A Dream That Pointed to the Word of God

For months, my teammates and I had been praying for God to lead us to people hungry to read His Word and learn about Jesus.

The first breakthrough came when we met an elderly midwife who was open to the Gospel. She invited us to share the Good News in her village several miles from our city.

Traveling the short distance across arid scrubland, we arrived in her community and found that she had gathered a group of people to study God’s Word. We took the group through the first in a series of lessons that incorporate stories of Jesus and teachings from the Bible.

At the end of the lesson, several people said they wanted to learn more. A man named Ousman was one of those. We started visiting the village every week to study the Bible with Ousman and some of his neighbors.

The first breakthrough came when we met an elderly midwife who was open to the Gospel.

One day, Ousman walked an hour from his village to visit me. After going through a round of customary greetings, he shared about a dream he’d had the night before.

“You and I were sitting in my house,” he said. “Then a man dressed in bright white clothing said to us, ‘Come, follow me.'” Ousman told me how the man led us to a beautiful place with a stream and lots of fruit trees. In his dream, we sat and ate delicious fruit with the man and talked for a long time.

Then the man in white said to Ousman, “I have a house prepared for you.”

After Ousman finished describing the dream, I said, “Jesus said He would do exactly that.” I pulled out my phone to play John 14 recorded in Ousman’s local dialect. Together we listened to the passage:

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” — John 14:1–3

Then we listened to Mark 1:16–18, in which Jesus called Simon and Andrew to leave their nets and follow Him.

“What the man in your dream said to you is the same as what Jesus said in the Bible,” I told Ousman.

I then described how Jesus had called me to follow Him too. I shared that as a new disciple, I learned that the best way to follow Jesus was to listen to His words daily and try to put them into practice that same day.

“At first I would often forget His words or have trouble focusing on how to live them out,” I said. “Sometimes I still struggle. But if you like, we can listen to His words together and help each other follow Him. I’m ready to do that with you.”

“What the man in your dream said to you is the same as what Jesus said in the Bible.”

Then Ousman said the most amazing thing: “Yes, I am ready too!”

Praise God for drawing Ousman toward Christ and for using a dream to point him to key passages of Scripture. Since then, Ousman’s hunger for the Word has continued to grow. We meet at least twice a week to listen to a passage, discuss it together, and talk about how to follow Jesus. Already we’ve completed an entire series of Bible stories, and we’ve listened to the story of Christ’s death and resurrection.

Ousman hasn’t declared Jesus as Lord yet. But he is eager to learn and wants to help as many people as possible hear the message of Christ.

Recently Ousman suggested that he and his wife come to my house each week so I can help them learn to lead Bible studies and introduce others to Jesus in the Word. It’s a fantastic strategy. Many movements of faith in Christ have started exactly this way—through local men and women who are coached to help others engage with the Word of God.

• Praise God for giving dreams to Muslims, and thank Him for sending Frontiers teams like this one to bring them the message of the Good News.
• Pray that Ousman and his wife will surrender their lives to Jesus Christ and declare Him Lord and Savior.
• Ask God to draw many Muslims into His Kingdom as believers share the Gospel and point others to the Word.