Dreams of Jesus | Dr. Conrad Vine

Uh good morning everybody. It's a beautiful morning. Yes, it's a privilege to be out here in South Africa and it's been a wonderful couple of days so far. I arrived on Tuesday and um from the colder weather of Michigan and so it's been an absolute joy to have your warm weather here and the warm welcome from everybody. And I just want to say thank you to everybody for your warmth, your uh your graciousness, your hospitality and uh we've been blessed so far as we go through this mission convention together.

So uh my name is Conrad Vine and I'm going to be speaking uh today about uh one aspect of of mission. It is a mission convention and uh tomorrow I'll be speaking in the morning 7:00 on how to survive cancel culture. I've learned a few things about that in the last few years and uh how to survive cancel culture. Then I'll be speaking on Sunday evening on the call of God. I'll focus it specifically on the call of Moses at the burning bush.

That'll be Sunday evening. So this morning I want to talk about uh something that uh is happening around the world today. There's my contact information there um up on the screen. And um so I'm going to be talking about something that's happening around the world today. something that's happening here in uh South Africa and it is the fact that Jesus is appearing to people in dreams and visions and inviting them to follow him and one of the joys about mission is you're going where Jesus is already at work and so uh when we look at the cities of South Africa like Cape Town and Joberg and Durban how are we going to reach these cities for Christ and the truth is Jesus is already reaching into these cities for his kingdom and to save his children.

So, um, we're going to talk about how Jesus is reaching into people's lives. Um, because in mission, we want to go where God is already at work. And we want to go where the Holy Spirit is already moving upon the hearts and minds of precious souls. And when we go where God is already at work, we find there is a harvest waiting to be um, gathered in. So, let's bow our heads uh, and we'll invite once again the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Dear heavenly father, we thank you for the blessings we have here in South Africa. Father, we thank you for the freedom we have to gather on this Friday. I thank you for this beautiful facility and I thank you that uh we can gather and worship you according to our conscience. Now Lord, as we spend some moments dwelling and reflecting on how Jesus is at work around the world today, I ask that in each of our own lives and ministries, we will also serve Jesus for ourselves. Lord, we may not see him personally in a dream or a vision, but I ask that we will see him at work nonetheless.

I pray that he'll go before us with whatever ministry we're involved in. May we be following in the footsteps of Jesus. May your spirit guide and bless this time together. In his holy name we pray. Amen.

So, um we're going to talk about the fact that God is seeking the nations. And [Music] um I'm going to start out with this Bible passage here from Isaiah 65 and verse one. Uh most of the texts we're going to use will be up on the screen here this morning. If there is a slide, if there is a verse that isn't on the screen, then I'll let you know. And you can find that verse in your own Bibles.

But we're going to start out with Isaiah 65 and verse one. And this is what uh we read there. God says this, "I was sought by those who did not ask for me. I was found by those who did not seek me. I said, here I am.

Here I am to a nation that was not called by my name." So what does that tell us about how God reaches out into the nations? It tell us that God reveals himself to nations that the world thinks are far from him to people groups who the world thinks they worship other gods. Maybe they are pagan. Maybe they're heathen. Maybe they are animist.

Maybe they are Buddhists. Maybe they worship idols. But God has a concern for them and he reaches out to them and he says, "Here I am. Here I am." and he reaches out to people in ways that they understand within their culture. And we all understand that God works in different ways in different cultures.

So as a as a a European and as a North American now, uh my primary means of understanding how God speaks to me is through reading the word of God on a regular basis. And I I bow down, I pray, I ask for Holy Spirit to impress upon me a lesson. And then I understand, I expect that God is going to speak to me through his word. And many of us who are westerners think in that very similar way. But there are ways that God speaks to cultures around the world that are quite different.

And one of the ways that God speaks, Job refers to it, Joel refers to it here in Joel chapter 2. And that is through dreams and visions. And we're familiar with this passage here from Joel 2:28-29. It says there, "And 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. Your young men shall see visions. And also on my men's servants and on my maid servants I will pour out my spirit in those days. Now as Christians we say where was that fulfilled in scripture? And uh this is a prophecy about the day of the Lord uh from the book of Joel and this is applied to Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.

But I don't believe that the fulfillments of this prophecy only applies to Pentecost because this is a prophecy chapter the book of Joel about the coming of the day of the Lord and the ultimate day of the Lord is the return of Jesus Christ. And so before Jesus comes again, God will pour his spirit out upon the nations. And he is going to call people into his kingdom. And one of the ways he's going to do that is through dreams and through visions. Job wrote about dreams and visions in this way.

He said in Job 33:14-18, it says there, "God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it. He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds. He whispers in their ears and terrifies them with warnings. He makes them turn from wrongdoing and keeps them from pride. He protects them from the grave, from crossing over the river of death." And so in this passage here, Job talks about the fact that God speaks to people in dreams and in visions, particularly when they're in deep sleep.

Now, let's be honest. How often do we go to bed expecting that God will speak to us in a dream or a vision? I see some shaking of heads here. Almost never. Yes.

Um, I know of a couple people in my life who say that when I go to bed, I have a a piece of paper and a pencil by my bed on the book b the the bookshelf there. And when I have a dream in the night, I wake up and I write it down. And I think to myself, I'm sure this person is like kind of touched up here in some special way. Because as westerners, we don't pay much attention to dreams or visions, do we? Martin Luther King can say, "I have a dream." But if Martin Luther King were to say, "Last night I dreamt a dream and this is what God showed me." We think he was a bit crazy.

