Week 27 - June 30-July 6, 2024:When God Speaks Through Dreams

This week’s daily readings:

June 30-July 6, 2024

This week’s devotional:

When God Speaks Through Dreams

by Rev. Lucy Albert

Scripture:

During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. 

— Acts 16:9-10 (NIV) 

Reflection:

I’ve experienced seasons of life in which I frequently dreamed prophetically. Upon waking, I would write or type out the dream’s narrative, talk with Frank about it, and submit it to the Lord for him to fill in missing interpretation. I still have a folder in a file cabinet containing some of these dream descriptions. 

When our oldest son was about three years old, he dreamed about our then-church building’s walls beginning to fall over. Within a year, the church ceased to meet (although the building was fine).  

Not all vivid dreams should be interpreted as God speaking, of course. Learning to tell the difference between a prophetic dream and those in which our brains are working out our life experiences takes practice, learning about dream interpretation from trusted sources, and choosing to be vulnerable with discerning Christians. As with many complex issues, we are wise to hold our ideas about our dreams loosely unless we’re absolutely certain that we’ve interpreted one accurately.

What are some of God’s purposes in speaking through dreams? In this Scripture, Luke says that the group concluded that God was telling them to go to a certain place and preach the Gospel (from a broader view, to take a specific set of actions). God also sends warnings in dreams to tell us to change course and prevent or avoid a catastrophe (such as Mary’s husband Joseph being told to flee with his family to Egypt to escape Herod’s wrath). I’ve also experienced God revealing hidden information to me about family members. In the case of our son’s dream from all those years ago, I believe that we simply looked back after our church fell apart and were reminded in our sadness that God knew what was coming and is still sovereign. God’s omniscience (knowing everything) can be comforting.

What is your process for evaluating dreams you have while sleeping? 

Prayer:

All-knowing Father, what a blessing it is for you to speak to us in dreams! It’s surely your loving nature that longs to let us in on your plans, to guide us where we should go, and to warn us of things we should avoid. Give us wisdom and discernment to know whether it’s truly your voice calling, and place godly people around us who can consult with us about our visions. Strengthen our faith going forward so that we never hesitate to act upon your Word. We praise you, Father, for these special blessings. Amen