Twelve Years of Running

Below is the story of one Muslim who has come to faith in Jesus. He was discipled to faith by one of our All Nations church planters in a Muslim land. This church planter is a new believer, an African, who is growing as an effective leader and church planter.

12 years of running away from the Lord........

One afternoon while I was sitting in a recreational park in the largest city in this Muslim land, a certain guy stared at me to the point that I was not even comfortable. He asked me if I had studied at his school some years back. My answer was definitely no, because I was never been at his school. I told him that I am live in South Africa. He asked me what I am doing in his country, so I was frank with him and told him that I was doing a religious research on WHY JUDAISM, CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM believe in all the prophets since creation and when it comes to JESUS they part ways.

He told me that he had done a more similar research and he was convinced that Muhammad was the last prophet from God and he wanted me to believe that. While he was still talking I was asking God why he did not find you when he was searching for the truth. So I knew he had missed God some way, but it was never too late. It was around 6pm, when he was about to go the mosque for prayers.

I said to him with confidence '' I pray that one day you will come back.'' and after I had said this statement he told that actually he met Jesus in a dream some years back. I wanted to ask him more about his dream but that time he was rushing to the mosque for prayer. So we met after 2 days and he told his dream...

Ishmael is a teacher by profession. When he was about 12years old, he met Jesus in a dream fighting his enemies, and he asked Jesus  ''why are you fighting for me because I am unclean''. Jesus told him that He was the one who will make him clean, the following morning after the dream he felt the joy and peace, the sad thing was that there was nobody to interpret his dream, even though he shared with everyone in his family. Ishmael was convinced that Jesus was a Muslim, because of the Islam belief that Jesus was just a prophet not Son of God or a Savior.

When Ishmael was growing up, he wanted to be devoted to God. One day he visited a Sheikh (a religious leader of a mosque) seeking for the interpretation of his dream, but the Sheikh gave him unsatisfactory interpretation. The Sheikh told him that the Christians would love and persuade him to join their religion, but that he must refuse. So Ishmael started advancing in his Islamic studies and became very radical and he was convinced that Muhammad was the prophet of God. As our friendship started growing we became transparent to one another.

Ishmael was staying with his workmate and flat mate named Gerald, the two were always quarrelling. Gerald was drunk a lot and brought girls home. So the two were not getting along.

One evening Ishmael phoned me to meet him. He wanted me to give him some advice regarding the issue between him and Gerald .So I gave him as much as God had given me, from that day Ishmael began trusting me with some part of his life. The following morning Ishmael was sick in bed and he called me to come and visit him at his home. I went to his home and spent more than 6hrs with him, something by my nature I don't like, but I believe it was God who put His special love in me to reveal to Ishmael.

After sometime Ishmael told me how loving and caring I had shown him especially when he was sick. I had to be honest to Ishmael, I told him that by my nature I would not be able to give him the love and care but that it was only Jesus who was changing my heart.

From that day the level of trust was high, He shared some terrible things that had happened in his life. The things he is never proud of, at some point he wanted to commit suicide. Due to Ishmael's protection I will not write some of the things.

Ishmael told me that all his life, he had been searching for peace, but he was not finding it .So I told him bluntly that only Jesus could give him peace. This was very hard for Ishmael to start believing and trusting in Jesus because of all the investment he had done in Islam. At some point I was tempted to push and force things just to see him come to the knowledge of Jesus. At that time things seemed to be still. Then God reminded me that He is the one who draws people to Himself not me. So I left everything in His hands.

It was on Thursday a week before we left the country when Ishmael called me to his office and told me that he had asked God to confirm if Jesus was to be worshipped rather than just a prophet. So he gave God 3 days to confirm it, and God met him in a miraculous way right then! On the following Sunday Ishmael was baptized and he now follows and believe in Jesus Christ as Son of God not just a prophet.