And so as westerners, we don't put much store by dreams and visions. We don't look for dreams and visions. We don't discuss dreams and visions. Nobody ever in church in praise and testimony time raises their hand and says, "I had a dream on Tuesday night and this is what God showed me." And if they were to do that, we all kind of inch move in our seats a few inches away from them. Something's not quite right with this individual.

We don't expect God to speak to us in dreams and visions, but in so doing, we are closing our minds and our lives off to one of God's preferred means of self-revelation. God has spoken consistently throughout human vision history with people in dreams and in visions. Not just with the saints such as Daniel in Daniel chapter 7, but with pagans such as Nebuchadnezzar and Pharaoh and Pharaoh's butler and Pharaoh's baker and Cornelius the Roman centurion in Acts chapter 10. So God speaks to people in dreams and visions. It's just that we as westerners have closed this avenue off to God in our own lives because it is so subjective.

It is so open to interpretation or misinterpretation. So the function of dreams in the Bible and there are a number of functions we find in the scripture. The first is that when God speaks to people in dreams, he's often calling them to turn away from sin and wrongdoing in their lives. Some examples there are Genesis chapter 20 where you've got the Philistine king Aimilec and he has taken a fancy to Sarah and he thinks that she is um Abraham's wife. So he takes her for himself and puts her in his compound and he's planning to marry her.

And God speaks to him like in a dream and says, "Do not touch this woman because she is the wife of Abraham." And so God prevents a pagan king from entering into what was from his perspective was an innocent action, but in the eyes of God was a sin. We also see in uh Acts chapter 9:es 1-9, the call of Saul on the road to Damascus. Saul was going to Damascus not to a prayer meeting, a mission convention. He was going to Damascus to capture and kill the Christians. And once again, God speaks to Paul in a vision.

Jesus reveals himself to him to to um turn his path away from wrongdoing. In Genesis chapter 31, God warned Laban in a dream not to harm Jacob. And so, one of the functions of dreams is God um speaks to people in dreams uh in order to steer them away from sin and wrongdoing. He also warns people in dreams about a particular sin and that is falling into pride. And a classic example is Nebuchadnezzar's dream of Daniel chapter 4 where D Nebuchadnezzar has a dream of a tree that grows to an mighty height and the birds of the air and the animals of the field find cover within that tree and that tree is chopped down.

And that is not the first time that vision has appeared in scripture. That vision has already appeared in scripture um about the king of Assyria before he was chopped down by Nebuchadnezzar and his father in 605 BC. So now the same dream that applied to the kings of Assyria is given to Nebuchadnezzar himself. And the warning is that God is saying to Nebuchadnezzar, I took down the kings of Assyria, I can take you down as well. So another function of dream that we find in the scripture is that dreams are given to guide us to truth.

They don't just God doesn't just speak to us in dreams to turn us away from sin, but God speaks to us in dreams to lead us into the light. Uh where a good example of that is Acts chapter 10:es 1-8 where we have uh two dreams in that passage there. One is given to Cornelius, a god-fearing centurion and the other is given to Peter and Peter um he has a vision while he is praying on top of his roof. Uh and so God speaks to both of these men. And in this story here, God's God God gives visions to both of these men in order to bring them together.

And the story is only complete and the understanding is only complete when they both act upon those visions and they come together and they share what God has been doing and they realize that God has been something doing something beautiful for the two of them. You know, you may have a dream or a vision and you may say that doesn't make any sense. But if you shared it, somebody will say, "Hang on, I had a corresponding dream to that and you hear what they have to say and suddenly it makes sense." And if Cornelius had had not acted upon his vision and if Peter had not acted upon his vision, uh none of it would have made sense to either of them. Then you have uh the fourth purpose of dreams and visions and that's to warn people about impending death and to give them direction how to escape these problems. some good examples.

There are three examples there in the scripture. One is that God gave Pharaoh a dream about seven um seven fat veggie burgers and seven skinny veggie burgers. You remember that dream uh there in Genesis 14. And then you've got seven full ears of corn and seven um wasted ears of corn. And God gives that dream those dreams twice to Pharaoh to emphasize to Pharaoh that this really is is of God.

This wasn't just some firing of your neurons in your brain at random at 3:00 in the morning. The fact that God repeats these visions to to Pharaoh is a reminder as an emphasis from God that you need to pay attention to this. The wise men who come to see Jesus, they're warned in a dream not to go back to Herod. And Joseph, while he's asleep, is warned by an angel to get up and take the child to Egypt um to to escape from the anger of of Herod and the slaughter of the babes of Bethlehem. So God gives dreams sometimes to warn us of sin.

He gives dreams to lead us into the light. He gives dreams to to bring us together with other people. And he also gives dreams um to warn about impending death and physical problems and to lead us away from those pro from those challenges. Now Sister White describes this in councils for the church page 14 she says this. There are many dreams arising from the common things of life with which the spirit of God has nothing to do.

There are also false dreams as well as false visions which are inspired by the spirit of Satan. So, Satan can give dreams. But dreams from the Lord are classed in the word of God with visions. Such dreams taking into account the persons who have them and the circumstances under which they are given contain their own proofs of their genuiness. And so God, when God gives you a dream, it is a self-authenticating reality that when you wake up and you've had a dream from the Lord, something gives you an inner conviction that God has now spoken to me.

