Standing in support of Israel, Jews, and believers in all the nations, in the name of Jesus (Yeshua). Sharing biblical truth, encouragement, news and prophecy.
At Rolland and Heidi Baker's Harvest School of Missions in Pemba, Mozambique, students flock from all over the world to spend two months soaking in God's presence, helping orphans and conducting outreaches to the spiritually needy.
A young man from Sydney, Australia, Taylor Martin, spent the early part of July in Pemba, then had to be evacuated to South Africa to complete the school due to terrorist threats in northern Mozambique.
"Sometimes I would be shaking for hours. One day I was paralyzed for eight hours on the ground." Despite the terror threat, he had remarkable encounters with God, especially when Rolland Baker laid hands on him and prayed. "Sometimes the power of God just hits you like a wave and you can't move," Martin recounts. "Five or six times, I was sent into hours-long visions of heaven when Rolland touched me."
During these supernatural visions, he witnessed remarkable things. "I saw the city; I saw streets; I saw the throne; I saw God and His angels and people feasting."
As he walked in the streets, he saw people dancing with angels. "I went to a feast, and people were eating all this amazing food like a banquet. There is food in heaven, and it's a real place."
He met a man at the banquet who seemed to be glowing more than anyone else. "Why do you shine more than others?" Martin asked.
"Those who live close to the throne shine more," he replied. The man told Martin he had been a prophet on earth.
Then they went to the man's house on a hill near the throne. "It was like a mansion in an earthly neighborhood," with furniture and windows.
"The feeling of being there is so overwhelming, the peace, the love and the joy. You have no earthly mind at all or desire to come back," he says.
Help Charisma stay strong for years to come as we report on life in the Spirit. Become an integral part of Charisma’s work by joining Charisma Media Partners. Click here to keep us strong!
Once regarded as a hero of Western civilization, he is now derided as the instigator of genocidal policies that inflicted sorrow, disease, serfdom and death on the native population of Hispaniola, the island he discovered—and by extension—into the Americas.
Yet this admittedly flawed explorer also wrote in his journals of his passionate desire to serve Christ and carry the light of the Gospel to unreached people in the areas he found. He also saw himself playing a role in the fulfillment of prophecies related to the return of Christ.
"His own name, Christopher, which literally meant " Christ-bearer," was to him a clear indication that God had called him to do this," noted Peter Marshall and David Manuel, in their excellent book, The Light and the Glory. "He would quote in his journal such lines of Scripture as those in Isaiah, which meant so much to him:
'Listen to me, O coastlands, and hearken, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name...I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth" (Isa. 49:1, 6).
Under the Pax Mongolica or Mongol peace, Europeans had enjoyed peaceful passage from Europe to Asia along the Silk Road. But after the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople in 1453 establishing Sunni Islam as the state religion spread by jihad, the Silk Road became impossibly dangerous for Europeans to traverse.
As an alternative, Columbus was one of many seeking an ocean route to China, India and Japan, but only he was convinced he could travel west, by his calculations voyaging from the Canary Islands to Japan in only 2760 miles.
But when he sought funding for his expedition from the monarchs of Portugal, Spain, France and England, his plan was roundly rejected as uncertain, mad and "utterly impossible to any educated person."
However, Columbus was convinced that Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain—because of their devotion to Christ—were the ones God had chosen to bring the Gospel to undiscovered lands. They had been preoccupied with wresting Islamic control over southern Spain from the Moors.
After the Spanish monarchs rejected his proposal in 1490, Columbus sought refuge and advice at the Franciscan monastery, La Rabida. He poured out his heart one night to the Queen's confessor, Father Juan Perez, about his disappointments and dreams.
"On the following morning, Father Perez dispatched a messenger to the Queen, stating that he was convinced that God's hand rested upon Christopher Columbus, and urging Her Majesty to reconsider his proposal," Marshall noted.
In late 1491, Queen Isabella invited Columbus to join her in Santa Fe, outside the walls of Granada. When he arrived, the Moors were poised to surrender, and Columbus bore witness to the last Muslim foothold in Europe removed. The timing could not have been more fortuitous, because in the exhilaration of the moment, Ferdinand and Isabella finally agreed to his plan.
In preparing for his trip, Columbus noted that others had failed when they attempted to sail west from the Azores due to strong headwinds. But if he dropped below the Tropic of Cancer and headed west from the Canary Islands, he figured the wind would be at his back.
Columbus realized it should be possible to follow those winds to his destination, then head north and catch the prevailing winds back to Spain. "It was that simple, but no one had ever thought of it before," Marshall noted.
Columbus regarded it as a revelation from God.
After his three ships departed the Canary Islands on Sept. 8, 1492, they enjoyed smooth sailing for a time. At the start of each day, the crew would sing hymns.
