Does God Still Speak Through Dreams?
Matthew 1:20; 2:12-13, 19, 22
December 28, 2003
Introduction
Well, you¡¦ve probably guessed by looking at the title of the message and the outline in your bulletin that we¡¦re not going to have a New Year¡¦s message today.
Instead, we¡¦re continuing our working through the gospel of Matthew, and I want us to take a look at something that has intrigued me for a good while now, and this was the perfect opportunity to explore this question of dreams.
Dreams are kind of a hot topic in our society today, although truth be told, this area has been a matter of interest for some time.
In my psychology class in college, I was told that everybody dreams every night, even if you don¡¦t remember them.
Some dreams are positive, some negative, but all are mysterious. I certainly don¡¦t pretend to know everything about dreams, and neither does science. They are mysterious.
Dreams are mentioned in the Bible in a number of places, and as we continue our look through the book of Matthew, we see that God used dreams a number of times.
So the question comes to mind: does God still speak through dreams today?
It¡¦s obvious that He did in the Bible, but what about today?
Well in hopes of answering that, I want us to look very quickly at four passages in Matthew, and then discuss some other examples as well to help us get a grasp on this question.
Please turn with me to Matthew chapter 1. This is on page 681 of the Bibles in the seats.
Look first at verse 20:
MT 1:20 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.
Next go over to chapter 2, verses 12-13:
12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
13 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."
Then drop down to verses 19 and 20:
19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 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."
And lastly, to verse 22:
22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee,
Let¡¦s look at three questions about this subject of dreams, shall we, as we ask God to open our hearts and minds to understand His Word.
The first question is this:
1. Why did God use dreams in the Bible?
In the Bible, God generally had two main reasons for communicating through dreams:
„Y To warn of coming events and judgments.
We have obvious examples in the dreams given to Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, when God was about to bring famine, or when He was about to humble a king by making Him insane, eating grass.
The second main reason God communicated through dreams was¡K
„Y To give specific guidance and direction.
This was the case with the magi and Joseph. God gave them specific guidance and direction.
¡§Take Mary as your wife, because what has been done in her is from God.¡¨
¡§Avoid Herod, because he¡¦s a slime, and he just wants to know where the baby is to kill Him.¡¨
¡§Take the baby to Egypt, for His safety and yours.¡¨
¡§Okay, bring Him back to Israel now, the danger has passed.¡¨
So at times God used dreams to give specific direction and guidance.
God had purposes for dreams. The next question we want to explore today regarding dreams is¡K
2. Who did He give them to?
„Y Whoever He wanted to use.
That¡¦s fairly obvious from looking at Scripture.
God gave dreams to Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, and to the baker and cup bearer for Pharaoh. They were certainly not followers of God.
He gave dreams to the magi and to Joseph.
God gave dreams to whoever He wanted.
BUT¡K
„Y Interpretation came through His people.
This is so incredibly important.
Think about this for a moment. God gave two serious dreams to Pharaoh. He had some plans, and wanted Pharaoh to know them.
But who finally got called to interpret the dreams? Joseph ¡V a Hebrew ¡V a follower of Jehovah God, the God of the Bible.
Nebuchadnezzar had two serious dreams, and it took Daniel, a follower of Jehovah God, the God of the Bible to be able to interpret them.
And even these guys said that it was God Himself who gave the interpretation. They did not have the insight to interpret them themselves. They had to plead to God for the interpretations.
Joseph, in our passages today, was a righteous man, a man who loved Jehovah God, the God of the Bible. God enabled him to see that his dream were messages from God Himself.
Even the magi were worshippers of Jesus! And so they were spiritually receptive to what God wanted to communicate to them through dreams.
Why is this so important? Because if God is communicating through dreams, you can be sure that He will make it clear to you, if you are a follower of His.
There are tons of books, courses, and what have you about how to interpret your dreams, and even they don¡¦t all agree.
I did a quick web search on dream interpretations, and found 770,000 web sites on Google alone.
Now how many of those will give any dream the same interpretation as the next guy? And who¡¦s to say that any of them will be correct?
Sigmund Freud thought dreams should be interpreted in light of sexual desires and such. But come on, the guy was on drugs much of the time, and most colleges don¡¦t even teach his form of psychotherapy anymore.
Others have all sorts of different ideas of how a dream should be interpreted.
Interpretations belong to God, folks, and to those of His followers He chooses to reveal them.
They don¡¦t belong to those who mock God and His Word. They don¡¦t belong to Miss Cleo or John Edwards or any spirit mediums, no matter how wonderful they appear on TV.
So remember that though God gave dreams to anybody He wanted, the interpretation always came from God through His followers.
The last question I want to address today is this:
3. What about dreams today?
This is a valid question, and people are asking it all the time. Are you ready to give an answer? Let me give you a couple suggestions.
Can God use dreams today? I¡¦m ready to give you a very definite yes.
Does He? I¡¦m ready to give you a very definitive maybe. God can do anything He chooses to do, as long as it does not violate His own character and His Word.
I¡¦m not ready to put God in a neat little box that He does not put Himself in. So I can¡¦t categorically say He does use dreams or that He doesn¡¦t.
