Dreams. Is it worth it worrying about them? Where do they come from?

Dreams… there may be a dilemma on this topic.
We have verses that warn against dreams, but there are also verses that describe the transmission of information from God through dreams.
What should we do if we dream of something important and consider the dream to be prophetic?
How to understand: does it come from God, from satan, or is it our inner experience?
Bad dreams
Let’s see selected examples of verses that warn against dreams:

“For this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Don’t let your prophets who are among you and your diviners deceive you, and don’t listen to the dreams (2472) you elicit (2492) from them” – Jeremiah 29:8.

“A man of no understanding has vain and false hopes, and dreams give wings to fools. As one who catches at a shadow and pursues the wind, so is he who gives heed to dreams. The vision of dreams is this against that, the likeness of a face confronting a face. From an unclean thing what will be made clean? And from something false what will be true? Divinations and omens and dreams are folly, and like a woman in travail the mind has fancies. Unless they are sent from the Most High as a visitation, do not give your mind to them. For dreams have deceived many, and those who put their hope in them have failed.” – Sirach 34:1-7.

„Like one waking from a dream, Lord, when arising, You will despise their image” – Psalms 73:20.

Good Dreams

Selected examples:

„He said: “Listen to what I say: If there is a prophet among you from the Lord, I make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream.” – Numbers 12:6.

“In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds, He may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn them from wrongdoing and keep them from pride, to preserve them from the pit, their lives from perishing by the sword.” – Job 33:15-18.

“In the first year of Belshazzar king of babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream.” – Daniel 7:1.

“But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mariam home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Yeshu, because He will save His people from their sins.” – Matthew 1:20-21

“When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream (3677). “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill Him.” – Matthew 2:13.

“While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream (3677) because of him.” – Matthew 27:19.

“One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: „Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent” – Acts 18:9.

How to check or verify dreams?

“If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,” you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” – Deuteronomy 13:1-3.

The work of the Holy Spirit in the last days

“And afterward, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.” – Joel 2:28.

“‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.” – Acts 2:17.

Summary

We can distinguish three types of dreams:
• from God,
• from satan (oobe),
• sleep as a composite/bi-product of our lives.

We are the ones who should be able to recognize and verify why or for what reason we had a given dream.

God’s instructions are clear: “Do not go beyond what is written.” – 1 Corinthians 4:6.

So a dream from God cannot be contrary to Biblical principles. An important clue is the fragment from Sirach quoted above:

“Divinations and omens and dreams are folly, and like a woman in travail the mind has fancies. Unless they are sent from the Most High as a visitation, do not give your mind to them.”

Author: Robert Brzoza

Translated By: Hubert Brzoza