I wanted to share some of the things the Lord has shown me regarding Spiritual Dreams.
I am a dreamer. It doesn't happen all the time, but depending on the need ... maybe 2-3 times a year, I experience a spiritual dream, which is a
communication from God. These dreams began long ago ... when I was in highschool. Long before I gave my life to the Lord. Back then, they were almost entirely
warnings, keeping me back from destruction, and calling me to repentance. Since giving my life to the Lord, they have served a variety of purposes. But I
wanted to share some things I have come to understand about the gift of dreams.
One of the reasons we have dreams is because we are not presently able to hear the voice of the Lord about the subject matter, so God by-passes the conscious
mind and delivers a mystery that instead feeds the soul - even if the conscious mind takes some time to puzzle it all out.
Meditate on the verse below:
For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction,That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword. [Job 33:14-18]
People often complain that they don't know how to hear God, but even those who have and do hear from Him may not realize that while they may be able to
hear from Him in one area of their life, they may be entirely deaf to Him in other areas of their life. When we are stubborn in our thinking on a particular
subject, it can take a miracle to break past that barrier. An Elder who preaches a sermon on Sunday, may be entirely able to hear from the Lord about a
particular subject, and deliver an effective message. Yet, that same Elder can be entirely deaf towards God regarding something that they have misunderstood
for years, because they will not allow themselves to truly entertain the notion that they could be wrong.
We don't have to be so stubborn about something in order to receive a dream from the Lord, but we may receive it because circumstances in our life, or the
current condition of our soul may warrant the need for the Lord to speak to us through a dream. However it happens, I believe dreams are usually given because
we would otherwise be hardpressed to be able to hear the Lord's still small voice about the topic at hand.
I can imagine it would have been hard for young Joseph to entertain the notion that his 11 brothers and even his parents would all bow down to him. This truth
could only be revealed in a dream, and even so...it would be many years before his conscious mind could understand how that dream would be fulfulled.
So, when the Lord has a message for us that cannot be spoken to us plainly without our conscious mind rejecting it or blocking it from being heard, he will
sometimes use a dream. Other methods that the Lord may imploy is a message from another person, or He may use a life-circumstance, a tragedy, a trial, or other
methods to communicate to the spiritually deaf. (And when I say spiritually deaf, I mean only spiritual deaf on that particular matter).
So, in dreams, God by-passes the conscious mind and plants a dream in our subconscious mind, which the subconscious is connected directly to our spirit, and
the bridge between body and spirit.
What the mind does not yet comprehend, the spirit (which came from God) does understand, and is edified. You will notice, if you have a spiritual dream, many
times, that even before you get a full understanding with your intellect, the dream has seemingly had an inward effect, and you may feel changed somehow.
Dreams are very much related the the gift of tongues.
Paul says "If any man speak in another tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret." [1 Corinthians
14:27]
Most often, it is not the one who gave the tongue, but another person entirely who will interpret that tongue. Why is that? Ask God. But I will say this much
... I believe it is because we are part of a body, and we are supposed to depend upon each other. Additionally, it allows us to receive the testimony from more
than one witness.
Additionally, Paul says: "Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak
with tongues? do all interpret? [1 Corinthians 12:29-30] The answer? No. Same with dreams and intepretation.
Rarely is it given to a man to know the full interpretation of His own dreams without the assistance of another who operates in the gift of dream
interpretation. It's not that it never happens. It does, but it is much more likely the interpretation is given through another. One of the reasons for
this is because of the very nature of why we are getting the message in a dream to begin with. Because some part of our conscious mind is unable to fully
receive the message, we got the dream. Therefore, we will often have trouble interpretting it properly, without help. Often when people try to interpret their
own dreams, they interpret them through the lens of their conscious mind, which means it may be filtered through their own traditions, fears, hopes, and
insecurities. I know this from personal experience. I have done it with my own dreams.
Dreams are full of symbols, which must be interpreted by the gift of interpretation.
One mistake to avoid is taking the dream too literal ... someone you know may be in the dream, but they may actually represent not themselves, but symbolize
something else.
I have a tendency to interpret my dreams literally .... and every time I do, I get it wrong. They are usually very symbolic. You need a revelation to
understand it. It cannot be interpreted by a manual. Whenever I hear people quoting from source that this color means this, and that shape means that, I know
they missing out. It is not the same everytime. And you cannot always rely on the Lord using symbols that you can easily interpret because of what they mean to
you ... otherwise, its just a code you can apply without revelation. IT TAKES HELP FROM THE HOLY GHOST
By having to go though the process of seeking out the mystery, often by soliciting the help of others, we are able to eventually come to the truth of the
message through multiple witnesses. We have to work at it, because the very nature of the message is such that we would have had a hard time receiving the
message to begin with - hence, the reason for the dream.
Sometimes, we don't come to the truth of the dream until after it comes to pass... then we look back and finally understand it. You may wonder what the
good of that would be - but there are good things that can come of it. Again, I share this from personal experience.
1. Looking back, you will have the testimony that God foresaw everything, and was with us through it all because of His great love.
2. After the fact, the dream confirms the truth we are only now (finally) able to accept - after having gone through the experience.
3. Even though you did not avoid the experience the dream warned you about, the dream did serve as instruction to your soul, and thereby you received a
"help" from above, planted within your spirit, that would allow you to come through the experience, and overcome the trial.
I'll stop there, and maybe write more at a later time if I recall more.
That should be enough at least to help - or even start a discussion.
Blessings!!!
- Doug
