“Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out My Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.” – Joel 2:28 (NLT)
One of my absolute favorite ways that the Lord communicates with His people is through dreams. There is so much mystery and such depth to them. It’s like a puzzle almost, where you have to seek the Lord to determine where and how each piece fits into what He is communicating. Dreams are all throughout the Scriptures. People like Joseph in the book of Genesis, who both received dreams and interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh. Daniel interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams in the book of Daniel, and he also received visions of his own. The list goes on and on, making it very obvious that God speaks to His people through dreams and visions. And the prophecy of Joel, along with accounts in the New Testament, make it very clear that God continues to use this form of communication.
But my purpose for writing about dreams is not merely because I love talking about them. I am writing on this topic because I feel that too many people are too quick to dismiss their dreams as nothing more than the result of the pizza they ate the night before. On the contrary, dreams are one God’s ways of revealing deeper truths to us. They can have a personal application, or they can have a corporate application. Sometimes it’s both. But you have to actually take the time to consider the dream and seek the Lord on it in order to distinguish that part.
Let’s start with step one of this process though: You actually have to believe that the Lord can, does, and will speak to you through your dreams.
This is such a major thing! There are actually those today who even deny the gift of dreams from the Lord. More than anything, my heart is saddened for these people. They are missing out on such an awesome part of this relationship with the Lord. And because of this, they pay no attention to their dreams . . . except in the event of nightmares, which they tend to label as a ploy of the enemy. But where is the logic there? They give more power to the enemy in the realm of dreams than they do to the God of the universe.
So that’s the first step. Recognizing and believing that God does actually speak through dreams. Once you believe this and you start to receive dreams, it is important to steward them, and to steward them well. You do this by writing them down. You can type it in the notes on your phone if you want, but I recommend writing it down in a physical journal above anything else. There is just something about physically writing things out that brings a deeper sense of clarity to the situation.
Something else I recommend is having someone that you can share these dreams with. This needs to be someone that you trust obviously, and I would make sure that they also believe in the gift of dreams and God communicating to us in this way. And if possible, share them with someone who has had experience with dreams from God. Glean from the wisdom of someone who has gone down the same path before you. Most importantly, study the Scriptures.
Now understand, dreams can be intense. And the intensity increases the further along you go. Some of the things I’ve dreamed about, I still have moments when I can’t quite wrap my mind around it. But the more I have, the more I want to have, no matter how intense they become. I have had dreams that actually happened in real life within just a few days of having the dream. Then other dreams have been very deep, intense spiritual dreams.
There is so much that I could say on this topic because it is such a broad and deep topic. But for now, I am going to keep it simple (as I love to do), because I feel that this is really the foundation of stepping into the life of dreams with the Lord.
If there are any questions that were not talked about here, put it in the comments! I can’t promise that I will have a full answer, if I have one at all, but we can do some searching and seeking together, and see what we can learn on this very exciting, but very deep topic.
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