DREAMS AND VISIONS
Dr. Daniel Botkin

  “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams”

  On Shavuot, the Day of Pentecost, Peter quoted the above passage from the Prophet Joel. According to this passage, we should expect dreams and visions to be manifested among Spirit-filled New Covenant people. Even before that First-Century Day of Pentecost, God spoke to the Prophets through dreams and visions. “Hear now My words: If there be a prophet among you, I Yahweh will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches” (Num. 12:6-8).
  Moses, to whom the Lord spoke face to face, was the exception to the rule. As the above passage shows, dreams and visions were the normal means by which God spoke to the Prophets. As disciples of the Messiah, we now have the promise of the Holy Spirit, so we should not think it unusual if God speaks to us through dreams and visions as He did to the Prophets of old.
  The primary way that God communicates to us is through the Scriptures, and all dreams and visions must be judged by the Scriptures. However, the written Word is not the only way that God communicates to man. He sometimes speaks through dreams and visions. This does not mean that every dream we have is from the Lord, or that every unusual idea that pops into our head contains a message from God. However, when we have unusual dreams or visions, we do need to be open to the possibility that the Lord may be trying to tell us something. Paul wrote, “I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.” We should have this same expectation.
  In ancient times people took dreams seriously. When Joseph dreamed that his brothers’ sheaves of grain bowed down to his sheaf, they did not laugh it off. They hated him for his dreams. When Joseph dreamed that the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed to him, his father Jacob did not dismiss it as a silly notion. He took it seriously.
  Years later when Joseph was in an Egyptian prison, Pharaoh’s butler and baker were sad because they did not understand what their dreams meant. When Pharaoh had his dream, he likewise was greatly disturbed because there was no one to interpret it. The Bible says “his spirit was troubled.” These three Egyptians were not even God’s covenant people. They were pagans, yet God showed them through dreams what He was about to do. Other pagans who had prophetic dreams from God were King Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 2 & 4) and King Abimelech (Gen. 20). In the New Testament, God gave dreams to the Magi, to Joseph, and to Pilate’s wife. The Book of Acts mentions several accounts of dreams and visions from the Lord.
  The Bible takes the subject of dreams and visions seriously, and so should we. We should especially pay attention to dreams and visions if they seem to be some sort of warning, or if they contain Scriptural symbols and subject matter, or if they seem to trouble our spirit. When we experience dreams and visions of this nature, we should pray for an interpretation and for the wisdom to know how to respond. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will reveal the meaning. Sometimes another brother or sister might understand what the dream or vision means. People occasionally share their dreams with me and ask if I know the meaning. Sometimes I see the meaning right away. Other times I don’t have a clue what it means.
  Most Bible believers seem to be more open to dreams than they are to visions. This may be due to a limited understanding of what a vision is. Some people think that a vision is something that is seen with the physical eyes, sort of like a hallucination. A vision may take this form, but a vision can also be a mental image seen only with the inward eye, a picture that suddenly flashes into the mind for no apparent reason and without any obvious outward stimulus. Or a vision might be an idea which gradually takes shape in the mind and heart, as the Holy Spirit shows us bits and pieces of the picture until the vision is clear enough for us to begin pursuing it.
  Visions can also be seen when we experience what the Bible calls “falling into a trance.” The fact that mediums experience a trance-like state during occult rituals should not scare us away from genuine, Holy Spirit-induced trances. Both Peter and Paul fell into trances and had visions while praying. (Acts 10 & 22) Knowing the Greek word for “trance” might help us better understand this sort of experience. The Greek word is ekstasis (), the source of our English word ecstacy. The Greek word means “displacement of the mind.” In other words, the mind “shifts gears,” so to speak, and sees things that it otherwise would not see. It is similar to what happens with the flat posters that have a hidden 3-D image which cannot be seen until the eyes focus in just the right way. Once the eyes are focused to penetrate the 2-D layer of the poster, then the 3-D images are perfectly clear. These posters cause frustration for those who cannot see the 3-D images, and ecstacy for those who do see them. This is strictly a physical phenomenon, but it is a good illustration of how trance-induced visions work.

  If we ignore dreams and visions, we might miss out on blessings. There is a church in Swaffam, England, that has a memorial plaque to honor the memory of John Chapman, a rich man who gave generously to the church. John Chapman was not always rich. He was originally a poor tinker but a prophetic dreamer. In one of his dreams a voice told him, “Travel to London, and you will meet a man on London Bridge who will make you rich.” John Chapman had this dream three times. After the third time, he decided to follow his dream, and he went to London Bridge.
  Chapman waited on the bridge, and soon a man approached him and struck up a conversation. “What are you doing in London?” the man asked.
  “A dream sent me here,” Chapman replied.
  “I had a strange dream recently,” the man said. “I dreamed that I traveled to Swaffam and dug up a jar of gold coins buried under the only tree of a tinker named John Chapman.”
  Chapman kept his mouth shut, went home and became a rich man.
  Our dreams and visions may not make us monetarily wealthy like Chapman’s dream did for him, but there are spiritual treasures the Lord wants to give us through dreams and visions. Joel’s prophecy promises dreams and visions, so we should not ignore them as a source of blessing.

Source of John Chapman story: Kathryn Lindskoog, The Gift of Dreams (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1979), p. 125.