None of the crew had voyaged more than 300 miles offshore, and after traveling 3,000 miles westward, doubts and fears began to creep in. Some among the crew became mutinous, and the captains of the Pinta and the Nina called an emergency conference. After traveling 31 days, the captains vented to Columbus about the mood of their crews.
"If we continue one more day we'll have a mutiny on our hands," they told him.
Columbus reluctantly agreed that if they did not find land after three more days, they could turn around and go back. Undoubtedly, Columbus turned to prayer, praying as he had never prayed before.
Two days later, Oct. 11, with hope nearly gone, a shout went up from the crew. They spotted a reed and a piece of wood that seemed to have been shaped by a human being. Then they spotted a small branch with roses floating on top of the water.
The Rose of Sharon had listened to their prayers and brought an answer from the one who seldom answers early but is never too late.
At 10 p.m., they saw a tiny light some distance ahead of them. After midnight, the electrifying cry from the Pinta went up, "Tierra! Tierra!" A lookout had spotted a small cliff, appearing in the moonlight as a silvery form along the water's edge.
Columbus was the first to go ashore later that morning and christened the island San Salvador—"Holy Savior" —and prayed:
"O Lord, Almighty and everlasting God, by Thy Holy Word Thou has created the heaven, and the earth, and the sea; blessed and glorified be Thy Name, and praised be Thy Majesty, which hath deigned to use us, Thy humble servants, that Thy holy Name may be proclaimed in this second part of the earth."
When Columbus encountered the natives of San Salvador, he was impressed by their healthy appearance "with no bellies on them"—nor any clothing. Columbus gave them gifts, "So that they might be well-disposed towards us, for I knew that they were a people to be delivered and converted to our holy faith rather by love than by force."
Columbus had his men erect a large wooden cross on each island they explored, "as a token of Jesus Christ our Lord, and in honor of the Christian faith."
They found the indigenous people peaceful and trusting, and Columbus gave firm orders that they should not be mistreated in any way.
The Santa Maria ran aground on Hispaniola after the crew fell asleep. But the disaster had a silver lining—or a gold one—because the nationals were in possession of masks of gold, gold bracelets and other jewelry made from the precious metal. Columbus named the area La Navidad and decided to build a fort there, leaving 39 men behind.
He thought that when he sailed back to Europe and returned in a year's time, the men would have discovered the mine supplying the gold, so that within three years, Ferdinand and Isabella would have enough gold to equip a great expedition of crusaders to free the Holy Land from the Muslims.
"For I maintained to your Highnesses that all profits from this enterprise should be devoted to the conquest of Jerusalem, and your Highnesses smiled and said that such was your will, and that even without these gains, you had the same earnest desire."
When Columbus returned to Europe in triumph and was ushered into the throne room of Ferdinand and Isabella, with marble columns bathed "in the light of a thousand candles, the court chroniclers record that his (Columbus') deeply tanned complexion, gray hair, long nose and noble bearing reminded them of a Roman senator."
The two sovereigns "did something no one had ever seen them do before: they rose to meet him. And when he knelt to kiss their hands, they raised him up and ordered a chair brought for him—another unprecedented honor."
Then Columbus opened a large chest filled with gold objects he had received trading with the nationals, and Ferdinand and Isabella fell to their knees, lifted their faces toward heaven, and everyone sang the Te Deum.
On his second voyage to the New World, he took 17 ships with 1200 men, including farmers, priests and soldiers, but when they reached La Navidad, all the 39 left behind had been killed—"some by each other, most of them by tribes of Indians other than those they had befriended."
It seems the 39 had been rapacious with the indigenous women, taking by force as many as they could. Instead of bartering for gold, they stole it. They began to quarrel among themselves, split into factions and were apparently ambushed by other tribes.
Columbus' high-minded ideas about spreading the light of the Gospel were undermined by wanton violence, the lusts of the flesh and the love of money. Worse, Columbus chose to turn a blind eye to the men's excesses in these areas.
Many men in his new expeditionary party contracted a strange disease never seen before, syphilis, from the native women, which they introduced to Spain on their return home.
Everything began to go wrong, with their food supplies deteriorating rapidly in the tropical heat, and mosquito-borne diseases felling the strongest among them. Columbus mistakenly ordered each of the natives to pay an annual tribute of gold or be punished, but there were no mines or fields of gold to be found. The natives were also conscripted into forced labor—virtual slavery—working on their own land.
After 14 years of Spanish colonization, the indigenous population of Hispaniola fell from 300,000 to only 20,000, a sad and deeply tragic outcome.
On Columbus' third voyage to the New World, things continued to go wrong. Rebellion had broken out among the colonists, with two armed camps on Hispaniola. Columbus mishandled the situation, and word got back to Spain, so the sovereigns sent a trusted officer, Francisco de Bobadilla, to restore order.
