People that are knowledgable in the Bible only please.....?
What does God say about dreams, and different kinds of dreams? Can dreams be the work of God? What if you have dreams of deceased loved ones, are they of God or of the Devil? Where in the bible does it talk about dreams specifically, if it does at all?
2007-01-26T15:29:45Z
I would just like to thank every one who answered my question with kind honesty. I have had many dreams in the past about my deceased father and I was just wondering if there was any biblical significance pertaining to those kinds of dreams. Also, I had a dream about 3 weeks ago where there was a big sword growing kind of like a tattoo on the side of my torso, right under my arm. This dream had a very negative vibe, and I was disturbed by it for so long.
Anonymous2007-01-26T15:29:57Z
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The Bible’s Viewpoint
Are Dreams Messages From God?
REPORTEDLY, inventor Elias Howe’s idea for the design of the sewing machine was based on a dream. The composer Mozart said that many of the themes for his music came to him in dreams. The chemist Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz likewise claimed to have discovered the shape of the benzene molecule in a dream. Such occurrences are hardly unique. Throughout history many cultures have attributed dreams to the supernatural. Some believe that the dreaming and waking worlds are equally real.
The Bible contains several accounts in which dreams are described as an important source of information—a form of divine communication. (Judges 7:13, 14; 1 Kings 3:5) For example, God communicated with Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph in dreams. (Genesis 28:10-19; 31:10-13; 37:5-11) Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar received prophetic dreams from God. (Daniel 2:1, 28-45) So might there be good reason to believe that even today some dreams are messages from God?
Dreams From God
In the Bible, God-inspired dreams were always induced for a specific reason. True, at times the dreamer could not immediately understand the meaning of the dream. In many cases, however, the “Revealer of secrets” himself provided the explanation so that there would be no doubt as to the meaning of the dream. (Daniel 2:28, 29; Amos 3:7) Dreams from God did not have the vague illogic that often characterizes normal dreams.
At times, dreams were used by God to protect key individuals in the outworking of his purpose. The recipients of such dreams were not necessarily servants of God. For example, the astrologers who visited the young child Jesus did not return to see murderous Herod as he had requested. Why? They received a warning in a dream. (Matthew 2:7-12) This gave Jesus’ adoptive father, Joseph, enough time to flee to Egypt with his family, in response to the direction that he too had received in a dream. This saved the life of young Jesus.—Matthew 2:13-15.
Centuries earlier, an Egyptian pharaoh had dreams of seven healthy ears of grain and seven fat-fleshed cows contrasted with seven sickly ears of grain and seven emaciated cows. Joseph, with divine help, interpreted the dreams correctly: Egypt would enjoy seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine. Knowing this in advance allowed the Egyptians to prepare and stockpile food. This proved instrumental in preserving the descendants of Abraham and in bringing them to Egypt.—Genesis, chapter 41; 45:5-8.
King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon likewise had a dream. It foretold the rise and fall of the future world powers that would have a direct impact on God’s people. (Daniel 2:31-43) Later, he had another dream that predicted his personal fall into madness and subsequent recovery. This prophetic dream had a larger fulfillment, pinpointing the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom, through which God would accomplish his will.—Daniel 4:10-37.
What About Today?
Yes, God did communicate with some people through dreams. But the Bible indicates that this was quite rare. Dreams were never the principal form of divine communication. There were many faithful servants of God who never received messages from God in dreams. God’s use of dreams to communicate with man can be compared to His parting of the Red Sea. We know that he did it once, but that is certainly not his usual way of dealing with his people.—Exodus 14:21.
The apostle Paul acknowledged that in his day God’s spirit was operating on his servants in many extraordinary ways. Paul said: “To one there is given through the spirit speech of wisdom, to another speech of knowledge according to the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another gifts of healings by that one spirit, to yet another operations of powerful works, to another prophesying, to another discernment of inspired utterances, to another different tongues, and to another interpretation of tongues.” (1 Corinthians 12:8-10) Although divinely inspired dreams are not specifically mentioned, a number of Christians evidently received divinely inspired dreams as one of the gifts of the spirit in fulfillment of Joel 2:28.—Acts 16:9, 10.