And now my task is to find out what the meaning of that dream or that vision was. And so when God speaks to you in a dream or a vision, um it's going to have a self- authenticating quality to it. We're going to see some of these examples in a few minutes. So let me ask you, do you go to bed at night and ask God for a dream or a vision? Maybe we should.

Maybe we should because some of the greatest prophecies in scripture came through dreams and visions. And why wouldn't God do the same thing today? Why wouldn't God warn us of uh the path that we're taking in life that's leading to spiritual death? Why wouldn't God warn us in a dream today if we asked him for guidance? Why wouldn't God guide us into truth and understanding through visions and dreams when we're searching the scriptures for ourselves?

Particularly within the Muslim world, we find there's a whole people group out there, a whole religion that are very, very open to dreams. In fact, they expect that God will speak to them in dreams and visions. Uh you see that quote on the screen there from Greece in 2010. The researchers have found that actually a dream or a vision of Christ is the number one reason why Muslims come to faith in Jesus today. It's not Hope TV.

It's not AFM. It's not Abundant Life. It's not AWR. The number one reason maybe 90% of all conversions starts with a dream or a vision of Jesus Christ. And you think about that.

Uh the second most common reason why Muslims become followers of Christ uh Christians is because Jesus has given them a miraculous healing. I met a lady once who'd uh been who was dying of cancer and uh she she Muslim and she appealed to Jesus one night because the doctors could do no f nothing further for her and she appealed to Jesus to heal her of her cancer. This was her last chance her last chance at life and that night Jesus appeared to her in a dream. It was actually a vision. He woke her up.

She had a vision of Christ and Jesus invited her to follow him. And she asked him to heal her and he healed her on the spot of her cancer. And she's followed Jesus ever since. When she describes what Jesus looks like, it's is it's amazing. It's just like the Revelation chapter 1.

It's a humbling thing to think that in Johannesburg today, there are probably more Muslims who have seen Jesus for themselves than Seventh Day Adventists. You just think about that that Jesus has appeared personally to more Muslims in Joberg than to simply Adventists. Now we know about Jesus in the scriptures and these things are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the son of God. We read that in John's gospel and that through believing in him you may have eternal life. So again, we have the scriptures in our hands and so we're not particularly looking for dreams and visions of Christ.

But to those who don't have these sitting on their bookshelves at home, how is Jesus going to reveal himself to them? How is he going to reach into their lives? He reaches into their minds and their hearts while they're asleep. In a survey of Muslim academics undertaking at the Islamic University of Malaysia in the early 21st century, all the participants reported their belief in the possibility of receiving true guidance from God in their dreams. Many said that they perform rituals before going to sleep with hope of having true guidance from God in their dreams.

And it is a a a phenomenon within Islam that people will spend all night praying for a vision from God. The elders should spend the whole night in prayer going through the cycles of prayer appealing to God for a dream or a vision. And often times the dream or the vision of Christ comes as they are falling asleep late in the morning. But God knows they want him to speak to them. And if God would speak to us today, how would we react?

He is a jealous God. He is a consuming fire. He wants there to be no sin in our lives. Maybe we don't really want a personal encounter with the risen Lord. Who knows?

The Quran says this, "For them are good tidings in the worldly life and in the hereafter. No change is there in the words of Allah. That is what is the great attainment." That's from the chapter named after the prophet Jonah. Chapter 10 64. And so Muslims expect in the Quran that Allah they're named for God as they understand him.

He will reveal himself to them in dreams. And we find this in the hadith sahib Bkari um had this is the um the most the most you might say the gold standard of all the hadiths of Muhammad. Uh it says Iban Sirin said I heard Abu Harrah saying prophet said when time approaches the dream of the believer rarely would lie. And this this hadith of Muhammad uh allegedly attributed to Muhammad uh is talking about when the time of the end comes when the day of judgment comes that believers will have dreams and those dreams would rarely lie. That is most of the dreams coming to believers will be from God and they will be the truth.

And because of quotes like this in the Quran and the hadith, Muslims are looking for a revelation from God. They're looking for a dream or a vision from God. Your Muslim neighbor in Joberg or Cape Town or Durban, we we're just now finishing Ramadan. Yes. Ramadan started about the 1st of March this year.

So it comes the end of Ramadan. And in the last week of Ramadan, Muslims called the week of prayer. They are expecting that God will speak to them in the last week of Ramadan. They're expecting it. They're looking for it.

They're hoping for it. Many of them will be praying all night for a vision or a dream from God. These are our neighbors who are earnestly seeking a revelation from God. And we may think of them as heathen and pagan and beyond the reach of God's grace. No, they are looking for a revelation from God.

And this is a mission convention. It's not just for us to feel good about ourselves. is to equip us and help us um better reach out to those around us who are looking for Jesus Christ. So why does God speak to Muslims in dreams and visions? There's a number of reasons.

The first is that there are many many barriers uh between a Muslim and Jesus Christ. For for many Muslims, for all Muslims, Jesus is a prophet. But he's no more than a prophet. They know that he had a miraculous beginning. They know that he had a miraculous um ascension up into heaven.

They know that Jesus is coming again. They call it the descent of Issa. But Muslim esquetology is really confused. It's all over the place. But they know that there's something special about Jesus Christ.

But you know, there are many social barriers between a Muslim and Christ. There are family barriers. There are theological barriers. There uh psychological barriers. Uh for many Muslims, their perception of Christians is they drink alcohol and they eat pork and they sleep around.

