“‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”
—Acts 2:17-21
At my church’s VBS last week, the theme revolved around Joseph, the one who by God’s revelation saved all of the known biblical world. 
God spoke that plan of salvation to Joseph through dreams.
Evangelicals don’t do well with dreams. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in the average church who would claim to have the gift of interpreting dreams. In most churches, the mere mention of the role of dreams in directing the church, planning for the future, or meeting the needs of people too afraid to share their needs publicly will get you an initial blank stare that morphs into that “I smell a heretic” scowl.
Yet any pass through the Bible reveals dreams to be a common means of God speaking to and guiding individuals, groups, and nations.
Which is why the enormous pushback by some Christians against dreams is a big problem.
That passage in Acts that starts this post…a few questions:
1. Is the Bible the authority for how we should conduct our lives?
2. Are we still in the Last Days?
3. Is the Holy Spirit still being poured out?
If you answer yes to all three questions (and you should), then guess what? You affirm that God speaks to people today through dreams.
See, that wasn’t so hard, was it? 
Fact is, there’s no biblical argument that can be formed against dreams as a contemporary, God-ordained means of revelation. None.
Despite that truth, we Western Christians get upset at the idea of using dreams as a way to order our lives and the life of the Church. Why? Because dreams are messy and sometimes weird. And man, do we Westerners hate anything messy and weird in our churches! Still, that says more about our own foibles than it does about the veracity of dreams as a form of approved divine revelation.
I strongly believe, though, that our automatic rejection of any kind of God-ordained revelation that occurs outside the Bible’s chapters and verses is a major flaw in the contemporary Church. As much as I love the Bible and affirm it as the final arbiter of truth, the Bible may not speak to specific situations that are not explicitly stated in its pages. Yet the need for specific answers remains.
A case in point: For a church looking for a new pastor, the Bible does not say which of five great candidates would be the best choice. How then do we choose if all five meet the Bible’s exacting criteria for the role of pastor? By drawing straws? By hoping that the other four will get calls from other churches and leave us with only one candidate? By relying on our intellects to scry out the right man?
When the early Church had a similar issue, this is how it was resolved:
Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
—Acts 13:1-3
Plenty of good candidates, but the Spirit did not select Simeon, Lucius, and Manaen for the work, did He?
This is how the Church is to function in those specific, individual situations to which the Bible does not directly speak: by listening to the Holy Spirit’s extra-biblical voice.
I know that rubs a lot of people the wrong way. I’m sorry. Man up, because this is what the Scriptures say in response:
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.
—1 Thessalonians 5:19-21
So rather than tossing out all extra-biblical revelations—dreams included—we are to test them. We then retain and act on those that pass the tests.
We’re doing that, right? No? You say we’re just throwing them all out instead?
*Sigh.*
Should we be surprised then when our churches seem adrift and lacking in direction? Or when our rational church decisions produce irrational results? And what about when bad things happen to good people because no one bothered to address what may have been an unrevealed, yet fixable, problem before it got out of hand?
What would have happened to the biblical world if Joseph had despised his dreams and the dreams of others? Would we even have a Bible?
A city surrounded by enemies decides that maintaining a city army is messy, demanding, and costly. So despite what the city charter says, the city leaders decide to disband the army. When the barbarians storm the gates, won’t there be regrets for what was ignored?
Yet this happens all the time in our churches because we simply do not want to deal with dreams (and other types of supernatural revelation) as a means of legitimately hearing from God.
When I was about 18, I had a dream that a friend drove onto some train tracks and his car stalled just as a train was coming. The dream was so frightening and vivid that I awoke and started praying for my friend.
Just a few hours later, that friend told me how he’d been out in the wee hours of the morning when his car stalled on railroad tracks just as a train was coming. He couldn’t start the car and worried that he would have to leave it on the tracks, only to find his door refusing to open. But one last twist of the key got the car started, and he drove off the tracks just moments before the train came hurtling through.
What if I had ignored that dream and not prayed for my friend right then? Do you think the outcome would have been different? I do.
Someone else was blessed because I took action regarding the content of a dream.
For several years, a terrifying recurring nightmare troubled me in my 20s. The dream was always the same. I’d awake thrashing and in a sweat, my heart pounding.
I was fortunate that the University of Cincinnati is known for sleep research, so there are a greater than average number of folks in the area who deal with sleep and dreams. I was able to find a Christian man who helped people understand their dreams. He and I spent several months working on my recurring nightmare, plus other dreams.
