Show Me Your Face!

“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Acts 9:4

The Spirit blows where it wills. God does not discriminate. There are “enemies” of God persecuting His people like Paul, who have been called to journey with Him. 

This is the story of a modern day Paul in Iran where many have converted from Islam to Christianity. When Taher, who was well respected as a Haji, one who has been to Mecca as a pilgrim, found out his daughter became a Christian, he became so angry. Then his wife, who was a Haji-eh, came to Christ, he was even more angry. The last straw was when his son accepted Christ. He erupted into a rage, and tried to force his family to turn back to Islam. He beat them and threatened to kill them. His family eventually left him and went abroad. 

In his growing despair and loneliness, he memorized the verses in the Koran, and focused on Allah, serving the god of his fathers. “Please show me your face,” Taher begged. He got disheartened by the silence and began to doubt. In his desperation, he cried, “I will believe in the God who reveals Himself to me." God revealed Himself to Taher in a dream. 

Why does God appear to many Muslims in dreams? “In a survey of Muslim academics, undertaken at the International Islamic University of Malaysia early in the twenty-first 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 the hope of having true guidance from God in their dreams.” (Sirriyeh2015:5)

Taher relates that in his dream, a man riding a donkey approaches him, gets down and hugs him. Then this man he had never seen before said, "I will clean you from all your sins; you are free. I will give you rest. Believe in Me." Taher asked, "But what will happen if I sin again?" The man repeated, "I will clean all your sins." Then the man left and another came to him, “Do you know the man on the donkey?" Taher answered that he did not, and the second man revealed, "He is Jesus Christ. He cleans your sins." 

Taher woke up, and pondered his dream. When he fell asleep again, the same dream came to him. Waking up a second time, he became afraid. How could he leave Islam after serving Allah for 45 years? He was a Haji! But after he had the same dream a third time, he had no doubts that Jesus Christ was the only true God, and Jesus was calling him! When Taher went to a Christian church, the leaders were a little suspicious that he might be a spy until Taher exclaimed: “I saw Jesus in a dream, I saw his face!”

Taher is now abroad and happily back with his family. God still speaks to the broken hearted and when we seek, we will find. That is His promise!