Solving The Mysteries of Dreams Part 2B
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Solving The Mystery of Dreams Part 2
Solving The Mystery of Dreams Part 2
What is Dream?
Dream is simply “God Speaking to you”
This also means that, God is the source of dreams that conveys divine messages.
6 And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream.
14 “For God speaks again and again, 15 in dreams, in visions of the night when deep sleep falls on men as they lie on their beds.
Job 33:14-18
Another name for dream in the bible is “the vision of the night.”
12 “Now a word was brought to me stealthily; my ear received the whisper of it. 13 Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
job 4:
According to the scripture, dreams can be broadly categorized into two: non-divine dreams and divine dreams
According to the scripture, dreams can be broadly categorized into two: non-divine dreams and divine dreams
Non-divine dreams: These are General dreams, that are part of the sleeping process - these kind of dreams are sometimes subject to the multitude of business
3 For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.
7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, Even all that fight against her and her munition, and that distress her, Shall be as a dream of a night vision. 8 It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; But he awaketh, and his soul is empty: Or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; But he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite: So shall the multitude of all the nations be, That fight against mount Zion.
Divine Dreams carries divine revelations - its A medium of divine communication which God frequently uses in communicating his will to us.
6 And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream.
Numb
7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.
Psalm
12 “Now a word was brought to me stealthily; my ear received the whisper of it. 13 Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, 14 dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake. 15 A spirit glided past my face; the hair of my flesh stood up. 16 It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice:
12 “Now a word was brought to me stealthily; my ear received the whisper of it. 13 Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, 14 dread came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake.
let me say this:
Not all dreams are from God and
Not all dreams carry divine messages
In fact, there is a third category of dreams that we can refer to as Satanic dreams, evil dreams, demonic dreams.... this is different from scary dreams, even though this category may be scary.
God chose to speak to us in our dreams because:
When you are sleeping, your soul is inactive but your spirit is active to receive freely from God.
There
The message of the dream can be solely for the dreamer or for others.
Dreams are subjective: most times it will require interpretation:
Dreams are subjective: most times it will require interpretation:
These scriptures stressed some central ideas
6 He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream.
7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.
14 “For God speaks again and again, 15 in dreams, in visions of the night when deep sleep falls on men as they lie on their beds. 16 He opens their ears in times like that and gives them wisdom and instruction, 17 causing them to change their minds, and keeping them from pride, and warning them of the penalties of sin, and keeping them from falling into some trap.
interpretation is not the same as translation - interpretation conveys meaning of the message as a whole, translations attempts to give word for word translation.
- take note, i do not say all the times… because, God can chose to speak plainly in a dream:
- take note, i do not say all the times… because, God can chose to speak plainly in a dream:
3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” 4 Now Abimelech had not approached her. So he said, “Lord, will you kill an innocent people? 5 Did he not himself say to me, ‘She is my sister’? And she herself said, ‘He is my brother.’ In the integrity of my heart and the innocence of my hands I have done this.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her. 7 Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, so that he will pray for you, and you shall live. But if you do not return her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”
Gen 20:
24 But God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream by night and said to him, “Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.”
job 33:29-
29 “This is the way God works. Over and over again 30 He pulls our souls back from certain destruction so we’ll see the light—and live in the light!
I stated earlier that not all dreams carries divine messages. The question now is, how can i distinguish between the two?
I will simply clarify on how you can identify dreams that brings divine messages
Most time, they are marked with simplicity :
Because, God may decide to speak plainly by himself, or through an angel, and you wouldn’t need an interpreter. , ;
If it contain symbols - the symbols will communicate clarity and not confusion:
:
Simple in the sense that, it will not be all over the places - it will have well defined direction because, before God will come to talk to you at night, He has something definite in his heart… so, when he gives you a dream, without any doubt, it will contain a central message that is from his heart to you.
When such dreams are over you will know it is divine: because these two things will happen:
You will sense a divine prompting - the bible will say, he was troubled about the dream
Sometimes indicated by terror or being troubled
Sometimes you will be terrified
As soon as the dream is over you will become awake from the dream- it would be as if, you returned to your human sense ( sometimes this is so real, it would be as if you went out of your body and now you returned) remember that i Said, when you are dreaming, your spirit is active but your soul is inactive.
We will read some scriptures to buttress this point on simplicity… let me say this: “No matter how complex the symbols in a dream may be, all divine dreams have the elements of simplicity in them, in terms of what they communicated and the direction of their messages.”
9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
1 In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. 2 Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. 3 And the king said to them, “I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.”
1 In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him. 2 Then the king commanded that the magicians, the enchanters, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans be summoned to tell the king his dreams. So they came in and stood before the king. 3 And the king said to them, “I had a dream, and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.” 4 Then the Chaldeans said to the king in Aramaic, “O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.” 5 The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, “The word from me is firm: if you do not make known to me the dream and its interpretation, you shall be torn limb from limb, and your houses shall be laid in ruins.
compared the message or the living bible for verse 9
9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.
Act 16
1 After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, 2 and behold, there came up out of the Nile seven cows, attractive and plump, and they fed in the reed grass. 3 And behold, seven other cows, ugly and thin, came up out of the Nile after them, and stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. 4 And the ugly, thin cows ate up the seven attractive, plump cows. And Pharaoh awoke. 5 And he fell asleep and dreamed a second time. And behold, seven ears of grain, plump and good, were growing on one stalk. 6 And behold, after them sprouted seven ears, thin and blighted by the east wind. 7 And the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump, full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream. 8 So in the morning his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh.
