The exceptions
Today you’ll read about exceptions to the rule.
The dinner and the car
Last Thursday I rode with Charlene and her daughter Joy to a women’s dinner at Charlene’s church. What a lovely place. And here’s the best part. The ladies were even more lovely than the setting. Smiles. Chatter. Warmth. The speaker was hilarious. We laughed and laughed and laughed. Did I mention the food? Amazing—with layered chocolate cake for dessert. As you can imagine, I was in Food Heaven.
When we returned to Charlene’s house, we noticed that my car’s lights were on. Uh-oh. I had left my Volt on the entire time. We laughed about it. I felt like a total ding-a-ling until Joy said her husband did the same thing. Here’s the good part. In addition to my car being oh-so-chilled when I got inside, this engineering marvel had only burned 13 electric miles in the 160 minutes that it sat at Charlene’s curb—with the air conditioner on. How about another marvel. My cool car sat out there running for more than two-and-a-half hours with the doors unlocked and the lights on—and no one touched it. Thank you, Lord.
The exception to the rule
My Chevy Volt shows a pretty remarkable exception to the rule. The car sat running and cooling its interior while I was out for the evening—and didn’t burn an ounce of gas. When my electric charge ran out on the way home, the car kicked on its gas-powered generator. Voilà. Volt engineers, you are brainiacs extraordinaire. Many, many thanks. Best car ever.
Last time
In part 3, we looked at the common themes in the dreams I’ve written about, and I described two new dreams. We also explored the truth about nightmares.
In the Bible and today, the Holy Spirit uses dreams
to reveal vital truths, to warn us and to tell us what’s coming.
Dreams in the Bible
If you’d like to read some of the dreams recorded in the Bible, my favorites are all in the gospel of Matthew.
♦ Joseph learned that his fiancé Mary was pregnant with Jesus, God’s son.
♦ The wise men were warned not to return to King Herod.
♦ An angel warned Joseph to take Mary and Jesus immediately to Egypt.
♦ An angel told Joseph to return to Israel.
Are all dreams a word or a gift from the Lord? Definitely not.
Dreams that are not from the Lord
In my experience, most of my dreams fall into the Other category—I mean not from God.
The dreams you’ve read about on Choosing Peace
were special gifts from the Lord.
Each one was the exception to the rule.
Let’s dig into five types of dreams that are not from the Lord.
1. Worries
Ecclesiastes 5:3 tells us: “For as a dream comes with a multitude of cares, so a fool’s speech with a multitude of words” (New Heart English Bible). In other words, sometimes our worries, fears and cares are displayed in our dreams. I’ve had performance anxiety dreams that play out in a school. In those dreams, I’m sitting in a classroom and there’s a test I didn’t study for, a paper I didn’t write, a homework assignment I didn’t know about, etc. Have you had those kinds of dreams?
I usually realize what fueled the fear behind that kind of dream. Then I need to remember, quote and live 1 Peter 5:7. To see how I do that, check out The Verse and The Prayer in this post.
2. Vanities
Several verses later, God warns us that our vanities—our pride—can be shown in our dreams.
For in the multitude of dreams there are vanities,
as well as in many words: but you must fear God.
Ecclesiastes 5:7, New Heart English Bible
Last month—the night that I was given my first Senior Discount at a restaurant—I had a dream filled with vanity, as I wondered to myself, “Do I look old?”
Yes, indeed. Our fears and vanities play out in our dreams. What can I do about my vanities in my dreams? I need to repent! Lord, forgive me. Please help me replace my vanity and pride with humility and faith. Amen.
3. Gobbledegook
We also see gobbledegook in our dreams. In other words, we see strange things that make absolutely no sense—and we wake up thinking What in the world was that? In my experience, I forget those dreams quickly. They’re weird and I ignore them. I just shake my head and move on with my day. If you ask me the next day what was in one of those dreams, I can’t tell you. (Which is a good thing.)
4. Dreams that lead people astray
If a prophet, spiritual leader or influencer uses dreams—or visions—to incite people to leave God or God’s ways, that is serious business—clearly not from the Lord.
5. Desires
What else do we see in our dreams? We see our yearnings and desires. Some of our desires are healthy and some aren’t.
Healthy desires
Sometimes our dreams show a normal, healthy yearning or desire. Food, water, basic shelter or clothing, a job, a friend, health, a good church—those are examples of good things.
It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and look, he eats; but he awakes, and his hunger isn’t satisfied; or like when a thirsty man dreams, and look, he drinks; but he awakes, and look, he is faint, and he is still thirsty….
Isaiah 29:8a-b, New Heart English Bible
If you’ve ever watched “Alone”—a survival competition on the History channel—you’ve heard many a starving participant describe nighttime dreams about eating a hamburger. Then they wake up and realize, yet again, that there’s little or no food. It was just a dream. I must confess. When Brandon and I are watching “Alone,” I have this overwhelming urge to snack—a lot. And usually, I do.
