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Lately, it seems that more and more people are receiving dreams that are important and answer questions that they have been seeking God about. In this past few months alone, both of my children have received significant dreams from God. Most recently, my daughter was asking God to speak to her about an important ministry decision she needed to make. She received a dream for 5 consecutive nights. As we sat down to label symbols, pray, and seek God as to what His message was, it was evident He was answering her prayer in the form of dreams.
Welcome to part 2 of a 5 part series on dreams. Last week, I shared on Dreams part 1 – A Basic Understanding of How God can communicate to us through the avenue of dreams.
This week, I want to talk about the source of our dreams because not all dreams are God given. I will again be sharing pieces of my teaching from my training book Releasing God’s Heart Through Hearing His Voice.
Source of Dreams 1
Not all dreams are from God; so it is important we ask God to help us discern which are from Him and which are not. Dreams come from three different sources:
- God
God-given dreams contain revelation about circumstances which are occurring or are about to occur in an individual’s life. Sometimes if a dream doesn’t come to pass right away, we often think it wasn’t from God. However, Joseph’s dream took over 30 years to come to pass.2 Scripture shows us there are many types of dreams God can give us.
- Self
These are dreams that come from our soul: the natural mind, will, and emotions. Self-dreams come from our subconscious. These types of dreams are often playing out the events of the day, the things our mind has been dwelling on, good or bad. Even things that have been traumatic from our past can reoccur in our subconscious, leaking into our dreams.
For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed (Jeremiah 29:8 NKJV).
- The enemy
The enemy of our soul is always trying to deceive, trick, kill, and destroy us any way he can.3 If he can deceive us by any means, he will. Many individuals in our society have a growing awareness of the relevance of dreams in their life; the enemy may try to increase his activities in this arena of dreams to lead a person away from God’s principles and desires.
The idols speak deceit, diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd (Zechariah 10:2).
Finally, because all dreams are not of God, we must, as stated earlier, discern and ask God to reveal the source. We must also be cautious not to become too dependent on dreams or visions as our sole source of guidance, direction, or confirmation. Be careful not to be deceived by satan or his workers who can masquerade like angels of light. 4 Test the spirit 5 and above all else remember God’s messages will never contradict His written word.
Tweet ThisLast week, I encouraged you to look at your Bible and grab a concordance if needed and see how often the words: dream and vision were used. If you didn’t get a chance, it’s not too late. Dreams and even visions are throughout the Old and New Testament. God uses dreams in the scriptures in a variety of ways. Here is short list of “categories” and some Biblical examples of the types of dreams God gives to His people.
Protection
Dreams of protection can be either given to the person who is in harm’s way or to the person intending to do the harm. Here in Matthew we see Herod is intending to harm Baby Jesus; so a dream was given to the wise men and to His father Joseph.
And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route (Matthew 2:12).
When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt (Matthew 2:13-14).
In these next two Scriptures, we see God giving dreams to the people intending to do harm.
But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad (Genesis 31:24).
But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife (Genesis 20:3).
Guidance and Direction
God gives dreams to His people to guide and direct them on the paths He wants and needs them to go. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). God does indeed guide us and direct us every step of the way. I myself have received several dreams with guidance and direction as the theme.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:20).
After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead” (Matthew 2:19-20).
Strategy
God can reveal His strategy to people to aid them in succeeding and to give them courage and confidence as they step out in obedience. In Genesis God tells Jacob which sheep to choose as his, and God in return gives him a business strategy for success.
“In breeding season I once had a dream in which I looked up and saw that the male goats mating with the flock were streaked, speckled or spotted. The angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob.’ I answered, ‘Here I am.’ And he said, ‘Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled or spotted, for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you’” (Genesis 31:10-12).
See also Gideon in Judges 7:9-15.
In my dream workshops and training classes I have a list of 11 categories I share taken straight from the Scriptures. As you read the Scriptures, what are some other Categories, or types of dreams you see?
Please, leave a comment below, I would love to hear from you and hear about How God has spoken to you through the avenue of dreams.
I invite you to join me next
Thursday September 3rd: Dreams, Part 2 Who’s the Source?
Thursday September 3rd: Dreams, Part 3 – Write it Down
Thursday September 10th Dreams, Part 4 – Symbolism
Thursday September 17th Dreams, Part 5 – Figuring it Out – Interpretation
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[1] Releasing God’ Heart Through Hearing His Voice.
[2] Genesis 42:8-9 [3] 1 Peter 5:8 [4] 2 Corinthians 11:14 [5] 1 John 4:1
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What an interesting series, Debbie!
I so agree with you that any word/dream God gives us will line up with His Word! I think this a topic to be handled with much care. You have done just that!
