Old Treasures on Tuesdays đź‘‘
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 