1 In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him.
Pay attention:
gen 41:
The dreams were very simple even though it was highly symbolic, and they came in the same night - why?
it was not all over the places - many things were not happening at the same time to confuse the dreamer, it was a simple night play with a clear plot.
a single central message was divinely communicated - the thing, ill favoured cows ate up the fat attractive cows; and the thin ill favoured ears of grain swallowed up the seven plump ears
there was a divine prompting:
in the morning he was troubled
Pharaoh awoke immediately
in the morning, his spirit was troubled - he somehow sensed that these were not an ordinary dream - i told us earlier that, most times, divine prompting will accomplish any dream that carries divine messages. the same thing happened to another king in the scripture - Nebuchadnezzer.
his spirit was troubled - he somehow sensed that these were not ordinary dreams - i told us earlier that, most times, divine prompting will accomplish any dream that carries divine messages.
1 In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams; his spirit was troubled, and his sleep left him.
Dan 2:1
I choose this particular dream for three major reasons:
I choose this particular dream for three major reasons:
To indicate to us that the inclusion of symbols in our dreams are not meant to introduce confusion but to communicate clarity.
so, God used cows and ears of grain, which are central to the Egyptians agricultural economy, and more so, the symbols were not too far from what he wanted to communicate
To let us know that, some dream are visionary dreams - meaning that, they are prophetic, and as such will require a gift of dream interpretation to be able to tell what it means… for instance,
cows and ears of grains
how do you know that seven cows means seven years?
and seven ears of corn means seven years?
the interpretation of these kind of dreams are communicated by God to a dream interpreter, who then communicate the meaning to you.
8 They said to him, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.”
gen
8 They said to him, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.”
gen 40
dan
18 This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, saw. And you, O Belteshazzar, tell me the interpretation, because all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation, but you are able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you.”
The skills of dreams interpretation that you will learn during this teaching are applicable to most dreams that you will have, but occasionally, you will come across some dreams that you will need the help of an interpreter.
3. This dream also gives us a simple clue on how to identify whether the message in the dream is meant for the dreamer or for others. This brings us to another subject in dreams: the intrinsic and the extrinsic dreams - intrinsic means that, the message of the dream is meant for you; extrinsic means that the message is meant for others..
if I ask you this question what was pharaoh doing in the two dreams?
he was simply observing. If you remove him from the dream, the dream will still have its meaning without him, because he did nothing in the dream. Whenever you are just an observer in the dream it is not meant for you, it is for someone else - your friend, your church, or your nation.
let us read this dream:
gen 40:5-13
5 And one night they both dreamed—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison—each his own dream, and each dream with its own interpretation. 6 When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. 7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officers who were with him in custody in his master’s house, “Why are your faces downcast today?” 8 They said to him, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.” 9 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me, 10 and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. 11 Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.” 12 Then Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days. 13 In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer.
How do we know that the dream was about the dreamer, even before its interpretation?
The cupbearer was active in the dream, he was doing something - if you remove him from the dream, then the dream will not have any progression...
do you notice a divine prompting? the bible says they were troubled -
to be troubled doesn’t mean they were confused, it is only an indicator of something unusual about the dream.
Anytime you have a dream and you are confused, it is not from God “God is not an author of confusion”
do you also notice how simple the dream was? one simple direction, the symbols in it were the actual conveyors of the divine message “the branches, the grapes that ripens and the cup of pharaoh” The symbols communicated clarity and not confusion.
one more dream and we will move on:
one more dream and we will move on:
13 When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.” 14 And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.” 15 As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand.”
judges 7:
in this dream, what was the dreamer doing?
he was simply observing what was happening, which means the dream was not for him, it was for his group
do you notice any other thing?
The dream was simple? because
it has only one central message - it is not confusing
it is not all over the places - the symbols communicated clarity and not confusion…
Conclusion
Conclusion
Before I conclude today, i will review some of the skills that you have learnt which includes:
Not all dreams carries divine messages
How to recognize a dream that contains divine messages
it is always simple, that is, it will convey one central message; it will contain symbols that does not introduce confusion but communicate clarity; it always carry with it divine prompting.
How to recognize for whom the message is intended:
simply ask the question: what am i doing in the dream? am I participating or strictly an observer?
Interpretation of dreams that are visionary or prophetic sometimes, if not all the times, require the help of an interpreter - so, know your limit.
God selection of symbols in dreams are based on these two thing:
his message - how well the symbols represent his message is important to him
What the symbols meant to the dreamer - the symbols often times are not far off from the knowledge of the dreamer…
Please write these two statements down, it came to me as I was studying and preparing for this teaching:
“God communicates with us on familiar grounds.”
“vision and dreams are communicated in digestible dosages”
And this is the reason why the first thing you are learning is that dreams that carries divine messages are usually SIMPLE.
And this is the reason why the first thing you are learning is that dreams that carries divine messages are usually SIMPLE.
Let us pray.
3 For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words.
7 For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.
These scriptures stressed some central ideas:
Dream is simply “God Speaking to you”
Dream is simply “God Speaking to you”
And another name for dream in the bible is “the vision of the night.”
According to the scripture, dreams can be broadly categorized into two:
Non-divine dreams: These are General dreams, that are part of the sleeping process - these kind of dreams are sometimes subject to the multitude of business
Divine Dreams that carries divine revelations - A medium of divine communication which God frequently uses in communicating his will to us.
Our understanding of these two general categorization is very important, because it will help us to know that:
Not all dreams are from God
Not all dreams carry divine messages
God chose to speak to us in our dreams because:
When you are sleeping, your soul is inactive but your spirit is active to receive freely from God.
The message of the dream can be solely for the dreamer or for others.