PRAYING DOWN MIRACLES -- An Article by Bruce Steinbaum

Researchers contend that 80 percent of new Christians in South Asia come to Christ as a direct result of some kind of supernatural encounter. Church planters among the Gamit people of Gujarat, India, say that membership jumped from zero to 60,000 in ten years as a result of hundreds of miraculous healings. The Chinese church is growing faster than any other in the world. In one province, 2,000 new churches were planted in three years. Why? Most observers believe the answer lies in the Chinese propensity for prayer -- a habit formed among those who have grown up with no hymnals, few Bibles, and much suffering.

In Saudi Arabia, some Christian nurses were asked to pray for a thirteen year old girl dying of leukemia. The girl was visited by the Lord one night, though she knew nothing about Jesus. The next day, she announced to her astonished parents that she had met her Healer, and the entire family is now following Christ.

The Gospel has penetrated even Islam's holiest city. In 1993, several Saudi believers conducted a prayer march around the periphery of Mecca, site of the annual Hajj or pilgrimage. They asked God to establish a church in the city and to reveal Himself to the two million truth-seeking pilgrims who visit the city every year to pay homage to Allah at the Ka'bah shrine. According to at least two sources, Jesus made a special guest appearance at the 1994 Hajj -- declaring to a group of Nigerian Moslems that He was indeed the One they were seeking.

Some Kurds reportedly have come to Christ as a result of intercessory prayer and supernatural dreams and visions. One of these new Christians was converted a few years ago in Turkish Kurdistan. An avowed atheist and the editor of an influential Marxist magazine, this man was arrested in 1981. A Christian who gave him a New Testament prayed that Jesus would reveal Himself in a series of dreams. At their next meeting, the man became a Christian and announced that Jesus is the One who cleanses sin.

In Tunis, as in other parts of the Arab world, God is employing dreams, visions, and miraculous healings to draw truth-seekers to Himself. One dramatic example of this phenomenon involved a group of Sufi Moslems in North Africa who were chanting and dancing before Allah in hopes that he might reveal himself. They say that Jesus appeared and declared that He is the true God.

According to missionaries in the region, many other people living in the isolated reaches of the Sahara Desert have reported similar visions of the Lord, and they are requesting Scriptures so they can learn more about Christ.

In Egypt, a Moslem military officer said he was visited by Jesus Christ in a dream. Upon waking, he immediately sought out Christians in his unit to see if they could provide him with a copy of God's Word. Finding only one believer in his officer corps, he quietly asked if he could borrow the man's Bible. In a manner reminiscent of Ananias' reluctant ministry to Saul of Tarsus, the Christian cautiously agreed. After several days of pouring over the Gospels, the officer became a disciple of Jesus. According to reports out of Cairo, this man has become a bold witness.

A team of Christians reported that a Pakistani Moslem recently had a dream about a Bible descending out of heaven. While he gazed at the book in amazement, the man said he heard the voice of Jesus declaring, "This is My Word -- obey it." Similar reports of dreams and visions are commonplace inside Pakistan.

Youth With A Mission leaders (a missionary group) in the Krasnodar region recently received a plea for help from one of the only Christians living among the Moslem Adegyi people. She lamented that Moslems were flooding the land with Islamic literature and warned that the time was short to reach her people. One leader in the missions group mentioned that he had dreamed about the Adegyis the night before. Realizing that these were signals from the Holy Spirit, YWAM launched a series of literature and street campaigns in the Adegyi region. As a result, a church has been planted.

In Cuba, a divine visitation of healing descended upon a small town about 40 miles outside the capital. Everyone who walked into the church there was healed. As news of this spread, people from other towns began arriving. They too were healed. Eventually, people from all over the Island were coming and being healed. This went on for six weeks. Tens of thousands were saved. Many churches were planted, and interest in the Gospel rose nationwide because everyone had heard the news. It was so powerful that even the Communist government could not deny these events. (Most of these healings were a result of laying on of hands.)