When I was just a little kid growing up in rural Arkansas, I had a reoccurring nightmare in which I would find myself (usually how dreams begin) in the middle of a swamp on a cement pad. Water Moccasins were coming out of the water onto the concrete and biting my ankles and legs. I would wake up in a panic and a cold sweat. You tend to block out trauma and I had no recollection of that dream until a few yeas back when I had the dream again. I was just starting out in my current position as Youth Director at The Methodist Temple. The stress was high, the expectations were higher. I was just a Dave from Arkansas. How could I live up to what this job required. I felt very inadequate. i felt like a boy in a man's world and that I did not belong. I went to bed one night just a few weeks after getting the job and had this same dream. However there were two very different things about this second installment. In the dream, I was in the same swamp, on the same cement pad, and surrounded by the same snakes. But what was different is that I was wearing some very large hiking boots and as the snakes were coming toward me, I was stomping on their heads and kicking the snakes back into the water. I was still a little boy in the dream, but I had man boots on and the snakes were not winning this time. I woke up and immediately I heard a voice in my head speak very clearly to me. "David, men are not afraid of snakes."
Now we could chalk that up to an overactive imagination or pizza (and I may well have had a slice before bed, I honestly don't remember) but in all sincerity, I don't believe in coincidence anymore. I was struggling with that issue and I fully believe that the God who loves me perfectly sent me a message. The message:
Don't be afraid, you are fully equipped for what I have called you to. Not only that, the enemy will attack, but you are going to crush his head because you are standing on "The Rock, Jesus". Your foundation is firm and though you are still My child, you are a man.
Getting that message from the dream did take some time and prayer, but I am convinced of this interpretation.
I first got interested in dreams when I read some things in the Bible about God talking to people that way. I was just learning about the person of the Holy Spirit and how He moved in the lives of believers and I had simply prayed this prayer;
"Father, I want to learn more about the Holy Spirit. I want to experience His presence in my life. I am asking for dreams and visions specifically and that you would give me the gift of prophecy."
I read 1 Corinthians 14 and Acts 2 and put two and two together. It seemed to me that this stuff was for me and I was supposed to ask for it.
That very night, my wife woke me up because she had just had a really vivid dream and she knew it was from God. Honestly, this frustrated me a great deal. I was the one who wanted it and asked for it. She did not want it, nor did she ask for it. Instantly, that familiar voice of the Savior spoke to me and said, "What's the difference?" My mind heard that phrase but understood His words in a deeper way. What my heart heard was, "You two are one and that is not just poetry, that is reality. I answered your prayer perfectly by giving you a dream that was from me."
As my wife began to tell me the dream, my mind was understanding the imagery in the same deep manner as I had His voice. I had to keep myself from interrupting her as I was understanding what her dream meant. This went on for quite some time and there were a few occasions in which I woke up from my sleep and the Lord would start speaking very clearly to me about something and then moments later Rachel would wake up having had a dream about the same thing. He was speaking to us simultaneously with two very different methods about the same thing.
I began to resign myself to the fact that God was not going to actually speak to me personally though dreams and visions, but that I was going to be one of these interpreter types and could hear His voice in my heart and understand Him. Then another good friend of mine started having multiple dreams in the night and writing them down. She had not asked for them and did not even know that God would do such things but she recognized them as being from Him without any help. She started bringing them to me and again, it was as if a download started in my mind whenever she would start talking about the dream. Then the floodgates opened and tons of friends and acquaintances and even one lady from France started sending me their dreams. It was all very fun, but the newness wore off and I wondered why God could not just tell us these things without all the cloak & dagger stuff.
Then I started having dreams myself.
I still don't dream quite as often as I'd like to, but much more than before. Once I started having my own dreams, I began to understand why God would want to use these to send us messages. Dreams are multidimensional messages that convey deep truths that we could not fully receive or understand if they came in a different way. Like a movie or a song, you get some truth from it the first time you watch or hear it, but the more you revisit it, you start to see deeper truths that were meant to be conveyed. God can send several deep messages all at once that have multiple applications for different people. He can even speak to your heart without you even knowing it. I now have "remembered" dreams that I was totally unaware of before and that continually blows my mind.
To illustrate what I mean by the depth of imagery that God can put in a dream, I titled this post and put a picture in that conveyed the meaning in a deeper way. The picture and the title are meant to help you remember what the post was about. If all you got was the text, then you might not receive it quite as well or understand the message even. Have you noticed that I put pictures in almost all of my posts? Now you know why.
In a dream, God can have a specific person say something to you. The person's personality, job, position in your family or even the fact that they are different looking than normal can be a message that is sent at the same time as what they are saying. Sometimes this message can be a deeper understanding or a key to unlocking what was spoken. Along with that, the clothes they are wearing the color of the flower on the table next to them or even the kind of car that drives by can all be part of this mufti-faceted message from God. Even the emotions you are feeling at the time can be part of that message.
When you stop to think about it, how could one method of communication be sufficient for a God as big and powerful as ours? There is so much that He is imparting to us when He speaks, that dreams and visions are basically a no-brainer. (Visions are pretty much the same as a dream, just more pointed and sudden and while you are awake).
Be aware that not "every" dream is a message from God. The Devil loves to fake the things God does. We also have a subconscious mind that is very active. It takes intimacy with Jesus to be able to discern the difference. There are no hard and fast rules as Jesus is a living and real person. I like to say that the only rule when it comes to Jesus is, "LOVE." Yet even this is something that we need to learn to recognize. Also, it is very important to note that all doctrine is established by Scripture (The Holy Bible) and the Holy Spirit will never give you a dream that is not bathed in the truth of the Word.
I encourage you to write your dreams down for a couple different reasons. First, they come in invisible ink to our minds and can fade away with the sun just like fog does. I try to write them down as soon as I can. there are times when i have had to go and pray and ask God to remind me of the dream and He has. The second reason is that it can take a long time for a dream to fully be understood. And if it is prophetic in nature in regards to your future, it may take years to fulfill. IT is good to be able to revisit those dreams and remember them and even see that you may have already come to an understanding about something that you did not previously have. Case in point, I had a pretty good understanding of my swamp dream for several years, but only while writing this post did I come to realize what the cement pad represented and that was something God has been teaching me over the past year. If you have been reading my previous posts, you can see that theme. It seems he has been teaching me about His firm foundation a lot longer than just this past year! How good is He?!
In the next post, I am going to try and shed some more light on the issue of dreams, visions and other things God uses to communicate with His children. I fully expect there to be a few questions or comments about this. I welcome them. I am no expert, but I know One who is.
Goodnight,
David Warren
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