Dreams
Have you ever had a very vivid dream and wondered about its meaning? Have you had the experience of God speaking to you through a dream?
This week at work I was blessed to do some study about this topic of dreams, and in particular, to see about their significance from a biblical point of view. It was a wonderful opportunity actually, as I have never really looked into what God reveals to us about this in the Bible before.
Dreams come “through much activity,” Ecclesiastes 5:3 describes. This verse seems to suggest that the business of our lives prompts our dreams, and is perhaps reflected in what takes place. Maybe this kind of subjective dreaming is what we experience most of the time, but we see through the examples of the Bible that dreams can take on much greater meaning.
The prophet Joel speaks of a time when God will pour out His Spirit on all people, “your sons and daughters shall prophesy” and “your old men shall dream dreams,” he says Joel 2:28. That God would make Himself known to His people, and that dreams would be one way in which He communicates.
And we see God communicating through dreams many times in the Bible. Sometimes as a warning. Joseph was warned in a dream by an angel to take Mary, and baby Jesus, and flee to Egypt to escape the infanticide of King Herod Matthew 2:13. Abimelech was warned by God for his life in a dream when he took Sarah without realising she was already married to Abraham Genesis 20:2-3.
The picture above is of Jacob. He stopped for the night to sleep on the way to a place called Haran. There he had dream of a ladder “set up on the earth and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of the Lord were ascending and descending on it” Genesis 28:12. This is such an amazing picture in the Bible - God in His glory stands above this ladder in heaven that reaches down to Jacob on earth. His heavenly messengers ascend and descend upon it. And the message that Jacob receives is extremely significant – a revelation of God’s will – the Promised Land would be given to him and his descendants after him, and that God Himself would be with Jacob and would preserve him.
The interpretation of dreams belongs to God Genesis 40:8 describes, and we see God giving interpretation to both Joseph of Pharaoh’s dream, and Daniel of the King’s dream, when it was needed.
It may be that you God has spoken to you or confirmed something in His Word to you in a dream. These dreams have been described as “more directive, vivid and [as having] a strong sense of God’s voice”* compared with subjective dreams. Another key point is that “they do not supplant the Bible, but, in many cases, will confirm Scripture in a highly personal fashion.”*
Perhaps like me, you tend to have the ordinary kind of dream, or maybe you don’t remember them at all. Apparently we all dream for approximately 100 minutes per night, it is just that some of us are unable to recall them. So do these dreams have any significance in terms of our relationship with God?
In general, it seems that dreams serve the purpose of helping our brains to grow by stimulating the neurons – babies evidently dream for approximately eight hours each day! But perhaps a dominant emotion such as fear or anxiety might present itself or recur. In one study, anxiety was found to be the most common emotion experienced in dreams. If this is case, then certainly our dreams may be highlighting something in our lives that requires prayer.
It’s been a really interesting topic this week, especially seeing the history and examples of God speaking to His people in this way. “Hear now My words: if there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision, and I speak to him in a dream ” Genesis 12:6.
*Reference: Zachar, L, ‘Does God Speak Through Dreams?’ (Canada’s Christian Comunity Online)
Hey Birgs…very interesting topic. I’ve always believed that God uses dreams to speak to people. I once met this guy that had a special annointing for this kind of thing. I would personally love to be used in this way! Keep writing…it is really great.
Love.
S
I usually cant remember my dreams. And for the most part Im glad.
Because mine are sometimes so weird and surreal that Im just glad to wake up from them. Pleasant dreams are few and far between. Oh ….and once I did go to church in my underwear and hoped no one would notice….lol
Dreans are certainly not the Love Language God chose to communicate to me - and, like Sandy Lee, I hope that He will use them to reveal Himself to me in future… Can count on my one hand the dreams I’ve had/remembered! Joseph dream of the sheaves of wheat and sun, moon and stars that bowed always reminds me of God’s plan for ours lives, that it is never selfish, seldom immediate, but always exceeding all expectations!
Hey Birgs xx
I can’t really say I’ve had a dream and wondered what it meant. I dream a lot - and most of them are meaningless outworkings of the mind (and especially after eating cheese!) but I know of two where God spoke powerfully . . . and I’d go without sleep to have more! Can I tell you about my dreams?
The first one at first just seemed like a nightmare. We were travelling around Europe at the time, camping. In the dream there was a girl with red hair (who reminded me of a friend in NZ) being chased by something - down into the deep waters of the ocean, where she fought the thing that was following her, struggled and finally, rose up out of the water victoriously. The unusual thing was that I woke up during this dream and couldn’t turn it off, nor could I change the course of events by thinking on a different tact (as I do when I’m having a bad dream). Anyway, the way I found out it was a God dream, was within a couple of days we got an email from the husband of the friend back in NZ saying that my friend had got a rare form of cancer which had travelled to her brain. She had collapsed and actually died, before being brought back. Her story was then a miracle journey over the next 5 months, where she overcame the cancer, and 2 years later was declared all clear.
But having had the dream, I felt like my spirit had connected with hers, and I knew, completely, that she would be healed and whole - and I was able to pray with that belief. It is unbelieveably liberating to know without a doubt how and what to pray!
My second dream was after a Colour conference. (I was staying in the Connolly’s living room at the time!) This dream was totally different. At three o’clock in the morning God woke me and through what seemed dream-like, spoke to me words and verses that I was to give to others . . . and when I did, later that day, it was incredible to see how powerful those words were.
Yes please, bring on more dreams!
True dreams are a part of prophethood and that part of prophethood is stil alive in the world today. God gives good news to people through dreams. Praise be to God. But dream interpretation is not something everyone can do and also we should not red too much into dreams incase we fool ourselves in to waiting for things to happen which we have dremed of. The devil and our own subconcious thoughts can also influence our dreams.
Hope ur well.