When Bobadilla arrived, Columbus opposed him, and the officer had Columbus and his brothers put in leg irons and sent home to stand trial. Ferdinand and Isabella were shocked to see their hero in chains when he returned in 1500.
The Prophecies of Columbus
During these months at home, Columbus began to write a Book of Prophecies based on his understanding of the Scripture. His writings reflected certain beliefs—common at the time—about events that must unfold before Christ returned:
The Great Commission must be fulfilled, with the spread of the Gospel to every nation, making disciples and baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Columbus believed the Garden of Eden would be rediscovered. When he first saw Venezuela in 1498, he thought Eden might be located in its mountains.
He argued a final crusade would dislodge the Muslims from the Holy Land prior to the return of Jesus to Jerusalem.
He also wrote that a last world emperor would lead the crusade against the Muslims and greet Christ at Jerusalem once the previous steps were completed.
The Holy Spirit prompted a Christian airline pilot to speed the departure of his Batik Air flight from Palu carrying 140 passengers, narrowly averting a potential disaster with the loss of many lives.
The epicenter of a powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck Friday, Sept. 28, in a mountainous area of Central Sulawesi, 48 miles from the provincial capital of Palu. Only minutes later, underwater landslides apparently triggered a massive 10-20 foot tsunami that swept through Palu and other coastal areas.
The waves were intensified by Palu's location at the end of a narrow bay. At least 1200 people perished and smaller villages in the surrounding area were entirely swept away. Because communication has been poor in remote areas, the death toll may increase dramatically.
"All day Friday I had been feeling unsettled and I didn't know why," Captain Icoze Mafella recounted at a Jakarta church, Duta Injil BIP, on Sunday, Sept. 30.
To displace his feelings of unease, Mafella—a strong Christian—began to loudly sing worship songs on his flight from Ujung Pandang to Palu. "Usually I only hummed, but that day I wanted to praise the Lord as best I could," Mafella said.
"I think you should make a CD of worship songs," his Muslim co-pilot told him, jokingly.
When they were about to land at the Palu Airport, the wind was unusually strong and Mafella "heard a voice in his heart" directing him to circle again before landing.
The Palu airport is squeezed between two mountain ranges, and some pilots refer to airports situated in this way as "valleys of death," so once again, Mafella felt prompted to be extra careful in landing and recited Psalm 23:
"I may walk through valleys as dark as death, but I won't be afraid. You are with me, and Your shepherd's rod makes me feel safe," he said.
After they landed, the Holy Spirit prompted Mafella once more that he needed to be quick. He instructed his crew to take a shorter, 20-minute break before the plane was due to take off for Jakarta via Ujung Pandang.
"I didn't even leave the cockpit and requested permission from the control tower to depart three minutes ahead of schedule," Mafella recounted.
He received approval for the expedited time for takeoff from Air Controller Anthonius Agung, and the crew prepared for departure.
Mafella felt such an urgency that he broke with standard flight procedures and took over some of the co-pilot's responsibilities to speed up their exit.
The moment arrived for takeoff, and the plane barreled down the runway. "I don't know why, but my hand kept pushing the lever, causing the plane to speed up as it took off," Mafella said.
As they sped down the airstrip, the massive earthquake began to strike Palu, and both pilots felt the plane sway noticeably to the left and right. The Muslim co-pilot glanced at Mafella with a look of fear in his eyes.
"If I had taken off three minutes later, I would not have been able to save the 140 passengers, because the asphalt on the landing strip was moving up and down like a curtain blowing in the wind," Mafella testified.
Several minutes after takeoff, he attempted to communicate with the control tower, but there was no response.
Then he looked down and saw an unusual sight. "The sea water on the coast was forming a very large hole so that the foundation of the sea bed could be seen," he reported. "I saw circles getting bigger and bigger. I thought it was very strange."
Prior to a tsunami, the shoreline often recedes dramatically, exposing areas that are normally submerged.
When the plane arrived in Ujung Pandang, he was told the shocking news that there had been an earthquake and tsunami in Palu.
The air controller, Anthonius Agung, 21, made sure their plane—the last to leave the airport — had safely taken off before he jumped from the crumbling control tower at the height of the quake.
"They said people tried to call him to get away from the tower, but he said, 'No, the aircraft isn't airborne yet.' Then the roof started collapsing, and he jumped," Mafella explained.
Tragically, Agung broke his legs, arms and ribs as a result of the fall and died from internal injuries on his way to the hospital.
"In this difficult time, during the split seconds of decisions, he waited for me until I was safe before he jumped. That's why I call him my guardian angel," Mafella said.
Many others are calling the air controller a hero—along with Mafella.
"It is important that we hear the voice of God," he said.
"And whatever happens we must be calm, not in a panic, so that we can clearly hear the voice of God coming to us by the Holy Spirit."
Join us on our podcast each weekday for an interesting story, well told, from Charisma News. Listen at charismapodcastnetwork.com.
