"Dreams and Visions" by Tom Doyle

I had read a little bit about this subject before starting this book. The subtitle of this book is a question: "Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World?" And I would have to say, after reading the stories in these pages, that God is surely doing something in the Middle East to bring revival.

Tom Doyle's book is, first of all, written from the heart of a missionary. He has been in these hard-to-reach places, he has talked with most of the people whose stories appear in his book, he has a burden for the Muslim world - in short, he writes this book with love, not just with the bland fact-giving tone of many books with biographical content. And there are many stories to be told, apparently.

Each of the people whose stories are told in the book have reported seeing Jesus in either a dream or vision. They all seem to know who He is immediately upon seeing Him. Sometimes two different people have the same dream, or a Muslim will have a dream where Jesus shows them a building they must find. When they wake up, they find the building and meet the people who live there (Christians, of course, who are able to lead the person to the Lord).

It is impossible to read stories of these Christians in the Middle East without being simultaneously repulsed by the persecution and torture they endure and encouraged by the strength of their faith. In the excellent Appendices in the back of the book, Doyle answers the question easily: "How do you know the dreams and visions are of God?"  He makes two strong statements: Point #1 - No one goes to sleep a Muslim and wakes up a believer in Christ. Without fail, the dreams only point the dreamer to a person who shares the Word of God with them. For some, it only takes a dream or two - others have had many dreams over the span of many months. Some of the dreamers written about in the book have not yet received Christ at the time of the book's printing (and Doyle asks us to pray that they do). It appears that Jesus is not violating the Scripture that says "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God."

Big point #2 - Look at the fruit of the dreams and visions. These dreams produce seekers of Christ, who become disciples of Christ who are willing to die for their faith (a very likely reality for most of them). Not only that, but when they accept Christ they are so deeply changed by Jesus that they cannot help but share the Gospel with others.

The chapters of the book are divided into sections by country: Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and even Israel and America. I really appreciated how the author gave a brief historical background of the countries and the Muslim groups that have become dominant there. It helps create a clearer picture in my mind of the context of the stories.

Do I believe these dreams and visions are from God? I can honestly say that I hope so. And it certainly appears to be so. I HIGHLY recommend this book.

What is your opinion of this information? Do you believe God would use dreams and visions to reach a group of people that are nearly impossible to reach by conventional methods? PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT OR DROP ME AN EMAIL AND GIVE ME YOUR THOUGHTS!

Also, don't forget the book giveaway list! I have given out 7 or so, but there are plenty more!

I received this book free from the publishers in exchange for my honest review.