On the same night that Naeem Fazal saw Jesus in a dream, he converted from Islam to Christianity.
Today, he is the founding pastor of Mosaic Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Find out more of his transformational story on this episode of GPS: God. People. Stories.
You can connect with us through email at gps@billygraham.org or at Billy Graham Radio on Facebook.
On the same night that Naeem Fazal saw Jesus in a dream, he converted from Islam to Christianity.
Today, he is the founding pastor of Mosaic Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Find out more of his transformational story on this episode of GPS: God. People. Stories.
You can connect with us through email at gps@billygraham.org or at Billy Graham Radio on Facebook.
Naeem Fazal:
00:00:00 All of a sudden I found myself just sitting on my bed with my eyes open, staring into this presence. It was like, I’m Jesus, and your life is not your own.
MUSIC STARTS
Jim Kirkland: On the same night that Naeem Fazal saw Jesus in a dream, he converted … from Islam to Christianity.
Naeem:
00:00:18 The next morning I woke up and I began to be convinced that I had found purpose and that God was calling me to do His work and really jumped into that.
Jim: Naeem is the founding pastor of Mosaic Church in Charlotte, North Carolina—and we have his transforming story here on this episode of GPS: God. People. Stories., an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. I’m Jim Kirkland.
Growing up Muslim, Naeem had very little understanding of Jesus. Billy Graham often shared about the person and nature of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and that He provides the only way to salvation.
Billy Graham:
00:00:58 Jesus Christ—this pure, this wonderful, the greatest person that ever lived, the holiest person that ever lived, the Son of the living God—became sin. God gave His Son, Jesus Christ, because He loved you.
Jim: You’ll hear more later from Billy Graham about Jesus, or you can learn more right now about who God is and His Son, Jesus Christ, by paying a visit to our website. The address is FindPeaceWithGod.net. Once you’re there, you can ask questions about who Jesus is, spiritual questions that you’re hunting for an answer, and simply learn more about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ¬—to be a Christian. The website address is FindPeaceWithGod.net. Now, if you’d rather talk with someone right now, we have a phone number where someone is waiting 24 hours a day, seven days a week to speak with you. It’s the Billy Graham prayer line. Its number: 855-255-7729. That’s 855-255-PRAY.
Intro: GPS: God. People. Stories.
MUSIC TRANSITION
Jim: Naeem Fazal is a Pakistani who grew up with his four siblings in a traditional Muslim household in Kuwait. When his oldest brother, Mahmood, went to college in the United States … and while there, became a Christian. That decision made Naeem furious.
Naeem:
00:02:26 The first year after he came back in the summer, he told me and my sisters that he was a Christian, and that just threw us for a loop, but he was so passionate about it. He was going tell Mom and Dad, and I just lost it. I actually got so enraged, I threatened to kill him, and I pinned him against the wall, and said all kinds of awful things, and trying to kill him, and it just scared him and so he didn’t tell Mom and Dad.
Jim: After Naeem’s brother returned to America, Naeem and the rest of his family endured the chaos of the first Gulf War—that was during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Naeem and his dad were even held at gunpoint. After the country’s liberation, his life became a little more normal.
Naeem:
00:03:11 Right after that, my dad was like, What do you want to do? Because I had not graduated high school. He said, I can get you a tourist visa to come see your brother, and maybe you can get into college there.
Jim: Naeem took his father’s offer, but not without some hesitation. He was still not happy with his brother’s decision to betray his Muslim faith and become a Christian. So
when Naeem moved to South Carolina to start attending the College of Charleston with Mahmood, he wanted nothing to do with his brother, but Mahmood didn’t feel the same way about Naeem.
Naeem:
00:03:43 He started inviting me to FCA, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and I was not interested at all. He was like, Oh, there’s really cute girls there. And I was like, OK, I’m interested, you know, so I would show up—and this was like, just three weeks into it that I began hearing the Gospel, the idea of a personal God who pursues us, that you can have a relationship with the God who created you, and that He sent His Son, Jesus, a part of Himself to redeem humanity.
