Before Ahmed Joktan walked into a church in Auckland, New Zealand, its congregation had been praying for someone like him.
Across town, the son of a Saudi Islamic scholar would experience a dream that sent him searching for truth. Following that search would eventually put him at the wrong end of his father’s AK-47, according to an account Glenn Beck recently shared.
Beck recounted Joktan’s conversion as a testimony to God’s power to transform hearts.
“He’s into changing people’s hearts, and that’s what changes culture, and that’s what changes politics,” Beck said.
Joktan grew up in Saudi Arabia, where his father served as a mufti, an Islamic legal scholar. By 13, he had memorized the Quran, Beck said. His medical studies later took him to Auckland to learn English so he could understand his textbooks.
Then came the dream.
According to Beck, Joktan saw his hotel balcony doors swing open as brilliant light flooded the room. A man appeared, beckoning him and directing him to a building with white pillars where he would find the truth.
Joktan awoke terrified. He arranged a flight home.
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But after hearing his account, a Christian English teacher suggested he had seen Jesus. Later, walking through Auckland, Joktan spotted the building from his dream.
It was a church.
Inside, Pastor Brian Johnson spent three days discussing sin, salvation and Jesus with him, Beck recounted. Joktan resisted reading the Bible until he encountered John 14:6, where Jesus declares Himself the way, the truth and the life.
The word “truth” connected with what he had heard in the dream. Joktan chose to repent and follow Christ.
Back in Saudi Arabia, he concealed an Arabic New Testament among his textbooks. When his family discovered it, his brothers severely beat him, Beck said. His father then pointed an AK-47 at him and demanded he burn the book.
Joktan burned the Bible. His faith survived.
Beck said the family disowned Joktan, who lost 13 teeth in the violence. He eventually returned to Auckland and later co-founded the evangelistic ministry Mecca to Christ.
Only afterward did he learn what had preceded his arrival at the church.
“Not for a revival in general. Not for the lost in general,” Beck said of the congregation’s prayers.
For two weeks, they had been fasting and praying for an opportunity to share the gospel with someone from Saudi Arabia in New Zealand.
Then Joktan walked through their door.
Beck recounted that although Joktan’s family removed his name from their family tree, he declared that “my name is written in the book of life.”
James Lasher, a seasoned writer and editor at Charisma Media, combines faith and storytelling with a journalism background from Otterbein University and ministry experience in Guatemala and at the LA Dream Center. A Marine Corps and Air Force veteran, he is the author of The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man’s Commentary and a contributor to Charisma magazine. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