Charged with being a spy, Czech missionary Petr Jasek endured a 14-month imprisonment in Sudan where he was tortured by fellow cellmates. But Jesus supernaturally imparted peace during his confinement and he became a bold witness, winning many to Christ.
In his role as the Africa regional director for Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), Jasek went to Sudan to document the persecution of Christians, which was happening in the Nubah Mountains in clashes between the government and rebels.
He was detained by the Sudanese police at Khartoum Airport in December 2015. It seems immigration staff found a duplicate passport Jasek carried for security purposes, which led to his immediate arrest and imprisonment.
"I arrived at this cell at about 1:30 a.m.," he told VOM. He found the cell overcrowded, with people covering the floor. "They had to squeeze a little bit so they would create some small room for me to lie down on the floor."
The conditions were sparse. "I had no blanket ... two extra T-shirts and one extra pants and a toothbrush, toothpaste and soap; that was all."
Guards refused him blankets or a mattress, because he was from the Czech Republic and they told him they thought he should be used to cold weather.
At 5:30 a.m. he was awakened by the Islamic call for prayer. All six of his cellmates began praying fervently. "They showed me a place behind them where I was supposed to stand while they were praying. The rule is that me as a Christian, I had to stay behind them so they would not look at me while they are praying."
After the prayers, they identified themselves as DAESH, the Arabic acronym for ISIS. All his cellmates were ISIS fighters!
"Two days later they started to openly torture me and beat me ... I was hit with their fists into my face many times. They called me 'filthy pig' or 'filthy rat.'"
One of the ISIS fighters barked an order: "Filthy pig, come here."
"I decided at first I would not respond to these rude names and when I did not respond, I got hit with a wooden stick they unscrewed from the sweeper that was there to clean the floor."
Jasek was hit on the head, shoulders and fingers or they kicked him in the stomach and back with their boots. "At that time I was really thinking about the Lord Jesus what He had to go through when He was arrested and they also were beating Him with a wooden stick and were ridiculing Him, slapping Him.
"I became like their slave," he told VOM. "I was really [made] to wash their clothes, wash all the dishes, clean the toilet with my bare hands. They were just making fun of me. I did not resist."
"I could clearly see the Lord Jesus and how He suffered for us."
Then Jesus imparted something to him that was amazing and unexpected, considering the circumstances. "I received a wonderful peace at that time and surprisingly, when I was physically attacked I was experiencing the greatest peace in prison time ever, all these 14 1/2 months.
"I could even pray during these beatings for my family members, I could pray for other fellow prisoners and I was not moved to the point when I used to be before, because I had this peace from the Lord at this time of the physical attacks on my body.
When Jasek began to exalt and and glorify the Lord's name during his beatings, this made them even more furious. "They decided to torture me even in much worse way.
"Eventually, they decided to do waterboarding to me. It's a way of torture where a person lays on his back and they cover his mouth and pour water, which gives you the feeling that you are getting drowned.
The Sudanese guards had not intervened to stop Jasek's torture, because they were intimidated by the ISIS fighters. "It is [thought] that if these Islamists get released they will get revenge on those guards."
Jasek didn't have access to a Bible during his captivity, so he meditated on Scriptures he memorized as a young person.
"I was literally asking the Lord that He will keep my mind sound and that I wouldn't lose my mind through the situation," Jasek said. "The Holy Spirit kept reminding me some of the verses that I had memorized. This was just enough for me, to give me enough strength everyday to pray," he told VOM.
He also thought about Jesus' teaching about loving enemies. He was startled when he heard his abusers weeping late at night when they could not sleep.
"They were crying. They were also missing their family members. They were also crying to God for help," he recounted. "That allowed me to easily continue to pray for them. I was praying for those fellow prisoners, the interrogators, for the guards, for the prosecutors and for the judge, that the Lord would reveal Himself as the Lord, Savior and God."
Remarkably, one of the guards intervened to prevent the waterboarding. Jasek said he felt the Lord used the guard to move him out of the cell.
"Later on I told the guard that he saved my life and we became close friends," Jasek said. "I gave my email address and I started to share the gospel with him. He was very passionate. I told him that if he ever makes it to Europe, he can stay at my house and we will take care of him."
Then Jasek was moved to another prison where conditions were even worse.
"We were squeezed in a small room—15 by 18 feet. There were sometimes 40 of us. That was the situation and I was able to lead 40 Eritrean refugees to Christ," he said. "It was like new revelation for me. I started to be courageous and openly shared the gospel with other fellow prisoners. Later on, that resulted in them putting me in solitary confinement again."
Shortly after being placed in solitary confinement, Czech consular officers were able to bring him a Bible.
"I didn't have to do anything else but read the Bible all day. I could not read the Bible all day because I could only read when there was enough light, which was about 8 [a.m.] ... until 4:30 p.m. I had to stand reading on the bars so that I could have enough light. I was so hungry for Scripture. I read from Genesis to Revelation within three weeks."
