Adu Murray, who was born into a Muslim Shite family, embraced his family’s faith. There are two main Islamic sects, Shites and Sunni. Based largely in Iran, the Shites, who are the minority, believe that the leader of Islam must be a direct descendant of Muhammad, while the Sunni do not.

Murray became an Islamic evangelist of sorts, Steve Rees writes in his article for God Reports. Murray enjoyed arguing with Christians, because most were cultural Christians and held to the Christian tradition without really believing it.

During these discussions, he would often throw at them the words of John the Baptist who told the Jews that they couldn’t count on their Jewish tradition as descendants of Abraham for their claim to faith because God could “raise up children from stones.”

He also challenged the accuracy of the Bible, believing the Koran was intended to correct its mistakes.

But his approach changed as he started looking for areas where the Bible and the Koran were similar. This led Murray to accepting an invitation to attend a church service in Ann Arbor, Michigan, along with his then girlfriend and now wife.

Murray recalled that the sermon bothered him, because the pastor spoke of how God was leaning on the door of people’s hearts and all they needed to do was let Him into their life.

But it was an unusual event after the service that set him on a different spiritual trajectory. As Murray and his girlfriend were walking in the parking lot to their car, a force pushed him to the ground.

It was so strong, he literally had to put his hands on his knees in order to hold himself upright while on the ground.

Then he had what seems to have been a vision.

“I closed my eyes. I don’t know if it was a vision but, whatever it was, I had a picture in my head of two building-sized books crushing me,” Murray said.

Those two books Murray believed were the Bible and the Koran. They were in conflict because Murray was trying to make them agree and they couldn’t.

This spiritual encounter led Murray to further study the Bible. He also took a second look at the Muslim phrase, Allahu Akbar, which translated means God is great, Murray believed if this is the case, then God would also demonstrate one of the greatest attributes, love and self sacrifice.

Since only Christ fulfilled the greatest attribute, Murray eventually made the decision to become a Christian and founded Embrace the Truth Ministry.

It often take a dramatic event such as this for Muslims to become Christians, because it typically results in them being cutoff from their family. Depending on where they lived, such a decision could even result in physical harm, arrest and even death.

What happened to Murray in the church parking lot is similar to being slain in the Spirit. This occurs when people collapse to the ground under the power of the Holy Spirit and was a common occurrence during the Toronto Blessing in the 1990s.

And while some like to discredit this experience, there are several instances of it happening in the Bible.

It took place when to the temple guard arrested Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane:

“When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground” John writes. (John 18:6 NASV).

It also happened to Saul and his group of Jewish deputies who were heading to Damascus to arrest Jewish Christians under the authority of the high priest.

In his testimony before King Agrippa, Paul says when his group encountered Jesus, they all fell to the ground:

About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. ¹⁴ We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

(Acts 22:13-14)

While they were forced to the ground, it seems those who were with Paul were immediately able to stand up (Acts 9:7).

However, in other instances, we see examples of people who were so overcome that they were unable to move.

Daniel describes himself as being in a deep sleep after an angel spoke to him (Daniel 10:9). He was only able to get onto his hands and feet after the angel touched him,

The Apostle John says he collapsed to the ground as if he was dead (Revelation 1:17), when he encountered Christ on the island of Patmos.

So not only do we see examples of being slain in the Spirit in the Bible, there seem to be different levels to it as well.