I had a dream last night that I think was probably from God. No, I’m not going to tell you the content, but I do want to give some theological reflection on the experience and how we might respond to such dreams.
For some people, a claim that God has spoken through a dream seems naïve. And yet, the Bible reports many instances where God spoke through dreams.
Dreams in the Bible
At times God spoke through a dream to warn a person (Genesis 20:3 and 6) or to give encouragement to a person (Genesis 28:12-15).
Sometimes the dream seems to be symbolic of something, like Joseph’s brothers bowing down to him as sheaves of grain (Genesis 37:6-7). At other times, the meaning of the dream is straight forward, without symbolism, like when an angel of the Lord told Joseph that Mary would give birth to Jesus (Matthew 1:20-21).
And sometimes within a dream God directly spoke to the person having the dream (1 Kings 3:5), whereas at other times God clearly used the dream (or “spoke through” the dream), even though God isn’t a “character” that spoke in the dream (consider again, Joseph’s dream of Genesis 37:6-7).
But does God still speak through dreams?
Someone might protest that, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2). The implication here is that God used to speak through dreams, but that God doesn’t speak that way any longer now that God has spoken through Jesus. Some people would add that God definitely doesn’t speak that way now that we have the Bible—even though this is clearly not what the Bible is saying here.
The problem with the above protest is that God did still speak to people in many ways after Jesus ascended to heaven (e.g., Acts 10:19 and 13:2). Moreover, the Bible itself promises that after Pentecost, God would give dreams to people—”In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams” (Acts 2:17).
So, yes, the Bible supports the idea that God still speaks through dreams today.
How often does God speak through dreams?
While the Bible does record dreams from God, it doesn’t include that many dreams. So I’m not sure that it happens on a regular basis.
I do not think every dream is from God. In fact, I dream regularly (almost every night!), and yet I can only think of one other time that I thought I had a dream from God.
I was preparing to speak at a church. The pastor had asked if I wanted to lead communion that Sunday since I was going to be the guest speaker. I don’t remember if we decided they would do communion another Sunday or if he was going to lead it. Either way, I ended up having a dream with me leading communion, and I took it as direction from God that I should lead communion.
I went, I preached, I led communion. Nothing miraculous happened—not that I expected it to. I’m still not certain the dream was from God, but I figure it probably was—I had a sense that it was. I likely prayed about it too.
How do I know I had a dream from God?
What about last night’s dream? I’m not certain it was from God either. But I woke up thinking it likely was. In this case, it was not something I had been thinking about recently and it seemed to come somewhat out of nowhere.
God doesn’t promise that when he speaks through a dream, it will be an out-of-this-world-crazy dream. It will not will always be obvious when God speaks to us in a dream, just like it isn’t always obvious when God is speaking to us in general.
Consider, for example, when Samuel was a boy—God literally spoke to him with an audible voice, and yet Samuel thought it must have been Eli the priest (1 Samuel 3). It wasn’t obvious to Samuel that God was speaking to him.
I am convinced that God speaks through dreams more often that most North American Christians think. The Bible states explicitly that we won’t always be aware of it:
For God does speak—now one way, now another—though no one perceives it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds, he may speak …” (Job 33:14-18)
What about discernment?
I certainly affirm that if we think a dream might have come from God, then we should submit that to a process of discernment. Jeremiah’s warning about some false prophets should give us caution:
I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds?” (Jeremiah 23:25-26).
So, just as I wrote in my book Simply Spirit-Filled, we should test anything we believe we are hearing from God, including, of course, against the teaching of the Scripture.
And this discernment might involve more than just you. For example, Paul once had a vision at night (perhaps a dream) where he saw “a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us’” (Acts 16:9). Afterward we don’t see Paul proclaiming what this meant for him and his fellow-travelers. Instead, we see that the group of them concluded “that God had called us to preach the gospel to them” (Acts 16:10).
Side note—I find it interesting that the Bible doesn’t record Paul ever meeting this man (perhaps the vision was more symbolic or directional rather than foretelling the future).
Dream away
If God does speak through dreams sometimes, and it seems clear from the Bible that God does, then we should be open to discerning when God might have spoken through a dream, rather than living in practice as though it never happens. Unfortunately, the latter is probably the default position for many Christians, including even many Pentecostals and charismatics—well, at least in North America.
Leave a comment below by clicking here.
You might also be interested in these posts:
- Myth #1: “Prophecy is all About the Future”
- 5 Surprises About “the Anointing” in the New Testament
- There is Power in the Tongue, but Not for Declarations and Decrees
Andrew K. Gabriel, Ph.D., is the author/editor of six books, including Simply Spirit-Filled: Experiencing God in the Presence and Power of the Holy Spirit. He is a theology professor at Horizon College & Seminary and serves on the Theological Study Commission for the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada. You can follow him on Facebook or on Twitter.
Last year my daughter was extremely ill – dying. I wasn’t awake, I don’t think I was sleeping… I saw the words “But God…but God”… coming down vertically a few times over and over. I looked up and saw a previous pastor saying them…
I knew that it was only God who could heal her… that night a friend emailed and said…” But God..” I reached out to that pastor and he and his wife played an important role in holding us up in supporting us. And, yes, she survived septic shock. And that’s MY “dream” from the Lord.
Praise the Lord! Thanks for sharing.
Don’t have them all the time but God definitely speaks through dreams. I recommend writing them down ASAP when you wake up, every detail. Pray through it, get someone else you trust to pray into it as well for discernment. I’ve had dreams where God warned me about certain people. Also had one once where a traveling evangelist I had met appeared in front of me and said, “you’re going to move soon!” I got a call a couple days later about moving to where I am now. We need to learn to pay attention God is speaking to us more than we realize!