Jasek noted that he gained a profound "new understanding of Scripture."
He was eventually removed from solitary confinement and moved to a larger prison that can hold about 10,000 people.
"I went from solitary to a cell where there were like 100 people in one cell," he explained. "We were squeezed. There were 75 beds. Only 75 could have a bed and 25 had to stay on the floor."
Amazingly, guards at the new prison allowed him and two incarcerated Sudanese pastors to hold worship services.
"The first day I came to the chapel to spend time in Scripture with the Lord. They asked me to preach. I would preach once a week, sometimes twice a week," Jasek said. "Of course, they were monitoring us and they were reporting what we were teaching about. There were two other pastors from Sudan and we knew that nothing worse could happen to us."
Preaching in prison allowed Jasek and the other pastors to witness to "people that were hopeless."
"They were real criminals — murderers, rapists, thieves, drug dealers. It was such a wonderful time," Jasek said. "They responded to our teaching. We were just teaching the gospel. It was so wonderful to see the changed life of those who dedicated their lives to Christ."
In February 2017, he was granted a presidential pardon and Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir ordered his immediate release. He returned to the Czech Republic on Feb. 26, 2017.
During the time Jasek was interrogated by the jihadis in prison his wife was in a Bible study back home and the leader stopped the study to pray for the "situation that he is right now in."
"They stopped reading and started to pray for the Lord's presence over the situation," Jasek said. "When I came home, I realized that was exactly the time when I was on my knees before the Islamists and they were beating me. But I was experiencing a supernatural peace."
"I came for four days to Sudan. But I was there 445 days," Jasek told VOM. "When you think about all the hardships and seeing what the Lord was able to do through us, then what else can we say but the Lord's ways are much better than our ways."
"We know from the words of apostle Paul that everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. I felt like I received my life back. I was first threatened to be sentenced to be executed. [Then] later on, life imprisonment. Then, my life was returned back to me. I told the Lord, 'My life does not belong to me anymore. It belongs to the Lord.'"
One Sunday morning Kieran woke up and came running into her room. "I saw dad and he was in heaven. It was beautiful, Mom. He was with God," he said, breathlessly. (Courtesy)
Join us on our podcast each weekday for an interesting story, well told, from Charisma News. Listen at charismapodcastnetwork.com.
Her husband's untimely death from a rare form of cancer left her reeling. As she wallowed in grief, seeking God's presence, her five-year-old had several vivid dreams about heaven (and hell) that buoyed her faith in the Lord.
Uyen "Wyn" Tran and her husband, Ton, lived in Australia for 30 years following their arrival from Vietnam. He was a mechanical engineer and she a pharmacist, fulfilling their dreams in a land of fresh opportunities, when they received unexpected and devastating news.
In 2013, Ton was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer growing in his nose and throat. He was given four months to live. Ton was not a believer during their eight years of marriage, but two months before he died, he accepted Jesus as his Savior and Lord.
"By God's grace he lived a year," Wyn recounts. "When he passed away, I was so devastated. I believed with all my heart he would be healed." Some of their friends also believed he would be healed and even thought they saw a vision of him cured, testifying about his healing.
But it was not to be. On Feb. 13, 2014—one day before Valentine's Day—he passed into the arms of Jesus.
Because of Wyn's overwhelming confidence he would be healed, Ton's passing undercut her faith. "I held on to that (his healing) with every ounce of belief. When he actually passed away I couldn't figure it out. For three days I was in a daze," she says.
"Please give me a dream or vision," she cried out to God, desperate for His reassurance.
The dream came from an unlikely source—her 5-year-old son, Kieran.
On Sunday morning, Kieran woke up and came running into her room. "I saw dad and he was in heaven. It was beautiful, Mom. He was with God," he said, breathlessly.
She asked Kieran what God looked like. "He had long hair and looked like Thor, and He wore all white," he said. Kieran had recently seen the film Thor, starring Chris Hemsworth.
He said Ton was also dressed in white, with white shoes and a white hat, which Wyn thinks may refer to a halo. "It was like it was dad's birthday and everybody was singing and clapping to him."
"After that mommy, I was in daddy's room," he continued.
At first, Wyn thought he meant his earthly room, but he was referring to Ton's heavenly home. "I was sleeping beside daddy and when I woke up he fed me my favorite food and my favorite drink and we watched TV together," he said.
"When I got up to leave three fairies stopped me. They were really tall," he recounted.
"Why do you say they were fairies?" she asked.
"Because they had large, white wings. Then God the Father held me," Kierin said.
"How do you know it was God the Father?"
"He was invisible but I know He was God the Father."
In a second dream, Kierin described his dad's heavenly house as very large and brightly lit. "Daddy was with God," he said. "I was sitting with God and told Him a joke, and He laughed.
