“God speaks in different ways, and we don’t always recognize his voice.” (Job 33:14, CEV)
In our discussion of dreams and visions we will not make a detailed distinction between the two. In broad terms these two elements can both be considered as ways in which God speaks to you through a visual language of symbols. Dreams take place during your sleep and visions while you are awake, both playing out in your mind’s eye. A good example of a vision can be found in Dan 10:4-7: “Now on the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, that is, the Tigris, I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose waist was girded with gold of Uphaz! His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in colour, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude. And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision …”
The same principles apply for both dreams and visions, and thus we will examine both in this discussion.
Spiritual dreams are one of the ways in which God can speak to you, and may be underpinned by a number of reasons. Possibly it may be concerned with commissions, or matters of immediate importance, as in Acts 16:9-10: “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.”
Dreams may provide insight into personal and practical matters (Jacob’s dreams in Gen 31); it may be of a prophetic nature, pointing to events and dispensations of the future (Joseph’s dream in Gen 37:9-11); it may serve to communicate spiritual truths and principles (Acts 10:10-16); it may be concerned with personal calling and destiny (like Solomon’s dream in 1 Kings 3:5 and Pharaoh’s dream in Gen 41:1-8); it may act as warning (the dreams of Abimelech in Gen 20:3-7, the wise men in Matt 2:12, or the wife of Pilate in Matt 27:19); it may serve a strategic purpose (the Mideanites dreaming about Gideon, as stated in Judges 7:13, or Joseph’s dreams about Jesus’ safety in Matt 1 and 2); it may also be concerned with the fate of a nation (Jacob’s dream in Gen 15 or the extensive dream documented in Dan 4). The book of Revelations is an accumulation of dreams/visions on which the contemporary church has based its understanding of the end times.
Dreams should always be interpreted from a spiritual perspective, as the enemy is also capable of communicating through dreams and thus bringing across counsel which is not from God (Deut 13:1-3). In Job 4:12-16 this distinction is mapped out: “Now a word was secretly brought to me, and my ear received a whisper of it. In disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair on my body stood up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance.”
- Sela: Examine the Job-passage (in the paragraph above) in its proper context and ask God for discernment in dreams.
- Read: 1 Sam 23, Ps 145, Luke 20.
- Memorise: Ps 145:18.
- Going deeper: Read Robin MacMillan’s article Jesus – the man of peace in the Morning Star Journal Vol 16 (2), Spring 2006, and determine the correlation with Ps 17:15.
