Doctor Paul Tournier, the great Christian psychiatrist, tells of the child
who once remarked to his mother, "Dreams are God's movies, arn't they?"
Doctor Tournier believes they are often just that. The early Christians
believed dreams were a tool God used to give guidance, but this conviction
faded during the middle ages. Then the modern secular world of psychiatry
reopened the whole world of the unconscious. This influenced Christians to
study the subject of dreams again.
Kathryn Lindskoog, in her book The Gift of Dreams, has done a marvelous
job of studying the history of dreams in the Christians church. Most of us are
not aware that we live in an age of a dream craze. It is just not a realm of life
that we explore. I am amazed at what I learned in just a few weeks by getting
exposed to the world of dream fascination. Listen to what is going on.
"Dozens of dream laboratories speckle the country. Dream study has
exploded. Dream discussion groups meet regularly. Dream books clutter the
shelves. Dream articles pop up in magazines and journals more than ever.
Students flock to dream classes in colleges and universities. There are dream
clinics, dream lectures, dream retreats, dream workshops, and seminars. You
can even get dream therapy through the mail."
Jacob, of course, had none of these things, but he did have dreams, and by
means of them he was led to great success, and back to the promise land. We
want to look at the second dream of Jacob in which we see the dream as a
source of insight and instruction. First lets look at-
I. INSIGHT.
Jacob had a difficult time getting a fair deal out of his father-in-law. Laban cheated
him year after year on his wages. But God came to Jacobs
aid and gave him insight into the world of genetics and heredity. By means of
a dream God taught Jacob how to raise sheep and goats in such a way that
they would have the markings that made them his livestock. He got rich by
this insight he received in a dream. His success and prosperity can be traced
to his God-given dream.
Morton Kelsey, the leading Christian scholar in the field of dreams, has
traced the history of dream insight that made people successful in their field.
Much of the creativity that we give men credit for is really a gift of God
through these individuals to the world. Beethoven and Schumann received
music in their dreams. Tartian's great work, The Devil's Trill, came to him
entirely in his sleep. Wagner, Tschaikovsky, Mozart, and Brahms have all
described composing in a dream or near dream state where the inspiration
was coming to them from another world.
Now you might object that not all of these men were Christians. Surely
God does not give inspiration to non-Christians, and insights that benefit the
world. You would be wrong to have that conviction, for a good number of the
dreams of the Bible are dreams God gave to unbelievers-that is, to pagan
Gentiles outside of the kingdom of God's people. Most notably are the
dreams of Nebuchadnezzer in Daniel that gave the world great prophecies of
the future. There is also the brief dream of Pilate's wife in the New Testament
that gave warning about treating Jesus unjustly. Here was a pagan male and
female in high places that God spoke to in dreams. There are others too, but
the point is, the Bible makes it clear, God does not limit the insights He gives to
the human race to His own people.
If something is good, true, and beautiful, the Christians is to appreciate it,
even if it comes through a non-Christian. God gives us gifts through those
who are not His people. Origen, the early church father, back in the 200's,
wrote, "That in a dream certain persons may have certain things pointed out
to them to do, is an event of frequent occurrence to many individuals."
Tertullian, another church father, born in 160A.D. said, "Who is such a
stranger to human experience as not sometimes to have perceived some truth
in dreams."
As I said before, this conviction faded, and for most of us today the dream
is not a source of insight, information, or inspiration. But all through history
this has been a Christian conviction. An English doctor, Sir Thomas Browne
wrote, "If there are guardian angels, they may not remain inactive while we
sleep, but may sometimes influence our dreams, and many strange hints,
insights, or discoveries which are so amazing to us, may arise from that
source." You and I may not be able to think of any such insights we have
received by means of a dream, but one of the major lessons of life to learn is
never limited God to your own limited experience. Your God is never very big
if he is only the God of your experience. He is certainly not the God of the
Bible.
This dream of Jacob's is purely personal, and the insights he gets were for
his benefit only. He did not get any great truth to share with the world. There
was no great music, poetry, or art that would live on forever to bless mankind
because of his dream. It was purely personal, and this is the kind of insight we
should be seeking in our dreams.
Louis Agassiz, the famous 19th century naturalist, was trying to free a fossil
fish he had found, but just could not get it out of the rock. He left it, and a few
nights later he had a dream. Three nights in a row he had this dream of a fish.
When he awoke the third time he made a sketch of the fish, and went back to
the fossil. Using the sketch as a blueprint, he chipped at a certain spot and the
stone fell away and the fossil was free revealing an exact replica of his
drawing. It was a unique specimen then unknown.
I do not share this thinking you can get excited about fish bones in rocks,
but to illustrate again, this was a very specific problem a man had in a very
specific area of interest to him, and he got insight by means of a dream that
helped him solve his problem. Such an insight could not be found in the Bible,
but God could give it to him in a dream. That is the kind of dream we see
Jacob having, and the kind masses of people have had. It is so common that I
have concluded it is the legitimate to ask God to give you insight in your
dreams to help you solve problems.
