I am studying dreams! I’m learning to tell the difference between dreams from God, me, and the enemy. I am also learning how to approach each dream. If the dream is from God, I want every ounce out of it! I want to use it to connect with Him in my waking hours and seek out His face and the mystery of how He speaks at night. If it’s from me, I want to know if there is anything that I need to address about my heart, mind, or choices. When the dream is from the enemy I look to see if there is anything God wants to reveal about his plan against me, but today I want to talk about dreams from God.
It’s all so new to me yet so old for God. He’s probably been speaking to humans through dreams since there have been dreams, but the first record of it in the Bible is in Genesis 20 when God warns Abimelech that his new wife was someone else’s wife. Oh, Abraham! In this case, God has mercy on Abimelech, tells him the truth about Abraham and Sarah, and protects His plan to make a great nation out of this couple and bless the whole world through it.
God leads Abraham’s grandson Jacob with dreams and shows him beautiful mysteries, and who can forget Abraham’s great-grandson, Joseph? Joseph had prophetic dreams and interpreted many prophetic dreams as well. He gave God the glory for the dreams and the interpretation. About a thousand years later Daniel interpreted dreams for another king, Nebuchadnezzar.
There is so much more to say about each of these dreams and dreamers, but I want to suggest that these recorded dreams are only a percentage of the dreams that they had. Some would have been important and some less so, some from God and some from them or the enemy but darn it these people had dreams. I must agree with God that He put the perfect amount in the Bible since everything He does is perfect, but surely we know that not every detail of these heroes’ lives is recorded.
They had conversations, meals, and shopping trips that we would never know about. Colds, broken bones, parties, conversations with God, and dreams that have not been written down for us to read. We are just seeing the highlight reel.
When I used to read about these dreams in the Bible, I would think that God spontaneously zapped them with the interpretation of the symbols, and this was the first time they had ever had a dream from Him. If that were the case then dream interpretation is for the few and chosen, but this interpretation skill seems to have traveled down through the generations independent of good character or maturity having yet developed.
Abraham had a dream when God put Him to sleep in Genesis 15 during their covenant ceremony. God spoke to him clearly about Israel’s future enslavement and return to the land that was promised to him and even how long he would live. We know from this that Abraham was very aware that God spoke through dreams and must have made it a point to teach his son Isaac that, Isaac taught Jacob, and Jacob taught Joseph. What did they teach? We can’t be sure, but clearly they were taught that God was the interpreter of dreams.
14 Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they quickly brought him out of the pit. And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh. 15 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.” 16 Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”
Genesis 41:14-16
These dreams were not only meant to reveal something from God but to reveal the voice of God and draw us to Him. God gave the dream, God holds the meaning, and Joseph had to go to God to get it. So, if God gives the dream now, God still holds the meaning, and we must go to God to get it. That’s the easy part! Spending time with God is always wonderful!
Biblical dream interpretation requires a relationship with God. We dig deep into our Bible every day of our lives and we spend intimate time with the Dream Giver. We ask Him questions about everything and find the answers in the Bible, from Him directly, through a conversation with a godly friend, in nature, and just in the course of our day. I am finding that sometimes the answer comes quickly but most of the time the full meaning can take months or years. God offers us a relationship, not a vending machine.
Sometimes the dream is a clear instruction or a quick word of encouragement and love, but many times it is a puzzle that draws me close to Him and closer to those who are also learning to interpret the nighttime language of our Holy God. We see in the New Testament that God protects Jesus when He is young by giving the Magi and Joseph instructions in dreams and it gets the job done well. Surely Jesus dreamed as well, He just didn’t share the details in scripture.
The other part that is fun is that you don’t have to be one of God’s chosen people to receive a dream from Him. We have kings of other nations, Pontius Pilate’s wife (Matthew 27), and soldiers of other nations having dreams from God (Judges 7). That means that our non-Christian friends, relatives, and even someone you meet on the playground may pop up a dream that they have no hope of interpreting without you, the friend of God who already spends time with Him.
I could go on, but I will just say that God is so cool. He could do anything with His time and energy, (sure He is all-powerful and exists outside of time) but He spends it on us. He shows us Himself in nature, His actions, His Word, and in dreams. He draws us to Himself and shows us amazing things about Himself, those around us, and His plans for us. He’s good, and He will get through to us however we will allow.
3 Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.
Jeremiah 33:3
If you want to learn more about how God speaks through dreams check out Breathing Underwater: A Dream Interpretation Podcast
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