Hundredfold Ministries, Int'l

In some parts of the world, Christians attribute great importance to dreams. In those areas, often when someone has a dream, he or she will go to the pastor and expect him to interpret the dream. In the context of this chapter I define “interpretation” as giving contemporary meaning to the major features of a dream. Such features can include people, objects, places, or events which occur in the dream. (See Genesis, chapter 41 as a good example).

If the pastor does not give “as good an interpretation” of the dream as some other person (or another pastor), he is considered “less spiritual” than the other. I have even heard of instances of a pastor losing his church because someone comes along who can interpret dreams better than he.

Or often the elders of the church are expected to interpret dreams as one of their function. If one elder gives a “better interpretation” of a dream, he is more esteemed than the others. Those individuals who interpret dreams are usually called “prophets” or “seers.” This is especially so if the interpretations are viewed as a way to tell the future. I believe this entire process is wrong and it is unscriptural.

Biblical Perspective of Dreams

1. Old Testament

It is very noteworthy that the Bible gives relatively little importance to dreams. Only thirteen of the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament and only two of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament even mention dreams. Of all the hundreds of named individuals in the Old Testament, only ten people had dreams that were recorded. They were Abimelech (Gen 20:3), Jacob (Gen 31:10), Laban (Gen 31:24), Joseph (Gen 37:5-8), Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker (Gen 40:5, 41:1), the Midianite soldier (Jud 7:13-15), Saul (I Sam 28:15), Solomon (I Kings 3:5), Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 4:5), and Daniel (Dan 7:1).

Of these individuals, Daniel and Joseph had, or interpreted, the most dreams, and each of them was only involved in three or four recorded dreams. Joseph only had two dreams as a young man. He never had another recorded dream. He did interpret dreams, but only those of the cupbearer, the baker, and Pharaoh.

The Lord did use dreams as a vehicle to give Daniel favor with King Nebuchadnezzar. He gave Daniel supernatural ability to interpret dreams. (Dan 1:17).

But note that in both the case of Joseph and Daniel, every dream involved God's eternal plan for Israel.

2. New Testament

There are even fewer occasions of recorded dreams in the New Testament. Indeed, Jesus never had a dream which was recorded, nor did he ever interpret the dream of another. Those individuals who did have recorded dreams in the New Testament are Mary's husband, Joseph, the Wise Men, Pilate's wife, and possibly, the Apostle Paul.

Joseph, husband of Mary, had four dreams. He was told in dreams to marry Mary, to escape to Egypt with the infant Jesus, to return from Egypt, and to settle in the district of Galilee. (Matt 1:20-21, 2:13, 19-23). The Wise Men had a dream (Matt 2:12) warning them not to tell Herod that they had found the Christ child. Each of these dreams concerned the protection of the infant/child Jesus.

Pilate's wife had one troubling dream about the coming death of Jesus which she relayed to her husband. (Matt 27:19). It is unclear whether the Apostle Paul had dreams in his few references to visions at night. (Acts 9:12, 16:6-10, and 18:9).

The point I am trying to make here is that in both the Old and New Testament, dreams were used by God almost exclusively to convey or accomplish a very important act concerning His eternal plan. And even then, God used dreams only on rare occasions.

Three Sources of Dreams

Remember our analysis of the three sources of prophecy in chapter four? I believe this same analysis applies to dreams. Dreams have three sources: the human mind, the demonic world, and the Lord.

1. The Human Mind

I believe that the human mind is the source of most of our dreams. We know from scientific research that the mind (or the subconscious) continues to work even while we sleep. Many of our dreams are born from our daily frustrations. These daily experiences can produce anxiety which is often manifested during our sleeping hours in the form of dreams. We even have Scripture that tells us: “As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words.” (Ecc 5:3 NIV).

I can give a personal example of this type of dream. During my years in the United States Marine Corps, my job was in tank maintenance. I have been out of the Marine Corps for years and yet, even now, I occasionally dream of repairing a damaged tank while working with other Marines whom I have not seen in years.

This type of common dream is not to be interpreted. It is a product of the human mind and should be recognized as such. To try to create some spiritual meaning from such a dream is simply a waste of time. Interpretations of such dreams may even be harmful, especially if critical decisions are made based on an interpretation of the dream.

