Dreams

We all have dreams throughout our lives and for the most part people probably ignore them or do not give them a second thought. Of course nightmares or dreams that are not pleasant people definitely try to forget. Putting that aside it is strange how nowadays dreams are more readily dismissed while centuries ago dreams were viewed with so much more importance and people believed in their significance. Dreams could be life changing and in some cases they still are.

What most people do not know is that dreams can some from three sources. Two are the more obvious, first is from our own consciousness while we sleep and the other comes from God. What some might not know is that Satan also will send dreams to people to plague them or to even stir up doubts besides other nefarious plans he may have.

Another tid-bit that most do not know or try is praying about their dreams. From these three sources of dreams we should pray to have those from God, while praying to not have any from any of the other sources, especially from Satan.

In Biblical days if you did not have a dream within a week you were considered to have something wrong with you.

Joseph had many dreams besides the two mentioned in Genesis 37:6-7 and 9-11. If you look at both verses 5 and 8 you can see Joseph had more dreams then that are written. Even though it was hard for his family to understand and except the dreams his father on the other hand know that there was something to them as you see in verse 11 for his father observed the saying. These dreams were showing what was going to happen, but at the same time all these dreams were setting in motion the deeper and deeper hatred of hid brethren to the point where they would turn on him, thus beginning the process of the fulfilling of these exact dreams.

Even those that do not live for God receive dreams from Him. Such as the examples of the Chief of the Butlers and Chief of the Bakers that ended up in prison with Joseph. Genesis 40:9-11, 16-17 shows the dreams that they received. There is also the ability to interpret dreams that those that serve God can receive as did Joseph (Genesis 40:8), it was God that allowed Joseph to interpret these two men’s dreams as well as the ones from Pharaoh later on.

There are dreams that do not need interpreting such as those we read in Matthew 1:20-24. Joseph needed no help with the understanding of that dream. He knew exactly what was asked of him to do. Then you have the wise men receiving a dream that warned them not to return to Herod (Matthew 2:12). Then you see Joseph receiving another dream in 2:13-14 and another in 2:19-23 which needed no interpretation.

God has never let up or stopped giving dreams to people and in Acts 2:14-17 He will pour out His spirit in the last days for people to have prophecies, visions and dreams. As you can see the examples of dreams in the scriptures they tend to be more prophetic or some kind of warning. There are also those dreams that He will send to give you an insight or revelation to help in understanding of things within the scriptures and the world.

The biggest question is, “How do you know what dreams come from God?” This comes down to your relationship with God. If you are close to Him you will know His voice just as those that are close to Jesus know his voice (John 10:4-5). If you’re not close to Him or you do not know Him then it’s hard for them to know what dreams come from God.

So let us ask God to guide us in these end times even if it may be through dreams.