I have had a few dreams in my lifetime that were very clearly directional from God about a current situation at the time. One was a confirmation to take an action I already knew was necessary, but was reluctant to execute on.
One of the things I do have a problem with is when people try to develop “dream lexicons,” where certain colors usually mean this, and a certain number signifies that, especially when there is no example from Scripture to back up the interpretive claim for these symbols.
Andrew, I identify with your good counsel on this. I too have had dreams in which I believed God was impressing something on me. Then as you say, it’s a matter of discernment, whether in response to a personal issue deep in my sub-conscious or more surface conscious, I was mulling on that particular issue or sometimes just seemingly “out of the blue,” the all-knowing God used that mode. I dream a lot too and so have to ask myself whether I ate or drank liquids too close to bedtime or whether it was stomach indigestion, although, I suppose God could use even that. It also prompts me to self-assess whether I’m getting enough deeper sleep of a couple hours per night. They say about 25% of the 7 to 8 hours per night should be that stage of non-rapid eye movement (NREM). Apparently, our amazing God has made our bodies cycle, through the night, between REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non-rapid eye movement, with NREM divided into three stages: light (N1), deep (N2), deeper sleep (N3). I’d be curious when the dreams or “dreams from God” come. That aside, I appreciate your helpful personal examples and drawing in the occurrences and insights from Scripture. Yours cautions are appropriate because it is concerning when some of our charismatic friends tend to use their “dreams” to frequently impose a direction on others. Especially then does it need to be either affirmed, questioned or outright challenged in keeping with Scripture. Thanks for the thoughtful article, Andrew. In His Service, Maurice (mauricevellacott@sasktel.net)
A few years ago, I specifically focused my prayer for the gift of discernment. God granted me that gift in many areas of my life, always uniquely tied to my closeness to his Word and my communication with him through prayer. Most of the “results” or “consequences” of having this “gift” have been a blessing but some, not so much. I can sometimes “see through” certain celebrity Christians and others before their true intents are known to the usual Christ-pursuing Christian world. For fear of being wrong or misinterpreting God ( and not wanting to say, “I told you so.”), I usually remain silent. So if you pray for the gift of discernment, be prepared for how you will handle the information God gives you. I don’t know the proper way to do it.
I have had at some times a real dream from God that provided me with direction. But only a few times and it added confirmation to guidance that was already at work. My guidance comes primarily from the Word of God and anything that contradicts it is not from God. Sometimes I have a dream about certain people; that kind of dream also ‘burdens’ me to pray for these people.
Andrew,
Nice topic 🙂
My wife and I have found that God speaks to us both through dreams, and, by now, we feel like we almost always know when it’s from God and when it’s not. And when we’re not sure, we run it past each other. “Hey, I had this dream. Tell me what you think . . . ”
Part of our “success” with this is that we hold each other accountable to whether or not our dreams line up with scripture. That’s key! We also keep dream journals to record the details and revisit years later.
We’ve found dreams to be another way of hearing from God together, or having our eyes opened to something in the spiritual realm. For us, dreams often seem to be telling us things to pray for, either for ourselves, our family, or our community. Very rarely do they go beyond that.
If there’s something in a dream that appears to be calling us to obey God’s word in a particular way, whether we’re “certain” the dream is “from God” or not, it’s very likely “God approved.”
Peace and sweet dreams,
Dave
Jesus said “My sheep know My voice”. Every time I’ve had a dream or a vision or a prophecy from God I knew it was from God! I usually get dreams or visions between sleep and waking up. The visions usually expand into greater meaning after I get them like they are given in a compressed state.
I believe God speaks thru dreams,
I was lucky enough to have God not only speak to me in a dream, but he put his hand on my shoulder.
I was about 36 years old. I was certainly at the lowest point of my life. I just ended a very toxic relationship, lost many friends, employment was not good and I was back home with my Parents.
One night, God appeared to me. I was standing outside in the middle of the road at my Parents house. He appeared right in front of me, maybe 15 feet away. He was with company,(must have been angels).
The unique thing was he appeared to me as a young boy about 10-12 years old. He had a shaved/bald head. He reminded me of a Buddest Monk, the Golden Child.
The very moment I saw him, I knew without question it was God. I started crying immediately, I was overwhelmed with his presence. As HE approached me I bowed my head in full tears. GOD put his hand on my shoulder and said, ” Don’t worry. Everything will be OK. I am going to give you everything you’ve ever asked for.”
I woke up quickly continuing to cry. It was the most powerful thing I have ever experienced.
It’s been approx. 15 years since that dream, and I can say GOD has been giving me EVERYTHING I have asked for. I’ve been extremely blessed. I have a wonderful relationship with God and Jesus. I think I finally understand what Born Again means. – Brian
Thanks for sharing your experience.
I have stage 4 pancreatic cancer . Two weeks ago I had a dream and I was standing talking to my oncologist when I noticed everything was white and we were the only ones there my doctor turned and was walking down the hall and I heard God speak to me verbally.He said I still have a mission to complete and I give Dr *** the knowledge and resources to heal you .
I am a minister and have two other dreams ,the common thing is everything is always a bright white . I think about it every day and believe it is a prophetic dream.
What are your thoughts .
Thanks for sharing your experience. Unfortunately, I don’t feel like I’m in a place where I could reliably confirm or deny if your dream from God. I do pray that God heals you, though! Take care, Bob.