How Should Christians Understand Dreams?
Q: How should believers handle scary dreams, or dreams in general? Should we interpret them and link them to ongoing circumstances, or pray and move on?
Ecclesiastes 5:3 – For a dream comes through much activity, and a fool’s voice is known by his many words.
A: Look, it is possible that God might speak to a person through a dream. In the Bible, God speaks through dreams to unbelievers more often than to believers. Be cautious about signing yourself up for the “Dream Team.” To believers, God says, “Here’s My word! Read My word.” I do believe that God communicates to believers by other means than the words of Scripture. But if you want a word from God, read your Bible. There’s no question about that. That’s where the word of God is for you. Read your Bible.
We shouldn’t seek after knowledge and dreams in this way, praying “Oh, Lord, speak to me in a dream.” No, open up your Bible. Now, God could spontaneously do such a thing, but here’s the trouble. Dreams can come from other sources as well. Ecclesiastes 5:3 says that dreams come from a troubled or busy mind, so we just don’t know. I would expect that if God did speak to somebody through a dream, He would give a lot of other confirmation by His Spirit.
What do we make of people have troubling dreams? All I can say is, commit it to the Lord. I have not experienced dreams very much at all in my life, but I know some people who have been profoundly spiritually affected by a dream. If that happens, take it to the Lord, pray, and surrender it to God, saying, “Lord, if there’s anything You want to show me or guide me in regard to this, do it. But You’re going to have to do it, because I’m just going to put my focus on You.”
If there is a spiritual significance to the dream, and the Lord is trying to communicate something, He’s not going to hide that He wants to communicate. You can very simply ask Him, “Lord, if this is from You, reveal the meaning of this. What’s the intent of this? What am I to take from this?” And having prayed that prayer, if nothing comes, then there is no need to worry about it.
There could be any number of reasons why you had that dream, not necessarily that the Lord is speaking to you. As you pray about it, keep reading your Bible. Many people experience spiritual distress, a sense of the presence of evil, in the state between being fully awakened and fully asleep. As a pastor over the years, my counsel to people experiencing this has been, “Before you go to sleep, very intentionally pray, ‘Lord, protect me now as I sleep.’” If there is something evil going on in the spiritual realm, encourage people to shut that door spiritually through prayer.