The French philosopher Condorcet, solved a major mathematical equation
in his sleep. William Blake received a truly improved method of copper
ingraveing in a dream. James Brindley, a great engineer, would go to bed and
stay there until he got an answer to his problems in a dream. God never
sleeps, and neither does your brain. They both are up all night while you are
sleeping, and there is no end to what the brain may be working on while you
sleep.
Mathematician Jaques Hadammd, author of, The Psychology of Invention
In The Mathematical Field, says it is an absolute certainty that the brain is
working while we sleep. Many of the great discoveries of science have taken
place instantly upon awakening. Einstein's best ideas, for example, came to
him the moment he awoke from sleep. The assumption is that his brain was at
work while he slept seeking answers to his problems.
One night in October of 1920, doctor Frederick G. Banting was working on
his lecture for the next day. He was a young surgeon with a small practice
who had to teach in order to make a living. He studied the literature on
diabetes, but it was loaded with conflicting theories. He finally went wearily
to bed only to be awakened suddenly at 2:00 in the morning. He got up and
wrote down three short sentences in his notebook and went back to sleep.
Those three sentences led to the discovery of insulin that has brought life and
hope to millions of suffering people. Where did this life saving insight come
from? Science calls it discovery, but faith calls it revelation. They are often
the same thing-God giving gifts to mankind by means of influencing the mind
through dreams. We give credit to men for that which is really the gift of God
through men and women who are open to receive His messages by means of
dreams.
Most dreams, however, are going to be like Jacob's. They will be aids to
solving some personal problem by insights that are not available elsewhere.
Marilyn Hevilin, in her book, When Your Dreams Die, gives a great example.
Listen to her testimony of how God, by means of a dream, solved a problem
she had when her son died as a young man. After Nathan's death, one of the stumbling blocks
in my healing process was that I didn't have an opportunity
for a final good-bye. I remember saying to God, "I am not
going to argue with You about You allowing Nathan to die.
He belonged to You before he belonged to me, and I respect
Your sovereignty. However, couldn't You have at least
caused the hospital to allow me to see him before he died
or even in the first moments after his death? Surely a
sovereign God could have arranged that."
Within a few weeks of Nate's death I had a dream,
a very, very real dream. Nate was standing at the foot of
my bed. He was wearing the clothes he had on the night he
died. As I reached for him, he stepped back out of my reach,
but he smiled and waved goodbye. Then he was gone. God
gave me my own private opportunity to say good-bye to my
son. That stumbling block was removed. One of God's special
touches. His response to a grieving mothers need.
The old advice that says, sleep on it, may seem superficial when you are
facing a problem or major decision, but the fact is it can really lead to the
answer you need. In essence it is saying, go to bed with it and let God guide
you in your dreams. He may just give you the insight you need to deal wisely
with your problem. We just need to have a greater dream awareness for this
can lead to a greater awareness of the presence of God. The second thing
Jacob got in his dream was-
II. INSTRUCTION.
By instruction I mean, not just insight into problems, but actual specific
information about what you are to do. The angel of God said to
Jacob in his dream, leave this land at once and go back to your native land.
This was more than an insight. It was a clear revelation of God's will for his
life.
It would be wonderful if we could just go to sleep each night and dream of
what we are to do the next day. Life would be easy, and we would not have to
use our own reasoning ability at all. But this is not the way God works. Even
Jacob only got a dream like this after many years. It is rare for God to give
specific instruction in dreams, but the fact is, He does at times do so, and we
need to be aware of what God may do sometimes.
Fyodor Dostoevsky was a Russian writer who advocated social reform in
Russia. He was condemned to slave labor in Siberia. God had a plan for this
mans life, and as the prisoners marched past a pheasant woman's hut she
thrust her Bible in his hands. It was another futile effort of the ignorant to try
and make a difference in the world. She likely did not know that most tracts
and Bibles given to people never get read. Statistically this was a foolish waste
of her resources. But this act of a simple pheasant woman changed history.
Dostoevsky had nothing else to read for 12 years in his lonely exile. The Bible
became his most treasured possession. He read it and fell in love with the
Savior. God began to come to him in his dreams and tell him how he could
share this love of Jesus with the Russian people.
He began to think up plots for novels whereby he could reach the masses
with the Gospel. These dreams not only saved his own sanity, but the books he
wrote because of his dreams made him one of the most famous authors the
world over. You will find his Brothers Karmazov as volume 52 of the 54
volume set of Great Books of the Western World. Doctor Karl Barth, the
great Swiss theologian, who has influenced thousands of other theologians,
was profoundly influenced by Dostoevsky. The man was a sinner and a
schemer like Jacob, but God used him to make a great impact for the Kingdom
of God. The point is, knowing how God has worked in history by means of
dreams helps us be alert to the fact that God may work in our lives through
dreams. Even if God never speaks to you in a dream, being alert and aware
will make you more sensitive to receive His instruction by whatever means He
uses to guide you.