In the end, God gave us an answer to what the nightmare meant. Once I understood, I was able to take specific actions that resolved the issue behind it. The nightmare then ceased.
I was blessed because I took action regarding the content of a dream.
More recently, I had a recurring dream that troubled me. Going back about six years, I’d have this one dream about once a year. Then 18 months ago or so, I started having the dream about once or twice a month. I was stymied by what to do about the dream because it didn’t fit real life situations as I knew them. Nothing in the dream conformed, so I excused myself from taking action because I rationalized away the need to do anything.
Just a few days ago, I found out that this recurring dream had sadly come true. The dream proved more real than the shadowed appearance of “reality.”
I did nothing about a dream. A sad outcome resulted. Now I can’t do much about that outcome.
I believe that the outcome would have been different if I had prayed fervently about the dream, despite the seeming nonsense of it. Instead, I disbanded the army and let the barbarians storm the gates.
Four steps we can take to restore the value of dreams in our lives and in the life of the Church:
1. Believe that God wants us to listen to our dreams — He IS speaking to us, so we need to heed what He is saying.
2. Respect recurring dreams — If a dream (or dream theme) recurs, it may be God’s way of demanding our attention because the dream is important. (Genesis 41:32 — “And the doubling of Pharaoh’s dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about.”)
3. Pray — Ask God for the following:
a. Discernment — We need to know which dreams are genuinely from Him (and not from the triple-meat pizza we ate before bedtime) and require us to take notice and action.
b. Interpretation — We must always ask for an interpretation of dreams, either by the Holy Spirit’s illumination within us or by the wise words of those blessed with a gift of interpreting dreams.
c. Direction — We must take action on God-ordained dreams once interpreted.
4. Share our dreams with other believers— A dream may not mean much alone, but when similar dreams are shared by others, a pattern may emerge; so if a dream seems vivid, don’t be afraid to talk it out with wise believers and other Christian dreamers.
Someone’s going to say it, though: “But Dan, can’t dreams be misinterpreted or mistaken?”
Yes, they can. But that’s OUR fault. Consider this:
And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”
—Genesis 41:15-16
Joseph understood the source of interpretation. If we genuinely operate in the Spirit with regard to dreams and their interpretations, God is faithful to provide answers; He is the interpreter. Like Joseph, we must be tapped into God if we are to handle dreams correctly.
Here is the starting point for handling all dreams correctly: We establish the Bible alone as the arbiter of the meaning behind a dream and its interpretation.
If I have a dream in which I leave my wife and kid and become a meth dealer, the meaning of that dream is most certainly NOT that I should leave my wife and kid and become a meth dealer. No dream interpretation or subsequent action on that interpretation should violate Scripture—ever. Scripture stands as the authority over all dreams, interpretations, and actions taken.
This is not to say that the dream itself can’t be awful or that events in the dreams can’t stand contrary to Scripture. Just as people in the Bible sometimes act contrary to the will of God, the events of dreams may portray sin. It may be that God is trying to root out sin in our lives or in the lives of someone we know. Proceed cautiously, though.
If you or I have a dream, will God be angry with us if we take the simple baby step of praying about it? Will we be chastened by Him for taking everything—including our dreams—to Him in prayer?
If we take dreams seriously and always pray about them, I think God will bless us in mind-boggling ways. Yes, some dreams will prove to be nothing more than too much TV before bedtime, but God’s not going to be angry if we take even that dream to Him in prayer. It will just peter off into nothing of any consequence—except that we spent a little more precious time before the God who loves us.
The ramifications of ignoring dreams are huge, though. In the face of an approaching famine, the words of God that come to us in dreams may be all that stand between life and death.
So, what’s the problem with us and dreams?
Posts
Comments
12 Comments
Good post, Dan. I am very grateful that throughout my life, God has used dreams to inform, warn, direct, and comfort me. Two very vivid dreams on consecutive nights played quite a significant role in my conversion and I think that set a precedent for taking dreams pretty seriously in my ensuing walk. I do feel that sometimes dreams reflect my own inner state and can show me things I am not aware of that are bubbling away underneath. These kind of dreams can usefully be used as fuel for prayer and reflection. Other dreams are very clearly the intrusion of God’s revelation and have a different quality to them. I think it is usually quite clear to people when God is speaking to them in a dream. I have found it really helpful to write them down and keep a dream journal. I reckon this signals a receptivity to God that kind of says “I’m listening, so if you want to speak to me this way, go ahead.”