Missing persons
Sometimes we dream about someone who’s missing—a future spouse that we haven’t met yet or a significant person who died or a friend who moved away. When someone significant is missing, we long for them—or for what we’d always hoped for in that relationship. And sometimes we dream about them. (See the section called The Long Good-bye in this post and Grieve vs. Miss in this one. For more, read the Grieving series.)
Someone who died
When we dream about a person who died, is that person’s spirit visiting us and interacting with us? No. After my dad died, I had a dream about him. Ditto for my mom. At the time, I thought my dad and my mom had visited me in my dreams. I was wrong. Take a look at what Jesus taught in the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus. In summary, God won’t send a person’s spirit from heaven to communicate with people on earth—not even to impact their salvation. To explore the parable’s meaning, read this excellent article.
When we dream about a person who died, we’re experiencing our desires in our dream—our desires to see and hear and experience that person again or our desires to get what we wanted or needed from that person. In my dreams about my parents, after they died, I saw them how I wanted them to be. For example, in my dream about my dad, he asked me something personal and important—whether Brandon was being good to me. The narcissist I knew would never have said that. I dreamed about The Dad I Wanted, not The Dad I Had.
Our holy God
We know from the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus that God doesn’t send his children in heaven on special assignments to us. The Holy Spirit gives us love, truth, comfort, guidance—and much more.
When we dream about our dead loved ones or relatives,
our dream reflects our own desires.
When we take a little time to think about these dreams, we can usually pinpoint the desires that fueled them.
Peaceful Readers, we need to take a little detour.
Authority and exceptions
God has full authority over all things. He is all-powerful and always chooses rightly. He makes the rules and he also makes the exceptions.
Does God’s word include any exceptions to the rule about seeing the spirits of dead people? Yes, it does. The two that come to mind are The Transfiguration—when Peter, James and John saw Moses and Elijah; and Saul and The Medium of En-dor—when Saul was chewed out royally by Samuel, who was conjured up by a medium. Just a side note. Mediums and necromancers who conjured up the dead were supposed to receive the death penalty in the Old Testament. Needless to say, God takes this evil very seriously and so should we. (To dig into the dangers of the occult, read this post.)
Consider these verses for more: 1 Chronicles 10:13-14, Ecclesiastes 9:5-6, 2 Chronicles 33:1-6, Ecclesiastes 12:7, Exodus 22:18.
Another unusual spiritual encounter is The Audible. Can God use a familiar voice to speak to us? Yes, he can. See part 2.
Let’s get back to the Desire Dreams and wrap this puppy up.
Dealing with dreams of desire
Whether the yearning or desire in a dream was healthy or not, we need to deal with these types of dreams in a similar way to the Vanity Dreams: Pray and ask God for help, tell him what we need, and repent for any sin.
Discerning the source
How do we know when a dream or nightmare is a gift from the Lord or not?
If the Lord gave the dream, he will give the interpretation. Eventually.
Does your dream seem to fall into one of the Not-From-The-Lord Categories? Worries, vanities, gobbledegook, leading people away from God, or desires?
Questions
If you’re having a hard time discerning the source of your dream, ask these questions.
1. Does this dream speak truth or lies?
2. Does this dream speak warning?
3. Does this dream call me to be courageous?
4. Does this dream call me to faith or fear?
5. Does this dream glamorize sin?
6. If I lived out this dream, how would that impact me and my loved ones?
7. Does this dream teach me something that’s consistent with God and his word?
8. Is this dream a source of clarity or confusion?
9. Does this dream give me a clue?
10. Does this dream give me a call-to-action consistent with the Holy Spirit’s other communication?
The key issue
We learned in part 3 that nightmares can be gifts from God, so we don’t ask whether a dream was scary or not. The key issue is truth. God is truth. That’s why the Spirit of truth is one of the names Jesus uses for the Holy Spirit.
If the Lord gave the dream, he will give the interpretation.
Summary
We’ve reviewed five kinds of dreams that aren’t from the Lord—worries, vanities, gobbledegook, leading people away from God, and desires. And we know that when the Lord gives us a dream, he’ll eventually give us the interpretation.
Now let’s shift gears and consider some of the blessings God can give us through our dreams.
Gifts given through dreams
Several years ago, Brandon and I were given a number of colorful, revealing dreams. This post in the last series explains why:
These five dreams were given to us last year to strengthen us. They were gifts from God.
These vivid dreams gave us these important things: Encouragement, reminders of truth, validation, clarity, finality and comfort—plus a little Rat Humor.
How do things like strength, encouragement, reminders, validation, clarity, finality and comfort go with the concept of truth?
Strength
The Holy Spirit strengthens us through the truths he reveals in dreams. When I consider the truth of God’s strength and might—his love and compassion—his hand and voice reaching down into my dreams and my life—I can release my fear and my worries. I can lay down my fear and take up The Shield of Faith and all the pieces of The Armor of God.