2. Demonic

I believe that another source of dreams is the demonic realm. To some degree our spiritual guard is down when we are asleep. And Satan loves the darkness. It should not surprise anyone that the demonic realm would try to upset Christians by sending us disturbing dreams. Usually these dreams are full of fear or lust, and often focus on injury, or death, either of ourselves or others. These dreams should never be given any importance and they should not be interpreted. Their source is demonic. Satan is the father of lies and such dreams contain lies suited to our enemy's purposes. I repeat, these dreams are not worthy of our time and certainly should not be interpreted.

This is true even though it may appear to be a “good” dream. By that I mean a dream which may contain a “beautiful” person robed in gold, etc. causing some “good” thing to occur. Evil spirits cannot give truly good dreams, regardless of how they appear or how we remember them.

An example of an extremely destructive demonic dream is when a child dies and the father dreams that his neighbor poisoned his child. When he wakes up he is full of anger. He may even go to a practitioner of witchcraft to try to send a curse on the neighbor all because of a dream.

Another example of a demonic dream also involves family relations. Suppose an adult child, who is a Christian, is preparing to take a trip to another city to accomplish some church work. The father dreams that the child will be hurt or killed on the trip. This dream may produce fighting within the family if the adult child does not heed the father's dream and insists on going on the trip. Or worse, the child is forced to cancel the trip because of his father's dream. Either way, the demonic forces have succeeded simply because too much importance has been given to a dream.

When we awake from such a demonically inspired dream, we usually feel fearful, unclean, worried, and/or tired, as though we have not had a restful or peaceful night's sleep. To cleanse ourselves, we need to deal with the source of the dream, the demonic realm. We should verbally repudiate and reject the dream, we should place our minds back under the discipline of the Holy Spirit, we should immerse ourselves in Scripture and praise of the Lord, and we should get on with our day's activities. We should never let our minds dwell on these types of dreams. They are from the father of lies.

3. Dreams That Are From God

We have already discussed the fact that God does communicate on occasion with His prophets through dreams.

For the rest of us who are not called prophets, I believe that God does give us dreams, although I think they are rare. Certainly He gave dreams to kings and other key individuals relative to the governing of His kingdom. If we believe that a particular dream is from the Lord, then we should ask the Lord to confirm it and/or show us the correct interpretation of it. It may be wise to share the dream with someone in your church whom you know to be a solid, mature Christian. That is seeking the benefit of godly counsel concerning the dream. And that is different from going to another with the purpose of having that person interpret the dream for you.

Let me address one last Scripture before we leave this topic, that is Job 33:12-18:

It seems to me that these verses are clearly saying that in the area of current sin, or when someone is in the temptation stage, God can use dreams as one way to get someone's attention. He can send His Holy Spirit to us in dream form, to expose the sin and to try to cause us to turn from it. But I believe that this specific use of dreams by God is the narrow exception to the general rule that the vast majority of our dreams are not from the Lord and that we should make no attempt to have them interpreted.

Those Who Interpret Dreams

As I have already said, in some parts of the world those who make it a habit of interpreting dreams are held in high esteem. I do not consider these people to be prophets. Those who do occasionally correctly interpret dreams may be using the gift of a word of knowledge. But it may also be witchcraft or satanic psychic power.

That's why it is extremely important to know the spiritual lifestyle of the person with whom you share your dream. For example, is he or she spiritually mature? Does he seriously study Scripture? Is he a positive force in the church in other ways? Is he under submission to church leaders? And, very importantly, does he sometimes admit that he does not have any thoughts which would be helpful concerning the dream? Or is he willing to simply say that the dream is from the human mind, or from a demonic source, and should not be interpreted? If the answer to any of these questions is “no,” this person should be avoided.

Conclusion

It is a fact that God speaks to human beings through dreams. But, to summarize, let us ask, “To whom does God speak in dreams? How often? And, for what purpose? To answer these questions in order, let me say that, first God does, on occasion communicate to His prophets by a dream. How often does God communicate to us through dreams? I believe the answer is rarely in one's lifetime. For what purpose? God uses dreams as a vehicle to impact a significant event concerning His eternal plan and purposes. He also uses dreams to convict us of sin (Job 33:12-18).

In the areas of the world where dreams are given disproportionate importance, it is extremely important for pastors to give good, sound, biblically based teachings on dreams and their interpretation. The people should be taught that the Word of God always takes precedence over dreams. Dreams should never be a primary source of spiritual guidance. If they are, the Christian is out of balance and not following sound biblical principles.