Dreams, Visions and Their Interpretation

UV 1345/10,000 Dreams, Visions and Their Interpretation

For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.

Job 33 v 14

God speaks in many ways to mankind. The primary way is through His revealed Word. Those who believe, read the Word and accept what is written therein as true. He also speaks to others who do not believe through dreams. I once prayed for an astrologer upon reading his predictions of disasters in the year to come. That astrologer saw Jesus in a dream. His wife saw Jesus in a vision. Yet he did not believe in Jesus. God had spoken once in a dream, twice in a vision and yet he did not perceive it, believe it or receive it. When I asked him, he replied that he would do so on the next occasion it happened. Scripture records many instances of God’s communication of His will and purpose through dreams dreamt by prophets, rulers as well as ordinary people. Joseph saw dreams of his destiny as a youth. God took him through a series of ups and downs in his life to fulfil that destiny. Pharaoh saw dreams and Joseph interpreted it to be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Some are given the gift of interpretation of dreams and visions. There are different symbols that can be interpreted: a person wearing white clothes is a symbol of salvation. A bag with holes in it is a symbol of financial or material loss. Some dreams and visions are sent as a warning to heed or a portent of impending judgement like the hand that wrote on the wall of the palace of the Babylonian king Belteshazzar. Some dreams are a revelation of the will of God and the events to unfold in the immediate, near or distant future.


Daniel similarly interpreted the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar. God spoke to Daniel through visions about the future of Israel and about the destiny of humankind. God spoke to Joseph and Mary concerning the Messiah. He spoke to the wise men who came from the East through a dream to avoid meeting Herod on the way back. Even today, God speaks through dreams and visions to us. We should be sensitive enough to perceive the dream, to recollect it and understand what it means. We should not be found to be insensitive or slow of understanding and faith not to grasp the hidden meaning of a vision or dream. We need to tune our spiritual and mental receivers so that we are on the same frequency as God. When the Lord has spoken but once, we should see and understand, hear and understand. We need not wait for a second time or a confirmation of the message of God. We should take the vision and run with it. The vision should energise us, enthuse us and convince us that God has indeed spoken and it will happen accordingly. If there are some things we need to set in order or things we need to do, we should do so without delay.

When a certain man of God prayed for the leaders of a particular town, a young man who belonged to the priestly clan of that temple town saw a dream of a woman. He understood that to be a sign from God that he should marry her should he chance upon her. The next day he saw the very same lady crossing his path and he went immediately and proposed to her. The young woman being a pastor’s daughter declined this stranger but when he persisted and the family understood that it was God’s will, she married him and that led to his eventually being a believer in Christ. The human brain never sleeps and often our conscious as well as subconscious fears surface in dreams. Sometimes, the enemy of our souls also sends bad dreams or nightmares to us while we slumber. At these times, we should pray for protection for us and our loved ones so that no bad news overtakes us in the days to come. While we sleep the Lord watches over us but we need to pray every night and ask Him to “fence” our sleep and keep us from such bad dreams and signs. Instead, we can ask Him to send us dreams and visions of divine origin and purpose that will bless us.

Prateep V Philip