Why would you be a follower of Christ if that's what Christians do? Why would you become a Christian if that's what Christians do? And so for many Muslims, there are many, many barriers that why what that would prevent them from following Jesus. Yes, they know there's something special about Jesus, but there's often not a lot special about those who claim to follow Jesus and they don't want to be numbered in their midst. So if I want to follow Jesus, but I don't want to be counseledled among those who follow Jesus, that leaves me in an impossible position.

So there are many barriers for why Muslims uh would that come between a Muslim and Jesus Christ. Another barrier between Muslims and and Christ is that there are the dreams have a great significance in the Islamic faith. And uh and God uses dreams dreams to speak to Muslims because they're expecting it. They're looking for it. Why else does God speak to Muslims in dreams?

Because dreams allow for direct access. God speaks directly into their heart and mind either when they're awake or when they're asleep. And it brings upon the person who's had a dream of Jesus a level of conviction that I need to follow Jesus. I need to learn more about Jesus that nothing else will give them. You think about Paul on the road to Damascus.

He was going to Damascus to kill those Christians. He was the rising star in Judaism. He was advanced beyond his years. He was head of his contemporaries. He was the rising star in Judaism at the time of Christ and he was the killer of of Christ's disciples.

And when he meets Jesus on the road to Damascus, then he goes to Damascus afterwards and he sits there for three days fasting and praying blind. Paul is having to make a decision. He's just met the risen Lord. Is he going to turn his back on everything he's fought and died for, fought and killed for? Is he going to give us turn his back on the Sanhedrin and his career and his progress and his social prestige as the rising star of Judaism?

Yet because Jesus spoke to Paul directly, that's what turned Paul's life around from being a persecutor of the church to one of the greatest of the apostles. And when Jesus speaks to Muslims in dreams, it brings a level of conviction and love that you rarely see even among Christians. Now, they may not have all the answers yet, but they know that God has spoken to them through the prophet Jesus. And now they want to know more about Jesus because he spoke to them personally. Why else does God speak to Muslims in dreams?

Because Muslims expect supernatural encounters as part of their faith. And so for many Muslims, dreams are central to the cosmological outlook of ordinary Muslims from founder that is Muhammad to his followers. They are not an optional part of the Islamic life. They're a meaningful component of the Islamic life. So what are some of the common features in dreams that come to Muslims?

And again, this is happening even tonight in Jobuk as we come to the end of Ramadan. These appearances are happening around the clock around the world. The first thing is Jesus will normally identify who he is. He will often use a biblical reference. I am the way, the truth, the life.

I am the good shepherd, etc. He'll choose a name for himself from the gospels. Another thing we find in these dreams is that you often see the cross somewhere in the dream or the vision. Muslims report on these things that they may see one they may see three crosses with darkness on the altitude and light shining on the middle one or they may just see a cross somewhere. And it's a it really is a tragic thing that you look at some of the hip-hop artists in America and these rock stars, they wear these diamond and crossed crosses around their necks and you kind of wonder what a what an advert for Christianity that really is.

These have become fashion symbols. But when a Muslim sees a cross, it draws them back to the story of Christ. It's not a fashion symbol. It's pointing to the risen savior. Often times in these dreams, Jesus will call people to repentance.

There's a recognition among the Muslims that they are sinful that they they there is a sense of shame before God. They don't know how to remove that shame. But in these dreams, Jesus calls Muslims to repentance. And he also asked the Muslims to follow him and to believe in him. So you often hear the as Jesus said to the men uh by the Sea of Galilee, follow me.

That is a message often comes to Muslims in these dreams. You often hear reported that when the person had a vision of Jesus, they were overwhelmed with a sense of love and peace like they've never experienced before and they can't hide it. They know that Jesus loves them. I once there was a pastor in Minnesota who spent his whole life studying the doctrine of the atonement, the subjective atonement, the objective atonement, various theories that float around the internet out there of what happened on Calvary. If a ransom was paid, to whom was the ransom paid?

And why was the ransom necessary? And is God the Father an angry God that he needs a blood sacrifice to assuage his anger at sinners like us? And there's all kinds of discussions about the doctrine of the atonement. And I said to this pastor who was retiring, he was an old man. I said, so after 40 years of studying the doctrine of the atonement, what's the summary of the matter?

He said, this is the summary of the matter. Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so. And it took him 40 years of study on what happened on Calvary to come to that simple truth that a Muslim comes to in seconds when Jesus appears to them in a dream and a vision. And they know in that moment they've experienced a love and a depth of compassion that they've never thought possible before in their lives.

They know that Jesus loves them. It's an incredible thing. You hear it reported a lot. Uh Muslims talk about a lot of light and colors uh in the B in in these dreams and visions of Christ. And so, you know, in the West, um, we our symbol for mourning is the color black.

And and yet, when there's a funeral, we wear black jackets and black ties. Yet, our Bibles are covered in normally black leather, as if this is a source of mourning and and sorrow, this book. But if you look at a Quran, it's normally green and red, which is colors associated with life. And so, you know, the colors of our Bibles don't give a good message to the Muslim world that this this is a book of death. It's not a book of light or of or of joy or eternal life.

But what we find in these dreams and visions is uh people keep reporting there was light and there's there's a whole array of colors. And if you go to um Ezekiel chapter 1 and Revelation chapter 4 and 5 and Isaiah chapter 6, you see that when you get these throne room visions of God, what you see is the rainbow and indescribable light and glory around the throne of God. And this is what Muslims see in their dreams, their visions of Christ. And then they often hear quotes from the scriptures. And those quotes are generally from the book of Revelation.

