By Mark Ellis — 
Nelly, a North African woman living in southern Europe, had a brain tumor and was not expected to survive much longer, but Jesus personally appeared to her in astonishing ways that upended her life.
Knowing her time was short, Nelly visited two Christian neighbors affiliated with Pioneers and asked them to visit her husband and young son after she died.
The Christian workers encouraged Nelly to pray to Jesus and ask Him for help.
Due to her Muslim background, Nelly had never prayed to Jesus. But the nature of her illness prevented her from performing her daily Muslim prayer rituals. So she went home and for the first time in her life and prayed to Jesus, according to the account by Pioneers.
As she began to pray to Jesus, something remarkable happened.
Jesus personally appeared on her balcony, walked through her two doors and spoke with her.
“What do you want,” He asked in her heart language, a North African dialect.
“I have a headache because there haven’t been any cigarettes in the house for days,” she told him.
Jesus left her as abruptly as he had appeared. Nelly went into the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee. There, in the cupboard, a package of cigarettes had appeared!
“It took us a minute to absorb this,” the Christian workers reported in the Pioneers story. “A North African Muslim woman asked Jesus—who appeared to her bodily—for cigarettes. And He gave them to her. We thought immediately of Christians back in the States who would discount this story because smoking is a sin, right? I mean, how do you reconcile God giving a gift that is frowned upon in many Christian settings across North America?”
It seems Jesus—in ways that often surprised and confounded His observers—met Nelly where she was, and then began to reveal more and more of Himself to her.
Nelly had seen “The JESUS Film” and other Christian movies on satellite TV. “She is illiterate and was therefore unable to gain knowledge of Jesus through the Bible,” the Christian workers explained in the Pioneers account.
In the months that followed, Jesus continued to visit Nelly. “She said that she was not sleeping or dreaming, but that Jesus was there physically and spoke to her, encouraged her, consoled her. She said that once Jesus entered through the balcony door, spoke with her, and left through the front door.”
Her husband heard the door open and shut but never saw Jesus himself.
Then one day Jesus appeared to her and placed His hand on the side of her face that was paralyzed by the brain tumor. “He massaged her cheek and told her that very afternoon she would go to the doctor and everything would be fine. Indeed, her paralysis disappeared and a scan revealed no tumor,” according to the Pioneers account.
Jesus had miraculously healed her!
Jesus told Nelly to believe in Him. As a result of these remarkable encounters with the risen Christ, she was born again. Nelly told the Christian workers, “Jesus is the Son of God and He’s in my heart. He will never go away.”
A year after Nelly placed her faith in Jesus her husband also believed. Then other family members from North Africa also began to follow Jesus.
Recently, on a Sunday morning, her husband and son-in-law played an Arabic Christian CD and worshiped in their kitchen.
Nelly – in the living room — asked the men to turn up the music so she and the other women could worship too.
But as a result of the loud music, a man began banging on their front door and yelled, “Are you a Christian? This is a Muslim building!”
Later, Muslim men living in the building confronted Nelly’s husband and son-in-law on the street and gave them a severe beating.
“Nelly’s family is forced by the threat of physical harm to hide in their apartment,” the Christian workers reported to Pioneers. “They must be very careful as they move around the neighborhood, because their Muslim neighbors now know they believe in Jesus.”
“They are seeking shelter elsewhere, but don’t feel hopeful. They are in very real danger.”
In response to these threats, Nelly said, “I have great faith because I know that Jesus is alive.”
The Christian workers mentoring Nelly are praying for her safety. “As I ask God to protect Nelly, His servant, I also ask Him for faith like hers, because I know too that Jesus is alive. And now I know it in a new, profound way, thanks to my North African sister who lives in southern Europe. May Jesus, in His sovereignty and mercy, draw many more North Africans to Himself—whether it is through the gift of cigarettes or the gift of healing or the gift of persecution.”
“And may we in the West stay on our knees for our Muslim-background siblings in Christ and the workers laboring for their sake in His name.”
If you want to know more about a personal relationship with God, go here
To learn more about Pioneers work in Europe, go here
amen
Lol! I love it!
