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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.
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