"I saw two holes in his wrists. One hole is here and one is here. He was bleeding, mommy, but he wasn't crying."
Wyn was intrigued by his description. First, she never told her son about Jesus being crucified through his wrists. Secondly, she always thought the nails that crucified Jesus went through the palms of His hands. But as she researched this, she discovered there are many who believe the Romans may have crucified Jesus through His wrists—something her 5-year-old would have no way of knowing.
In the dreams, Kierin also saw rainbows, animals and "insects that don't bite." He said the light in heaven comes from God.
The thing he remembers most about heaven is the peace, a concept his mother never taught him about and thinks would be difficult for most children his age to grasp.
"I have never explained peace to him," Wyn notes. "Everything he said was consistent with what Colton Burpo described in Heaven Is for Real," she said.
"It was like he read Colton's book, but he never had."
In the book there is a painting of Jesus by the talented young artist, Akiane, based on a vision she received from God. Colton Burpo said her painting was the closest to the Jesus he saw in his near-death experience of heaven.
Painting by Akiane Kramarik
Wyn showed Kierin several depictions of Jesus from the internet and asked if any of them resembled Jesus. He shook his head each time an image came up, but when he saw Akiane's painting he exclaimed, "Yes, that's Jesus!"
"There is no doubt in my mind that that is Jesus," Wyn says, marveling that several children around the world independently verify the image.
In his dream, Kieran also saw Satan fighting with God. He said Satan's mouth had a long tongue like a snake. "They were fighting, Mommy, and God won, and kicked Satan out of heaven," Kieran told her.
In Kieran's three dreams of eternity, the third dream was about hell. "It's really hot and it stinks, just horrible," Kieran told her. "There was a part that Jesus held my hand and said it was dangerous and He would not take me in there."
Wyn recorded her son describing each of the three dreams. She is glad now, because he has already forgotten a few of the details.
She believes his story may bolster people's faith. "I have used my story to tell people there is a heaven and hell," she says.
"Heaven is for real and God is there!" she exclaims.
3 Reasons Why you should read Life in the Spirit. 1) Get to know the Holy Spirit. 2) Learn to enter God's presence 3) Hear God's voice clearly! Go deeper!
Has God called you to be a leader? Ministry Today magazine is the source that Christian leaders who want to serve with passion and purpose turn to. Subscribe now and receive a free leadership book.
Miraculous Healings Breaking Out Among Syrian Muslims
A displaced Syrian mother and her child. (Courtesy/Christian Aid Mission)
Join us on our podcast each weekday for an interesting story, well told, from Charisma News. Listen at charismapodcastnetwork.com.
An extraordinary number of Muslims living in war-torn Syria have decided to follow Jesus after experiencing His love firsthand through miraculous healings and gifts from above.
Among the people living in or near the war zone, many are struggling to survive because there is simply not enough food, according to the Lebanon-based director of Christian Aid Mission.
One Syrian mother, identified as Majida, went to God in prayer after her family ran out of food.
"She prayed, 'Lord, I know You never let us down—we need food for our family,'" the director recounted. "As she was walking later that day, she found some money on the path in front of her. She was so pleased that God had answered her prayer in such a creative way that she started jumping up and down with joy."
Majida rushed to buy bread for her family, and when her neighbors asked where she had gotten the money, she said, "It was sent to me from God."
"They pressed her to tell them how that was possible, so she went on to share her faith and pray with them," the director said.
Desperate Muslims who hear about miraculous healings through Christians are drawn to find out more. A mother named Nivine brought her paralyzed, 2-year-old daughter to a meeting of one of the ministry teams affiliated with Christian Aid Mission.
The ministry leader informed Nivine that they pray in the name of Jesus.
"Whatever it takes," she replied, in tears. "Just make her better!"
"When we pray, we pray to a living God," the ministry leader told her. Then he explained the gospel to her and she accepted Christ.
After she was born again, Nivine started faithfully attending the meetings with her paralyzed daughter." The group continued to pray for the child in the following days.
About two weeks later, Nivine was worshipping at a meeting with her daughter next to her. She glanced down and noticed her daughter was smiling. Then she was shocked to see that her hands were moving. Could this be a dream? But her daughter continued to move.
It was true—she was healed by the power of the living God!
Another mother, Aveen, along with her husband, Mohamad, and their seven children, are part of a church in another town in Syria. Mohamad recently lost his job.
"They are weary of struggling through life," the director said. "What surprises us most about this family is that Aveen and Mohamad both come from very fanatical Muslim families that wish to stone them to death, and yet they still fearlessly display their strong love for the Lord. Despite the difficulty of surviving without work and the threat of persecution, they have the courage and desire to share the gospel with everyone around them."
