Isa the Evangelist

In A Wind In The House of Islam, by missiologist David Garrison (©2014 WIGTake Resources), many former Muslims from many nations who converted to following Jesus were interviewed and asked about their conversion experiences. In one of the testimonies, a man stated that he had been a leader over 4 mosques, and was training 300 Islamic teachers. One day, a local African evangelist gave him a New Testament. Since the book was translated into Arabic, and he was convinced that Arabic was the language spoken by Allah, he accepted it, even though he had rejected previous offers of New Testaments that were in local dialects.

The evangelist told him that according to the book, Isa (Jesus, in Arabic) would one day return, and anyone who didn’t believe in him, he would destroy with His breath. Since that is what the Qur’an had taught the Muslim, he was confused. He asked Allah, “You know my heart. If there is something I must do, show me.”

That night, Isa came to him in a dream. In the dream, he could see someone in the top of a mosque’s minaret trying to repair the speaker. At the base of the minaret, he could see someone trying to chop it down with an axe. As he looked closer, he could see that the man was him! The same dream happened 4 times.

He immediately became a follower of Jesus. Since then, he has lost his job, his farm, and nearly lost his life. He has also led many sheiks (Arabic for elder; tribal or village or otherwise leader), to Jesus, and taught them to do the same. Currently, he is leading more than 400 sheiks who have begun to follow Jesus.

This story is very typical of Jesus doing evangelism in places where no one is interested in Him until He prevails in their lives. Pray for the lost. Pray for the new believers to become leaders in their spheres.