Does God speak to us through dreams? And do we need a guide on how to interpret our dreams???
To begin my thoughts, definitely there is no doubt that even till this day God does speak and guide believers through dreams (sometimes referred to as a vision of the night in the Bible), and we have many Scriptural references to prove that...
However, dreams is not the most authentic and reliable way God leads us generally in this New Testament Age; And that is probably because of the fact that today we have the compiled Word of God (the Bible) as our primary guide; and also the Holy Spirit now dwells in the spirits of the Believers to lead them accurately; unlike the days of Old when they had to depend much on dreams, visions, and prophets, to know what God is saying...
Likewise, dreams can equally originate from many other sources; the most common being from our daily activities, as the following Scripture states: 📖"...For a dream comes through much activity..." Ecclesiastes 5:3 (NKJV)... Of which we usually just ignore and forget such dreams...
But, dreams may also originate from other spiritual entities who have access to our dream realm, and who have the ability to take on a form that we may easily misinterpret as guidance from God... These entities may range from clear-cut evil spirits, to other strange spirits that are actually not carrying out God's instruction; As we are aware of other mediums and practitioners of spiritism who have the ability to gain access into a person's dream life to inject confusion and project their evil intentions...
This is also how some have had counterfeit dreams or visions of Heaven and Hell, and misled many by the messages they claimed to have brought back... Though some of these people may truly not have any bad intentions of their own, just victims of their own ignorance spreading further to those who may not know better either...
So, my personal take is that one should always pray and if need be also speak to a spiritual leader for understanding on what the dream of concern means so as to know what further steps to take; Rather than depending on books on dream interpretation, which are good but can only serve as a lesser guide in comparison to the Bible and the Holy Spirit...
For example; talking about Peter's dream/trance of seeing all kinds of unclean animals and a voice asking him to rise, kill and eat (Acts 10:9-13)... We may easily have misinterpreted such as an evil dream in our present days like Peter initially did, but it turned out that it was actually from God Who was instructing Peter to also reach out to the non-jews or Gentiles with the Gospel...
So, the same kind of dream may actually have different meanings depending on who is having the dream and the source from which the dream came...
For instance, I recall years ago when I was in a season of deep spiritual training, I often had some unusual dreams; such as levitating, or floating in the air, walking on water, and appearing inside our home then without walking through the door, and so on... Now pls don't be scared...Lol
But I sure had to ask questions and seek counsel with prayers too, and eventually their actual meaning materialised as I started seeing years after...
So, some dreams we have may not always mean what we easily believe it to mean, and that's why we need the the Bible and the Holy Spirit to guide us to discern. But more importantly as I had mentioned, dreams is not the most reliable way God leads us today; and it is also advisable to have other confirmations before running with dreams, especially in critical life decisions...
The below 3 pointers would be helpful in knowing if a dream originated from God:
- Does the dream make you worried and fearful for a prolonged period of time or does it give you peace of mind and hope?
God is not an author of confusion and fear is not a part of God's character!
- Does the dream tend more towards satisfying your own wants, or magnifies anything or anyone else above God and His Word?
God exalts His Word even above His name and He created all things for His own glory!
- Does the dream bring you or others closer to God's love or does it send a wrong message about God's true nature?
God is love and He desires a Father-Child relationship with all, not one based on our performance!
And I close with the below Scriptures:
📖"Every Scripture passage is inspired by God. All of them are useful for teaching, pointing out errors, correcting people, and training them for a life that has God’s approval." 2 Timothy 3:16 (GW)
📖"However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak, and He will tell you things to come. "He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you." John 16:13-14 (NKJV)
📖"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world." I John 4:1 (NKJV)
Thank you for taking the time to read. Please do share with others. God bless you!
#JesusChristIsLORD
#GODisStillinCharge
