By: Donna J. Kazenske
I believe that many of God’s people are beginning to experience an increase in dreams and visions. Why is this happening? How can we know what the Lord is trying to communicate to us through dreams?
As many of you already know, dreams are very symbolic in nature. They are metaphors or dark sayings.
Why does the Lord speak to us in dreams that are full of symbolism? Why doesn’t He just speak clearly to us so that we can know exactly what He is saying to us? To answer this question, please allow me to ask another question. Why did the Lord speak in parables when He ministered to the multitudes?
Matt. 13:10-11 – And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.”
Jesus told His disciples that He had given them the ability to understand the parables or the mysteries that He was speaking to the multitudes. “It has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven!” I believe the answer is the same regarding why the Lord speaks to us in dreams. He has given us the ability to understand the symbolism and to unveil the mysteries that He speaks to us through dreams. This is absolutely astounding to me! We have the God-given ability to unfold the mysteries of the kingdom by the power of His Holy Spirit and His written word.
A dream is no different than a prophetic word, a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom. It’s just being filtered to us in a different form.
The Lord is not limited in the ways by which He speaks to His people. He spoke to Moses through a burning bush. He spoke to Saul on the road to Damascus in an open vision. He spoke to Joseph in a dream saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” The Lord spoke to Abraham in a vision saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” These are just a few examples of how the Lord ministered to His servants through dreams and visions.
Polycarp, a man believed to have been a direct disciple of the Apostle John, was given a dream that revealed how he would be killed in Rome and burned at the stake. In 155 A.D., at the age of 86, Polycarp was martyred for his faith just as his dream had depicted.
St. Augustine lists several of his dreams in his writings and he declared that they were an important way in which God spoke to him and to mankind.
Jerome, a translator of the Latin Bible, was converted as a result of the Lord appearing to him in a dream.
God is not limited in the ways that He chooses to speak to His people.
Numbers 12:6 – Then he said, “Hear now My words; if there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream.”
I do not believe that dreams and visions are limited to those who walk in the prophetic office. I believe that all of God’s people have the ability to dream and hear from the Lord.
Joel 2:28-29 – “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.”
The Lord has promised to “pour out” His Spirit upon all flesh! There is no limitation to what we can and will do when He pours out His Spirit upon all of mankind. People who have never prophesied before will find themselves prophesying in the midst of the congregation. Children who have never had a vision will see into the realm of the spirit and declare what they are seeing to those around them. God’s people will dream dreams and have visions! All the limitations will be broken off so that the Lord can communicate His divine purposes to His people.
There are basically two different types of dreams:
1) Intrinsic Dreams: About 95%-98% of the dreams we have are intrinsic, meaning that they are talking about you and what is going on in your heart. These are dreams that reveal what is going on in your life and they deal with the issues of your heart. They deal with the mind, will and emotions. They are all about you.
In Genesis 37:1-11, Joseph had two dreams which fall into this particular category.
2) Extrinsic Dreams: About 2%-5% of our dreams are extrinsic. An extrinsic dream talks about real outer situations instead of about you.
Extrinsic dreams sometimes reveal murders, airplane crashes, earthquakes, theft, or rapes before they actually happen. Pharaoh’s dream about the fat and thin cows was an extrinsic dream speaking about the coming famine.
I personally believe that our intimacy with Jesus will have a great impact upon our ability to hear from the Lord through dreams, visions, prophecy, etc. The greater the intimacy, the greater will be our level of ability to hear, see and receive from the Holy Spirit.
Dreams:
1) Have the ability to reveal our calling or ministry gift to us.
2) Have the ability to bring correction, edification, and warning to the body of Christ.
3) Can be prophetic, revealing the future and giving us insight into what lies ahead.
4) Can place a spirit of intercession upon us or give us a burden to pray for a particular person or event so that problems can be averted.
God created man with the ability to dream and see into the realm of the spirit. Dreams have a way of bringing emotional release and stability to man’s physical body. We may not understand all the functions and intricate details of our physical makeup, but our heavenly Father thoroughly understands. He created man with the capability to communicate with him in a variety of ways. Let’s not put God in a box and give the religious excuse that God doesn’t communicate to His people in dreams and visions today, because that is not compatible with the word of God. One third of the Bible speaks of dreams and visions. If dreams and visions are not important for us in this dispensation of time, why did the Holy Spirit take up so much space in His word writing about them?
How can we interpret the dreams that God gives to us? Do we need to go to the psychic down the street or should we go to the village witch doctor?
Daniel 2:28 – “There is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days.”
James 1:5 – If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
Dream interpretation comes from the Spirit of God. As we ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the interpretation to us, He will be faithful to respond to our request. He will reveal the meanings behind the symbols. He will unveil the mysteries that He desires to make known unto us. He will give us eyes to see and ears to hear what His Spirit is speaking through our dreams and visions.
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