Are Dreams a form of Divine Communication

In the book of Job we will find these words, ‘For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in the slumbering upon the bed; then He openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction.’ (Job 33:14-16 KJV).
In this chapter Job’s friend Elihu, states that God gives us sealed instructions during our times of sleep in dreams. Because these instructions (dreams) are sealed, we sometimes to do not recognize them as messages from God, many times we dismiss them as illusionary junk mail. Many times we will attribute them to something that we ate before we went to bed, or possibly something that we had thought about during the day.
We all know someone who has said, “I had a weird dream last night.” And more than likely this person will then begin to talk about that dream hoping that you can help to shed some light into the meaning. As long as mankind has existed there has been an inherent desire to understand the visions we encounter along our journey during times of sleep. We all at one time or another have had the desire to receive insight inspiration and revelation from our dreams. Throughout the history of mankind, many artists, inventors, writers and scientists have solved problems in their dreams. Here a just a few of some of the more famous discoveries and creativity in literature, science, music and even sports attributed to dreams.
Paul McCartney a famous singer/ songwriter and member of the Beatles, attributed the tune for "Yesterday" to a dream....
Mary Shelley author of the famous book Frankenstein says the Inspiration came to her in a Dream.
President Abraham Lincoln recounted a dream to his wife, in which he dreamt of his own assassination.
Madame C.J. Walker Madame Walker founded and built a highly successful African-American cosmetic company that made her a millionaire many times over. Walker was suffering from a scalp infection that caused her to loose most of her hair in the 1890’s. She began experimenting with patented medicines and hair-care products.
Then, she had a dream that solved her problems:
“He answered my prayer, for one night I had a dream, and in that dream a big, black man appeared to me and told me what to mix up in my hair. Some of the remedy was grown in Africa, but I sent for it, mixed it, put it on my scalp, and in a few weeks my hair was coming in faster than it had ever fallen out. I tried it on my friends; it helped them. I made up my mind to begin to sell it.”
Stephen King the king of horror novels describes how dreams affect his writings. When asked how the inspiration for Misery came about, King answered "Like the ideas for some of my other novels, it came to me in a dream.
So from the above mentioned examples we see how dreams have affected our lives in today’s world. Now let’s look back in time:
And Joseph dreamed a dream, and when he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more…..And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him and said unto him, what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? (Genesis 37:5, 10)
And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. And when they were departed behold the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream saying, arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt, and he thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. (Matt.2:12-13)
In the two bible references, we see two types of dreams one foretold destiny and one was a direction for safety.
So, are dreams Divine communications or are they just a result of one’s own thoughts? Can dreams actually be the source of inspiration and revelation? Must we pay more attention to our dreams? In a future post I will begin to help you to breakdown and give you some interpretation skills in dreams.
To learn more about this topic check out the ebook Are dreams a form of Divine Communication www.tabernacleofpraiseworshipcenter.org
ByBarbara Smitherman, author of “Engaging the Sons of Darkness”. Available at amazon.com