If history is any guide, the most frequent kind of specific instruction God
gives to people in dreams is instruction on how to help people in serious
trouble. The record of this kind of dream are amazing, and they make you
realize the reality of guardian angels. If these angelic beings can get through
to someone in a dream, there are amazing rescues that can take place. Doctor
Horace Bushnell tells of one such dream. A Captain Yount, in California, had
a dream of a company of emigrants trapped by the snow in the mountains.
They were perishing with the cold and hunger, and the specific place was so
real with its white rock cliff. He woke up profoundly impressed with the
reality of his dream. But he went back to sleep and dreamed the same dream
again.
In the morning he could not get the dream out of his mind. He shared it
with an old hunter friend of his. His friend said he recognized the scenery of
his dream as the Carlson Valley Pass. This motivated the Captain to get some
men, mules, and provisions, and head for that pass. His neighbors laughed at
such folly, but he had to follow his dream. When they got to the pass they
found just what he had dreamed. They were able to rescue the trapped
families who would have died had they not come. Here was very specific
instruction that had to be acted on. It is rare, yet surprising how often God
has given such dreams.
The odds are that you will not win the lottery, but somebody does. The
odds are you will not have such a dream, but somebody will. Maybe more
dreams would have meaning and instruction if we were open to them as a
means of heavenly communication. Hood wrote, "Some dreams we have are
nothing else but dreams, Unnatural and full of contradictions; Yet others of
our most romantic schemes, Are something more than fictions."
If you read on in this 31st chapter of Genesis, you will read about another
dream that the bad guy had. Laban is the father-in-law of Jacob. He had
been robbing Jacob of his wages and treating him unjustly. He was coming
after Jacob to do him great harm when he heard he was returning to his
homeland. As far as he was concerned, it was an act of war, and he was going
after Jacob to fight him. In verse 24 we read that God came to Laban in a
dream. He gave him specific instructions not to say anything to Jacob. In
verse 29 Laban shares this dream with Jacob as the reason why he has not
attracted him. By means of a dream God providentially spared the life of
Jacob. Laban was a bad man in many ways, but he had the good sense to
listen to God when God spoke to him in a dream."
The Captain of the S. S. Vestris also had the good sense to pay attention to a
mysterious message he received in 1828. His ship was headed for New
Brunswick. His first mate, Robert Bruce, had a strange vision of a man
writing on the Captain's slate in his cabin. He ran to the Captain to report it,
and they went to his cabin, and there they found the words-STEER NORTH
WEST. The Captain accused Bruce of writing this and had him write the
words so he could compare the handwriting. It did not match. Every man on
board was made to write these words, but none of the handwriting matched.
The Captain said, "I am a God-fearing man. There must be some hidden
meaning to the message, some providential force at work. We'll steer North
West for a while and see what happens."
What happened was that they found another ship that had been wrecked by
hitting and iceberg, and it was helpless. They were able to rescue many
survivors who would not have lasted much longer. They owed their lives to a
man who listened to the unusual as a possible message of instruction from
God. Jacob got specific instruction of what to do in a dream, and Laban got
specific instruction of what not to do in a dream.
In the New Testament we read in Acts 10 that Peter was waiting for a meal
when he fell into a trance. He saw a large sheet coming down from heaven full
of animals, reptiles, and birds. A voice told him to get up and kill these
creatures for his meal. Peter resisted and said he had never eaten anything
unclean. Three times God gave him this vision, and when he awoke there were
Gentiles at his door from the Italian Centurion Cornelius. Peter was told by
the Lord that he should not hesitate to go with them. He was given specific
instruction to forsake his prejudice against Gentiles, and to go and be a guest
in his house. God helped Peter do this by means of a dream.
Plato, the Greek philosopher, said there are three valid sources of
knowledge.
1. The five senses which we share with the animal kingdom.
2. Reason which sets us apart from the animals.
3. The spiritual world of supernatural communication.
Aristotle, his disciple, eliminated this third source and said knowledge
comes only by the senses and reason. He rejected dreams as a source of
knowledge. The western world has followed the thinking of Aristotle, but the
Bible and history support Plato. Here is another example of how we are often
more influenced by our culture than by Scripture. God works nights as well
as days, and if we are open to it He can give us insight and instruction even in
our dreams.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a sinner and schemer like Jacob, but he was
also a man who had a dream. It even cost him his life, but he never stopped
dreaming even when his dreams were so often shattered. In his book,
Shattered Dreams, he refers to Paul who longed to get to Spain, but never did,
but he never stopped dreaming of reaching that part of the world for Christ.
He died never having gotten to that edge of the world, but his letters reached
Spain and changed that nations history completely. God went way beyond
Paul's dream. Doctor King writes, "You must honestly confront your shattered dream....
Ask yourself how may I transform this liability into an
asset? How may I, confine to some narrow Roman cell and unable to
reach life's Spain, transmute this dungeon of shame into a haven of
redemptive suffering. Almost anything that happens to us may be woven into
the purposes of God."
Jacob did it; Paul did it; and Doctor King did it, and all of us can do it if we
dare to dream and ask God to make us sensitive to His working in our lives by
all means, including that of dream awareness.
