Is God giving people in closed countries dreams and visions to bring them to faith in Christ?

Acts 10 records two visions that eventually lead to the salvation of a man and his household. First, a centurion in Caesarea named Cornelius receives a vision from God. In it, an angel instructs him to send for a man named Peter (Simon Peter, an apostle of Jesus), who was in Joppa. He obeys the vision and sends servants to Joppa. Meanwhile, Peter receives a vision from God that instructs him to go with the men Cornelius sent. Peter also obeys the vision and arrives at Cornelius’s house and shares the gospel. As a result, Cornelius and his entire family receive Jesus Christ as Savior. What an amazing and miraculous account!

In recent years, there have been reports of people coming to faith in Christ with the help of dreams and visions. The reports are most common in “closed” countries, places where access to the Bible and the gospel is limited.

The stories are inspiring: a missionary’s car breaks down, and as he is waiting for help, a man approaches him and asks, “Are you God’s messenger?” Upon asking a few questions, the missionary learns of a dream the man had that told him to go to that exact location to find “God’s messenger.” The missionary returns with the man to the village and proclaims the gospel, and the entire village comes to faith in Christ.

A Muslim man has a vision of a cross and Jesus hanging there. He notices a phone number written on the cross. Curious about what the vision could be, the man calls the number, which happened to be the number of a Christian who is able to share the gospel of Christ with the man.

A woman leaves the Muslim faith, but she retains a bitterness toward all religious people. She asks God for guidance and help. One night she has a dream where she sees a shepherd near an empty tomb. As the shepherd walks toward the woman, she notices He holds a loaf of bread. He breaks the bread and offers some to her, saying, “Take, eat, this is my body.” The woman had never heard those words before, and she had never read the Bible. But she figures a Christian might be able to decipher the meaning. She seeks out someone she knows to be a Christian, and he shows her in the Bible that the words belong to Jesus. He explains the gospel, and the woman accepts Jesus as her Savior.

What are Bible-believing Christians to do with miraculous claims like these? First, we should recognize that such events are entirely possible. As seen in Acts 10, God has worked in this way—using a vision to prompt someone to seek out a gospel preacher. The apostle Paul’s conversion in Acts 9 also involved a vision of Jesus and a gospel preacher, Ananias, who later ministered to Paul. God at times worked through dreams and visions in the Bible, and there is no reason He could not do so today.

Second, we need to approach claims of dreams and miracles with an appropriate amount of discernment. It is unlikely that all such claims are true, even if the results appear to be good. People of false religions also report converts due to dreams, visions, prophecies, etc. Satan is a counterfeiter (2 Corinthians 11:14), and the Bible declares that miraculous revelations can be faked (Ezekiel 13:7; 1 John 4:1–6).

Third, when we hear of such amazing miracles—even if they are verified as true—we need to refocus our attention on the Word of God. Only the Word of God never fails (1 Peter 1:25). Only the Word of God is inerrant, infallible, and authoritative. As Jesus said, if people will not listen to the Word of God, they will not listen even if the most amazing miracles are performed in front of them (Luke 16:31).

Finally, we should worship and praise God for the amazing ways that He works. People have been brought to faith in Christ through finding a Bible in the trash, overhearing a child’s singsong chant, and hearing a sermon. It’s possible that, at times, God also uses dreams and visions to encourage people toward faith. Whatever causes a sinner to repent, we should be rejoicing with the angels (Luke 15:10).