DOES GOD STILL USE DREAMS?
Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. Psalm 23:4 (NLT)
One night I had a disturbing dream. In my dream, my Prius had stalled by the side of the road on the Wrightwood highway near Mormon Rocks. After several attempts to start it failed, I placed the car in neutral and released the brake, so it would start to roll downhill.
My plan to jump-start my Prius, as we used to do with our old stick shifts, was ill-advised. The power steering on a Prius doesn’t work when the engine isn’t running. As the car gained momentum, it started to swerve. I knew I had lost control. The car left the paved surface. “Help me, Lord.” The car skidded in the dirt at the side of the road, hit some rocks, and was catapulted toward the edge of a bridge that crossed a rocky ravine. “Into your hands, I commit my spirit.”
Just when I thought all was lost, I awakened. My heart was racing, and it took a few seconds for me to realize that I was safe in my bed. That dream taught me something about my faith. In a time of perceived life-threatening peril, my thoughts immediately went to God. There was no equivocation; there was no doubt.
As I sat in bed, I began to wonder if dreams are still one of the ways God communicates with his people. The Bible tells us that God used dreams to communicate in the past. Does he still use dreams today?
Occasionally I dream, and sometimes my dreams provide answers to issues that have perplexed me. Was it my subconscious working out issues? Was God speaking through a dream, or was it simply something I ate? I am not sure.
The prophet Joel offers us hope that God may still use dreams: And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Joel 2:28
Perhaps my dream was God’s way of telling me, as the Twenty-third Psalm reminds us: Even when we walk through the darkest valleys, God is close beside us.
Does God speak to you in dreams? Or does he use music? Perhaps you feel his presence when you survey the beauty of his creation or read a particularly moving section of Scripture. Some see God in the face of a stranger who shows them grace. In a variety of ways, God makes it clear he wants to talk to you. Are you listening?
Blessings,
Don & Bonnie Sennott
Graphic courtesy of cosedalibri.blogspot.com
SOME SCRIPTURES WHERE DREAMS ARE MENTIONED
[Jacob] had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. Genesis 28:12
(This verse inspired Led Zepplin’s classic hit “Stairway to Heaven”)
Then God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream at night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.” Genesis 31:24
Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. Genesis 37:5
The cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were being held in prison—had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own. Genesis 40:5
When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing by the Nile,
Genesis 41:4
In Deuteronomy, God warns, If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” 3 you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 13:1-3
Gideon overheard two men discussing a dream and made his decision to attack the Midianite camp based on the interpretation of the dream: When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down and worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, “Get up! The LORD has given the Midianite camp into your hands.”
Judges 7:15
Solomon asked for wisdom in response to a dream: At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
“So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
1 Kings 3:5,9
Job reported having terrifying dreams: When I think my bed will comfort me and my couch will ease my complaint, even then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions, Job 7:14
Solomon wrote critically of dreamers: Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore fear God. Ecclesiastes 5:7
In Jeremiah we find God commanding his prophets who dream should report faithfully what they have dreamed: Let the prophet who has a dream recount the dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the LORD. Jeremiah 23:28
In the book of Daniel, we first see Daniel interpreting the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar (Chapters 2 & 4). In chapters 7-11, we read about Daniel’s dreams and visions that foretold the history of Israel, first under the Babylonians, then the Medo-Persians, the Greeks, the Romans; concluding with his vision of the end times.
Zechariah closes out the Old Testament commentary on dreams with a warning:
The idols speak deceitfully, diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd. Zechariah 10:2
In the New Testament, an angel of the Lord appeared to [Joseph] in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1:20
In Matthew 2:12, the wise men were told not to go back to Herod and returned to their country by a different route.
Joseph was told in a dream, “Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” Matthew 2:13
In Matthew 27:19, we read about Pilate’s wife’s dream: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.”
In Acts, Peter quotes the words we cited earlier from the prophet Joel: ‘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
Sweet Dreams!