Jim: Naeem didn’t believe a word of it. Still, Mahmood tried to convince him to keep his heart open to God.
Naeem:
00:04:17 My brother was like, It’s true, and this God is pursuing you, and He’ll reveal Himself to you if you ask Him to, which was so crazy for me, because in Islam, you’re not really connected to God. You don’t have a relationship with Allah. You just do your thing. You do the ceremonies and then you do the routines. It’s religion. Just do the things he wants you to do, and if you’re good with him, he’s good with you. There was nothing personal. But then my brother tells me about this, and the people are talking to me about this Gospel, and so yeah, one night at FCA I was like if this is true, I want to know. And, three nights later, I’m in my room and something supernatural happens.
Jim: That “something” happened as Naeem was trying to fall asleep. He sensed someone—or something—strange was in the room. His heart started racing, but he didn’t physically see what was there.
Naeem:
00:05:12 All of a sudden something grabbed me and pinned me to my pillow, and something sat on my legs as well, and I was pretty much paralyzed. I looked around trying to figure out what was happening, but I was in so much shock. I started yelling and screaming after my brother, and I couldn’t hear myself say anything. Then I noticed there was a sense of evil that I’ve never felt before. And finally the door did open up and in walks this thing. I didn’t know what this thing was—and now looking back or processing afterwards, I realized that it was a demon—but this thing, this huge figure started walking up towards me and said, I’m going to kill you. You’re going to die tonight.
Jim: As the figure got closer to Naeem, he began to wonder, What in the world have I done to deserve this?
Naeem:
00:05:56 I was thinking, Oh, no. I ticked off someone upstairs, you know, I made fun of Jesus, and I had done that, so I was like, Maybe this is Jesus. He looks nothing like the pictures, but maybe this is Jesus. And then I thought, maybe this is Allah, the God of Islam, because I doubted and I went to FCA, and so maybe that’s the problem.
Jim: As Naeem puts it, “I started really freaking out.” In fact, Naeem thought he was about to die.
Naeem:
00:06:21 I literally started praying to any God out there, you know, Allah, Buddha … And then, I thought of Jesus briefly, but then as it reached my bed, it disappeared and this whole thing let go.
Jim: The experience left Naeem stunned. He got out of bed slowly … then ran to his brother’s bedroom and woke him up.
Naeem:
00:06:41 I was like, What did you do? Did you put something in my drink? What happened? I told him what happened to me, and he looked at me like, Oh, this is all real.
Jim: Naeem had hoped Mahmood would just say he was having a bad dream, and that demons didn’t exist—but that’s not what he said.
Naeem:
00:07:00 He tells me Jesus encountered demons in the Bible. I’m like, I’m sorry, what? And he said, Yeah, there’s stories in the New Testament about Jesus and demonic stuff. And I’m like, Are you kidding me? I had never read the Bible, so I had no idea. I just thought, you know, the Quran and the Bible are basically religious texts that no one really knows what they’re saying.
Jim: For the next few minutes, Naeem’s brother told him what God might be doing in his life. He shared with Naeem the importance of starting a relationship with Jesus Christ. But Naeem wasn’t sure he was ready to make that decision.
Naeem:
00:07:37 I’m like, I don’t know, man. All I know is there’s something invisible trying to kill me, and I need some help. Then he said something that I’ll never forget, he said, There’s only one Person I know that has authority over demons and angels.
Jim: That person is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And when Naeem realized that and accepted it as truth, he was willing to surrender his life to Jesus. So, Mahmood offered to pray with him.
Naeem:
00:08:05 I said, Hold on one second before we do this, I got to say something. Growing up, I spoke so many different languages, but when you pray in Islam, you only pray in Arabic, and so all my prayers to Allah was in Arabic, which is not even my first language, and it was just sections of the Quran. So I just wanted this relationship to be really pure. So I prayed, said it out loud before my brother led me. I just said, Jesus, I don’t know who You are, so I can’t say You’re the Lord of my life, or, I love You, but if You’ll save me from this, I’ll give You my whole life.