I¡¦m inclined to think that if God does use dreams to communicate, it is more for personal direction and guidance than anything.
And I¡¦m more inclined to think that God does that through personal impressions on our spirit than through dreams.
I believe God still speaks to the hearts and spirits of people. Someday I will share with you the full testimony of how God called me to ministry and particularly how He brought me here. He spoke to me very clearly.
However, I am of the opinion that since Scripture is complete, there is no reason for God to give us new revelation regarding future events, particularly as they relate to the end times and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But if you think God may be trying to tell you something in your dreams, let me give you some suggestions to keep in mind in checking if they are valid:
First,
„Ï Check your eating habits.
Really! If you find yourself having dreams that you think may have significant meaning, make sure your not eating the same foods each night you¡¦re having them.
Certain foods have certain effects on our bodies, and these can manifest themselves in our dreams.
It could be that the smoked sauerkraut and pineapple pizza you ate is what is triggering these types of dreams.
The second suggestion for checking the validity of your dreams is to¡K
„Ï Examine your thought life.
I mean in a general sense. What are you thinking about lately?
Are there certain things going on in your life that are causing you stress or concern?
Have major events begun to take their toll on you, physically or emotionally? These can effect our dream life.
What about your reading? Or watching? Just the other night I let my two oldest kids watch ¡§Hulk,¡¨ and I asked Danielle if she had any nightmares.
She said, ¡§Kinda. I dreamed that you had gotten some dogs like the ones in the movie,¡¨ or words to that effect.
In the movie, these dogs are turned into mutant killer puppies and they¡¦re nasty buggers, believe me.
But what my daughter watched affected her dreams.
I find myself dreaming about things I have read or watched as well.
When our minds are focused on certain things, they can invade our dreams.
The third suggestion for determining the validity of a dream is to¡K
„Ï Examine your dreams in light of Scripture.
If you think God is telling you something through a dream, it needs to match up to Scripture, or it¡¦s not from God.
I said once that if you think God¡¦s calling you to a ministry of robbing banks or committing adultery, you can be sure that¡¦s not God talking, no matter how that ¡§revelation¡¨ comes.
Dreams are the same way. Just because something happens in a dream, it does not mean that God is trying to communicate to you.
And if it contradicts Scripture, then you can know with certainty that it¡¦s not from God.
The last suggestion for helping to determine the validity of a dream is to¡K
„Ï Be careful of trying to ¡§interpret¡¨ every dream.
We¡¦ve covered this before, but I want to emphasize that not every dream has spiritual significance.
Sometimes your brain is just having a field day and having fun.
Now you may not want to hear this, but sometimes your dreams may be telling you something.
Sometimes the best interpretation to give a particular dream is this: ¡§get a life!¡¨ Move on from the video games and trash you fill your mind and body with. I¡¦m not saying all video games are bad, but too much of almost anything can be bad.
Even too much pizza, John Wayne movies and especially Kansas City Royals baseball can be a bad thing!!
Not every dream is meant to be interpreted. And not every dream is a message from God.
If you¡¦re having dreams that you feel have a significant spiritual meaning, or just meaning in general, and you want to try to figure stuff out, come talk to me, and we¡¦ll see if we can¡¦t sort through it.
But please, don¡¦t bother with the pop psychology of Dr. Phil, Oprah, or the stuff you can pick up at the check-out line at Wal-Mart.
You¡¦re wasting your time and money.
If God has something for you to know, He¡¦s gonna make sure you catch it if you¡¦re serious about serving Him.
Conclusion
Well, I don¡¦t know if I answered any questions, or if maybe I raised more questions than I answered.
But that¡¦s okay. I believe that God wants us to ponder His Word and His workings, as long as the goal is to better understand Him, love Him, and serve Him.
But here¡¦s the bottom line of this whole thing: whether or not God uses dreams to speak to His people anymore, it¡¦s not as important as whether or not we believe God speaks through His Word.
You see, if God never speaks to you through a dream, He has spoken to you.
He¡¦s given you His Holy Word, the Bible, and He has made it available to you and me in understandable English, so between that and the working of the Holy Spirit, we can approach God and His Word with confidence that in our desire to be instruments for Him, He will communicate with us as we cry out to Him for understanding.
Are you wishing God would ¡§talk¡¨ to you? Let me ask you then, are you in His Word? Are you praying to Him, seeking His face?
Seek God through His Word and prayer. Let His Spirit speak to you in the pages of Scripture.
And if God chooses to talk to you through dreams, then so be it. But because you are in the Word, you¡¦ll better be able to discern these things, and you¡¦ll be able to sift the wheat from the chaff, the good from the bad.
And so as I finish this morning, I want to offer you the challenge I offer frequently ¡V make time for God by making time to be in the Bible and prayer.
The Bible says that Jesus opened the minds of the disciples so they could understand the Scriptures. He¡¦ll do the same for you.
Then you won¡¦t have to rely on the mystery of dreams, because you have the solid rock of God¡¦s Word to rely on.
Let¡¦s pray.