And why from the book of Revelation? Well, the word apocalypsis, that's the word revelation. Um we when we say something it's apocalyptic, we have um ideas that if it's apocalyptic, it means there's earthquakes and desire and fire and brimstone falling from heaven. And if there's an apocalypse, it that's bad news for everybody. But the word apocalypsis is like the word means an unveiling or a revelation of.

And so it's like when you open the windows in the morning and you let the light into your bedroom. That's an unveiling of the glorious light outside. And so the book of revelation, it's an it's a revealing of Jesus Christ. It is the apocalypsis to Jesus Christ of Jesus Christ. And it is a revealing of Jesus in his his glory and his beauty and his majesty.

And all the way through the book of Revelation, there are four visions in Revelation. You can break it down to those four visions. You see how Jesus walks among his church. He cares for his church. He he looks after his church in the midst of persecution.

He's preparing a home for his church in heaven above. And he's coming back for his church at the end of time. And the book of Revelation is four visions about what Christ does for his people. And therefore, it's not surprising that the book that you hear of most often coming in dreams and visions to Muslims, the quotes are coming from the book of Revelation because Jesus is appealing to his people. And as Jesus reveals himself to us in the book of Revelation, he's appealing to Muslims with the same visions from the book of Revelation even today because he wants them in his eternal kingdom.

So, I'm going to give you uh some slides here that just show some of those dreams and some of those visions. And uh as we go through these slides, I want you to be thinking to yourselves um which chapter from the book of Revelation uh is this from. Okay, so here's the first one. Assalam allayikum. Um peace be upon you.

In my dream last night, Prophet Issa, Issa is named for Jesus in the Quran. And that as s peace be upon him or in the English it's often pb uh peace be upon him is an honorific um and they apply that to all the prophets in the Quran. So prophet Issa peace be upon him appeared to me wearing white clothes and standing in the middle of seven lights. He was watching them and making sure they were giving light. He looked at me and smiled and then I woke up.

What does this dream mean? So tell me what chapter of the book of Revelation is that dream from? Yes. Chapter one. Yes.

And it's interesting that we say, okay, this is a revelation. It parallels the vision of Jesus walking among the candlestands in Revelation 1. And in this dream here, it says Jesus was watching them. That's good news. And he was making sure they were giving light.

Now, if you have a candle and you have a white ceiling over your candle and you just keep that candle permanently lit, what happens to the white ceiling above the candle? gets like a smudge on it. Yes, candles give out soot. They give out smoke. It can sting the eyes.

Those are the churches, smoky candles. But in this dream here, says that Jesus is making sure that his churches give out light. That the human tendencies for churches not to give out light unless Jesus is present. And if Jesus is present, the churches give out light rather than um um smoke and soot and uh stinging the eyes of those around them. So we may look at this as a Christian and say, "Well, would God give a revelation to a Muslim that isn't in the scriptures?" Well, if Jesus is making sure that those lamps are giving out light, that tells me that Jesus is active in his churches to make sure that we don't fall into our fallen natures and and lapse into argumentation, the rest of it.

That when Jesus is present, churches give out the light of the gospel. I had a dream. Here's another dream. I want to share it with you. In my dream, I saw Prophet Issa, peace be upon him, wearing a white robe and sitting on a white throne.

I saw angels, men and some kind of animals worshiping him and praising him day and night. Then I heard a voice saying, "Do you worship him?" Then I woke up puzzled. Please, what does this dream mean? So you think about this passage here. First of all, what chapter of book of Revelation parallels this?

Okay, got a brother here. It's four and five. Yes, chapters four and five. The throne room vision uh in John just before you get the seven seals in in chapters five and six, six and seven. But here you have a throne room vision of Jesus wearing a white robe sitting on a white throne and before him there are angels, there are men and some kinds of animals worshiping him.

And our minds are drawn to Ezekiel chapter 1 and Isaiah chapter 6 where we get these living creatures before the throne of God. And so uh the voice was saying do you worship him? It's not so much do you worship him? It's an invitation. Do you worship him?

Are you worshiping the one on the throne? Another dream here. I saw that stars were falling on earth and people were fighting and killing each other. Then I saw a man sitting in a white throne coming on the clouds and angels were surrounding him and people were trying to hide from him. Can you help me understand the dream?

So which passage of Revelation is this from? Which chapter? Yeah, Revelation chapter 6. This is the sixth seal of Revelation chapter 6 where Christ is coming in the clouds of glory and the wicked are on earth calling upon the rocks to fall upon them and hide them from the face of the one seat upon the throne. And so we read this as Christians.

We say okay this Muslim is having the same vision essentially that God gave John on the island of Patmos. That Muslim they may not have access to a Bible in Johannesburg. They may may be a Muslim man or woman or a young person. They may not even know where to get a Bible from. Nobody may have ever spoken about these dreams of Jesus.

But Jesus is giving them the same visions he gave John on Patmos because Jesus is coming again and he wants people to be ready for that day. Assalam alalaykum. In my dream, I saw angels standing in the sky and having trumpets. They were waiting for a sign from prophet Issa peace be upon him to blow them. Then I heard a voice from heaven saying, "These are signs.

Look for them. Can you help me understand the dream?" Okay. So, which chapter of the book of Revelation would you take this from? Sorry. 8 and N the the trumpets, angels having trumpets waiting for a sign from Jesus to blow those trumpets.