Jim: Then, Mahmood asked Naeem to pray with him, too.
Naeem:
00:08:47 He was so excited. And I was like, OK, now what? And he was like, All right, man, I’ll see you in the morning. And I’m like, I’m not going back in that room. He was like, No, no, no, you go back in the room, you’re good now. I’m like, I’m not good; I’m not good. He’s just like, No, you just prayed to Jesus, and you’ve got the spirit of God in you. And I’m like, Bro, I just met Jesus. I don’t even know His last Name.
Jim: Mahmood continued to insist that Naeem just go back to bed, and as he was insisting, he handed him a copy of a New Testament Bible. “Just read it, you’ll be fine,” he told Naeem. An hour later, Naeem went back to his bedroom.
Naeem:
00:09:26 So I go back in the room and I start reading, and when you’re reading the Bible or reading anything and you’re scared to death, everything makes a sound, you know? So I’m freaking out at this point. Finally I just get really frustrated. I put the Bible down, I go shut off all the lights. I come back, sit on my bed, and I just look up and I say, Jesus, if I die tonight, it is Your fault. I was losing my mind. I was like how is this possible? I just went through a war, been held at gunpoint, survived. I’m a refugee. Now I’m having demon problems, like, what is wrong? What’s going on with me? And so I put the covers over my head and I thought that was it.
Jim: He was wrong. The next thing Naeem knew, he was being shaken. He felt like something—or someone—once again was trying to get his attention.
Naeem:
00:10:15 All of a sudden I found myself sitting on my bed with my eyes open, staring into this presence. It was like, I’m Jesus, and your life is not your own. And I can’t tell you how surreal and how supernatural that experience was because it was like I was looking at Him, but I was inside of Him, and I’ve never felt peace so aggressive. He’s intoxicating. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of Him, but I couldn’t even keep my eyes open.
Jim: The figure of Jesus was glowing a concentrated white light and Naeem heard Jesus repeat Himself. But Naeem says his own body could not withstand the presence of God … and he simply fell asleep. The next morning, Naeem knew he was called to ministry, only problem was he did not know what that meant. So, he was determined to find out.
Naeem:
00:11:08 I began to be convinced that I had found purpose and that God was calling me to do His work and really jumped into that.
Jim: For the next three years, Naeem felt called to put all his focus on his relationship with God and to learn more about being a Christian.
Naeem:
00:11:27 So I didn’t really date. I didn’t do anything. I just spent a lot of time focusing on the Scriptures and finding out all kinds of things.
Jim: Naeem was still a college student at the time. He got connected with some strong mentors and became deeply involved with a local church. He interned at the church and eventually became ordained and joined the church’s staff. This change of direction in his life was pretty surprising to Naeem.
Naeem:
00:11:55 I didn’t realize that I was going to be this communicator cuz I have learning disabilities and reading is hard for me.
Jim: The Bible is full of stories of people with weaknesses who were used by God. That is exactly what happened to Naeem. He led one of his sisters to Christ and started a gathering in Charleston for international college students—a gathering that grew steadily.
At this point, though, Naeem was no longer doing ministry by himself. In 1999, he married Ashley, a young woman he had first met at one of those Fellowship of Christian Athletes meetings that his brother begged him to attend.
Naeem:
00:12:36 We started wondering if God was calling me and my wife to reach a more diverse people group, and what would that look like? We did some research and found out that Charlotte, North Carolina, was well on its way to become highly diverse ethnically. And so we said, OK, well, we’d call it mosaic, a mosaic of people, and so we launched and we did it.
Jim: Naeem and Ashley launched Mosaic Church in 2006. Since then, he’s helped lead many people—including Muslims—to begin a relationship with Jesus. Naeem recognizes it’s not always easy for someone to make that decision—for Muslims, it can be especially difficult.