The incidents of healing and salvation are a welcome contrast to the violence of the war-torn country. ISIS claimed responsibility for bomb blasts in Damascus on Feb. 21 that killed at least 87 people, according to the United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and car bombs in Homs killed at least 59 civilians.
On Feb. 22, Russian forces were suspected in an attack on a hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders that killed 25 people.
In the midst of such atrocities, a Muslim named Amad heard about a place in his town where people pray and some are healed. The worsening skin disease of one of his children drove him to visit.
"In a moment of bravery, he brought his son to the meeting place, and the believers there prayed for him," the ministry director said. "The next day the child woke up with nothing on his skin! It was undeniably a miracle. The whole family has come to believe in the Lord, and they want to be baptized."
Draw closer to God. Experience the presence of the Holy Spirit every month as you read Charisma magazine. Sign up now to get Charisma for as low as $1 per issue.
Has God called you to be a leader? Ministry Today magazine is the source that Christian leaders who want to serve with passion and purpose turn to. Subscribe now and receive a free leadership book.
Muslim Family Says Jesus Appeared to Them With a Specific Message
Above: A formerly Muslim family says they converted after Jesus told them about a coming missionary. (Courtesy/God Reports)
Join us on our podcast each weekday for an interesting story, well told, from Charisma News. Listen at charismapodcastnetwork.com.
Tyler Connell with the Ekballo Project has been touring college campuses around the U.S., sharing stories and video from his most recent trip to Middle East, where he documented a dramatic move of God among Muslims, particularly with refugees.
In the last few months, he and his team visited Harvard, MIT, Iowa State, Clemson, and the University of Georgia, among other campuses. "In every stop we saw the presence of Jesus break in to these college campuses and touch students, with bodies healed, people saved, and people giving their lives to serve in the mission field," Connell exclaims.
College students are amazed to learn what God is doing in Iraq and the surrounding region. "Jesus is moving in these Middle East nations," he says. "Many there are disillusioned and broken and just want to know the truth. Now more than ever there is a harvest among Muslims that has not been seen in history."
His first film chronicles a young missionary named Daniel (whose name has been changed for security reasons), 24, originally from Vermont. Two years ago Daniel moved to the Middle East to work with Syrian refugees.
"They go house to house and visit these Muslim families and sit with them and talk with them and find out their names, their stories, and love them. As trust is built, they begin to open up about the Gospel."
One afternoon Daniel walked into a white tent with a family of eight people inside. "Hi I'm Daniel and I'm here to tell you about Jesus," he announced.
He wasn't quite prepared for their reaction. "The family freaked out, they looked at each other, almost turned white. The father was excited, yelling."
What's going on? Daniel wondered.
The interpreter explained that the night before Daniel's visit the whole family was sitting in their tent having tea together and a man in white opened the door to their tent and stood at the entrance. The man was glowing.
"Hello, My name is Jesus and I am sending a man tomorrow named Daniel to tell you more about me." Then he disappeared.
So when Daniel arrived at their doorway and told them his name, they were completely undone. "They asked him to tell them more about Jesus and he gave then the Gospel and the whole family gave their lives to Jesus," Connell reports.
The father had been a part of the Free Syrian Army. "He had known bloodshed. He was a devout Muslim. This man and his family are now planting underground churches and are seeing a harvest among Muslims."
Recently the father was dismayed by a large cell phone bill and he asked his 15-year-old daughter about it.
"It's because I'm telling all our relatives in Saudi Arabia about Jesus," she said.
"We felt God told us to go to these places, the dark places, and capture what He is doing thru the lives of missionaries that have given their lives, left everything they had here to live overseas. We follow them with our camera and capture what God does and show it on college campuses to ignite students to live for something bigger than themselves."
In May 2015 his team spent eight days in the Middle East, going house to house among the refugees. "They were all Muslims but they all said they were disillusioned with Islam and they didn't know what they believed anymore," he observes.
"They asked, 'What is the truth?' There was a perfect cocktail of circumstances that caused them to be open to the preaching of the Gospel."
Going to the Middle East his team had to confront their fears. "We realized that intimidation and fear was only a smokescreen. On the other side of that fear was our greatest breakthrough of joy and laying down our lives and seeing Jesus move like we never imagined."
In another Syrian refugee family, Connell felt God's presence break through in a powerful way. "The joy that broke out among these people was incredible," he notes. "Jesus' presence was stronger than I have ever felt, in that little dirty room, with cat pee everywhere."
"There was about 25 people in there and Jesus' presence was stronger than any conference, any prayer room, any camp-high moment. Jesus was there in the middle of the desert, in the dirt, with Muslims. He is attracted to the broken hearted, the contrite, the desperate. The King of Heaven was right there with the poor in spirit."
Over the last three years, Connell and his team have responded to an assignment from God to capture what He is doing in the most unreached parts of the world, the 10-40 window. "This window has the three giants of Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. Currently there are 2.9 billion unreached, who have yet to hear that Jesus is the way to the Father."
