Christian Living

OUR DREAMS, GOOD OR BAD

by Charles (Chuck) Robey
01/30/15
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IS IT TIME TO GET UP ?  

"My son, let them not depart from your eyes - keep sound wisdom and discretion; so they will be life to your soul and grace to your neck. Then you will walk safely in your way, and your foot will not stumble. When you lie down, you will not be afraid; yes, you will lie down and your sleep will be sweet. (Proverbs 3:21-24)

"What's going on here ? Where am I ? Why is this happening to me ? Why am I sweating so ? Why all the panic ? Why am I on pins and needles ? But wait, it's only a dream, and a bad one at that. Must be  an evil power attempting to attack my spirit. I'll just go get a glass of warm milk, a cookie, whisper a little prayer, and all will be well ". Have you ever been there and done that ?

Dreams, good or bad, we all have them. So, are we really responsible for what we do in our dreams ? Yes. First of all, what is a dream ? And is a dream different than a "so-called" vision ?

According to the Webster Dictionary, "a dream is a series of thoughts, images, or emotions occurring during sleep. . . . having ideas or images in the mind while asleep". So, dreams are thoughts and images occurring during sleep.

In Scripture, however, dreams are also called "visions" (Job 33:15), "thoughts on my bed", "visions of my head" (Daniel 4:5; 7:15), "visions of his head while on his bed" (Daniel 7:1), and "night visions" (Daniel 7:7, 13). And when the Word (God) speaks of a "normal" type of a dream, it is still called a "night vision" (Isaiah 29:7-8). In fact (Job 33:15) clearly describes a dream as a "vision of the night". So, Scripture does define dreams as "visions".

As Christians, redeemed children of God, we should always recognize that fear, especially the fears of the night, is not of God. Nonetheless, we often times fall into Satan's trap (Acts 20:30). Once we realize that God loves us, then the fears of man have no place in our lives (Proverbs 29:25). Especially in our uncontrollable night dreams (Proverbs 6:20-22).

The powers of evil, Satan himself, adores giving the Christian fear (1 Peter 5:8-9), but God gives us just the opposite, a spirit of love, power and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). You see, if we give in to fear, we forget God's love, become powerless, and our minds wobble in unstable thoughts.

Does Satan attack our dreams ? Of course he does (Ephesians 6:12). And as Christians, are we excluded from such warfare, even in our sleep ? No (Job 4:13-19). 

Conversely, Does God test us in our dreams ? Yes (1 Kings 3:5-15). However, the more spiritually minded we are, the more we love the Word and have scripture running through our hearts and minds, then the more righteous, godly, and holy we will live, awake or asleep (Ecclesiastes 5:7).

Often times we may tend to get carried away with, or be preoccupied with our dreams, in an attempt to understand the message they are giving. Nonetheless, as Christians, we should never get caught up in dreams. We should just get caught up in fearing and loving Him, and our sleep will see those "sweet dreams" happen again (Proverbs 3:24).

The bottom line. We are responsible for anything we might do, be it awake or asleep. If we sin willfully, we are responsible before God. And, If we carry out an ungodly act in a dream, due to some semi-conscience reminder, it is sin, and we are responsible before God.

We cannot blame Satan for any sinful behavior we do in a dream. Even if the Devil did influence us to do some wrong (awake or asleep) (2 Cor 11:14), we are still responsible before God for our actions (Colossians 3:17) .

Author's Post Script

The reality of the matter is that every person, Christian and non-Christian, is accountable before a sovereign God (Rom. 3:9-19), whether awake or asleep,  and will one day give an account to  the living God (Phil. 2:9-11), as  Jesus said (Luke 12:48). Mankind may reject this scripture assertion. However, our rejection cannot alter the reality of our accountability to God himself.

In scripture we find a number examples where God spoke in dreams. Examples are Joseph, son of Jacob (Genesis 37:5–10); Joseph, the husband of Mary (Matthew 2:12–22); Solomon (1 Kings 3:5–15); and several others (Daniel 2:1; 7:1; Matthew 27:19). There is also a prophecy of the prophet Joel (Joel 2:28), quoted by the apostle Peter in Acts 2:17, that mentions God using dreams. So God can speak through dreams, if He chooses to.

Nonetheless, as followers  of Christ (Philippians 1:21), we should remember  that anything God says, whether through a dream, vision, impression, or “still small voice,” will always agree completely with His word. If you have a dream and feel that perhaps God gave it to you, prayerfully examine the Word of God and make sure your dream is in agreement with Scripture (James 1:5).

(Taken from Wikipedia)

In the Christian tradition, an "inner voice" may refer to the Conscience (Romans 2:15),or the active communication of God through the Holy Spirit. For example, the New Testament Gospel of Mark records a statement Jesus made to His Disciples who were being (or were to be) persecuted for their faith: "Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit."
Biblical references to the "heart" (Genesis 6:5) (Matthew 15:18,19) involve the thought-life and attitude of a person, and can thus be identified with the "place" where internal monologue occurs

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