Naeem:
00:13:16 It’s a huge challenge because Islam is more of a global nationality than a global religion. What I mean by that is that Muslims feel a sense of community, and leaving that community is extremely difficult. It’s an Eastern culture, which means that your personal self is not the highest calling. There’s a corporate responsibility, which means that when you do something, your family’s affected by it. Your neighborhood is affected by it. Everything is affected by it. If you are a Muslim in a Muslim country, in Muslim neighborhood, in a Muslim family, and you convert, all of a sudden you’re not doing the Muslim things. One, you’re going to be punishable by imprisonment or by death—definitely persecution. So that’s why the U.S. government gave me a religious asylum to stay in the country.
Jim: Naeem will tell you: Any cost to follow Jesus Christ is well worth it.
Naeem:
00:14:18 The message of Jesus is: Jesus is proof that God loves us. So that is extremely different in that God is pursuing humanity because we could never reach Him. We could never reach nirvana. We could never reach paradise, Jannah they call it in my language—Heaven. So my hope is that people would move into a deeper, rich understanding that hey, there is a God who is so expansive and there’s so much to know about Him, that there would be a longing towards getting to know Him more.
MUSIC TRANSITION
Jim: You can’t get to Heaven by your own doing. If you aren’t sure you’ll go to Heaven when you die, you can be sure today, by starting a relationship with Jesus Christ. To learn more about that, go to FindPeaceWithGod.net. Or call and talk with someone at the 24-hour Billy Graham prayer line: 855-255-7729. That’s 855-255-PRAY.
In just a moment, you’ll hear an update from Naeem about his father and his siblings.
MUSIC STARTS
Voice-over: You’re listening to GPS: God. People. Stories., a podcast production of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Billy Graham:
00:15:46 Who is Jesus Christ? Who is He? Why after 2,000 years do millions of people worship Him?
Voice-over: Billy Graham …
Billy Graham:
00:15:56 The Bible claims, first of all, that He’s the creative Christ. “All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.” Then, secondly, He’s the compassionate Christ. The Scripture says He went about doing good. He’s not only the creative Christ and the compassionate Christ, but He’s the crucified Christ. The Scripture says He was made a curse. He was made sin for us. Jesus Christ—this pure, this wonderful, the greatest person that ever lived, the holiest person that ever lived, the Son of the living God—became sin. And because of the cross, God offers forgiveness, justification, peace, joy, a new nature, eternal life, the Holy Spirit to help you live every day, and eternal glory. When you die, you go to Heaven. And you can know it before you leave here. God gave His Son, Jesus Christ, because He loved you.
Jim: There’s no need to wait to trust God. You can know Him today by visiting our website: FindPeaceWithGod.net. Once you’re there, click on “Begin a Relationship With Jesus.” That’s FindPeaceWithGod.net.
Our guest on this episode of GPS: God. People. Stories. is Naeem Fazal. He’s the founding pastor of Mosaic Church and author of Ex-Muslim and Tomorrow Needs You. Since Naeem and his older brother Mahmood came to faith in Jesus Christ, all of their siblings have followed suit. And Naeem’s father became a believer, too, before he passed away six years ago. Proof again, you can never be too late or too far from God for Him to reveal Himself to you.
Naeem:
00:17:45 My hope is that people would hear this story and either be reminded or be enlightened by the fact that there is a God who works in supernatural ways, that people would understand that there’s a life that God wants for us through His Son, Jesus, and because of His Spirit that lives inside of us, that that can be immeasurably more and can be supernatural.
Jim: We’re grateful for Naeem Fazal sharing the story of his faith journey with us. Make sure you are subscribed to GPS so it will be delivered straight to you and you will not miss a single episode. We’ll have another story coming your way in two weeks.
MUSIC STARTS
I’m Jim Kirkland, and this is GPS: God. People. Stories., it’s an outreach of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association—Always Good News.
CLOSING MUSIC
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