So, you've got the seven trumpets of Revelation are alluded to in this dream that a Muslims had. Uh, and all of these dreams have come on coming in the last month here. Now, here's a very special dream. Salam. In my dream, I saw a war between a man wearing white and a freak creature like a dragon.

We're not referring to mothers-in-law here. The man won the war and then I heard a voice saying, "Woe to the earth, for the devil has come with rage." What is the meaning of this dream? So, first of all, what chapter of Revelation is this from 12. Okay. You've got a freak creature like a dragon.

You've got a war between a man in white, that is Christ, and a dragon. and the man won the war. And woe to the earth, for the devil has come with rage refers to the latter half of Revelation chapter 12. Woe unto the earth, the devil has come down among you with great anger and wrath. And so once again, you find a vision given by Jesus that parallels exactly what we find in the book of Revelation.

Last night, I saw three angels flying very quickly, carrying three messages to deliver to people on earth. Some of them, my people, didn't pay attention. Still a voice from heaven said, "These messages are important. They will help you to be ready for the day of judgment. Search for them and follow them." The voice was full loud and full of authority.

Then I saw a throne and on it was prophet Issa, peace be upon him. Can you please help me understand this dream? Okay. So, which chapter of Revelation is this from? Revelation chapter 14.

And these messages are not important. Is that what the message says? No. These messages are important because the hour of his judgment has come and we know from Adventists our understanding of scripture in Daniel 8:13-14 that the hour of that pre-advent judgment began in 1844. We are living in the time of the pre-advent judgment.

Some people call it the investigative judgment. I prefer to call it pre-advent because it happens before the second coming of Jesus Christ. And this is Jesus appealing to Muslim to a Muslim to listen to the three angels of revelation. And where are they going to hear the three angels of revelation? Ideally from an Adventist church sometimes yes of times no because it's divisive and it's um breeds controversy if you preach prophecy or uh things like that these days.

The trumpet needs to be blown with a certain ch sound. Brothers and sisters, when you preach, when we speak, there needs to be a sense of urgency that Jesus is coming soon. The pre-advent judgment is underway. And the next thing we know is the coming of Jesus Christ. There's no time to be wasting as we wait for the coming of Jesus.

When Jesus is appealing to Muslims to listen to the three angels messages, Revelation 14, you know, we're coming to the end of time. I saw prophet Issa, peace be upon him, wearing white and riding a white horse. He was carrying a big sword in his hand. He looked at me and said, "The day of judgment is near. Follow me and you'll be ready.

I woke up puzzled, but I was filled with peace. Can you help me understand the meaning of the dream?" And what passage of Revelation is that from? Revelation 19, the latter half, the second half, the first half deals with the um with the wedding supper of the lamb. And the second half of Revelation 19 talks about the coming of Jesus on that horse with a big sword. And um and you have the feast of the birds feeding on on the an on the bodies of the dead who are dead from the coming of Christ.

But this passage here tells me the day of judgment is near. And as an Adventist sometimes I need to hear that aresh myself that the day of judgment is near. The day of judgment for from Muslim way of thinking is not the pre-advent judgment. This is when when Christ comes and Christ and God separates the world into the sheep and the goats that the coming of Jesus is near. If Jesus is telling Muslims that his second coming is near, what should we learn from that ourselves?

That the second coming of Jesus is it's near. Absolutely, it's near. I saw our master Issa peace be upon him in my dream last night. He was held standing at a crossroads helping people follow him to paradise. Word paradise is a Persian word.

It means a four-walled garden like the garden of Eden. I listened to him and followed him. In the end, we reached a beautiful city. Sorry. I squirt the back of my throat.

I'll try and drink it in future. Not squirted him. I listened to him and followed him. In the end, we reached a beautiful city. The city had tall walls, a river in the middle, and a tree.

Can you help me understand my dream? What chapter of Revelation is that coming from? Revelation 21. You got the new Jerusalem and the the river of life and the tree of life standing there with the the leaves different fruits every season for the healing of the nations. So, these are some of the dreams that are coming in.

And I'm not going to me mention the websites out here, but uh this afternoon uh or later today, I have some cards down there and you can check these websites out for yourself. Muslims are reporting these dreams and if you speak Arabic and you type in dreams, um there are so many Muslims having dreams of Jesus that Google will autofill dreams of Issa. So you know that Muslims having dreams of Isa when you type in dreams in Arabic it autofills to dreams of Isa because so many people are looking for this and for the interpretation. So for a dream to be God-given as opposed to a dream that maybe Satan has given you number one it has to agree with scripture that we must test things against the scripture. Not all dreams come from God.

And if as and when a Muslim friend of yours here in South Africa tells you about a dream that they may have had, you need to be able to to share with them how does that dream correlate with scripture? Does it correlate with scripture? Does it contradict scripture or does it agree with what we know from the scriptures themselves? The second thing we need to look at um does the dream reflect the character of God and fit his personality? For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind.

And so if that dream or vision of Christ that comes to your Muslim neighbor, if it inspires them to a renewed love of God, if it inspires them to increased piety before God, if it inspires them to maybe start praying five times a day because that's how they understand what a pious life looks like, then you know that this is a dream that's probably come from God. Is it truthful and accurate? Does it have a self- authenticating ring to it? Um, does it bear good fruits in the life of the person that received the dream? Does it bring the fruit of the spirit into that person's life?