Thanks for sharing~
I found you on Dance with Jesus.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend,
Melanie
Blessed to visit with you, Debbie! I will definitely be joining you for the rest of this series. I too have been experiencing THE LORD speaking to me through dreams and visions. I believe that more believers are starting to experience this as GOD is aligning the hearts of HIS people. Thank you for sharing this series! Peace and many blessings to you, Love! 🙂
Tai – it’s so good to have you visit again! I love how you put it: God is aligning the hearts of His people! That is so true. Thank you for your encouragement and fr stopping by again. I look forward to our next visit. Blessings, love and peace to you too. 🙂
Hi Debbie,
I am so glad I was a neighbor at #ImpartingGrace!I have always been a vivid dreamer. Sadly, though, they are most often nightmares. I suffered from horrible night terrors for years, but God finally delivered me from those. Sometimes now I will have trouble but only when I am overly exhausted or stressed out. I would love to read more of your teachings on the subject. I look forward to following this series!
Blessings and smiles,
Lori
Lori – I am so glad you are my neighbor too. I am so glad God delivered you from the nightmares. Nightmares are definitely not of God. I look forward to having you join me for the continuation of the series. Many blessings and may you dream Sweet, Powerful, Life-giving God dreams this week. 🙂
Debbie, thank you for sharing your dream series with us. I’m learning so much from you even though God has sent me some amazing dreams! It’s not my area of study so thank you for your instruction! Susan
Susan – Oh, thank you so much. Being able to guest post on your site was the catalyst for this series, so THANK YOU! I am so glad that you are learning and I pray God pours out even more revelation for you! Blessings my friend.
Debbie,
Interesting topic! I’ve dreamed scriptural references and literally had to get up in the middle of the night to see what they were… I will follow the rest of this series – as some of the references could definitely be interpreted in more than one way. It is so very easy to be deceived! I’m glad you were my neighbor at Monday’s Musings, today. I’m with Susan – thank you for your instruction!
Janet – thank you for stopping by! I am so happy to hear you will be following the res of the series. I love that you get Scriptural references in your dreams…. and you are so right, it is so easy to be deceived. I am so glad for the promises of God that we will hear His voice and not follow another. (John 10) We need to be so discerning and always keeping Jesus at the center. See you Thursday for part 3 Blessings
I have not had any “night” dreams that I think are from God in my life. I will have to pray on this. I know I feel His love and urging throughout the day as I write, read, and blog. Thanks for sharing. Please feel free to link up this post and any posts you think will relate on my weekly linkup: http://www.maryanderingcreatively.com/literacy-musing-moms-library-tips/
Mary – thanks for stopping by and inviting me on over to your link-up, I will check it out. Oh, and even though you haven’t had night” dreams that you remembered, you may now. I have been told by others who have never remembered them before that after they heard teachings on dreams they had some they remembered 😉 you never know what God might do – be prepared and be blessed
Thank you for discerning what sources dreams may come from. I am realizing reading your articles that I have not been dreaming, or I am in way too deep of sleep to notice I am dreaming. I’m going to have to pray on that! Thanks for sharing with #SocialButterflySunday! Hope to see you link up again this Sunday 🙂
Kelly – you are most welcome for sharing and I am glad that you are enjoying reading the articles. 🙂 I pray God gives you a God dream and reveals himself to you as you pray 🙂 Blessings.
Focusing on dreams has not been much on my mind, but lately I’ve thought a lot about Jacob’s dream as an encouragement to pray for my children. How interesting to look at the purpose of the different dreams in scripture! Linking with you at Testimony Tuesday.
Ginger – thanks for stopping by. I like what you are saying about looking at Jacobs dream as an encouragement to pray for your kids! That is wonderful and honestly, I never thought about that dream from that perspective. I will be mulling that one over in my mind as I go re-read Jacobs dream… thanks for sharing your thoughts with me.
Very interesting study. I never thought to actually study the dreams of the Bible.
I do agree it is very important to be discerning whether it be dreams or what we perceive as answers to prayer in other ways. I always remember reading George Mueller’s perspective on knowing the will of God and how it plays out related to our prayers.
Thanks for sharing!
Karen – thank you – and yes discerning dreams or anything else is so important. If its from God, it will always line up with His Word. Have an awesome day.
This is fascinating and so encouraging. I am your neighbor at coffer for your heart this week, and I love how God lined that up. I have always felt that my dreams are a place where God speaks and it isn’t often I find someone else willing to talk about how that works. Thank you for writing this series!
Chara – I am so glad to be your neighbor and thanks for stopping by. Yes, it seems others don’t really want to talk about dreams being a way God speaks – for a variety of reasons I am sure. I find it exciting though. Blessings