Dreams and Visions: God Uncensored

By Hannah Goodwyn
CBN.com Producer

CBN.com - A wise person once explained the importance of dreams to me in this way:

”Dreams are the perfect way to hear from God. When you are dreaming, you are quiet, so you can’t ignore Him. Plus, you are not easily distracted. You’re basically all ears for about 7 hours every night.”

Personal experience has confirmed this notion. On many occasions, the Lord has spoken powerful words of encouragement and warning while I slept. Through biblical study, I have found that God intends to speak to each of followers in this manner. In fact, the prophet Joel foretold of a time when God’s Spirit would compel us to dream (Acts 2).

I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions. Joel 2:28 (NLT)

Further confirmation of God speaking through dreams to His children is found in the book of Job. In Chapter 33, Job is confronted with the reality of God’s voice in our lives – whether we hear it or not.

For God speaks again and again, though people do not recognize it. He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds. He whispers in their ears… Job 33:14-16a (NLT)

It’s important to understand that not all dreams are God-given. It may be that you ate something weird, or that your mind just kept going after a busy day. Dreams can also be from Satan. The enemy of our souls isn’t ignorant of the power of visions. Let I Samuel 28 be a warning. It recounts a time when King Saul seeks counsel from a medium.

How to Handle Vivid Dreams

1. Pray. Before you do anything else, pray that God exposes the source of a dream and what He wants to teach you through it.

2. Listen to God. Take a moment and sit quietly before the Lord so that you may hear His perspective. Once you feel His peace, then you can rest assured that His Spirit was the source. Hearing from the Lord can save you as it did the three wise men. They were warned in a dream to return home another way, avoiding King Herod, in turn saving the newborn Jesus (Matthew 2).

3. Write it down. Grab a notebook and write down what you remember. If after praying you feel that the dream isn’t of the Lord, then forget about it. But if you think God is in it, journal what you feel He is speaking to you.

4. Seek godly counsel. Sharing dreams is biblical. Pharaoh sought wise counsel from Joseph and a generation was saved from starvation (Genesis 41). Just be wise about with whom you share your visions. Be especially cautious of friends who consult books to interpret dreams (I John 4:1). Often, these books and philosophies leave God out of the equation altogether.

5. Let it be. The Lord will bring His dreams to your remembrance. Most of my dreams are extremely vivid; but the ones I pay closest attention to are the ones I remember years after having them. Occasionally, while sitting in God’s presence, He will recall a dream to my mind to reinforce a lesson He is teaching me. The danger comes when the dream preoccupies our thoughts instead of the One who gives us these supernatural visions.

More Perspectives on Spiritual Life