NEW from CHARISMA:Do you want to encounter the Holy Spirit and hear God speak to you? Increase your faith, discover freedom, and draw near to God! Click Here
YEAR IN REVIEW: When Boxing Champion Manny Pacquiao Saw Angels and Heard God's Voice
Join us on the new C-Pop podcast where Taylor and Jessilyn discuss, debate and sometimes deride pop culture with a strong sense of humor and a focus on Christ. Listen at charismapodcastnetwork.com.
Editor's Note: 2015 was a big year in the church—and in the world. This week we're looking at some of the biggest stories of the year, selected based on feedback from our readers. Thanks for reading Charisma News this year and stay tuned as we continue expanding our coverage in 2016 to include more spiritual insights on the stories that matter most to you.
This article was published April 30th.
He grew up poor in the Philippines and went to work at an early age to support his mother after his parents separated. At 14 he began to fight, rising through the ranks to win 10 world titles. But the current WBO welterweight champion's bold profession of faith in Jesus Christ is what sets him apart.
"God has a purpose," he told Fox News. "He brought me back into His kingdom to use me to glorify His name, to let people know there is (a) God who can raise the people from nothing to something."
Surprisingly, he and noted quarterback Tim Tebow grew up in the same town on the island of Mindanao, in the southern Philippines.
Dec 8, 2012; Las Vegas, Nevada; "Manny and Juan Manuel Marquez box during their welterweight bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena." Credit: Joe Camporeale—USA TODAY Sports
Raised Roman Catholic, Manny strayed from the church as he rose to fame in his boxing career. "I went to church on Sunday, but from Monday through Saturday I was in the bar drinking," he told CBN. "I was gambling. Careless words came out of my mouth. I committed adultery. I didn't care."
But one day he read a letter that gripped his heart. "I received a letter from my mother saying my sister stopped going to school because I stopped sending them the money. I cried, blaming myself for spending all the money on alcohol."
That same night in 2011, not long after his third fight with Juan Manuel Marquez, God visited Manny in a powerful dream. "I heard the voice of God in my dream. His voice was 10 times louder than thunder. He said to me, "My child, my child, why have you gone astray?" he recounted to CBN.
In the dream, which unfolded in a beautiful forest amid flowers, he also saw two angels, according to an interview with The Blaze. "When I heard the voice of God I felt like I died. ... I was in the middle of the forest and I was kneeling and praying with my face on the ground and then I saw a light, a very white light and I heard the voice."
He said the angels had "white, long, big wings" and said that God revealed to him "about the end of time."
"I felt I was melting when I heard the voice of God. It was the turning point in my life. God spoke to me and he told me what He wanted me to do and I had to follow (Him)."
For a while, Manny tried to ignore the dream. But one day he felt compelled to pick up the Bible and begin reading it for himself. "I forgot about that dream, but when I started reading the Bible, the first verse I read said that God talked to a man through dreams. I realized, wow, my dream was real," he toldCBN.
As a result of the power of God's Word, the working of the Holy Spirit in his heart and the compelling dream, Manny surrendered his life to Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
"I'm happy because I found the right way, salvation, born again," he told The Blaze. "We are required to be born again, all of us. Christ said unless we are born again we cannot enter the kingdom of God. So it's very important to me. Jesus Christ said: 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.' There is no other way. The only way is through Jesus."
"When you accept Jesus Christ into your heart as your Lord and Savior, you have eternal life."
Many changes unfolded in his life as he began to follow Jesus, according to Manny's trainer, Freddie Roach. "Manny has made a lot of changes in his life. He's more disciplined in his life. He sold his nightclub. He doesn't drink anymore. He doesn't chase girls anymore. Him and his wife are getting along a lot better now, him and his family. He's become a much better person," Roach told the Wall Street Journal.
The most important thing to Manny has become his faith in Jesus. "When you have Jesus in your life, when you have God in your life, the things in this world are not important to your heart. What is important is God in your heart."
Manny stays in God's Word with daily Bible study. "Keep this book of the law always on your lips. Meditate on it and be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and satisfied," he told CBN. "When you keep the words of God in your mouth and your lips and your heart and your mind you will be guided by the Holy Spirit.'
Manny won a seat in the House of Representatives a few years ago, representing the province of Sarangani. He was re-elected in 2013 to the 16th Congress of the Philippines. Some believe he may be a candidate for president of the Philippines one day.
"The Lord has blessed me [with] everything I have ... [my] political career and serving the Lord and being a boxer—and I believe God has a purpose," he told The Blaze. "It is (beyond) my expectation and imagination. I think it's time to proclaim His name, not mine."
NEW from CHARISMA:Do you want to encounter the Holy Spirit and hear God speak to you? Increase your faith, discover freedom, and draw near to God! Click Here
