision of Jesus or thought it was Jesus and how that dream or vision led them to faith in Christ. The Apostle Paul asks us all, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news” (Rom 10:14-15). Will you go for God? Hear God’s passionate voice in His desire to rescue the perishing (Ezk 33:11; 2 Pet 3:9) with this question: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us” (Isaiah 6:8a)? Will you answer as Isaiah the Prophet answered in saying, “Here I am! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8b).
Here is some related reading for you: What Do Dreams and Visions Mean today? [6]
Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), Crossway Bibles. (2007). ESV: Study Bible: English standard version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.