"And we know that the darkness has to flee when the word of God is spoken. So that's what's happening here. It's not a strategy, it's not a missional play. This is God seeking the lost."
For some time, there have been consistent reports of people in a number of countries reporting personal experiences with Jesus by way of dreams or visions. But tracking down the source and accuracy of those reports has been limited. Now, we can share that this supernatural visitation has indeed been taking place. Our source is the Jesus Film Project/Cru, which agreed to compile field reports from their teams and missionary contacts in remote locations.
"He's not willing that anyone should perish. That is his heartbeat, that he will do whatever it takes to find his people around the world," declares Holly Newell, with Special Projects at the Jesus Film. “We are really excited to hear from the field, as we often do, of different people who have had dreams and visions of Jesus. And it happens quite frequently in our ministry. Jesus Film serves over 1800 different missional partners. So, it's not just our people that are out around the world using the film. It's actually tens of thousands of missionaries and sometimes they'll send us stories that they hear and it's really exciting when we get to hear how the Lord is moving.”
One powerful example of Jesus making a one-on-one impression
“I'd love to start with one that I heard just last week from my friend Sarah, who lives and works in the Middle East. She met a woman from a nation where there are very, very few believers, and she said to this woman, ‘How in the world did you find Jesus? I've never met someone from your country that knows the Lord.’ And this woman said that one night she had a dream of a man in white. She woke up in the morning and she called her best friend, and she said, ‘I can't believe it. I can't believe it. He came and appeared to me. Mohammed came just for me.’ This woman's best friend just laughed at her and said, ‘There is nothing special about you. There's no way that Mohammed would come just to you.’ This dear woman was so disappointed, but she kept thinking there was something special about that dream. And so, she did what all of us do when we have a question. And she Googled, who is the man in white? And that Google search took her to our YouTube page where we have the Jesus film in over 2200 different language versions. This woman found her language, watched it, and when she came to the scene of Jesus' transfiguration on the Mount, she recognized the man from her dream. She was able to continue to Google and she found a church in her nation, which is mostly full of expatriates, but the pastor there was able to lead her to Christ and she's now being discipled on how to use Jesus Film tools to reach people in her nation. So, God is doing it, he's doing it digitally and he's doing it in person.”
An even more incredible example of Jesus personally reaching out to someone
Holly shares, “Actually, I was on a Zoom call just a couple of weeks ago working on a partnership project for the field, but the gentleman that I was on the call with was so compelling and he was from a country, I can't say the name of it, but I said, ‘Tell me how did you come to know Christ?’ And this is the story he told me. I can still picture his face as he was telling me - he was so back in the moment - even as he was saying the story. So, his name is Ahmed. And Ahmed was raised in a part of the world where it is illegal to talk about Jesus. But once a year, to placate the Christians in that area, they would allow the national TV station to show the Jesus Film in the local language. And every year, this boy Ahmed would watch Jesus at Christmas time, and he was raised in a very difficult home.
And Ahmed says that he remembers seeing Jesus' face on the screen and thinking, ‘If I could meet that man, I would hug him.’ So, when Ahmed was a student, he was struggling with extreme depression and suicidal thoughts. He really was at the end prepared to take his own life. But he had never been to a church. And there was one nearby. He thought, ‘I will give this church a try.’ So, Ahmed went to church and when he was there, he looked around and he saw all the people with their eyes closed and they were worshiping and he thought, ‘Well, they're closing their eyes. I'll close my eyes too.’ He closed his eyes, and he saw Jesus! And I asked Ahmed on the call, I said, did he look like the Jesus in the Jesus Film? And he said, ‘no.’ He said, ‘I knew it was the same Jesus from the film, but he looked entirely different.’ He had on a red robe and a gold belt, and on his head was a crown of gold with enormous jewels. So, Ahmed was so startled that he opened his eyes and then he closed his eyes again and Jesus was still there. And Jesus started to walk towards Ahmed, and Ahmed said that he could feel Jesus pass through his body! And when Jesus came through the other side, he felt all of his depression and suicidal thoughts go away. And Ahmed told me on that Zoom call that he has not experienced those same (dark) thoughts ever again since that encounter with Jesus. Isn't that amazing?”
Hear how God is using the Jesus Film Project to reach the ends of the earth.
And what about America? Holly shares an amazing story of "Jesus waving his arm and saying, come, come and take," communion. That and much more in our complete podcast interview with Holly Newell just below:
"We would love for all your listeners to be on mission with us. If you go on your phone, you can download the Jesus film app. It's totally free. And when you download it to your phone, you will have all of our languages, 2,200 plus languages in your pocket. And you can use that tool to share Christ when you encounter people that come from other language barriers."
