Dream Interpretation Biblical
If you asked 10 people at church this Sunday if God communicates to His people through dreams, you might get a wide variety of answers. You might find some Christians who would simply think you are crazy. Then you might find others who think every dream they have is divine revelation, which is in itself a little crazy. We have a good starting place in the Bible for God communicating with people through dreams in both the Old and New Testaments. So what we want is a reasonable approach to being open to God to talk to us through dreams but at the same time a way to separate heavenly communication dreams from the regular dreams you have routinely.
Probably the most common way that we go off the deep end concerning God talking to us through dreams is thinking that a dream we get will by necessity be prophetic. That is to say, we assume if God sends a dream, it will predict the future or be a prophetic message that will change the course of the life of the church or at least your life with some new set of marching orders from God. This high standard on what we can expect if God talks to us through dreams has two dangers. First, we block God from using dreams for other kinds of communication. But the more dangerous temptation would be to interpret some dream that was full of vivid imagery and a dramatic and exciting plot necessarily means God is calling us to a total change of life.
The Bible is the guide for us to find that proper middle ground in how to handle communications from God through dreams. But we are not using scripture correctly to read the handful of incidents in scripture where God talked to a follower through a dream and conclude that the dreams God might send to you will line up with those examples. Those situations were very specific situations that God was taking action in. We cannot conclude that God will talk to us the same way he talked to Joseph, Daniel or Peter.
A better way to use the Bible in dream interpretation is to learn from the Bible both how God talks to us and why. Many times God communicates with His people for messages that are not prophetic. God might send a dream of comfort to give you spiritual encouragement when you are struggling. God might send a special dream to confirm a calling on your life that He began in another way.
For example, if you felt the tug of the Holy Spirit to go on a mission trip at church and then had a dream that confirmed that tug, that is a very valid way for God to use dreams to confirm a leading. And because that dream lined up with scripture and with the Great Commission, you can interpret that dream as being of divine origin and celebrate that revelation. So don't be surprised if God talks to you through dreams. But you can fully expect what he says to line up with how He talks to through other means and that it will line up with his message for your life that he has been planning for you since the dawn of time.
