Dreams

6-28

Does God speak to us through dreams? Heiress asked the question last week, and A. addressed it. I'd like to talk about it, too.

First of all, I believe God speaks to us primarily through the Bible. Hebrews 1:1,2 says that "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, (2) but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son..." So you're not going to find new doctrine coming to you in dreams, visions, or direct messages from God. When people believe God has given them a new kind of "theology" thing which can't be found in the Bible, if they last at all they usually end up breaking off from Christianity and becoming a different religion.

That being said, I've seen tons of examples of people in the Bible hearing very specific messages from God about what they were supposed to do with their lives. Abraham, for example, Noah and Jonah, all heard God telling them to do specific things or go to specific places. I definitely believe God can do that to people today. After all, if Jonah were living today, there's nothing in the Bible (outside the book of Jonah) that would tell him to go to Nineveh.

My dad grew up in an era when it was really very common for people to believe God had a specific call on their lives. The remnants of the Great Awakening of the 1800's were still at work, and still are. It was very common for a person to "tarry" (wait) at an altar of prayer, until you received your "breakthrough," and knew in your heart of hearts what it was that God wanted you to do.

My dad experienced this for himself. He had a very strong "visitation"-type of experience, when he was at Bible college. He was studying to become a pastor. He says he was walking home from church one Sunday, and the Holy Spirit came alongside him and told him to go into teaching to work with children. Not out loud, mind you, but he said he could feel a "Presence" walking alongside him. The only thing is, he was in college on the GI bill after WWII. You weren't allowed to change majors. When he tried to change majors, his dean told him he couldn't do it and keep his GI bill. He said he'd rather do what God said than what the GI bill said, and he would work his way through if he had to. A few days later he was walking by the dean's office, and was called in, and informed that he was the first GI in the history of the GI bill to be allowed to change majors. :-) He did, too! He taught history and Bible at Christian school for years. When he eventually did become a pastor, he was a chaplain for kids. So there's an example of God speaking to him, followed by a verifiable sign so that he could know it was not just his imagination, and after he stepped out to do it, it happened in his life.

Back to dreams. Why not? IF God wants to get a message to us, this is a means He's used before. God spoke in dreams to people in the Bible. To Joseph, Mary's husband, for instance. He even used that method to get his message to an ungodly Pharaoh in Egypt. And to Nebuchadnezzar.

I think we all have "touch points" in our lives. Something God can touch, just for us, to let us know He's here, and He knows we're here. For Heiress, I think I heard a "touchpoint" in your Cherokee tradition. He knew the cardinal would mean something to you. : ) For me, it's music. My dreams are usually full of background music. I don't think it's always something God is specifically doing, but I hear music through my dreams. When I was a kid, my room was next to the bathroom, and my dad always had a radio in there playing loud music while he shaved. I always seemed to be in REM sleep at that time, dreaming away, and that music would blare away in the background. So ever since, I've always had that music playing in the background while I dream. Well--I've learned from experience that if I happen to think about the last song I heard in my dream, it will always carry a message for me. Usually it's about exactly what I've been going through, or it may hold an answer to something I was asking God about. But I don't usually remember the last song. I think God just prompts me when I'm supposed to notice.

With all that being said, do I think God was talking to me in my dream about my campfire? Really, I don't think so. I think it was my subconscious, which knew I had been healed before I knew it myself. I may be wrong. Maybe God used my subconscious to speak to me. One thing I DO know--the healing itself came from God.

-Godseeker