A growing number of Muslims in the Middle East have converted to Christianity after Jesus reportedly revealed Himself to them in dreams and visions.
Amir and Rasha, a couple who fled from Syria, are among those who encountered Jesus supernaturally and decided to give their lives to Him after he appeared to them. According to Open Doors USA, they encountered Jesus separately.
The couple came from the city of Homs. They have been "living in tents" since 2012, Amir recounted.
"It is not an easy life," Amir told Open Doors USA last year. "About a year ago my wife's mother was killed by a sniper when she went out to have some fresh air. My wife's brother was killed on his way home."
But something happened to them that changed their lives forever.
Rasha said Jesus showed Himself to her in a vision. At the time, she was eight months pregnant.
"About three months ago, I was given a vision of Jesus Christ," Rasha said. "I was sleeping and all of a sudden I saw Jesus Christ in white."
"He said 'I am Christ. You will have a beautiful daughter.' I was eight months pregnant, and a month later we received our beautiful daughter."
Unknown to her, Jesus also showed Himself to her husband in a dream at about the same time.
"I saw Jesus Christ," Amir said. "He was dressed in white. He said to me 'I am your Savior. You will follow me.'"
From that time on, the couple decided to become a follower of Christ, naming their daughter Christina after their Savior. However, as they embraced their new faith, they were met with challenges from family members and others who learned about their conversion.
"Becoming a Christian is, for them, the same as if I had destroyed the Kaaba in Saudi Arabia," Amir said. "It is because we walked in the darkness and are now in the light. I want to protect my family."
They left the refugee camp to escape the threat to their lives and have been living from place to place. Yet they considered all this as nothing compared to great joy of knowing Jesus Christ.
"The most important thing is that we know Jesus Christ as our Savior," Amir said. "He will save us."
"We regularly pray to the Lord, we freely worship Him, and He protects us. God is with us. God will resolve our situation."
There are others like Amir and Rasha who converted to Christianity after seeing Jesus in a dream. Last year, the Rev. Sally Smith, pastor of St. Mark's Church in Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England, told the story of two Muslim men from the refugee camp who saw Jesus in their dreams.
"One man, Hassan, had a dream. In this dream, Jesus came to him as a light. He told him to come to this church and be baptized," she said. "He knew it was the Lord who had wrapped himself around him."
"Another man saw Jesus in a dream and he was shown a picture of this very church," Smith said. "So many supernatural or mystic experiences seem to be happening. It is wonderful to be part of."
Nizar Shaheen, host of Christian program Light for the Nations, which airs in Muslim-majority regions, spoke of personally seeing Muslims turn to Christ.
"I've seen many, many Arabic-speaking people turning to Christ, accepting Him as Lord and Savior," he said, according to Catholic Online.
Shaheen said Muslims in the Middle East, North Africa and other places are turning their backs on Islam and converting to Christianity.
"It's happening all over the Arab world. It's happening in North Africa. It's happening in the Middle East. It's happening in the Gulf countries. It's happening in Europe and Canada and the United States, in the Arabic-speaking world. Everywhere, people are accepting Jesus," he said.
Another story, featured in WND, involved a Bosnian Muslim teenager who dreamed that he was lost alone in the desert. Suddenly, he saw a cross emerge from the sand. The sight of the cross evoked his curiosity, and he moved to look more closely at it.
"I suddenly saw a man walking toward me: a broad-shouldered, long-striding man, with a dark complexion, long hair, and wearing a white robe," the young man said.
"And just as suddenly ... I was walking toward the man walking toward me. I knew him immediately. He was Jesus. Without knowing why, I fell to my knees. He stood over me and touched my face with his right hand."
According to Manifold Hope Ministries founder Pastor Frank Costenbader, the number of what he called "Isa dreams" increased since 2004 and 2005, and saw an even greater increase since 2012.
"The number of Isa dreams has seemed to grow tremendously since 2000, and in 2005 it seems to have kicked into another gear," Costenbader said, WND reported.
"There has been an explosion of testimonies on the Web in the past two years about people encountering Jesus in dreams and subsequently becoming followers of Jesus."