Does it give love and joy and peace? Uh, gentleness, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And does it point to God? Often times a Muslim will say that Jesus said to them, "Follow me." in the vision or the dream. And if Jesus is inviting them to follow him, that person is kind of like a blood hound from that moment on.

They may not have a Christian friend, but from that moment on, they're looking to know more about Jesus Christ. And who are they going to know more about? Who are they going to learn about more? or who are they going to learn more about Jesus from than from seventh Adventists who are willing to share their faith in the soon coming of Jesus Christ. I find it a tragedy and I say this wherever I go and I should do something about it myself.

I recognize that that that I don't know of a single Adventist website devoted to telling the world that Jesus is coming again. We have websites on the Sabbath. We have websites on our fundamental beliefs. We have websites on prophetic interpretation. I don't of a single website that announces the coming of Jesus, the signs of the coming of Jesus, uh what's happening in the world before Jesus comes and how you can be spiritually ready for the coming of Jesus.

We are 7th day Adventists. The emphasis is Adventists, but we don't announce to the world that Jesus is coming again. And yet, when Jesus appeals to Muslims and says the day of judgment is near, they know that something momentous is coming upon the world. And ideally, they're going to learn more about that from their Adventist neighbor. The c the role of a Christian friend is really important.

We can not only help our Muslim friends who've had dreams of Jesus take the right steps and understand what the Bible what the dream means, but Jesus commanded us to make disciples of all nations. And we may feel strange helping somebody interpret a dream. We may think that, you know, Joseph was a prophet. He interpreted the butler's dream and the baker's dream and Pharaoh's dream and Daniel interpreted Nebuchadnezzar's dream and so forth. But when you look at those dreams I've just showed up on the screen there, um I think most of us here could say that's where this comes from in the Bible.

This is what the Bible says about it. Um we can learn some more about it together. These dreams are not rocket science. Uh they're generally taken from scripture. So we can affirm to our Muslim friends, people who had dreams of Jesus, that God does speak through dreams and that Muslims they they value dreams as divine messages and maybe that is why God is speaking to them through a dream.

We can help them to compare the dream they've had with the truth the truth that we know of from scripture. I've got a friend of mine who had a dream of Jesus, a vision of Jesus as a young man. And Jesus said, "I'm the way, the truth, and the life." And that young man went to a friend who was a nominal Christian and said, "Um, does the Bible say anything about Jesus being the way, the truth, and the life?" And the friend who was a nominal Christian said, "Yes." And my friend said, "Well, where in the Bible is it?" And nominal Christian said, "Well, I don't know." So that man who had a dream of Jesus, who said, "I'm the way, the truth, and life," got a Bible and read it through till he found that quote. These days, we have Google and AI. Well, not where that young man was.

But when Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," it set that young person off on a hunt for the way, the truth, and the life, to follow the way, the truth, and the life in his own life. And so, we can help Muslims who had dreams of Christ understand from scripture where this is coming from and what the message, the underlying message of that passage of scripture really is. We can introduce Jesus as the central figure of these dreams. Many people have a dream of a man in white. And if you look for websites such as man in white, you will find websites where Muslims are posting their dreams of a man in white.

Jesus sometimes doesn't reveal his his identity immediately. He sometimes doesn't say I am Issa al- Masi. I'm Jesus the Messiah. But he gives himself a name from scripture because when the name is driven taken from scripture, then the Muslim comes to understand this is not a corrupted book. And I can search in these these this book here to find what Jesus said about himself in that dream.

And so it helps to authenticate the authority of scripture and the veracity of scripture. When these quotes are given from scripture, we can help our Muslim friend grow in their journey as a disciple. And this means making friends with people. I think one of the maybe the number one reason why people leave the church is not because of doctrinal differences. It's because they don't feel loved in their local congregation.

and they can come to church and they're going through a divorce or a cancer diagnosis or they've got a child with mental health problem or with um a terrible disease and people say hi and by and happy Sabbath and I'll see you next week but we don't really care much about one another during the Sunday through Friday and when people don't feel loved they're not going to stay and when people feel loved and they trust that you love them and know that they know that you love them they're willing to accept what you have to share with And so Christianity is not a solo faith. It's not a marathon. It's a team effort. If you go through the New Testament, but maybe later today and add up all the instances where it says to one another or each other, the commands are multi the multiple commands all the way through the New Testament. Love one another, forgive one another, bear one another's burdens, restore one another.

He goes on and on and on. Christianity is not a solo faith. It's a it's a commun community faith and we grow in community together. And that means when a Muslim has a dream of Jesus, we welcome them into our own life and our own community. We also need to recognize that many Muslims who had a dream of Jesus have many fears.

They have many struggles. Many of them are afraid of family rejection, of persecution when they start following Jesus. And if they're going to enter the body of Christ, they need to know that when we pray our father, that means that we truly are brothers and sisters. And we're going to look out for one another as brothers and sisters. We're not just brothers and sisters from 9 till noon on Sabbath morning.

We're brothers and sisters 24/7. And we're going to stand by one another. A helpful thing to do is to share testimonies of former Muslims. And um you come and speak to me later. I'll give you some I'll have some cards later today and you can take a look at those dreams and uh you can share those cards with your Muslim friends and you may say something like, "Hey, I I found this.

It's interesting. What do you think of it?" And maybe they've had a dream with Jesus. Maybe it would start the conversation going. Be patient. Allow the Holy Spirit to work.