The Lord knew the headache was a result of toxins leaving her body due to lack of cigarettes and gave her, her request.
It makes me wonder: better be careful to ask for what you need, not what you want.
So glad she is saved!
I love it! Love it! when the constabulary is rocked. It reveals just where our faith stands. In Jesus, or in men’s traditions. How awesome is our God!!! He rides rides with you, in You and for you. What an incredible testimony of the love, goodness and freedom found in Him.
Haleluliah! Well, if it takes a pack of ciggs to win eternal life..! Haleluliah! Bring em on!
Please change my email address.
It could be the cigarettes were cannabis and given to her for pain.
This meets a real deep place for me. This is how Jesus ministers to people abused by SRA. I know because I was one. 14+ years of abuse and 40+ years of torment but Jesus was always with me and He answered unusual prayers to let me know He was with me. I have found as I’ve worked through memories that have surfaced over the last 15 years just how personal and careful He was with me. I know what Nelly knows. Jesus is always with me. I am never alone. Praise Him! He is everything!
I do not find this strange–I was in this place 34 years ago. Smoking. Ran out of cigarettes, didn’t know what to do because I was visiting my Grandmother with no money, and they were devout Christian ministers. I did not dare ask, or even mention it–then out of nowhere, my Grandfather handed me a bag secretly and said to me ” I know how it is–I smoked in my youth” . In the bag was a pack of cigarettes. His compassion helped me to hold on to the LORD and eventually–in December of 2004, the LORD INSTANTLY, miraculously, completely, delivered me of that horrible habit, and I can hardly even remember doing it. His mercy and compassions are new every day! Thank you precious LORD for this precious sister and her family! Guard her and bless her and hers!!
Dear Mark,
How would you explain the following Scripture?
“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 1 Cor. 12:27
Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. 1 Cor. 3:16-17
Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. 1 Cor. 6:19-20
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Cor. 10:31
It is not enough to say someone had a vision or special experience and that people of other cultures don’t see things the way we do. The question is, Is it scriptural?
Remember the danger of smoking to our health is backed up by scientific evidence and is accepted worldwide. Do you believe Jesus is less informed than scientists?
I agree with you that science has proven that smoking is harmful to your health and the body is a temple for the Holy Spirit, so we should not do things that harm the body. I also know people of great faith who are smokers. We can also see the harmful effects of alcohol, yet the first miracle of Jesus was turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana. I think consumption of alcohol and cigarettes should be viewed in a similar fashion — as areas where God grants us some freedom, but we should not abuse that freedom or stumble our brothers. Jesus often surprised onlookers by challenging their preconceived ideas, traditions, and prejudices. Why would he turn water into wine if he could see all the damage alcohol can do to the body?
Jesus makes you FREE
How could this be a REAL Vision of the REAL jesus if she was not FREE?
Pentecostals are blinded by the unbiblical demonic Spirit of Gibberish and believe any nonsense.
Tongues was a prophecy
in a real language eg Greek
As in book of Acts they spoke in “our languages”
How does your knowing “people of great faith” who are smokers and consumers of alcohol relate to the story above? The Spirit within me is agitated about Jesus providing cigarettes. Before and after his resurrection Jesus did reveal himself to people [and many came to him] from all walks of life and I could not think of a similar instance in Scripture.
God bless.
I strongly question this being from Yeshua.
Were the camels mentioned in the Bible actually cigarettes?
Muslims blaspheme the Holy spirit of the rised christ by denying that Jesus is God.
The Mark of the Beast is the antichrist spirit of islam and catholism which denies that Jesus is God in the flesh.
Jesus would never give someone cogarettes,that would be like giving someone a bottle of vodka or giving them a prostitute.
This women had a demonic vision.
Jesus makes you FREE from sin and Free from addicttions
Jesus forgave the woman caught in adultery
And said SIN NO MORE
God’s power is beyond our knowledge. If that is her testimony, I believe it. Could you make up such story? Satan can’t appear in Jesus’ form. Don’t you think so?
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