Pay Attention To Your Dreams

Everyone dreams. This is a fact! The question is why do we dream? Scientists and psychologists have many different theories. Some are

· To organize knowledge and to form brain connections, this helps with memory recall.

· They can be highly meaningful, because they deal with the sort of personal conflicts and emotional struggles that people are experiencing in their daily lives.

· It is a reflection of your recent state of mind, future possibilities, and changes that you have experienced.

These are just theories because the research I have done suggests that no one knows exactly the answer. There is one aspect that Christians need to pay attention to, and that is the spiritual reasons for dreams. Simply put God can and does communicate to us, his children, through dreams.

Look at this passage on the day of Pentecost from Acts 2:16-17 where Peter quotes from the book of Joel. “No, what you see this morning was predicted centuries ago by the prophet Joel: ‘In the last days, God said, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.’”

So this passage clearly says that one of the ways God will communicate to us in the New Testament age is through dreams.

Two stories that illustrate this involve the Josephs. One of them is found in the Old Testament. You know, the son of Jacob and one of the twelve brothers. The other is Mary’s husband and stepfather to Jesus.

Let’s begin with the Old Testament Joseph. There are six dreams associated with this story. Joseph has two dreams when he is 17 that say his brothers will bow down to him. Through a series of events, Joseph is sold as a slave to an Egyptian named Potiphar, who through the lie of his wife saying Joseph assaulted her, has him imprisoned.

While incarcerated Joseph interprets two dreams of Pharaohs’ servants, one saying he will be hung in three days, the other will be restored to his office. These dreams come to pass.

Two years later, Pharaoh has two dreams with no one able to interpret them. The restored servant mentions Joseph. Pharaoh has him brought in, and Joseph interprets his dreams.

The short version is there will seven years of prosperity and seven years of famine. Pharaoh puts Joseph in charge of a forced savings plan during the prosperous years.

Nine years later, Joseph’s brothers go to Egypt to get food since the famine is severe. First thing they do is bow down to Joseph. So the original dreams of 22 years ago are fulfilled.

Likewise in the New Testament, Joseph, stepfather to Jesus, has four dreams, all from God. The first one is given so he won’t divorce Mary because she is pregnant, not by him. The second dream has God tell Joseph to take his family and flee to Egypt, because Herod, the king, will kill Jesus. The third is where the Lord instructs Joseph to return to Israel, and in the fourth dream there is further instruction to live in Galilee, a region of Israel.

So in these two examples we have 10 dreams that are clearly from God and fortunately, both Josephs believed the Lord in every case.

So how do we know that God is speaking to us in our dreams?

· If we have been praying about something and we get an answer in our dream, most likely it is the Lord.

· If in a dream we sense there is an assignment such as talking to a certain neighbor for instance, God probably is giving you that assignment.

Even if we get a dream we think is from God, we have to pray about it when awake, to get a sense if God spoke to us.

So I am saying that God speaks to us in our dreams. Certainly some dreams have to do with the areas first mentioned in this blog, or simply you had bad pizza. But it is imperative to note that God may choose that avenue to communicate something to you. Can’t always tell you if the dream is from God, but my strong encouragement is to pay attention to your dreams. If that is the way the Lord will get our attention, then dream away.