Decoding Your Dreams
The Bible must always be the first reference for dreams and visions. The hidden truth the Bible reveals is that dreams have the power to divide between soul and spirit because they are a deposit of God’s living Word to us today! To some, that is a very radical thought. You may be wondering, Are you suggesting we should endorse extra-biblical revelation? No! God is still speaking, and He didn’t cease speaking at the completion of the canonical books of the Bible. The Book of Acts is an open-ended book, and it is still being written today. However, what God says today has to be in-line with what He has said in the past (see Heb. 13:8). This is why the metaphors in The Divinity Code are based first and foremost on Scripture.Let’s use Joseph as an example. When Joseph was seventeen years of age, he dreamed two dreams that declared his brothers and his parents would someday bow down to him (see Gen. 37:5-11). His prideful boasting of this revelation, together with his father’s favoritism toward him, put him at odds with his brothers, who then sold him to passing merchants. Consequently, Joseph’s dreams lay dormant as he served as a slave and prisoner in Egypt.
Joseph was eventually used to interpret two of Pharaoh’s dreams, which revealed that the nation of Egypt would experience seven years of abundance followed by seven years of severe famine (see Gen. 41:17-31). When Pharaoh heard Joseph’s interpretation and his advice on how to handle the forthcoming blight, he appointed Joseph as the nation’s prime minister. And yes, his brothers came to Egypt to buy food and found themselves bowing down unknowingly to their brother, just as had been foretold in Joseph’s original dreams some twenty years prior. This remarkable story is recorded in the Book of Psalms:
Moreover He [God] called for a famine in the land; He destroyed all the provision of bread. He sent a man before them—Joseph—who was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with fetters, he was laid in irons. Until the time that his [Joseph’s] word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him (Psalm 105:16-19).
Notice that it says that Joseph was kept in prison “until the time that his word came to pass” (Ps. 105:19). Joseph’s word was the dream he had received as a seventeen-year-old boy. Joseph’s dream was God’s word for him!Often we are too close to the scene of the dream to really understand what it means. Dreams are part of God’s ongoing Word to us. They are not the whole picture, but they accompany and augment what God is saying to us through His written Word and through prayer.
Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do” (Genesis 41:25).We both had dreams,” they answered, “but there is no one to interpret them.” Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams” (Genesis 40:8 NIV).
Correct interpretations come from knowing and trusting God intimately. He is the Source of both the dream and the interpretation, and He allows the Holy Spirit to share the dream’s meaning with believers who are totally committed to Him.
Common Mistakes
Treating dreams too casually and treating interpretation as a formula are common mistakes made by dreamers. Heading straight to the dream symbols dictionary in a book reveals a mindset of interpretation as a formula.The following are types of things that must be taken into consideration when looking for an interpretation to any word from God, whether it be a prophecy, a vision, a dream, a word of knowledge, or a personal revelation:
What else is going on in the verse or the scene?
What other things is the dreamer experiencing?
Where do these things occur in Scripture?
Not considering the context of dreams is another mistake. How do we find accurate context?A good starting place is to ask questions like:
Who had the dream?
When did they have the dream?
What was in the dream?
How did they feel when they had the dream?
Where were they when they had the dream?
Dreams divide between soul and spirit, not just in the individual, but also at the family, church, business, national, and Kingdom levels. Often, what people think a dream means and what it turns out to signify can be radically different. Functioning like Nathan’s parable to David (see 2 Sam. 12:1-13), dreams and their correct interpretations bypass the heart’s natural defense mechanisms and allow the Holy Spirit to bring conviction and correction. The following is a great example of how a properly contextualized dream can help discern and disclose hearts.One morning during a discussion with a group of people, a young man asked what it would mean if, in a dream, he had his hand on his ex-partner’s throat. I asked him about the context of the dream and whether he had ever threatened her. He said that to his knowledge, he had never openly threatened her, though he admitted that she might feel threatened by him.
He also explained that the night before, he heard someone preaching and the sermon touched on forgiveness. He explained that before he went to bed, he had verbally forgiven his ex-partner.After probing the Scripture, the following verse illuminated the dream’s interpretation: But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, “Pay me what you owe!” (Matthew 18:28).The context of this verse is unforgiveness; I knew instantly what God was saying. As the essence of what God was saying was shared with the young man, the Holy Spirit powerfully witnessed to him and brought conviction. He was blown away that God, through a dream, was able to pinpoint the true state of his heart. Through the dream, God was showing him that he had not really forgiven his ex-partner—that in his heart he still held her responsible and was expecting an apology from her.
This is not only a great example of God’s ability to divide hearts through dreams, but it also emphasizes the importance of using the Bible to find the correct interpretation of a dream. This method is especially useful if your metaphor dictionary does not have an entry that seems to fit the context of a particular dream.
Dreams Teach
In Matthew 5−7, Jesus delivers what is called the Sermon on the Mount. In the midst of this passage is a well-known verse: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt. 6:33).This verse speaks about getting things right in our hearts and allowing God to rule and reign there, and it promises that if we do so, God will provide for our needs. This is a challenging verse, particularly when the world and external circumstances can be yelling for us to seek security everywhere else but in God.
Dreams have a capacity to teach at a number of levels. The majority of dreams are metaphors, parables, and riddles. Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5 NIV).
This experience that Jesus mentions reinforces a truth that Israel was meant to learn before they entered the Promised Land and that all of us, likewise, have to learn before we are able to move fully into the Kingdom. As Jesus, quoting Moses, puts it, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).
In fact, entering the Kingdom is dependent on this truth. Notice that this Scripture says that it is by every word that “proceeds” and not “proceeded.” One is present tense; the other is past tense. We cannot move into the spiritual promises of God on yesterday’s manna. We need a living Word today. Of course, the devil wants to shut this down because dreams have the capacity to provide a major component of what God is saying to us today. He knows that once this truth is out, the Church is once again on the move and closer to the Book of Acts! Don’t disregard a dream as the result of nighttime snacking simply because it doesn’t have a lengthy storyline. Even the shortest dreams can speak revelation to us.For example, when Jacob was fleeing because of death threats from his brother, Esau, he had an encounter with God at Bethel:
Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it, and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you” (Genesis 28:12-15).
What a fantastic encouragement this dream must have been to the anxious traveler, Jacob, heading to an unfamiliar destination. When God is rounding off this encounter with Jacob, He promises that He will not leave him until He has completed what He has “spoken to” him. To put it another way, He says that He will not leave him until He has completed “His word” to him.And what was His word to Jacob? It was the dream he had just been given. This word so impacted Jacob that the Bible says, “Then Jacob lifted up his feet, and came to the land of the people of the East.” (Gen. 29:1 KJV). The heaviness he had been experiencing was completely stripped from him because he had a word from God. He didn’t think, I shouldn’t have eaten that pizza last night. No, he recognized God’s word when it came to him in a dream! God uses the elements of your day to speak to you through dreams and visions.
Prayer
Father, You are both the Giver and the Interpreter of dreams. I give You my sleeping and my waking and invite You into my dreams. I pray for Your wisdom as I step into this journey of dream interpretation. Help me to avoid foolish mistakes and to hear Your voice clearly. Make me a priest who faithfully reveals Jesus to the world.
