EVALUATING DREAMS
I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. Psalm 16:7
I’m often asked privately about dreams. Many believers are embarrassed to admit that they have them. (Even though they feel many are significant.) At times, they suffer from a season of nightmares and don’t understand why. In the latter days, we know that dreams will increase. The prophet Joel predicted it and Peter, in one of his sermons to the crowd, reminded them of Joel’s words. And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Acts 2:17
I have to remember that just because I am sleeping, God is not inactive nor is my enemy, the devil. God advances His kingdom at night as He instructs His children through dreams and ‘soul-surgery.’ As I stay engaged in the Word and continue to be transformed and rewired by the power of it, I believe that much of that transformation happens at night. There have been times I went to sleep believing one way about a person or situation and woke up feeling exactly the opposite. God did something!
Many nights, I ask God guard my sleep. I assure Him that my heart is open to receive whatever He might show me. I have a catalog of dreams from the last twenty years and I believe that, for me, there are three kinds.
1.) Meaningless dreams. If I can’t remember what I dreamed by the time I get dressed, I know to dismiss it. It was probably superfluous mind activity.
2.) Tormenting dreams. Satan thrives on torment and fear. He will concoct dreams that cause me to wake up and feel worse than when I went to bed. I’m shaken, fearful, and wonder if what I dreamt is a precursor of something down the road that I need to dread. I’ve learned to pray immediately and ask God to wipe it from my memory and to cleanse me from any oppression that came with it. Satan knows how to customize dreams to target what I dread.
3.) God’s dreams. These are the ones that stay with me in vivid detail. When waking up, no matter what time it is, I make sure to write them out. My spirit feels on fire when they come. As I journal, I can’t get the words out fast enough. Oftentimes, they’re truth-telling dreams about something or someone. Other times, they give warnings regarding someone I love. I know I had the dream so that I would pray for that person. And the rest of the time, God’s dreams are instructive, confirming, encouraging, clarifying, comforting, and even detailed in showing me the next steps I am to take.
If I believe a dream was from God, what should I do? I always ask God for multiple confirmations of what I believe He showed me in my dream. I put the contents of my dreams through the grid of scripture. It must line up with God’s Word. My Father has been faithful to bring assurances that the dreams were true. And very creatively, I might add. He loves to speak and is the consummate Communicator.
I love it when You speak to me. I love the effect of you whether in Your Word or through a personalized dream. You guard my life with instruction. Amen
For more from Christine Wyrtzen and Jaime Wyrtzen Lauze, please visit www.daughtersofpromise.org
Originally published Monday, 19 February 2024.
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