However, the apostle said regarding these special gifts: “Whether there are gifts of prophesying, they will be done away with; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will be done away with.” (1 Corinthians 13:8) Evidently included among the gifts that would be “done away with” were the various forms of divine communication. After the death of the apostles, God ceased to impart these special gifts to his servants.
Today experts are still trying to understand the process of dreaming and whether it has a practical function. The Bible sheds no light on such issues. However, to those who insist on seeking divine communications in their dreams, the Bible does provide a warning. At Zechariah 10:2, it states: “The practicers of divination, . . . valueless dreams are what they keep speaking.” God also warns against looking for omens. (Deuteronomy 18:10-12) In light of these warnings, Christians today do not expect to receive divine guidance in their dreams. Rather, they view dreams simply as something experienced during sleep. Deceased love ones are a sleep in death. See Ecclesiastes 9:5,10 Psalms 146:4 John 11:11-14
The best way to find out what the Bible says is to * pray and ask God for wisdom to understand His Word, and * "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15
You need to do the research yourself. Don't let others answer your questions because you will always have questions. You will not always have others. You will always have God.
Get a Concordance and look up the word or words that you need. For instance, look up "dream" and "dreams." Go through all of the listings and look up those verses. You will learn exactly what the Bible says. You need to do this because this is a subject that is often used as a tool of the devil. Yes, dreams were significant in the Bible. But Satan would use the interpretation of dreams to misguide us and get us off of the main subject which is spreading the Gospel.
You do the study and find out what God says about dreams. http://www.biblegateway.com is an online Concordance that gives many different versions.
If you have dreams of deceased loved ones, they are most probably neither the work of God nor the devil. Rather they are a perfectly natural phenomenon. God imbued us with imagination and through perfectly natural means we can dream all sorts of things. I mean I dreamed I was Harry Potter and found my parents were still alive but in suspended animation and I had to rescue them from Voldemort!
Sometimes if we're particularly concerned about something that can influence our dream. Either we dream about the matter directly or our minds make up a dream where different aspects of the dream symbolize different things about the problem.
Now sure, in the Bible, there are cases where God used a dream to communicate to people. However, in the absence of any teaching in the Bible about God using dreams in this way in general, we would have to assume that they were special occasions, just lke God used angels and visions, where the communication was some part of God's plan of salvation. If it happens, it's something out of the ordinary.
Yes, there is plenty of examples of God speaking through dreams in the bible, other answerers have given you that.
From personal experience I would say that Satan can get in too. I have had some dreams involving sins that I struggled with. When he couldn't get me in my daytime thoughts, after I'd learned to take my thoughts captive, he got into my dreams. I didn't have so much control then so I would wake up feeling like I had already failed the day. It was very discouraging.
As for deceased loved ones, I had one of those once and I believe it was from God. I lost a childhood friend when I was 21. He meant a lot to me and since it was a sudden death I didn't get to say goodbye. I felt God gave me a dream where I got to see him once more and he looked at me and told me everything was ok . I woke up feeling like I had closure on the whole thing.
If you think Satan might be messing with you, say a prayer before going to sleep. Pray the Armor of God in Ephesians 6 over yourself.
Here is one Bible fact about dreams that anyone may readily agree to: "For a dream certainly comes in because of abundance of occupation" (Ecclesiastes 5:3 3)
According to that, your dreams are affected by your daily activities. If you are going around thinking of loved ones, deceased or not, then it is not surprising that these appear in your dreams.
The Bible also speaks of 'meaningless dreams," and most dreams are that.
It is true that God may use dreams to convey thoughts and messages to individuals; the Biblical individuals who experienced these somehow knew when a dream was paranormal and should be acted upon.
Perhaps there is a permanent quality to these that make them memorable and stay with you for the rest of your life perhaps; also, the message is usually serious and relates to some action that should be taken in your life now. (Check Joseph's dream that made him go to Egypt with his family so as not to be killed with their baby, Jesus. Mat 1:20-24)
So, my advice is not to give meaning to dreams unnecessarily.