Today we continue with our list of exciting pointers for understanding the night parables God sends our way. I am full of anticipation for what you will discover as you dig into His secret riches! I know He has hidden some amazing treasures in the darkness for you. (For the beginning of this list, check out Part 1 and Part 2 of this series).
8) Develop a posture of complete dependence on Holy Spirit. This point right here is the most important one of the entire list. It’s the most important principle you will ever need for understanding your dreams. Why so? It’s Holy Spirit who searches the deep things of God. He is the One who knows God’s thoughts. He is the One, the only One, who knows exactly what your dream means.
After all, if it’s a dream from Him, He’s the very One who crafted it. He wrote the script, came up with the right cast of characters, and thoughtfully included each detail. He is so eager for the opportunity to share with you what He intended by each element of your personally-tailored message from Him!
Truly, inviting you into deeper dependence on Him is a fundamental reason He gave you the dream. He knew you wouldn’t be able to understand it without Him. Out of His enormous love for you, He set you up in the most delightful way. He gave you a mystery in the night to entice you further into knowing His heart.
He knows how liberating absolute dependency on Him is. So it’s like He gave you a treasure chest that you can only open by leaning completely into Him. When you do, He joyfully teaches you the secret that cracks the lock open.
9) Human logic will not work for working out the dream’s meaning. This verse encompasses one of Holy Spirit’s main goals in sanctifying our souls: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Prov. 3:5, NIV). The further we journey along the path of spiritual growth, the less we will lean on our own ability to figure things out. Our trust in Him will grow deeper and deeper and deeper. This pattern of deepening trust will help enormously in the area of dream interpretation.
Start out with the premise that you won’t be able to come up with the correct interpretation by thinking hard about the dream. As a matter of fact, nearly every time I wake up from a God-breathed dream, I find myself scratching my head. Honestly, He comes up with the strangest story lines! I am convinced that He greatly enjoys using this kind of mysterious dream language. What delights Him even more, though, is when we spend time in His presence, inquiring of His heart what He wanted to say to us through the dream narrative.
10) Ask the Lord what the source of your dream was. There are three options here: one, the enemy; two, your own soul; and three, God. Obviously, not every single dream is going to be a message from Heaven. Unfortunately, some dreams are a manifestation of spiritual warfare. We will discuss this more at length in a future post. I will pause, though, to say this. Just as we can grow during our waking hours, in walking in freedom, joy, and victory… so can we grow in these even as we sleep.
Consider this too. Some dreams come from our own souls. If you’re missing a certain person a lot, they may appear in your dreams frequently. If you’re intensely worried about a particular circumstance, you may have stressful dreams reflecting your inner chaos. If you’re attracted to someone, you may dream about them often too. All of these are normal soulish dreams, but are not necessarily messages from God.
I remember my dreams almost every morning. However, I don’t write them all down. I take an unhurried moment to listen into Holy Spirit about the source of each dream. Again, complete dependence on His leading is of utmost importance. If He impresses on my spirit that the dream is from Him, then, and only then, do I take the time to record it.
I will add, here, that God is unlimited. He can even intervene in a dream that began as spiritual warfare, turn it into a nighttime victory, and even teach you something vital through it. Likewise, He could use a dream from your soul to show you something key to your personal growth. We are wise not to try to keep Him in a box. The bottom line is, always ask Him whether or not to include your dream in your journal.
Holy Spirit is stirring my heart with so much to share with you on this subject. Swing by again soon for more thought-provoking installments!
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Have you had one of those “a-ha!” moments when suddenly Holy Spirit revealed to you what your dream meant?
Feeding On Jesus 
Jennifer, I know and believe that God can and does use any source He pleases to communicate with us and does reveal His message if we are in right relationship to Him. The dreams of those following after God encourage me and confirms that the Spirit opens mysteries from the Father. I have very few nights where I dream and remember doing so. Are you suggesting that one seeks this avenue of insight ? I remember a time when my understanding of praying and speaking in tongues was filled with doubt. Over many years of searching the Word, asking for clarity and implementing this gift, I then became certain. No person could dispute what I knew to be real. I will therefore continue to bring this whole matter of personal dreams before the Lord and seen what He reveals. Amen Len Wisniewski
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Thank you Len for such an insightful question. I am not under the impression that God intends to speak to everyone the same amount through dreams. It seems to be like most other spiritual gifts: He distributes them according to His wisdom in different ways to different people. However, it does seem like even many of those who don’t have prophetic dreams as a specific area of strong gifting still do occasionally receive meaningful dreams from Him. I’m also mindful of the verse that says “eagerly desire spiritual gifts.” Seems like He does encourage us to want to grow in as many of them as possible!
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Jennifer,
Thank you for obediently taking so much time to teach us these things! My 15-year-old daughter and I both dream frequently and we are learning how to hear understanding of them. One thing we have both experienced but weren’t sure what to do with are warfare dreams. Now you have helped give us language for that. She and I will be reading each of your teachings and discussing them together to learn as much as we’re able.
I wanted to share, as well: My daughter just had a terrifying dream two nights ago that I now believe was warfare. We sought the Lord and asked Him to protect her dreams and for Him to speak to her as she sleeps, and last night that same horrible dream was about to begin and “a man” walked up, crumpled the dream like paper, threw it in a fire, and said, “Oh no, we’re not having that one again.” Bless the Lord! He showed her how HE fights for her, even as she sleeps.
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Jocelyn, you are truly welcome! My heart rejoices to know that the series has been helfpul to you. Thank You Jesus!! And WOW, that is amazingly cool how the Lord intervened for her within the dream! Praise God!! It sounds like you both have a special prophetic gifting. 🙂 ❤
If you would like to learn more, I know that there are a good number of solid dream interpretation books out there. A couple authors that come to mind are Jim Goll and Doug Addison. John Paul Jackson was a giant in this area, and I believe some of his online classes are still available via Streams Ministries. Or you could no doubt find others on the Elijah List store.
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Hi Jennifer, this answers my previous question about whether to include all dreams. The thing for me is that if I don’t write it down straight away, I’m likely to forget. And what looked like a soulish dream often becomes very significant later. I used to keep a dream diary too, quite different to this way of journalling but fascinating. I want to try it this way now though. I wrote about my prayer diaries some time back…
do let me know how the process compares. It looks to me like the reliance on the Holy Spirit is central and crucial to the process you advocate – it is that which attracts me. Thank you.
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I am so glad this has been helpful! I will take a look soon at the links you have shared and give you my thoughts. I truly look forward to doing so, as I love this subject so! And amen, Holy Spirit dependence is everything!
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