Funny you should post this this week, too, I’ve just had a sudden fresh flood of significant dreams in the last few nights. Thanks for the reminder and spur to take this side of revelation seriously.
Seymour,
Good points about categories of dreams that I neglected to mention in my posts. I believe that dreams conform to the communication charismata, so the classifications reflect this:
1. Words of wisdom – Understanding and resolving baffling problems. (I would put dream interpretation here, too.)
2. Words of knowledge – Receiving concealed information. (Daniel’s classic revelation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2 would illustrate this.)
3. Words of prophecy – Seeing events that have not yet come to pass.
My dream about my friend and the train would fall into both knowledge and prophecy, I think.
My recurring nightmare that I worked through had both wisdom and knowledge elements.
My dream that I took no action on was most definitely prophetic, with some elements of knowledge.
Do you have anything you’d like to add?
I think you could also make a case that dreams can be like a visual version of tongues, especially when the dreams are odd or packed with mysterious symbols.
The fact that tongues is a gift that has an interpretive, paired gift makes the comparison apt.
Absolutely, Dan. I had never systematised it in this way but I think the point about dreams miroring the communication Charismata is a very helpful way of looking at it.
I find it interesting that you shared this post, coinciding with the release of the movie, “Inception” which is, of course, all about dreams. I wonder if this indicates a profound soci-spiritual trend towards an interest in dreams and dreaming once again. Non-western societies have, of course, long regarded dreams as highly important – for them it is a no-brainer – but I am not surprised to see it re-entering the consciousness of a spiritually hungry generation of westerners. If this is true then we, of all people, need to be keyed in to a biblical understanding and ready to answer that hunger with clarity because it could present a massive opportunity for fuzzy-new-age doctrines to get another foothold.
I have, in the past, found that people who have no faith are often very willing to share their dreams and quite open to the offer of a little interpretation – this has been a good starting point for some conversations. I have had moments when someone has said, “I had a funny dream last night …” and when they have shared it I felt that God was showing me something through that and enabling me to speak back into their lives. I predict an increasing need for Christians who can exercise a gift of interpretation, not only within the church but out in the street and marketplace (figuratively speaking).
I might also mention that there was a time in my life when I exploited my sensitivity to dreams in a very wrong way. Dreams are used extensively in shamanism and other occult systems. This has made me even more aware of their power and significance and even more determined to approach the whole subject prayerfully and reverently.
Several years ago I had a dream in which I drank from a fountain of water. The taste of the water was simultaneously utterly sweet and satisfying and at the same time thirst-inducing – there was a supernatural quality to it. Having the memory of that taste in my mouth, like a physical sensation of the Water of Life, has been something I return to again and again. Sometimes in an atmosphere of worship, while hearing scripture or when listening to a speaker, I’ll get that taste again in my mouth and it often confirms to me that I am coming into contact with something authentically God given.
A lot of people I have spoken to also describe dreaming about speaking in tongues before they experience it when awake. This happened to me, too.
Thinking out loud as usual, thanks for stimulating a little thought and conversation on the topic and putting it back in the spotlight for us
Dan, Thank you once again for a thoughtful post. I linked it to Facebook because others need to read this as well.
We’re out here in the middle of nowhere, so often listen to sermons we’ve downloaded. It’s usually a random choice: “God, what do we need to hear today?” And, oh, my, but every single week, we come away with something we absolutely needed to hear! Yesterday, the head pastor at Times Square Church spoke to us about the need to follow the Lord and not our own understanding, which also means we must not eschew the supernatural.
I think I’ve neglected dreams, often because I haven’t liked the content. But, according to what you wrote, that may be God dealing with certain issues in my life. And if I’ve asked the Lord to clean me and fill me and use me, then He may be trying to do that… Aha. So, on my knees if the uglies visit in the night.
Yes, sir.
Normandie,
I think we all neglect dreams to some extent. We’ve relegated them to the past and assigned them a dubious label.
I kept a dream journal for a few years because I was dreaming so vividly and having these epic dreams. For the Christian, think of a dream journal as the counterpart to a prayer journal. Both might be beneficial and reinforce the other.