My strength comes from God and his word. Be strengthened by these truths from God’s word: Ephesians 6:10, Nehemiah 8:10, Proverbs 18:10, Psalm 35:9-10, Psalm 27:1, Psalm 24:8, Isaiah 58:11.
For the eyes of the Lord go this way and that, through all the earth,
letting it be seen that he is the strong support
of those whose hearts are true to him.
2 Chronicles 16:9a, Bible in Basic English
Encouragement
The Holy Spirit also uses dreams to encourage us. To show us the great things he has in store for us. To show us his love as he communicates vividly and creatively with us.
When I look at the word encouragement, I see the word courage in the middle. The more I seek truth, listen to God and obey him, the Holy Spirit transforms my mind, making me more and more like Jesus—the most courageous man ever. God gives me the courage to do what he calls me to do. The encouragement of the Holy Spirit says to me, “Frankie Ann, you can do this. I am with you. I am in you. I am for you. I am. And I will show you what to do. I will give you the words to say. I will.” Virtues like courage are good, so courage is from God.
Be strong and courageous,
do not be afraid, nor be scared of them:
for the LORD your God is he who is going with you;
he will not leave you nor forsake you.
Deuteronomy 31:6, New Heart English Bible
Reminders of the truth
Why does the Holy Spirit use dreams to remind us of the truth? Because the devil and his minions use an arsenal of tricks—distractions, accusations, discouragement—to get us to replace the truth with lies. But why does God use dreams? Because they make an impact. They’re colorful. Memorable. Unique.
The common, everyday people, animals, places and items
in dreams communicate important, powerful truths.
What kinds of truths does the Holy Spirit remind us about? In my experience, dreams remind me the truth about (1) good vs. evil, (2) what the Holy Spirit has called me to do, and (3) what he’s already told me and shown me about who and what I’m dealing with—what I’m facing in my life.
Validation, clarity, finality and comfort
The Holy Spirit keeps me grounded in the truth—using dreams to give me validation, clarity, finality and comfort. In other words, “I said it and I meant it. Remember what I already told you and how you already obeyed me. See it in a fresh way—in this new picture, this new scene. You did what I asked you to do. Well done. Keep on doing it.”
Dreams that revealed the truth and something that was coming
Let’s wrap up this post with some selections from Frankie Ann’s Dream Library.
“However when he, the Spirit of truth, has come,
he will guide you into all truth,
…and he will declare to you things that are coming.”
John 16:13a, c, New Heart English Bible
The Spider—see The Dream and The Real Spider in this post.
Brandon’s dream revealed Pam’s unexpected return, her fear about the end of her control, and—unbeknownst to us—her impending death. (In May, she was diagnosed with aggressive, terminal cancer.)
The Snake and The Kitten—read Frozen by Fear thru the end of this post.
I had this dream the month my sociopathic father-in-law Andrew died.
Four Rats—see The Rats thru Unpacking the Dream in this post.
I had this dream on October 15. Andrew died on October 16—two years later.
Symbols
In dreams, spiders represent narcissists, snakes represent evil, and wolves represent enemies, danger and/or evil.
Glowing eyes also represent evil. (Example below and in the Repeated Nightmares section in part 3.)
The narrated dream
Five years ago, I had a very unusual dream. It was narrated—with authority—by a male voice.
From the last series:
…God was telling me—loud and clear—“Remember who and what you’re dealing with. Remember….”
Sunday, December 17
Journal entry
I told Brandon this afternoon about a dream I had last week. A voice was narrating the dream and said, “This is your sister, Pam.” A woman I didn’t recognize was sitting down, wearing sunglasses. The voice said again: “This is your sister.” The woman took her sunglasses off and her eyes were glowing white. She was creepy. She was evil. I told Brandon that it felt like a warning dream….
I’ve been reminded of that dream a number of times since then. Very, very helpful. “Remember who and what you’re dealing with.” The who is Pam. The what is evil.
Seeing, writing and hearing
This particular dream incorporated three different ways that the Holy Spirit guided me to the truth. He gave me a spiritual encounter—the dream. He gave me a written encounter—my journaling about the dream. And he gave me an audible encounter—the voice narrating the dream. Was this dream unusual and particularly important? Absolutely.
Current events and prayer time
Am I about to encounter The Spider—I mean Perfect Pam, the malignant narcissist? Yes, I am. See the Wondering and Waiting section in this recent post for details.
Lord, strengthen me and fill me with wisdom for the battles ahead. You will show me what to do and say. Give me peace and the patience to wait for you. Amen.
Coming next: I have some notes typed, but I’m not really sure what’s coming in part 5. The Holy Spirit knows, and that’s good enough for me.
Until then, thanks for reading and for Choosing Peace.
Healing through truth and music
Peaceful Readers, I’ve found great healing in my life through the beauty and truth of God’s word and through music. I hope the truths and songs that I share at the end of each post will bless you too.
Truth from The Word: Matthew 11:25-26
Song for Healing: Be richly blessed by “Your Nearness” by Shane & Shane.