God can speak directly to anyone He chooses, like sending a message through a dream. Many prophets received instructions and warnings through dreams from God while they were asleep. Hence, many people believe they can also talk directly to God in their dreams, just like the prophets did.
Considering that a person can have multiple vivid dreams in a single night, it is hard to say if one of these dreams came from God. Most likely, you have had a strange dream with no significant meaning. However, if you did have a prophetic dream, you must understand its implications for you and our world.
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Does God Give Prophetic Dreams To Us?
Jobs 33:15 says, “He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds.” Therefore, we must recognize that God can speak to us in our dreams. It is only reasonable for anyone to wonder if a particular dream from last night bears a significant message to mankind.
The Sacred Scripture has many examples of people receiving prophetic dreams from the Lord through their dreams. Fortunately, they had enough faith to recognize God as the source of their prophetic dreams and that God wanted them to do something for the sake of His people.
Some are skeptical that God still gives prophetic dreams in this day and age, especially to ordinary people. However, the Bible says that everyone has the chance to hear from our Lord through dreams.
“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, and your young men shall see visions; even on the male and female servants in those days, I will pour out my Spirit,” Joel 2:27–29 says.
When God speaks to us through a dream, it warrants our immediate response. It is harmful to dismiss a prophetic dream, for God’s message always has huge significance in our lives.
Is God Speaking To Us Through Dreams?
Dreams are a way for the subconscious mind to manifest itself as it tries to fix an arrangement for our most recent encounters and experiences. Although some people have dreams that they simply can’t connect to their personal lives, they assume that these are the kinds of dreams that come from God Himself, and it is their job to interpret their meaning so that they can share God’s message with the rest of the world.
The issue with interpreting a dream is that we cannot be certain that it is prophetic. Certain dreams are simply products of our imaginative minds[1]. It is also possible that a prophetic dream did not come from God. We can only cause danger if we declare our dreams to be warnings from God when they are not. We are also turning ourselves into false prophets in the process, thus committing a serious offense against God.
Therefore, it is important to seek guidance from the Holy Spirit to recognize a prophetic dream. After all, the best interpretation of God’s message will come directly from God.
How Are Dreams Presented In The Bible?
Each person can have a different interpretation of a dream. Some people might believe that you had prophetic dreams. Some might also downplay your supposed prophecy as nothing more than a vivid dream. However, no one else but God can confirm a prophetic dream.
Fortunately, we can use God’s words in the Bible as our guide. We can study the examples in the Scriptures, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, where God gave dreams to his prophets. We can assess if we just had an encounter with prophetic dreams.
God said in Numbers 12:6, “When there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions; I speak to them in dreams.” There are many depictions of dreams in the Bible, but they all suggest that God used these dreams to elicit a particular response or decision from a person.
There are some instances where the dreams from God did not require interpretation because the message was clear enough. For example, God spoke directly to Joseph in his dream to give him encouragement about Mary’s pregnancy. Joseph was having doubts about his marriage plans at the time, but it was God who gave him the push he needed to go ahead with them.
In the Old Testament, there are many instances where the dreams of God served as warnings for future events. In Genesis 41, God warned the Pharaoh through a dream that his people should start stockpiling food to prepare for an upcoming famine.
Dreams can also serve as an order from God to follow His will. In Acts 16, Paul had a dream of God instructing him to go to Macedonia to spread the gospel.
Who Had Dreams From God In The Bible?
The Old Testament and the New Testament have a long list of people receiving important messages from God through dreams. In the Old Testament, one of the notable people who were blessed with prophetic dreams was Joseph, the son of Jacob. He is popularly known as Joseph the Dreamer because of his dreams, which seemed impossible to come true but eventually did.
The story of Joseph can be read in Genesis 37, which recounts Joseph telling his family about a dream that he and his brothers were binding sheaves of grain in the field, but only his sheaves stood upright while those of his brothers seemed to bow down to it. He also dreamed that the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars were all bowing down to him.
Joseph’s brothers, who already hated him for being the favorite son of their parents, grew even more jealous after hearing about these dreams. The brothers plotted to sell Joseph into slavery in Egypt in the hopes that their family would never see him again. However, the dreams that Joseph had shared with his family were a glimpse of the future.
Daniel, like Joseph, received dreams from God that showed the future. In Daniel 7, he dreams of an encounter with the four beasts, each representing the fearsome empire that would rule over the lands: Babylon, Persia, the Greek Empire, and the Roman Empire.
Another great example would be the conversation between King Solomon and God, which happened in a dream. The Scripture depicts this dream as a two-way communication between God and Solomon, as told in 1 Kings 3:5.
The king of the Israelites asked for wisdom so that he could govern God’s chosen people effectively. The Almighty Father appreciated that Solomon had asked for an understanding mind over any form of riches in this world, so He instantly granted this request.
How Do We Interpret Dreams?
There are many instances in the Bible where the prophets failed to fully understand the dreams and visions that they received from God. However, instead of using their minds, they turned to God so that He would interpret their dreams for them.
The prophets like Joseph and Daniel recognize the fact that the correct interpretations belong to the Almighty Father in heaven. Hence, they are confident enough to share God’s message with everyone else because they have received confirmation from God.
Asking for God’s guidance and blessing after receiving His message is something that people forget to do most of the time. If you strongly believe that God spoke to you in your dreams, then you must pray that God will confirm the correct message that He wanted you to share with other people.
We cannot risk becoming false teachers who proclaim false prophecies if we force ourselves to interpret God’s message. Instead, we must ask God to give us the capacity to understand His will, the same way King Solomon asked the Father for wisdom.
The next thing to do after getting the interpretation from God is to take action. Those who received prophetic dreams from God served an important purpose in the Bible. There were dreams meant to warn people so that they could prepare for an upcoming tragedy, while others were made to remind us of our duty to share the word of God with the people who needed to hear it.
Conclusion
It might sound impossible for anyone in the present to receive a vision from God. However, as God said in the Bible, He can deliver His message to anyone through dreams. The only problem is how we can interpret these dreams from God and effectively share His message.
The Sacred Scripture should be our basis for an accurate interpretation of our dreams. We must not use other knowledge apart from the Word of God to understand the true meaning behind such dreams. Likewise, asking for guidance from the Father through prayer should also help us understand His will.
