God Speaks to Us Through Dreams, Part 2,Ep 3-5
Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons, and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are going to be discussing part 2 of our 2-part series on how God is speaking to us through Dreams. This episode is devoted to Basic Dream Interpretation. These principles we are going to discuss are also the same principles for interpreting visions. If you are someone who receives visions this will be helpful. Dreams and visions are one of many ways God still speaks to us today and is a very useful form of communication if He can get our attention and not dismiss His words for us revealed through dreams.
Before we begin, I want to thank those who are supporting us each month. Your gift is appreciated more than we can express. If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us as we continue to build the Kingdom of God. You can support us for as little as $3/month. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support. There is a link in the notes.
Why should we care about interpreting our dreams? Let’s look back at our last episode and review the functions of dreams.
Here are 8 functions of dreams:
· Direction
o Joseph, Magi Matthew 1 and 2, Jacob told to go home, Gen 31
· Correction
o Peter’s vision, Acts 10
· Understanding
o Daniel 2 the statue, Joseph and the cupbearer and baker, Gen 40
· Encouraging
Judges 7, Runaway Barley loaf
· Confirming
o Jacob’s ladder in Genesis 28
· Repentance
o Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream living like an ox until he acknowledged God correctly
· Prophetic
o Numbers 12:6, “Listen to my words: “When there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams.
· Warning
o Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream living like an ox until he acknowledged God correctly
o Abimelech’s dream, Genesis 20
o Pilate’s wife, Matthew 27
o Laban’s warning, Gen 31
By understanding why God uses dreams to communicate with us, we allow God to speak into our lives. If the Creator of the universe is communicating with you, then you need to do something with what he is communicating. That is why we need to learn how to speak the language of dreams, to interpret the meaning of the symbols and actions we have been given.
When we receive a dream there are some steps we want to take if we are going to have an opportunity to interpret what the Lord is speaking. Here are the 5 steps we need to take as quickly as possible after we receive the dream.
5 Steps for Beginning Level Interpretation
· Write it down
o Record all the details you can remember
o Simplify the dream to essential details
o Record the emotions
· Pray about it
o Use scripture (Jeremiah 33:3, Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’
· Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the meaning of important details
o Give the Holy Spirit time to respond, wait on Him
o Write down what He reveals
· Research in the Bible as well as outside resources
o Find Biblical context for what was represented or occurred in the dream
o Review parables
o Discuss with a trusted biblically knowledgeable confidant or advisor
· Ask questions about what the dream reveals
o Identify spiritual principles
o Do not make assumptions
o Do not create your own expectations
o Complicated dreams does not automatically mean it’s a complicated message, simple dreams can have an important message
To give us something to work with I am going to share a dream of mine from 2008. It was a dream I spent quite a bit of time seeking Him to interpret what He was telling me.
I was on a beach walking with my keys. My keys were a very large keyring of about 6 inches with several keys of various sizes, gold key ring and many of the keys were very large skeleton keys, some were modern keys. As I walked in the sand, something unknown to me snatched my keys and threw them into the ocean about 30 feet from the shore. I started to run to the shore to go into the water to retrieve my keys but as I began to do run a hippopotamus came out of the ocean with its mouth open. The hippo was coming at me to attack me. I looked for somewhere to protect me and found a building that was a bathroom nearby and I got on top of the building to be out of the hippos reach but where I could see the ocean and looked out toward my keys. As I looked to the ocean, I could see my keys floating on the ocean. There were other people on the beach and in the water, but no one was aware of me, the hippo or the keys. The world was going on around us while we were simultaneously in it. The day was sunny, weather was warm. I was fearful of the hippo but once I was on the roof I didn’t pay any attention to the hippo.
2 Kings 6:4, “They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees. 5 As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. “Oh no, my lord!” he cried out. “It was borrowed!” The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. 7 “Lift it out,” he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.”
Now that we have gone through several of the elements in my dream, lets talk about the ways God gives us our interpretation. I experienced a number of these ways as I was learning what He was telling me in my dream.
Ways God gives interpretation:
· Instantaneously
o When the dream is being shared
§ The person we are sharing it with may be receiving a word of knowledge
§ The Lord may be giving us interpretation as we describe it
o When we awaken
§ Speaking to us in that moment would occur more frequently if there was a sense of urgency, a warning
· During the dream
o While we are experiencing the dream
§ Don’t be afraid to ask questions while still in the dream.
§ Solomon example
· 1 Kings 3:5 “At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
· While we are writing down the details and events of the dream
o Hearing from Him as you are writing details and going through the dream again
o Hearing from Him as you are researching
· Over time as we develop our relationship with Him and grow in our knowledge of Him
o When the time comes for the dream to be fulfilled
§ My dream example
o After you have grown in the Lord while seeking Him
o Once your relationship has developed and you are able to hear Him more and on a deeper level
§ Daniel 2:19,“During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision.”
· Through the use of a follow up dream
When we are looking to interpret the symbols of our dreams, we can find many of the answers in the Bible, where these symbols are discussed. Our modern world has many objects that didn’t exist when during Biblical times so that can sometimes pose a challenge. In those cases, we want to look at the function of the item. For example, in my dream, I was given keys of both older skeleton keys and modern keys. Another example would be a flashlight and a candle. They often perform the same function.
Let’s go over some other symbols and numbers and what each could represent in our dreams. What we want to remember as we have these discussions is that there are no hard and fast rules here. A tree in my dream may have a completely different meaning in your dream, mine could be figurative and yours could be literal or yours represents growth and mine is about lineage. So just keep that in mind as we discuss some of these symbols. How they are used in a dream also can be varied. We could both have flashlights and mine is with a solid beam and yours is a flashing beam of light. We don’t want to get tunnel vision or in our interpretations and completely miss what He is saying.
Ok, let’s start with numbers. A lot of people report numbers in their dreams that they also see when they are awake. Numbers are pretty standard in meaning so they are a good place for us to start.
I hope this has been time that inspires you to want to learn to grow in your relationship with the Lord and build your desire to partner with Him. We want to grow in Him and learn how to work with Him to build the Kingdom and Conquer Our Unseen Enemies. The more we grow the more our life will change, and you can help change the lives of anyone around you who is willing.
If you are growing through our podcast, consider supporting us as we continue to build the Kingdom of God. You can support us for as little as $3/month. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1995558/support
If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.
As always, let’s discuss our Top Show points:
This episode is devoted to Basic Dream Interpretation
Reviewed the 8 functions of dreams:
· Direction
· Correction
· Understanding
· Encouraging
· Confirming
· Repentance
· Prophetic
· Warning
Steps for Beginning Interpretation
Write it down
Pray about it
Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal meanings
Research in the Bible as well as outside resources
Ask questions about what the word reveals
Reviewed a dream of mine from 2008 and discussed the interpretation, 2 Kings 6:4,
Ways God gives interpretation:
Instantaneous
During the dream
While we are writing down the dream
Over time as we grow in our relationship with Him
We encourage you:
· To have an active Bible reading plan, if you want a personal relationship with the Lord, you need to be active about reading His word.
· If you want to learn more about how to Hear God's Voice, visit our website, lovingconversationssalo.com. My book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice has helped so many people in their relationship with the Lord, check out the testimonials. Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Walmart. Those are also available on our website www.lovingconversationssalo.com.
· Follow us in Instagram, @conqueringourunseenenemies
· Conference 3/23, Camarillo, CA 8:30-noon, it’s called Restore and it is a Holy Spirit Revival, if you are in the area, ticket information can be found in show notes or on our Instagram pages, email, contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com and I can send you the link.
· I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!