Dan,
I appreciate your post. It’s not something that’s talked about much. It seems easy to dismiss them because, as you pointed out, they confound the intellect. I’ve learned that God doesn’t always communicate with us using rational thought processes, so I pay attention to what I’m feeling as well.
Several years ago, I was attending a technical college and I found out that the girl who sat right in front of me (a Christian girl) was dating this rather dark and brooding student who sat across the room. The feeling I experienced when she told me this was jealousy.
The problem was, I’m married and had absolutely no designs on her whatsoever. I was so startled by this emotional reaction that I had to ask the Lord what was going on. He revealed to me was that these were His feelings about the situation and showed me where she would end up if she continued the relationship (which she did, despite the warning from the Lord that I shared with her).
She ultimately got involved in some occult activities with him. During this time, another student whom I’d hardly ever spoken with asked me if I were a Christian and told me that I needed to pray for this girl. Not long afterwards, he beat her up and broke her ribs. But the Lord had given me some Scripture which I was able to share with her which, I hope, was able to pull her out of the situation. (I graduated shortly thereafter and lost contact with her.)
Like dreams, feeling can come from a variety of sources, not all of which are necessarily the Holy Spirit, and they should also be subject the limitus test of Scripture that you outlined in your post. But I think that we often miss much of what the Lord’s trying to say to us by merely dismissing these things out of hand.
Sounds like dreams were working for you, John. And you also got a lesson that what appears to be true on the surface may not be what the core truth is.
Hi Dan,
I’m fairly agnostic about this issue – and no, I’m not all that comfortable with that… But why isn’t it, do you think, that we do not have more public dreams, their interpretations and their fulfillment to the amazement of the church? It seems that most publicly announced dreams are either vague or prove to be utterly false. Where’s the dream predictions of earthquakes and famines that actually occur as predicted?
Brad
Brad,
My answer is a simple one:
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
—James 1:5-8
Our very lack of faith that such things have merit is its own self-fulfilling prophecy. We doubt, therefore we do not see, therefore we doubt even more. Our Western, rationalistic culture disposes of all things supernatural. Therefore, we do not see them. Our mindset is constantly at war against anything that isn’t scientific. And this hurts our faith tremendously.
But when you go to cultures that still value the supernatural, you are far more likely to see it manifested because the people believe that the supernatural is as real as the natural.
Dan I agree with your take on dreams and how important it is for us to pay attention to our dreams and to be proactive in addressing them. I have had many dreams of people in danger where it feels as thought I am that person and I feel all of the emotions of panic and fear. My mother taught me since I was a young boy to respond to them in prayer because of the experiences she had in her life with them. I too have had people come to me and say something happened to them that I had dreamt about and prayed for.
However, I knew of a man who was a minister within a particular denomination who had become basically a bishop over a certain region of the country. He was a young man in his mid-40′s when he was killed in a private plane accident. Shortly after his death a woman came to a close minister friend of his and said to him, “You know it’s the strangest thing, I had a dream the night before brother so and so was killed that he was killed in a plane crash.” The minister asked her what she did in response to that dream. She said, “Well I don’t believe that God speaks to us in dreams or that other hocus pocus so I just went back to sleep. What are you saying I should have done?” The minister replied, “My God woman you should have prayed!”
My parents knew both the minister who died in the crash and the other minister. The odd thing was that even though that dream came true she still didn’t get it.
Lastly, I had a recurring dream for 5 years about something that regarded a very important relationship in my life. It bothered me but I just dismissed it as being my own thoughts and insecurities. In fact, it was all true and almost destroyed this relationship completely. I know now without doubt that God speaks to us through dreams and we ought to heed them.
Thank you for this topic!
I know that God speaks to us through dreams. One night back in early 2005, I had prayed to God about a situation that concerned me. Later that night/early morning, I had a dream. Later that day, I wondered to myself if the dream was brought on because of an outcome that I desired. Later on the same evening, I was watching a spiritual program on tv and the minister said to turn to a particular scripture. As I went to turn to that scripture, I passed a totally different scripture and I would’ve continued to turn but ‘something’ said, “Go back.” So I did. The scripture that I went back to was Ephesians 5:31. I now know that ‘something’ was the Holy Spirit guiding me and the scripture pertained to the dream that I had earlier that morning. Even though the dream has not come to pass, I know that in God’s perfect timing it will. Had I not been obedient, I may have missed a moment of God’s leading.