Are You a “DREAMER”? (Part 1)

Everyone dreams though not everyone remembers their dreams. Some people have learned to “Process” their dreams and they have found a way to remember what seems elusive to most of us. Dreams are a powerful tool in our lives whether we understand them or not. Some kids have grown up be afraid of their dreams because of perhaps having one particular dream that was more of a nightmare. Some have learned how to “Program” their minds to drift off to dream in a certain way or on a certain subject. Some people just discount dreams all together as a mystery that can’t be understood or just relate them to chemical changes in the body.

What if dreams can help us through this life?  What if dreams are more than a “Pepperoni Pizza” the night before?

For a person who believes that we are designed to process different types of communication, whether from people or God, I believe God uses dreams with certain people who are willing to consider their message as having divine significance. Throughout scripture God spoke to men and women through dreams to relate different messages. These messages often were for more than a simple conversation with our Creator, but were used to unveil the plans of God about things which would happen or things we should do in the future. Sometimes they were used to release warnings of danger and, at other times, they were to impart strategy for coming events that would affect not only the “Dream Catcher” but also all the people who responded to the message God was sending.

Every story about dreams in scripture relates some hidden truth or reality about not only the message, but also the means of how the rest of us can process and understand our own dreams. Often each story reveals truths about how to respond to God no matter how he chooses to communicate. Far too many Christians fail to hear God speak because they refuse to be “flexible” in how God chooses to speak and therefore they get few, if any, divine personal communication. These people can have a love for God but have regulated themselves to only trusting scripture to communicate God’s heart and mind.  Many times they are told by preachers or teachers in the body of Christ to not trust anything but scripture. These often well-meaning teachers and preachers fail to consider what Jesus said just before going to the cross.

John 14:16-17                                                                                                                                                                                     “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; ¹⁷that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

People in general didn’t relate to God as personally as they are able today. The difference before the Holy Spirit was given was most people received divine communication from a prophet.  Now, Jesus is saying the Holy Spirit will live inside us now and communicate the life of Jesus and his teaching as well as reveal the Father’s heart.  Many have received the Holy Spirit, but confine him in their lives. They have been warned about being deceived so they don’t trust nor cultivate their own personal ability to listen to the Holy Spirit’s voice. Make no mistake.  The “Baptism” in the Holy Spirit is an experience we are meant to have regularly.  Look what Paul says about such an experience.

Ephesians 5:17-18                                                                                                                                                                         So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. ¹⁸And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,

Paul challenges us to understand the will of God. He uses the example of wine and its intoxication as an example of being filled in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is meant to fill our lives regularly in order to influence our perception and action. The word “Filled” is a present continuous verb.

Let’s look at the story of the birth of Christ and his earthly parents. Joseph and Mary were not complicated people nor were they important leaders in the Jewish community. They were simple, honest, dedicated people who loved God so much that God could trust them with the riches of heaven in the birth and development of Jesus.  Look how God communicated with the Magi and Joseph when the life of Jesus was threatened by King Herod.

Matthew 2:12                                                                                                                                                                            Having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi left for their own country by another way.

Matthew 2:13-14                                                                                                                                                                        Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord *appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him. So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt.

I would like to point out that with both Joseph and the Magi they had a dream they responded to. People in this time period “believed” in dreams. They believed that God could and would communicate in many different ways. They were not closed to God using a stranger to communicate something He wanted to say.  They didn’t “demand” that God speak to them in an audible voice. They embraced however God wanted to talk to them. This is key to our ability to understand the voice of God or the will of God. Paul states in the book of Romans that there are things we can do in order to discern what God’s will is……and it’s not just reading scripture.

Romans 12:1-2                                                                                                                                                                     Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. [2] And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Many will quote this passage referring to being transformed in our minds and extrapolate that our minds are changed by reading the scriptures, but the beginning of this passage is about “Presenting Your Body“. The idea is that it’s not just about your mind being changed, but about engaging your body as well.  Paul does not say that by reading scripture your mind will be changed from the way the world thinks, although we know that is true, but rather to let your mind changed like a caterpillar to a butterfly. How that happens is a design of God and I believe one of the ways we are transformed is by cooperating with how God wants to move in our lives. Communication can be verbal and non-verbal.  Non-verbal can be a dream, a sensing, a premonition and so on. From the Old Testament  through the New Testament, God “spoke” many ways and under many different circumstances.

I want to speak further on this subject of dreams in the next article because many of us have discounted dreams as a way God wants to speak and thus closed off one of the many ways our Heavenly Father has spoken in the past. Be prepared to open your thinking and feelings to the possibilities of God speaking to you in new ways…..even through dreams.

Questions:

1. Were you taught to only accept Scripture as the way God speaks today?  Read the Scripture and see.

2. Have you let others doubts about the voice of God hinder your own discovery?  Be filled with the Holy Spirit and discover a

brand new refreshing of your Heavenly Father speaking.

Pastor Dale