Did you know that there is no day or night in the spirit world?! In fact, your spirit is always awake, even when your body is asleep!
If you have ever awakened from a full night’s sleep feeling tired and like you were in a war all night, you probably were! The truth is that what you may label as slumber could, in fact, be an opportunity for your spirit to engage with the spirit realm. Beyond that, it can be a time when the Creator of the universe, who cares deeply about your life, is wanting to speak to you.
I propose that we could all walk in greater revelation, understanding, and supernatural strategy for our lives if we paid more attention to our dreams. After all, you spend about a third of your life asleep! God is the Living Word and He is always speaking — He doesn’t consider your sleep a waste of time and can use it to speak to you!
A DREAM COULD CHANGE YOUR WHOLE LIFE
Dreams from God, just like any other way that the Lord speaks to us, can be supernatural keys for unlocking miracles in our lives! The Lord often speaks to me in dreams, and last year I had a dream that awakened me to the fact that some of the people I love were being pushed away by my own sense of accomplishment. The dream revealed deep understanding of how people who don’t feel like they measure up can be welcomed into belonging. You can read more about that testimony on this blog post.
Still not convinced on the power of dreams? Here’s a testimony to awaken faith in your inner-man!
A friend told me a story about how his son’s marriage was restored by a dream! His son and daughter-in-law were in a year-long, ugly custody battle over their only son. Their marriage was over and although the husband had a change of heart and wanted to reconcile with his wife, she remained hurt, angry, and bitter. She refused any counsel and broke all ties with the family to the point that she would have nothing to do with any of them.
The night before they were to go to divorce court, my friend’s daughter-in-law had a dream. In it, she saw herself standing at the edge of a beautiful meadow. Her husband was standing in the middle of the field, and suddenly Jesus appeared. He looked over at her, smiled, and then walked through the meadow to her husband and gave him a hug. Then the scene changed.
Her father-in-law was now standing in the center of the field and again the Lord appeared. He looked over at her a second time and smiled while He embraced her father-in-law. In the next scene, she saw herself standing in the field of flowers. Jesus appeared off in the distance walking through the meadow towards her. Just as the Lord reached out to embrace her, she woke up.
She immediately knew the Lord was giving her the grace she needed to restore her relationship with her husband. She got out of bed at five o’clock in the morning and called him, and they reconciled that very day, going on to live happily ever after!
If you need a miracle of family reconciliation in your own life, I encourage you to check out last week’s blog post for a prophetic word on prodigal family members coming home in this season!
DON’T LET THEM GO UNNOTICED
There is much to know about the mysterious world of dreams. Job gives us some insight into the nature of dreams and their purposes:
“Indeed God speaks once, or twice, yet no one notices it. In a dream, a vision of the night, when sound sleep falls on men, while they slumber in their beds, then He opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction, that He may turn man aside from his conduct, and keep man from pride; He keeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from passing over into Sheol” (Job 33:14-18).
Job says that the dreams of God often go unnoticed. He goes on to explain that many times God uses dreams to change our attitude. If our soul is resisting the Lord, He waits until we are unconscious and then changes our heart through visions of the night. He even says that these midnight encounters can keep us from hell!
Sometimes the dreams that change us are not dreams that we remember. The dream that Job had was a dream that he didn’t remember, however, he knew it changed his attitude. Some people may say they never dream, but perhaps you are dreaming and you simply don’t recall them. Be encouraged — God can still shape your history even if you don’t remember the dream that transformed your inner world!
If dreams are that powerful, then I want to propose to you that a dream can impact your destiny, turn your heart towards God, bring clarity to a situation and even bring insight to problems in your life that seem hopeless.
4 KEYS FOR UNDERSTANDING YOUR DREAMS
In case you’ve missed it: Dreams are an amazing way to hear God! Here are four basic truths for any believer who wants to grow in their dream life:
1. Not all dreams are from God. You can hear from four sources in the spirit realm—your spirit, the Holy Spirit, angels and evil spirits—and this is true even in your dreams. Not all dreams are from God. This should be one of the first questions you consider when you’re evaluating a dream —what is the source of my dream? Holy Spirit and wise counsel can help you with this.
2. It does not necessarily mean you are prophetic just because you have dreams. Remember, even wicked people in the Old Testament had dreams. Interpreting dreams is what makes you prophetic.
3. Dreams require interpretation. Colors, numbers, and other symbolic occurrences in dreams are very important to the interpretation of the dream. But even as you learn to recognize consistencies in this symbolic language, you need to remember that ultimately the interpretation of dreams belongs to the Lord.
4. If you want to have more dreams, you need to become a good steward of the revelations you receive. It is a great idea to put a notebook or recorder by your bed before you go to sleep. Pray and tell the Lord, “Your servant is listening.” As soon as you have a dream, write it down or record all of the details you can remember, including the way you felt about the dream while you were having it. Unpacking the interpretation and application of the dream will open up even more dreams for you!
GOING FURTHER ON THE JOURNEY OF DREAMING
Let’s be a people who pay attention to the dreams God gives us and let’s steward them well! There is so much more to know about dreams and visions. John Paul Jackson, James Goll, and Cindy Jacobs have all written amazing books on the subject with deep insights into this language of God. I highly recommend their books.
If you don’t have night dreams but would like this gift then I bless you today! I pray that God would meet you in your sleep and that your own spirit would be awakened to the spirit realm! May you be someone who walks in acute awareness of God’s voice at night, with deep revelation and clarity when you wake up!
If dreaming is something you want to grow in then I want to invite you to join me this August in Redding for the School of the Prophets. We designed this school to help you not just hear God and grow in your prophetic gift, but to deeply study and activate you into a lifestyle of prophetic! We will have breakouts on the topics of dreams and dream interpretation, along with other subjects like building a prophetic community, operating in the prophetic to impact government and business and more. You can register here now!
Are you a dreamer? What are you doing to steward your dreams well? Has a dream every changed your life? I’d love to hear about your process in the comments!