We work in an instant society. Yes, we want things immediately. Um uh if I go on Amazon and uh let's say it's it's 9:00 in the morning in in Berian Springs and I go to Amazon and it says we can deliver this tonight. I think that's really good. And sometimes it says it'll take 3 days to deliver.

I'm think oh that that's terrible how inefficient Amazon is. And and sometimes you look at something and then about an hour later you get a message that says this is available on 24-hour delivery. Like they've wor they've worked something out for you. So, because I don't like these big corporations very much, I'll look at a lawn garden tractor on Amazon and 24 hours later, I get a message that says, "There is one now 24 hours delivery from your home and I know that they've moved something around the states just so it's available for delivery." That's my revenge on the system, you might say. We want things done instantly.

But for a Muslim to accept Christ, they're overcoming 1,400 years of hostility and hostile theology and prejudice and culture and tradition and family and the hadith and the sayings of Muhammad and the Quran and the Sharia law. We sometimes have no idea of the the amount of pressure there is on a Muslim not to follow Jesus. But if Jesus reaches behind the veil of Islam into their minds and their hearts in a dream and says follow me, that means for him all things are possible. He believes this can be done. And often times that person will will need a devoted Christian to walk with them through the disciplehip journey.

Maybe some of you read the book Seeking Allah, finding Jesus. I'd encourage you to read that book if you've never read it. It's a great story. Nabil Keshi died a few years ago. The the main person in that story died of stomach cancer in Texas.

But um he was maybe 38 years of age. But what's interesting in that story is all the way through his conversion experience, there was a fellow medical student who walked with him through that journey. And that medical student kind of appears throughout his his story. And that that medical student loved this young Muslim student from Britain. This Ahmed Muslim studying in Florida, I think it was.

He loved him through all those years of discussion and dialogue and prayer and back and forth and and dead ends and and difficult conversations. He loved him enough. But what brought that man into the body of Christ was a dream of Jesus. And he went to his mother and said, "I had a dream. What does this mean?" And the mother had a book of Muslim interpretation of dreams.

And there wasn't a Christian book of interpretation of dreams available to this young man. But thankfully, the truth of the gospel won through. So, our time is up here. I've been told need to finish at 10:20. It's now 10:22.

What? This is a mission convention. Mission is not about us. It's the story of God at work. And our privilege in mission is to go where God is already at work.

Where the Holy Spirit is already working, where Jesus is already appearing in dreams and in visions. Where people may have picked up the book Steps to Christ or Great Controversy in a secondhand book bookstore 15 years ago. They've been reading it and reading it and thinking about it, but they don't know who they can talk about this with. Our privilege and mission is to go where Jesus is already at work. So I want to challenge I want to close out by challenging here today.

We say in AFM we can pray, we can give or we can go. But maybe the most important thing we can do and that is prayer. Prayer is emissions is a story of answered prayer. And when we pray, we're asking God to open our eyes so we can see where he is already at work among the nations. And that's where we want to be.

If God is already at work there, that's where he's asking us to be. So, as you go around the mission booths in the convention hall today and tomorrow and Sunday and be praying about where God wants you to be in mission service, what ministry God wants you to be involved with. Be praying about who back in your hometown, in your neighborhood, in your street, in your office, or in your school. Which of those people God wants you to become a particular friend of in the coming weeks and months? to show them the love of God, to pray with them, to be a real friend with them, maybe to walk with them through one of life's most difficult moments.

Be praying in this mission convention that when we leave this this place, this wonderful camp here at Saven, be praying that you'll be following in the footsteps of Jesus. And that when people meet you and see you, they will see Jesus Christ in you. They'll hear you in in your voice. They'll see you in your eyes. They'll have a manifestation of the love of God in your presence in their lives.

Pray that you'll be walking in the footsteps of Christ. He's at work. He's at work here in South Africa and he's looking for laborers in the harvest who help to bring in that harvest. May God bless us as we follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. Let's bow our heads for one moment of prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank you today. We thank you that the gospel flowed from Jerusalem throughout Palestine in Judea and Samaria to uh through the Ethiopian unic and Simon ofSirene to Africa through Paul and Barnabas to Europe through Thomas and some of the other apostles to Asia. Father, I thank you that for 2,000 years, faithful Christians have passed on the gospel message from generation to generation. And Father, we today here are the recipients, the blessed recipients of 2100 years of faithful Christians. And we're asking today, Lord, that the gospel not stop with us.

We'll not find our lives, our homes to be a culde-sac through which nothing can pass. But I'm asking you today, Father, that through our lives, the good news of Jesus Christ will flow as a lifegiving stream. Lord, it may feel today like it just flows as a trickle. We claim that prophecy the book Ezekiel that that trickle will grow into a life-giving stream where even the where even if it flows into the dead sea it turns into a sea of life. I pray Lord that our lives will be the means through which the gospel flows to unreached of Joberg and Cape Town and Durban and across this nation.

I pray Lord that as the gospel flows through us you will cleanse us and purify us in the process. Father, open our eyes. Give us divine appointments from this moment on. Give us divine appointments where we can meet with people where Jesus is already at work. And in those moments, Father, I pray that words will be given us from on high.

So we'll know exactly what to share and when to share and how to share. And in all we do, may people know that Jesus is Lord, Jesus is King, Jesus is love, and Jesus is coming again. Father, work this miracle in each of our lives. In the name of Jesus, we humbly pray. Amen.