Iranians encounter Jesus most extraordinarily. While most learn about Jesus through witnessing His grace and salvation, Iranians receive salvation through their dreams. Apparently, Jesus meets them and reveals Himself to them in their sleep.
Iranians Encounter Jesus
Transform Iran, an organization primarily reaching out to Iran with the Gospel’s transformative power, testifies how God has worked in the country. Its founder, Lazarus Yeghnazar, told FaithWire how Iranians become Christians because of their supernatural dreams.
“The beauty of Iranian Christians..the Iranian Muslims who come to Christ don’t absorb the truth to themselves. They cannot stop talking about it,” he said.
Lazarus recalled one believer named Ali, who was persecuted because of his faith. Ali shared, “I’m sorry, nobody witnessed to me. I saw a vision of a man with a white robe, with a cross on his shoulder or on his heart, and he says, ‘I’m Jesus.'”
Then, he was told not to tell anyone about his vision and dreams, but Ali could not keep silent. He could not keep to himself what Jesus had done to him because Ali was a heroin addict. He did everything to stop his addiction. But only Jesus did that. Jesus told Ali, “Ali, you’re a changed person.”
Since then, Ali’s life has been transformed.
Witnessing In Dreams
Lazarus differentiated the conversion of faith in the West and the Middle East, specifically in Iran. The West knows Jesus because of evangelism, but the Middle East sees dreams.
“In the Middle East, people see visions,” Lazarus explained. “In the Western understanding, we want everything to be tangible, verifiable, accountable.”
He added, “Any gathering of Iranians or Afghan Christians, if you say, ‘How many have seen dreams that have been touched, if not radically, transformed because of a vision?’ [and] 90% will raise their hands. If you ask a church in Wisconsin, or in Maryland, or Boston, ‘How many people have come to Christ through a dream?’ they would say, ‘What is a dream?'”
Moreover, Lazarus pointed out how God revealed Himself to many persons in the Bible. And encountering God in dreams is still relevant today.
Reference: Faithwire