Ismail, a former Muslim from Turkey living in Melbourne, Australia, said he unwittingly unleashed demonic bat creatures during his time dabbling with the occult (totally unconnected to his practice of Islam). Allah could not banish these demonic bat creatures from his children’s dreams, but after seeing a vision of Jesus Christ, Ismail defeated the dark forces in Jesus’s name.
“I wanted to know the unknown about God, about the spiritual realms … is witchcraft from God or is it from the devil?” Ismail told CBN News in a video interview. He sought out a friend in the occult, and this reportedly invited demons into his life. (The demons had no connection to his lifelong observance of Islam before this occult dabbling.) One particular moment stood out.
“I’m looking at the coffee cup, and I’m seeing this creature in the coffee cup,” Ismail told CBN. “They were king-of human-y, kind of demonic, bats kind of looking creatures, really long fingernails. Every time when they were flapping their wings, there was smoke coming out of them. On the last day when I was actually leaving his house, he said, ‘Look, two of them are going with you!'”
Ismail said these demons tormented his two sons for four years. The boys drew sketches of the demonic bat creatures with red eyes. One night particularly stood out to the father.
The sons “came to our bed and they started shaking. My kid, he was on the bed and he was throwing fists. He was sitting on his bed and screaming — 10, 15, 20 minutes — I can’t remember. We couldn’t wake him up. I lay him down flat and I said, ‘What’s happening?’ He’s still there, still didn’t wake up. I freaked out.”
Ismail recalled praying to Allah and the Muslim prophets, but nothing worked. Frustrated, he sought out an Iranian Christian friend who brought him to a Bible study. There, Ismail surrendered his life to Jesus Christ and experienced a vision.
“I’m seeing this figure, He’s holding his hands up like this towards me,” the former Muslim recounted. “I could tell he was smiling. All I was seeing was this light coming from everywhere. It just was amazing. And actually, I have fallen in love with Him. That’s how I converted.”
After the vision, the former Muslim said he started praying in Jesus’s name for the demons to disappear. “Every night I was praying. I was saying, ‘In the Name of Jesus Christ, you have no authority here. You demons leave in Jesus’s Name!'”
Since that time, his children have not seen the demons in nightmares anymore. Ismail himself said he hungered for the Word and started reading the Bible. He found it much more reassuring than the Quran.
“There’s nowhere in the book, nobody can find anywhere where Allah says, ‘If you do this you will go to heaven.’ There is only one way and that is if you get martyred in the way of jihad,” the former Muslim said.
“I now know the truth. Jesus is as real as you and me. He has created us. And only through His blood, we can come to God the Father. And He is an amazing, compassionate, graceful, forgiving God,” Ismail declared.
Many former Muslims have recounted seeing visions before accepting Jesus Christ. Author Nabeel Qureshi saw Jesus after investigating the truth of Christianity, and came to believe. While skeptical Westerners might doubt these stories, many former Muslims risk being ostracized and even killed by their families and old communities.
Whether or not former Muslims are moved by the exorcism of demonic bat creatures, visions of Jesus Christ, or intellectual arguments about the reliability of the Gospels, their dedication to Jesus is inspiring. In most cases, spiritual battles and visions come in the context of learning more about Christianity — they accompany intellectual discoveries, rather than preventing them. If Jesus really is the truth that sets people free (John 8:32), learning about Him will enable the defeat of spiritual darkness.
Ismail claims to know that personally, and he is far from alone.
Watch his interview below.
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