The Bible not a religious textbook or a book of rules and regulations.
The Bible is God’s Word, therefore it contains everything
we need to know about life and godliness. All the issues of life
are dealt with in this Book. There is no other book like it.
Therefore, if we want to know about dreams, we must look into
the Bible to get God’s mind on the subject. There is only
one infallible source concerning dreams—The Bible.
Everyone dreams (about 5 dreams a night). Most of the time we
cannot remember our dreams unless we wake up suddenly while dreaming.
Usually, the memory of the dream is gone within ten minutes after
waking.
Dreams can be mysterious, humorous, foreboding, and scary! We’ve
all experienced nightmares.
Sometimes dreams puzzle us regarding what they could possibly
mean. This is leads many into the occult. You see books at grocery
store check-outs claiming to interpret dreams. Satan would love
to have people seek him for the answers to their dreams.
DEFINITION: A dream is a succession of images or ideas present
in the mind during sleep.
ÆDIFFERENCE BETWEEN A DREAM AND A VISION. Basically, a dream
occurs while one is asleep. A vision would be while a man is awake.
We are not talking about a "daydream." A daydream is
a visionary fancy, voluntarily indulged in while one is awake.
We are not going to study daydreams since they are voluntary and
can be controlled (see Jer. 29:8-9).
You need to be careful about people who say, "I have a dream,"
when it is just a product of their own imagination (see Jer. 23:25-32).
We are going to study those uninvited images that enter our
subconscious mind during sleep.
THREE CATEGORIES OF DREAMS:
I. Dreams as COMMUNICATIONS from
God (Job 33:14-17).
A. God would speak to men through dreams because when man is sleeping
his pride and purposes are laid aside. When man is sleeping he
cannot fight against God’s message. When a man is awake,
he can resist God’s message, so God sends His message when
man’s resistance is down.
1. Abimelech purposed to have Abram’s wife so God spoke to
warn him in a dream (Gen. 20:3-6).
2. Laban was plotting a course against Jacob, so God warned him
in a dream (Gen. 31:24).
3. God’s communication to Solomon (1 Kings 3:5-15).
4. Joseph was thinking about putting Mary away when God spoke
to him in a dream (Mt. 1:18-24).
B. There are 20 dreams recorded in the Bible (14 in the O.T. and
6 in the N.T.). There in not one dream recorded after the resurrection
of Christ. The last one was the dream of Pilate’s wife in
Matthew 27:19.
1. Today, it is not necessary for God to communicate through dreams
because we have His Word. We are commanded to bring every thought
into captivity and make it comply with the Lord Jesus Christ (2
Cor. 10:5).
2. In the tribulation period God will again speak through dreams
(Joel 2:28-30).
II. Dreams from CONCERN for
the affairs of life (Eccl. 5:3).
Pre-occupied with the routines of everyday living. We dream about
the very things that occupy our thoughts while we are awake.
A. During your waking hours you are all wrapped up with business
situations, family troubles, financial crisis, health related
problems, national security, etc. that when you finally get to
sleep, the mind cannot be freed or released from everyday stresses.
Sometimes what we watch on television will effect what we dream
about.
B. Therefore, it is important to occupy our minds with the faithfulness
of God in our daily routines (Isa. 26:3).
III. Dreams from CRAVINGS of
the flesh (Isaiah 29:8). The subconscious mind will often try
to satisfy unfulfilled longings and desires while you are asleep.
Your mind is like a computer. It processes what you put into it.
Sometimes the processing occurs while we are sleeping and results
in dreams.
A. Nightmares are often the out-workings of frustrations in the
flesh (Job 7:13-16).
B. Battling the lusts of the flesh during daylight hours will
often be continued and lost in our dreams at night.
1. Unresolved anger is played out in dreams.
2. Conflicts are carried on in dreams.
3. Sexual tensions are released in dreams.
C. Dreams are often an indicator of our inner depravity.
SUMMATION: We must judge everything by what is written in God’s Word. If a dream does not match what God’s says, ignore it. If the dream does match what the Bible says, you don’t need it anyway, since the Bible has already said it.