Dreams from God?
Have you ever had a dream that seemed so real, you woke up wondering if it really happened? Last night I had a dream that my family moved to a different town, started new jobs, switched churches, and had to essentially start all over again. I woke up quite shaken because I'm really content with life right now and have absolutely no intention to alter course. So where did this dream come from? Was God trying to send me a message? Is it my subconscious creating a story line based upon the previous day's advents?
Our minds can be funny things. One night I had a dream in which my husband was unusually mean to me. I woke up really angry at him and even told him how upset I was! He was thoroughly confused (as he should have been). After all, he had no recollection of my dream and hadn't committed any sin. Yet, my emotions and imagination had gotten the best of me and I had wrongly accused my husband of an imaginary misdeed.
There are some who say God never speaks outside of His Word. There are others who claim that God speaks to us in a variety of ways every day. We have modern day prophets who proclaim new messages from God and conversely others who believe God is now mute. But the Bible doesn't support either of these positions. All throughout the Bible, God speaks to His children - sometimes in dreams, sometimes audibly, sometimes through prophets, sometimes through His Word. However, outside of Adam and subsequently Eve in the Garden of Eden, God did not reveal Himself to any of His children on a daily basis. In fact, over the approximately 4000 years the Bible spans, there are less than 4000 prophecies and revelations. That's less than once a year and often to revealed to one person or small group. So, how do we know when the Holy Spirit is actually talking to us or our minds have gone off on a tangent?
When God gets our attention outside of directly reading the Bible, we know He will never contradict Himself. He doesn't lie. He doesn't mislead. If God prompts people today, it will always align with the Bible . Numbers 19:23 reads, "God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?"
So how does this apply to my dream? First, the dream I had last night is not a secret message from God to uproot my family and start all over again. However, that doesn't mean the Holy Spirit wasn't trying to highlight something in my life. Most nights, I pray that God will search my heart and see if there is any unclean way in me and then right it. This morning, I was startled by my strong desire to keep my home, my job, and my church. I asked myself, "What if God really was calling me to move? Would I?" And my initial reaction was, "no." And therein lies a problem. When my desire to do my will is stronger than my desire to do God's will, I have a problem. When I cling to material items more than God Himself, I am seriously flawed. And yes, God did use a dream to reveal this problem in my heart. I know that doing God's will is paramount because that message aligns with the Word of God. Jesus said while He was praying before the crucifixion that He would set aside His own will to do the will of the Father. We know that this is the biblical model for all of us to follow.
My dream did not reveal a secret message from God, but rather a well known message from God which, apparently, I don't always apply well in my life. When my affection is for my own will and not God's will, I must change. God didn't reveal this lesson to me in a dream. He revealed it to me in His Word and got my attention through a dream. If we do not know the Word of God, we can not know for certain what God is telling us. It is imperative that we study our Bibles so that we can know truth. We should never rely on "modern day prophets," dreams, or feelings to guide us. Only the Word of God will always speak truth. Everything else is subject to error.
There are some who say God never speaks outside of His Word. There are others who claim that God speaks to us in a variety of ways every day. We have modern day prophets who proclaim new messages from God and conversely others who believe God is now mute. But the Bible doesn't support either of these positions. All throughout the Bible, God speaks to His children - sometimes in dreams, sometimes audibly, sometimes through prophets, sometimes through His Word. However, outside of Adam and subsequently Eve in the Garden of Eden, God did not reveal Himself to any of His children on a daily basis. In fact, over the approximately 4000 years the Bible spans, there are less than 4000 prophecies and revelations. That's less than once a year and often to revealed to one person or small group. So, how do we know when the Holy Spirit is actually talking to us or our minds have gone off on a tangent?
When God gets our attention outside of directly reading the Bible, we know He will never contradict Himself. He doesn't lie. He doesn't mislead. If God prompts people today, it will always align with the Bible . Numbers 19:23 reads, "God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?"
So how does this apply to my dream? First, the dream I had last night is not a secret message from God to uproot my family and start all over again. However, that doesn't mean the Holy Spirit wasn't trying to highlight something in my life. Most nights, I pray that God will search my heart and see if there is any unclean way in me and then right it. This morning, I was startled by my strong desire to keep my home, my job, and my church. I asked myself, "What if God really was calling me to move? Would I?" And my initial reaction was, "no." And therein lies a problem. When my desire to do my will is stronger than my desire to do God's will, I have a problem. When I cling to material items more than God Himself, I am seriously flawed. And yes, God did use a dream to reveal this problem in my heart. I know that doing God's will is paramount because that message aligns with the Word of God. Jesus said while He was praying before the crucifixion that He would set aside His own will to do the will of the Father. We know that this is the biblical model for all of us to follow.
My dream did not reveal a secret message from God, but rather a well known message from God which, apparently, I don't always apply well in my life. When my affection is for my own will and not God's will, I must change. God didn't reveal this lesson to me in a dream. He revealed it to me in His Word and got my attention through a dream. If we do not know the Word of God, we can not know for certain what God is telling us. It is imperative that we study our Bibles so that we can know truth. We should never rely on "modern day prophets," dreams, or feelings to guide us. Only the Word of God will always speak truth. Everything else is subject to error.
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